Finding equilibrium.

     Ongoing keyboard problems have kept me from writing. All efforts so far to fix the problem have been fruitless, and the external keyboard I bought to plug into the laptop is the soft silicone kind and doesn't work so well either. So every email or other bit of typing I do is extraordinarily slow and laborious.

     I suppose it's a metaphor for so many other things here. Things are rarely as simple or straightforward as I think they ought to be, for a whole variety of reasons. Language problems, cultural gaps, a breakdown of some sort of equipment: something always makes everything more complicated than expected. My fast-talking, multi-tasking, list-making, agenda-focused thought processes are brought to a grinding halt over and over again - and then there's nothing to do but recalibrate my expectations, adjust my course, roll with the punches, sit back and wait, and/or fly by the seat of my pants.

     And so I am learning to slow down. Which, come to think of it, is part of why I wanted to be here: to slow my life down. I find it more difficult than I anticipated, but I'm learning. I've tried to make sure I get some hammock time every day, and I find that lying there looking at the sky and doing absolutely nothing is quite lovely. I'm learning to sometimes say "I'm busy right now" when someone calls and wants to come over, because people want to come over quite often.

     The weeks go by quickly. Things at the clinic are crazy most of the time, but I'm beginning to find my groove.  I find myself beginning to recognize a word or two when listening to people speak Khmer. The ride to work on my bicycle is so routine now that I listen to my iPod on the way to keep things interesting. The floods have receded and we've had a few days without rain. Jaz's friend with the broken arm is still lying on the floor of his house with bamboo and rags tied around his arm. Three Hours Laundry now takes more like 18 hours since they've been getting new customers but still have only one washer and one dryer. I think the housekeeper used Pledge on the windows again this week. We got our first electric bill, and now we know how much it costs to make all that ice. I discovered that the bill for our internet comes via a text message on my cell phone. We buy bread most mornings from the lady who comes on her bicycle with the basket of warm baguettes, and we buy hot banana fritters from another lady who fries them up on the side of the road down at the corner. The sunflowers I planted in a pot are coming up nicely.

     That about sums things up. I suppose we're finding more things to be routine, and it's interesting to note how comforting that can be. Not that there's any lack of novelty, but we seem to be finding more equilibrium.