That's Life!

(Written 1/12/11)

I know our blog posts have been a little less frequent lately. It's not because crazy/funny/different things aren't happening, I think it's just that we're getting a little more used to life in Africa, so that events that would have intitally boggled our minds take place, we just kindof shrug our shoulders at them, and say, "that's life!" Here's a list of things we've just gotten used too living in the middle of nowhere in Africa!

-Losing power 3-4 days a week
-Being approached by a complete stranger and asked to buy a duck or pig
-That cloudy weather means a not so hot day, but cold showers because our water is solar heated
-People just walking around with huge machetes
-Having to wait for a herd of cows to cross the road, then realizing that is a 10 year old boy who's in charge of them
-Trying to take evening vital signs before all the patients get in their bug nets, it makes it so much easier!
-Having a patient ask you to buy their phone minutes so that they can pay their hospital bill (which is $17 for 3 days)
-Seeing the crazy sized things they strap onto the back of their bicycles, including carrying a second, full-sized bicycle
-Having everyone know exactly where you are all the time, the nice part is that when we're looking for one of us, you can ask anyone where the white girls are, and they always know which direction they went
-Going to bed at 8:30pm because the power's out and there's nothing else to do
-Being told your "looking fat today" multiple times, and just smiling and shaking your head because you know they mean it as a compliment
-Finding rocks in our food, they blend in so well with the rice and beans...who doesn't want the extras minerals!
-People putting eggs, soda, chickens and pigs in the collection at church on sunday
-People cleaning their ears out with car keys...Per Fr. Jim, Toyota keys are the best!
-The village's "Drinking Water" is rain water that is collected off the roof into a huge tank
-Being told multiple times "Sorry about your rash" or to get medicated cream for the spots on our arms (a.k.a freckles!)
-Making sure that the door to our house is always locked, not to protect us from robbers, but to give us a break from the kids every once and a while
-Having 3 options for things to do in the evenings- read, play cards or sleep
-Having patients puke, and then rather than helping them clean it up, handing a the family a bucket and kanga and let them take care of it
-Trying to translate conversations off of the 1 out of every 8 words we understood in Swahili
-Recognizing people by their clothes rather than their faces because they don't change them that often!