Hello and welcome to the exciting world of time in Rwanda. The really cool thing about living so close to the equator is that the sun rises and sets at almost the same time every day. So, when the construct of time was established, the first hour of the day was when the sun came up (around 7 am). Which means 7 AM is actually 1 AM. Here’s the time broken down:
Saa Moya (1) – 7
Saa Mbiri(2) – 8
Saa Tatu(3) – 9
Saa Ine (4) – 10
Saa Tanu (5) – 11
Saa Sita – 12
Saa Saba – 1
Saa Munani (8) – 2
Saa Cyenda (9) – 3
Saa Cumi (10) – 4
Saa Cumi n’umwe (11) – 5
Saa Cumi n’ebyiri (12) – 6
Fun, right? A little trippy maybe for those of us in the west. What makes telling time even more complicated is that Rwandans use 24-hour time so if I had my phone set to 24-hour time, I would have to convert 20:00 to 8:00 to 2:00/Saa Mbiri (mbiri means 2). My favorite part about all this is that there is no daylight savings time. Ahhhh so nice.
When I first learned about how time was different here, I was so frustrated because I didn't understand. But it makes sense that time would start at the beginning of the day. Why does a new day for us start when most everyone is going to sleep? That makes much less sense.
That’s all for today. I just wanted to share a fun little tid bit with everyone.
Saa Moya (1) – 7
Saa Mbiri(2) – 8
Saa Tatu(3) – 9
Saa Ine (4) – 10
Saa Tanu (5) – 11
Saa Sita – 12
Saa Saba – 1
Saa Munani (8) – 2
Saa Cyenda (9) – 3
Saa Cumi (10) – 4
Saa Cumi n’umwe (11) – 5
Saa Cumi n’ebyiri (12) – 6
Fun, right? A little trippy maybe for those of us in the west. What makes telling time even more complicated is that Rwandans use 24-hour time so if I had my phone set to 24-hour time, I would have to convert 20:00 to 8:00 to 2:00/Saa Mbiri (mbiri means 2). My favorite part about all this is that there is no daylight savings time. Ahhhh so nice.
When I first learned about how time was different here, I was so frustrated because I didn't understand. But it makes sense that time would start at the beginning of the day. Why does a new day for us start when most everyone is going to sleep? That makes much less sense.
That’s all for today. I just wanted to share a fun little tid bit with everyone.