Daily Diary

Of course every day is slightly different here in Petauke but we thought we would give everyone a better idea what the average day looks like.  (With pictures!)

6:30- 7:00 am- Start collecting our daily water in tubs. We usually collect about 6 large containers of water to get us thru the day's activities such as drinking, bathing, cooking, and washing.  ( We gather water every morning very early, because for some reason that is the only time it comes on)  Oh, and eat breakfast. 

9:00 am- Meeting for service - We are paired into twos and head off into the field walking to territory or return visits and bible studies.  At times the walk to a study can be a ways, so to get our time started we'll stop someone along the way and teach them God's name from the Bible.

12:00 pm- Come home and take a short rest for lunch. Usually lunch consists of hard boiled eggs and sliced tomatoes on bread and a piece of fruit.  And lots of water!! Being in the sun for so long can be very tiring! At this time we will also start boiling some water for drinking later.

12:45-3:00 pm- Head back into the ministry for some bible studies.  We have a few studies that are about 15-20 minutes walk from our house at the "hospital compound",  so we like to do them together.  

3:00 pm- From the "hospital compound" we will walk to the market to buy some meat for the evening's supper.  There is a good meat market called "Zambeef" where they sell fresh sausage, chicken pieces, ground beef etc.  Also, not far from there is a local shop called "Zonse" (Meaning "everything"- but dont get the idea that it is Fred Meyers. More like 711 with a steroid boost) where we will buy yogurt or fermented milk.  The best food though is probably found in the open-air produce market where they have lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  We like to buy our produce from the local sisters. 

4:00 pm - Clean up the house, and start pouring the cooled boiled water from earlier into the plastic water bottles for the next day. Sweeping inside and outside is a must here every day because the roads through the village are so dusty. We start preparing dinner, given the electricity is on.  If it isnt on when we get home, it usually will come on between 6-7 pm. 

5:00 pm- Eat dinner. After dinner we do our family study and dishes!  To do the dishes, we fill up one smaller flat tub with water and soap and the other with clean water.  One of us will do the washing and the other takes care of the rinsing and drying. 

6:00 pm- Beautiful sunset is on the horizon!  We love to watch the sun set here..its absolutley beautiful.  Especially on meeting nights we tend to get distracted because we have a perfect view of the sunset through the wooden windows in the Kingdom Hall. 
Other nights we will sit outside and we usually have a good amount of brothers and sisters from the hall stop by throughout the rest of the evening. Because there isnt much to do as far as recreation here, randomly stopping to visit brothers is a must!

7:00pm Onward- Finish any chores around the house and start warming up water for bathing!  To bathe we pour the hot water into a tub, and add cool water to get it to the desired temperature.  Our bathroom is basically just a concrete room with a spill way (hole out the wall to the outside).  So we take a used yogurt container and just pour the water on ourselves and rub-a-dub!  Washing hair is slightly more of a chore now than before. 
Washing feet every night is a must because they get so dirty walking out in the ministry all day!
One of our favorite things to do in the evening is check our email and finding a message from our friends and family! 

About 9:00 pm- Ready to hit the sack!  We had a long enjoyable day...and need our sleep for the next one!