An Unusually Usual Day

  I get asked what happens in a day here.  I have written a usual day schedule before, so I thought I would add in the unique things I experience.  Please note: do not feel offended if you read this and are from St. Vincent.  These just happen to be friends I have here and because of some of the unique circumstances here this happens, but does not necessarily reflect everyone here.  This could happen in any part of the world, and so this just happens to happen often to me here.

   Most days I get up early with the kids and about 7:15 am there is a knock on the door and in walks 2 of our little friends.  Adonal's mom works early and drops him off for preschool early.  Aaron, big 8 year old brother wants to tag along, but I tell him only preschoolers early or we would have a houseful.  Another neighbor's kids want to hang out early too, so I have to explain only preschoolers.

At 7:45 we head over to preschool and even though it does not start until 8:30, it is not unusual to have 6 extra kids wanting to play early while I prep.  During this time one of the ladies in the community often stops by to ask for some clothes, items for her baby, etc.  It is our family policy not to give money, and we try to discern needs and help with a job if possible.  Since we get asked for a lot, this is not always possible.

In between the times of preschool, I always have at least one parent asking for extra help as finances are hard here.  Most of our parents have multiple children, living in one of the poorer areas here, and have only one parent providing for the children.   There are lots of needs and the longer we live here, we see we can't help everyone but can help through a good start preschool education, breakfast if needed, snack each day, and lots of love and learning to love God each morning at preschool.

After preschool, most days at least 1-2 children are not picked up by their parents.  Public transportation has been hard to get, a younger sibling made it hard for them to make it, and I am a sucker for excuses.  So, typically lunch at my house and nap time has extra friends involved.

These are just a few extra things I deal with on a daily basis.  A glimpse into our lives as missionaries.  By no means, does this happen with every person who lives here, but these are situations that we do deal with and could deal with anywhere.  Knowing how to help, when to help, and not enabling is always a big prayer.

And then there are just super fun days where we get to go on a super fun trip to the airport!  It only took 4 teachers, 2 drivers, and 20 kids to make a super fun day!