Daily Routine

I guess I need to post since I haven’t in a while and Steph is taking all the glory. My mom suggested that I post something that details what we do on a day to day basis kind of like our daily schedule. Well it changes everyday obviously, but I’ll give you a sample.

7AM wake up alarm, if we are going to “shower” (in quotes because we really aren’t showering),
7AM and a few seconds – fish around for phone on the bookshelf near our bed, usually knocking it on the ground in the process, ::grumpy angry tired noise::, pick up phone and reset alarm for later time – 7:15ish if we really want to shower
(if we are not showering in the morning we usually set the alarm for 7:30 and snooze it till about 8ish)
7:15ish – get up to boil water to have a decently warm bathing experience (I didn’t do this for the first 4 times I bathed and was bathing with freezing cold water, not fun)
7:25ish – water is boiled, or at least hot, pour that water in with the rest of the water bucket and begin bathing
7:40ish – after a not so warm bathing experience (because it never really is “warm”) and not really feeling clean dry off and go get changed
7:45 – got changed now begin the search for essential items for the day (wallet, keys, phone, watch, pen, gum, laptop, laptop charger, power converter etc.)
7:47-7:50something – debate laying back in bed, don’t cuz I’ll probably regret it
7:50-8:10 – bum around, find things to eat, pack some snacks for the day, make sure we have a water, tie up our bags, get shoes on, Steph puts sun screen on etc. etc.
8:10 – walk out the door, lock the door, greet Jeanette in Kinyarwanda (trying to have new things to say to her instead of the same old stuff) – Usually a Mwaramotse (good morning), Muraho (hello), Amakuru (how are you?) etc. We are working on saying have a good day or see you later or something like that
8:15 – after our walk out of our little private road thing in our neighborhood, we cross a few streets hear a few “MUZUNGU, MUZUNGU” from the kids and adults (we wave at the kids, usually ignore the adults unless they talk to us then we’ll ask them how they are doing or just say hi) and we wait for our minibus
8:15ish – squeeze into a seat on the minibus, sometimes not so crowded sometimes feeling claustrophobic, comment on the American rap music that is blasting, and how the people probably have no clue what they are saying but listen to it anyway
8:20ish – say “Sigara” (we think it means to get off or something, its what you say to the guy who collects money on the minibus when you want them to stop, or you just knock loudly on the roof of the van). Get off the minibus pay the money collector guy, make sure he gives us the right change and walk to the fruit stand at the corner.
- look at the fruit the lady has, ask for a pineapple or bananas or both pay and leave
8:30 – walk to the office, checking out the people along the way, the women carrying crazy loads of fruit or what ever on their heads, girls, boys, men, women carrying jerry cans of water in hand or on head, women selling fruit, veggies etc. men selling shoes, belts w/e (all the while being stared at and talked about) - walk up to the gate for Never Again and walk in.
(we are not always at NAR at 8:30 usually more like 8:50-9:00 but we got here early today and so that’s the time schedule I’m using) – when we get in we walk around and look to see if there are any cockroaches or other bugs before we walk into our office and put our stuff down.
8:45 – Solomon (the “houseboy” – their term not mine, who works at NAR and cooks and cleans) comes in to say hi and we ask him if he can cut up our pineapple for us. We practice our Kinyarwanda with him. – he brings the pineapple back a little while later and we ENJOY IT!!!
9:00 – 9:30ish – get caught up on the news, e-mails, read who posted on the blog etc.
10:00 – Solomon comes in with a list of the things he wants to pick up at the market and prices, and tells us how much we owe him (he buys the stuff he cooks for lunch) usually about 200-250 Rwandan Francs each, about 50 cents cheapest lunch EVER!
Work work work, usually we are writing stuff for our Human Rights Curriculum/Guide/Manual/we don’t know what we are calling it – this entails writing new material, researching ideas, reading through books, Steph and I arguing, Steph correcting my grammar, arguing some more etc.
12:00 – Get hungry wonder when lunch is
12:30 – sometimes eat, if its not ready yet we are a lil more hungry
1:00 – Steph and I make the “TACO!!!” face from boy meets world back and forth to each other and complain about being so hungry, eventually we eat – usually it isn’t much past 1pm that we get to eat lunch sometimes it is, we have snacks like rolls and sometimes cookies or granola bars during the day to hold us over
2:00ish – lunch is over after a long drawn out discussion with Julius, Fredereicke and Wilma (I want to leave right after I’m done eating but Steph tells me I’m rude)
2-5ish – work on our stuff skype with people if we can e-mail some more people think about dinner, what we are gonna do at night, contemplate if we need to buy food or not and Leave NAR.
5:30-6 – get home, depends on if we walk or minibus it home and much later if we go to the city first. Jeanette lets us in the gate, we greet her in Kinyarwanda – unlock our door and go inside - Take off our bags, open the windows grab a snack etc.
6:30-7 – cook a gourmet meal on a one element stove
7:30 – done with dinner, clean up and boil water for tea – begin reading, or typing stuff on the computer, or playing cards, or talking, or think about a movie to watch
7:45 – 10:00 – entertain ourselves as mentioned above sometimes a little bit of everything
10:00 – teeth are brushed, pajamas are on, bed net is up, lights are off and we try to go to sleep.
10:05 – Steph is asleep
11-11:30 – Mike is still up trying to fall asleep but can’t (I fall asleep eventually but we wake up a lot throughout the night, we are still yet to have a “good nights sleep” here)

Then we start it all over again.