What Was Once Strange, Is Now Normal

I am so taken back this year about how “normal” everything seems.  Last year, every day was just an overload to my senses…..even just simple trips to town.  I was always stimulated at the odd colored buildings, the tacky signs and garbage everywhere, the painted curbs, the chains blocking off turning on roads, the families piled on motor cycles with no helmets, the little carts selling all types of food, military guys with machine guns, women with their head coverings, men in their skirted robes, clothes that clashed, white powder on faces, the heat, the whooping and wailing, the Muslim call to prayer, the limited ingredients for sale at the grocery store, the blaring music in the stores, the heat in some stores, the big yellow work trucks loaded full of people….standing in the back……

There was more that seemed strange:  the traffic rules or lack thereof, the not looking when merging, the ants, the roaches, the cicak’s, the bathrooms, the blackouts, the no internet days, the demonstrations….the potholes, the pigs and goats, the people walking on the road in the dark…….so much.  We could not really think of anything that was the “same as America” last year.

This year, my mind is not even thinking about how different it all is.  Instead of being overloaded by it all.  It all seems normal. 

I am amazed in the difference a year makes.

Tonight, Nathaniel listed off his top 5 favorite fruits.

1. Mango.  2.  Jeruk Bali (sort of like a grapefruit).  3.  _____________ a new fruit to us, that my friend Nancy purchased for us today at our weekly trip to the market.  I already forgot the name.  4.  Pineapple.  5.  Tomato.  Does he remember a plumb, a peach, a nectarine?

With him being the youngest, he will adapt the most to this culture.  I can already see him struggling to separate in his mind America from Indonesia.  For us that are older, it is still very clear.  But what is not so clear anymore are the things that were once so strange.  This is a good thing.  Now we can embrace life more fully.