the daily grind.

my daily schedule in africa thus far has been more or less the following: 

4 a.m.: wake up feeling chipper and alive, realize it's before dawn, start feeling not-so-alive.

4:23 a.m.: start hating everything. okay, mostly just jet lag. 

5:15 a.m.: get out of bed, eat something, talk to my peeps out west. 

5:45 a.m.: return to bed, attempt to sleep.

6:45 a.m.: get out of bed for real.

7:05 a.m.: feed tiny little african babies tons of porridge [read: attempt to feed tiny little african babies tons of porridge without getting more of it in your hair than in their mouths]

7:55 a.m.: hang out with these cuties: 

8:45 a.m.: get vomited on. return to house to shower.

9:15 a.m.: collapse in exhaustion due to lack of sleep... only to realize you have twelve dime-size mosquito bites on your legs. dream [read: nightmare] of malaria.

1:00 p.m.: go somewhere cool (village, etc.), meet incredible people and more darling orphans/foster kids, take loads of pictures.

5:00 p.m.: go to local cafe for life-saving essentials--coke and real internet access.

8:24 p.m.: hang out with cool european roommates and learn fun facts about brussels and cool new british words like "scrum" and "hair bobble."

9:15 p.m.: collapse in exhaustion under mosquito net.

11:55 p.m.: wake up to realize your head has somehow escaped the rest of the mosquito net. fall back asleep.

and, repeat.

can i just say that those little orphan eyes and smiles and laughs make it worth it a hundred times over, though? well yeah, they do.