What's Your Normal?

I was talking with a friend recently about our life here, and she commented, "You know, your 'normal' is just different than most people's 'normal.'" Since then, we've had fun taking note of some of the things we see and do every day that may not seem so commonplace to some of you. Here are some things we thought about:

Our normal is...

• seeing multiple donkey carts ride down our street everyday
• passing donkey carts while doing 60 mph down major highways
• choosing whether to vacation on the Red Sea or the Mediterranean
• daily riding in taxis older than Beth
• having several meals each week delivered to our door--and not just pizza!
• having almost anything delivered to our door--appliances, prescription drugs, groceries, freshly ironed clothes
• being considered strange because we put our kids to bed "early," when "early" means any time before midnight
• living for Thursday, since Friday and Saturday are our weekend
• scheduling a time to meet with a friend, then waiting half an hour after the appointed time to even leave the house, because you know they'll be at least that late
• beginning to prepare any dinner by first lighting the oven with a match
• making frequent stops whenever we're out so people can take pictures of our kids with their camera phones
• a washing machine that take 3 hours to wash one load--3 hours!!!
• riding so close to other cars than you could reach out and touch them
• seeing entire families riding on one moped, and entire extended families riding in one compact car

Our life here is certainly not "normal" by American standards, but it's perfect for us. We're so grateful for the experiences we've had here, and for all we've learned about ourselves and these beautiful people.