A typical day

I thought it might be interesting to post an outline of a normal day here .. almost two weeks in.

6:15AM Wake up to my cell phone alarm. Collect my blankets and tip-toe back down to the communal girls room from the roof where I sleep.

6:30AM Squat on the Turkish toilet. Take a shower, hoping one is available and praying for a bit of hot water.

7:00AM Find a corner with a little mirror to put on makeup.

7:15AM Head back to the roof for a few minutes of Bible reading, quiet time, prayer. Corey sometimes joins me to read his Bible as well.

7:30AM Join everyone on the base floor couches/“restaurant” for breakfast – usually a baguette with apricot jam and butter, soft white cheese triangles, and coffee with steaming milk.

8:00AM Join four girls for our language class (back in the roof tent again, I’m so lucky J) with Hakima. (Some sessions are alternated for another round of shots.)

10:00AM Break time – join everyone for sweet mint tea and some type of bread.

10:20AM Return to the roof for Arabic script with same class.

12:20PM Lunch time! Usually a fare of lentils, bread, a vast variety of vegetables including cucumbers, carrots, chopped onions and tomatoes (delish topped with this cream/tangy sause), fried cauliflower, lettuce, etc.; lamb stew, and either grapes or honeydew for dessert.

2:00 Afternoon technical sessions begin in the basement. Usually a combination of PowerPoint slideshow overviews of goals and group projects discussing a variety of issues.* Several current volunteers have arrived to give sessions on gender issues, security, project development, etc. We love taking the opportunity to pounce on them with millions of random questions.

4:00PM Second break. More coffee and sweet mint tea. More yummy bread/deserts.

4:20PM Another technical or cultural training course.

6:00 Free time! We usually race off in groups to the downtown area (walking of course) to hit the internet cafes and blog, check cnn.com, and email before dinner time, or we search the Souk (market) tents for some random, hard-to-find necessary item. (Not always a successful adventure, I might add.)

7:30PM Dinner starts - similar fare as lunch.

8:00PM Curfew. (As in, must be back from roaming about town, very strictly adhered.) We gather in one of the lounges (typical lounge has backless couches lining each wall with colorful banners strung on the walls, shaggy dense carpets cover the central floors) to read, play cards, study Arabic, quiz each other, journal, vent, chat.

11:00ish .. Early-to-bedders are complaining about lights being on, everyone slowly winds down and heads off to our dorm beds or anywhere they can find a quiet space throughout the Auberge. I usually go sit on the roof wall and gaze at the mountains and stars before crawling onto my roof couch/bed.

*A sample of topics covered in health training: 1) How to identify the Sahara Desert Viper, the White Banded Carpet Viper, the Egyptian Cobra and some other type of viper, scorpions, etc.… and of course, how to lay quiet and still in some random remote village after getting bitten, hoping you had your cell to let someone know to come get you. 2) How to treat boils, 3) How to disinfect water by boiling or chlorine.

A sample of safety training: 1) Overview of the extensive policies regarding when we can leave our sites and who we need to notify/get approval from for travel. Disobeying leave policies can be immediate terms for Administrative Separation (termination); 2) How to handle harassment (especially for women).

A sample of technical training: (it has been mostly an overview so far) the focus on this point is helping us to realize that our function in service will be to play many different roles. For instance, although we may think we are coming in as leaders to a community, many times we will be mentees to persona for crucial skills and cultural expectations. We will probably spend a majority of our first 6 months to year learning language intensely, learning how to interact effectively, learning who the key players in a community are, determining expressed needs of a community and developing a plan to facilitate the improvement/change in those areas. Leadership itself will consist less of dictating and more of facilitating a group toward the direction of a goal, brining out the skills and opinions of quieter members, locating local resources to accomplish a task, honing in on one agreed direction, or helping people to think more creatively by asking directional questions, instead of giving directives. Peace Corps adopted motto: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” We are going to teach, to build capacity, not march in and fix a problem for them, leave and leave them with no expanded knowledge base with which to solve future problems.