A "Somewhat" Typical Day

Now that our lives are somewhat back to "normal" (although my life does not seem normal at all, especially without my husband by my side!), I thought I would let you know what a typical day is like, even though no 2 days are the same here, and there are always people who come by or people we meet that we do not expect.

Early mornings are quiet, usually spent reading and preparing for the day, and most days there is enough water for 2 of us to take a warm bath. Matthew is still slow in getting up in the morning, but he does join us for breakfast, even though he often does not look very alert! A favorite breakfast for all of us is baked oatmeal, so I make that the majority of mornings. The cereal here is expensive, so the only 2 we buy is bran flakes and corn flakes. They actually have Kelloggs in both of those (and maybe 2 more to pick from), but it's a bit more than the "Spar"
brand, so we stick to the off brand name. With the baked oatmeal, we usually have narchies (like our tangerines) or bananas. The juice here is called "Mazoe", which is a concentrate for orange crush. It's a litle different than pure orange juice, but we all like it. After breakfast, I normally spend time with Matthew, and we are now going through the book "Relationships: A Mess Worth Making" by Paul Tripp and Tim Lane. I read it out loud and we discuss it. I am finding it very helpful for us here, where we are all learning to live in a foreign country, in one house together for the glory of God!. By His grace, our hearts desire is to love God and
others more than ourselves :)

Emma works every morning, except Wednesday, so my Mother gives her various jobs to do like baking, laundry, cleaning, and helping out with other odd jobs. She bakes yummy bread! Emma also is primarily in charge with the guest house, which is 2 apartments connected, together having room for 12 people in beds. However, last night, the Overseers and Board Members of BIC churches were at the Guest House due to meetings they have for a few days, and Emma said there were about 20 men in the Guest House! I guess they don't mind sleeping on the floor!

Brent and Mindy with Emma


Often we take a walk to town in the morning, before it gets too hot. The days are definitely warming up! It takes about 25 minutes to get to town, at a brisk pace. Once in town, we usually check the post office for mail, my Dad often stops at the bank, and we usually have something to pick up in town, whether at SPAR, the green market or from road-side sellers. My Dad is the best shopper over here; he remembers where the best places are to buy things. For instance, the green market is the place to buy fresh veggies; so much lower than the street vendors. On our walk to town, we pass a little market that we like to support, where we can get our bananas, narchies and tomatoes. The street sellers have nice apples, but we have to
talk them down....now we know what good prices are, so they can't take advantage of us anymore! We just tell them what we will pay for them, and if they don't want to come down, we politely say, "No thanks" and walk away! We can still get "mobbed" by some of them, but I am learning to be firm, yet gracious if we are not going to buy. They are very persistent, some even follow us to our vehicle, continuing to plead and bargain, and some even stand very close to our van as we are getting in. Even when we close the door, some continue to plead. It's hard not to feel like we are rude, but I just tell them to have a good day, and say, "No thank you."



For lunch we usually have soup or PBJ or PBB (that's PB with Bananas!). Cheese is pretty expensive, so a treat is grilled cheese every now and then. We also have left overs. My Dad usually works in the office in the afternoons and visits with his many visitors. Other than "puttering around", my mother and I sometimes bake, visit with some people, answer knocks at the door or do some odd jobs. I try to take a walk later in the day if I didn't walk to town earlier that day. Matthew often follows Given around, either helping him with his work, helping him at the new house that he is building, where they work in the garden or yard, or they run errands
together. Matthew also has been reading alot. He brought a number of books along to read, and he is on his last one. The other day he found the entire set of C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia here at the house, which he already read quite a few times at home. He started them again! Matthew also plays soccer with the boys here, but I will let him tell you about his life one of these days.

Brent and Mindy with Given


Our suppers usually include rice, tomatoes and onions, some green veggies and sometimes meat. Beef is cheaper than chicken here, so we are eating beef more than we normally do. Although Nshima is the staple here, for some reason, my mother doesn't make it. While our family was here, Emma made some for us. For the past month, we have enjoyed lettuce from Given's garden, which he planted for us once he knew we were coming. That's a treat, because it's hard to get in the stores. Unfortunately, the garden here at Nahumba has not been looked after, so we have not been able to get anything from it. Given used to plant a garden, but he has other
assignments now, and for numerous reasons, the garden has not been tended to. My parents miss it, but Matthew is trying to tend to it and plant some things, so hopefully it will be revived, even if it's after we leave!

Making nshima


If we don't have plans in the evening, we have quiet evenings, inside. Some watch videos and some read and someone writes posts for her blogs!

There you go - a typical day in Beth and Matthew's life! Oh, and for you who care and no one cares more than I do!)....only 25 more days till the wonderful reunion of this wife with her husband...yippe!!