New Normal

I have some other friends who have written about the odd things that we adopt when we move to a new culture; things that shocked us or seemed so weird when we first came, and now we don't think twice about them; or, they've written on "You know you live in ____ when..."

I thoroughly enjoyed reading their posts about it, so I thought I would do the same.

So here's my list of things that are now "normal" for me, but not so very long ago, were quite odd. Plus, just weird quirky things that make me laugh and strange habits I've picked up. I've stolen a few from my friends. :)

• You aren't surprised to see men peeing in public. In fact, I see this at least once a week.
• You make friends with the geckos and spiders that live in your house and bedroom. They eat the mosquitoes, so you repay the kindness by letting them bunk in your house.
• You only use skeleton keys for your entire house.
• Shifting with my left hand has become very easy and more comfortable, and now switching back to my right hand seems very odd. In fact, switching back to the other side of the road seems really strange too!
• You often get told, "You look so fat!" "You've gained weight!" and they are meant as compliments.
• I buy my electricity units at the filling station to which I receive a receipt with a code. I then have to punch that code into a box at my house to "fill" my electricity back up. That means, sometimes, when the power goes off, I just forgot to get more units!
• Its completely normal to see a women's breasts hanging out of her shirt because she was breast-feeding, but its extremely immodest to show above your knees or your midriff. 
• You have a hard time remembering correct English grammar because you’ve been using African English grammar which makes you sound like Yoda.
• You see other white people in your city and wonder what they're doing here.
• You save your biggest cooking endeavors until the day before you house-help comes so you don't have to do the dishes.
• You've forgotten what its like to walk on carpeted floors.
• Burning piles or forests on fire don't worry you. It's normal.
• You call strangers either 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Auntie' or 'Uncle.'
• People ask you what you miss about America and you list foods and fast food restaurants.
• Toilet paper is in your car at all times for when you have to stop on the side of the road or use a squatty potty.
• You can take a bath with only one bucket of water.
• You have to plan your day around whether or not you'll have electricity. 
• You are used to babies crying when they see you because you look terrifying.
• Flashlights = torches, fries = chips, grade = standard, mosquitoes = 'mo-squee-toes', line = queue
• You've learned many uses for your chitenji: curtains, towel, tablecloth, spill wiper-upper, skirt, baby-carrier, sweat rag, etc.
• now = some time in the next several hours; now-now = some time in the next hour
• You can make just about anything from scratch.
• If you are a female over 20 and not married, you will be asked why aren't you married, when are you going to get married, and be told its time to start having kids.
• The largest bill you can get here is worth about $3.00, so when you go to the ATM, you get a wad of cash to carry around...and no debit/credit cards are used anywhere, so you know which wallets to use to make sure you can carry around piles of money that is inches thick.

There are SO many more, but I'll stop there. :)
Oh Africa, how I'll miss you!