Nigerian Time

My dear Jalingo friend, Laura, is moving back to her home state of Abia this weekend, (good for her, sad for me!) so I went by her house to tell her good-bye. She wasn’t there, so I called her and she told me she was at the market but would be home in 10 minutes. After 4 months of living here in Nigeria, I knew better than to really expect her in 10 minutes. Half and hour later at 4:00, she arrived. Ordinarily, the new Nigerian Carolyn wouldn’t have minded, but I was “scheduled” to attend a Christmas program at my church at 4pm and I knew I had to go home first to change into a skirt and cover my head. However, it was totally worth it to say good bye and see her one last time!

I rushed home, changed and hurried off to the church trying to make it by 4:30 (only a half an hour late). I arrived to find that since there was a choir practicing, the program was simply put on hold and didn’t start until 5:30. Ahhh, yes. African time.

Sunday morning, I was to meet my friend Ezekiel at his church at 9am for service. I believe his exact phrase was “Come for service at 9am. I’ll be there before that to meet you!” I was running a little late because I was trying to find the least wrinkled traditional outfit that I could since we hadn’t had electricity for a few days to iron. When I arrived at 9:05, I was all worried that service had already started. I looked around and didn’t see him anywhere, so I called him. Yeah, he was still at home and hadn’t showered yet, so I just went in and found a seat as service started about 9:15. He showed up around 10.

Needless to say, this weekend was a constant reminder that Nigerian culture doesn’t work on the same clock at the American one. I know this fact, but I still have a hard time internalizing it. I guess it takes more than 4 months to undo 26 years of conditioning! :)