Nothing ordinary here....

“You have so many extraordinary gifts, how can you expect to live an ordinary life?”

I watched the movie “Little Women” the other day and I can’t get this quote out of my head! It’s the newest version of the movie and this line is said by Marmee (Susan Sarandon) to Jo (Wynona Ryder). I read the book a few months ago and then when I got ahold of the movie I knew I had to watch it. I was very much impressed by the movie, it wasn’t a disappointment as many based-on-the-novel movies are. But most strikingly I find myself relating to Jo… Kind of awkward, not really knowing how or where she fits in to the lives her sisters are contented with. At the time of this line she is lamenting the fact that she can’t have just an ‘ordinary life’. I have to admit that I have thought this myself from time to time… an ordinary life. But what is ordinary, anyway? I think I might have had that at one point – when I had a high paying job in a huge corporation, owned my home and a nice car, and was racking up the frequent flyer miles every week. I had achieved the “American Dream” quite young… but I guess I could say that my ‘extraordinary gifts’ were not contented being contained in the ‘ordinary life’ and I had to leave it. I simply wasn’t content to live that ordinary life! Now I find myself living in the “anything but ordinary!” and I love it!!

I do love it!! This last few months have certainly been trying, dealing with the heinous African heat, the aches and pains of injuries, and probably some from just getting older (what is that, anyway??? I’m 30! Not 100!!!), and the minor daily frustrations of living in the bush. (Speaking of getting older, papayas are packed with antioxidants. If I eat two per day, will I actually get younger??? Ha!) And then days like today happen – Nothing major, nothing grand, just the simple joy of students who are excited to learn and the opportunity I have to teach them. It is such an amazingly wonderful gift I have been given to be able to be a part of their lives, if only for a brief time. I love it!

I am sure it helps that today was also a cool 92 degrees. Could it be possible that I actually did survive another hot season through to the end??? One can only hope. The mango rains fell a few nights ago, it was glorious. The reason they call them the mango rains? It’s mango season!!! I have a love-hate relationship with mango season. Love? I LOVE MANGOES!!! Straight from the tree, huge, it’s like biting into a piece of heaven with the juice dribbling off your elbows. Hate? They are poisonous to me. I have a mango allergy that is not dramatic or life threatening, yet. However, the potential is there that if I were to overdose on mangoes, I could go into anaphylaxis. No fun there. SO… I’ve had a bite here, a bite there, and managed to keep from killing myself! Sunday I made several loves of mango bread. No other fruit is available right now and my neighbors have been feeding me regularly so I wanted to make something for them. I am sure I looked quite ridiculous peeling and cutting up the mangoes with plastic bags over my hands!! I guess the peel of the mango has some of the same properties as poison ivy and can be part of the allergy problem, so wanted to minimize contact. Well, I started breaking out in hives yesterday, so my mango bread making days are over! It turned out well, though, and my neighbors loved it!!

In other wonderful news I finally got latrine funding!! Now I’m trying to make sure the work starts this week!! Cheers!!!!! I’ll be sure to take some pictures of the process! Also planning out the girls camp I am directing, working on final Spelling Bee plans, and getting ready for the new group of volunteers arriving on July 1!

So down to just over 5 months left in country, and it’s looking like it will go out AWESOME. I win at life.

Peace out. K (This post written on 4/12)

Please visit my Mercy Ships page at http://www.mercyships.org/page/outreach/view/crewmates/closek and give!

Interesting. Usually when I sign in to my blog it automatically has everything in French. This time it’s some completely different language/alphabet. Where does Google think I am??