Ok,
I am involved in many different activities, but this is what a typical day in
my life might look like.
5:10
5:45
7:00
7:30
9:30
10:00-1:30
2:30
3:30
4:30
5:30
7:00
9:30
10:00
10:30
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Wake up & get ready for work
Jump into the car to drive for an hour through the
countryside to get to the remote area where we’re building the school
Arrive at school & feed the stray puppies that
showed up a few months ago
“Water” the concrete. This needs to happen when you lay concrete
beams, build concrete pillars, & use bricks and mortar to construct walls
to strengthen your construction.
(Meanwhile, there is a regular power cut from
7:30-9:30 happening at home to help everyone conserve electricity)
Finish watering the concrete & break time
Carry concrete to pillars to fill the metal
supporting structures (usually this is done by one of those concrete trucks
that turn constantly, but without the budget to fund such fancy equipment,
everything is done by manpower & womanpower)
Water break
Work. This
time I gather all the concrete bags and roll them in 20’s. Later on, we can take the bags to a mat
stitcher and they will stitch all the bags into a giant mat for us to place
on the church floor for people to sit on.
Water break
Feed the dogs
Soak towels & any available large pieces of
cloth in water & hang across open windows so there can be free AC when we
drive (I love how utilitarian Indians are!)
Arrive home & have lunch. Darn, during lunch suddenly the lights go
out, the fan stops turning, and the fridge starts whirling. We’re in for another 2-3h power cut.
Do laundry. Easy, right?
Wrong! This involves bringing
my clothes downstairs in my bucket to our water tank and soaking them in
soapy water. Then I hand wash all the
items (outdoors, of course), dump out the murky water, use a pail to refill
my bucket with water from the water tank.
Slosh clothes around the bucket, pour out water, refill water. Repeat 2 more times. Carry the bucket of cleanish clothes (since
I only started hand washing clothes 8 months ago, I’m not that expert at it
yet) 4m away to the clothesline to discover that it already has clothes
drying on it. Carry clothes for
another 4m to hang. Return the stool
to the kitchen, rinse out the buckets, fill my bucket water to bring back
upstairs to store in my attached bathroom—or shall I say, toilet.
Peel mangoes to make a lassi. Actually, many lassis. I have to get the pulp out of at least 6
mangoes and use at least 1L of curd to make lassis for all the people that
live in this courtyard-style house (the pastor and his family).
Chillax, read, turn on the modem to check if the
internet is working (I probably have internet working 1 day/week or so if I’m
lucky)
Leave to attend a cottage meeting, which is
usually at least 30min away in another village and at a believer’s
house. This means we sit on a mat
stitched out of rice or concrete bags under the starry night. Sometimes we have a tarp over our heads and
sometimes not. Usually we have a light
bulb to illuminate Bibles.
The prayer meeting ends & the believer
provides dinner to the pastor & other VIP individuals. This happens when the cottage meeting
occurs to celebrate an occasion like a birthday, one’s coming-of-age (which
is determined by when girls 1st have their periods), etc. After dinner, we pray for the family and
their household.
Leave for home.
Arrive home, get ready for bed, hit the sack.
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