Admission #1: I started writing this blog post near the beginning of my time here in Senegal but the ability to finish it escaped me with all the busyness of learning the ways of my new life. Its purpose was to explain the concept of time here and how I altered my measurement of time upon arriving here. Luckily, with the start of a new calendar year the topic is once again applicable. We all (here in Senegal and across the globe) are thinking about time on a grand scale — the passage of last year and the future of the next.
Admission #2: I am a musical theater lover. I grew up in community theater singing, dancing, and acting most of my hours and the other hours of the day had a constant soundtrack of show tunes playing. Why admit this to you? One of my New Year’s traditions is to listen to the song Seasons of Love from the musical Rent on repeat. It is my geeky way of reflecting on the past year and conceptualizing the next.
For those of you that don’t have the entire soundtrack of Rent memorized I’ll include some of the lyrics to set the scene:
525,600 minutes, five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear,
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee, in inches, in smiles, in laughter and strife?
How about love?
Seasons of Love
Journeys to plan? How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
In truths that she learns or in times that he cries? In bridges he burns or the way that she dies?
In time now, to sing out, the story never ends, let celebrate, remember a year in the life of friends.
You got to remember to love. Love is a gift from up above. Share love. Give love. Spread love. Measure your life in love.
I listen to this song during the days before and after the 1st of January each year because it reminds me of all the unique and beautiful ways to conceptualize time. This New Year’s tradition became even more special as I rang in Year 2018 in Senegal with a completely new view of time.
Time is a concept that is seemingly straightforward. We often view it as a tangible and unwavering entity. Yet, as much it took me months to sit down and finish this blog post, it didn’t take me months to realize time in Senegal is different from back home. Time, the way we measure it and spend it, can change dramatically from one culture to the next.
In the United States, we are particularly obsessed with time. We like to measure it down to the last second to find its most efficient use. Often we equate time with the loss of it and thus loss of value that could have been gained. On a walk home from work one night, my coworker and I got into a discussion of the importance of taking time to greet people in Senegal. I mentioned to him that it is uncommon for people in the States to take time to greet each other, especially on their commutes to and from work. He wasn’t surprised and simply said, “Time is money in America.” At first, I wanted to defend and say that isn’t always true, but after consideration I had to admit, in general, Americans value time based on its measurement of money gained or money lost. It is a culture of working hard and making the most of time to get somewhere and get something. I can appreciate this mentality to a point, but shouldn’t time be about more than profit margins?
Seasons of Love offers up another way of measuring time – through love. The lyrics lift up the beauty of the love between partners, love between friends, love between neighbors, and love of life. Time can be seen as something just passing away as each minute goes by or it can be seen as the composition of moments we have loved one another.
Senegal has showed me how this measurement can be carried out. Time is left open to be used for relationship building. People aren’t rushed to get places so they can stop to greet their family and friends. Work is put on hold when a family member or neighbor needs help. Community is valued above all else and time spent in community follows suit.
My measurement of time in units of love has grown in my months here. I measure time not by the efficiency of my commute, but as the amount of neighbors I was able to greet on my way to work. I measure time at home not by the assignments I get done, but by the happy toddler squeals I can inspire from a game with my little bestie, Astou. Even at work time isn’t valued based on money made but by conversations with the many people that pass through the community center. Time is measured by lunches around the bowl made with love by the many wonderful cooks in my life here. It’s measured by the patience people have used trying understand my Wolof or French. It’s measured by the cups of attayah (tea) made and delivered by neighbors in the evenings. It’s measured by the number of times I’ve used the coffee mug my host family lovingly chose for me.
Time here is measured in love. It makes my theater geek self very content that I’ve found a culture that reflects the words of Seasons of Love. Time is much more than money. Time is relationships cultivated, compassion shown, and community fostered. This New Year’s holiday I continued my tradition and listen to Seasons of Love on repeat and reflected on the passage of time so far in Senegal. Yet, this time I truly understood what “measuring your life in love” meant.
Yalla nu Yalla ni etam jamm! Bonne année! Happy New Year!
Sojourn in Senegal 