Everyone who has spent significant time in Nicaragua is familiar with the infamous "Hora Nica," or "Nica Time."
I come from a family where if you are not five minutes early, you are late. There is a running family joke - one of those ones that is so old, I don’t quite understand the reference - in which if you are late, you are called “Aunt Hildred.” (Who was Aunt Hildred? I’m fuzzy on that. But apparently she was often late).
In my family, if you said you’d come over for dinner at 6pm, if you arrive at 6:02, you are Aunt Hildred.
In Managua, if you arrive at 6:02 to a 6pm dinner invitation, your host will probably still be in the shower. Or maybe just starting to think about showering.
An anecdote to illustrate this cultural difference: at my Nicaraguan husband's and my wedding, I made the grave mistake of putting the same time on all of the invitations that we sent out to our guests. In retrospect, I would have put at least an hour earlier on the invitations printed in Nicaragua.
Let’s just say 4:00 rolled around and there were a lot of foreigners baking in the sun, with not a Nicaraguan to be seen… (For the record, the wedding started over an hour late and the best man’s tardiness was what held it up!)
Needless to say, living in Managua with my (wonderful!) Nicaraguan in-laws, friends, and work colleagues has been an adaptation. I admit that the first few years, I often found myself feeling frustrated when I would wait sometimes up to an hour for a friend to show up or having to awkwardly kill time before an event actually started.
Another thing is that you cannot trust the famous "ya voy cerca" (I'm almost there). I vividly remember waking up far too late one weekend morning with my husband (pre-kids, of course) and he received a call from his mother, asking how soon he’d be at the family lunch. Without batting an eye, he said, “I’m just driving into the barrio now, about ten minutes away.” He then fluffed his pillow and rolled over for another few minutes of sleep, while I got a firsthand look at what "ya voy cerca" really means.
Slowly, I started to change my perspective and my attitude toward time to fit with the local culture. I began to relax my own punctuality. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, I guess.
I have not completely converted into a chronically late person, but I now regularly arrive 10-20 minutes late to social engagements. When everyone shows up for a family birthday celebrations at 6pm instead of the stated 4pm, I don't stress, roll with it, and take advantage of the extra time to rest up before what will probably be a long night.
Like with many parts of life, I hope that my two bicultural kids will grow up with a balance - the ability to be on time for what matters, like work functions or when they’re visiting their US grandparents, and the ability to relax a bit when it’s appropriate - fully knowing that no one will call them Tía Hildred.
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