A typical week in the life of Steve

Wow- how lucky all of you readers are these days! 3 blog messages in a row, and more coming! Steve must be on a role- and maybe very excited about his new internet situation. J

First an untypical tidbit of life taking place outside in my yard this morning as I write- 2 roosters are having it out with each other, and one is definitely winning- lots of noise and random roosters running across the yard. Too funny! (at least 2 of my neighbours have chickens running around, but I’ve never seen a chicken war until today…)

Now to my main purpose for this morning- to answer the request of a few of you for a description of what a typical day or week looks like. Excuse my ramblings- this one is going to be long. J

On the typical day I wake up between 7 and 8, and get up around 8ish. I shower, which is worth mentioning because I almost always have wonderfully hot water with good pressure for which I am forever thankful for! I prepare my cup of coffee (the wonderful Magic Bean brand from Moshi, near Mt. Kilimanjaro- excellent coffee! It comes in classic, gold and continental, of which ‘continental’ is my favourite. I can buy this coffee at the U-Turn grocery store in town. A quick note on coffee- if you ask an innocent Tanzanian who knows no English for coffee, you will get a nasty surprise- a slap in the face- either it means I want a slap in the face, or is rude enough to warrant it- instead you should ask for kahawa). Sorry, I told you I’d go into tangents- you may worry it isn’t really me writing if I didn’t. I have a little French press to make my coffee, and it is pretty decent- a gift from Paul Poole-thanks Paul! I sit on my 1980’s lazyboy chair and put on some mellow morning tunes and enjoy a few minutes of relaxation. Sometimes I eat breakfast too, either cereal that’s way too expensive from the grocery store or some toasted bread with margarine, and sometimes fruit like banana or pineapple. Then I head out at 9 or 9:30. Most days I head to Starehe and spend the whole day there, minus a 1 or 1 ½ hour lunch break, until 6 or 6:30. I do bible study and/or highschool prep with the Standard 7 grads (5 boys, 3 of which will go to highschool in January) in the morning. At lunch I go home, eat leftovers, bread, beans, cucumber salad, soup, eggs or grilled cheese (i.e. 1 or 2 of the above, not all of those every day…J) In the afternoon I do some prep for the various study sessions, play with the little kids, hang out with the older ones, and from 4-5 do homework/study time with the kids who go to the Isamilo International School, the expensive British-system private school that a few lucky ones get to have support to go to. There are 11 of them in total, and usually Tini and I both help them, with other volunteers/staff helping the other kids who go to different schools. On the way home I often stop by at Mama Sophia’s to say hi, show her I’m still alive and pick up some veggies (onions, tomatoes, green peppers, spinach). Once home, I rest for a bit and then cook myself supper (unless there are other volunteers around in which case we take turns) and eat it, usually by 7:30 or 8. Then I sit and read, play Risk or Age of Empires on my computer, listen to music, pray, sing, etc. until going to bed at around 10:30-11:00. The 2 exceptions to this day are the weekend and the 2 mornings I have off. On Saturdays I help make sure chores are done at Starehe in the morning, give piano lessons with Steven and Paul Oscar, and hang out, and in the afternoon I go to KVCC the church in town where the 13 and up kids go for activities/sports/hanging out for the afternoon. Sundays I go to KVCC every other Sunday for church, and stay at Starehe the other Sundays, setting up sound and sometimes playing keyboard for the service a bit. Sometimes I’ve gone out to lunch with the Poseins Sundays in town, or I stay at Starehe and eat with the kids. Mornings off usually involve either a whole morning of wonderful resting, reading, singing, praying and now internet, or going to town via dalla dalla to pick up groceries from the U-Turn or the big market, and anything else I need to get or do. So that’s my typical day/week. My rambling is done for now. J Hope you enjoyed it.