Solving problems

This weekend I’ve realized something I’ve already known. Sounds strange? Let me tell you about it. On Saturday somebody pointed out for me, that every time when some problem arises, that is a bit out reach (and it is somehow related to the town), for example I need some footage made at a festival in the town, my first task to do, is to check my phone book. Seems strange? I guess, that for some it does.
If I want to generalize, the fact, that I call a friend, or at least someone whom I know if I have a problem that I can’t resolve, tells two things: first that I have lots of names in my phone book, and second, that those people are usually ready to help. I know that this is not that specific to our region, but the number of problems solved with this method is.
This is how people usually proceed: they realized that they don’t know what to do. Their first task is usually to search in their heads for a person, who they know, and who had the same problem, and they usually find one! Not necessarily because the town is small, and everyone knows everyone: I think that the more important factor is that our people love to know everything about everyone, in other words, we love to gossip. You can’t imagine how funny it sounds, when one old women says to the other: “Have you heard that XY doctors brothers mothers sisters mother in laws second cousins son is cheating on his wife?”, and the other one understands it, and has even other stories with that man, even though they don’t even greet each other on the street. They just know who is who’s who :).
So they have found someone with the given problem. Then it’s even more simple to find someone who knows, how they resolved it, or in the worst case, they get the number of the one with the respective problem. If they have to call him, he won’t wonder how they know about his personal life: he’ll know very well how fast gossips spread.
One may ask, why to get involved with others life if you can resolve it yourself. Well, the fact is that sometimes it’s almost impossible to do this. For example sometimes bureaucracy is so complicated, that you get lost between the tons of papers.
Anyway, I like the fact, that people here tend to help each other. Sometimes not, and sometimes they seem uninterested, but they often find a way to surprise you positively. So the moral is: in this region, you’ll find your answers faster by asking somebody, than searching in some book.