Why are Amazon OpsWorks operations so slow

I'm starting to examine Amazon OpsWorks and created a stack with a database layer and 2 custom layers.
I put my cookbooks on a private git repository.
I'm wondering why machines used in my scenario are so damn slow !?
When booting the machines the first time it took around 15-30min until they are ready and even why I just start the task "update custom cookbooks" it takes 4(!!) minutes to fetch them from github.
I already red about creating custom AMIs for reducing boot time but then I have to remove the opsworks-agent.
Would I still be able to use the OpsWorks interface wehen removing the agent?

Do I miss something or is the process so slow for everyone? I'm using m1.small intances for testing purpose.