Meetings and More Meetings

I don’t mind meetings.  And I don’t mind driving an hour or more to get to them.  That is part of my job.  And I always love being with the folks out in the cantons.  That is were real life happens.  The good and the not so good.

Today we had a meeting out in a canton.  One that isn’t TOO far away thankfully.  It only takes about 45 minutes to get to this canton.  But the roads are pretty darned bad once you leave the ‘main street’ (which is actually pretty good right now because the machine went out and smoothed and compacted lots of miles of main canton road after the rains stopped).

So we got there at 1:07 for the 1:00 p.m. meeting.  The place was deserted.  So I parked and went to sit in the sun to warm up (it’s been breezy and downright cold lately).  Otilia went to the house across the street to see where everyone was.  This woman had not heard about a meeting.  But she isn’t part of the Directiva so there was no real reason for her to know …and she said that everyone was at a soccer tournament.   But she gave us the key to the church so we could wait a while inside.  I preferred the sun and the air to the metal lamina walled and roofed church.  Hmmm.  Fresh air or dirt floor oven?  Easy choice.

We waited and waited.  Finally at about 1:40 Otilia went to return the key.  Enough was enough.  Usually at least ONE person would have shown up by this point.

There were 3 men and a young boy on their way to Berlin from the canton further down the road so we offered them a ride.  And then the husband of the lady with the key decided to join us with some things to sell.  And about halfway back to Berlin, we ran into (not literally, but almost) a bunch of people from the community where the meeting was to be held.  They were walking back from the games.  One man didn’t know anything about a meeting.  And he IS a part of the Directiva.  A couple others knew of it but they were told it was to start at 2.  It is the custom here that if a meeting is scheduled for 1, the people show up at 2.  So since they were told it was going to be at 2, most people wouldn’t show up till 3. 

Sigh.

We did NOT turn around and go back.  We told them we would reschedule.  Pass the word please.