A Typical Day for Me in Tamale

Along with Jim, I rise around 5:30 AM and make breakfast before he goes off to the hospital. This could be a choice of oatmeal (or Jim's preferred variation called "Tom Brown"), toast and an egg, French toast, pancakes, fruit, etc. Our oven is now "kaput" (temporarily, I hope), although the stove top burners and microwave are doing fine.
Activities of the day always include boiling a good supply of water and the somewhat lengthy preparation of other meals, often taking a taxi into town to do marketing, and sometimes washing a load or two of clothes in our little machine (which takes two hours and 15 minutes per cycle), then hanging it out to dry on the line in our backyard. There is also plenty of reading, trips to the bank, post office, library, and of course to COLWOD - mainly in order to say hi to the gals who work there and to check on the dress that Sylvia is making for me.
Fortunately, I like to cook and because the shopping and preparation involved take up a fair amount of time and effort, I decided not to volunteer teach in the schools during this particular stay.
Has anyone noticed that I haven't mentioned house cleaning? Except for the bare necessities - mainly keeping the kitchen and bathroom respectable - I do my best to get past what would bother me to no end in the US. Dust and dirt are ever-present (it will only get worse with the annual Harmattan wind approaching from the Sahara) and it's surprising how I manage to basically ignore it. For the time being, we do not have someone to clean regularly - which may and probably should change - but Jim has arranged for a small crew to come in periodically to get the job done.
Early to rise means early to bed as well. We choose not to have TV so no distractions there, but I do have my trusty iPad. Even without available wireless access, I'm able to re-charge it for my various books on Kindle and an occasional game of "Angry Birds."