My Typical Weekday

Note: My time is 5 hours ahead of the Eastern Standard Time. So if you want to know what I’m doing on any given weekday, you can add 5 hours to your current time (assuming you’re on Eastern Standard Time) to find my current time and then reference the timeline below to determine what I’m up to.

My morning starts about 3am-4am. No, I don’t get up that early, but I am woken up. It is at this time when the air temperature plummets and reaches the coldest it will be all day (probably somewhere in the 60’s). So it’s at this time that the purpose of the comforters on the end of my bed becomes evident and I am grateful for their presence. Then, around 6:45am my alarm clock starts to sound. Even if I don’t want to get up, the village roosters, dogs, and children will alert me of the morning along with the bright sun flooding through my bedroom window.

By 7:15am, I am up and getting ready.
By 7:45am, I have made the 3-minute walk to the Litseys’ house and am eating breakfast.
By 8:15am, I start preparing for the school day.

School starts at 9am and goes until noon when we stop for lunch. In those three hours, I teach the following classes: American History, Civics, World History, Physical Science, and Algebra II.

At 1pm, we start back up again and go until 3pm when a lot of the local missionary kids attend Specials (such as Critical Thinking, Chorus, Art, and Creative Writing). So I have to squeeze the rest of these classes that I teach into those 2 hours: General Science, 8th Grade Math, Pre-Algebra, and Algebra.

(For those of you keeping track, don’t worry, the kids are receiving Literature and Language Arts instruction, but not from me. Lisa Litsey is working with them for now, at least until their Research Papers are finished and it’s easier for me to take over… though we’re a little stumped on how I’ll fit it into the daily schedule.)

From 3pm–4pm, I get a chance to prepare for school, which usually means reading. Since we typically only have 1 book to share among everyone in each subject, I have to take advantage of every opportunity I have to read through some of the more in-demand books. This is also when the heat from the hottest part of the day begins to leave. It gets up into the 90’s by mid-day, so by that point we’ve definitely shed our morning sweatshirts and long sleeves.

Once everyone returns from Specials, I have Math Help time from 4pm to 5pm. This is time when they work on correcting problems they’ve missed or ask me for extra help.

Then at long last, 5pm arrives and the missionary women go on their daily walk. We usually take one of 3 routes, which all include a nice tall hill and are 3-4 miles in length. On our way back, we pass through the local market where we may pick up bread for dinner or miscellaneous veggies that may be needed.

By 6pm, we’re usually back home and I either get back to work prepping for school or I go home and take my evening shower. If I go home, I have to hurry, because dinner starts by 7pm for sure and no one likes being late to supper.

After dinner, I usually stick around the Litseys’ house trying to get more reading done while the girls are preoccupied with washing the dishes (the boys have breakfast dishes duty). Sometimes we play cards or a board game, but most of the time everyone picks up a book while others are taking showers or getting ready for bed.

By 9pm, I am usually home and if I haven’t taken my bucket shower yet, I make that a priority. In case you’ve never showered without a hot water heater (or running water for that matter), let me briefly walk you through this. You have two options: 1) Suck it up and dump the first cold cup of water on yourself, or 2) Wait 8 minutes for water to heat up on the stove and then mix that in with the cold bucket of water.

As far as the first method is concerned, that was what I did for the first 3 weeks or so that I was here. After the first few cups of cold water, your body grows accustomed and it no longer gives you chills. However, I will say that I definitely prefer the latter method. Yes, I have to be patient and let the water warm up, but having lukewarm water just makes you feel more relaxed.

If you’ve never taken a bucket shower, I challenge you to try it. All you need is a 5-gallon bucket, a cup (to scoop water out of the bucket), a drain, and any shower amenities you use. It will make you appreciate your running water and shower head so much more, especially when you have to rinse your hair! But seriously, it’s not that bad. In fact, it seems perfectly normal now and I don’t even have to think about it.

Anyway, back to my timeline, bedtime is anywhere from 10pm-11pm. Getting to bed is no problem, but sometimes falling asleep can be. It’s still quite warm at 11pm and even a sheet can be too much. Or course, by 4 am that’s all changed and the cycle starts over once again.

Indebted to Christ and His Will,
Julie