I am sitting in the house listening to the gates clank as the watchmen come to work, and watching a brilliant display of colors as the sun sets for the day. How ordinary, yet extraordinary at the same time?!
I have been here in this place for about 15 months, and the day of my return home for a visit is rapidly approaching. In looking back on the past year, I am so amazed! I see the joys, the challenges, the sorrows, the excitement, the ordinary, the extraordinary, and I wonder how I am supposed to capture all of it and carry it with me.
There is an expected and unexpected component to everyday. For example, I wake up in the morning. That is expected :) I walk to the clinic and see people bathing in the "river". That is expected. I hear gunshots in the night. That is an expected yet unexpected component. You see the cattle are a valuable and coveted commodity, and so it is common to have cattle raids as one tribe attempts to take another tribe's cattle. Our area has been disarmed for the most part, but there is a military presence and there are still some few guns around. When a raid is caught in process, you can almost guarantee gunshots. I go to the clinic Monday through Friday. That is expected. I see wounds that astonish me. That is unexpected. I hear crickets chirping in the night air. That is expected. It rains. That is expected. It doesn't rain. That is unexpected (these days anyhow, soon the dry season will come and rain will be the unexpected component).
How do I capture the life I live? How to I bottle up the last 15 months and carry them home? How do I bottle up the coming two months and bring them back here? How to I live in two worlds that sometimes align and sometimes collide? How do I feel so at home in two very different places?