I think my deputy director said it the best today when she said, “Lauren, you’ll get your feet back underneath you sometime soon. I know they’ve gone missing for the time being, but they’ll come back.”
I know, for a fact, that this was the right move. I will likely waiver in the coming weeks as I undoubtedly realize just how much is on my shoulders… so you might need to remind me that I really and truly believe that this was the right move to make. Ok? Ok, great, glad that’s settled. Thanks for your help. Don’t forget, ok?
Tonight my roommate and I went out for a beer after I finished up at work (at 10pm). You know what they drink here? Carlsberg. They call it “green”. Anyway, I met some of his friends and had a fun time. We were both completely wiped after a really long week (him with a ton of big time meetings and visitors and me with….well, moving to Africa and starting a new career) but one of his friends said something that stuck with me. He said that Lilongwe doesn’t have the things I’m used to…the movie theaters, the fast pace of life (although this is questionable right now), the clubs, the other conveniences of western living…..but it has something else….it has genuine people. People who sit, and talk, and get to know each other. I know that perhaps this isn’t so different from home…but yet it might be. I mean, I don’t have a tv, I barely have internet, my phone is as far as could be from being ‘smart’….life is simpler…people matter again….that’s all.
Also, I now have to adjust to the British spelling of things. I’m a “programme” manager. Next thing you know I’ll be writing coloUr and centRE and tYre. They also say strange things like “when will you knock off” (when will you be done working) and several people have used Lauryn Hill as a prompt to remember my name. I realize that’s not British but it’s sort of funny. Other people just call me Lorraine. I know that probably makes you MLOGgers laugh pretty hard.
Ok. Time to call it a night….wonder if I can say it’s time to knock off?
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I've heard over and over from ppl who lived in africa that life is so much simpler and they can never seem to stress enough how much they came to appreciate things like apples or mangoes.
ReplyDeleteI love just meeting genuine people that you can just be open and yourself with. Hope you have this crazy life-changing experience out there, and bring what you learn back with you!
You can still have the slow life here in the U.S. I'm experiencing it right now. It's called unemployment.
ReplyDeleteThe getting used to the British spelling of things will be a curse, trust me. I have to pause everything time I write something to make sure I'm using the American spelling, and considering how many times I have to use the word 'Defense' it gets quite annoying:)
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