A Typical Day

It’s 6:30 a.m. I know because the guinea hens and chicken are running across my tin roof once again. They come almost every morning, and even though I know it is them making the thunderous sound I can’t help but always feel initially uneasy.

Like most days I wanted to get up at 6 a.m. but I know I don’t have to get up, and so I lie in my bed, underneath my mosquito net, ignoring my watch, which beeps every five minutes. When I finally get up it is because the light is starting to really peak its way into my room. Most of the time it is because my stomach has started to turn a little and I must use the bathroom. Tearing the mosquito net from out under my mattress I slip on my flip-flops, search for my panya to wrap around me, and make my way to the bathroom.

I am lucky because I don’t have a latrine for my bathroom. I have a toilet, which I dump water down to force “things” down. I have running water that comes out of two sides of the wall. I keep a bucket under the side closest to the toilet, and the other end has a basin, which I use for showering. The mornings are often cold, and so I skip a shower. On occasion I will wash my feet and legs, and my face.

I check the bucket in my kitchen to see how much filtered and boiled water I have, and then I check the time. Normally I need about twenty minutes to boil a sizeable amount of water from the filter. Time permitting I boil water in the morning or throughout Friday and Saturday, when I don’t have class.

Water boiling on my gas stove, I unlock my front door, and put a rock up against it to prevent it from shutting all the way. Then I take to sweeping my house. The floors are made of cement, and I have resolved to know I will never ever get all the dust that blows into my house out.

When the water has made its way to a rolling boil, I set my stop watch and wait for three minutes. After it is finished I make sure my screen door is closed and I cut along the side of my house to my neighbors and saluer everyone—that is if my Mama has not come and done it first.

Around 7:30 I collect my belongings for teaching, and roll my bike out of my living room where it sleeps at night to avoid being stolen and wear and tear from the weather. I make my way over to say good bye to my neighbors, and then I set out on my ten minute bike ride to school.

I teach Monday through Thursday. I have class at 8 a.m. every morning, except for Mondays. The ride to school is not as scenic as other areas of Matéri, such as the pirage. I pass by the maket, which on Thursdays is booming with vendors from all the local villages, and Tangieuta. Past the market I pass by a group of zemijan drivers sitting around, I suppose waiting, not impatiently, for customers. Along a dirt road with bumps and patches of sandy drifts I ride my bike, dodging students on the right, who are walking close to the bush, on their way to the primary school, and the C.E.G., where I teach. I also make my way past students on their bicycles that by and large are to big for them. In some cases an extra student has mounted themselves on top of the metal piece above the back tire behind the main seat of the bicycle. Behind me I keep my ears a lot for motos. I can normally tell when a professor is behind me, because he won’t honk his horn at me, but wait for a good time to pass me. In front of me I also watch for motos and cars, although I normally only a see a few this early.

I teach two hour blocks. I never have more than three classes, and I have a three hour break in the middle of the day, repo. At school I try to always make time to saluer the administration after I finish locking up my bike to my tree, and before heading off to my class of 65 to 70 plus students.

During repo I spent my time at my neighbors, grading papers, reading a book, or playing with the puppies. We eat lunch, and typically a least one or two people wander in to saluer, sell, or ask for help from my Mama. She is like the mother of Matéri. She turns no one away and helps all those she can.

In the afternoons, if I am not teaching, I plan my lessons, write, read, or do house work, all the while listening to the mischievous children next door play with my neighbors children, who inevitably have work they should be doing, and when it isn’t don’t will prompt my Mama to yell at them when she gets home.

When my Mama arrives I collect my things and go sit over with her and the other family members. When night sets in and the electricity cuts on, a few students come into the concession to study under the light. Normally my Mama sets up her cot and falls in and out of sleep before she showers and eats dinner. Around 8 p.m. my sister Petra always watches the Italian soap opera on TV. Depending on work and fatigue I normally head to get ready for sleep around 8 or 9 p.m. I say I am going to bed, but normally I stay up reading, or talk to people in the States later on in the week.

I check my water again, to see if I need to filter some more, and I dump the boiled water from the morning into the bucket. I shower and nestle undet my mosquito net, with the lights out, except for my lamp that I switch off after I start dosing off uncontrollably.