Musing on Goodness - March 7

Helloooooooo March!

While reflecting on this week and what I could tell you guys about, I realized something simple yet mind blowing: I’ve gotten to rest for this entire week despite the many adjustments inherent in my being in Brazil.

My sister went to work every morning and I had no demands on my time or attention during those periods. I slept in, had marathon devotions, read books, watched a movie (or 2 or 3) and cooked (yummy in my tummy).

Regardless, I’ve had some adjusting to do since arriving in Brazil. After all, I moved to a foreign country with a foreign language, from winterish weather to summer conditions, and from central air/heat conditioning to natural air and the steady cadence of a fan.

I was telling my sisters that the biggest adjustment (apart from the language of course) has been the weather. I went from wearing three or more layers of clothes inside the house in Virginia to barely one within a 48-hour period. This island girl is back to the weather she’s accustomed to! And even more so, since it’s a lot cooler up in the hills at Admiral’s Mountain than in Kingston on the flats.

The second adjustment has been the mosquitoes.

Open and meshless windows = nature coming inside

The mosquitoes here are ninja mosquitoes - they don’t make any noise when they’re finding succulent parts of you to bite. They’re as big as Portmore mosquitoes (in St. Catherine, Jamaica) but their bites are less potent. In fact, I don’t get welts from these and the itch from the bites resolve within a few hours. The mosquitoes, however, have the same magical ability of disappearing when you try to track or slap them as their Jamaican counterparts. My battling techniques have been improving though, and we are increasing our arsenal of weapons to destroy them. If you have any advice on battling mosquitoes then let me know.

And yet, despite the heat and the mosquitoes, I've been able to rest and recuperate and just……...be. I expect that my routine will change in the next couple of weeks, but I'm grateful for the one that just concluded.

What good things have happened to you?