right here

i realize i have not really given a run-down of a typical day for me here. so here goes:

5:30-6:00 a.m. - i am waked by roosters crowing, donkeys braying, dogs barking, and a number of other barnyard/jungle animals making their presences known. beside me on my single-sized mattress, beneath my white mosquito net, i keep some books, papers, pens, contact solution, contact case, glasses with case, earplugs, my keys, and my headlamp. i sleep with my alpaca-wool blanket as my pillow, and my blue and yellow crocheted blanket (that i started making for darcy while we were dating, finished making after we'd broken up, and decided to keep for myself, at least for a while) keeps me warm. i try to lay in bed until 6:30, because one of the biggest challenges here is trying to keep oneself occupied for all the hours that make up the day.
6:30-7:30 a.m. - eat breakfast. if our youth are at bina hill, they cook breakfast for themselves, as well as for crystal and me. usually breakfast consists of bake (fried bannock), porridge, white bread/peanut butter, pancakes, or eggs. if they are gone, crystal and i make porridge for ourselves. all of this is done on a propane stove. crystal likes to drink fresh milk that the rancher brings over every morning - i wouldn't touch it with a 39-and-a-half foot pole.
7:30-8:00 a.m. - every couple of days, i do my laundry. we handwash all our laundry, using basins in the outdoor showers. i find this semi-enjoyable, even though i am terrible at rinsing the soap out.
8:00 a.m - the office opens. by now, the solar panels have collected enough power to support the computers. i check my e-mail accounts and my blog. there are never enough e-mails.
8:00-9:00 a.m. - if the youth are around, we have been trying to work in the garden for a few hours in the morning, while it is cool. lately, all we've been doing is digging trenches from the showers to the citrus trees out back so they can soak up our dirty water. mmm, manual labour and gardening! my two favorite things!
9:00 a.m.-noon - putter around bina hill. check e-mail a zillion times, have meetings with our youth to discuss for the thousandth time what we are going to do in the vague future.
noon - eat lunch that has been made by auntie margaret, the cook at bina hill. lunch is the big meal here, and so we usually have rice with chicken or beef or fish, and maybe some potatoes and greens. lunch is the only meal that we have ice for (ray picks it up from annai when he goes to pick up the meat every day), and that is more of a treat than you can imagine. sometimes we have kool-aid to drink; sometimes auntie margaret makes lime juice with limes, water, and sugar. i like that better than the kool-aid. once in a while we get guava juice or pineapple juice or something else.
noon-4 p.m. - more puttering around. checking e-mail. meetings. planning. wasting time. feeling guilty about not doing anything. sweating.
4:00-5:00 p.m. - crystal usually goes for a bike ride to oasis. this is partly for the exercise, and partly because she has a crush on a boy there. i go with her about 10% of the time. i prefer walking to biking. biking makes me so sweaty, and the road is really bumpy and it hurts. usually i sit around bina hill and read or plan or dream about university and how cute i am going to look in a u of a unisuit when i join the rowing crew.
5:00-5:30 p.m. - i eat supper. again, this has been prepared by auntie margaret. she usually makes supper at about 3 or 4 and leaves it on the table for us to eat. yay, salmonella! supper is a small meal - sometimes we have meat, but sometimes all we have is a bit of white bread and maybe some peanut butter. i am hungry a lot of the time! there aren't a lot of snack foods here, so i usually end up eating a million cookies a day. i would prefer granola bars or something remotely healthier, but nothing is available.
6:00-6:30 p.m. - the sun starts setting behind the pakoraima mountains, and the bugs start coming out. i've gotten smarter - i can usually beat a lot of them by just putting on socks and long pants. but i usually end up heading to my bed/mosquito net at this time. it's lame, but i have my reasons: 1. the mosquitos really are bad, and my legs are already really ratched up from scratching them. i'll show you when i'm home for christmas. 2. there's really not a lot to do here. we have a limited amount of electricity at the institute (and none in our room at all, i should add) because all our power comes from solar panels and a small wind turbine, and after dark, all we can afford to power is one or two lights and one or two computers. and there are 10 of us who live here, so unless we watch a movie together, it means that 8 of us are out of luck on any given day. 3. i never get any real personal space. i live in a room ("room" is a generous term. more like a "shack" or "barn") with 3 other girls, and then 4 or more boys live in the same building as ours but outside our room. when i go to bed at 6, it means i have 2 or 3 hours before anyone else comes to the "house." true, i lie alone in the dark, but it's nice to just be alone.
7:00 p.m.-5:30 a.m. - sleep! punctuated by midnight trips to the outhouse, when i am armed with my t.p. and headlamp; the sounds of bats squeaking and crashing into our metal roof (INSIDE, not outside, our room); the shuffle of my roommates coming in to our room when they are ready to sleep; and the BOOM that can be heard as they hip-check our stubborn door.


there y' are. a pretty typical day. sometimes i go along for drives, if i'm lucky.

i miss scheduled activities/classes, if only for the satisfaction gained when skipping said events.