One of the annoying things in Africa is that they don't keep on time. People say we Japanese and Germans are very precise about time. In Japan, we are used to everything being on time. If we delay an appointment with our client, we will lose our contract. If you late for your date, you'll lose your girlfriend. Punctuality defines your reliability in Japan.
In Niger, I called a plumber to fix my place in the morning. He said "O.K. I'll come now." He came to my place around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In Japan, "now" means within 30 min. In Niger, it means 8 hours !?
In Zambia, people also don't care about time. Our clinic is open from 8:30a.m to 16:00p.m. But after morning service, they greet and chat for about 1 hour. Then they start their work around 9:30a.m. And they do everything very slowly. So patients have to wait their turns for a long, long time. The word "efficiency" doesn't exist here. Social events also are always delayed. Wedding, party. ceremony, even National conference are also delayed for about 2 hours. Here you shouldn't get mad if someone doesn't show up to your appointment. He'll come 2 hours later, and he doesn't think it's a problem. Or sometimes they don't come and there's no apology. But you shouldn't be angry. They have reasons like something came up and they didn't have money to call you. You can't trust them as for time and appointment. We have to recognize all of these are just part of their culture.
Anyway, it's kind of stressful, though I know basically they are nice people.
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