The value of patience

For people who know me well, I can be pretty impatient. Trust me I know, and when I forget, Christie reminds me. The good thing is I'm aware and working on it, but still some work to do.

The good thing is that Argentina is a country to learn patience.

Go to a typical grocery store and you'll find lines 20 people deep with 1 register open. Complaints from the shoppers? Nope. They're fine, happy even. What's the point of stressing out? Take this picture for example. I took this after we landed at Jorge Newburry Aeroparque, the airport in Palermo used for shorter flights, like Mendoza. It was pouring rain on Sunday evening, around 10:30pm when we landed. Going under the awning would have meant getting absolutely soaked. The line for taxis was long, at least 75 people deep, and the issue was that there was maybe 2 cabs in line. The airport was poorly designed and only had 2 lanes which was used for both departures and arrivals and shared for both cars, busses, and taxis. To make matters worse, one of the lanes was blocked off by cones, for seemingly no reason.

Ughhh! My face grew flush, my hands started to shake, I wanted to yell. I don't want to wait in line for 2 hours waiting for a taxi!

Well, these people did and do, every day. The infrastructure might not be there, but the patience certainly is. I could learn a lot from them! What makes this city such a frustrating place though, is that the potential is sky high. This could be Paris or New York City, and it has many teasers demonstrating just that, and then it has the infrastructure and corruption of a place like Africa or India and it's a crazy clash of culture. In my remaining time here, I'd like to take more deep breaths and accept things as they are instead of blowing my top and complaining for what it isn't. Argentina can help me grow :)