Sadika

It's so weird to get on Facebook these days and hear people talking about pumpkins and pies and leaves changing colors. Leaves are changing colors here too but that's mostly because there has been no rain for about a month and its so freaking hot that everything is slowly dying. Thankfully the wind is picking up too so even though it is hot, it isn't still. On breezy nights I find that it's quite easy to imagine that you are sleeping in a big boat instead of a big tent. When the wind picks up in the middle of the night I hear green canvas sails creaking overhead and outside my window I see moonlight reflecting on endless grassy currents.
This has been a much better week than last. Though a prideful part of me perhaps hates to admit it, one of the reasons for my renewed optimism is having found a new friend. Heather and her husband moved here from another part of the country last week to continue working with the organization next door to us. She's a little older than me but doesn't have kids yet either. She is a nurse, rides motorcycles, hates snakes, loves the movie "Man From Snowy River" and speaks Kiswahili. Her parents live in the same coutry as mine and she has a little sister back in the States. She even had a pet dik-dik for a little while! Apart from my own sisters, I have never met some one with a life so similar to mine. There is so much she understands about me without me ever having to verbalize. Which is of course why anyone who knows me would immediately suspect that I would hate her guts. I kinda thought I might too. I have always enjoyed being THE girl in most situations; and if not the only girl, than at very least, the only one who rides a motorcylce. And until lately I have been. (I should specify, the only English speaking one. Even if my Arabic was remotely good enough to use in a conversation about culture stress, I'm still not sure how far that would get me). But one trip to the market together with her proved me very wrong. I think I underestimated how much a friend helps in transitions like these. Someone who is shy to try her language too but pushes you to want to try a little harder. Someone who will shield for you when you try on skirts in the market and has tips on how the heck to cook egg-plant. Someone that even lives close enough to shout asking if you are okay when a six inch praying mantis lands on your face and you scream bloody murder (purely hypothetically speaking.) A friend. Who knew that it would be so nice to have one around?