Most of you probably know this, but for those of you who don’t, I grew up in Virginia Beach about 15 minutes away from, and directly in the flight path of one of the East Coast's largest naval air bases, Oceana. As I’m sure you can imagine the rumblings of F-14s, F-18s and an assortment of other fighter jets provided the soundtrack to my childhood. However, like all natives of the area eventually you don’t hear them anymore, you don’t look up when one goes whizzing by, you don’t stop the conversation you’re having, and you don’t even think twice about the fact that a these powerful weapons are flying over your house at the speed of sound.
I feel like things here in Bankim are sort of becoming like jet noise. In some ways this is a good thing, for example my nose has conceded defeat and I can no longer smell B.O. (granted I can’t smell it on myself either so that might not be such a good thing when I come home). I can sleep through and African thunderstorm under a tin roof without any problem, and sitting around in peoples houses while they talk to each other in local dialect (that I don’t understand) for hours is no longer rude, it’s just a friendly afternoon visit with the neighbors.
In other ways I’m not sure that I like becoming complacent or jaded or so used to things just because “that’s the way they are here”. Now when I see two mamas with babies on there backs and large basins of food on their heads walking down the street I don’t think wow they’re only 18 years old and they’re coming back from the farm with their kids instead of back from school with their classmates. Now when people get really sick I find myself more often then not, not looking up, not stopping the conversation, and not thinking twice. It’s like the jets, they’re gonna fly over the house everyday and there’s no stopping them so you just tune them out so you can get work done and go on with your day. Coping strategy or excuse? I don’t know yet. I don’t want to stop seeing the little things or minimize the important things, but I find it’s exhausting to deal with it all, all the time.
Ok enough of that, I’m off the soapbox now ;) Here’s your random little story for the week. I think I mentioned this before, but we’re having a bit of a snake problem in the compound at the moment. I’m sure that it’s because of the rain, and because I haven’t found anyone to cut my grass yet, but between the three apartments we’ve seen and killed 3 snakes in the past week. They’re not huge but still they could probably do some damage if they bit you, so the solution… homemade snake-be-gone. Last weekend I spent about a half an hour with Rose and her kids mixing up this traditional remedy that was one part crushed snake heads, one part palm oil, one part elephant root, and a lot of other parts that I had never heard of before. We mixed it into a paste, rubbed it on sticks, and placed them strategically around the compound. We rubbed the leftover paste around the bottom of the kitchen doors. I don’t put a ton of faith into traditional remedies, and I don’t know if it’s going to work, but hey I figure it can’t hurt to try. I’ll let you all know how it goes!
I feel like things here in Bankim are sort of becoming like jet noise. In some ways this is a good thing, for example my nose has conceded defeat and I can no longer smell B.O. (granted I can’t smell it on myself either so that might not be such a good thing when I come home). I can sleep through and African thunderstorm under a tin roof without any problem, and sitting around in peoples houses while they talk to each other in local dialect (that I don’t understand) for hours is no longer rude, it’s just a friendly afternoon visit with the neighbors.
In other ways I’m not sure that I like becoming complacent or jaded or so used to things just because “that’s the way they are here”. Now when I see two mamas with babies on there backs and large basins of food on their heads walking down the street I don’t think wow they’re only 18 years old and they’re coming back from the farm with their kids instead of back from school with their classmates. Now when people get really sick I find myself more often then not, not looking up, not stopping the conversation, and not thinking twice. It’s like the jets, they’re gonna fly over the house everyday and there’s no stopping them so you just tune them out so you can get work done and go on with your day. Coping strategy or excuse? I don’t know yet. I don’t want to stop seeing the little things or minimize the important things, but I find it’s exhausting to deal with it all, all the time.
Ok enough of that, I’m off the soapbox now ;) Here’s your random little story for the week. I think I mentioned this before, but we’re having a bit of a snake problem in the compound at the moment. I’m sure that it’s because of the rain, and because I haven’t found anyone to cut my grass yet, but between the three apartments we’ve seen and killed 3 snakes in the past week. They’re not huge but still they could probably do some damage if they bit you, so the solution… homemade snake-be-gone. Last weekend I spent about a half an hour with Rose and her kids mixing up this traditional remedy that was one part crushed snake heads, one part palm oil, one part elephant root, and a lot of other parts that I had never heard of before. We mixed it into a paste, rubbed it on sticks, and placed them strategically around the compound. We rubbed the leftover paste around the bottom of the kitchen doors. I don’t put a ton of faith into traditional remedies, and I don’t know if it’s going to work, but hey I figure it can’t hurt to try. I’ll let you all know how it goes!
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