First Week Back...

Can't say enough about how good my mechanic is here at home

I find myself driving on the wrong side of the road and can’t for the life of me remember which is the proper side to be on until another car or a stop sign appears.  I’m wearing a watch that shows two different times both of which are not the right time for here.  I'm desperately trying to keep track but I haven't arrived on time for anything all week.  Last sunday I arrived at church in time for the benediction.  This sunday it was half way through.  I walk with a foggy head and heart that can't fully engage yet.  Emails from Africa enter my inbox like bursting pineapples while motivation for anything else, like molasses, is thick and slow.  I’m not caring about things that I should.  Yesterday I was staring at a blank document on the screen with eyes wide and glazed when suddenly there was a clunking as my brain tried to activate.  This same thing used to happen when going from 4 wheel drive back to 2 wheel drive in the Izuzu.  It would take some time before the transmission would make an incredible snap and crack into gear.   

Farmers for Children Nutrition Program is up and running

The senses are busy processing the noise of machinery and airplanes, six lanes of Indy 500 traffic, all the cement, sirens, asphalt, curbs, the silky smooth roads, nobody walking along the roadsides, the multitude of instructional street signs, the incredible order of things like neighbourhoods and lawns, the absence of kids everywhere, the absence of red dirt, potholes, insects and sweat.  I got used to having a thin film of Uganda on my skin everyday which alters the way you feel in your body.  Only now I’m realizing how industrially and rigorously clean we keep ourselves.  No more reddish brown water coming off me and circling the shower drain - no more clothes that have changed colour during the day.  I usually ended up giving away my hand sanitizer to causes that seemed more urgent than my own cleanliness - like impromptu minor surgeries.  Here we find sanitizer dispensaries, sinks, soap, first aid kits, and alcohol swabs without even looking.

Brian's hip surgery went well but a long recovery is ahead

We are so tuned in to safety, especially for kids, and we're incredible planners for the future.  I'm struck by just how well insured we are against any eventuality - thefts, fires, floods, lost luggage, injuries, sicknesses, accidents, acts of God, even death.  At work we have so many wet floor signs that they themselves become a safety hazard while I compare that with my experiences with the precariously low hanging clothes lines in Uganda or the electrical current that ran through my shower nozzle.  That said, for all of our uptightness and order here in Canada I felt very proud to be Canadian while away.  We enjoy such a good reputation.  We are trusted as people with expertise, resources, and good hearts.  Some would even want to jokingly claim you saying, 'he's my muzungu go find your own!'  A week in and the sun is starting to burn away the thick fog.