The Known and Unknown

On a small playground at the pool in our town.

I thought that Zig Zag would feel more comfortable in his country of origin and have a better understanding of the Sahel because this is where he's spent all his life besides three months in the US. But it has become apparent that our home is so different from living at the orphanage that it is like a new world to him, including a new language here! Once while living in the Sahel he asked us to take him on a roller coaster tomorrow. He didn’t realize that Sahel wouldn’t have any roller coasters. It's hard to imagine, but since he was in such an isolated environment in the orphanage, he doesn't seem to realize that life in the US was different from life here outside the orphanage walls.

He also didn’t understand why any place in the Sahel wouldn’t have a church, so he doesn’t understand the majority religion here, as he was only exposed to Christianity at the orphanage. This is fascinating because we thought returning to Sahel would be more comforting for him because it would be familiar. To some extent he is used to the weather and maybe the power outages, but it is amazing how much his world is still changed.

We have seen some great adjustments towards our family functioning as a whole these last few days. The boys are working on telling me about what they did in the argument instead of what the other did. And the children have been caught playing all together without parental supervision, which is a huge step for Zig Zag who often finds his security with adults. It's more and more obvious that it's not easy to find security when so much of your world exposure has changed.

-- La Maestra