G is for greetings

After a long silence, installment #4 in the libraries program ABCs:

G is for greetings.

Think of a typical workday morning. What’s your routine, once you’ve left your car in the parking lot and walked through the door? If you work in an office, maybe you say hello to the coworkers you happen to run into in the hall on the way to getting your cup of coffee, then settle down at your desk and start in on the day’s work. If your workplace is anything like the ones I’m used to, you say a cordial “Hi, how are you” to the people you come into direct contact with during the day, and maybe go out of your way to visit the cubicle of your closer friends, but too much personal talk during office hours is somewhat frowned on.

At MCC Bolivia, a significant part of each workday morning is devoted to the ritual of greetings. When I walk through the door at 8:30 on a typical weekday, the first person I see is the secretary, Carmen, seated at her desk. She’s often busy answering someone’s question or answering the phone, so I usually just offer her a friendly “Buenos días, ¿cómo estás?” Saúl, MCC Bolivia’s messenger and errand-runner, is often sitting near Carmen’s desk, going over the day’s deliveries and payments; I greet him with a handclasp and an “air kiss” at his right cheek. The same goes for Sandra, my work partner; Juan Carlos, who works in a service program for young people; and David, a Californian who works in a program for women starting small businesses. Meanwhile, my housemate Aida, who works in MCC’s conflict transformation (i.e., peacemaking) program, is doing the same. (We typically walk to work together, so I don’t bother to greet her formally.)

Leaving my purse on my chair, I walk over to the accountant’s office and greet Don Tito—this time with a kiss on each cheek and a “Shalom,” which is Tito’s evangelical twist on the common custom. Then I turn the corner and greet two short-term volunteers, Jamie and his wife, Evelyn, who are checking their email in the computer room. Next I open the office’s back door and cross the patio to the building where we have our social events. Martín and Ona are in the common room reading the newspaper, so I greet them with a kiss and handshake, then step into the kitchen to repeat the ritual with Doña Raquel, who is cleaning up the counters and possibly thinking about what she’ll prepare for coffee break in a couple of hours. Don Pedro, the maintenance man, walks through the kitchen door to get his coffee cup, so I repeat the process with him.

Then, and only then, do I return to my desk and look at my agenda.

The importance of greetings is something I’ve come to appreciate only recently; in my first couple of months here, I often just saluted people verbally and sat down to work. But the longer I’m here, the more I realize that even if I don’t get down to “business” until 9:00 or later, in another, very real, sense, my day’s work started the moment I stepped through the front door. And in a very real way, taking time for this daily ritual affirms my commitment to a part of the MCC mission statement that I take seriously:

“MCC serves as a channel for interchange by building mutually transformative relationships. MCC strives for peace, justice and the dignity of all people by sharing our experiences, resources and faith in Jesus Christ.”

I’ve had a couple of requests to write more about the people I work with. Coming soon: “C is for colleagues.”