I noticed something the other day and thought it would make good blog fodder. The lines between foreign and familiar for me here have dissolved into one another. Let me explain what I mean by sharing the story which really made me start thinking about this.
I was walking through a neighborhood in a very nice part of town the other day. Home to large houses, nice to extremely expensive cars, and families probably more well off than I'm used to even in the States. I walked around a corner to see a Bedouin and his herd of goats walking through someone's yard. Many of the goats were chomping away at grass, bushes, and anything they could find. The man was dressed in typical rural-like garb. I can remember a time when this would've made me think something was odd with this situation. But somehow over the past year and a half the site of goats being herded next Mercedes and through yards became normal.
This part of the world is so mixed with parts of the old with the new. So much so that I've managed to compile both old and new into the same working concept in my mind. Mercedes and goats. It's just the way it is here. And it made me realize, this is normal everyday life for me.
No longer is it odd to walk through a neighborhood hung with streamers and full of Arabic graffiti.
No longer is it odd to go for a run and hear shouts in Arabic as the children chase after me.
No longer is it odd to see cats scatter out of trashcans as I throw out garbage.
No longer is it odd to see the dome and minaret of a mosque when I go to the park.
No longer is it odd to see drivers stick their hand out in order to "push" their way through traffic.
No longer is it odd to hear the call to prayer when I'm sitting and reading.
No longer is this just some place I live, but it is now my home. A part of me. The people. The food. The culture. The language. The things I love. The things that I don't love. The things I still don't understand, but accept because that's the way it is - like Mercedes and Goats. Who knew?
