'Dinner-time' ... Time and dinner

Dinner-time! Time and dinner


Baptiste is a good cook and I enjoy his food, even if we eat practically the same dish every day. He prepares huge quantities of food for each meal. Foe the last week, I have asked him: ‘Please, tomorrow, can we have dinner at 7:00PM instead of 8:00 or 8:30, and please, in the evening, I only want to eat a bit of rice and some vegetable, no meat. I try to express these two ideas as clearly, as emphatically, as simply as possible; I use sign language, I use simple words in French and in English; I even ask Mado to translate for him in Kinyarwanda.
Despite all this, dinner still comes around 8:00 – 8:15, the quantity of food has decreased slightly but there is still way too much on the table and I am not too good at resisting temptation...
So this last week, the hour between 7:00 and 8:00PM feels like an eternity and I can’t help feeling frustrated, angry at myself for getting upset about such an insignificant matter... I rationalise: ‘his relationship with time is different from mine, that’s all...’ but I still feel frustrated.
During dinner tonight, I look for another way to solve the cross-cultural communication problem. I say: ‘Tomorrow, night, please don’t cook any dinner for me, I will just eat some left-over’s from lunch at 7:00PM...’ He looks at me with wide eyes. He must think I am weird!