Picture and Thoughts

I know it's been a long time since I've posted any pictures ... over a month really. So here's one. Sometimes I get in artistic moods with my camera when I'm either bored or in need of a little distraction. As you can see the other day I was in an artistic mood with my camera.

It's kinda interesting because back home I'd take pictures all the time, be they of people or places or (when in more artistic moods) anything from random people walking to squirrels to light fixtures. In part I don't take as many because I know people here tend to be skeptical as to why you're taking pictures and so they may not want you to take pictures of them or their children or their homes or their businesses or whatever else if they do not know you. Too many people coming over and taking pictures and then using them to fundraise for their own profit can create a little understandable skepticism.

You'd think though that since I'm in Africa, though, I'd be interested in taking pictures of everything because everything is SO different than back in the States. The funny thing though is that after a while things don't seem different. I've heard it said that when you go overseas you should take as many pictures as possible the first two weeks because after 2 weeks everything different starts to seem normal. And it's true.

At first it's incredible to see people pushing hundreds of pounds of bananas cross-country on a bicycle, to see ladies carrying anything and everything on top of their heads, to see babies strapped on their moms' backs with a wrap of cloth, to see little kids playing soccer with a ball made out of plastic bags in dirt streets with no shoes. But then that becomes every day, and it's only a matter of time before what you see every day is just what's normal.

What's interesting though is that as the "bizarre" of your new expatriate home becomes "normal", the "normal" of the land of your birth becomes unbelievable. You get to the point where you wonder, "Did I really used to live somewhere where all of the streets were paved? What was it like to never have to worry about your power being out or your water not running?" And you can't remember what it was like not to have to go to the open air market, to be able to drink Dr Pepper on demand, to not have cows and goats roaming freely in your neighborhood, to have a choice of restaurants with things like hamburgers and pizza and tacos and barbecue on the menu (and to actually be able to order ANYTHING on the menu, not just what they happen to have that day).

All of a sudden you not only can't remember how different things were back home, but you can't hardly imagine that somewhere could be so different. "Home" no longer seems like home at times, and you begin to realize that going back "home" might really be as big an adjustment and adventure as coming to live in another country was in the first place. And I've only been here for 7 months. I can't hardly imagine what it'll be like come next October.