Days and Months

I can’t remember if I’ve told you or not, but I will again, just in case.

Telling time and dates here are very simplified.

I don’t know what the official name of it is, but they tell time like they do in the Bible.
7am is the first hour, 8am is the second hour, etc.

So learning to tell time, has been a little hard for me.

7am is “Sawa alu si,” is literally, “time first.”
8am is “Sawa iri si,” literally, “time second.”

So not only am I learning my numbers, now I’m transcribing them in my head to tell time. For a math person, you would think this would be fun, but doing it in another language is an added stress. And then they add whether it is “sun time” or “darkness” after the time.

The days of the week and months are fun. I thought they would be hard to learn, but then I found out what they were.

Monday – o’du alu si, literally “day first.”
Tuesday – o’du iri si, literally, “day second.”

And the months are the same way.

Simplified language for a simplified people.

Although, I was recently watching the miniseries “John Adams,” and wondering how in 1775, people could have such beautiful homes with furniture and running water, etc, and here it is in 2010, and things in Africa have not progressed the same way.

As I write this, it is the second hour of sun time on the 6th day of the 7th month, year 2010.