You Can't Make Mistakes.

“Ah, yes, but what time is it now?

A woman walked up to me today and asked me: “Sa’ah kam? [What time is it?].” So, I looked at my watch and said, “Tisa’ah wa rub’ [nine and a quarter = 9:15].”

“Uh [Yah],” she said, “bas hina. Sa’ah kam? [but here, what time is it?]” and showed me her mobile phone, which displayed: 9:16.

I replied, “Nafs kida [Same thing], tisa’ah wa rub’.”

“Shokran,” she thanked me, and walked off.

Now, many people would be taken aback by this situation, but this is a common occurrence for me here. I can’t explain it. People with watches, people looking at their mobile phones, standing in front of clocks, etc. all ask me what time it is.

Completely normal.

This is not to say that it still doesn’t confuse the hell out of me. I am sure that the woman today knew what time it was, maybe she was just making sure that her phone’s time was right, or hadn’t thought to look at it before asking me, or whatever. I used to suspect that people were testing to see if I was foreign or knew Arabic or some other test, but then—long ago—I realized that no one was interested in any of that information at all. The only information that they were really interested in was what time it was.

So, I asked my friends, like always. They gave me a variety of responses. One told me that it is just common for people to ask people things, so everyone does. Another told me that people are lazy, and would rather ask someone else what time it is than reading their own watch. One told me that sometimes people just wear watches but never set them. Yet another told me that some people can’t read their watches—analog or digital—or their mobile phones.

The jury is still out. I should never ask “why?” of my friends. I am grateful for their responses, but they usually just leave me where I started, bless them.