Thursday, April 2, 2009

Neeley’s weekly schedule

We wrote out a day in the life a while back to let  you all know what it is like but since our schedules have drastically changed we thought we would do an update.  Here is our general schedule.

Sunday- WE LOVE Sunday!  We go to a small new (1 year old) expat church.  We really enjoy Shannon and Julie the couple who pastor it.  We have mentioned before what a blessing they are.  Then our favorite part.. We sometimes go to Le Lagon a resort that has amazing swimming pools!  You can go just for the price of a drink or appetizer from the pool snack area so we take full advantage of that!!

Monday-We meet at the YWAM base for worship in the mornings followed by our “community life” meetings keeping up with how our ministrys are going, how the base is running and all those details.  Pierce goes to preschool with out me on those days and I pick him up (by foot or what they call “Adams car” )right after preschool. The rest of the day gets filled fast with naps for the kids, and running to town by bus for groceries. We also have an intercession meeting at our house that we facilitate with other ywamers to plan our Thur Ywam intercession meeting.  We pray figure out what country to pray for the prayer points and some kind of creative display for it (ie posters with cut out photos, drawings, flags, maps etc..)

Tuesday- The kids and I go to preschool from 7:30 am till around 11 am.  Then the rest is pretty free.  Josh usually heads over to the YWAM base to sit in on the morning meeting and then run the construction/building crews currently working on bunk beds for the base.  We usually have half the village’s kids over to play and that keeps us on our toes!

Wednesday-Preschool again for the kids and I 7:30- 11am. Regular day with naps house cleaning, doing laundry by hand and having friends over to play.  Josh is back at the base most times to work with the construction guys again.  Dinner is at the YWAM base that night as mandatory for all staff so we can spend time together, even the familys that live off base.   

Thursday- In the morning we have Ywam base intercession that I head (Pierce goes to Preschool with out me) and staff meetings afterwards.  By lunch we are free and in the evening we have community meetings.  Usually either Josh or I stay home with the kids while the other goes as it is pretty late when it is over to have to walk the kids all the way home through the jungle.  We also try to have some one over for dinner before hand that night.

Friday-preschool is at my house that day and we give the other teacher the day off to do whatever. This is the day we get to watch a learning cartoon on our computer at our place and do a craft or something special.  Again Josh heads to the base to work on whatever needs work.  Last week Josh and 3 guys took the day to head out by local transport (the YWAM base has NO vehichles as the only one broke right before we got here.) to check on a water tank project that had been started to see what was left to do.  They will be taking a DTS team out over a weekend to finish that off.  The rest of the day is free for cleaning, chores, and runs into town.

Saturday- FREE DAY!! We usually start by catching  up on the house and the tons of laundry that needs to be washed as the hand washing is pretty time consuming.  Then we might go to town or relax around the house or whatever.  I am looking forward to the day we have income coming in as one of the first things we will do is hire some help with the laundry and the house.  It is only $10 a day for any washing or house help including watching kids!  We are thinking one or two day a week would really help lighten the laundry load and free up some time as well as support the locals!

We will be starting language classes 2 times a week for 2 hours at a time in the afternoons to learn Bishlama which will be great ! I feel a little crippled at school.  I have learned the basics like….sidown (sit down) staquite (quiet) and of course the basics like “nam blong yu?” (what is your name?) How mas ears yu got? (how old are you)  If you say the words out loud you can hear the similarity.  Bishlama is  a language based on the pigeon the traders came up with years ago so there are a lot of easy words and phrases.  It is pretty fun really!  The kids will pick it up in no time I am sure!

So we stay pretty busy and still have plenty of time for family and getting out.  Our schedule will change when Joshs job actually starts.  We think that will be in a few weeks.  And if all goes well with the adoption THINGS WILL DEFINETLY CHANGE as I plan on staying home for the first few weeks doing nothing so I can bond with baby and figure out all her or his needs (feeding? etc..)  That will be plenty overwhelming and we will need a little time to adjust.  Everyone at preschool and YWAM are aware of this so that helps. 

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