At Best, Time is Ambiguous

Anna! Thanks for the coffee-date invitation. I shall look forward to that in August; in the meantime, look what we found today:

One black coffee, one coffee with milk (and a packet of sugar) for the equivalent of $1.11. Nice and hot, nice and black, it made us happy before our exam.

So, about time: Within the “coffee shop” chapter is a lesson on days of the week, time of day, words to express “today”, “tomorrow”, “day before yesterday”, etc. Mohammed asked me today what tomorrow will be and I answered “Ssebt” for “Saturday”; however, I neglected to say, “Lord willing.” He corrected me because, as he put it, “if the government doesn’t want it to be Saturday, they will change the day.” Probably he was kidding – he jokes with us a lot — but nonetheless our American brains are muddled about clock time. (Mohammed also tells us that “Americans have money; Moroccans have time.” So true.)

For example, our phones tell us that it is 8:20 p.m. here in Fes. At this moment, we are two hours behind Madrid (10:20 pm.), seven hours ahead of Seattle (1:20 p.m.). When we flew here from Madrid, our flight left at 2:30 p.m. and landed at 2:05 p.m. the same day because the normal one-hour time change between the two places became two hours because of Ramadan time. Our flight took an hour-and-a-half. (This is where the muddling-of-our-brains began.)

When we showed up for class the day before it started, we were told that we were on “Ramadan hours” so classes would begin at 9 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. Got it.  Also, that right after Ramadan ends – this Sunday — we go back to the 8 a.m. schedule. Got that, too.

So, yesterday we asked Fatima, who is very patient with us and our muddled American brains: We change our clocks ahead on Monday, right?

Well, no. Clocks do not change right after Ramadan ends.

When do the clocks change?

Usually not until Saturday. Since Ramadan ends on Sunday, the clocks will not change yet. Maybe they will change next Saturday. Remember, no class Monday and Tuesday because of Eid.

Okay, so what time do we come to class on Wednesday morning?

You come at 8 o’clock.

Even though the clocks don’t change, class time changes?

Yes, because class time changes right after Ramadan ends.

Oh, okay. And tomorrow, Friday, we have only one class at 11:00, right?

No, tomorrow class is ahead by a half hour because it is Friday, so come at 10:30 a.m. for your test.

End of story: we arrived at school later than normal today because we only had one class at 10:30 instead of 8:30 (or 9…or 8:00) but since we arrived 45 minutes early we could buy coffee from the student café and drink it in the garden beneath a lime tree.