A Day in the Life

It’s been a little while since I’ve been able to post so I figured why not give a walk through of a day here so you can kinda get a glimpse of what it’s like! :)

My day usually starts around 5 am and I have a couple of minutes to chat with Andrew before he goes to bed the day before! (6 hr. time difference) I’ve been reading through, studying the book of Romans with Rand Hummel’s book Gratefully Yours and have been much encouraged! Then I usually twist up my mosquito net over my bed, get ready for school, eat breakfast (usually a fried egg or granola and yogurt). Helen has a gas stove and refrigerator which makes all this possible! I fill up a mug with coffee on my way out the door (either percolated coffee that Helen makes or I have a little single serve French press). One of the teachers at school called my hot mug a brazier in my hands which is very accurate during this cold season! I try to pull it off the burner last thing so it stays hot longer! The mornings are quite cold right now during cold season, but as the day progresses the sun does it’s job of warming up the world! I leave for school and walk from the back of Faith Children’s Village up to the front gate where the school is located,, greeting students and teachers and workers along the way!

School starts at 7! (Chapel on Mondays, parade on Fridays). Parade means the students stand in the school yard and sing before lining up in a queue to greet all the teachers. Tuesday through Wednesday begin with singing in the classroom and then Bible class. We have 1^st break from 9:15-9:30 which is announced by one of the students using a metal baton to strike the metal beams outside that hold up the veranda roof. The kids use break to eat a snack or play in the school yard or during cold season, stand along the chain link fence where trees don’t block the sun’s rays. We begin again at 9:30 until 11:30. Lunch break is from 11:30 to 12:00 and we provide some food for the students coming in from outside FCV but the kids here usually just play in the school yard and wait to eat lunch at 1:00 when we knock off or finish for the day. I teach English, Geography, Reading, Vocabulary, and Art as well as assisting with Math and Bible. Each subject isn’t taught every day with preference being given to the more important subjects. The students also study Bemba, RE (religious education), CTS (creative and technology studies), Science, and SDS (social and development studies). From the 11-12 hour, I get to teach English to the grade 7 students!

After school, I head back to Helen’s and try to do some sort of exercising before eating a small lunch and resting for about an hour. The afternoons are a tossup, sometimes laundry needs to be done or my room needs some sweeping or there’s dishes to do! Sometimes they’re quieter and I get a little bit of a chance to read! I’m currently reading The Next Story by Tim Challies! I highly recommend it so far! It was a graduating college gift from the church I attended during college and it discusses what it’s like to be a discerning Christian in a very digitalized world. Kiddos usually come over in the afternoons and read or work on their math facts or spellings for their quizzes on Fridays. Sometimes I walk up to the nsaka or cement floors that’s open aired with a grass roof and play with the littler kiddos playing hide and seek or singing silly songs.

Around 5ish I try to get the next day’s lessons prepped with whatever I need. Whether that’s gathering art supplies, making art examples, screenshotting pictures from google images to explain a vocab word, writing quizzes to be copied in the morning, or pulling books that will line up with the lesson of the day. Around this time the fire needs to be checked to make sure its still going. We use a showmaker (probably not spelling this right, but it’s what I hear when it’s talked about :D ) which is a big black kettle of sorts that is raised by three stacks of 2 bricks that are arranged in a sort of tripod. The pot is put on the bricks and the fire is started in the middle of the tripod of bricks. Long thicker branches stick out of each opening between bricks and after the fire has been initially started, you can easily stoke it but pushing the wood that has burned down in farther to the center and fanning the flame with the lid of the pot. We use this heated water for dishes and bathing in the evenings!

Dinner is usually more American but usually once a week Helen will fix a typical Zambian fare of nshima (think a sticky more solid than grits corn meal) and beans. After dinner we’ll wash the dishes, wash up ourselves, and then play a game (Helen and I both are suckers for word games whether it’s Scrabble, Boggle or Upwords :D ) and a time of prayer and devotions before bed. Usually bed time is around 8:30 – 9:00 pm which makes it easier to get up at 5! :)

Thank you all for your prayers! I hope this helped you get a little picture of how a “normal” day goes!

Term 2 is almost finished and I will be heading to South Africa next Thursday to spend the school holiday with my Aunt and Uncle there in Joburg!

Thanks again for your prayers!!