The Time Exchange

[Editor's Note:  this post was started and left unfinished numerous times this past week]

 

Fall has finally arrived to stay.  We are firing up the wood stove more regularly. The rains are coming more frequently.  And sitting between the sea and the mountains we have an interesting view of the weather from our living room window.   Mountains make clouds do some pretty spectacular things.  As a girl who grew up on the prairie with nary a foothill in sight, living now in this continent's 2nd most mountainous country I never tire of the mountain views and find their effects on the weather fascinating. 

With the cooler temps, more frequent precipitation and shorter daylight hours, it all makes for more time indoors.  And that life just doesn't generate much blog content. 

 

Then there is this strange reality where the further we withdraw from "civilization", the longer it seems to take us to accomplish daily tasks.  We were told in pre-field training that someone actually coined a term for it called the "time exchange."

 

Hanging clothes on the line (instead of using a dryer), washing dishes by hand in the sink and drying them (instead of loading a dishwasher), cooking all of our meals from scratch instead of buying some easy-to-make meals for particularly busy days, and then re-orienting our schedule due to things like say, the electricity going out (because it seems the slightest breeze and drop of rain seems to short out our lines -- that's happening more frequently now that it's autumn)!

To give an example, we began our day with school this morning, then paused when our electricity came back on to scramble and wash dishes (the power had gone out before supper last night and our sink was FULL!), make lunch, did more dishes, and everything else one needs to do when you have electricity AND internet working at the same time!

 

On top of all that, this is the time when we work to sell all of the inventory the women in our village business project have been making all year.  It's one of my favorite things here, but also a bit intense because it's concentrated in such a short period of time.

My brain is mush trying to create some semblance of a system for what we call Village Knits. For some reason I thought I should improve over a bunch of random papers stapled together with hand written notes. Monday we were blessed to have the opportunity to sell to employees at the US Embassy (sorry, no cameras allowed). Then I threw up a post on Facebook and had some wonderfully supportive friends in the States share the post and buy some scarves...  Today I'm meeting with the knitters to give them their first paycheck since last winter.  My brain is mush.  Printing tags, pricing inventory. Two currencies.  Paypal, Cash, Three knitters.  Loans from Cydil and Nathan for yarn purchases.  A petty cash bag.  Yeah.  My brain is mush keeping it all straight.  Thank goodness for Excel.

 

Except when Excel loses three days' worth of work -- maybe due to one of those power outages?  I about wanted to cry.

 

Nathan and I regularly ask ourselves where the time has gone, and could be doing something differently to be more effective in our work here.

But here's something that clears my mind:  hikes up the hill to visit friends (last Sunday).

Seeing their canvas proudly hanging on their wall...

Sharing tea, munching on peanuts and crackers, swapping news stories...

 

Today (Sunday) we got to visit two homes I've been longing to visit for ages and I got to hold 4 month old baby Gladiola (yes, like the flower!).  You can tell it, but she's laying on a board with that cute blanket wrapped around her quite tight.  When her mama handed her to me, it wasn't unlike passing a platter... with a baby on it!  I could feel her little arms and legs squirming inside!  When you don't have a pack-n-play, bumbo, or bouncy chair, you make do!

 

 

So all that to say, we are still alive, staying busy, and programs are going strong!  I hope it's not so long before my next post!