What time is it??

When I was living in the States, I always kept my phone on at night. Sometimes it was because I was on call for work and might need to go in, but it was also because in the case of an emergency I wanted to be available. If someone called me at 3 am in the morning it would surely be because something was horribly and terribly wrong right? Well the rules are a little different over here. :) I have recently become aware that many of the cell phone companies offer free calling between the hours of 2-5am. Therefore it is not at all culturally unacceptable to give people a little ring a ding in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!! I have been blessed to be part of two of these calls now. At first of course I had to answer because it MUST be an emergency....but now I'm on to this scheme. Callers at 3am (who call multiple times if I don't pick up) have lost their "Uh oh I should answer because this is probably an emergency" priveleges!! :)

Another thing I've learned is that it's all about the greeting. In Sierra Leone there's no "hi, now let's cut to the chase of the conversation. A minimum of at least two greetings must take place before the real conversation can start. Now there are a lot of options you can choose from such as "how's the body?" "how's the day?" "how's the work?" "how'd you sleep" "how's your family" and my personal favorite..."how's everything?" Now, I tend to be a very "cut to the chase" kind of person so these extended greetings are definitely an area in which I need to grow. Especially when I just have a really quick question on the phone and ESPECIALLY when it comes from my 3am caller!! How's the sleep? Really? You want to go with that one when you're calling me at 3am in the morning??? :) Ha! Sierra Leone....you make me laugh. :)