Lost and Found

What I left behind: Real milk, brushing my teeth from the sink, understanding how my friends think (I’ve had to start over), water warm to shave my legs without butchering them, my boyfriend, my family, Ivanhoe’s, anytime internet, constant highway traffic noise, tornadoes, daily mail, bad allergies, dessert, coffee (it’s too strong here for my stomach ), normal driving rules, seatbelts, dryers, Mexican food, China One, my hoodie (oops), sitting in the grass (too many mosquitoes), apples, corn fields, flat nothingness, taking showers barefoot, being able to cook/bake whenever I wanted, going places by myself, driving, Polar Pops

What I have now: 16 best friends that will last for (hopefully) the rest of my life, Coke in a glass bottle, a bedtime, limited internet access, taxi rides for only $1 (once the whole group splits the cost), riding in the bed of a small pickup truck with 9 other people, street dramas (there’s something cool about dodging motorcycles as you portray the message of Jesus), bleach-stained clothing (we use a LOT of bleach here), clothes that smell like gross rain (our clothes never dry fast enough to avoid the rain in the afternoons), hurricanes, expensive phone calls, palm trees, fresh coconut milk (yum!), constant music of various genres, daily use of bug spray, BON ice cream, hand-washing clothes, white rice, brown rice, rice with corn, rice with beef, rice with veggies, rice with chicken, a padlocked front gate, tostones (fried plantains), beautiful mountains