Before coming here we either gave away stuff, sold stuff at a yard sale, scrapped it, put it in storage or brought it with.
So the other day I was looking for something I owned, and I stopped and thought...
"wait, do I still have this? and if I do... where is it?"
It's an odd place to be in mentally... knowing that you formerly owned something.
AND THEN, if you can convince yourself that you still have it, and get up the energy to begin... you can search through the many boxes you haven't opened yet that it might possibly be in.
And ironically, we inventoried everything we brought so that this wouldn't happen.
It's more a funny moment than anything.
Like that moment when you're walking and suddenly you forget where you were going and what you were about to do? Some folks call those "senior moments" but even at the tender young age of 33 I have them regularly when busy.
So here is an interesting moment in our culture that unless you've spent time here you really wouldn't appreciate or fully understand. You really never throw anything away here. So when you're done with something you can give it (or sell as some do) away. But, because we all live so closely, you also put your name on the equipment that often gets brought together and lost. Umbrellas, basketballs, stuff like that, often you'll see a name on it in sharpie pen, or several names with prior names scribbled out.
You know an item has been around a long time by how many names it has on it. Each name a previous owner.
Well we live in the house formerly occupied by [Last Name Hidden for security reasons].
So last night, as my wife and I were talking in the living room, we heard three kids dart for a snack in the kitchen and my daughter yells out
"Okay, but I get the cup that has Joy [Last Name] written on it!"
We laughed. It was such an odd thing to hear and something you might not here anywhere else.
It was a "I'm a missionary on a missionary-center" cultural moment.
Those happen almost daily.
For example, the other day I was looking at a video of my nephew whom I haven't seen for 6 months taking his first steps and something felt very ODD about it.
Finally I realized it was because the floor had carpet on it. Something you don't see a lot of here because of the climate.
Another moment is when you're watching a movie and feel like the driver is on the wrong side of the car... and road, then you realize... oh yeah this movie was made in America.
