Do You Know What Time it is?

    Senegalese time is a concept that Im just now getting use to. Life in America is very fast compared to time here. In the morning it takes me 45 minutes to an hour to greet everyone. Of course greetings are the most important part of this society. The great part about it is that all the greetings are the same to everyone, everyday, everytime. Imagine a broken record saying, "Good morning. How's the family? Did you sleep well?....Good morning. How's the family? Did you sleep well?....Good morning. etc..." Not a whole lot to think about. Its all part of the routine.

 

    After making my presence known to the village, I try to retreat to my room for the hot part of the day (of course this is from sun-up to sun-down). This is where the fun begins. On an ordinary day, I spend about an hour just looking at my wall. Its not like its a special wall or even a pretty looking wall. im usually bored. After that I read M-Q in Websters dictionary. Its a good life. The rainy season is still two months away so Im just basically useless right now. Ive run out of ideas to keep myself busy. Time flies when you're having fun, right?

 

    Time for the villagers is kind of the same except that they stay busy all day, sleeping and drink tea. Must be hard! A typical conversation I have with my brother sounds a little like this....

 

ME: "Babacar, Good morning. How's the family? Did you sleep well?"

 

BABACAR: "Malick, the family's good. I didnt sleep too well last night."

 

ME: "Maybe you would sleep better at night if you didnt nap all day. Drinking tea probably doesnt help either."  

 

BABACAR: "Yeah, I know."

 

ME: "so, are you going to work today?"

 

BABACAR: "No, not until maybe Thursday."

 

ME: "Thursday huh? Today is Friday. What are you going to do until then?"

 

BABACAR: "Im going to sit. I might make tea. But Im going to sit."

 

ME: "You're going to sit. Is that all?"

 

BABACAR: "yah, Im going to sit. I ,might make tea. But Im going to sit."

 

ME: "Sounds fun, Babacar. Enjoy sitting."

 

    I dont blame them for their lack of motivation. If there's no money to be made, theres no incentive to really do anything. Though I do have to say that America takes pride on their organizational skills and their obsessions about being on time. The Senegalese take pride of their all day celebrations. For example, another typical conversation I have with my brother sounds like this:

 

ME: "Babacar, Good morning. How's the family? Did you sleep well?"

 

BABACAR: "Malick, the familys okay but we dont have any money. Can I have some money to buy tea?"

 

ME: "No, but Ive been working on a plan here for two days about bringing more work into the village. Id like to have a meeting with the village tomorrow and see what they think."

 

BABACAR: " But there's a baptism tomorrow. We're going to kill a goat and everything. We'll party all day."

 

ME: "Thats okay. I only need to talk for 5 or 10 minutes."

 

BABACAR: "But theres a baptism tomorrow."

 

ME: "well, what about the day after?"

 

BABACAR: "YOu know Fatou's daughter's friend of a friend Ahmed Ndiaye?"

 

ME: "Yeah, he's from two villages over, right? Why?"

 

BABACAR: "He died last night. After the funeral there's another baptism."

 

ME: "I GIVE UP!!!!"