I thought I would give you an example of one of my days here in Ghana. There can be, and very often is, something happening that disrupts this schedule, but this is my basic day. Sister Stan is always complaining about Americans and our need to schedule everything... but the more I see of Ghanians and their fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants kind of lifestyle, I crave my schedule!!
5am... Wake up, personal prayer, get ready for my day
6am... 1/2 hour Eucharistic Adoration
6:30am... morning mass
While we are doing the above, the kids are getting up and being bathed
7am... Serve breakfast to the kids and eat ours (mostly we eat bread and instant coffee for bfast)
8am...Get the kids ready for school: find uniforms and shoes, dress wounds, medicate those who
need medication, send them off to school
9am - 12pm... right now school is closed so we keep the kids, break them up into groups and
teach them with water/bathroom/play breaks, when the kids are in school we can
help with housekeeping chores, work on Sister's Christmas cards, tend to our own
business (hand washing laundry, cleaning our rooms, planning for evening classes)
and we usually use this time to keep a few students back from school to teach them
one on one.
12pm... Lunch (a big fiasco!!!)
1pm to 3pm... Siesta! The children (and most often me included) take a nap. It takes a while to
get them into bed, but once they are there, they pretty much stay... whether they
sleep or not is another issue. I generally cannot keep my eyes open!
3pm... Divine Mercy Chaplet
3:15 - 4:00pm... Play time: football, What Time is it Mr. Fox, etc.
4pm...2nd bathing of the day
5pm... Rosary
5:30pm... Dinner
6:30 - 8pm... Evening Classes ( I teach the preschoolers. They range in age from 4 to 8 and I have
7 students. Mary Clare teaches the older kids, and she has 8 students. The rest of the
children are either watching a movie or playing in the courtyard. Usually I finish classes
first because of the shorter attention span, so often I sing songs and read stories to the
children who don't receive evening classes)
8pm... Night Prayer then off to bed. (and blogging)
Bucket bath, get ready for bed, sleep like the dead.
Now today we had a visit from Asis Bank in Tamale who brought us about 5,000 cedi dollars (Ghana currency) of food, diapers, water and shoes so morning classes were skipped. Mary Clare and I took care of the special needs children while the rest helped to clean the house to prepare for the visit. Then we practiced songs to sing our guests. They arrived around 10:30 and stayed until noon, so our whole morning was different than above.
Saturdays and Sundays aren't much different, although no school both days and on Sunday we all go to church at 9:30, and the kids have special clothes just for Sunday. It takes A LONG TIME to get ready for church! Sunday is also the day the cook usually has off, so we help Sister prepare the meals for the day too.
Tomorrow Mary Clare and I are going to an ordination! I cannot wait to see it. I have heard it will contain certain elements that are specifically African in tradition, like African music and dance. We were invited to come by the bishop of Yendi, and I am so excited! We will have to leave to get there by 9:30, and the celebration is about 4 to 5 hours long. I will be offering the mass for my brother, Fr. Mark Noonan and all the priests in Buffalo. I will report on it tomorrow, until then...xoxo
