‘Wensley, when can you come to cut Daniel’s hair, and this time also Loyda’s ?’ I am talking on the phone to one of our godparents who has got a ‘barber-business’ and who has offered to give the Ruach residents a hair cut when they need one. Because his motor-bike, a much-used means of transport here, needs fixing, we make an arrangement for Monday at 9 a.m, that is after three days. Nicaraguans do not excel in remembering or honouring medium-term arrangements: so much can happen between ‘now’ and ‘then’. I make a note in my diary and we will see what will happen.
Unlike in the Netherlands, in Nicaragua people live lives less controlled by the clock and the diary, even to the extent that when several years ago an attempt was made to introduce summer time, people continued to live with the ‘old’ time.
Arrangements made here are usually made for the short term, assuming that only then do people have reasonable insight into circumstances that could prevent the arrangement from happening. In the Netherlands people easily assume that life can be controlled, and people might get irritated when a train or bus is late by three minutes rather than being surprised that most of the time the train runs ‘on time’. If in Nicaragua things go ‘according to plan’, people perceive this as a blessing because many factors made this possible. If we really had control over our lives, don’t you think our lives would look quite different?
The barber
It’s a Monday. We do our activities as planned. I phone Wensley at 8:45 a.m to ask him whether he is indeed able to visit us. ‘Yes’, he says, ‘I’m about to be on my way’. That is a nice message. And a little later he arrives on his motor bike.
He starts with cutting Daniel’s hair and sets up the chair outside in the garage to keep most hairs out of our home. Apparently Daniel enjoys the experience. Wensley works fast (see picture) and is soon ready. It’s Loyda’s turn now. It’s for the first time in years that her hair is cut by a hair dresser. When she came to us, she was nearly bald, as her hair was cut by someone who had to look after her. She’s got a nice crop of hair, but it could do with some trimming. She sits in the chair with what seems an air of indifference. Whatever it is she’s feeling , she does not give Wensley a hard time. Minutes later the results of the cut are on the floor, ready for the dustbin.
Who knows whether Jonathan will also be interested in having his hair cut by Wensley. But Jonathan is a man of routines and does not easily change what he is used to. He would need to gradually get to know Wensley, so in the meantime I will continue cutting his hair.
Godparents
We have now got about 25 godparents in Juigalpa, a great way of promoting our work and of motivating people to contribute. It is really surprising what ideas people come up with, because who would ever have thought of the idea of searching for a ‘service-in-the convenience-of your own-home’ barber? It is such a great contribution. It saves us money, but also the effort of getting our residents to a hair-dresser. So we live in wonder and gratitude for what comes to us and we realize again that there are few things we can control in life.