New Normals

I have had quite a few moments lately where I take a step back from whatever I am doing and think, “Wow, I can’t believe this is just normal already”.  Here are some examples of things that are now normal and a part of our everyday life:

1.     Scanning for scorpions and cockroaches when we enter the pit latrine. I walk in, scan the room completely and then enter if there is nothing with multiple legs staring at me, and then go about my business. And, while we’re at it, using a pit latrine in general has become normal, surprisingly. Funny how we adjust :).

The "squatty" latrine. We peek in first and look around before committing to walking all the way in 

A huge cockroach in the corner of the latrine

2.     Cold showers. I thought this would be a hard adjustment, but I actually REALLY look forward to a cold shower at the end of a very hot day. It’s a huge blessing!

A portion of our walk to the office

3.     Walking to office to be able to get on the Internet. We have access to wireless Internet, but it is not located where our house is, we have to walk to the shared office to get online. This is less than a 5-minute walk away from our team house, but far enough that you cannot access it from our compound. Since the Internet is not accessible from our compound, we only check it 1-2 times a day. We are getting used to this, but it has made us realize how frequently we checked e-mail, Facebook, etc. when we were in the States.

4.     Throwing rocks at goats (and yelling at them in a high pitched voice).  Goats here have free roam of any land. They get on our porch and eat our flowers/ crops. Therefore, anytime we see them, we do what we need to do to get them to go away! :)

A goat eating plants on our compound. 

      5.     Explaining to children that our names are not “white man” (kawaja). Anytime kids see us coming down the road in a car or a bike, they start yelling, “Kawaja, Kawaja!!” They even have a song about a white chief of the church that they sing every time they see us. We are trying to learn enough of the local languages to say, “My name is not Kawaja, it is _____”.

      6.     Smelling bad ALL of the time. Okay, maybe I’m not used to this yet, but it is true. We reek constantly. The good news is that we all smell so bad that you can’t smell the other people’s BO because your own is strong… haha. It is so hot here that you feel fresh for about 45 minutes after showing and then you sweat so badly that you’re back to reeking again.

7.     Being able to identify multiple types of animal poop to know what rodents have been in our house. I was worried for a while that we had loads of mice in our house, but learned that the doo doo that I have been sweeping up is from a lizard, not a mouse. That was a relief :).

8.     Ants in the kitchen {and your pants}. If you leave even a speck of food on a sponge, the ants will congregate ALL over the sponge and the sink. We are still getting used to cleaning the cleaning utensils thoroughly so that the ants will stay away. Also, since our clothes are line-dried now, I constantly feel like I have ants in my pants and in my clothes. I’ve gotten used to feeling itchy all the time (and shaking things well before putting them on).

9.     Saying, “Wow, it’s a hot one!” EVERY SINGLE DAY. This comes of out my mouth so often! Haha. I’m trying to catch myself before I say it and realize that every day is a hot one, but it never ceases to amaze me how stinkin’ hot it is here (and we’re not in the hottest time of the year yet… yikes!). 

10.  Hand washing my underwear. We have someone who washes our clothes since it is labor-intensive and time consuming, but I wash my own underwear. It’s not difficult, but I’m finding that you appreciate clean underwear so much more when you have to take the time to wash it yourself! This also means that we are getting used to having clothes lines outside and make-shift ones inside for when it rains and you have to make the mad-dash to grab your clothes from outside and let them finish drying inside.

Although some of these adjustments have been difficult, I’m so grateful for God’s grace in the midst of all of our changes. He has been gentle and kind and has been constantly reminding me that He has made us strong enough for this and that it will be easier. Praise the Lord that He teaches us to adapt and adjust! We serve a great God!