we had the most unusual weather in cotonou today... i think it must have been below 80 degrees! breezy and cloudy... i thought maybe if i sat on the deck with earphones, my eyes closed, and a shawl wrapped around me, maybe i could pretend i was sitting in the mountains on an autumn day. eh, no. couldn't escape reality, despite my wild imagination. still, it was a welcome change in temperatures, which made me realize that part of my mind is convinced it's still august.
since the weather has been consistently hot from the first day i arrived, it's kinda like that movie "groundhog day," i wake up to the same thing over and over. but as i was skyping with one of my friends this morning (skype lets you talk and see each other over the internet for free), i could see that he was wearing warm clothes. even the contents of his room gave evidence of cold weather. at which point i realized life goes on without me. part of me subconsciously has believed these past few months that my life is in "repeat play" (you know, when the same song plays over and over and over again) while everyone else's lives are in "pause." like people back home are just sitting still, waiting for me to get back. or maybe they're watching my life on a movie, sometimes biting their nails and whispering, "no! don't do that!" or "gosh, how'd she come out of that alive?" (like today when i got hit by a zemi jan (moped) while crossing the street... but it only barely brushed me!)
but, as it turns out, life goes on with and without me. the weather changes in other places, even if it stays the same here. and peeps back home aren't waiting on standby, watching me live life... they're living life too. of course i've known this all along, it just doesn't feel that way.
speaking of skype, if you don't have it, you should consider getting it. it's free and easy. but friday is the last time i'll have consistent internet access for a while. i'm moving to my new house, and it could take months to get internet set up!
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