Mexico – Page 10 – My Thought Spot

280,000 miles

280,000 miles We got home yesterday afternoon from our trip to the US. We had a great time. We were gone four and a half weeks. And tonight I head to the airport to pick someone up to start our next event. We have a group of national pastors and missionaries who work with the Deaf in Mexico coming to our house for a week.

During the trip we turned over 280,000 miles in our truck. The Suburban is a 1990 1/2 ton, 2 wheel drive. This is its second engine and transmission from what I understand. The first ones were replaced with re-built units at 100,000 miles. The truck does have some problems, but that is to be expected after all these miles. Some day we will own a vehicle younger than our children, but probably not any time soon.

We made the trip up through Mexico in 2 days. We pushed a lot and made 14 hours each day. Coming back we were not in that much of a hurry. We casually crossed the border at 8:00 Wednesday morning. The sun had already been up for quite some time. We drove until we got to Poza Rica, part way between Tampico and Veracruz, about 6:00 that night. On Thursday we drove on to Ciudad del Carmen in about 10 hours. Then we just had an easy 4.5 to 5 hour trip on Friday to get back home.

On the way home our transmission started acting strange. I will know more on Monday as to what the cause of the problem is.

It is good to be home. We spent most of Friday cleaning up the dust that had settled in the last month. Our landlord had the house painted while we were gone too. We knew he was doing it, so it was no surprise. It looks really nice.

Do you shake hands?

This week I was reminded of how small cultural differences can make for awkward moments.

One is handshaking. In churches especially, but also in any social gathering in Mexico, you are expected to shake everyone’s hand and greet them when you enter an event. This would not be true at a place of business, but just about everywhere else.

Also, upon leaving the event you are expected to shake hands once again.

Many of us will enter a church here in the US and never think to shake hands with everyone. Typically we will hit a few casual friends and call it good.

I saw a lady today whom I have known for nearly 20 years. We were at church and I instinctively stuck my hand out to shake hers. When I did I realized something: close friends don’t shake hands in the US. That is not a hard and fast rule, but I am having trouble thinking of a time that I have regularly shaken hands with my very close friends. At the very least, you should not feel obligated to do so.

It seems like in the US we shake hands with acquaintances or people that we are meeting for the first time. It is almost a stale business gesture. Somewhat of a ritual, but not a warm action between friends.

My friend today seemed to take my shaking of her hand as a cold gesture. For me it was something I have become accustomed to while living in Mexico. Shaking hands is a very friendly gesture there, though it can also be used as an obligatory ritual.

Another cultural difference is the “excusing” of oneself from another individual. This has become more evident to me while visiting in the US for the last few weeks. When we finish a conversation in the US, it is not unusual for one party to just walk away. That is considered very rude in Mexico. You must ask permission to leave from a “one on one” encounter. Also, if you are at a social event, you are expected to excuse yourself from all the other individuals that you would consider your peers or those above you in the food chain.

You would never leave someone,s house without first shaking hands with the host or hostess and then asking for permission to leave.

The big day

Today was the day that we were having our big event at church. We had been inviting the neighbors from near the church as well as friends and family of our Deaf who regularly attend.

Normally on a Sunday morning we will have between 10 and 17 at church. We have had a high day of 25. Today we were pleased to see 36 people in church with us. 13 of them were first time visitors. It was an exciting day.

We split up the duties between Bill, our co-worker, and myself for the speaking this morning. Bill told about the history and planned future of the ministry. I gave a Gospel message. We had 2 ladies (hearing) accept the Lord today!

After the service we had a meal and sat around and talked for a while. It was just a generally exciting day. We only took 86 pictures, so I will have to dig through them and see if there are any worthy of uploading. I would just do it right now, but the camera has already been packed for a long trip. When we get to our destination I will try to get a couple pictures uploaded.

Gone to work

painting the church You can always tell when I am having to do real work…there are fewer posts on the blog.

The last few weeks have been tied up with some exciting projects. One of the biggest has been some improvements we are making at our church building. We painted early in January, both inside and out. We were helped by a group of college age young people. They did the bulk of the work. The final touches were put on by our co-worker and me.

We also built a platform. Since we are a Deaf church it is hard to be on the same level as the church people. You can never stand for any announcements or singing because no one beyond the first row can see the speaker. Our new platform is only 8-3/4″ off of floor level, but it makes all the difference.

The way we built it was put down a series of concrete blocks and laid a 3/4″ sheet of wood on the blocks. To keep the MDF wood from sliding we put some thick shelf liner between the bricks and the MDF. This has the added benefit of leveling out the inconsistencies in the concrete blocks. Tonight we put an aluminum edge on the platform so that we don’t bang up the front edge of the boards. It is about 12’X6′. Since the back wall has an angle to it, we had to be creative in getting it to all fit.

We have also put up new curtains in the main sanctuary and in the bathroom. The curtains in the bathroom do not serve to hide the sunlight. There is no outside wall. Rather, we use the curtains to cordon off a section of the room that we are using for storage. It dresses up the room and hides all the junk.

There have been a few other improvements that we have done, but those are the big ones.

This weekend we have been promoting a special day where we want to show off our new wares. We will have a special service in which we give the history of the church as well as a Bible message. Then we will sit around and enjoy lasagna and Coke.

How NOT to get repeat business

Monday I dropped my expensive dress shoes off at a shoe repair shop. I made sure I talked with the cobbler to let him know how much those shoes meant to me. I have had them for 8 years and I would not mind having them another 8 years, or more. I was wanting the man to realize that I prized the shoes and having them repaired well was more important to me than what it cost to repair them (within reason).

I needed a couple of busted seams to be re-stitched. Through the years both shoes have had to have some re-stitching. The last time they were done by a different repair shop, the cobbler did not do a very good job of cleaning up his extra thread. What did not break over time started to look ratty. I wanted the new guy to clean up the mess and re-stitch some parts of the shoes. While he was at it, even though I probably had another 3 or 4 months worth of sole left on them, I wanted him to re-sole the shoes. My nice shoes

All of this was agreed to be done by 10:00 Wednesday morning (today) for $15. Yes, soles are much cheaper here in Mexico than they are in the US. I emphasized to him that I really needed the shoes Wednesday morning at the agreed upon time because I had to have them that afternoon. He said he understood and that they would be ready.

The odd thing about this cobbler is that he wanted some money up front. While that is common practice here in town, especially where goods are involved, I have never had to pay for my shoe repair up front. I want to know that the job is done well before handing over my cash. I had no cash with me because I did not anticipate this.

I went in this morning at 11:00 to pick up my shoes. They were not done yet. He had not even started working on them. He said they would be ready at 5:00 this afternoon. He said that it would cost $16 and I needed to pay him up front. I argued with him about the price and the time. While $1 is nothing in comparison to what I was having done, it was not the agreed upon price. Furthermore, the agreed upon time was 11:00 am not 5:00 pm.

He finally said that he could have the shoes ready by 1:00 for $15. And if not, I would pay nothing. I did give him $10 at that point and promised that I would be there near 1:00.

I was not able to arrive as close to 1:00 as I hoped, but I was there shortly before 2:00. My shoes were ready and I paid him the final $5. Then I added that I would never be back in his shop and that I would tell my friends to avoid his business based on the fact that he had wanted to change the price and that the shoes were not ready on time. I did consent to him that I understood that sometimes things happen to prevent deadlines from being met, but there is never an excuse for changing the price.

I am not asking for special treatment in any way. But, I think the cobbler could have seen an opportunity and seized it.

While I am not rich, I am richer than most people who would be in this man’s shop. His normal clientèle would be people who are too poor to buy a new $30 pair of shoes so they have him replace the soles for $10 or less. I walked in with a story of having had these shoes for many years and that they were precious to me. I wanted the best treatment I could get for them. I happened to be dressed that day in nice clothes. As a person conducting a business, I think I would have looked at a customer like myself and realized that this could be a very good repeat customer. The cobbler never saw that. Not until I made plain to him that he would never see me again in his shop did he start to think that he should care for the customer and their needs more.

Directly across the street from this cobbler is the jeweler that I have been taking my watches to for the last year. I have been unusually harsh on my watches lately and they have had to be in the shop too often. This jeweler immediately saw me as a potentially good customer. Just recently he did an easy job for me that required $9 worth of parts. He charged me $9. He knows that maybe losing a little bit of money on labor now, will cause me to look to him when I want to buy a new watch. I have already recommended him to a couple of friends. He is a man who knows how to grow a business.

If you work in the service industry you have to remember that your business is people, not shoes.