Blog Post 12 – A Day in the Life #1

I promised a Day in the Life post, but then when I set out to write it I realized that the days are all so different. So instead of defining an average day, I will try to document a few different days.

Today I got up at about 6:00 when the rooster crowed, but lazed in bed for about 30 minutes. It is so cold. I spent the first hour or so cleaning my room as I just got back from the retreat. About 7:30 the second wife had prepared me a small tub of water for cleaning my face, so I washed and brushed my teeth and had breakfast. Today (like every other day) breakfast was sweet potatoes. I eat with one of Mr. Morrison's sons. We wash our hands, pray, and then eat. Sometimes we get honey or groundnut butter, but today it was just potatoes. There was also hot water that you add sugar to, and make a sort of tea. Conversation was pretty limited as he speaks no English, and I speak no Tonga.

Since today was transplanting day for the Magoye group, and Mr. Morrison is the head of the Magoye group, I could stay at the farm and wait for everyone else to show up. So I helped with some irrigation and talked with the farmers as they slowly trickled in. Finally the IDE team arrived with a bag of manure and the transplanting started. Mr. Morrison did most of the teaching, so I spent my time getting Willard or Lianne to translate for me, or talking with Willard about marketing and work related problems. After an hour or so Willard and Lianne left, so I helped with the transplanting, planting onions and cabbage and tomato.

At around 13:00, lunch was a maize, beans and groundnut porridge, which was quite tasty. There were also sweet potatoes. And Mr. Morrison had this cool trick with grenadillas, where he made juice by stirring the fruit into water and adding sugar. Quite tasty. Back to work around 14:00, and we finished by about 16:00. The farmers talked for a while, and then went home. The second wife heated up some water for me, and I took a bath. Then I sat in the sun for an hour or so and worked on my Tonga. When the wife started to cook I moved into the kitchen to talk with her and learn how she cooks. It is quite interesting, though I am still quite disappointed with how limited their cooking is. It seems they only have a couple recipes and cooking styles, which really limits the possible dinners.

Mr. Morrison returned from the fields around 18:00 when it became dark, and took his bath. Then we ate, and discussed the state of the world (and Zambia) until about 20:00 when I retreated to my room. I read for about an hour, and then got some good sleep. More Days in the Life to come in the future...

...Mike