Day 58 - Why I Threw Away My Watch

September 7, 2012 (Sam)

      I used to keep an old Swahili proverb posted over my desk when I worked on Dover Air Force Base. “Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka.” Roughly translated, it means, “Hurry, Hurry has no blessings.” It basically means that if you rush into something, whether it be a business venture, a job, a relationship, or just about any other situation, nothing good will come of it. I thought it was catchy and practical; my often monotonous, but very detail-oriented job required that I take careful time when carrying out assigned tasks. Not that it prevented all mistakes on my part, but it did help me remember that slowing down and paying attention to what I was doing always helped the job get done better.

      It has only been since being here in Kenya that I have come to fully realize what this saying really means. “Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka” defines a way of life in East Africa.

      Let me tell a story that might help explain: Last week, Christina and I invited a counselor from Beacon of Hope’s medical clinic to our home for dinner. We made plans for him to arrive at 6pm. At 5:50, Christina turned the stove burners off to let the elaborate meal she had prepared start to cool. We cleared a few last things from the living/dining room, and sat back to wait for a knock at the door. Two hours and nineteen minutes later, that knock finally sounded. Two hours and nineteen minutes later. The food was cold; the drinks were warm; and we were closer to being ready to go to bed than we were to entertaining guests. Our friend apologized profusely for his tardiness. Mentally, my arms were crossed and I was slowly, disapprovingly, shaking my head. But he went on to explain why he was running so late. One of his former colleagues has just lost her son to a nearby river; she was in intense mourning and he had been at her home comforting her for the last several hours.

      You see, “Hurry, Hurry has no blessings” seems to be more about how Kenyans relate to each other than it does about how they relate to business ventures. It’s not uncommon for Kenyans to miss appointment times, show up late to meetings, or stop work altogether in order to carry on a conversation. Pretty regularly we will be greeted in the street by a friend (or sometimes even a stranger), and have that greeting spiral into a 30 minute conversation about life, relationships, or “how we are finding Kenya.” So we realized that our friend showing up late for dinner, had more to do with his desire to be there for a friend when she needed him, than it did with an obligation to “respond to a tragedy.”

      Permit me a sweeping generalization: we are so caught up in efficiency and productiveness in America that we miss out on a lot of relationships that we could be forming. We set meeting alarms on our watches, program calendar reminders into our phones, and dash off from one errand or appointment to the next, hardly taking enough time to stop and have a real, meaningful conversation with anyone. Our own spouses included. We stress productivity; I think Kenyans just stress personal connections.

      When Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and conversate with him instead of worrying about the “to-do list” that her sister was busy checking off, Jesus remarked, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” I guess if Jesus was speaking Swahili he would have said, “Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka.”

      The stock market might crash. You might get fired from your job. You might lose all your possessions in a fire. You might get old and realize that your well-stocked bank account isn’t going to sit next to your bed and hold your hand. But you will never, ever regret investing in other people, listening to them, getting to know them deeper, forming life-long bonds with them, or being there for them when they needed a friend.

      Dinner might have been cold that night, but it was one of the warmest evenings Christina and I have spent in Kenya yet.

      Now if you’ll excuse me, I just got a calendar event reminder on my phone. I have to go.