Pro: I am tanner now than I have ever been in
November before. Ever. In my life.
Con: Compared to the people with whom I keep
company day in and day out, I feel nearly translucent. When we sang in church
today that Jesus makes us white as snow I felt oddly self-conscious.
Pro: My legs are short, so when I hold babies’
hands while they learn to walk I don’t have to bend down.
Con: My legs are short, so when I sit down on the
ground with my legs in front of me, only three kids can fit on them before my
lap is full.
Pro: Florence is feeling much better. She doesn’t
cry as much, she is eating more, and her smile comes out fairly regularly.
Con: She doesn’t need as many snuggles as when she
was sick. (But a pro to that is that I can wear some shirts twice now before
washing them because I don’t end up with Florence drool and snot all over my
collars.)
Pro: The road that passes Noah’s Ark is dirt, has
very little traffic, and has beautiful scenery, making it a great running road.
Con: It is uphill no matter which way I go.
Pro: The avocados here are huge compared to the
ones at home! And they only cost about 30 cents!
Con: Who could have anything bad to say about
avocadoes? (except Ron’s parents…)
Pro: As one of three native English speakers at
Noah’s Ark, I am an excellent candidate for someone to help teach reading and
English to the primary students.
Con: Because my accent is so unfamiliar to them,
they still don’t understand what I’m saying half the time and giving spelling
tests is quite a challenge. (I once had to sway my hips back and forth in front
of an entire class before they understood the word I was telling them to spell:
sway. They all wrote it down after having a good laugh.)
Pro: I am not only getting used to wearing skirts
all the time—I actually enjoy it and often find them much more comfortable than
“trousers.”
Con: I will be coming home at the start of a
Wisconsin winter, when everyone else has their skirts packed away because if
they wore them they would get frostbite on their kneecaps. Also, skirts look
funny with big winter boots.
Pro: I got all the red spots out of my skirts by
using my knuckles as a washboard.
Con: I got blisters on my knuckles from doing
laundry.
Pro: My taste buds are adapting to a new
culture. I eat bananas on a regular basis, I love plantain chips, and I buy
coconut cookies as a special treat.
Con: I would never have eaten any of those at home
and think I might be going crazy.
Pro: I am always amused by the color of the water I
rinse out of my washcloth after scrubbing my feet each night—a foggy
reddish-brown, especially on days it rains and my feet get muddy.
Con: Aside from washing gecko poop off my floor, I
can never use that washcloth for anything else ever again.
Pro: Noah’s Ark treats their water so it is easy
and cheap to stay hydrated. I thought I was going to have to buy water bottles
for three months, so having drinkable tap water has been a huge blessing!
Con: Based on smell, my bathroom is the only one
here I am comfortable using, but it is uphill from everywhere else and
sometimes feels like a very long walk
before I get there. It is not uncommon to find me doing a potty dance in front
of my door as I try to fish my key out of my bag.
Pro: I have a roommate named Zander the Salamander.
Catchy, right?
Con: The name was cooler before I found out he was
a gecko.
You are just my favorite person of all time.
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