On Being First Float

Well my lucky two weeks. It just so happens that if you are 1st float on a week that’s not Alb week, you will most likely be mopping almost every day. Now that’s not so bad if you didn’t have to do most of the mopping the week before. Out of the last 14 days, I have mopped 10 of them. Needless to say I was happy to hand the mop and pail over to the next person. My next complaint about my 1st float week was that I had to be KA for 2.5 days and Head Cook for another half. Oh well. C’est la vie.

First float does a lot of floating.  It has a few daily and weekly jobs but not too many. If someone has a whole day off, first float has to take their job. If there are 2 people off (whole or half day) then first float gets to choose which job they foist on to second float.

My Week Looked Like This:

                          morning       afternoon
Tuesday.         1st float.        Girls.
Wednesday.    1st float.       OFF!
Thursday.        1st float         KA.
Friday.              KA.                 KA.
Saturday.         KA.                 KA.
Sunday.            1st float.        Girls.
Monday.           1st float.        Head Cook.



This all happened July 2-July 8, 2019.

A Day in the Life Head Cook

There is this confusing thing that goes on here. On a normal morning 1st float mops the dining room, kitchen and bathroom floors. If there is one girl off in the morning, then second float does it and if there are 2 off then the kitchen girls do it. So if you happen to be head Cook on Alb Week* like I was, then you will probably be mopping almost every day.

I have this problem where I like to make fancy food. So this week was quite busy for me. Thankfully I had food in the freezer from my nights week, and I had help sometimes. Otherwise IDK if we ever would have eaten on time. Another kind of stressful thing was that the Alb unit was here on Saturday and Sunday. But the guys did all my wiping chairs with Clorox wipes and sweeping so that part wasn’t stressful.

Most Saturday mornings the kitchen girls go to Market with 1st Nurs Teacher. (Market is 2 long rows of stalls in the hot heat and sandy sand where they sell jewelry, blankets, pottery, food, trash, and whatnot all.) This Saturday Papa’s were gone so I had to monitor a visit besides making company lunch, so I didn’t go. And when Papa left I must have looked like the most convenient person around, so he got me to be the foreman on the job the Alb guys were supposed to do. Busy morning it was. But then in the evening we got to play ball and do other crazy stuff (double down the hill on the wiggle cars anyone?).

So what head cook does is: get some sort of protein or grain on the table for breakfast, and then protein and grain for lunch and supper. And make sure to do one whole grain a day. We get refunded for 3 meals a day, so everything has to be documented meticulously. Then there are a bunch of weekly jobs to do. I was not bored. Bored of being in the kitchen yes but not bored as in not knowing what to do.

*Alb week ~the week one girls leaves and another comes. It happens on one day, and 3 girls and Papas are gone all day, which makes home crazy for the day. So we order pizza for supper. Actually it makes the whole week crazy.

BTW my cook week was 6/25/19 - 7/01/19

On Crazy Life

On Crazy Life






SCHEDULE
0600 playtime in the small playroom
0800 breakfast
0830 play outside
1200 lunch
1230 outside again
1500 snack
1530 bath time and play in the gym
1800 supper
1830 small playroom with no toys
1900 devotions
1930 bedtime




While most of the works out there start their new week on Sunday morning, our weeks start on Monday evening, kicked off by a staff mtg. Staff mtgs don’t take too long and can be quite hilarious and informal. Sometimes we tell the new girl that we wear tie downs to staff mtg but that usually ends quite quickly cuz we don’t really feel like wearing them if we don’t have to. One of the most interesting things about staff mtg is Papa’s stories. He usually receives a pinch from Mama or has us all in stitches. Or both. Tuesday’s we all start on our new jobs which I’ll explain a bit later. The days largely go the same. Two girls watch the kids all the time (check the playduty schedule on the fridge for tomorrow!) About 2 days a week we set up the pools and the kids go swimming in the afternoon. On Saturday the kids get to go on outings which is a big highlights for them. The big kids get to go bowling or rollerblading or hiking or whatever 1st and 2nd float girls decided to do and then the younger ones get to go play in McDonald’s while the teachers with them order snack for  everybody (think upwards of $60 for 30-35 people). Sunday morning at 1000 most of the kids assemble around the dining room table for Sunday School. Church starts in the chapel off the gym around 1030. Our services consist of a few songs by everybody, a verse and songs by the Sunday School kids, a message or talk by Papa or who ever dares to visit over Sunday, and a few songs by the teachers. By 1145 the button down shirt clad boys and dress clad girls are running off the steam built up from sitting in church while the kitchen girls scurry to get a fancy Sunday dinner on.  Sunday evening we have an early kids’ supper (1730) and when the kids are finally sleeping we have our own staff supper and party. Monday is our last day on our weekly cleaning jobs and we quickly try to finish the cleaning and whatever we should have done earlier in the week. And then our weeks are back where they started. Monday night staff meeting.



JOBS

Second Nursery children ages 1.5ish to 2ish.              
     A lot of girls claim their favourite job is 2nd Nursery. It’s not mine. You’re trying to get all their teeth brushed and some of them are off stuffing socks in the humidifier. You’re trying to get them all food and invariably one of them leaves half their meal on the floor. On paper, 2nd Nursery doesn’t have much to do. Brush teeth twice a day, naps in the morning, play duty, and put them to bed. But these kids are mighty. They may be small, but they’re mighty.

First Nursery
1st Nursery is stuck way down the hall where there isn’t super much action until the babies are sleeping. Basically you try to keep all your kids happy. When I first wrote this we had one baby. Now we have four, including a newborn. 1st Nurs is the only job that has set breaks. 1030-1145 and 1500-1530

Night Duty
Night duty is very much what it sounds like. I have a recent post called “A Night in the Life” you can refer to for more info.

Kitchen Assistant
One thing I can say, KA is my least favourite job. All you do is dishes. And make a fruit (remember to do dishes) and veggie for every (dishes!) meal. And do dishes and water flowers and do dishes and go to bed. Oh and set miles of table. And give 1st Nurs afternoon break.

Head Cook
This is not my favourite job either. Maybe because I tried to make too many extravagant meals. Do not do this. You will get no sleep. You supply a protein and grain for everyone at every meal and a whole grain once a day. Lots of cleaning. But all I have to do is write stuff on the list and Papas will go shopping or Papa will  order it online for me. Head cook will get a post all to itself in the coming days.

Boys and Laundry
Take care of boys and do laundry. And playduty. And first nursery break. More coming soon.

Girls and Cleaning
Try to keep track of the girls, a bunch of cleaning, playduty, repeat.

1st, 2nd, 3rd Float
Take over for girls who have off, vacuum and mop every day, drive school kids, helps with home work, do play duty. They do what they sound like they do. They float.

Random Happiness and Ramblings

Little Things

•Voices I hear that I haven’t heard for a while
•Friends who come to see me
•Much needed sleep
•These people down here
•Faxes from Mom\Dad\Sisters\Brother
\Friends
•Kindness, unexpected
•Soft little babies to cuddle even when you need to put them down and they don’t want to be put down
•Awake kids who keep you company on long nights
•Playing crazy things with the 6 oldest kids
•Deliciousness (Reece’s anyone?)
•’Wuv oo’s’
•Obedience
•God
•Life
•Cheesy grins
•When little A finally closes his eyes and sleeps
•Accomplishments that I’ve been wanting to accomplish for many days

This makes me think of the song we used to sing so much that I got super sick of it.
“Where would I rather be on this beautiful day than in the house of God to sing and pray?!”

Usually we interpret the “house of God” to mean church, and “sing and pray” we take literally. But today I’m thinking that the “house of God” is wherever I am living for Him. If it’s just living my normal Christian Life, or teaching or helping needy people, or taking care of rejected, neglected children. If we are serving Him where He wants us to be then we are in the “house of God on this beautiful day.” Singing and praying can still be taken literally because that’s what we do on a daily, even hourly basis. But it can also be our other actions. Maybe it was the meal that was cooked, or the hug that was given, or the wave that was waved, or the word that was said. In a sense we are singing and praying to God if we do these things how God wants us to.
“God’s spirit hovering, so divinely pure, around His chosen ones who are gathered there”.

A Night in the Life

A Night in The Life

Night Duty

•The only 1 of 25+ people awake all night

•official shift starts at 2200 ends at 0715

•checks every half hour from 2200 to 0600

•cleans 7 bathrooms every night 

•does the kitchen laundry

There you have it. That’s night duty. Oh. You want more. Ok. I can do that. 

2200 it’s the beginning of my shift. My bathrooms are already all cleaned and the kids have been (mostly) sleeping since 2000. I put our newest child (Kareena, 4months) back in her crib on my first night check. A bunch of our staff have been offf partying since early evening so I’ve been first nurse teacher since 1630. Kareena did not want to be put down after she fell asleep so she’s been held most of the evening. 

2330 The partiers are backs and most everyone has gone back to bed. A few stragglers roam around finding food and water and showing visiting family members around, but for the most part I’m some. Kressida (7mo) wakes up so I fix her the bottle she is sure to want. Meanwhile Jessie (1yr) starts crying and wakes up the other two girls in second nursery. Despite all being awake at once they’re all sleeping again pretty soon and I head back down the long hall to my station in the dining room. 

0145 it’s been pretty quiet for the last 2 hrs. Tony 3 yr old Alice came crying to the dining room but entry right back to sleep when I took her back to to bed. Kitchen laundry is done and folded. 

0330 I seem to have picked the quietest night to write about.  Last night Jessie was crying every 7 minutes and I was trying to get frauds stuff done in the kitchen. The night before Landon was standing silently by the kitchen door every 10 minutes from 0200-0400 and I’d jump every time I walked out of the kitchen door. That 10 minutes isn’t even an exaggeration unless I had just been sitting by his bed for 20 minutes.  Then he’s wait maybe 15 minutes before coming to the kitchen. But now that I’ve just talked about what a quiet night it’s been it’ll probably get crazy. Only 1 of the 3 first nursery babies has been up yet so I might hear a few wails from there pretty soon

0400 the continuous “Rockabye Baby” that comes over the minutes from 1st and 2nd nursery is interrupted by a fuss. Finally someone awake to make my night a bit more interesting. I fix Alexander a bottle but he refuses to go back to sleep in the bright living room. His wife black eyes drink in everything of this room that he doesn’t get to see very often. It’s nice to have company so I hold him awhile before I put him back in his crib. Soon Karinnah wakes up and seems to think it’s morning. 

0445 ahhh yes my night is turning out interesting after all. Karinnah is still awake. Avril has climbed out of her crib and it’s no use putting her back as she’ll either climb out again or wake the other kids. Or both. 

I do my 5 o’clock check with a baby in one arm and a 3 yr old clinging to my other hand. Seeing as it’s 5 the early rising kids can at last get out of bed. At least 1 or 2 come out of every room. Including Kressida from first nurse. Back in the living room I have a baby on the floor surrounded by 4 or 5 admirers, a baby in my arms, and someone waking up every few minutes. 

Finally, after my 0530 check, I take everyone to the playroom where there isn’t so much to get into. I anxiously await 0600 when the play duty girls come down, and hope they might be a few minutes early. A dozen of our 16 kids are sleepily roaming around the playroom, also hoping the playduty girls will be down early so they can get out the toys. One of the babies is sleeping on my lap (I don’t understand how, with all the noise and commotion) and the other one is communicating quite loudly that she wants her morning bottle. Usually only 5 or 6 of the kids are up before 6 so things ere getting a bit out of hand. 

Finally at 0600 I can escape the ruckus and hand the big kids over to the 2 sleepy girls who aren’t very happy that they have to do early play duty again. Once I have the first nursery babies settled back down I turn to second nurse to comb and dress the 3 girls in there. 

0630 is not my best time when I’ve been up all night as Avril found out. After second nurse are ready for the day and herded back into the playroom I return to first nursery. There again I get those 3 ready for the day and then I try not to fall asleep til the first nursery teacher takes over at 0715. Papa has it figured out that it’s pretty hard to stay awake those last 45 minutes in 1st nursery so he usually shows up around 0700 to make sure I don’t sleep too much. 

0715 My official shift is over. Back in the dining room I finish up the diaries I had started just before things got busy. Every night I have to write a few words about how each child slept. Next on my list is breakfast (or is it supper?) and then I fall into bed between 0730 and 0800. 

That’s just one night. Most nights I found something to do in the kitchen to keep me from being bored and falling asleep. I fear I was a bit too ambitious there. A few nights I didn’t do much for fear that a new kids would be up every 2 minutes but mostly they slept through the night. Two night one of my friends staying up with me until 1 o’clock which was very much appreciated. And another highlight was the night Landon slept til after 0600 instead of his normal 0430.  And Pardon the lateness. My night duty week started June 10th with my last night being the 16th. I was happy to be done but I did like the solitude. 

Om Fireworks and Split Personalities

July 4

We sat up on those rocks together 

Not much disturbance, just me and her

Both of us awed by the situation

The dark sky exploding with man’s creation

Her eyes full of wonder, she uttered exclamations,

As she waited and watched in anticipation

Of the booming, the splendour, the smoke, the sparks 

That were man’s creations, blowing up, leaving their marks

For me a different awe of disturbance and sadness 

How does pollution and smoke fill one with gladness?

The brightness and haze eliminated my view 

Of the stars and the moon in that great vastness of blue

Which one of us was correct? I wondered, 

As man’s amazing creation covered up God’s splendour

She sat there excited; I sat there in shame.

But her and I, we’re one and the same.