One Random Day in the Life

Not that you're interested, but I chronicled part of a random day here, and I thought I might share.

There are different things about every day, but of course, there are also similarities.

When we first wake, there is no power, and when it was more "winter-ish," there was no light.  Breakfast was made by lantern-light.  

There has generally been power from 7am to 8am since the middle of January, and then it goes off until late afternoon.  This picture was taken around 8:15, after the kids have gone to school.  We are very fortunate because we have windows in our house.  So many people have to use lanterns even after 8 am.

This is the view outside my kitchen window.

If the blinds are closed, this is my "view."

Usually, we're pretty good about washing dishes from dinner the night before so they are ready to put up the next morning, like this.

 But sometimes,  I wake, and I'm met with a mess from a lazy night.
 


Since I only have one sink, I put all the dirties in the red basin and boil water on the stove.



Very soon, it's all done...till lunch.


We usually have pretty good power at night.  It shuts off until midnight, but until then, I can usually get all the wash done for the day and hang it on our rack and on the stairs.  This is what I see the next morning.  And yes, we still have "crunchy" towels, just like we did in Africa.

I get everything folded into piles, ready for the kids to pick up after school.  The trunks are my "pantry."  These are where I keep goodies that are sent from America, multiples of an item, or salsa and pickles that I make.

 Now, the rack will sit empty all day until the power comes on again at night.

And, I wait until the kids dutifully fill it up again by throwing their clothes down from the second floor.



Throwing their clothes down must be a lot of fun because I never have to remind them to do it.



I also vacuum in the late afternoon when there is power.  For some reason, someone tiled this house with WHITE tile, so every speck of anything or hair from anybody's head, is noticeable to the downcast eye.

If we have had city power the night before (versus generator power), that means our hot water heater was working and a hot shower can be had the next morning.  But getting prepared for a shower is quite a shock to the system when your house feels like 50 degrees or colder.  We also try to take "military showers."  They need to be short, and while we're soaping up, we turn the water off, so that the rest of the family will have enough hot water, as well.

*cold*

This picture was taken in January, when I used to hang a lantern on the door of the shower.



It gave me pretty good light, but I realized with water running over my eyes, I keep my eyes closed most of the time anyway, so I stopped taking a lantern with me.



Next, I try to pick out an outfit and put on make-up in my room by lantern or iphone light.  Even with the door open, it doesn't get a lot of light in there.  Recently, I've been taking my make-up into the living room and applying it there.  I stuck myself in the eye several times in my room trying to hold an iphone light in one hand and apply mascara with the other.

Since our afternoons get busy with kids coming home, their activities, and our language tutor coming to the house, I usually go to the vegetable stand in the morning and start prepping for dinner.

My door to the vegetable stand and the outside world.

Looks like we had a dust storm, and somebody needrd to hose down the front porch area.  

I believe after I took this picture, Doug cleaned the porch.  I'm sure the neighborhood ladies get a kick out of seeing him do "women's work," but again, we want to be different, and this is one way we can show how to humble ourselves and be a servant to others.

When I return from buying vegetables, I homeschool Keira until lunch.  After lunch, when I'm ready to go for visits, most everything in my neighborhood is shut down for naptime, so visits have to wait until later.  Most everything in this culture happens late at night, anyway.  

For example:

The girls finish their dance classes around 10pm.  

Caleb gets home from soccer around 8pm.  

Doug gets home from teaching around 8:30pm.

Dentist appointments here START around 9pm.

Late night dinners are a regular at our house.  It makes for short nights, but we are getting used to it.

I left a ton out, but you kind of get an idea of a no-nonsense day.

Happy random day to you, too.