A New Rhythm: Settling into Madisi (Friday 6/5)

As my days become more repetitive, I have less to write about! The regular morning routine of Paul waking me and taking a bucket bath resumed as normal. He walked me to work where I proceeded to do more generating and reviewing for Math Club. This time around we listened to a podcast on Roswell and Area 51 which was interesting to listen to. Who knows how much the government is truly telling us? 

With work being very repetitive, tea time came before we knew it! The regular mandazi, milk + tea, and hard boiled eggs filled our stomachs well. After our morning meals we’ve been instructed to take zinc pills that dissolve underneath our tongues. We’re told they help a lot with overall health and considering I enjoy being healthy, I make sure to take it everyday! They have a yummy citrus taste but suck all of the water out of your mouth which is always an odd feeling. I learned the previous days to not take a zinc pill on an empty stomach as it makes your stomach cramp! After popping the zinc pill, it was time for more work. 

At this point, I’m decently fast at generating and reviewing content which leaves me time to work on my original project and document how to work a router. It’s both fun and difficult to make guides for such things as using technology is all very natural and innate to me, but for most who haven’t had a deep technological background, it can be very difficult. All this means for me is that I need to be very deliberate and considerate with how I write out my instructions. 

Lunchtime came and went where we ate rice, chicken, cabbage, a spicy sauce, and pineapple. The pineapple was fantastically sweet and I got a large chicken breast as my piece! It was honestly the most meat I’ve had in one sitting this entire trip! Since the chickens here are simply grown in the backyard, they aren’t pumped full of steroids and genetically perfected to be massive like in America! 

Promptly after lunch it was back to the regular Math Club work (are you guys tired of reading me write this as much as I am doing it?!). I finished quickly to help Henry learn the process that Eli, Miraclin, and I have become masters at. Funny enough, his digital literacy skills were less than expected and it took him a while to get a hang of the generating and reviewing process (I think he’s got it pretty good now).

Being mentally exhausted from all of the computer work, I laid down on a nearby couch (very different from our couches, it’s more like a bench with cushions) and talked with everyone that was finishing up their tasks. To get our blood moving from all the sitting we decided to go on a walk to the nearby village where we enjoyed the beautiful weather and saw tons of cool insects! 

We got to say hi to many people walking by as well! Turns out that today was the last day of school for everyone at the local secondary school. The students get a one month holiday before resuming their work in July. When I spoke with a teacher in Bukimau, I learned that students really only get one holiday in the summer. Compared to the multitude of breaks we get in the US, I’m extremely grateful to say the least. Even though school is technically out, many students stay to study for their national exams or to simply catch up on content they missed during the year. 

After getting back from our walk and connecting to WiFi, I found out from Paul that Michael would be staying with us for the weekend which meant I would have a roommate! I was also informed that today was the day I would learn how to do my laundry. When I walked down to his house, I was told by Paul to go get soap and got the only soap I had; Dove body soap. To preface, I asked Jonathan, my only contact to VST, if I should bring laundry soap, his response was, “great question, but no”. Therefore I brought no laundry soap. When I came out with my body soap, Paul began to teach me how to wash a pair of pants. Before we got very far, everyone started laughing. To my embarrassment, it was because of my choice of soap. You don’t use body soap for clothes (obviously). Thankfully, I was given a bar of laundry soap which could’ve been avoided if I was simply told to bring some!

Nevertheless, the process involves two buckets of water: one for soap and washing, the other for rinsing out the clothes. For every piece of clothing, you ensure it’s inside-out and completely submerged in the soap bucket. Once wet, you take your bar of soap and scrub the clothes well. After the soap is applied, you scrub with your hands to work the soap in and clean the clothing. For shirts you focus on the cuffs and collars (as taught to me by Andrew) and for the pants you focus on everything. Socks and underwear are small and easy to wash! The entire process is physically easy but extremely time consuming. 

For three dress shirts, two pairs of pants, a pair of shorts, and a good lot of socks and underwear it took me an hour and a half (I purposely wore the least amount of clothes possible to avoid doing a ton of laundry). I also started at around 5:00pm which meant by the time I finished washing, it was nearly dark outside. Very different than chucking some clothes into the machine and waiting for it to ding at you!

The second hardest part of washing clothes is finding a good place to hang them to dry. I found putting my clothes on hangers and hanging them up in random spots in my room to work well to avoid the risk of hanging them outside and getting drenched once more by the rain. 

After completing the entire process, I am extremely grateful for the machines we have in the US. I cannot begin to imagine how long it would take me to do a “regular” load of laundry (back at Mines this would be a week and a half of new outfits everyday and then some). I also can’t fathom the habits I would have as a child (and still now honestly) where I would wear a shirt for only a moment before taking it off and putting it in the dirty laundry hamper; you would never do that here! Regardless, I was glad to be finished and went back to the office to find Michael working on his schoolwork. 

We proceeded to go to dinner together and eat ugali, beans, and cabbage once again made by the three women. Their cooking is fantastic! We went back to the office where Michael resumed our work and waited for Luka to come and take us to Paul’s house. Even though I could easily transport Michael to Paul’s house, it is customary for guests to be walked to their house to make sure they don’t get lost! When Luka arrived we went to Paul’s house where Paul was gone once again. I brought Michael to my room but there was no mattress (taken out on an earlier day). Michael was content with sleeping on the wooden bedframe but I insisted we ask an adult if we could borrow a mattress. Thankfully we found one for him! Afterwards, we got settled, talked some, and he went to bed! I of course stayed up for a little while longer to blog before I too hit the hay!