There is much in life that we are oblivious to until we move somewhere very different. One of the most basic things comes from the weather and length of our days and nights.
In Northern California, where I lived most of my life, the days can be 16 hours long or 8 hours long. The weather, at least in the past, has been so mild that distances between towns and cities were measured in driving time rather than miles. From all this variation comes the need, or necessity depending on your point of view, to keep time, be punctual, wear watches, have clocks in several places, start meetings promptly, etc. Use of wristwatches is common and necessary for the majority of the population over age 13. We rush to be on time, worry about being late. Get upset if the event begins more than 15 minutes after what we expected.
One of the sayings here that I love: Muzungus (whites/westerners) have “no time”, ....they gave it all to the Africans. This radical difference in how we get through each day can be a source of cross-cultural misunderstanding if one doesn't step back and take a wider look at why, how and what is going on.
Here in Uganda, on the equator, the day light hours are the same, within 40 minutes or so, every day of the year. At 7 am it is light. At 7 pm it is dark. Transition between the two takes only 10 minutes. There is no need for watches or clocks because people here know the hour by the position of the sun or stars. The climate is wet or dry, depending on the season and there is a sense of there being time enough for everything.
Words taught in preschool and pictures for coloring reflect the life lived. So we are used to pictures of the seasons, of various weather related activities: spring flowers, summer swimming, fall colored leaves, snowmen, ice skating, etc. Here in Uganda these become foreign concepts, just words, as they don't match life here. The season change is small, more rain or less, with temperatures still in the same range of 60' to 85', night and day. Any activity we do can be done any time. Thus we have outdoor BBQs all year, any day we like, same for swimming and water play games. There is, here, a lot more focus on family, on relationships with extended family and others from the same village or tribe. There are many more words in the local languages for all the relationships and status and roles related to people than exist in English. There are special names for the sisters of your mother, for maternal and paternal grandfather and grandmother, for instance. If you are the parent of twins, you add an extra name to your name (different ones for the mother and father). For the twins, there are also additonal names designating if female, male, first born, etc.
Life is so very amazing....and we are awesomely created to adapt and thrive to the places we live. It is great fun to learn how we take the simple object of getting through the day and turn it one way or another. We can focus on “keeping time” or on the people in our lives. I wonder how much more of our habits or culture are generated by the world around us.
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Life in Uganda
