Note To Self

If life ever begins to pale & I find myself unable to enjoy things, try going to another culture & learning a new lifestyle. Knowledge is territorial as one of the first speakers at Island Cove pointed out with a story. He hiked umpteen hours to the remote village where one of his students was the leader and lived with them for three months. After that time the leader attempted to find a polite way to tell him he was the most ignorant man he had ever met.
Knowledge is territorial and relearning everything can be a bit of a horrible & awkward for the first few days but things will hopefully settle down soon. The feeling of not being able to do anything on your own time table because you don’t know the rules yet or even how to do it. Nothing is routine anymore. There are not any habits or patterns right off, all of them have to be adjusted to a new place. Some adjust easier than others; brushing your teeth, washing your hands, dishes (if anyone will ever let me get anywhere near them). Others have to, at least in part, be re-invented and practiced until route, showering with a bucket, eating with only a spoon, and a fork that is only really used to shovel food onto the spoon, setting up a mosquito net before bed.
But you can get a surprising & wonderful sense of accomplishment showering successfully with a bucket & ladle! Or using a squat toilet for the first time, even if Momma did have to show me how to properly flush it. Luckily she did not demonstrate the rest… It’s a great feeling to acclimate to somewhere new. You have to pay attention and exist in the moment because all the moments are new and it takes some thought to do what used to be so mindless and mundane. Now I just need to get Momma to calm down & relax a bit. She’s currently spoiling me rotten, I just wish I knew by how much. Welcome to ASP all over again, but where I don’t speak the language.