A day in the life…

I remember before we left for Tanzania a lot of people asked us what a normal day would look like. At that time, we had a few ideas of what our days would include, but NOW we know. It’s hard to believe that Friday marks 2 months of living here. Time is surely flying by!

So for those of you who were wondering, here’s a peek into our lives…

Mornings in Sharpe house hold are a bit crazy! Chandler and I have been waking up extra early to spend time with Jesus and to also spend some time catching up with each other, as it can be a little challenging to find time to talk with 3 little people always around. This is such a special time that I look forward to each day before the real craziness begins. We wake the kids up at 6:30 am, open all the windows and doors, and begin getting breakfast on the table. After breakfast, the kids get a squirt of our malaria preventative, some sunscreen, clothes on and off we go to Toto Serene, the kids preschool.

The kids usually make a few rounds around the house with their friends before it’s time to jump in the taxi.

After dropping off the kiddos at school we head to the Integrated Vision Tanzania (New Tribes name here in Tanzania) office to begin our language study at 8:15 am. Our language program is called the Greater Participators Approach. It is a 6 phase language program that helps the learner not only learn language and culture, but also how to become a relevant and effective communicator in their host country.

We started out with a few simple objects like man, woman, boy, girl, fly, dog, etc. (above) and after 5 weeks of hard work we can recognize most everything on the table below (and that doesn’t include all the verbs that we have learned!!! Not only can we recognize the objects, but we have learned them in such a way that we are learning them in the context of sentences, so by God’s grace we are already communicating in sentence form. The main goal of this phase is not to master everything, but to become familiar with many things that we can recall them later as we develop in the language.

We have been blessed with amazing language helper, who we call a nurturer, named Carlos. He has showed so much patience and grace with us! We’ve also had an incredible language coach, named Lucy, but I don’t have a good picture of her. We are SO thankful for these guys!

At about 12:30 we finish up our class, scarf down some lunch at the office and jump back in the taxi to get the kiddos from school. Once we get home, the kids usually have a snack, take a quick shower and Miriam and Gideon take a nap. Selah still takes a nap periodically, but more often has some quiet time playing.

This is the time where ideally Chandler and I review some of our language recordings from the morning, catch up on emails, or sometimes even take a nap. The heat has a way if wiping us out. Like today for instance, with the humidity it’s 107 degrees! Yikes!

Once the kids wake up it is usually time to head outside. It usually feels a little cooler outside in the shade than in our house. There are lots of neighbor boys so the kids are never lacking for friends to play with.

Usually Chandler will go outside and watch the kids while I get dinner ready. This is a big help for me. Right before dinner we bathe the kids one more time and then it’s time to eat! We’ve been trying to have dinner a bit later to get used to the culture here. Most people don’t eat dinner until 7 or 8 at night! We haven’t adjust that much yet, but one day I am sure we will!

 

After dinner and dishes it’s time to get ready for bed, and boy are we ready for bed! We have been so tired at the end of the day that Chandler and I usually crawl into bed around 8:30 or 9 pm!

Life certainly looks a lot different these days, but we truly are thankful to be here! We are becoming more comfortable with life each day and are really enjoying building relationships with those around us!

Here are a few more pictures to help you get a taste for life here!