Several people have asked me what I do on a day to day basis here in Zimbabwe, so I thought I would dedicate this Blog post to sharing about my schedule.
Monday through Friday I live and work at the Sandra Jones Centre. This is what a typical day looks like:
6:00ish-Wake up and go for a run
7:00-Get ready for the day
8:00-Work Starts
8:30-Staff Devotions
9:00ish-I help teach preschool (which mainly consists of attempting to get 3 and 4 year olds to sit still, not hit each other, to sing a few songs, to learn about and be animals and color and play with play dough.
10:00-Tea Break!
10:30-Possibly have more pre-school (depending on whether or not we are pulling our hair out) possibly take the kids outside to play.
12:45-Lunch and Primary Age Children come home from School
2:00-4:00pm-Tutor 1st grade to 6th grade in English and Math. I tutor with another volunteer, we lead book groups, math games and one on one ipad math and english games.
4:30 or 5:00pm-Walk/Runs with Primary and High School girls
6:00-Supper
7:00-One night a week I lead meetings or bible studies with the high school girls. I also occasionally help the high school girls with homework in the evenings. Some evenings I go to my room and clean or wash some of my clothes and other nights I try to skype with people from home or catch up on my e-mailing and blogging (if we have power!)
10:00-Usually by 10pm I am in bed although I wish it was earlier. If I can keep my eyes open I try to journal and read, but usually my eyes are ready to close.
That is a typical day but my schedule varies a lot. Other activities that often fill my day include: peeling potatoes, answering the phone, going on home visits (which means looking for and tracing family members of the children at the SJC), playing with children, handing out plates of food at meals and helping to lead choir and drama with the older girls. There are other things I hope to get involved with as well. Life is busy, there always seems to be things to do. I am still learning how to best care for myself and take breaks, it is not always easy when there is so much work to be done.
The weekends are a nice break from the hectic work week. I try my best not to bring any work home on the weekends, but it has occasionally happened. On the weekends I spend time with my host family, meet up with my friends Petronellar and Devon in town, explore town or the countryside, go to weddings:), make pizza for my family, go on walks and read and relax as much as possible!!!
Hopefully that gives a good idea of what my life looks like these days. I wish I had more time to blog and keep in touch but you can see that life is busy!
Love from Zimbabwe, Elena
