A day in the life of me

I thought it would be a good idea to run you, dear reader (I've decided to go all Charlotte Bronte on you all) through a day in the life of me as that way its easier for me to give some details that otherwise I would probably forget. I've decided to go for this Wednesday past, and I'll give you all the details that I can possible remember! It may just begin to resemble a rough outline of what happens in a normal day but hey ho, I'm sure that will still be interesting.

Tuesday evening was my turn to sleep in with the little girls so I was woken up at 5.45 (it no longer feels as horrific as it did to begin with) by Salustio knocking on the window to say that it was time to get up. I called out to wake up the girls, shook a couple of them, and then padded over to the other block where my room is to brush my teeth and change. Most people here seem to sleep in the clothes they wear during the day and then change after showering, but I'm still a defiante fan of pyjamas.

At 6.10 we have devotionals which either one of the girls or one of the staff members does, where they read out a little bit of the bible and give there thoughts on it. After that we have breakfast, which is occasionally suspiciously deep fried to count as morning food! After breakfast the girls do chores, and I normally go and do my quiet time at this point. Half of the girls, who are in school, leave at about half seven quarter to eight, and I stay with the ones left behind.

The first task of the day is generally for the girls to do the homework that they've been set by the teachers who come to the home in the afternoon. A lot of them are really quite behind on their education, and one girl is so dyslexic that at seventeen it is almost impossible for her to understand the concept of tables, let alone be able to learn them. I'm remembering a lot of the maths that I had forgotten (especially long multiplication!) but a lot of the things they do I learned how to do a different way, so I try not to help them to avoid any possible confusion!

When they're finished their homework there's not a huge amount for them to do, which is why I sometimes wish the teachers would give them more work to do! But they do have reasonabley short attention spans so its probably a good thing. They do handcrafty things, making bracelets and cross stich. Theres normally some kind of exciting Christian reggueton background to these activities - yes, you are jealous, my cool music loving friends. Normally everyone (or almost everyone!) helps with cooking lunch as well, and it is quite a lot of work to cook for about 20 people every day. Its interesting to see all the different things that they eat here though, and to get to help making them. I did slice my thumb open the other day though, as they don't really use chopping boards.

We eat lunch when the girls come back from school. (In case you haven't already noticed I haev completely forgotten what happened on wednesday and this is just turning into a specimin day!)After lunch they go to do more cleaning, and I normally go take a nap. I do love napping! Especially when I have to get up at such a ridiculous time of the morning. :-/ The afternoon is normally pretty quiet, the teachers come and take different groups of the girls at a time, and the rest of them play sports or do more cross stich activities. The way I'm writing this makes it sounds like every day is so perfect and calm, but as with every family, each day brings its challenges, especially if the girls are feeling particularly aggressive. Probably the first time I've ever had to pull someone off someone else was here!

The girls go to shower at about six o'clock, and then I have to do exciting things like go fetch shampoo for the little ones from the store cupboard. Quite a lot of my day does seem to be spent locking and unlocking doors, and fetching soap, shampoo, sanitory towels, pens, paper and numerous other things from various places! After that we eat our evening meal which is normally something quite small, like bread with a cup of tea. The tea they drink here, along with the coffee and hot chocolate they drink, is mainly just sugar and water but, you know, theres definately worse things you could drink!

After dinner, Yanyt goes with two of the older girls to evening classes in the next village. In the evenings we either read the Bible or an extract from a book, and sometimes we spend some time praying or singing. Concentration levels vary! After that, and before bed (at 9)is just relaxing time, listening to music, maybe watching a film. Yesterday, partly in an effort to combat the total lack of exercise I've been getting, I played a game that I forget the name of with the little girls. The one where you have a long piece of elastic that you have to jump in and out of. It was much fun, and they thought it was hilarious!

Good news that I've now reached a stage where I'm not so tired when the girls have gone to bed that I feel the need to go to bed straight away as well. This is defiante progress. :-)

Now away and leave me comments! It makes me feel like people are actually reading my ramblings....