it's been months since we left kenya.
i didn't really have reverse culture shock coming home. i live in a constant state of culture shock here. although, the everyday culture shock i live with became heightened. i've had a difficult time engaging in ordinary interactions with people. everyone else wants to talk about their week or their dog or their hair and i'm screaming inside because i want to talk about darfur or sri lanka or mogadishu. i've realized that perhaps i'm not the easiest person to have around because i'm always thinking and always questioning and rarely just 'hanging out'.
i've also kind of resented my own everyday life. being at home with kids means that the bulk of my day and mental energy is eaten up by cooking and cleaning and negotiating and the like. i love this stuff...truly i do...but i've wanted more.
and then something new started to happen a month ago. anna (5) started asking questions about things we had seen in kenya. she started asking about poverty in new ways that floored me. they were the same questions that adults ask me and i found i could be more honest with her and i found my answers moved her in a way that desensitized adults can never be moved. her and i together started to say, Hey...let's do something about all this! and then one day we walked down the street past a bike shop and saw a poster.....
