Culture Stress Day

I had my first "I hate Africa" day this week. As I was walking to where I catch the taxi to go to work on Tuesday I found myself getting really annoyed by the fact that it's impossible to walk on the sidewalks here without feeling like you're in danger of breaking your neck because they are all uneven and broken up in odd places. When you do find an occasional well-tiled sidewalk, you also find they have planted palm trees right in the middle of the side walk forcing any pedestrians off into the street every five feet or so (which is especially annoying when the palm tree has a car parked next to it)... So on this particular morning I was taking the lead of the locals and walking in the middle of the street. I live on a one way street, so as an SUV came barrelling towards me (dodging the cars parked on either side of the street), I ducked in between a couple of cars parked on one side and waited for the SUV to rumble past. I didn't get annoyed until they had past and I started back down the street, only to hear them backing up behind me causing me to look for another space to duck into. That was when it hit me, "I hate Africa"! Immediately I recognized that emotion. I had experienced the same feeling living in Belgium and France. There were just days when I wanted to scream, "I HATE Belgium!!!" or I HATE France!!!" On those days all the little nuisances of life there became reasons to HATE the country. But looking back now I can say, "No, I didn't hate Beglium (or France), I loved it." It's funny to experience opposite emotions at the same time. So on Tuesday, when that "I hate Africa" thought popped into my head, I knew to recognize it as a combination of culture stress and lack of sleep. All day the little things bugged me - like being hot without airconditioning, and having to go for the THIRD day in a row to help someone buy a cell phone (that's a whole 'nother story!), and craving a Starbucks (or Liquid Highway!) Coconut Mocha Frappaccino all day... But I made a point to get a decent amount of sleep and felt much better about life & Africa on Wednesday.