I made a plan, but Peru didn't like my plan

It’s a fascinating thing: flexibility. One is often encouraged to be flexible, yet we grow up in a culture where you are pressured to have a plan. I love making plans. I love check lists, and that utterly amazing feeling of being able to cross things off of that list. I love how satisfying it is at the end of the day when I realize that I’ve accomplished everything I had set out to do that day. So sweet.
At the beginning of each week we sit down as a team and discuss our goals for the week, or in a sense, we make a plan for the week. But as I am quickly realizing, Peru doesn’t seem to like plans. In fact it seems like every time I make a plan, Peru decides to change that plan, sometimes within hours of my making it. Flexibility is fine for a week. Maybe even two weeks. But when you are someone who likes to make a plan and much of your sense of accomplishment stems from completing that plan . . . well then Peru is not for you. Yet here I am 
I’m learning that flexibility and selflessness go hand in hand, that it is difficult to have the one without the other. I am learning that when I said I wanted to come and serve, it meant that I had to give up my “right” to serve my way. When I make plans for my day, and ministry happens, I find that there is this internal struggle of wanting to stick to the plan that I had made for the day, and wanting to do what I came here to do. What I’m finding hard is learning how to use my time when it’s available. I may decide, “I will spend tomorrow morning studying and preparing a bible study”. But later will receive a phone call from someone who wants to get together tomorrow morning. I want to study, but ministry is knocking on my door. As a missionary I don’t have the privilege of a 9-5 work day. I don’t get to “leave work at work” as they say, nor are my evenings and weekends free to do as I choose. Therefore, what I am now learning to do is have my list of goals for the week, and accomplish them as I can. What I cannot do is decide, “Monday I will do this, and Tuesday I will do that”, because I wind up frustrated when I can’t check off everything from that day’s list. I am learning that I am way more selfish than I had ever perceived myself. Isn’t that a funny thing to read? I never knew the extent of my selfishness until I arrived here and have been faced with the daily decision of doing my job the way I want to do it, and doing my job the way that it needs to be done according to the Peruvian culture. Thus, I am learning flexibility. Who knew that it could be so difficult?