Bananas

This morning, I was cutting up a banana to put in my bowl of cereal. As I was adding the banana to my cereal, I reflected that the bananas are the perfect size here. There is just enough banana for your cereal and that's it. And I thought to myself, "bananas are so much bigger in the U.S. - what do they do with the extra?"

Hmm, what an interesting thought... what do they do with the extra?

Toto, I don't think we're talking bananas anymore.

Here, we don't really have extra. We buy just enough food to last us a few days, and when we basically have nothing left to eat, we buy some more. All of us packed relatively minimally - we have enough clothes to last us a few weeks, we do laundry, and we're ready to start fresh. We have water for just a few hours per day, yet it's enough for us to get by. If we can't take a shower today, we can try again tomorrow. Even the cell phones we have are pretty primitive: calls and T-9 texting. But it works.

We have enough. (Or perhaps even more than enough, depending on how you look at it.)

But back home in the states, there's so much extra. Extra food, extra clothes, extra water, extra gadgets and apps on our cell phones. What on earth do we do with the extra?!

I don't mean to call out anyone specifically, and I don't want to come across as accusatory to our loyal readers in the states. I just want to reflect on a personal mindset that has changed since I've been down here. I'm realizing that a lot of what I grew up with as normal is seen as "extra" to most of the world. And when this year is over, what am I going to do with that extra?

Just some food for thought. ;)

-Nicole