A day in the life of...

As requested! Now that we've been here long enough to start establishing some 'routine' (she says loosely), I will attempt to paint a picture for you of what my/our daily life is like here.

Before dawn, the birds begin waking up the world. Luckily for us, we are used to it by now and don't hear them until a reasonable hour. :)

Noe often is out the door at dawn to exercise with one or two other guys. I wake up around this time most mornings to do laundry. I like to do it first thing, before the sun comes up and melts away my brain cells. :) the washer is under the house, so I get my own workout going back and forth to put the clothes to wash, then to hang them up on the line to dry. Some mornings it's a guessing game with the weather...to hang them under the house or out in the sun. ...I have no idea who is forecasting the weather for PNG (outsourced maybe? Haha), but don't believe any weather channel reports. Not a chance of accuracy! The ONLY way to know what's coming is to observe the sky itself.

By the time I have the laundry in the wash, the girls are usually awake . So I work on breakfast. As Murphy's Law dictates, breakfast is usually ready at the same time the clothes washer finishes. So I get the girls and Noe eating (and Noe and I have our "we're getting old" minute each morning as we chug our various pills) and I go out to hang the clothes up. (If I wait, the sun comes up hot and then it's a more unpleasant task. You can tell I'm passionate about this huh?)

After breakfast is cleaned up, it is 'school time'. Some mornings Noe and I have a class or module here on the center. That involves a laptop, a notebook, a nice cup of coffee, and a good play at the playground for the  girls. On the mornings when we don't have a class, I either homeschool the girls or we go out into a village as a family to learn language and culture. Some of our village visits are purposeful language learning opportunities . Other visits are more cultural experience/relationship-building times.

During homeschool mornings, I often study Tok Pisin, or prepare a few pages of questions ("askims") for my next language learning session. Sometimes I distract the girls from their work by quizzing them on some Tok Pisin vocabulary. :)

Lunch is often leftovers from dinners past, or something simple like pb&j or tuna and crackers. The girls and I have 'rest time' after lunch is cleaned up. Often this involves sleep. Sometimes the girls will read or write some Maily emails. 

After rest time, on the days we didn't yet do homeschool, we get that started. Noe sometimes goes out into a village for more language study, and occasionally we go also. Two to three times a week I have a language helper come to the house for 1-1.5 hours. We have tea or coffee and some biscuits ( yes I mean crackers), and do some focused language learning. 

Out for a cultural experience with some friends!
(We made dinner together over the fire.
"Aste, mipela i kukim kaikai antap long paia.")

By mid-afternoon my laundry is usually dry, and sometimes getting crispy, so I bring that all in and put it away. Then dinner prep starts. We eat a little early here, mostly because it's nice to have the kitchen all cleaned up before it's dark outside. (And following rain, if I'm still in the kitchen when it's dark outside, hundreds of tiny "lang" (flies) start "pesting" me (no that's not a word...)- flying all over my kitchen, my clean dishes, dying all over my counters, and crawling around in my shirt.)

And maybe we eat dinner early also because we eat lunch early. And breakfast. Ripple effect?

Our dinner tonight. Found pepperoni
last week for about 75 cents!

Naya does her homework with daddy in the evening, and the girls shower and get ready for bed. Yes, they've showered ever since we lived in Oklahoma last year! And now they can almost shower completely without my help. Niiiice!

After a story from the greatest book ever, we tuck them in. Then there's a little energy left for filing language and culture data, writing a few emails, sneaking a cookie, and occasionally watching a movie or show together. 

There are other things that vary from day to day, such as our quiet time with The Lord. Some days that happens in the mornings, other days in the afternoon or evening. Some days we also have social engagements with folks on the center, and other days we spend a few hours going to town for groceries. 

Hopefully this helps you envision what life is like for us currently, at least a little bit. :)

Ask questions! What would you like to know about? It's fun to share about what life is like here. :)