Now that we’ve been here for a couple weeks I’d like to give you snapshot of what a typical day looks like for us.
6:30am: Wake up to Eleanor crawling into bed with us, followed shortly by Laurel. Eventually get out of bed to make coffee and start getting ready for the day.
8:00am: Coffee ingested, make breakfast in our outdoor kitchen, usually consisting of scrambled eggs and toast.
9:00am: Our Indonesian “helper” arrives. Matt and I work on our Indonesian homework while the girls play.
10:00am: Our Indonesian nanny arrives. We order a Grab car (like Uber) and say goodbye to the girls. In the car we spend a few minutes stumbling through introducing ourselves in Indonesian to the driver and asking about his life.
10:30am: Arrive at the Language School for class. Matt and I spend the next 2 hours with our Indonesian teacher learning Bahasa Indonesia. About 75% of the time is spent in Indonesian. We are picking it up quickly but not without its difficulties. We are introduced to about 50 new vocabulary words a class which means we spend a lot of time reviewing and memorizing for homework.
12:30pm: We walk home or order another Grab car to take us to a store if we need to run an errand. If we run errands we try and introduce ourselves in Indonesian to 2-3 new people and ask about their life. We feel like we are making complete fools of ourselves in front of these people, but they are so gracious to us as we try and learn their language.
Once we arrive home we eat a quick lunch of whatever the nanny has made. Usually some kind of chicken, rice and vegetable concoction. She is a phenomenal cook and it’s such a blessing to have lunch made for us when we return home each day from class.
2:30pm: By this time the nanny has gone home and the girls are anxious for our attention. They have been home for the last 3-4 hours with no one who speaks English.
I put Eleanor down for a nap and then Laurel and I work on some homeschooling. After that Laurel and I spend some time playing cards. Go Fish is her current favorite. After a couple games of cards I usually try and get an hour of homework done. During this time Matt works in his office on homework, catching up on Emails or working on a continuing education module. Our Indonesian “helper” goes home for the day.
4:00pm: Eleanor usually wakes up by this time. I let the girls either play or watch a movie while I do a little more homework then start to get dinner started. Preparing dinner usually means cooking outside on the gas range, though we now have a large toaster oven inside that we can use.
5:30pm: Dinner is ready and we eat in our un-airconditioned dining room. After cooking outside I’m usually a hot, sweaty mess. I’m hoping I’ll get used to the heat soon.
6:00pm: Once we’ve finished with dinner, Laurel helps wash the dishes and we retire to the den for some family time. Usually this involves some card playing, book reading or wrestling.
7:00pm We have family devotions and put the girls to bed.
7:30pm: Matt and I spend about a half an hour or so doing homework then we spend quality time together before bed.
10:00pm: By now we are exhausted from the day and we go to bed.
The next day we have to explain all of the above in Bahasa Indonesia as part of our language class.