A Day in the Life of Angie

Bobby informs me that it’s my day for A Day in the Life . . . So get your cup of coffee (or anything else with caffeine), because you might need it while reading this blog!! The sunrise around here starts to wake everyone at about 6 am. My alarm finishes the job at 7. The very first task of the day is to open all the windows and let the morning breeze in!! Most days, I am able to enjoy some time alone from 7 to 7:30. But, as you know from Kyndal’s blog, that coveted time is sometimes interrupted! Soon after 7:30, it is time for breakfast. Whereas cereal was our staple breakfast food in the States, the milk problem here has led us to other things! We have eggs, toast, pancakes (found 1 box of Betty Crocker mix in a store!), or french toast. One morning this week, I got brave enough to make roti (pronounced “rowshi”), which is like a tortilla. I’ve never made tortillas, either!! But I did it! We enjoyed roti and scrambled eggs for breakfast. This would be a good time to tell you that I have a helper who has taught me to make several different foods! We believe (and he believes) that our paths crossed for a specific reason. He needed a job, and we needed him! He is a real man of peace. He is so good at helping me clean and teaching me to cook. He loves our family and we love him already! He arrives at our house around 10:30 each day, so I’ll back up a bit . . . Now, if I remember to turn on the TV at 8:00, the Island TV station shows 20 minutes of CNN! It’s nice to hear American accents and stories. After breakfast I stack the dishes for our helper (we’ll call him J), and I start on the laundry. This is one area I refuse to give up! I like to do my own laundry!! I have learned that since it all has to hang to dry, I must keep the pile down to one or two loads a day. It has forced me to stay on the task!! By the time I get the laundry going, it is about 9:30 and about 85 degrees in the house, and I have worked up a sweat! What’s the perfect next step – cool shower!! Getting ready for the day is not near the headache it once was! Girls, you’re going to be so jealous . . . It’s much too hot to stand around and curl or straighten your hair, so I let mine air dry. And makeup melts off by lunch, so I don’t do that either!! I’m very natural these days . . .When J arrives, we go over the task list for the morning. (He only works for a few hours; until just after lunch. Then he heads to another job.) Sweeping and mopping is usually done everyday. Carpet does not exist in this part of the world, and sand gets tracked in daily. I continue with laundry and he does the other housework. Lunch has been a fun learning experience. J cooks and I watch. “We” have made vegetable/chicken fried rice & noodles, chicken curry, and roti. One day, I cooked lunch and made macaroni & cheese and fried lunchmeat for us! Bobby is usually able to eat lunch with us, since his office is in our apartment building.In the afternoon, the kids and I stay out of the sun. We watch movies or they play and I read. I am reading some books that are helping me better understand the nature of our job here. By 4 o’clock, we’re ready to get some sand between our toes. By 5, the beach is dotted with families trying to enjoy the last hour before sunset. This is when we meet people and play with friends we’ve previously met. I used to think it was so important to be inside cooking dinner by 5:00, but I have relaxed a lot and see the 5 – 6 beach time as an opportunity to build connections. On the beach, the people are more open and talkative than they are when you pass them on the street.So we head inside, salty, sandy, and hungry, about 6 or 6:30. The kids have a small snack, and I start dinner. I forgot to mention that by this time I’ve already made a daily trip to the “strip”, a row of shops and grocery stores on our island. Between the four main stores, I can usually find most of the things I need. Everything here is packaged and sold in small quantities. Eggs are bought individually, and NOTHING is sold by the gallon! As a result, a daily trip is almost necessary. So we head to the store at some point during the morning or afternoon to get the things we need for dinner, breakfast the next morning, and sometimes lunch. I have to share a story about the quantity and packaging of goods. On one of my daily trips, I had toilet paper on my list. First, you need to try to understand that toilet paper is not considered a necessary household item in this part of the world. (If you’re lost, think “sprayer”!) So, I went into one of the stores where I usually find almost everything and somewhat successfully communicated that I needed toilet paper. Now, the toilet paper rolls are, you guessed it, small! But they do come in packages of 8-10. You can imagine my surprise when the store clerk brought out a large package of toilet paper with about 4 rolls left in it! Anything can be broken up and sold individually. I’m guessing someone only needed a couple of rolls! So, not wanting to hunt down toilet paper in another shop, I told the guy I would buy what he had left, and I walked out with my already-opened, 4-roll toilet paper! But back to my day . . . After dinner (which has had about a 50% success rate!), I wash the dinner dishes and tell myself that the dishwashing liquid kills the germs that hot water normally would. It is during this time that Bobby gets the kids ready for bed. If we eat on Island Time, it’s time for bed shortly after dinner!This is where I must confess a bad habit I’ve already formed – instant coffee in the evenings! I fill the hot water pot, pop in a Seinfeld DVD (we still do not have cable, so it’s Island news and prayer time all day long on our one channel!), and Bobby and I get our American culture fix! If you know Bobby well at all, you’re probably guessing he doesn’t make it through more than 2 Seinfeld episodes! But after my coffee, I’m ready to go! I usually read until I absolutely have to close every window for the night. And I usually think of my friends and family, walking around in the daylight as I close my eyes in the dark.