So I thought it was about time for me to fill you in on the daily life here at Uncle Dick’s Home.
My day has an unofficial start every morning at around 3:30am. The reason for this is that either a rooster (evil!) is outside my room screeeeeeeeching or a bunch of dogs get into a fight or (more subtly) a light comes on or voices of some of the kids wake me up. I have still not gotten any answers as to why some of the kids are up and about at 3:30 in the morning. I am normally able to get back to sleep for a little bit with the help of my mp3 player, but often that is not enough to drown out the roosters (I really hate those roosters). I stay in bed until at least 5:00am, listening to the sounds of kids sweeping and less evil animals waking up. Between 5:00 and 5:30am I get up and do a quiet time or just journal a while until about 6:00am when I unzip my mosquito net and emerge out of its protection. (This morning it took me longer to leave because I spent most of last night listening to the sounds of the very large lizards and seeing a rat run back and forth the boards on the ceiling. I was not anxious to get up.) After I get up and brush my teeth and exchange good mornings with all the boys getting ready for school (I’m staying in the boys’ dorm) it is not long until the breakfast bell rings. We all hurry across the way to get to the mess hall where 42 place settings are always so nicely placed out and waiting for us. Breakfast (like every single meal) includes rice. On top of that sometimes it’s pancakes, sometime cereal or oatmeal, and usually some fruit (mostly mangos and pineapples…. Yum!) After breakfast Emily and I (the other American here until the end of February) walk the elementary kids to school. That is really fun, but also stinks because they are gone after that. We get back to the orphanage and it is a little lonely. We both do our own things for a little while, which for me is normally straightening my room, journaling, praying, reading the Bible or another book, walking around looking at the scenery, wishing I could kill the roosters… and other things. Then we get together to work out for a little while. That is really hard to do in the humidity here, but we are doing our best to keep that in the schedule. We then shower unless (like yesterday) there was no water (NO TUBIG!) and we had to wait a while. The water situation is definitely one of the more difficult ones. We’re still trying to figure out exactly when water will and won’t be here, but even when it is here, it-is-freezing! The shower process is best done at the hottest time of the day and VERY quickly. After all of this it is close to 12:00pm and the kids are coming home for lunch. It’s fun to have them back for a little while. Lunch looks a lot like breakfast with rice and fruit. We also normally have mixed veggies and beef or some form of chicken or ponsit (noodles). After lunch there is only a little bit of time to spend with the kids before they have to go back to school. Normally we sit in the entrance to the boys’ dorm and talk and joke with them. They are all very funny and entertaining. The ones I have gotten to know the best are Alberto, Jestoni, Miko, Joel and Jemboy. Although we have quite a language barrier between us, they know enough English to communicate with us and to help the younger ones communicate by translating. Anyway, then we walk the high school kids back to school and come back to more down time. I really am not used to/comfortable with having nothing to do. Everyone takes a nap after lunch and I do that when I can or I just read and journal some more. Emily is a champion sleeper though so I have to really fill my time with stuff until she wakes up. I am always asking any of the staff if there is anything I can do to help, but they are in no rush to do anything as they are used to this very, very slow lifestyle. I hope that if I bug them enough they will finally just give me some things to do. After Emily wakes up, we go to the pavilion with Gigi (one of the ladies on staff) and have an Illonggo lesson (the local language). We are slowly picking up some words and phrases that we can use in everyday life, and the kids really enjoy hearing us butcher the accents when we practice with them. All the kids start arriving at home around 4:00pm and they have chores and other things to do for a while. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays one of us will lead their devotional at 5:15pm. It’s just a short time of singing and then a lesson or Bible story for about 15 minutes. We then have time for games or taking until the kids need to go shower and get ready for dinner. The dinner bell rings and we get ready for more rice, fruit, veggies and some meat or bread. Every now and then a dish presents itself that we do not recognize and if we are feeling brave we’ll give it a try. My stomach STILL does not feel itself so I normally wait for Emily to give me the ok. J Dinner is over around 7:00pm and we go to bed anytime between 8:30pm and 10:00pm, just depending on what we end up doing. Last night I went up to the girls’ dorm where I had never actually been and got to play with the younger girls for a while. It was really a blast. They are so stinking funny. The ones who I have spent most of the time with are Melody, Anjalynn, Angel, Casey, Maralyn and her twin Marysol (I think!). They are sweet and fun, but the language barrier is much higher with them so communication is slow. We can still have fun and play games though. Normally Emily and I spend more time hanging out with the boys. This week has been fun because they are getting ready for the Jr./Sr. Prom and we are helping them chose shirts and ties and they are showing us the dances they’ve been learning. Some of them are very talented dancers! I normally get tired first so I say my goodnights around 8:45pm and head to bed. I try to stay up until I am absolutely exhausted because otherwise I will lie in bed and think about lizards or rats or missing home and sleep does not come easily. Plus, you never know when the rooster is going to start crowing, so it’s a good idea to get as much sleep in as early as possible.
So that is basically a day in the life here at Uncle Dick’s Home. When I upload this it will probably be Tuesday which is our out of schedule day and we get to go to the Internet Café for a few hours. I am very much looking forward to that day when I get to hear from you all again. I cannot stress how appreciative I am for your prayers and encouragement. This is not exactly what I had imagined and I am certainly feeling the pangs of homesickness more and earlier than I ever thought. I know, however, that God uses painful circumstances to instill character and give us proof of his control and power in our lives. I know this and I am doing my best to remind myself of this and spend as much time as I can in prayer and in His word. Still, this is difficult for me and your prayers will not go astray.
Love to all.
This post is dedicated to Nicole Greiner. Jemboy misses you a lot and one of the pictures below is a little gift for you from him. Also, I love you!!
To Ate Nicole. Love Jemboy.
My comfort zone.
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