{"id":1229,"date":"2018-01-29T04:54:50","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2018-01-29T04:54:50","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:54:50","slug":"a-day-in-the-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2018\/01\/29\/a-day-in-the-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You never know what a day here will look like.\u00a0 Or I should rephrase that: I never know what a day here will look like.\u00a0 And I suppose you don’t, either, since I’ve never told you.\u00a0 So I’ll tell you what one day recently looked like.\u00a0 Just don’t assume that other days will look like it, though, since I know that they won’t.\u00a0 No day here is alike!
\nThe date: Tuesday, January 2, 2018
\n7:00 am – My alarm goes off.\u00a0 I had woken up earlier to the roosters and goats and donkeys and people, but had fallen back asleep.\u00a0 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.\u00a0
\n7:15 am – I’ve gotten dressed, washed my face, etc., and now I open my door.\u00a0 I’m glad to see that though people are up, they aren’t out and about too much yet.\u00a0 Yay!\u00a0 Others decided to sleep in today, too.
\n8:00 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).\u00a0 Two neighbors came over with their cell phones for me to charge with the electricity from my solar panels.\u00a0 Time for morning chores – sweeping my porch and courtyard in front of my house, doing dishes, and greeting the others in my courtyard.\u00a0 I sweep, then go and greet as I wait for water to heat up on the stove to wash dishes.\u00a0 Lo and behold!\u00a0 There are still a few people asleep.\u00a0 Crazy!\u00a0 I wish I knew that and would have slept this late myself.
\n8:30 am – I do my dishes, then plan to go to the pump to get water.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But before I can finish washing it (a matter of a whole perhaps 5 minutes?), neighbors come over to greet.\u00a0 And kids come over to buy koolaid popsicles.\u00a0 See, I had made some yesterday to celebrate the new year and they were a huge hit.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But then they said I should sell them instead for a nickel a piece.\u00a0 So I gave some away and sold some, and yesterday was out of them in about 10 minutes.\u00a0 This morning there were no free ones – just for sale.\u00a0 And still they were gone in probably less than half an hour with lots more kids coming and wanting them.\u00a0
\n9:00 am – The popsicles are gone, so I can finally finish washing out that water barrel.\u00a0 I now head to the pump where I have to wait my turn to pump water.
\n11:15 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.\u00a0 I have some leftovers from yesterday that I plan on just heating up and eating to have a quick lunch.\u00a0 I’ll worry about cooking a “real meal” of “to” tomorrow.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 After that, and before I have a chance to heat up my leftovers, I hear a commotion on my porch.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The place for the photo shoot?\u00a0 My front porch.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I hang around the crowd and use the opportunity to get some shots myself.
\n1:15 pm – I’m tired of the photo shoot and by now quite hungry.\u00a0 So I leave the crowd on the porch and sneak inside to eat some lunch.\u00a0 I don’t bother heating up the leftovers anymore – they’re about luke warm anyway now, after sitting out for 2 hours.
\n2:00 pm – Amazing!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Has it only been less than 4 days since I got back from celebrating Christmas in the city?\u00a0 It feels like forever!\u00a0 Since things are calmer I decide to close my door and take a nap.\u00a0 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.
\n3:00 pm – I wake up and decide to enjoy the quiet a little longer.\u00a0 I e-mail my parents (including translating the response I gave to the marriage proposal I got a week or two ago.\u00a0 Spoiler alert: No wedding coming there.).\u00a0 Then I work on supergluing the popsicle molds that leak so that I can refill them the next time I get a spare moment.
\n3:45 pm – I really should head out into the world again.\u00a0 I decide that I should go see if I’m supposed to have language study today.\u00a0 I go to my language helper’s house, but he’s not home.\u00a0 Instead I chat with some of his wives and other people in the courtyard.\u00a0 I find out where you can get the local juice mix to make popsicles without having to use up all my koolaid.\u00a0 I head there and get some, but they don’t have change, so I’ll have to bring the money tomorrow.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I’ll try another place, but on the way someone wants some ice so I stop at home to give them some.\u00a0 I take the opportunity to pick up some change.
\n4:30 pm – I go to the second place and get some more juice mix and some milk powder.\u00a0 I figure I’ll try at a third place for bags to put water in to make into ice.\u00a0 That place isn’t open at the moment, but I chat with lots of people along the way and along the long way home.\u00a0 I also find a bunch of young ladies singing and dancing, so stop to watch.\u00a0 It’s part of the ongoing celebration of the new year.\u00a0 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.
\n5:30 pm – Hmm, maybe I should be wearing my party clothes instead of my work clothes.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I put on nicer clothes and head back.\u00a0 I watch for a while until it’s basically over.
\n7:00 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Before I can start on the dishes, one of the 5th graders comes over.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.
\n9:00 pm – Time to get ready for bed.\u00a0 And spend some time with Jesus.\u00a0 And write in my journal (except that I was too tired for that – it will have to wait until tomorrow).\u00a0 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.
\n10:20 pm – I’m ready to turn my lights out and crash, but I now hear kids on my porch.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I hear some protests, but soon it’s quiet.\u00a0 Zzzzzzz.
\nWell, there you have it.\u00a0 One day here, simplified version.\u00a0 Just don’t ask me what tomorrow will look like, since I have no idea!\u00a0 But I figure that if I keep giving each and every day to Jesus, He’ll work out the details, right?<\/p>\n

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You never know what a day here will look like.\u00a0 Or I should rephrase that: I never know what a day here will look like.\u00a0 And I suppose you don’t, either, since I’ve never told you.\u00a0 So I’ll tell you what one day recently looked like.\u00a0 Just don’t assume that other days will look like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-1229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-ethnos360","8":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}