Our typical schedule is as
follows…
Wake up at 5am to read, study,
and exercise. The boys are up about
6:30 but have to stay in their room until 7am.
The we shower, get dressed, and eat breakfast. Caedmon and I try to start school by
8:30. We have lunch around 12p, quiet
play time for an hour or so in the afternoon, which consists of the boys playing in
their room… alone, no friends. Then
dinner 6-6:30ish. The boys shower about
7pm and are in bed usually by 8pm.
Recently I changed our big meal to the middle of the day, at lunch
time. Many of our neighbors are outside more often
in the late afternoon. I, Erin, felt I
was missing out on a lot of time with people as I would go inside to prep for
dinner about that time. Though it still
seems weird to me, eating something easy such as sandwiches, ramen, or
left-overs for dinner, it has enabled me to spend more time outside with people
in the afternoon.
Regardless of the changes, our
schedules are still very different from the people we live among. The first loud speaker call happens between
4:30 and 5am. We thankfully, often sleep
through it. Though most people go back
to sleep afterwards, they are up well before 7am. Children start school by 7:30 and the loud
speaker occasionally makes public awareness announcements in the morning, sometimes before 7am (these consist of recent deaths, baby well checks at the local
clinic, and school enrollment dates). By
the evening loud speaker call (6pm-ish) most neighbors go inside. Kids and some adults are back outside
about 8pm-ish.
Though we are interact a great deal with people amidst the differing schedules, it has caught me off guard many times recently; compounded by other cultural differences as well! At least twice in the past week, kids were at
our front door looking for the boys before 8am.
On Tuesday morning, a national holiday so no school, it wasn’t even 7am when they arrived! I still struggle with how to politely get
them to leave. After telling the
children Caedmon and Whitman cannot play they often continue to call the
boys’ names from our yard. In the afternoon,
during quiet play time, it is even more difficult as the kids then move to the
boys’ bedroom window, at the front of the house, and peer in the window,
occasionally opening the screens. After
repeating that the boys are ‘resting’ and will play later, I then proceed to close the curtains.
 |
| Onlookers while Caedmon studies. They remained, quiet, at the window for at least a half hour. |
One evening a couple neighbor
kids came to our door at 8pm as the boys where climbing into bed. We politely informed then the boys were headed to bed, but maybe they could play tomorrow. Thankfully the boys are rarely distracted by
the laughing and talking of kids outside at night.
All of these experiences are full of cultural
lessons for us; specifically the difference in concern for adult direction, the
difference in personal space, and the difference in schedules!
 |
| Kids that came to visit. Most of these live 15minutes by foot from us. The boy on the far left is a neighbor. He is very helpful, constantly picking up toys after he is finished playing with them, even when Caedmon and Whitman don't. He seems to be a bit of an anomaly in his culture! |
