Adjusting to Our New Normal.

A couple of weeks ago we hosted our very first short-term mission team from the States.  It was a lot of fun and it blessed us beyond words.  The team came and worked very, very hard to complete projects in our homes and on our compound…projects that we haven’t had any spare time for.  They also spent a lot of time just hanging out with us.  Almost every day, Blaise and I were so blessed to get to spend time just sitting in our living room sharing stories, struggles, testimonies, and triumphs with individuals from the team.  The team also got to do some really cool community outreach in a nearby village.

It was also really interesting because with them here, I realized just how much I’ve adjusted to life in Nasir.  Things I once would have wrinkled my nose at are now an almost-daily part of my life.

Here are the things that I really noticed…

• We eat food with bugs in it, because it’s too time consuming to pick them all out.  Mostly we just eat weevils, but sometimes other things fly in there, too, and we just keep on eating.  
• I use towels a bit longer than I probably should before washing them, because a load of laundry takes a lot of time and energy (and towels are the hardest to scrub and wring out).  
• I use the long-drop without even noticing the smell, and I’ve even resorted to using a cho bucket in the house because it’s too much of a hassle to get dressed and traipse across the compound in the middle of the night.  
• We have whole, albeit limited, conversations in Nuer, and mostly understand what the people are trying to tell us and mostly communicate our thoughts.  
• I get cold at night and have to use a comforter on my bed in order to sleep comfortably. 
• I get a little upset when no one in our neighborhood is burning cow poop in the evening, because I know that the bugs will be worse that night.
• I eat fresh bread and Ethiopian food from the market without even hesitating to think of the sanitary conditions in which the food was prepared.
• I drink unfiltered water offered to me by friends when I visit their homes, because it would be rude not to drink it.  I just whisper a little prayer of protection before drinking, and then enjoy.
• I know the names of nearly all of our neighbors, as well as several people on the way to the market and several vendors in the market.  
• We cheer on bats and lizards as they work hard to catch bugs…just a few less than we have to deal with!
• I don’t even offer my American name to people anymore, because they’ll actually remember and be able to pronounce my Nuer name, NyaMouc.
• I am completely desensitized to seeing breasts out in public.
• We talk about poop over almost every single meal that we eat together as a team.  I don’t know why, but it always comes up in conversation.
• Every time someone tells a story, I assume that it’s really a parable and they are actually trying to indirectly give me advice.
• Whenever someone yells “SNAKE!” I come running with my camera…never mind that I have no idea what kind it is, never mind that it could be poisonous, and never mind that I’m defenseless.
• I get REALLY excited about restocking supplies like Ketchup and Doom.

Smoking a snake out of the hut…