Time

The topic of my anthropology senior seminar class was time. We studied many different aspects of time, the most relevant now being the experience of time. My personal experience of time in the village seems to be time as a constant flow. The day is continuous and not broken into appointments or scheduled commitments. I think about the future to some degree mainly when I am thinking about my work but it is never overwhelming and I do not find myself becoming absorbed or entangled by it. Because I am constantly learning (language, culture, how to cultivate groundnuts, peoples' names, etc.), I am very aware of and involved in the present moment. In this way it is similar to being in a constant meditative state. It is so refreshing and invigorating, but also very tiring.

Because I have been living in this continuous flow, I decided it was not necessary for me to be wearing a watch. The same day I took off my watch, Fatoumatta, one of my good friends in village, received a new one. Her husband bought a black Casio digital watch for her at the weekly market. She was and still is excited about it and loves to check the time. It is interesting because a watch does not serve her much purpose. She has been living under the sky for fifty plus years so she understands the movement of the sun and she has been doing about the same routine for all of these years as well. However, now she has the knowledge of time, which she, along with many other Gambians, believe is very important information to have. I think they have gleaned that awareness of and adherence to time is a characteristic of Western culture, which they see as the ultimate culture. It struck me that as I am trying to integrate further into their culture, they are also trying to assimilate to Western culture. I attempted to free myself of time and its constraints and she welcomed this new knowledge with hope and excitement.

This is Fatoumatta and her son, Musa.