We would like to share with you what a typical day here in Africa is like. We leave our house at 7:30am and walk to the bus stop. The bus stop is a stop under a tree with a broken bench under it. There is no other markings designating the stop. The bus comes anywhere from 7:30-8:10am. One day it didn’t come at all and we found out later that a major car accident on the main road prevented any busses from coming. As we wait for the bus we see people walking by, taxis, cars, SUVs, and buses driving by. People walk or ride their bicycles past us with open big brown bags or rolling carts full of baguettes that they are taking to bread stores. People are setting up for market up the street by sweeping around their stands, setting up their canvas or plastic roofs and setting out their wares, which could be clothing, fruit and vegetables or many other things.
When the bus comes it is much like a normal city bus in the States. We stand most of the time holding the yellow bars on the ceiling. Many times the bus sways or stops suddenly and we are constantly thrown into other passengers but everyone is in the same place and no one seems to care. It is an adjustment being that close to other people. There doesn’t seem to be much of a “personal space” on the busses. As we ride we watch outside as the bus drives around other buses, avoids big sewage puddles, and drives around roundabouts. We see people selling water in little bags or big 1.5 L bottles, newspapers, and people begging in wheelchairs at stop lights.
Our classroom is on the ground floor of an apartment building. The street it is on has a big median in the middle. On Saturdays this median turns into a very busy market with traffic on both sides. During the week, people (mostly women and children) sit in the median on buckets or on the ground. They are eating breakfast there. On the side of the road and in the median there are structures that have poles with sheets of plastic around them. Sometime they have a roof, sometimes they don’t. There are benches in them and ladies serving people breakfast in them. They seem to be mini restaurants.
There are also little children begging for money or food. I have seen a woman sitting on a bucket with two young children near her. She had one toddler asleep on her knee and one crying in her arms. She used no covering as she breast feed the baby. Another small adjustment for us. It seems like they spend the day on the intersection comer with their children. They hang their laundry up on the side of the road with lines that are hung between the trees. Their lives are so different from ours. Our neighbor kid’s toys are rocks instead of jacks and sticks instead of play swords. And oh you can’t forget a flat soccer ball that doesn’t roll, but rather flops around the field. How to I grapple with the disparity I see? How do I care for the boys who beg for money that is then given to the religious leaders who “care” for these children. I give them food sometimes but money will not help them. It is hard to think of boys 5 and older with no one to love on them.
Our French school is very different than most. We sit around a table listening to our language helper telling us the words for various objects and actions and we either point or act out what she says to do. Then there are exercises where we try to form commands, questions or sentences with words that we know and our language helper either responds to and corrects our speech. It is a great way to learn and very challenging. We have a very patient language helper.
By the time we leave school at 1pm. The people in the median are in the shade of a big sign sitting with their children and either eating or chatting with each other. There are people selling watermelons, peanuts and coconuts on the side of the road and lots of traffic. We find it easier and quicker to walk for a while before we call a taxi because most times there is so much traffic that we would be waiting in a hot taxi with no air conditioning. Then we head home and get home around 1:45pm.
We eat lunch around 2pm and try to rest a bit. Between the heat and the language learning all morning, we are normally exhausted by the time we get home. We then spend the rest of the day in a combination of activities from shopping, cooking, spending time with and taking care of our kids, listening to language lessons, corresponding with people, cleaning up things etc. Things here take longer to do and take more energy to do them because of the heat and because things are harder to get or get to. We don’t have a vehicle at present and so we either walk or take a taxi most places. That adds time as well as heat. Many times we cannot find the things we want to buy at the markets by our house so we have to walk 20 mins or so to the Supermarket. We can’t buy much at a time because we have to carry everything home. Calling a taxi is expensive for the distance we need to go.
The children have a bed time routine that generally takes about an hour. They get a bath every night, then we read the Bible Story book, then we usually sing “if you are happy and you know it” or “Our God is so Big”, then we pray usually for Grandma and Grandpa (on both sides) and sometimes the list includes all the aunts and uncles. It also usually includes 2 or more of our prayer and financial partners. Then we give them one last drink of water and put the nets down as the children get into bed. The mosquito coil is lit and we let them sleep while Melissa and I listen to our class recordings for the next day. By the time we are finished with that, it is anywhere between 10:00 and 11:30. Bed time so we can do it all over again in the morning.
Saturdays we get to relax a little more and shop or go to the mission park. Sundays we go to church. That is an experience. We don’t understand much yet, but we are progressing. We would like to be more involved when we are able to understand more.
That is what a typical day looks like, but things vary so much it is hard to define typical. We had to go to the American Embassy to get some papers last week and there was no class scheduled. It rained and we were cold! People don’t believe it could get cold here, but it is true, I wish I had a sweatshirt on that day. Once or twice a week we usually go to the mission office for our mail after class, so that changes the afternoon a little. We are beginning to spend some time with our neighbors, but our communication is still pretty limited. We are excited to see the progress, but it will take a while to get to the level we need to be at. If you have any thoughts, feel free to write or call.
Nathan says
Hey Melissa and Jacob and family! Just wanted to let you all know that I saw and read your post here. Very informative and interesting. Praying for you all. 🙂