I, Erin, stopped for a moment to enjoy the beauty of this flower in our front yard. Then it struck me: it’s December. Everything inside of me wants to reject this truth. If it is December, than it should be cold, all the sights and sounds should suggest the Holidays are coming, and flowers such as these definately should not be blooming. This is just another example of how life as we previously knew it is different here.
I know we are in a different country, I know there are only
two seasons (dry and rainy), and I know there are many other differences. But I am still surprised by the new things we
encounter. Just yesterday John looked
out our back window to see a new animal in the back yard, a chicken had
appeared. Our backyard is a small area surrounded
on ALL SIDES by walls at least 30 feet high.
How did this chicken arrive in our backyard? A few months ago we had a similar incident
with a cat. We still don’t know how that
happened; thankfully a friend carried the cat out. This chicken on the other hand belongs to someone,
but to who we do not know. Caedmon and I
tried asking people in the houses behind us.
At one, which houses a small restaurant, the lady said they
did have chickens. This was only after I
clarified live chickens, not chicken to eat; it was a restaurant after
all. She said something about someone
coming to see, but as no one stopped by last night I am sure I misunderstood
her. For all I know she didn’t
understand me as I tried to explain the unexpected presence of a chicken in my
backyard.
Often I feel we are adapting well to this new culture, yet at
other times all of the differences seem very evident. Right now we have no idea what to do with
this chicken. Thankfully we have more
insight than that for most of daily living here, but there is still a lot of adjusting
to be done and definitely how to adjust in some areas is still uncertain. One specific area is schedules. Our neighbors are often outside when we are
inside eating or getting ready for the day.
To what degree do we adjust and to what degree do we work with what we
are use to. As we learn language and
culture we would like to become as much like this culture as possible to better
relate to people here. Yet we are still learning
that balance as we cannot completely shed our own culture which is so deeply
ingrained in us.
Please be thinking of us as we continue to adjust.
