Reminding Don Ricardo

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I have my youth entrepreneurship class. We meet in the afternoons at one of the local high schools, where the Director agreed to give me classroom space to hold the course. However, since the high school only has class in the mornings, there aren't a whole lot of staff members around after lunch. This means that I have to make sure to remind the custodian to leave my classroom open, before he heads home for the day.

As a result, I've developed an amusing little Tuesday-Thursday ritual. Each morning at around 11:30, I call Don Ricardo, the custodian, and each time we have the following conversation:

Me: Hola Don Ricardo, buenos días, how are you doing today?
Don Ricardo: All right, just here working, how are you señorita?
Me: Good, good. Don Ricardo, could you leave the classroom open for me this afternoon?
Don Ricardo: Of course, no hay ningún problema, at what time?
Me: At 3:30 please.
Don Ricardo: Muy bien, will do.
Me: Thank you, chau!

Every time I hang up the phone, I chuckle to myself, because our chats are pretty much word-for-word identical every single Tuesday and Thursday. You would think that Don Ricardo would be annoyed that this gringa calls him all the time to remind him to do a simple task, which, five weeks into it, he should be perfectly capable of remembering on his own. But I know with almost total certainty that if one morning I decided not to call Don Ricardo, my classroom door would not be open that afternoon - that is just not how Peru works. So I keep calling. And I remember to be grateful that at least I managed to get Don Ricardo's phone number (and that he always answers!), because otherwise I'd be trekking down to the school every morning to physically hunt him down and remind him - the phone calls are quite an improvement.