Watch the Walk

Due to popular demand, here's a "day in the life of" post for what life looks like here. A few notes first, however: -- Not every day includes all of these events, but they often occur in my daily living here. -- Because I didn't feel like doing a story format, this is in the form of "if I wrote FaceBook posts frequently throughout the day."  A Day in the Life of [Me]: 7:00 AM – I’m up for the day, what more can you ask? Bucket shower first, then time to make coffee. 8:00 AM – Trying to prepare for a language lesson on 1.5 hours of sleep is pretty ridiculous. I’ll be glad when the electric company sorts things out and we have electricity through the night again. Hard to sleep without a fan. 9:00 AM – Heading out for a language lesson. Caught a taxi right away, but the driver then stopped at a shop for 10 minutes to do… I don’t know what? My fellow passengers have now quizzed me on my nationality, marital status, reasons for my (non)marital status, and I’...

Transplant: move or transfer (something) to another place or situation, typically with some effort or upheaval. Looking down the hill toward my part of town. I'm a transplant. Uprooted from my home soil, still carrying some dirt with me, but planted into a new place to grow and be an agent of change. In my new soil, I have new friends, new habits, and new priorities. But I'm still the same person. A carrot is a carrot whether planted in a garden, greenhouse, or growing wild. So in a lot of ways, I have to learn how to thrive in a new environment, but as the same person I've always been: quirky humor, commitment to the Father, need for relationship, and all. I still struggle with laziness. Now that comes out in the way I handle language. At first I was gung ho: let's do this! I love language! It's such a fun challenge!  Now I'm hitting a hard part: as I get into more difficult parts of the language, it's harder to see progress. I have to figure out new ways t...