A Day in the Life

Blog Challenge week 3 of 10!

2-3 days a week I go to the school to teach Family Life Education (Lifeskills, Reproductive and Family Health, etc). On these days I load up with the 20 some kids from my village into a carrier (back of a truck with a tarp over it) and we go 2.5km to Naiyala High School. The school day typically is from 8am to 4pm.

No two days are the same, but here's a snap shot of a day in the village.

6:30am - I typically wake up at 630am when the live chicken alarm goes off and my cat comes home from wandering around the village, meowing for some food and love.

7:30am - I wash any dishes left from the day before and do laundry (hand wash and hang on the line to dry) if it's a sunny day.

8:30am - I walk over to the neighbor's  (pink house) to see if anything is happening in the village that day. If no function (funeral, workshops, wedding, village clean up, visitors, etc) I continue on with the day.

Socializing outside the pink house

9:00am - I have some tea/coffee/breakfast..sometimes at the pink house, sometimes back at my house. About once a week I go to town (15 minutes away by bus) at this time to get groceries (ramen noodles, lentils, in-season veggies from the market, onion, potato, egg).

Korovou Market

10:00am - I clean and organize the house, sweeping with my sasa broom made from dried coconut leaves.

Waisea using the sasa broom

11:00am - I start to prepare lunch. Relax a bit.

11:30am - I  do any preparation for my FLE classes, or do my tutoring (to learn Fijian) homework or write a blog post.

12:30pm - Eat lunch.

1:00 - Take my bath. Right now (July) is winter in Fiji. It's only 60-70°F but you'd be surprised how cold that feels after the summer here. A cold bath outside (thats what they call a shower) is painful in the winter. A quick dump, soap and run.

2:00pm - walk around, usually ending up at the pink house again, for afternoon tea/snack.

4:30pm - Prepare dinner. Take my laundry off the line.

5:00pm - Relax, watch tv on my phone or computer. Do more work..maybe research/emails/planning for the village youth projects and workshops.

6:30pm - Eat dinner.

7:30pm - Fijian tutoring 2 days a week. If no tutoring and don't need to teach the next day I may go and find some place to drink grog/socialize. In Fiji you aren't invited to things. If you want to go, you go. So if I hear people drinking I say "bogi" (night) wait for their quick reply back "bogi"! and I join.

Grog has many formal purposes but this is a picture of a casual hangout, drinking and playing cards

10:00pm - Watch more tv or browse around on the internets if I have data (wifi prepaid for the phone). Or color in my adult coloring books. Or listen to my audio books.

11/12pm - Bed time. Tuck in the mosquito net, close the windows (windows in Fiji only close about 3/4 of the way), grab my flashlight in cases of getting up in the night and Moce (sleep). Less waking up in the night now that I have Zazu the Cat to fight off the rodents.