Six months; but who's counting

At the end of July, honey bun and I reached the six month mark for living in Indonesia. I am amazed at this and the changes that have occurred in half a year's time.

The first thing that comes to mind is that I am now no longer counting the time in weeks since our arrival. At the beginning it was so....so....MUCH to take in that you just felt consumed and you were having to take life one day at a time and sometimes one hour at a time.

I guess it is kind of like when you have a baby. You measure progress and report their age to admirers in weeks for a long time. Then it becomes months and finally years. Childbirth is painful, and this too has had many moments where you just had to grit your teeth and keep breathing. Each milestone and each accomplishment is such a thrill. The only difference is this time I am going through it with a housekeeper, a driver, a gardener and four guards.

I think of the things I have learned and all the things yet to learn.

This second six months brings with it our first trip to the ocean. Now that seems like a pretty ridiculous thing to say since we live on an island. I might as well have been living in Iowa the last six months for the amount of sea and sand that I have seen. However, in all fairness, we have been a little busy trying to get settled, sorted out and get comfortable with our new surroundings. So it with great hope that we are now in to a different phase of things.

It still surprises me that at times great waves of homesickness still wash over me. I miss easily chatting with my son, my family and my long time friends at home. I miss knowing where to buy things. I miss being able to communicate what I want without the aide of a dictionary and a game of charades. I miss driving myself places.

The flip side to all of that missing is what I am enjoying. While having a staff is challenging, or maybe it is because of language and cultural differences, it is very nice to have some help with things. Having the floors swept and mopped, clothes washed and seriously ironed like never before, someone to run errands for simple things is a massive luxury. It is one I have never experienced before and know that when I return home I will miss it immensely.

It is still with amazed eyes that I see faces, life, work, strife, joy, exotic plants, and a culture so different from my own going on around me every single day. It is a rare opportunity to get to do that. I try to catalogue in my head and with my camera things as I experience them for the first time. It is impossible to keep up because there are so many things that are new. Back to the baby analogy, it is like being a child and everything is news to you. So much to learn, so much to see, so much to process. But also like a child, at times it becomes a bit overstimulating and you could really use a nap and a break from it all. Unfortunately, I don't really get to do that part.

I continue to wish that I was better at this "Extreme Relocation" game show that I am on. It is probably due to unrealistic expectations for myself that makes it hard some days. Six months here, three weeks of language lessons, and bunches of new foods and sights later I think I should feel more at home and able to navigate life and speak fluently. Well, it isn't working quite that way.

Patients is key. Patients with myself is the hardest part it seems. I will continue to listen and look and collect memories. Those things can come from something as simple as walking on unfamiliar sand on a beach to driving on winding roads across a lush green landscape and observing people whose houses are built a foot and a half from the side of the road living their lives so much in the open. Seeing that young people are young people no matter where you go. Here they may live in a precariously placed house constructed of bamboo and rattan but they have a cell phone and a digital camera with which they love to take pictures of themselves and their friends.

It is a long, long way from familiar. I wonder will this become familiar too? Not that I will become a diamond, but massive change comes from pressure and time. It is transforming me. I can feel it. I can also feel the internal struggle with grasping for the familiar while reaching out for the unfamiliar. It is the realization that I am kind of like Dorothy. I am on this fantastic journey to an unknown world. I am meeting new people and there are friends to help me along my way. Thanks to all of you both near and far and above who help me as I go along and lend a hand, or a shoulder, when I need one.

I hope my stories and insights are a small repayment for all that you give.