Somewhere in South America
there is an Indian tribe whose idea of the past and future 
seems to be exactly
opposite to ours. We refer to the past as behind us, and to the future as ahead
of us.
To this particular tribe
however, the past is thought of as being ahead of them, and the future as being
behind them.
At first, this may seem
very strange to us, and many will undoubtedly wonder how anyone could possibly
think that way.
The reasoning of these
Indians is quite logical. It goes like this: All that they have experienced:
their mistakes and failures and lessons learned and so on is considered as
being in front of them. And it is there for their contemplation and betterment.
The future, on the other hand, is behind them because it has not been
experienced.
We have this same idea in
Tok Pisin, where we refer to the future as taim bihain, that is, the time that
is coming somewhat later.
The only negative
expression is the lot, is to say the someone’s future is behind them!
-after W. Brawand, SIL
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