Deadlines slowly kill me……

I was never one who did well with a deadline!  Not that I am not finished on time, not at all - quite the reverse!  My problem with a deadline is that I start immediately and finish way ahead of time and believe it or not, this is quite a problem out here in deep, dark and timeless Africa!

Let me paint a picture…..

The New Homeschool materials are all packed out and ready to go, but it is the first week of school holidays, which, by the way is 6 weeks long!!  I would like to start now and finish off all the new work, but I am the Teacher not the Student, although I do wonder about that sometimes!!  :)   I need to slow down and Wait….

I bake bread every day, yes, every day!  And for a bread to really turn out great you have to…..Wait!  If you don’t, well, then you will have Rock instead of nice fluffy white bread on your plate!  And I guess the same goes for growing children, hurry it up and try and get things done quickly and you have Rocks for brains and not nice and spongy grey matter!  :)

Living in Africa takes Time….yes, Time!  And not the watch kind either!  We grow stuff, we wait for the rains, we sit with the people!  Here, if you go and visit someone, you greet every single one present – no “Hi, you all!”  :)  If sick persons comes to my door, we first greet politely, then we wait politely and then wait a bit more and then out comes the problem.  Sometimes I walk back to the house (or run by that time, just because I need to Move!) and when I come back they tell me the next complaint!  Patience!! 

I always thought I was quite a people person, but living immersed in People-people, I found out I am not.  I may have been born and bred in Africa, but my European blood runs thicker than is comfortable! 

I realised yesterday, while packing out the new books, that I really need to Relax and Be.  Easier said than done!  I need to take a deep breath and enjoy the journey….but in writing that I actually don’t think clichés will help me at all!!  I need much more practical advice for myself!  Something like, sit with the women with no agenda and no hurry!  Don’t try and save time by baking cookies while explaining math to your son!  Don’t hurry through the great parts of the day – teaching and being with my boys!  Sigh……my (very early) New Year’s wish (typical of me to be early, is it not?) is that I would enjoy life to the fullest and not rush it to get things done!

Bella, and I don’t even own a watch!