No such thing as ''normal''

Walking home from work today, a little frazzled, I let the cool breeze and the 15-minute downhill walk calm me down. I started to turn an observant eye to my surroundings.

It was then that I had the realization that there is no "normal" day for us in Haiti. Even a day that feels just that – perhaps  sitting at our desks for the majority of the day, eating with co-workers at lunch, and returning to our home at the predictable time – is actually chock full of completely new, abnormal experiences.

These experiences, whether or not we take note, seep into our pores and make up the very fabric of our lives, our existences here in Haiti.

On a simple walk to work, for example, almost everything we encounter is not ''normal'' for us: the clothes hanging from the cement walls, on display for shoppers; the little kids in their adorable checkered uniforms, walking to school while holding a parent’s hand, girls with their hair full of ribbons; the sellers who carry three large baskets stacked upon their heads, calling out their wares; the clouds of exhaust that periodically spew from vehicles and the obnoxious honking; the precarious sidewalk arrangements, loose wires hanging down from the power lines and cars, wheelbarrows, large tree roots obstructing pedestrians’ paths; the shoe shiners; the radio programs broadcasting "La Dessalienne," the national anthem, once the clock strikes 8am.

The days are fun when I take time to appreciate all these things that are new and foreign. Yet, when some time passes and I haven't been taking note, I'll start to feel the effects of my foreign environment all the same: 

Perhaps I will start to feel more pressed at work without obvious reason, couped up, anxious, lacking direction, or Ted and I won't be communicating at all ''fluidly'' and I won't understand why... 

It's because nothing here is ''normal''! Our environment speaks to us even when we don't hear it. We are ''fish out of water'' in a sense, and it only helps to recognize this. It allows me personally to reorient myself, to accept that everyday things can be a little disorienting, and to try to walk forward with more appreciation for all that is truly ''new.''