Tag: 24 Hours (A Day in My Life)

Wednesday, May 13

8:30 pm:  Gil is home from playing basketball, and limping and wincing.  “I think I really messed up my knee,” he tells me.  “I’ll need to go to the doctor tomorrow if it’s not feeling better.”  I know he’s serious because he almost never voluntarily wants to go to the doctor.

Thursday, May 14

6:15 am:  I am up and getting the kids ready for school.  Gil tells me that we will indeed need to see the doctor today.  It’s his right knee that is injured, so I will need to drive.

7:30 am:  I get the kids off to school, and go to my mom’s prayer group.  I cancel my Swahili lesson and our meetings with our team leader.

9:30 am:  We have stalled going to the clinic, hoping to avoid rush hour traffic.  We’ve had two weeks of solid rain, significantly damaging many roads.  We’ve been avoiding going to town lately, because we heard that the already bad traffic become atrocious.  But since it’s not raining today, and we avoided rush hour, we are hoping it won’t be too bad.

The clinic is 9 miles away.

11:15 am:  We arrive at the clinic.  Obviously, our hopes were dashed for a decent traffic day.  One hour and 45 minutes for 9 miles.  That’s bad even for Dar es Salaam.

We wait at the clinic.

12:45 pm:  Gil finally sees a doctor, who gives him crutches, and also a referral for an MRI at a hospital.  We grab some lunch and head over to the hospital.

We wait at the hospital.  I make a few phone calls to make sure our kids will be picked up from school and taken care of.  My friend Alyssa saves the day.  I love her.

3:00 pm:  Gil gets his MRI.  The doctor checks it out and wants to order an x-ray as well.  However, the x-ray machine is broken and won’t be ready for another hour.  We decide it is better to wait rather than trying this journey again tomorrow.

5:00 pm:  Gil gets his x-ray.

5:17 pm:  We are on the road to go home.  We have 10 miles to drive from the hospital to our house.

9:00 pm:  We arrive home.  That’s 10 miles in 3 hours and 45 minutes, in case you don’t want to do the math.

Conclusions:

1)  I can’t even describe the traffic here.  It’s not traffic, it’s TRAFFIC.  Yes, I’ve lived in Los Angeles.  This is nothing like that.  In Dar es Salaam, at peak traffic times, people make four lanes–or five, or six–out of two.  People drive on the side walks.  No one pays attention to stop lights.  Cars are going everywhere.  After driving 6 hours yesterday, I am utterly exhausted.

2)  We’ll get the results for Gil’s knee on Saturday.  Praying he doesn’t need surgery, or if he does, that it can be done here.  Although, if he does have to fly to South Africa for surgery, it might actually take less time to travel there than driving to the hospital in Dar es Salaam.

3)  We are now in the market for a helicopter.  Anyone got a used one lying around?

37 minutes…..HA HA HA.

This was not an exciting day.  But I chose to write about it because it represents a fairly ordinary day of my life here.  

Friday, February 20th

6:15  Wake up.

6:30  Wake kids up.  Make peanut butter toast and kefir smoothies.  Begin making lunch for kids.  They come to the kitchen and beg to buy lunch from the snack bar today, and I relent.  So instead of making sandwiches, I hunt down exact change for three snack bar hamburgers.  Cut up apples for snacks.  As I’m working in the kitchen, I holler out reminders:  Grace, did you fill the water bottles?  Lily, did you find your library book?  Josiah, do you have your shoes on?  

7:15  Everyone piles in the car.  Drop off kids at school.  Gil and I head to the Reach Tanzania center, where he is finishing his class on Worldview this week.  Drop off Gil.  I take the car back home.  

7:45  Eat my breakfast.  Pile dishes in the sink for my house helper.  Strain kefir.  Get on computer and finish up some projects that need to be taken to the printer today.

8:45  Head to HOPAC to help in Grace’s class.  I love this; I get my teacher fix and get to know the kids in her class.  Today it’s all about using descriptive words.  

10:00  Off to the main task of the day:  Find a printer who will make business cards.  There’s a big company in town I’ve used for printing before, but I really don’t want to drive that far today.  I know there’s lots of little places that advertise business cards, so I decide to give one a shot.

I drive to a place not far from our house and find a little print shop.  It is approximately the same size as most American’s closets.  The shelves on the walls are crammed with paper, folders, and other office supplies.  There’s barely room to move, but I see a computer and a couple of large printers that look as if they are in working condition.

I ask a few questions.  Yes, they print business cards.  How do you cut them?  She pulls out a contraption that looks like a business-card hole punch.  All righty then.  Let’s do this.

I choose the paper I want.  She sits me down at the computer; I pull up my file.  I click print; I can hear the printer whirring and…….the power goes off.  

I sigh.  She laughs and shrugs her shoulders.  What to do?  We exchange phone numbers and I ask her to call me when the power comes back on.

10:30  I start off on my other errand of the day:  Find powdered sugar.  Yesterday, I had made a cake for Gil’s students, and a batch of cupcakes for Lily’s kindergarten aide’s birthday.  Then I realized I was out of powdered sugar for frosting.

So I head out to look for the sugar.  First shop:  No luck.  She points me to another shop.  Do you have powdered sugar?  I ask in Swahili.  Yes, he says, but it’s ngumu.  Hard.  I take it anyway. 

11:00  I get home and discover the power is out at home as well.  So I fuss around at home.  Read my Bible; do some chores, answer some emails, eat some lunch.  I fret about the fact that nothing I had planned is getting done today.

12:00  I really need to make the frosting now so that I can deliver the cakes on time.  But the shopkeeper wasn’t kidding when he said the sugar was ngumu.  I’m not going to be able to mix this up by hand, and the power is still not on.

I ask our gardener to turn on the generator so that I can use my electric mixer.  Even then, it’s like trying to turn chalk into frosting.  I pound away at it.  By the time I’m done, the kitchen and myself are covered with powdered sugar, and it still has lumps in it.  But it will have to do.  

The lumpy frosting gets stuck in the decorator, making the cupcakes look like they are covered with piles of…..yeah.  Oh well.  At least kindergarteners only care about sprinkles.  

1:00  I head over to the ministry center and deliver the cake.  I head back over to HOPAC to deliver the cupcakes and help Lily’s teacher with the party, since Friday afternoons, cake, and kindergarteners are not really a calm, quiet combination.  

2:20  School is over.  I visit the library; I visit the office.  I know that Gil will be getting home soon and will be exhausted, so I decide to let the kids play at school for a while.  

4:00  We head home.  I stop at my favorite fruit stand.  I buy 5 pounds of onions, 2 pineapples, 5 mangoes, 1 papaya, 6 apples, and a large bunch of bananas for about 10 dollars.  

The power is still off at home.  Gil is lying on the floor, trying to get cool.  I help Grace with some homework.  I start dinner by blanching 5 pounds of tomatoes to get the skins off.  I turn half into tomato soup for dinner, and the other half into spaghetti sauce for another day.  The power finally comes back on at 5:00.

6:00  Dinner, baths, kids to bed, and Gil and I watch The 100 Foot Journey.  

Saturday morning (now):  My task for the day?  Get business cards printed.  Hopefully today will be more successful than yesterday.  Except the power just went out.  Literally.  Just right now.  

Friday, November 22nd, 5:00 pm:  Pumpkin pies came out of the oven.  Sadly, I do not have Costco this year.  I am back to cooking pumpkin pies from this:

This ain’t no mamsy-pamsy carving pumpkin.  This is a PUMPKIN.  You couldn’t carve this pumpkin unless you had a chain saw.  We had to hack the thing open.  Thankfully, it made delicious pies.

Receive a text message from Lauren.  Can you cook two chickens for tomorrow?  Our turkey option fell through so we are just doing chicken. 

I found out later that “the turkey option” was going to cost $126.  Yeah, chicken sounds delicious.

6:00 pm:  We head out to dinner at Verna’s.  Verna is a South African woman who serves Mexican food in her front yard on Friday nights.  In Tanzania.  Yep, this is a crazy world we live in.  On the way to Verna’s, we stop by the butcher and pick up two chickens.  

9:00 pm:  I stick one of the chickens in the crock pot and the other in the fridge.  

Saturday, November 23rd, 8:00 am:  Feed starving children.

Take chicken out of crock pot; pull it apart.  Stick in the other one.  

Make bread dough.  Leave it to rise.  

9:00 am:  Alyssa gets dropped off at my house.  We’re going to the Artisan Market.  Or rather, WE’RE GOING TO THE ARTISAN MARKET!

So this is the thing.  I don’t get to go shopping very often, except for things like fruit and bread and laundry detergent.  Now, I’m not a big shopper in general, but after months go by with no shopping, I get pretty excited when it’s the time of year for the Artisan Market.  It comes around only once a year, when about 85 artisans gather from all over Tanzania to showcase their creativity.  

I told Gil, “I’m going to spend a lot of money today. But since these are all non-profits, it’s practically like I’m giving the money to charity.”  He just rolled his eyes.  

But seriously, friends, look at this stuff.  Wouldn’t you get excited too?

This is what I bought for myself (those are ornaments on the left).  Sadly, I can’t show you the rest of my purchases because Christmas is coming and I can’t keep certain people from reading this post.  

By the way, if you are just totally jealous that I got to shop here, just hop on over to Karamaand find a lot of the same things.  

12:00 pm:  Alyssa and I drag ourselves away from the Artisan Market.  We stopped at a store on the way home because Alyssa needed sage for her stuffing.  

1:30 pm:  I arrive home and jump into a frenzy of frantic activity.  In case you haven’t figured it out, we are celebrating Thanksgiving today.  Yes, I know it’s Saturday the 23rd.  But the last Thursday of the month is only a national holiday in the United States of America.  For the rest of the world, it’s an ordinary work day.  Thus, we celebrate on Saturday.

I turn my risen dough into rolls.  I make a green salad.  I cut up the other chicken.  I make a chocolate mousse pie.  All in an hour and a half.  I am a sweaty mess by the time I am done.  (It’s about 90 degrees here these days).  With Gil’s help, it all gets done.  Yes, it was pushing it to go to the Artisan Market the morning of Thanksgiving, but seriously, how could I have passed up the ARTISAN MARKET?

3:00 pm:  We head to Ben and Lauren’s house for Thanksgiving.  Every year, it’s tradition to celebrate with our Reach Global team.  We are all in different ministries, so we rarely see them other than about once a month, but here, they are family.  Our kids call them Aunt and Uncle and Grandma and Grandpa.  None of us are blood related, and they can’t ever really replace our actual family, but they sure bring us a lot of joy.  

The afternoon is filled with chicken and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, running children, and lots and lots of laughter.  Just as Thanksgiving should be.  

9:00 pm:  Stick the kids in the shower; put them to bed.  Head to the kitchen to wash up; put the leftovers in the fridge; put the dishes away.  

Open a cupboard a spot The Cockroach.  

AHA!  This horrible creature has been pooping in my cabinet for the last couple of weeks but has evaded capture.  So now that I have spotted him, war is on.  Gil is out watching a soccer game (we don’t have TV stations so he watches games at a hotel) so it is just Amy vs. The Cockroach.

I spend 15 minutes chasing him all throughout my cupboards, but in the end, I am victorious.  With satisfaction, I watch him writhe in agony to his death.  That’s what you get for pooping in my cupboards.  

I’m sorry to end this post so digustingly. But you want to know my life?  This is my life.  The Good, the Bad, and the Cockroaches.

Monday, 6:00 pm:  Literally minutes from putting dinner on the table, I turn on the faucet and nothing comes out.  I run to another faucet; still nothing.  I go out the back door and check our tanks.  Nothing.  No water.  Not a drop.

Gil and I examine the situation.  We figure out why the city water has not been coming in and fix the problem.  Water starts coming into the tanks, but it needs to be pumped into the house.  Unfortunately, since the pump had been running with no water, now there is air in the pipes.  Thus, still no water in the house.

We eat dinner.  I grab a couple of our (filtered) water bottles and run them over our sweaty kids’ feet before they go to bed.  That will have to do.  The toilets fill up and we can’t flush them.  Ugh.

I put the dirty dishes on the floor and allow our Jack Russell to clean them for me.  Hopefully that will keep the cockroaches away from the dishes.

7:30 pm:  Our small group comes over. One of the electrical phases in our house goes out, which means that 1/3 of our outlets/power sources don’t work.  I have never understood how this works, but I just go with it.  I take an assessment of the various lights/fans/outlets that are not working, get out the 25 foot extension cord, and use it to plug the fridge into an outlet that actually is working.  We go on with our small group.

10:00 pm:  I use two more water bottles to attempt to wash myself.  One electrical phase is still out, but thankfully not the one for our room air conditioner.  We’ll be able to sleep.

Tuesday, 6:00 am:  I wake up;  I wake the kids up.  They complain that the toilets aren’t flushing.  Josiah refuses to use the toilet and I ask him what he would like me to do about it.  We use drinking water to wash hands and faces.

Make breakfast; make lunches.  I take the kids to school at 7.

8:30 am:  I call Everest.  Everest is the best electrician/plumber/painter/fix-it guy in the ENTIRE WORLD.  We would be lost without him.  I ask him to come and get the air out of our pipes so that we can have water again.

9:00 am:  I have cancelled my Swahili lesson for today.  Instead, my midwife friend, Lyndi, and I are going to visit Esta.  Esta has worked for me for 7 years, but now she is on bedrest in her 5th month of pregnancy.  The doctor had barely told her anything except to go on bedrest, so Lyndi agreed to go with me to check out the situation.

Esta had gone to a government hospital, but all the doctor’s notes were in English, which she can’t read.  Lyndi looked over the paperwork; she examined Esta, and determined that she is fine, the baby is healthy, but she just needs to take things easy.  That was happy news.

But the best part was when Lyndi brought out her little machine that allowed all of us to hear the baby’s heartbeat.  Esta cried.  I cried.  She had never heard her baby’s heartbeat before, even though this is her third child.  Lyndi explained that often the nurses will even turn the ultrasound screen away from the mamas, so they can’t see.  In a culture where knowledge is power, the patient isn’t told much.

10:30 am:  I am back at home, and Everest has arrived.  Unfortunately, while I was gone, all of the power went off.  He can’t fix the water problem without electricity.  He tried to get our generator going, but found a problem with it.  Now we have no water and no power.  Thankfully, now the outside tank has enough water in it that we can draw some out with a bucket.  We lug in enough water for my house helper to wash the dishes and clean the floors.

I take Everest to the hardware store to start hunting down the part for the generator.

12:00 pm:  I meet Aishi for lunch, one of our former students.  She tells me about how college changed her and her dreams for Tanzania. It made my day.  I love her.

2:30 pm:  I bring the kids home from school.  Still no water, still no power.  Everest was not able to find the part for the generator.  But he shows Gil how to get the air out of the pipes once the power comes back on.

4:00 pm:  Power comes back on!  Well, most of it.  We’re still out a phase, but who’s complaining?  Gil manages to get the water flowing back in our pipes.  Well, except that the pressure pump is connected to the phase that is out.  He climbs up the ladder to that pump and rearranges the electrical sockets, and finally, we have water!

6:00 pm:  Gil feeds the kids dinner; I go out to pick up a baby-sitter.  When I get back, power is off again.  It’s getting dark now, so we start to set up the baby-sitter with candles and head lamps.  But wonder of wonders, right before we leave, the power comes back, and this time, all the phases are on.

Gil and I leave for dinner to celebrate our 14th anniversary.

Thankful for this guy who has spent 10 out of 14 years with me in Africa doing this crazy life.  Here’s to the next adventure of the day!