{"id":994,"date":"2016-09-09T12:51:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T17:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/?p=994"},"modified":"2025-10-23T16:20:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:20:54","slug":"a-day-in-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/2016\/09\/09\/a-day-in-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day in My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1-20160718_154303\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lots of people have asked me over the past few years what a typical day looks like for me here in My Country.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been able to answer because every day is so different.\u00a0 But let me give you a glimpse into what this Monday looked like, since it shows some of the joys and struggles of life here:<\/p>\n

7:00 \u2013 Get up and get ready for the day, including putting on sunscreen even though it\u2019s currently cloudy.<\/p>\n

8:00 \u2013 Pray with Jen and get ready to head out the door.\u00a0 We have called Charlie* and Sam* from Our People Group, and they are planning on accompanying us to the Dandelion* and Kangaroo* villages. \u00a0 We are looking forward to this trip!<\/p>\n

8:20 \u2013 Before we get to the end of our block on our motos, we notice the water company guy walking down the street.\u00a0 Oops.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be to our house soon, and someone should be there to let him in the gate so he can check the meter and give us our bill.\u00a0 Jen turns around and heads home, while I go ahead.\u00a0 I stop at a little store and buy some soap for Sam, since he just had a baby and that\u2019s what you get as a baby present here.\u00a0 Then I stop along the main road and buy some bread for the village chiefs of Dandelion and Kangaroo.\u00a0 It\u2019s an appropriate way to thank them for their time.\u00a0 I call Charlie to let him know that we\u2019re on our way.\u00a0 No answer, but he\u2019ll at least see the missed call.\u00a0 I then sit down next to the bread seller and wait for Jen to catch up.<\/p>\n

8:50 \u2013 Jen catches up to me, and we head off!\u00a0 On the open road through some beautiful country that is nice and green this time of year.<\/p>\n

10:00 \u2013 We arrive in Sam and Charlie\u2019s village, only to find out that Charlie, the one we planned the trip through, isn\u2019t there!\u00a0 We find out he forgot we were coming and is back in the city, visiting a new baby there.\u00a0 Change of plans!\u00a0 Sam offers to accompany us to Kangaroo, so after asking which road is the least bad, we head off.<\/p>\n

12:00 \u2013 Was that the best road?\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Water, puddles, mud, sand, rocks, hills, a druggie standing in the middle of the road, and other such obstacles made for a challenging ride.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that my moto skills have improved greatly over the past 3 years, otherwise I wouldn\u2019t have been able to make it without falling off the moto or sending Sam flying.\u00a0 We sit down and talk with Mike*, Sam\u2019s friend in Kangaroo village.\u00a0 We ask questions, and also enjoy a chat.\u00a0 One question in our mind is whether this is the village where we may end up living.\u00a0 Shortly into our chat we find out that this probably isn\u2019t a good option, since there is a huge gold mine very close by that has brought many unsavory characters (hence the druggie we drove around) to the area.<\/p>\n

1:00 \u2013 We head off again, grateful to take a different road.\u00a0 These roads that we\u2019re taking are only passable because the month that is supposed to be the rainiest of the year, the month when the crops are supposed to grow beautifully to give food to the villagers for the year to come, hasn\u2019t seen a drop of rain in the area.\u00a0 Not good for them, but at least for us it meant we could go greet Mike in Kangaroo village.<\/p>\n

1:30 \u2013 We arrive in Bellybutton* village, a short distance away from Kangaroo.\u00a0 We greet the people there, who should be out working in the fields but can\u2019t because of the lack of rain.\u00a0 We go to say hi to one of the guy\u2019s mom\u2019s, and she and two friends are together.\u00a0 One of them starts talking about how we\u2019re going to come and do all sorts of wonderful stuff for them.\u00a0 So that they don\u2019t think that we\u2019re going to build a hospital and a school and drill 5 wells, I tell her that what we\u2019re planning on doing is teaching them, even the old ladies like herself, how to read.\u00a0 (We\u2019ll get to the God part later.)\u00a0 She is super excited and says that she can\u2019t wait and she\u2019ll help us with whatever she can so that we can accomplish that goal quickly.\u00a0 So sweet!\u00a0 She\u2019s an old lady and has never learned how to read in any language.<\/p>\n

2:00 \u2013 After a short visit, we continue on.\u00a0 We were still hoping to visit Dandelion village, but I can\u2019t convince Sam to stop.\u00a0 I forget that it\u2019s not on the way home, but would be a few miles down a different road.\u00a0 He also says that he doesn\u2019t know anyone there, and without calling ahead they\u2019ll have all gone to the fields anyway so we won\u2019t find anyone in the village that we could talk to.\u00a0 It\u2019s true.\u00a0 It was Charlie who was supposed to call them to let them know we were coming, and he forgot all about it.\u00a0 We leave it for another day and head back to Sam and Charlie\u2019s village.\u00a0 It’s now quite sunny and I’m hoping the sunscreen I put on this morning hasn’t totally worn off yet.<\/p>\n

3:00 \u2013 We get back to Sam and Charlie\u2019s village and sit down.\u00a0 After just a few minutes we overhear Sam sending someone to the store to buy some spaghetti.\u00a0 Yes, he was talking in the language of our People Group, but it had enough borrowed words from French and Jula that we understood at least that much. \u201cSpaghetti packet 2.\u201d\u00a0 We know we\u2019ll be staying at least long enough to eat, so get comfy.\u00a0 There are some teenage boys around, so I start teaching them English the way we learned Jula.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a tree.\u00a0 This is a house.\u00a0 Where is the tree?\u00a0 Where is the house?\u00a0 Where is the tree?\u201d\u00a0 They catch on pretty quickly, and after a bit are willing to switch roles and teach us a little bit of their language.\u00a0 Yes!<\/p>\n

4:00 \u2013 Food is ready, so we go inside and eat.\u00a0 Not being a fish person, I\u2019m grateful that they didn\u2019t serve us fish today to go with it.\u00a0 Spaghetti and French bread.\u00a0 I can do this!<\/p>\n

4:30 \u2013 We\u2019re done eating and want to head home before it gets dark, but it starts raining.\u00a0 Then it starts pouring!\u00a0 No use heading out now on the motos, so we sit and chat.\u00a0 Sam says that there isn\u2019t as much work this month, so if Charlie is free later in the week maybe we can head to Dandelion then.\u00a0 Sounds good to us!<\/p>\n

4:45 \u2013 The rain slows down, but I remember that even though we gave Charlie the gift for the baby, we haven\u2019t gone to see it.\u00a0 So we go over to their house and say hi to mom and baby.<\/p>\n

5:00 \u2013 We head out.\u00a0 It gets dark at 6:30 now and it takes about an hour to get home, so we should have a few minutes of wiggle room and still be able to get home before dark.<\/p>\n

5:45 \u2013 As Jen stops for gas I buy some fruit and veggies.\u00a0 It’s less weight that I’ll need to carry home from the market tomorrow on foot, and also cheaper out here.<\/p>\n

6:15 \u2013 Welcome home!\u00a0 Now I have to call the people that we visited to let them know we made it home safely.\u00a0 I also have to call the people whose villages we went through but weren\u2019t able to stop at to tell them hi, too.\u00a0 That way they\u2019ll be happy, even if they saw us pass and not stop.\u00a0 Jen and I also record notes about our trip today and what we learned so that we won\u2019t forget and I can type it up tomorrow.<\/p>\n

7:15 \u2013 Ahh, calm at last.\u00a0 Time to take a shower (riding through puddles and mud and sand and rain and such made me a bit dirty!) and eat dinner.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s even a little bit of time to read a book before I crash.<\/p>\n

Well, there you go.\u00a0 A typical 9-5 job, right?<\/p>\n

* Not their real names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of people have asked me over the past few years what a typical day looks like for me here in My Country.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t been able to answer because every day is so different.\u00a0 But let me give you a glimpse into what this Monday looked like, since it shows some of the joys […]<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-ministry","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","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=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/susie-l\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}