Things I Miss:
1. Levin - but that is soon to end! He comes tomorrow morning!!!
2. Lucy - I feel like I am constantly cleaning and it is only Leah and me making messes. Well, some of it was initial cleaning of a house that has been abandoned so to speak, but still! I actually had to clean my own toilet the other day and I vacuum all the time! Whereas before I'd just calculate how many more days until Lucy arrived and if it was worth me actually doing it or not and well, let's just say a lot of times I decided not worth it.
3. Leah's toys, especially her book basket she'd climb into and read by herself. I have a lot more entertaining to do now.
4. The chair in Leah's room. Our night-time ritual of reading is a lot less comfortable when I sit on the floor and sometimes I fear I won't be able to get my large body off the floor.
5. Mangoes. I bought one the other day and it was disgusting and very small in comparison to the ones I was getting in Lagos.
6. Settlers. Levin keeps playing with our friends and I'm so jealous because I miss it.
Things I Don't Miss
1. AFN - our military TV. I actually didn't mind that so much, but I'm loving my DVR. So nice to start a show late and fast-forward through commercials and dumb performances on American Idol.
2. Entrapment. I get to get in my car and drive and go where I want and not wait for a driver. Though I do miss some of the friendly drivers I had - i.e. Ade.
3. The smell. Last night I drove home in the evening from the church and could smell "farming" not exhaust fumes and other smells I probably don't want to identify. Fresh air!
This isn't something I miss or don't miss, but just an observation. Now when I go to church I blend in with the other whities and there are only a few black members. Not always, but at least in church, I started to just feel blended in and not like the glowing white lady, but other times I was very aware of my whiteness. I sometimes want to go sit next to the black members here in Maryland and ask if they feel like they blend in or do they notice the difference. I've lived on both sides now and appreciate that sometimes it does feel awkward to be different.
There was a picture in the church in Lagos taken one of our first months there that somehow never got taken down. I was at a Relief Society activity and we took a group picture. I was the only white woman in the group. I always wished I had a copy of it, but don't. If I did, it would be posted here. As Sesame Street says, "one of these things is not like the other one" and sometimes you feel weird.
Don't get me wrong, it's not like a huge relief when I go to church now that I say, oh yes, all these white people. It's not that way at all. Just observing the difference. . . . .
Don't think you're not interesting because you don't live abroad anymore. It's, as David would say, all in how you tell it. Your life is only as interesting as you make it sound. And you're not interesting based on where you live; we all think you're interesting wherever you are:)
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