THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Tag: East Africa

Gifts that Remain: Life Lessons for Keeps from Africa

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I view the items in my home differently now. Everything is slid into a category in my mind: Pack it. Sell it. Give it. Just as we did five and a half years ago in Little Rock, we’re packing up our lives here in Africa. But of course the person who packed up then isn’t the same person who’s packing now.

And thankfully, those intangibles are things I can keep.

They don’t take up precious luggage space; I won’t need to sell them for pennies on the dollar with which I bought them. They’re Africa’s gifts to me.

Throwbackpost: Thanksgiving memos from a bunch of refugees

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author’s note: This post, originally posted around last year’s American Thanksgiving, is not at all intended to be a political statement regarding the recent controversy over refugees (see this article for a Christian point of view on the tension between security and compassion). It’s simply a memo to myself as I look at Thanksgiving any time of year, in light of what I’ve learned from the crazy-fun group of refugees I teach on a weekly basis in Uganda.

Sometimes I’m as much a student of them as they are of me, as they sprawl in their chairs there in the sticky heat or the lazy afternoon sun.

refugees 1Sometimes when they stand next to me, I have nothing to do but laugh out loud at the picture we must make: me with my German build and American clothing, my skin that best stay out of the sun after fifteen minutes, sky-colored eyes—and them, some even built like ebony marionettes, towering above me at six feet-two or –four, their toothy ivory grins and an arm around my shoulder, their tribal language to a friend resounding like African drums. read more

28 Signs I Might Be Living Overseas

Reading Time: 2 minutes

1.  I set a goal for myself while jogging: If I can only make it to that goat.

  1. Everyone speaks more languages than I do.
  2. I have partaken of creatures I would normally not consume by choice, e.g. fish eyes, grasshoppers, and the like.
  3. People dispose of trash by simply throwing it out the window.
  4. A healthy percentage of my most delightful friends were born a hemisphere away from where I was.
  5. I avoid unfiltered water like the Plague. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the Plague in there.
  6. My pothole-per-mile ratio exceeds 136:1.
  7. The concept of “home” feels bewildering.
  8. I answer to a wide variety of names that sound entirely different than the one I’ve answered to for the majority of my adult life.
  9. Fruit and other materials labeled “exotic” in my home country are available at that little wooden stand down the street.
  10. My children asked for a raise in their allowance based on the increasing value of the dollar.
  11. My electrical company is perpetually listed in my phone’s recent contacts.
  12. Sometimes home feels like camping.
  13. Despite the lack of familiarity, there is something about the place I live that makes I feel so…alive.
  14. I adopt an accent when speaking, say, at the supermarket.
  15. My suitcase is filled with odd items, like 6 of the same deodorant, 18 months of underwear for six people, eight pounds of chocolate chips, and 12 jars of B vitamins. My carry-on is where I stash the Hot Tamales and six packs of Slim Jims.
  16. People attempt to compliment me by calling me “fat”, or in regards to my status, a “big woman.” …Yeah. Thanks.
  17. Ants in my home don’t even capture my attention anymore unless in vast quantities or floating in my drink.
  18. The last trip to the States found me saying, “What in the world is ‘Apple TV’?”
  19. I are content with my “dumb” phone, because pretty much everyone else has one, and if it falls in the toilet (or pit latrine) I can afford to replace it.
  20. Cops stop me because I are more likely to be a source of cash.
  21. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” gets me all sniffy.
  22. My bed is shrouded in netting, but somehow my arms and legs still have telltale welts of those little (literal) suckers.
  23. I keep toilet paper in my glove box. Because public toilets, when I can find them, are BYO TP.
  24. I give up asking for decaffeinated coffee, because people don’t really know what that is (or why you would drink it), nor do they have it.
  25. I can pronounce all of the ingredients in my food.
  26. I am feeling a whole lot more deft with the metric system lately.
  27. My employer contemplates sending out regular deworming reminders via e-mail.

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