Oh Wait, I Actually LIVE in Africa!

Tricia's mom is arriving in less than two weeks for a month-long visit. We're all super excited and we can't wait for her early morning BA flight to touch down, especially because the kids know that grandma is coming but only in a general sense and we plan on waking them at the crack of dawn (if they haven't already woken us) and taking them to the airport without telling them why. I'm sure they'll figure it out on the way there but at least they'll sleep the week before.

So in light of her upcoming visit, here's what we've been thinking about lately. Zambia has really become home for us in so many ways. The sights, sounds and smells that used to awe, astonish, frighten, or amaze me now just pass by with little notice. In other words Zambia has become our new normal. But with grandma coming we've really been looking around more and trying to imagine seeing it with her eyes. What about all the garbage, the mud or dust depending on the day, the poverty, the traffic, the beauty and vegetation, our zambian children, everything? It's really given me an eye to actually SEE Zambia again. It helps that rainy season is here. In Washington you would never have a day where you wake up to no power, the sun's up with heat and the massive amounts of rain that soaked the earth during last night's storms are creating a steamy, muggy, almost foggy morning. The sound of ten thousand crickets and other bugs whirring and chirping, frogs crrrreeeeeeeeking, our children singing songs in nynjana all morning while working on coloring, or they're picking termites out of dewey grass and putting them in a bucket of water for lunch. The mud road to Ciyanjano gets deep and bright orange and brighter green vegetation starts creeping into everything. It's amazing and beautiful. Suddenly we're having many moments lately where we really see, smell, feel like we're actually living in Africa. And we love it.