Oh, the things that become normal in World Race culture. Today when Christina, Derek and I were cooking supper at the church a monkey came in and sat on the window sill. As we all jumped up we noticed two baby monkeys pop up along side it. As Derek tried to scare the monkey away, it stood it’s ground and started getting angry back at Derek. It is so funny how these things (although comical and sometimes scary) have become something of a normal lifestyle to experience. Another example (which prompted me to write this blog) is how as I was laying on the floor on my sleeping pad reading a book, when Angelique told me there was a flying cockroach on my pillow. Instantly I jumped up and started looking for it. She told me it crawled away but I continued to shake my pillow and hope that it was not in my hair or did not crawl in my sleeping bag. Then it hit me. “Lay back down” I told myself. These bugs are now part of my daily life. It is so funny how back home I would freak out about the tiniest insect, but lately if I see a strange bug crawling on me I flick it off and don’t have a second thought about it. If any of you from home are reading this you are probably shocked to hear that, as many of you know my fear of bugs and insects (especially spiders) is ridiculous. Speaking of spiders, I think about the spider bite that I have on my leg which started to spread infection throughout my calf. How I went to a random doctor (who I think was a pharmacist) and allowed him to cut open the wound in order to get the poison out. In Canada I would have had a million questions and be very worried about the pain or the procedure. Instead, I looked around to see how sanitary the place was (looked good to me) and said “go for it,” as I lay on a table in the hallway of the pharmacy letting a man who I seems like he knows what he is doing poke me with an anesthetic needle and use tiny scissors to make four small cuts around my bite creating a disgusting looking hole. At that point anything was better than the pain of the infection. Things that would seem “normal” back home are now considered crazy and things that would be considered “crazy” back home are now becoming normal. This is only nearing the end of month 2…What is in store for the upcoming 9 months?!
