A Day in the Life of Saskia Whitelock on the 21st September 2011
6.15am
· Wake up 45minutes before the alarm
· Try to go back to sleep and ignore the full bladder
6.30am
· Give up sleeping
· Go toilet and sanitise hands afterwards
6.38am
· Get changed, take anti-malaria tablet, make bed, and tie up mosquito net
6.45am
· Make pikelets for breakfast- with bananas because we actually have ripe ones this time
7am
· Eat breakfast with or without spreads (spreads: peanut butter, nutella, jam or marmite)
· Have breakfast with a cup of lemon leaf tea with a teaspoon of sugar
7.15am
· Brush teeth and wash face
· Read Word For Today
· Lie on bed and waste time
7.30am
· Read book and go over what my plan is for my subjects I’m teaching today (I’ve already planned these weeks lessons in the weekend)
8am
· School starts
· Raising of the Vanuatu flag, notices, daily devotions (sing Rejoice in The Lord and Trust in The Lord and read bible verse)
· English lesson
10am
· Break time
· No more classes for me now as I don’t have to teach Maths today
· Read books, write letters to family and friends back home, talk to Georgia, mark school work, hand-wash clothes
12pm
· Start thinking about what to make for lunch. Today it is manioc, cabbage, and susut soup/stew
· Take iron tablet
· Peel and cut manioc, cut cabbage and susut
12.30pm
· Boil manioc and susut, add cabbage after a while of boiling and add beef stock cube
12.45pm
· Taste test
· Add more salt
· Add mixed herbs and a wee bit of curry powder to add a bit of taste
1pm
· Eat lunch with a drink of water
· Read books and write in journal
· Organise and rearrange school library into alphabetical order and non-fiction/fiction sections
2.30pm
· Teach my class how to play rugby and play the ship game
3pm
· School finishes
· Turn phone on and walk to get reception and check for text messages
4pm
· Socialise with Anna and Rinah (fellow teachers) and with some of the local kids
· Make a list of things that you can do with bananas.
4.30pm
· Start boiling water on the fire for swims (buckets of water to tip over your head- a.k.a showers)
5pm
· Prepare food for dinner
· Tonight it is manioc, kumala, and taro soup with cabbage
· Additions are: vegetable stock cube, garlic and her salt, and cumin
· Should be a gudfala kai-kai
5.15pm
· Finish boiling water and put the food on the fire to be cooked
5.30pm
· Have swim (shower) and watch out for Sally the Spider who lives in our shower hut
5.45pm
· Get changed and put more wood on the fire
6pm
· Light candles and get out head torch because it is almost pitch black
· Finish cooking meal and add final touches to the taste of the final product
6.15pm
· Kai-kai time! Have dinner with a cup of water
· Eat bananas for dessert
7pm
· Have a chat with Georgia over a cup of lemon leaf tea
7.30pm
· Wash face with water and flannel and do teeth
7.40pm
· Go toilet in the long drop which is a 100m walk from the house
7.45pm
· Talk with Georgia about: Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Kangaroos, Emus and other animals in Australia, songs that we have stuck in our heads, and teachers from old schools
· Throw rocks at Larry the Lizard’s albino cousin, Alby, or Albert as he is formally known
8.30pm
· Go to my adopted family’s house and have some kava and storian (tell stories)
9pm
· Write in my journal for the day
· Blow out candle
· Go to bed!