A day in the life...

Dear Aunt Alice,

Today, one of my fellow missionaries asked me what a typical day is like for me. After answering, I thought that maybe others would be interested as well. So, here’s a play by play of today (Wednesday, February 09, 2011) in military time, since that’s what most people here use:

6:30 – Alarm goes off. I hit snooze. To those who know me well, this is not a surprise!
7:20 – I jump out of bed, rush to get dressed, make oatmeal (one of the few foods my stomach seems to tolerate with my morning dose of Doxycycline, the little blue capsule that will hopefully prevent me from contracting malaria), fill my water bottle (the school where I work currently does not have running water), put on my sunscreen and head to school.
7:40 – Leave for school. Stop to greet several people I know along the way (this is a HUGE part of Zambian culture).
8:00 – School day starts. I’m still observing the Grade 3 teacher, but am starting to do more work in checking the pupils’ work and grading tests, etc. I’ll post more specifically about the school day in a later post.
13:00 – School lets out and, after a brief chat with another teacher, I head home for lunch.
13:30 – I sit down to a quick lunch of an apple and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s too hot to cook and Emma tells me I can’t just have the apple(I guess one of us has to be concerned with nutrition and it’s apparently not me!).
14:00 – I begin to work on dinner for tonight (we’re having some friends over). I’m making freshly squeezed lemonade and a Mexican Skillet and need to finish cooking the pinto beans.
14:30 – Knock at the door. I answer it to find two little boys who want biscuits (cookies). Short conversation ensues and I bid them farewell.
15:00 – Knock at the door again. This time, I find one of the Grade 1 students from the Academy. Emma and I had dinner at her house last night and she wants to visit with me. We read a book, play Play-doh (thank you to the previous missionary who left it behind!!), take pictures with my camera and go for a walk. In the meantime, I’m still working on dinner…
16:45 – I send my Grade 1 pupil home and tell her that she can come again another day.
17:00 – Knock at the door again. Two of my Grade 3 students have come by to visit. Emma comes home while they are here and begins to help with dinner, so I step outside and spend a little time with my students.
17:45 – Our guests are scheduled to arrive by 18:30, so I send my students home in order to be able to finish preparing dinner – I need to cook rice (no instant rice here) and begin to simmer the tomatoes with the beans, corn and seasonings.
18:00 – Knock at the door again. This time, three little boys have stopped to ask for sweets. Emma promised them some on a previous day, so she gave each of them a piece of candy.
18:45 – Dinner with two missionaries from New Zealand, one of whom will be leaving for home on Saturday and who will be greatly missed for her medical skills and her friendship. We savor the fresh lemons and avocados that we’re able to enjoy with our dinner.
20:00 – Wednesday night weekly prayer meeting with the missionaries. A snake was spotted on the way there, but I, thankfully, did not see it.
21:45 – Emma and I walk home from prayer meeting. We travel a dirt road and the only light is the flashlight we have with us (a HUGE thank you to my dad for his Mag-light – he will never know just how very much I appreciate it!!).
22:00 – I sit down for a cup of tea, my Bible and my commentary. I’m studying the book of Daniel, which feels appropriate as I seek to live out my faith in a new country. =)
23:00 – Clean some of the day’s dirt off before heading to bed. Tomorrow starts another day with many of the same elements, though no two are exactly the same. We’ve had far more visitors (up to eight at a time some times) on other days.