{"id":1988,"date":"2025-06-02T08:12:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2025-06-02T08:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T13:12:33","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2025\/06\/02\/a-day-in-the-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in the Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lots of people ask me what a typical day here looks like, and I laugh since every day is so different.\u00a0 But let me introduce you to a day a few weeks ago.\u00a0 It is far from typical, but I think that it can help you see my life a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

++++++++++++++++++++++++<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wake up, get ready for the day, etc.\u00a0 Since there is no alphabet party today, I don’t need to wash the floors and get ready that way.

At 8:00 or so I start\u00a0working.\u00a0 I reply\u00a0to some e-mails about things coming up, remembering that I have to prepare more for those things, but those preparations will have to be another day.

Around 8:30 I start\u00a0on my big morning task – discourse analysis.\u00a0 It’s what I’m trying to work on a lot these days, but it’s now Friday and I’ve had half and hour of concentrated time to work on it this week.\u00a0 Oh well, I have this morning.\u00a0\u00a0

So over the next 3 1\/2 hours I work hard and enjoy having concentrated time on it.\u00a0 Today I’m looking at quotes and dialogues and such.\u00a0 Even though I’ve been looking at them on and off for the past few years, they are still weird in My Language.\u00a0 I make some noticeable forward progress, though I only get through about 1\/4 of what I was hoping to get done.\u00a0 But now it’s off to the next activity, so I put my papers and computer away.

Around noon I stop for lunch, then head to a burial.\u00a0 There have been a lot of those among My People lately.\u00a0 This particular one is closely related to my host dad from the village, and he died after a tragic motorcycle accident in which all 3 people involved died.\u00a0 The other two passed away the same day as the accident, but Buba* was in a coma for over a week until he, too, passed away.\u00a0 (And during that time, I visited the hospital a handful of times.\u00a0 He had lots of family there that I got to visit, both people from here in town and those who came in from the village, like my host mom!)\u00a0\u00a0

I get there right after the men have left to go pray and then go bury the body.\u00a0 No, women don’t usually go with, so I sit in the courtyard with the women.\u00a0 There were easily 150+ of us there.\u00a0 (Yes, I was the only white person. No, the picture isn’t actually from that day.\u00a0 It’s from the next day, when there were so few people that it felt like there was no one there. \ud83d\ude42 )\u00a0\u00a0I end up being there about 6 hours that day, and get to chat with both some of my friends from the city and some who have come in from my courtyard in the village.\u00a0 What a treat to see so many familiar faces!

I come home around 7pm and am rather tired.\u00a0 I catch up on a few messages from the day, eat dinner, and then decide to read a book for a bit before I crash.\u00a0 The next day will be another long day, as I’ll head back to the funeral courtyard and help make fried cakes for the next part of the funeral, which will be that Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

+++++++++++++++++++++++<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Buba passed away less than two weeks ago, I’ve been over there around 32 hours.\u00a0 Some has been sad (it was a tragic death), some has been fun (getting to see people that I haven’t seen in years, and yet whom I love dearly!), some has been profitable (I sold a lot of books in My Language, and lots of other people sat around and read them or listened to “Storytime with Susie,” even if they didn’t buy them), and some has just felt so right, feeling like while I was in that courtyard I was almost back in my village.\u00a0 But now the first three parts of the funeral are done, and those from my village who have been here these almost two weeks are finally able to head home.\u00a0 I will miss them.\u00a0 And I will continue on with what I need to do to help get the gospel out to them before it’s too late for so many of those I love.

Yes, I am still making forward progress.\u00a0 But when you wonder why it’s so slow, part of it is because life here takes so long.\u00a0 Since Easter I’ve been at wedding festivities for one\u00a0wedding for 5 days (and I’ve been to other weddings).\u00a0 I’ve been visiting one sick person for 5 days (and I’ve visited other sick people).\u00a0 And I’ve been to one funeral for 9 days (and I’ve been to other funerals).\u00a0 And been to a baby head shaving, a baptism party, a new house party, etc.\u00a0 All with My People, all in My City.\u00a0 These are the types of things that take a lot of time, but are SO APPRECIATED by My People – attending such things are one of the main things that make you a respectable and honored member of the society.\u00a0 In a lot of ways, the more you attend, the more you are considered a good person by My People.

Ok, I had better go and get some work done on discourse analysis before I get a call that someone else is sick or died or getting married or having a baby!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Name changed for security reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of people ask me what a typical day here looks like, and I laugh since every day is so different.\u00a0 But let me introduce you to a day a few weeks ago.\u00a0 It is far from typical, but I think that it can help you see my life a bit. ++++++++++++++++++++++++ I wake up, […]<\/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":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","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=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}