It might be easy to imagine me out ‘in the field’ (wherever that is), traveling in a 4×4 through the red-brown mud of rainy season and wearing a khaki utility vest (I have the vest, it has 14 pockets and 4 hooks – for what, I do not know). I do go out to visit people and projects and it is food for the soul and energy for the daily grind to see the transformation in people’s lives. But that’s really not what days are like, most of the time.
We had my in-laws visiting recently and a couple of times they said things along the lines of “people at home probably won’t think of your work being like this.” While there is rarely a typical day, here’s a snapshot from today, Monday 13th January.
6.00 am Alarm. Snooze. Alarm. Snooze.
6.20 am Jacqueline is up and Morven is in the bed now. Both are far more effective alarm clocks. I drag myself out of bed.
[Modesty Break – today is one of the mercifully less frequent days where I’m not in control of digestive rhythms. Par for the course.]
7.00 am At the breakfast table for a simple and hurried breakfast punctuated with the supervision of homework, packing of bags and application of sun cream. The sun cream is for the children, not me, a standard office day is usually lacking in Vitamin D.
7.45 am Kids into the car with the regular morning smells of sun cream, toothpaste and hair detangler (not that it helps this dad in doing anything competent with their hair). Jacqueline takes them to the school bus and nursery, I’d usually be dropped off en route but some household stuff meant a change of plan this morning.
8.10 am En route to the office now and a field paralegal calls to discuss two cases he is dealing with. Our head of legal is out of the office and has been since November, so this is not my usual role (what is?). Child abandonment and child sexual assault are the issues at hand and will, sadly, make up much of my work today.
8.15 am I’m at the office, just a little later than usual. Key in hand at my office door I remember I need to talk to one of our legal team. I’ve been helping a friend’s daughter navigate the process of getting support for her child from her former abusive partner. It’s not straightforward. We’ve yet to establish if they’re even legally married. The conversation goes on to arrangements to see the District Social Welfare Officer and Senior Magistrate on an initiative to address child sexual abuse. We discuss the earlier call with a colleague, bank deposits and petty cash.
8.45 am At the desk to write a statement into allegations of people trying to bribe judges who are due to rule on the election case. I’m a fairly active follower of Malawi news and this story broke over the weekend.
9.30 am A summons to our Executive Director’s office where he requests a statement on the bribery of judges. “It’s in your inbox”. Some discussions followed by edits at my desk.
10.45 am Back to my desk to research some upcoming applications. Deadlines for these come and go with peaks and troughs. Right now is a trough so it’s mostly research and planning.
12 noon Jacqueline picks me up. I hadn’t had home lunches since primary school and they’ve been a welcome addition to daily life. Thankfully Jacqueline’s lunchtime repertoire extends beyond meat paste sandwiches and a packet of cheese and onion Golden Wonder.
Conversation is curbed, however, by the sound of a torrential downpour on our tin roof. Instead of shouting at each other two cushions apart, our faces tell the story of disappointment at yet another packet of soggy biscuits from the supermarket. Morven naps through the whole affair and we bundle her semi-conscious back into the car.
2.00 pm a later arrival back to the office to allow for demonstrations to run their course in town. Today’s were peaceful protests over the system for the allocation of university places. This Thursday sees the return of the (usually more eventful) demos over the disputed election case.
Quite often I return from lunch to unplanned meetings. This can be a piece of paper on the desk that reads “Gary, please represent me at this meeting.” Only the meeting started 15 minutes ago. Or there was one time I was asked to greet some visitors. “When are they coming?” “Today” “At what time” “Now, they are in the carpark.”
Thankfully, today is not one of those days. I complete a report for people back home who have given gifts to support our gender based violence programme.
3.15 pm I’m not really sure where the day has gone. It did include a trip to the loo – hooray, the water is working today! I keep an emergency loo roll in my desk drawer (see Modesty Break above) not because the office can’t afford them, but because money is tight so a stockpile of loo roll is an investment we cant make when we may need the money for other things.
The office day is rounded off with tweaks to this morning’s statement, preparing a budget for a building project and checking in on scheduled activities for the week ahead.
4.55 pm The cavalry arrives. Usually, the girls knock on my door but since you need waders to navigate our car park just now Jacqueline calls me to say they’re here.
5.10 pm Home. The girls join Wiseman to ‘wash’ the car. Jacqueline’s preparing dinner and we catch up on the day while I stand in pantry grazing for appetisers.
5.45 pm Dinner is usually enjoyed together. It’s almost always together, the ‘enjoyed’ is dependent upon having power to cook, whether the children are eating or throwing their food and how energy levels have lasted the day. Tasty food and the kids ate enough to save us from accusations of child neglect. Success.
During dinner, I read out an email from a supporting church at home. I try to do this from time to time as it’s an encouragement to all of us to receive these messages.
6.45 pm Tag team. Jacqueline has Morven off to bed. I’m on spelling and reading with Eilidh, her handwriting is already better than mine. Then bed, without event.
8.15 pm I settle down to write this blog. Jacqueline is in work mode at the computer. This is also a time when I try and catch up on correspondence from home, tonight’s emails were mostly about our upcoming home visit in March. I should do more, but bed is calling.
10.30 pm I should have listened when bed called, but Netflix distracted me. Bed, I’m sorry, I’m here now. I will learn one day to listen to you.
An ‘average’ day, whatever that is. Like all of us it is interspersed with conversation, emails, things we remember to do and then forget again. I used to plan out my month and weeks in detail, living here, not so much.
Some days patterns of prayer are more defined. Today was one of those days that was hung on short prayers for wisdom, for patience, for clarity and of thanksgiving. Tomorrow, we’ll see…
Comments
Add Your CommentThank you for that, it gives a good idea about what your daily life is like
Very interesting as Jaqueline’s folks said “I didn’t realise you did that”!! It’s good to read what you are doing at work and more so what you are doing as a family. Is both enlightening and heartwarming to know you are doing things that will in time make a difference to children’s welfare in Malawi. Also the love and compassion you all as a family have is a credit to you. You can see from your many photos you post how much you all seem to be enjoying the experiences and lifestyle. I can tell you I feel both proud and humbled by the path you have chosen to tread. Keep up gods work, love dad xx
Thank you Gary for the insight into your day, different as each day will be. We can picture you a, which helps. We will continue to pray for you all and already look forward to your next blog. Hopefully see you in the spring.