Swahili time--part 2

My friend Karen has this thing--when I write something, she always makes it look better. And I like that. So here's her explanation on Swahili time...

Tanzanians start their "day" at sunrise, not at midnight like we do. Since they are so close the the equator, sunrise is pretty much always at 6AM, it doesn't vary with seasons like it does for us. So they start their day at 6:00 AM, putting it at the top of the clock. That means that one hour after sunrise is 7AM - the hand on the clock will have advanced one hour, but on Western clocks the hand would point to the "1", not the 7. If you just think of the top position of the clock as sunrise, and that the hand moves around an hour at a time you can do the conversion in your head. And apprently there is something in the way they SAY the time which indicates morning or afternoon (everything is also confused by the fact that they do not divide their days into halves based on noon like we do - the AM and PM system - they have different words for early morning, mid-morning, etc. throughout the day, I think it's based on where the sun is in the sky. Not easy, but at least now I can understand the logic behind the system.

She's right, of course--she always is. But still--we're telling time using this system on a "traditional" clock, and calling the time what the clock actually says, but not what they actually mean. So, according to this explanation, when the hand is pointing to the "1" they'll say seven o'clock--but they really mean 1:00.

Grrr.