Here is Leslie's follow-up email to her Lenten Reflection:
So, after my Lenten email, someone pointed out... what DO I do all day, then??? Really... I sit around in my nightie and eat bon-bons! :0)
But, if I'm not doing that, then I am boiling water, eating breakfast, chasing Julia, boiling more water, taking a shower (or not), flushing the toilet (or not), getting Julia dressed (this takes well over an hour!), boiling more water, getting myself dressed, (it is now noon).
I usually go to town each day -- I should video the drive down the hill one time so you can really get the feel of it!!!! (For now just imagine a scary rollercoaster ride on old wooden tracks at one of those side-of-the-road fairs in Texas.) Anyways, I thought I was stressed when I had to grocery shop in the US... by the time I've been to the market and grocery store here, my hair is falling out and I have red lasers coming out of my eyes -- I am totally dehydrated, and if I swiped a cotton ball across my face, it would be covered in red dirt. (Multiply that by 2 if Julia is with me... she picks up whatever off the ground and usually puts it in her mouth...I do miss those handy little drive-around carts for kids in Wal-Mart!!! She does make little friends easily when we go to the market though!) So, shopping is tiresome, and because of power outages, I do need to shop almost every day for dinner b/c food will spoil if I stock the fridge.
So, Lucy gets a lunch time pick up from pre-school and we have rest-time/nap-time after lunch...during which time I boil more water and make bread of some sort or another. (No good bread options here in Kabale unless you're fond of eating cardboard.) Boil more water, then boil more water. (No hot water out of the tap, so we have to heat water for dishes, laundry, baths, etc...) I try to get dinner ready in the late afternoon, so that we can eat together soon after the big kids get home from school at 5pm. After dinner, it's bath time for the kids -- boil more water -- bed time for the kids by 8pm. Bedtime for me 8:10pm.
Ha!!! That's actually not too far off from the truth -- it's a different life than the one I had in the US; it's a slower pace for sure.... I think one of the hardest things is not having energy or motivation for much of anything in the evening. I'll leave you with the view from my kitchen sink, Lucy picked these flowers for me :0)
love, Leslie
