You never know what a day here will look like. Or I should rephrase that: I never know what a day here will look like. And I suppose you don’t, either, since I’ve never told you. So I’ll tell you what one day recently looked like. Just don’t assume that other days will look like it, though, since I know that they won’t. No day here is alike!
The date: Tuesday, January 2, 2018
7:00 am – My alarm goes off. I had woken up earlier to the roosters and goats and donkeys and people, but had fallen back asleep. Usually I’m up before this, but because of a busy day celebrating the new year the day before, and a late night, I decided to “sleep in” until 7 and hope I wasn’t TOO much later than everyone else in the courtyard.
7:15 am – I’ve gotten dressed, washed my face, etc., and now I open my door. I’m glad to see that though people are up, they aren’t out and about too much yet. Yay! Others decided to sleep in today, too.
8:00 am – I’m going slow this morning, but still I’ve brushed and braided my hair and had my morning “coffee” (which in my case is tea with a lot of sweetened condensed milk and sugar today). Two neighbors came over with their cell phones for me to charge with the electricity from my solar panels. Time for morning chores – sweeping my porch and courtyard in front of my house, doing dishes, and greeting the others in my courtyard. I sweep, then go and greet as I wait for water to heat up on the stove to wash dishes. Lo and behold! There are still a few people asleep. Crazy! I wish I knew that and would have slept this late myself.
8:30 am – I do my dishes, then plan to go to the pump to get water. But since my big water barrel is almost empty, I empty the rest of the water in a bucket and take the barrel outside to wash it out. But before I can finish washing it (a matter of a whole perhaps 5 minutes?), neighbors come over to greet. And kids come over to buy koolaid popsicles. See, I had made some yesterday to celebrate the new year and they were a huge hit. I had planned to give them away to people in my courtyard, so had only bought 40 popsicle molds in the city, since that’s enough for people in my courtyard. But then they said I should sell them instead for a nickel a piece. So I gave some away and sold some, and yesterday was out of them in about 10 minutes. This morning there were no free ones – just for sale. And still they were gone in probably less than half an hour with lots more kids coming and wanting them.
9:00 am – The popsicles are gone, so I can finally finish washing out that water barrel. I now head to the pump where I have to wait my turn to pump water.
11:15 am – I’ve gotten 6 20-liter jerry cans full of water, and I’m glad that I’m done with that chore, since I’m hungry and want to think about lunch. I have some leftovers from yesterday that I plan on just heating up and eating to have a quick lunch. I’ll worry about cooking a “real meal” of “to” tomorrow. But before I heat them up, I realize I have a missed call from another missionary (since I had left my phone at home when I went to pump water), so I call him back and answer his question. After that, and before I have a chance to heat up my leftovers, I hear a commotion on my porch. It turns out that a professional photographer has shown up in the village and is taking people’s pictures in their fancy clothes they bought for the holiday yesterday – he’ll print them out in the city and bring them back for 80 cents. The place for the photo shoot? My front porch. So I let them use my chairs and my coffee table to sit on as they get their pictures taken, and my living room becomes the changing room for the lady with multiple outfits. I hang around the crowd and use the opportunity to get some shots myself.
1:15 pm – I’m tired of the photo shoot and by now quite hungry. So I leave the crowd on the porch and sneak inside to eat some lunch. I don’t bother heating up the leftovers anymore – they’re about luke warm anyway now, after sitting out for 2 hours.
2:00 pm – Amazing! With only a few interruptions in the last 45 minutes I’ve been able to eat my lunch and even read a few e-mails I’ve gotten over the last few days. Has it only been less than 4 days since I got back from celebrating Christmas in the city? It feels like forever! Since things are calmer I decide to close my door and take a nap. Ahh, with my security shutters on my windows closed and my white noise app on my phone running, it’s calm and I can get some sleep.
3:00 pm – I wake up and decide to enjoy the quiet a little longer. I e-mail my parents (including translating the response I gave to the marriage proposal I got a week or two ago. Spoiler alert: No wedding coming there.). Then I work on supergluing the popsicle molds that leak so that I can refill them the next time I get a spare moment.
3:45 pm – I really should head out into the world again. I decide that I should go see if I’m supposed to have language study today. I go to my language helper’s house, but he’s not home. Instead I chat with some of his wives and other people in the courtyard. I find out where you can get the local juice mix to make popsicles without having to use up all my koolaid. I head there and get some, but they don’t have change, so I’ll have to bring the money tomorrow. I decide to try getting some milk powder to add to the juice since everyone wants milky popsicles, but they don’t have any there. I’ll try another place, but on the way someone wants some ice so I stop at home to give them some. I take the opportunity to pick up some change.
4:30 pm – I go to the second place and get some more juice mix and some milk powder. I figure I’ll try at a third place for bags to put water in to make into ice. That place isn’t open at the moment, but I chat with lots of people along the way and along the long way home. I also find a bunch of young ladies singing and dancing, so stop to watch. It’s part of the ongoing celebration of the new year. I could join them, but don’t feel like making a fool out of myself at the moment, so decide to just watch with the other spectators.
5:30 pm – Hmm, maybe I should be wearing my party clothes instead of my work clothes. And it’s about the time to take my evening shower anyway, so I ask someone if they’ll still be around if I take a shower and come back, and when she says yes I hurry home, heat up water on the stove, and take a bucket shower. I put on nicer clothes and head back. I watch for a while until it’s basically over.
7:00 pm – I head home, planning on making more popsicles, eating dinner, helping some 5th graders with the math problem they’ve been working on all Christmas break, and heading to bed. But I see my host mom’s brother sitting outside her house, so I stop to chat for a while since he lives in another village and I haven’t seen him in a while. Then I excuse myself and make popsicles. Before I can start on the dishes, one of the 5th graders comes over. I do dishes as she works on her own a bit, then I help her and her friend on and off as I make and eat dinner. By 9:00 they still aren’t finished (since I’m so mean that I try to make them understand that this story problem actually means something), but I’m tired and so show them the last few steps and send them home to work on it.
9:00 pm – Time to get ready for bed. And spend some time with Jesus. And write in my journal (except that I was too tired for that – it will have to wait until tomorrow). And write to you guys about my day before I forget, since the things that happened this morning seem like a few days ago, and the things from yesterday morning feel like at least a week ago.
10:20 pm – I’m ready to turn my lights out and crash, but I now hear kids on my porch. Often they come and study on my porch since it’s one of the few places in the village where there is a good light, but now I’m hearing the studying ones and other rambunctious ones who are running around hyper and noisy. I’m so mean that I go and turn off the light on my porch to hopefully make them go home so I can have a bit of quiet to be able to get some sleep. I hear some protests, but soon it’s quiet. Zzzzzzz.
Well, there you have it. One day here, simplified version. Just don’t ask me what tomorrow will look like, since I have no idea! But I figure that if I keep giving each and every day to Jesus, He’ll work out the details, right?
I so enjoyed this. We take for granted electricity. And photoshots and popsicles and probably everything else. I hope you get some rest!