Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Things you get used to in Pemba




From Iris Ministries full-time missionary, Jessie Turner:




• Having the ‘clean’ water be murky with bits in it...


• Hearing three or more languages that I don’t understand being spoken in one place...


• Having kids run up shouting my name and hugging me all day...


• Being stopped on the street by random people just want to talk to me in English…


• Marriage proposals by the market venders after I refuse to buy their fruit...


• Taking bucket baths everyday…


• Having the electricity go off at any given time...


• Sleeping under a mosquito net…


• Drinking coke out of a bottle…


• Squeezing a sand worm out of my roommate’s bum…


• Squeezing a sand worm out of my dog…


• Enjoying the beauty of a sunset over the Indian Ocean…


• Snorkeling on the reef I can walk to whenever I want…


• Having someone talk to you and pick their nose at the same time…


• Eating rice every day…


• Singing worship song in another language…


• Having our base dog attend all church services and ceremonies including weddings…


• Flushing the toilet with a bucket instead of the handle…


• Riding everywhere in the back of a camiao i.e. big truck…


• Having my feet be three different colors from my normal color to dirt and tan…


• Being paranoid about my knees showing…


• Seeing nursing mothers feed their babies anywhere without a covering…


• Seeing whole families going somewhere on motorcycle, mom on the back, two year old on the front…


• Having no idea what’s going on in the outside world with politics, entertainment ect…


• Not having to wear clothes that match…


• Wearing the same clothes all the time and having them washed by hand…


• Never leaving anything outside knowing if you do it will disappear…


• Greeting the guards every time you walk around the compound…


• Smearing cream on your roommates back because the mosquitoes ate her alive…


• Talking about your bowel movements in a normal conversation…


• Being able to squat anywhere and relieve yourself next to friends…


• Having all the guys on a camiao jump off and line up to go potty…


• Hearing Mozambicans singing Celine Deon or N’sync…


• Taking your trash out and watching people dig through it…


• Throwing your used toilet paper in a can and not flushing it…


• Watching the muddy water come off your hands as you wash them…


• Watch your ‘tan’ fade as you shower…


• Eating dinner with your hands, maybe rinsing them off in water everyone else has just used…


• Answering to ‘Acunyah’ ‘Voce’ ‘Hey Lady’ ‘Weh’ ‘Mana Matapa’…


• Hearing ‘Gud Morning’ at any time of the day…


• Having your shirts turn different colors b/c of all the kids you hugged that day…


• Holding the hand of a kid you watched just wipe his nose with it…

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