A Day in a Life

Some people have asked me why I don't update my blog anymore. I too started to wonder where my time actually vanishes. So one day, I decided that I will record down every single little thing that I do. I tried to write down everything faithfully, but there were many occasions that I just simply forgot -- especially when two or more people were in my office at the same time. In addition, many emails were not accounted for. That day I had an article deadline approaching, so I tried to focus on writing that article. In addition, I was in the process of finishing a grant application.

This is a story of a one normal day in my life.

• 7:00 My alarm goes off.
• 7:06 My alarm goes off again.
• 7:12 My alarm goes off and I get up.
• 7:15 Breakfast.
• 7:28 Shower.
• 7:30 My driver beeps me that he has arrived. I'm not even close to being ready.
  
• 7:48 I get to the car.
• 8:08 I arrive at university.
  
• 8:09 I was supposed to meet the deputy provost in the morning, but I see him walking towards the lecture halls: so no meeting this morning.
• 8:10 At my office door one of our IT lecturers complain that he's got headache: I give him painkillers.
• 8:12 I begin editing the article.
• 8:28 A students comes in to bring his late homework.
• 8:31 Two students come in to talk about their presentations today afternoon.
• 8:55 Students leave.
• 8:56 Class representative comes and asks me if we can switch C language quiz to be given Wednesday because he's in Dar es Salaam Tuesday.
• 8:58 Back to writing the article...
• 9:01 A colleague from Theology department SMS:s me, asking about who she should contact about a computer problem. I send two numbers to her.
  
• 9:04 A student brings in another try on his failed homework; I check it.
• 9:06 I head to the main building in order to meet the provost concerning a number of things: a work certificate for a teacher, a research permit, a published joint article, and some other things.
• 9:16 In front of the provost's office cashier stops me and asks me to come in to collect two cheques.
• 9:25 I see the provost, but he's with the bishop and a member of parliament, and we decide to meet at 11:00.
• 9:27 Back to my office, and back to the article...
• 9:30 I set my phone to silent mode so that I can work.
  
• 9:40 A colleague comes in to have a chat about our research project; I show her a book on syllabus design.
• 9:47 First-year students come in to borrow our department's digital camera.
• 9:49 I prepare and print out a borrowing list for the digital camera.
  
• 9:51 First-year students come and sign off the digital camera.
• 9:52 I can see that Global Outreach has called me twice. But I'm talking to my colleague so I decide to call them back right after the meeting.
  
• 10:02 I decide with my colleague that when I meet the provost, we will continue with administering our questionnaire. She sees that I'm a bit busy and decides to print the questionnaire somewhere else than on my printer.
• 10:03 Back to writing the article...
• 10:05 An email arrives from the Finnish embassy: they need my contact information: I start filling up the form.
• 10:14 Another student comes in to show his homework; we check it together and I help him with some corrections.
• 10:15 I send my information file to the Finnish embassy.
• 10:17 I grade, in Moodle, the homeworks of those students who popped by this morning
• 10:21 One student comes in and complains that he can't log on to Moodle. (He has forgot his password. I reset the password.)
• 10:23 Back to the article...
• 10:27 Student comes in to tell that "Moodle works again".
• 10:28 Back to the article...
• 10:37 The article I'm writing reminds me about another great topic for an article: I email my colleague about it.
• 10:40 Back to the article...
• 10:59 My phone reminds me to go and see the provost; I head towards his office.
• 11:15 I'm still waiting for the provost; he has gone somewhere.
• 11:16 I see the provost again, and the bishop and high-ranking party official give a go-ahead for our meeting. We have a nice chat and make some decisions about future plans.
• 11:45 Back to my office; back to the article...
• 11:46 An Indian colleague comes to tell me that his wife is coming to teach in our program from February on.
• 11:50 A Spanish colleague comes to pick up his work certificate.
• 11:53 With the Spanish colleague we sign 23 students' course certificates.
• 12:00 Spanish colleague tells me that he's interested in coming to teach at Tumaini: we have a half an hour chat about the possible ways of organizing that.
  
• 12:28 I visit another colleague to inform her about what we decided with the provost.
• 12:30 We agree that our data collection is going to get complicated and decide to go out to university park for a talk over a snack.
  
• 12:55 We can't figure out the best way to continue with the data collection, so we call a Tanzanian colleague about if we can meet him for advice.
• 13:05 Tanzanian colleague invites us to meet him already today at his house at 17:00.
• 13:11 Back to my office: back to the article...
• 14:15 Still working with the article (One hour of uninterrupted work!)
• 14:16 Somebody is ringing the bell at the main building. I get a bad hunch about today's 14:30 student presentations...
• 14:25 Students come to my office and ask me if the class is canceled due to a visit by a member of parliament to Tumaini. Quite soon I give up and cancel the class. At least, if my students are listening to the MP, I can focus on my article.
• 14:27 Global Outreach calls about missing field trip reports; I feel bad for forgetting about the missed calls.
  
• 14:28 I post to Moodle a template for field trip reports.
• 14:29 Our dean comes to my office and says that I should come to listen to the MP. I try to decline, but he gently forces me to come.
• 14:32 I pop into my colleague's office and tell her that she should come and see the occasion.
• 14:33 I arrive at the venue: nobody's there yet.
• 14:40 My colleague also arrives: we're almost the only people in.
• 15:10 Finally the occasion begins. And of course it's in Swahili and about a thing that doesn't concern me at all.
  
• 15:15 I notice that I'm standing at such a central place that I can't leave now.
• 15:55 After 40 minutes of talks in Swahili I decide to leave even if it's a breach of protocol.
• 15:56 Back to my office again: I send my colleague the unfinished article and ask if she can figure out a way to salvage it.
• 15:57 I open my ethnographic notes and write down a couple of paragraphs about my observations today.
• 16:16 I write email to SPSS's Kenyan office in order to ask if they've already sent me my copy of SPSS.
• 16:17 I write a colleague at Finland that students will receive their certificates by snail mail very soon.
• 16:18 I begin to read and edit a colleague's proposal for a nationwide competition on students' community development projects.
• 16:40 My colleague's husband comes to pick us up and take us to our Tanzanian colleague's home.
• 17:02 We meet our Tanzanian colleague and plan data collection procedures.
• 17:40 Back to home; my colleague's husband dropped me to my house.
• 17:42 The housekeeper has left so I heat up my food: beans and salad today.
• 17:55 I open my computer while eating, and surf information about my grant application
• 18:15 I read the news in Finland.
• 20:05 Skypeing back home to Finland.
  
• 20:30 Finish Skypeing, continue with the grant application.
• 22:00 I read international news.
• 22:25 Back to the grant application.
• 23:05 Close down the computer and get to bed.
• 23:15 zzzZZZ

I think that this story tells not only about my life, but also about why I don't answer all my emails. I still have the time to read every email, though!