Have We Changed?

Kids playing in the dirt all the time...

I recently had a conversation with another ex-pat and dear friend in the Sahel, talking about how our definition of dirty has changed so greatly since we've lived here. Two things have stuck out to me recently: 1.) We are going to have a group visit at in the next month and I am slightly concerned what they are going to think about my dirty house! 2.) I recently watched an episode of the mini-series "Christy" and realized that at the end of the day my children look just as dirty as the unkempt Appalachian children on the show.

My friend and I were remembering back to when we first arrived in the Sahel. Our family was staying at an unfinished guest house where the cleaning lady only swept once a week and I thought it was so gross and dirty! When we moved into our home I only had two children and was only teaching kindergarten, so I started daily sweeping of the house. I don't remember when it changed, but as we got busier, I know I started cleaning less. Now we sweep key areas like the door, under the table and in the kitchen daily - everything else is once a week! Everyday my feet are so very dirty from my dirty floors (and the sand outside), but we just get used to it. 

Creativity and re-purposing come with the territory.

Well that got me thinking about the ways we think we have changed over time here. El Padre has become way more business minded. He is always scheming businesses how to help out the church and individuals to be self sustaining. Of course we have adjusted to much more heat. My kids said the other day that they like the weather when it is a little cool. I asked them to define a little cool. "Well, like now - low 70's at night and 90's in the day."  I mentioned in the US we might call that the heat of summer! 

We snack a whole lot less here - mostly because there really aren't great options. As we have talked about we are more focused on being resourceful with what we have and reusing and re-purposing. We are parenting over double the amount of kids we had when we moved here, yet to me it still seems like a small family on many days. I think family perspective may have changed some. 

But change is inevitable and we have now lived in the Sahel for 5 years! Thinking back over the last 5 years, I bet each of us have some big changes that have crept up on us.

-- La Maestra