As my eyes pondered out the window of the taxi, I
realized the surrounding and life I have been experiencing have become normal -thought
I would share a bit of “normal life” with you.
Welcome to Africa!
You see chickens scurry back and forth in
the yard all day and then they end 
up running through your house.
As you are walking on the sidewalk you walk
through a herd of cows or goats eating grass (you try to pet them but then step
back and wonder if that is the best idea).
You see a six year old kid walking home
with a chicken under his arm (maybe it is dinner).
You carry around your headlamp at night just
in case the power goes out.
You get water from the well at 9am just so
you can have a morning bucket shower.
The toilet will no longer flush, so you
have to get buckets of water from the well to pour in and flush out.
You wear an outfit for three days, have a
bucket shower, and then put on the same outfit.
You forget when your last shower was or
when you brushed your teeth.
you try to set up a trap with peanut butter (no success yet).
person and yelled at from a distant “Mzungu (white person) how are you?” you
stop, give high fives, shake hands and give a smile.
K ids cry because they are scared of you (white
people are not normal here).
You have a fight with your mosquito net every
night (they make you very claustrophobic), then in the middle of the night you find
a cockroach inside your net and freak out.
You see woman carrying baskets of fruit or
20 litres of water on their head 
and you try to do the same but realize fast that
the average North American is just not as strong as the average African (it’s just
fact).
You go to use the public washroom; you look
inside the outhouse door, see a hole surrounded by brown coloured substance (you
can only imagine) and as you walk in you pray you do not fall as you are
squatting.
nailed to the tree and a chair waiting for its next customer to fill).
presented) but rather in cane form- sold off the back of bikes.
T o ride from one end of town t
o another you
jump on the back of a “Boda Boda” (which are bikes), it is only 20 shillings
(which is approximately 25 cents) but because we are white they try to take
advantage of us (but come on, we have been travelling for over six months, we
are smarter then that) .
What we would buy as an antique, they still
use (ie, A coal heated Iron, worn down pots, hand held beaters, etc)
Drinking out of a water bottle is Normal (I
mean who uses a drinking glass these days)
And no we do not have microwaves to reheat
our tea.
everyday a journey!
