The quest for normalcy

Well, okay, maybe not normalcy. That is not realistic. Perhaps balance is a better term: I have been striving for a sense of balance, to feel settled here, like a regular person in her regular life. Until very recently, I was not sure this would ever happen. But I think it has. It’s not so much that other people treat me like I’m normal (although an increasing number do); it’s more that I have stopped acting like a visitor. It’s almost as liberating as that time I buzzed off all my hair after high-school graduation.

Today, I had a great “you know you’ve lived in Kenya when…” moment: For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to make a mental list of things I haven’t done since I arrived. I thought it might make a good blog post. I’ve since abandoned the idea in favor of this blog post about the process of thinking about that blog post. (I know. Forgive me.)

My mental list included some appliances/electronics I haven’t used since I came to Kenya: washing machine, hair dryer, microwave. And I kept thinking, there’s got to be a better one, more basic, that more people think of as necessary. But I couldn’t think of what it could be. A few hours ago, I went in the kitchen to figure out lunch, and I was standing there sniffing last night’s spaghetti and debating whether to eat it. It hadn’t gone completely bad, but it was definitely borderline. No problem, I thought, I’ll just heat it and add more pepper, this is far from being the most questionable thing I’ve eaten recently. I lit the burner, put the pasta on, and tasted it again, just to be sure. Then it hit me: refrigerator.

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