An Ode to Italian Efficiency

A lot of what I have learned during my short time in Rome is how to deal with the pace of the country. Every time something happens (or doesn't happen) to this effect, I am told, "that's just Italy". Italian inefficiency is seemingly legendary. Take the Carabinieri for example, the police. I have yet to see the police here actually doing anything. Whenever I do see them, they are in groups of 3 or more, standing around and talking. I was informed that this is normal. I have this vision of a massive crime scene where criminals are escaping because the Carabinieri are just standing around, discussing what to do. This also seems to be an Italian affliction in general. There is a lot of discussion about 'what to do,' and 'when to do it,' but little definitive decision-making actually occurring. It's kind of funny usually. And then there's my boss. As I think you know, I am working part-time for an English-teaching company that sends teachers to private homes to teach. I am working with children. The lessons come from some mother-ship entity and are sent to my boss, who is then responsible for giving them to the teachers. This job is also intended to be done at day cares and preschools, for the most part, at intervals of about 20 minutes, especially for the younger kids. Every time I go to the office to pick up materials for lessons, I am treated to an hour-and-a-half-long experience of Daniel looking through the many boxes piled up around the office, forgetting what I am there for in the first place, getting sidetracked by his own thought processes, and ultimately giving me about half of what I need to do my lessons. I use the word lesson loosely here, as I am working with children. One of my groups is full of 2-year-olds, who do not speak their own language, let alone harbor some internal burning desire to learn mine. I cannot do lessons with them, and am supposed to teach them for about an hour. They are cute, but it's incredibly frustrating. Another group is 4 4-year-olds, who have already been in school all day, and have no desire to learn any more. I understand enough Italian to know when they tell each other to ignore me, and just keep playing. After that experience (last Monday), I told the parents, and they said that their old English teacher just played with them and talked English. I'm fine being a babysitter, as long as that is what I'm hired for. Daniel thinks there's something wrong with me, and asks what I plan to do about it, and my only response is that I can only think to just play with them, so that's that. Another example of things we learn to deal with here: I went to pick up materials from Daniel yesterday, and he called to say that he had stepped out, but that he left the materials with Lucia, the old, hard-of-hearing woman who manages the building. After 15 minutes of leaning on her doorbell, banging on her door, and searching the two buildings she could have been in, I left for my lesson without the materials, and basically just colored with the kids. Still actively looking for something else, and will let everyone know when that happens! Miss everyone!