A Day in the Life

I figured at least a couple of my loyal readers (Hi Mom and Rhonda!) might like to read about what my days usually look like.

5:30 a.m.- Approximately this time, the churches in town start their broadcasts. Discordant choruses of “Hallelujah, hallelujah!” find their way into my ear drums, competing with the call to prayer wafting down from the mosque.

6:15 a.m.- Hello alarm! I hit the snooze button once (Or twice. Or three times.) before hopping out of bed to do a few minutes of yoga. On the good mornings, that yoga is followed by a twenty-minute walk to Gersale, the next village over with more beautiful views than should be legal.

7:25 a.m.- Breakfast. The ladies in the kitchen perform all sorts of magic.  My favorite breakfast is ful- a chick pea stew type thing served with homemade bread. A close second is a fresh egg omelete with tomato and chili peppers served on homemade chapati. I’ll post pictures at some point of the kitchen set-up, and you’ll be amazed that anything gets cooked.

8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.- Workin’ hard. The tasks vary, but usually I spend at least a bit of time tending to the tomatoes that are fighting a losing battle with spider mites.  Other fun jobs include digging new holes for the compost toilets, collecting manure from the village, transplanting seedlings from the nursery to the rest of the property, watering recently transplantees, moving 1,000 liter water tanks around the property, building new compost piles, improving on raised beds, mulching other beds, and working on the drip irrigation system.

12:00-1:30 p.m.- Break time. I get lunch some time in here, and chat with other workers, or hang out in the hammock reading before reporting back for duty.

1:30-5:30 p.m.- Mo’ work, mo’ fun.

5:30 p.m.- My fervent prayers that the water will be on and something other than frigid start now.  If I’m lucky, they’re answered and I spend the rest of the evening feeling so fresh and so clean. If not… every one else stinks too.  Maybe once a week or so, I head into town for soup and sambusa and to see something besides the pathways and gardens here. The rest of the evenings, I hang out with the other volunteers or read a bit until dinner.

7:30 p.m.- Dinner! Another of my top three favorite moments in every day. Yet another culinary delight awaits, usually some kind of pasta with veggies or injera (flat bread made with the endemic Ethiopian grain teff) with some kind of curry sauce.

9:30 p.m.- I usually fall into bed sometime around now, after having deep philosophical conversation or serenading Sara, with whom I share the dorm. She appreciates it a lot. My mosquito net keeps me safe from terrible malaria bearing zimbi (mosquito in Amharic) and makes me feel like a pretty, pretty princess at the same time.