You Know...

      I was thinking the other day about my "new normal," when I realized that, as of this Friday, I've been in Papua New Guinea for eight months. So, in honor of my eight month anniversary of arriving in PNG, here is a list of things that I never thought I would consider normal.

          You Know You've Lived in PNG for Eight Months When...

1. You get up early to hang your laundry on the line…even though it’s cloudy and will rain later in the day.
2. You wear gum boots outside to hang your laundry on the line so you don’t sink up to your ankles in mud.
3. You have learned the hard way to take your umbrella everywhere. All the time. Even if it’s sunny when you leave.
4. Seeing children covered from head to toe in mud is a fairly common sight.
5. The first thing you do when you get home is wash your feet off with the designated foot rag and towel. (Can you tell I’m still having issues with mud?!)
6. You don’t freak out every time you see a spider anymore. Mostly. (Exception: this morning when I walked into a spider web and the spider ended up IN MY HAIR! After an eternity—in reality, probably about 2 seconds—of standing in paralyzed horror, I did the it’s-on-me-get-it-off-right-now dance, during which I lost track of the spider…I've been slightly twitchy all day, imagining it still crawling on me!)
7. You're not alarmed when you are woken up from your Sunday afternoon nap by ridiculous amounts of smoke blowing in. (Papua New Guineans burn their gardens to get ready to replant. Last week the third grade kids were praying for a smoke day—like a snow day, but with smoke instead of snow—so they could get out of school!)
8. Despite never having seen a cockroach until six months ago, you are now an expert in dealing with the nasty little things. (God bless Northwestern Wisconsin!) 
9. The taste of Diet Dr. Pepper almost brings you to tears.
10. Foods that you thought were disgusting in the States are now suddenly delicious (or at least palatable)—Pringles, hot dogs, and so on—and it’s SO exciting when the store gets a shipment from the States! (The fifth grade kids were all abuzz about the store having Arizona tea the week the shipment came in!) 
    
    

This little guy was hanging out in my classroom today;
he was just a hair bigger than the diameter of a quarter!