Blog #100: A Day in the Life

For this my 100th blog, I have decided to write about my day.  Now I think I've mentioned this before, but no two days here are exactly the same.  The variety and unpredictability are some of my favorite things about living here.  There is no typical day, but at least in the first hours of my day, there is some routine.  I wake up somewhere between 5:30-7:00 depending on how early I have to be out of the house.  I like to have several hours to myself in the morning to work out, shower, drink some coffee, and spend some good concentrated time in the word and pr@yer.  I have found these first few hours in the morning really set the tone for my day.  I'm normally at the computer checking email by 9:00 or 9:30, and most days I'm out the door by 10 o'clock.  Where I'm going varies depending on the day.  Some days I go to visit friends.  Other days I go to share stories with young women.  Still other days I go to the village to do some health checks for women and children.  Then it is back to the house for lunch.  Hopefully there are leftovers.  If not, then an apple with crackers and peanut butter are always an option.  What I do in the afternoons also depends on a variety of factors.  Some of the regulars are visiting at friends' houses, friends visiting my house, preparing for an upcoming project like maybe a medical camp, looking ahead at what stories or discipleship I'm going to share with certain friends, writing up new village/school health lessons, helping other members of my team with any number of their ongoing projects, and of course there are any number of wild cards that might come up (car breaks down, electrical blowup, a friend comes down sick, etc.).  What I haven't mentioned yet is errands.  The daily errands of life are what really eat up my time.  Things such as posting mail, paying the electric, paying the phone bill, haggling with the phone company when they mess up the bill, arranging any upcoming travel, getting the oil changed, finding a working ATM because everything has to be paid for in cash, etc.  I learned early on not to get upset when these tasks eat up a whole day because they have to be done, and some things just take longer here in SA.  There is nothing that can be done to change that fact so there is no point in getting upset.  Then comes the evening and dinner.  Somewhere in the day I will have gone to the veg and fruit stand and to the little grocer that is just down the street.   Of course cooking here is also time consuming as everything is made from scratch, but I've gotten to where I really enjoy it.  Most days it is actually one of my destressers.  Some of the meal mainstays, if we're not eating out or eating with friends, are chicken burgers, pasta, grilled cheese (when we have cheese), grilled chicken, pizza, mexican, and breakfast for dinner.  Then it is night time and Skype appointments with loved ones back home and maybe an episode of West Wing and catching up on ESPN.  Of course intermingled in all of this is squirrelling it up with Debs and other friends.  I usually try to be in bed somewhere between 10 and 11pm.  Almost every night I fall into bed exhausted.  Some days I am completely contented.  Some days I replay the events of the day, worried about this that or the other.  But most days I try to focus on a verse or something I'm thankful for so that the last thought on my mind is of Him.  Then I start my audio recording of The Civil War PBS documentary and drift off to sleep, ready to do it all over again the next day.