A typical day

A couple people have asked about my typical day here in South Sudan...

6:30 Hit snooze
6:35 Dress in my “uniform” of a long skirt and colorful blouse and run to the latrine.
6:40 Brush teeth and put on eye make-up. Prep for devotions if it is my turn to lead
7:00 Attend devotions with my SIM teammates
7:30 Eat a breakfast of oatmeal
7:52 Power-walk to the clinic
8:00 Attend/lead clinic staff devotions—right now we are going through the Gospel of Matthew. Many of our South Sudan believing friends do not have the concept/see the value of reading the Bible on their own. This is a valuable time for all of us studying the Word together.
9:00 Begin care for patients
10:30ish (Or anytime through the course of the clinic day) rush back to the compound storeroom for medications we are running out of in the clinic
2:30ish Walk back to my tukul for a lunch of bread and peanut butter or Ramen noodle soup and a carrot (if I’ve been so fortunate to have some flown out of the recent charter flight).
3:10ish Return to the clinic to continue patient care and supervision of Community Health Workers
5:30ish Finish work at the clinic, settle the inpatients in for the evening
6:00ish Begin cooking dinner. This year I’m blessed to have a small gas stove so this process usually takes less than an hour compared to 1 ½ hour last year using charcoal.
7:00 Share the meal and debrief about the day’s events and patients with my dear friend and teammate Karissa
8:00 Check online Sudan news, email and facebook
9:00 If on-call, go to the clinic to check on overnight patients, IVs, administer medications and pray with them
9:55 Take my malaria prophylaxis medication and brush teeth.
10:00 Remove the remarkable amount of sweat and grime I’ve collected in the course of the day, with a bucket of cool water, while looking up at the stars through the Neem tree over the shower enclosure.
10:30ish Crawl under the mosquito net, talk to God and read His Words to me
10:50ish Sleep!

If on-call (every 3rd or 4th night and every third weekend) there is always the possibility of the guard waking me to go to the clinic for an emergency or an IV that needs attention. Many days are not typical--but this gives you an idea of how things go when they are routine and there aren't any "fires" to put out.