African Time!

One of the most frustrating things during my trip to Kenya has been getting used to "African Time".  African Time is what people here call being extremely late to an event.  When someone is extremely late (like 1 to 2 hours late) to an event, they say, "Oh I was running on African Time.  It's ok.  I'm on time."

I recently held a several day accounting workshop and while maybe one person may show up on time, 30% of the people will show up at least 30 minutes late with the majority of the people showing up an hour late.  Every class session had to start with a lecture on how to be on time.  I am chronically late in the US, but I'm only usually 10 minutes late.  I usually feel awful when I'm 10 minutes late.  The bright side is that the people here make me look great!  

Many times when I set an appointment with the natives, I have to verify whether the schedule was set according to African Time or Mzungu (white person) Time.  If I don't verify that it is Mzungu time, most people will show up an hour late or not at all. 

Here are some great examples of African Time:  

Here, the lovely Olivia points to clocks hanging up in her host family's living room.  Olivia is an intern in microfinance who is from Miami and will be getting her MBA starting in September.  As you can see, the clocks, which are hanging across from each other show different times.  These photos were taken within seconds of each other.  I've learned if clocks, even in the middle of downtown Mombasa, here are within 20 minutes of each other it is huge accomplishment.

Even cell phone times don't match.  My cell phone on the right reads 12:58, while the cell phone on the left reads 11:59 (no, Kenya is not large enough to have several time zones and the cell phones are not sitting amazingly between 2 time zones).  The REAL time, which I verified online through www.time.gov, was 11:45.  We were both wrong...

GASP!!!  THE CLOCKS ARE ONLY 4 MINUTES APART!!!  My cell phone on the right reads 5:01 and the cell phone on the left reads 4:57.

This watch doesn't work.  Many Kenyans wear watches that don't work.  Many people also proudly display clocks that don't work in their homes and businesses as well.  Maybe if the watches and clocks DID work, people would be on time...