Day in the Life

One of our activities to understand the community better is called “Day in the Life.” Unsurprisingly, it involves following a community member around for the day to see what their daily activities and pace of life looks like.

So, I thought it would be fun for you to follow me around for a “typical’ day. Let’s go!

3 AM

Wake up to roosters calling outside my room. Reach for earplugs. Note while reaching for earplugs that the Shabeen (Tavern/Bar) is still hopping on a Sunday night and Justin Beiber has arrived in Clare, SA. Say what you will about him, but that’s just impressive.

6 AM

Wake up just before the sunrise. Sweet, it is light enough to go out to the latrine. Grab 2 extra layers, my chamber pot (it’s a bucket) to empty it, TP and hand sanitizer and dash out.

6:30 AM

Morning run against the rising sun soaking in the dusty African landscape. Wave some hellos to mystified locals. Most laugh.

6:45 AM

Run into other team members and a player from the Clare soccer team out running, one of which is on the Stanford Cross Country team. Run and chat excitedly for a few minutes then make up a lame excuse about needing to prepare more before the day begins so I don’t have to keep up their pace.

7 AM

Put on water to boil in the kettle. Transport 3 buckets of cold water to bathing bucket. Add boiling water to bath. Make PB&J for lunch and clean chamber pot while second kettle boils.

7:15 AM

Bathe. Bend self in awkward positions to try to dunk my head in the 4 inches of water at my feet. Give self-congratulatory fist pump when I’m actually able to get all of the shampoo out of my hair. Pay myself on the back for having the foresight to warm up by running before bathing. Shiver into clothes.

7:45 AM

Put kettle on for oats and instant coffee. Eat over cartoons with my host little brother and sister and the cousin that seems to live here now. Not sure.

8:15 AM

Brush teeth by the chickens that dash to any water I empty on the ground searching for food.

8:30 AM

Meet with students to give them their tasks for the day. Try to be inspirational. Reprimand the guys for always being late.

9 AM

Walk to the other side of the village to meet with my co-leader Kathrin. Get stopped along the way by a translator who wants a job at ThinkImpact and by Gift who wants me to come help cook and eat the spinach she just harvested from her garden.

10 AM

Hash out the week with Kathrin and how to teach social entrepreneurship and design thinking to our teams of students and how they in turn can explain it to their community partners.

11:30 AM

Stop by the Tuck Shop that has fresh baked “fat balls.” I think they are just fried dough…Drop by Gift’s house to apologize for not being able to visit and share baked goods.

12 PM

Run into students who have just met a drum maker. Chat, photograph, video. Get excited.

12:45 PM

Run into other students who got stood up for their meetings and have no translator. Make 3 phone calls for available translators. Set up 2 PM meeting. Sit with students for lunch. Discuss their day so far and what they have been learning from their morning interviews.

2 PM

Translator hasn’t showed. Sit at Tuck Shop chatting with people for impromtu interviews.

2:45 PM

Call translator—“I will see you in 3 minutes!”

3 PM

Translator arrives, and I send the students off to finish up the day.

4 PM

Evening meeting with the students to download the day and prepare for tomorrow. Check in on food, water, health. Quell fears that they won’t be able to find a good business idea.

5 PM

Arrive home. Soccer is on. No one is watching. Set down bags in my room, return to find the family at the TV.

5:30 PM

Start cooking dinner. Pasta or Rice tonight? Family asks again why I don’t just eat pap every night with them. Cook something my body can readily digest. Eat some pap to appease my host mom.

6:30 PM

Host mom calls the family to the table. Only the father, Simmy, speaks to me in English. No one else talks. I try to address a few questions to them, but they mostly nod and let him reply. Get into fascinating discussion about why people in the States park their cars outside, fill their own petrol and why stealing isn’t a major problem as well as what life was like in Clare before 1994 and before electricity.

7 PM

Watch Women’s World Cup Soccer. Brush off mildly sexist/racist comments about women’s soccer and our “Chinaman” team member. Try to delicately educate about what terms are seen as offensive in America. Respond mid-discussion to the twelve times my 3 year old host sister tries to communicate to me in her only English, “Hello. Hello. Hello.”

8:00 PM

All lights are out. Grab headlamp to begin reading so my light doesn’t disturb others via rafters.

8:45 PM

Fall asleep to Justin Beiber blasting again at the Shabeen. Apparently the chickens are asleep in the trees. Wonder if I’m the only city girl that didn’t know chickens like to sleep in mango trees.