Well, that varies. But here is a sample. Some days are sort of like this!
6:15 am get kids up… brush teeth and get dressed. Somehow this takes 30 minutes. Do not ask me why! Although we are all sharing the one bathroom, so maybe that is part of it. No sink so you have to brush your teeth and spit into the toilet, then rinse with your water bottle into the toilet as well. But seriously, it takes forever!
6:45 am eat breakfast in the cafeteria. The kids living here (high schoolers) start their devotions at 5:30 am and eat breakfast and then leave for school around 6:40 am… so we eat after them so as not to get in their way as they are getting out the door. Gabe has his “first coffee”- instant.
7:20 am (ish) We get in the car and head to Rosarito. It is a beautiful drive… about 40 minutes, most of it along the Pacific. We pay a toll of $2.45 for the highway. We also stop at the gas station for “second coffee” for Gabe and “Coca-cola Light” for me 🙂
Once we get off the highway, it is a bumpy dirt road into the neighborhood where the orphanage is. So far, our van is handling it well, but we do drive slowly!
8:00 am Arrive at Rosarito. We usually start school right away, with Bible as a family. Then Gabe goes to work in the cafeteria and I teach our kids. Out here, the elementary kids are in school in the morning and the junior high kids go in the afternoon. So Gabe gets to hang out with the older kids while he works.
12:00 p.m. First lunch…the junior high kids eat. I try to go down, even if we don’t eat, just to spend a little time with the girls before they head to school.
12:30 pm Second lunch… the junior high kids go to school, the elementary kids come home from school and eat. Our kids usually finish school by this time and join the younger kids for lunch.
1:00 p.m. Playtime for our kids on the playground, soccer field, or whatever. Grading time for me or joining Gabe on sponsorship work.
3:00 p.m. Pack up and head back to Soler…
4:00 p.m. Arrive back… kids play in courtyard, we might work, might talk with staff, hang out, etc.
5:00 p.m. Spanish class! We are supposed to have Spanish class every evening with someone different. Most nights we have class, and it is really helping, although we have a long way to go!
6:30 p.m. Dinner in the cafeteria
7:00 p.m. Start kids’ showers…one at a time…
8:00 p.m. Start putting kids to bed… rest of us hanging out in our “couch” room, reading, playing games, etc.
10:00 p.m. We are usually all asleep! (This getting up so early in the morning is cramping my night owl style!)
This is just a framework, and most days end up different, but it gives you an idea. Work with other staff is especially sporadic… one night this week I worked from 7-10 pm with someone. Another night we had to go to a coffee shop because we needed wi fi and the electricity was off here. Some days we do not go to Rosarito and just work here during the day. Sometimes people are on time for a meeting, and other days, they are 2 hours late!
Some nights we go to the taco stand instead of eating here… and of course, due to Gabe’s commuting, we have frequent days when we have to go across the border to the airport. The wait time at the border varies from 20 minutes to 2 hours, but thankfully, it has been averaging around 30 minutes for us. Those days we always do laundry at the laundromat, go to the library, go to Target, etc.
Although I like to have an idea of what we are doing each day, I am also getting used to the variety and spontaneity. I am sure its good for me:) The kids are doing great rolling with it… they love it because I often have to shorten or totally scrap their school list for the day! But cultural immersion is better than math a lot of days anyway!
More specifics on our work in another post…
