a day in the life

Our morning starts with waking up to the sounds of chickens, Ugandan music, or the musings of our mice friends who reside with us. Anna usually (as in always) gets up before me and reads and does other more productive things. We draw our water if we didn't the night before and fill our water bottle with purified water. Our water becomes pure by the magic of Waterguard; a delightful chlorine burst of flavor brightens anyone's day. We brush our teeth, next to the deep pit that has yet to become a latrine. We sweep our room and prepare ourselves. We make the walk to the toilet, which isn't far, but since we are living with 30+ people, the walk seems longer as you are greeted by several people.
Anna takes a lot more showers than I do, which is more hygienically and culturally correct than I. The well water is chilly on days it rains, making for a cold shower. We might wash our clothes. Lately, the girls have given us the liberty of washing our own clothes. It's hard to gain independence here because the people are so generous to us in really unbelievable ways and the stereotype of white people is that we are incapable of doing anything for ourselves. So, any day we get to wash our own clothes is pretty exciting, for the convenience of the people we are around and also the sake of our pride. We then start the days' activities which is quite varied. We might be teaching, making beads, drawing blood, watching the construction of the latrine (Anna has done an amazing job planning and communicating with the people who are building it. Ask her about it.), watching the World Cup, making guacamole or talking about stewardship. We try to play football in the evenings with the girls, which is entertaining. Getting off the compound is rare for the girls and it brings life and energy and excitement to play together.
We usually just hang out with whoever is around at this point in the evening, watch the World Cup, and eat our delicious supper. We head to our room, wash the tan off of our feet, listen to some true music, make our last stop at the toilet, and call it a night.