Welcome to the day in the life of a Peace Corps South Africa volunteer. I didn't originally intend to film a voiceover for this, but it's just how it worked out. Not going to lie, I feel pretty awkward, but we're just going to go with it.

My morning starts usually between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. Not because I voluntarily wake up at that time, but because I go to bed so early, because I live such an exciting life, that that's just when my body actually wakes up. So here I am, over to my door, because that's what I do in the morning, and I'm greeted by Ginger, my dog. Oh, she's so cute. And her boyfriend, Obie, who she's currently dating, whose real name I think is Bumba or something, but Obie's way cuter.

I have tons of chores to do in the morning because that's just how village life is. So here I am emptying my dirty water from the night before. Dirty water includes water that I used to cook with, the water that I bathe with, and probably a little bit of pee, too. I'm not going to lie.

Basically all the water that you and I previously would have flushed down a drain. Now I'm cleaning out the bucket that I bathe in, so that it's nice and clean for my bath tonight. And I'm going to go set that out to dry.

By this point it's already getting hot, that's just Africa for you, hot all the time. And I'm going to brush my teeth, not that exciting, also kind of gross. So I'm pretty sure I'm only going to show you one second of this. And yes, I do brush my teeth outside. I do everything outside.

And now I'm trying to make some tea, or coffee depending on how much sleep I got the night before and how tired I am. And you will never be more aware of how much water you use then when you have to walk outside every time you want some.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I make my bed every morning. Old habits die hard, am I right? And I look good doing it. Oh, and there's Gingie. She always comes in to take a little nap in her corner. That's the only corner she's allowed in. Just kidding, she jumps on my bed all the time without asking. And then I pick out an outfit. Ooh, what is she going to wear today. No, not that one. Not cute. Keep going.

All right, once I'm dressed, I'm using that water that you just saw me boil to make some tea, yummy. Time to get breakfast started. So I plug in my hot plate, put on a pan, and toast some bread. I don't have a toaster, so I have to toast all my bread like this.

I'm making some cinnamon sugar toast. Thank you Shelby for introducing me to this two years ago. Just toast butter, cinnamon, sugar, pretty delicious. Normally I eat four, but for the sake of filming, I just made one.

I like to eat my breakfast, and drink my tea while watching Too Cute. Aww, too cute. If you've never seen Too Cute, I highly recommend it. It's basically a coming of age story of kittens and puppies. It's flipping adorable. So I lock up my stuff, get my stuff together, head out, and the dogs follow me everywhere I go. But that's nice, it's like having friends, I imagine. Show up at work, say hi to everyone-- oh, hi-- and head to my desk.

Oh, look, Morgan changed outfits. The original day I was filming my day in the life there was a lot of construction going on in our offices. So I decided to come back the next day and refilm. I like to use my mornings to catch up on any work. So right now I'm filling out my VRF, volunteer reporting form, that I have to do quarterly to report what projects I'm doing in the community. I also use this time to help my supervisor apply for grants, and I plan projects, plan out my week, stuff like that.

At around 10:00 I head to the Crèche which is the preschool that I work at. I do a literacy program here a couple of times a week. Here are my adorable, cute little kids. They're so cute. I'm obsessed. And by now, I'm gross, so I just wanted to show you what I look like by 10:00.

This is the literacy program I do. It's called Souns, S-O-U-N-S. And it basically helps children with literacy, reading, and writing by using the sounds the letters make, versus the names of the actual letters. I love this program. I raved about it in many a blog post. I highly recommend that you check it out, especially if you have a young one at home you want to help with literacy, and even remedial literacy for older children. It's my favorite program and I've seen so much progress in the kids.

After I do an hour or so at the Crèche I'm heading to the middle school. I was invited to an event where they were starting an STI awareness club, which is awesome.

[NON-ENGLISH CALL AND RESPONSE]

Normally, I eat lunch at home, but today, since I traveled to the middle school for the event, I decided to pick up some lunch at one of my favorite little restaurants in my village. I got a kota, which looks like this, and my cameraman got some chicken chakalaka and pap, which is a very traditional South African meal.

After lunch, I headed to a different primary school in our community because we were doing a handwashing lesson, teaching the kids about germs and health. Now, this is just one example of something that I would do in the afternoons. At different points in my service I'm doing different activities, like GRS, Zosi, Brothers for Life. Just depends really where I'm at, and what I'm trying to teach the kids, and what's needed in my community.

One thing I love about Peace Corps and the health program specifically is that you get to really cater your service around, not just what the community needs, but also what you have interest in. And I love working with kids, so I've catered my service to that. Which is why I'm always doing activities with primary school and middle school kids, whereas other volunteers might be working with adults in the community, for instance.

After the handwashing lesson, we handed out mother bears. Mother Bear is an amazing organization in America that uses volunteers to hand crochet small teddy bears that are then sent for free to children in Africa, and usually distributed by Peace Corps volunteers. I wanted to freeze frame this hug right here because my cameraman turned off the camera right as it was ending. Here are the kids leaving the school at the end of the day with their teddy bears in hand. Aww, so cute.

After work I usually spend an hour or so just straight chilling like a villain. But that's not interesting, so we're going to cut to yoga. I do yoga almost every day. I actually hurt my wrist really bad, so if you will notice when I do different poses, I have to do them on my fist. Sometimes I run in the afternoons, but I'm actually coming off a fractured ankle. So I'm still getting back into running shape.

I have to burn my trash in my trash pit. There's no South African trash service, at least not in the rural communities. So for my pyromaniac friends out there, here's some burning trash.

If you notice when I was doing yoga, there were a ton of dirty dishes sitting on the ledge. So here I am contemplating whether I want to do them, which the answer is always no. Just kidding, I did them eventually.

And it's time for dinner. I'm just making some pasta because my cooking skills are quite limited. I don't normally eat this much pasta. I made some for the cameraman as well. Pasta is really hot after you make it, so I cool it off in front of the fan. I didn't show eating my pasta because I think we all know what that looks like, but this is me getting ready to bathe.

I'm pretty sure how I bathe is the most asked question I get, so here you go. To wash my hair, I go outside and I wash it in the spigot. I don't use conditioner, and I also only wash my hair once a week probably. So if you want luscious locks like mine, that's what I recommend. Once a week daily, no conditioner, and outside in a bucket. Hairstylists are going to kill me.

To wash my body, I fill my bucket up with water and put it on the towel. I start by washing my face, and then I use my washcloth to get my body wet, or pretend to. Washcloth is your best friend when you're bucket bathing. And then, put soap on my body, and use the washcloth to take the soap off. Start with the top, then I do the legs, and then I do my private areas and my feet, and there you go.

After bucket bathing, I get ready for bed. And I just hang out, and I watch stuff on my computer, not using Wi-Fi. I don't have Wi-Fi. I use shows passed around by volunteers on external hard drives.

And I usually spend this time texting people in the States because my nighttime is their daytime and that's when they're all awake. And I just chill and hang out, relax, relaxing all cool. I also use this time to talk on the phone to my boyfriend because being in a long distance relationship, or as I like to call ours a medium distance relationship, is difficult.

Now it's time for bed, putting all my stuff on my chair, taking off my glasses, and getting into bed. I'm sure you do it the same way in the States. Just kidding, I know you do. Well, I am off to sleep, and I'm going to do it all again tomorrow.

Anyway, thank you so much for watching. If you want to know more about Peace Corps, I suggest you check out my blog and subscribe and all that jazz. Thank you so much to Alex for filming this and I will talk to you guys later.