Typical Day

A typical day for me begins around 7am. Well, I'd like it to begin around then, but it doesn't always happen that way. Every 2 or 3 days, I have to mop the floor (Mom, you would be so proud. I mop!) The mornings I don't mop will be laundry days. I read the morning paper and have breakfast. Cooking is very slow, because we only have one small gas tank with a burner. My goal is to kill at least 3 mosquitoes every day. I think of Ben every time, because I have to get them by clapping my hands together. I must say, I'm getting pretty good at it! Then I get cleaned up and go to work by 9:30. Work always begins with devotions. By 10, we have gone over our tasks for the day, and we begin work. My work is mostly with the accounts (go figure!...pun intended). Right now they do it manually, so part of what I hope to accomplish is to get it on the computer. There are 6 staff at MCSFI. Rev. Emmanual Minj is the director, and his daughter, Priti, works on some of the projects. Sonwani does some work with projects, but his main task is to pull together a history of the Mennonite Church in India. I'm interested to read it once he's completed it. Amy works on some of the projects too, but she also works for Jharkhand Council of Churches because Rev. Minj is also the secretary of JCC. Liz is the other volunteer. I guess she's technically a service worker, but she extended her SALT term for one more year. So that's our office. Around 10:30 or 11:00, it's tea time, and I always have to laugh. Our coasters are old 3 1/2" floppy disks (they make great coasters, btw!) 2pm is lunchtime, 4 or later is afternoon tea (and I'm starting to enjoy tea...gasp!), and we usually leave work by 5 or 5:30. Then there's only enough daylight to run to the store and come back home. Then any other chores are completed and dinner is at the earliest 8pm. Usually it ends up being 9 or 9:30. By 10 it should be time for bed, so I crawl under my mosquito net and read a book or something before falling asleep.
Our schedule is somewhat flexible at work so if I need to run a lot of errands, it can be arranged during the day so it doesn't get too late in the evening for me to be out. Plus we've been trying set up our flat (aka apartment), so that's taken some time.
I laugh a lot during the day. There are just random things that come up on a regular basis. Like little frogs hopping around our house. One big one comes around every now and again. Lizards too. I haven't seen any snakes yet, but I'm sure they're around somewhere.
My bathroom sink requires the use of 2 knobs. One to get the water to the sink, and another for the faucet. Thank goodness for nice neighbors who showed us that. I thought my sink was broken!
The electricity goes out at least 3 or 4 times a day, for unknown lengths of time. We have an emergency light that comes on if the electricity goes out, so it's become routine that when it goes out, we grab the light and bring it to whatever room is being used. Then when it comes back on, we return the light.
This may be minor, but the light switches here are the opposite of what I'm used to. I usually flick a switch up for on, but here, they all have to be pushed down. At least they're all consistent. And a switch is also used to turn an outlet on or off. I'm gonna be so confused when I get back to the US. I won't know how anything works.
Oh, and if I drive like a maniac when I get back, that's just Indian driving. If there's space between other vehicles, take it. It's fair game.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me and thinking of me.