Kenyan sense of time

Kenyans and Americans have a completely different sense of keeping time. When we arrived with the Peace Corps I remember the Kenyans telling us “the watch is yours, but the time is ours”. Everything happened at a much slower pace and as we found, there is no hurry in Africa. For example, if a meeting is supposed to start at 1:00 people start showing up at 2:00 or 2:30.

When packing I forgot to pack a watch, as I usually have my phone which I use for a clock. I have been at a loss for what time it is because I do not yet have a phone. The power was out at the lodging where we stayed and my friend’s phone battery was dead. So, I had no idea what time it was which was a strange feeling. Here time is not so important, relationships trump time. It is better to meet up with friends, wait for friends or have tea with friends than to be on time. Most everything is done together. When running errands you all go together. I always try to split up; I will do what I need, you do what you need but that is not the way things are done here. Efficiency is not the priority.

On the first day when the first person woke up, they woke the rest of us. We got ready, had breakfast and tea and started our errands. It was 3:00 pm before I saw a clock that day, but it did not matter, we just did what we needed to do. If it doesn't get done we can do it tomorrow. As many times as I have been here, it takes me a long time to adjust to the Kenyan sense of keeping time. In the US we are conditioned to do everything based on time, “time is money”, we are always in a rush and busy. I even walk at a much quicker pace than everyone here. They chuckle about why I am in such a hurry. In order to not go crazy, you have to just relax and go with their pace. After a while it does make you start to question, do we really need to be in such a rush; what do we gain? Do we over glorify busy at the expense of relationships?