5 Lists of 7: A Brief Look
As much as I long to be able to write a coherent, beautiful post about what’s been happening, not many of those are surfacing out of the confusing mess in my head right now. What I’ve been trying to do is process, and that’s been coming out in lists. Here is a sampling:
Things I’ve Learned Here in Lesvos (in no particular order)
When kids want to help clean, you let them. Doesn’t matter if all they’re really doing is pushing dust around, because they’re so darn cute you can’t help smiling, and you can clean after they leave with pride in their eyes.
Somali and Kuwaiti Arabic are closer to Tunisian than Iraqi Arabic.
Volunteering with refugees involves more hiding in the supply closet than I thought it would. I was duly warned, but the closet’s just so quiet when everything’s chaos outside!
Cafes are terrible if you have to rely on them for internet. They are loud, smokey, and impossible to focus in if you’re an easily flustered introvert.
Teaching English is easier than it sounds if your student is incredibly clever and determined to cram as many words in her head as possible and have them stick.
Some babies (and kids) just won’t like me no matter how hard I try. I might not have done anything, but I will still get randomly hugged and smiled at by some children while hit and scowled at by others. It’s a hit and miss as far as I’m concerned.
It’s okay, when trying to communicate in a non-native language, to sound like an idiot. It happens. Sometimes the most common words you say are “I’m sorry, I don’t know that word.”
Apartment Quirks
You can’t ever flush toilet paper down the toilet. Takes some getting used to.
For some reason the faucet in the bathroom is only hot water, while the kitchen faucet is only cold.
The water is filled with lime deposits, so I have to buy drinking water and the shower curtains are streaked with white.
It is so humid that clothes take an eternity to dry, and if I leave the windows closed when I leave they become covered with dripping condensation.
No microwave, so I have to use the oven or stovetop to heat up anything, which takes forever because it’s old.
The tiny freezer has the be defrosted pretty much every week because the freezer door latch is broken. I had to learn how to defrost freezers with hot water and hair dryers.
(But really I love it because it’s my first apartment on my own, and it’s tiny and perfectly comfortable for me… I just wish it had internet!)
Accomplishments of This Academic Year (So Far)
Traveled to foreign cities on my own
Wrote 49,000 words of the first draft of my debut novel!
Lived on my own, in my own apartment, fully responsible for cooking and cleaning and keeping myself healthy and on schedule (It’s been a week so far. Premature celebration!)
Began to work as a mostly reliable Arabic translator, and realized that even some Arabic is better than none
Became comfortable with being out on my own (partially due to my TaeKwonDo black belt, Krav Maga self-defense training, carabiner/emergency brass knuckles, pocket knife, and trauma kit)
Went to Bible School and spent the time challenging and strengthening my faith, and learned that I can love exercising if it means hiking in the most beautiful mountains on earth
Worked with refugees who have newly escaped the war and chaos in their homes of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Somalia, etc.
Things I Miss About Home
When Ethan gets a new idea and his eyes light up and his hands won’t keep still and his mouth won’t keep shut, even though I have no idea what he’s talking about. When he’s so excited with this new genius connection, a story he’ll write or a plot hole he found or a machine he’ll make or new game he’ll design, and he can’t keep quiet about his excitement.
Those little times when Mom says something that I was about to say and I look at her with this “Oh drat, we’re the same person” expression. This is happening more and more.
When Dad gets hyped up about a new project and shares all the particulars with me, when he shows me new photos and takes my opinion, when he includes me on projects and defers to my writing intuition.
That little purr my cat makes when she’s been sleeping in the sunshine and sees me come near and decides that me rubbing her belly would be the perfect cherry on top of a contented day.
That tree in the yard at my former school that blooms pink only a few weeks out of the year. There are trees like that along the road from the center to my apartment, and they make me pleasantly sad.
The people who cried when I left. You know who you are, and I miss you too.
Everyone who didn’t shed tears when I left, but showed me they loved me just the same. I’ll see you soon.
What I’ve Learned About Myself
When on my own for extended periods of time after exhaustion, new surroundings, and illness, I read extensively. Hopefully this will slow down soon as I have read four books in as many days.
I am capable of directing communications for, planning, assisting with and translating for a self defence class for refugee women all while dismally sick, and can instruct my body to only collapse when it’s over. The payoff of joy and realization of inner strength in those women is so worth it!
I’ve been hitting milestones in this really awkward manner. By this summer, I’ll have lived on my own before having a driver’s’ license, traveled cross-continentally on my own before ever having a real job, and written a book before attending any college at all.
I’m also a bizarre mix of old and young. On the one hand I love to knit, adore my cat, am fearful of groups of teenagers, and my newest daydream is of the library I will eventually have with all my favorite editions of all my favorite books and my Brazilian butterflies and pressed Austrian and Swiss Alpine flowers on the walls. On the other hand, I can’t survive for too long without internet and even with a supply of movies, the selection grows stale when I can’t stream anything.
Actually, my newest dream involves a house in the middle of nowhere that I can decorate how I want where I live with my brother in companionable silence with at least one cat, a barn for his forge, a library for me, and great walking trails without too many mosquitos.
It takes about three days of not doing laundry or dishes or shopping or taking out the trash for me to get fed up enough to do all of it. It also feels way better when it’s done.
Silence can rejuvenate, it can also drive me crazy. Same with human contact, and procrastination. We shall see what wins out.
Thank you for investing in me and keeping up with this crazy adventure!