Waking up by about 6AM every day (even weekends), I am generally able to play a little Badminton to start off my day, then often I have breakfast on my own, taken at a local tea shop/restaurant. Breakfast is usually some mohinga (noodles in a sauce with green beans, cilantro, crispy soy, onion, and some other ingredients that I have yet to figure out!) or coconut noodles.
Some days I am looking for something sweet, like roti (fried bread with sweet condensed milk and sugar), but in any case, breakfast is always accompanied by some green tea (though it is usually pale brown in color, with a light flavor) or Burmese tea (http://www.thenatureactive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/myanmar-tea-cup.jpg), which is a dark, strong tea usually accompanied by sweet condensed milk and sugar.
Thankfully, I have finally learned (just today) how to ask in Burmese for tea with only evaporated milk and no sugar, so that I can attempt to cut down on my sugar and fat intake. Attempting to exclude sugar and fat here to any degree is a challenge, but most people think that it is particularly strange to drink Burmese tea without both the sweet condensed milk AND sugar - sickeningly sweet in most cases.
Before school started up again, I spent many mornings at the internet shop checking my email and seeing what all of you were up to on Facebook. I have recently been lucky enough to stream NPR news as well, which has been so nice - and something that I really missed while I was in Tanzania.
Now that school has begun again though, I usually can't check email until late morning, or after lunch, because of my 9AM class. Though I will say that having only 2-3 hours in front of the computer a day - or less - has been a welcome change.
If I am not at the internet shop in the late morning, I am grading homework, preparing for class or the weekly quiz for my classes. Lunch is at about 11:30AM or noon. I am so fortunate that a family that my colleague knows from her work with resettled Burmese refugees in Arizona has relatives here who have taken charge of our daily lunches and dinners. They are fabulous cooks and I generally look forward to a variety of delicious Burmese food every day. Vegetables are actually a part of the Burmese diet, which is another welcome change from the carb-laden food available in Tanzania.
Lunch, and sometimes dinner, is also sometimes an impromptu Burmese lesson as the mother speaks no English and her daughter only a bit. Some days are easy, but others are a struggle to understand both meaning and context of questions and answers about the U.S., Burma, or just life in Nupoh.
After lunch is usually spent preparing for class and then showering before my students arrive about 2:45pm for my first afternoon class. Occasionally, this time also includes a 30 minute nap, depending on the heat and how much food my 'host mom' has managed to convince me to eat at lunch.
The afternoon is class time, which ends at 5:30pm. If I haven't visited the internet shop that day, then I may pass by there at this time. Otherwise, I will correct homework or lesson plan for the next day before dinner at about 6:30pm or 7pm.
My other free time in Nupho may be spent having a meal hosted by a student's family or taking walks around the camp visiting students or others that I have met here. Most free time is spent in tea shops though, chatting about what is happening in Nupho, about Burmese or U.S. culture or politics, or maybe commenting on the random American wrestling match on TV in the shop.
All in all, it is a pretty "quiet" life here. Though with animals making noise at all hours; the various places of worship chanting, singing, or calling people to prayer at almost every hour of the day; or just groups of children playing (never quietly) throughout the camp, it is never actually "quiet" in Nupho.
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