What Time Is It??

Samoa “sprang forward” Friday night, as part of the adoption of Daily Savings Time.  The country only began DST 2 years ago and it seems there are still some wrinkles to work out.

I’m used to the US, where the time changes at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning.  Which Sunday morning is communicated everywhere.  Here, not so much.  I don’t get the newspaper and don’t have a television.  I heard from my family on Saturday morning that the switch happened the night before.  Instead of 7:00 a.m., it was 8:00 a.m.

I wondered why my cell phone time hadn’t changed.  It still showed 7:00 a.m.  I watched as the ferry, Lady Samoa III pulled out of the Salelologa wharf at 8:00 a.m.  Not the former 7:00 a.m., but the time my cell phone and watch still showed – pre-“springing”.  Did we really change time or was my family misinformed?

In the middle of the afternoon I looked at my phone and voila…the time had changed.  I went ahead and changed my watch and the one clock I have. 

This morning I went to church based on the new DST.  Other people were out and about so I wasn’t the only one who’d changed her watch.  But church, instead of starting at 9:00 a.m. started at 10:00.  Which used to be 9:00 a.m., if you’re following me.

Last week we were told that school start time is changing starting tomorrow.  Instead of starting at 7:45 a.m., we’ll start at 8:45 a.m.,  I was bummed about the later hours but now realize that we’re actually starting at the same time we always have, just the clocks are different.  Which negates the benefits of DST, doesn’t it?

I thought I was all set until I started putting dinner on to cook.  As usual, I was listening to the radio as I cooked.  They started listing the times in a variety of cities around the world.  Imagine my surprise when they announced it was 5:15 p.m.  No!  According to my cell phone and clocks it is 6:15 p.m.  Did China not get the memo?

One thing I’ve learned is that things will start when they start.  I may be early.  I may be late.  No matter what, I don’t understand life here well enough to be on time, so DST or not, it doesn’t really matter.  Tomorrow, when the sun is up and kids are rolling down the road in front of my house, I’ll know it’s time to head to school.