So although I don't have a "typical" day, I will attempt to give you all an idea of what most my days have been like here. The alarm wakes me up at around 6:00 AM when it's starting to get sunny and the birds are talking noisily outside. I set my electric kettle on and go about getting myself ready for the day, most of which involves deciding whether the day will be wet or dry. When water is ready, I enjoy my exotic breakfast of tea and oatmeal. Since work starts at 7:00, I leave my house around 10 past and walk the 15 minutes up the hill to my health center. Typically I am trailed by a dozen children headed in the same direction, passing the outdoors butchery, water pump, and the two primary schools. At work, I either wait around for another 10 minutes for my counterpart to show up, or I go to the morning prayer with the rest of the health center staff. After a few songs, I get my daily assignment from the 'tutilere' or hospital administrator, one of the local Presbyterian sisters. I then go and spend the next five hours, shadowing and listening to the nurses and patients speaking in kinyarwanda. At the ARV building I watch the nurse filling ARV and Bactrim prescriptions, sometimes trying to answer when she asks which med the form says. PMTCT, or Prevention of Mother to Child transmission, pregnant women are registered, weighed, get their blood pressure taken as I write down the numbers, get blood taken for their HIV test, and then get a basic check-up of how the baby is doing. Spending the day with my counter part involves a lot of sitting at a desk making a monthly plan, riding a moto to a cooperative, or watching a savings and lendings group hold a meeting. At noon, the health center grinds to a halt and everyone goes for lunch and break until sometime between 2 and 2:30. If I'm lucky enough to be visiting a cooperative or a health workers' training, this break is skipped over and they talk straight through.
The second half of the day, involves a lot of sitting around, watching nurses write reports and chat with each other. I'm not sure I have yet to see a patient past 1:00. Everything just seems to peter out. Work ends anywhere from 3:00 to 5:00 and I head back home, again accompanied by a procession of little bodies. Most days require a quick stop to the market or a store to pick up veggies from my Mama at the market, bread, or the like. I still get the shouts and people watching me intently, but not as much now. Then, it's back home to hang out and enjoy time to myself. When I am feeling adventurous, I will bring a notebook out to the guard house step and sit outside, watching people pass and trying not to be too uncomfortable by the stares and whispers. Around 6:00 it's starting to get dark so I head back inside, light my kerosene stove and set rice or something to boil while I chop veggies on my kitchen table. Most nights involve some sort of stir-fry, followed by dessert of chocolate. As dinner typically takes at least an hour and a half to prepare, it's getting close to 8 by the time I am finished, just enough time to relax writing, listening to music, reading, or watching an episode or two of How I Met Your Mother. A couple hours of doing nothing in particular, and it's time to head to bed to start it all over again the next day.
