How my life has changed...

 

I am tanned.
My hands always smell like bleach.
I buy my produce from a person.
I buy my meat at joint I would have never stepped into back home.
Sweat...
My kids pretend to speak Swahili when they role play.
The call to prayer is my clock.
If I want hot water I have to boil it.
I can feel cold when it is 27 degrees. Weird, I know!
I home school my kids.
Explaining how one schools one's children at home is a daily event.
I am an employer.
Most my clothes have been made for me.
I clench my teeth often when I'm out. Processing about my surroundings.
Eat mango and pineapple everyday.
Spend my free minutes looking for school stuff online...not my favorite thing to do.
Half of the things I cook are a flop...I used to know how to cook.
Nairobi is my Regina.
I haven't baked cookies in 7 months.
Swallow a malaria pill once a week, and trick my 2 year into it too.
Haven't been in a Walmart for a long time. I'm good with that.
I bath instead of shower.
Water is used with thought
The wind is a gift from God.
I live with ants. Although it has gotten better in the last while. Still I'm always thinking, "Will the ants come if I leave this here?"
Our family can eat out for 8-10 dollars. Nice. I like that one.
Years of being told to drink my water...and I do now...without making myself.
I haven't driven in 7 months or more.
I rarely wear makeup(hard to apply on top of sweat) and my hair is always frizzy.
Can't throw food away like I used to.
Often don't know what anyone is saying. Smile and nod.
Sleeping under a heavy blanket has become my idea of a luxury.
My feet are NEVER cold. When they are (in Nairobi), it's heaven.
I live in a city.
I live in an apartment.
I know some Swahili. Some being, a little.
My kids drink soda...often.
Driving on the left side of the road is normal now.
Jon and I are falling asleep every night at 9:00pm or earlier.
I don't have a landline. i.e. I have a cell phone...of my own...that I know how to use.
I have a gas stove.
No drier for the laundry.
We do have a washing machine but most of the time our clothes are washed by hand.
My bath tube is in a different room from the toilet. Handy.
I sleep under a net.
I never wear pants.
Monkeys come visit us about once a week. No squirrels.
Most of my friends don't have an oven...nor would they want one.
I carry my two year old on my back with a piece of fabric knotted around my shoulders.
Most of people I know now have never seen snow.
That's all I can think of for now...

ps. I like a lot of these changes.