Time is something on my mind at the moment as each day brings me closer to the end of my stay in Ghana. One of the challenges of adjusting to a new culture is to understand and work through the different perceptions of time.
I read an article a few months ago about cultural perceptions of time around the world, and how this affects lifestyle and behaviours at work. The writer talks about time bound societies like the UK, that see time as linear, and contrasts them with time blind societies like Spain, Portugal and Greece who see time as cyclical.
Elements of my experience in Ghana certainly fall into the second category. A few weeks ago, I spotted a slogan on the back of a cab proclaiming No rush in life, which is a testimony to where Ghana sits on this spectrum, along with the fact that I no longer feel the need to wear a watch. Here there is none of the drive or frenzy to use every minute before it is lost. Time is cyclical, therefore the opportunity to do a given task will return. Deadlines are never absolute. Recently another volunteer was told that [as civil servants] 'deadlines mean nothing to us'! You can take 10 days off for a funeral; a day off to rest after a business trip is standard. There are lots of positives to this more relaxed attitude, it is almost necessary to deal with the intense heat and helps to counter the infrastructure constraints that in themselves inhibit efficiency and productivity. It's easier to live in and enjoy the moment and be more relaxed. But there are a few down sides too. It drives a very reactionary way of working and I have had to work hard to encourage colleagues to operate in a more focused way. Sometimes it means you can feel like the least important person in a conversation or meeting. Despite sitting face to face, you have to make your points fast as any number of things could trump you and take precedence. You will vie for the person's attention with mobile phones (the plural is deliberate), passing people, text messages, faxes, emails, someone selling lunch, a phone credit teller, you name it.
Here's the link to the article: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/public/Appointments/article502271.ece
And an extract from some travel writing I read recently. It's from the 50s, so some of the language is a bit outdated. The European and the African have an entirely different concept of time. In the European world view, time exists outside man, exists objectively, and has measurable and linear characteristics...... Africans apprehend time differently. For them it is a much looser concept, more open, elastic, subjective. It is man who influences time, its shape, course and rhythm... In practical terms, this means that if you go to a village where a meeting is scheduled for the afternoon but find no one at the appointed spot, asking "when will the meeting take place?" makes no sense. You know the answer: "It will take place when people come". Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski
