What if it rains?

You park your car.  You pay your fee to park your car.  You go and do whatever it is that you need to do.  You're a bit longer than you thought you would be.  You go back to where your car was parked.  And there is no car.  All there is, is a note on the pavement, in white chalk with your registration plate number and 'Claim at Amorsolo St'.  But what if it rains?  The chalk would get washed away, and then how do you find your car?

The benefits of a lack of organisation

This may just be my perception, but generally things in the Philippines don't seem very organised.  For example, a number of the doctors that I've seen don't work by appointment - you just turn up and wait your turn.  I don't *think* there bus timetables - you just show up at the station and wait for the next one to your destination.  In restaurants it's common for one diner to have finished their meal before another has even received theirs.

But sometimes this lack of organisation works in our favour.  Take the example of the gas canister running out.  Whilst I was sterilising various baby-feeding-paraphernalia on a Sunday I noticed that the gas was low.  Very low.  About to run out low.  First thing Monday morning I phoned the concierge in our building to order a new canister.  Within less than an hour someone had turned up with the new canister and fitted it. 

We're cooking with gas again. 

I'm not sure that that would happen so fast in a more 'organised' country where there are schedules to stick to, which are organised days in advance.