Adjusting

When we first moved to England all those years ago, there was a lot to take in. The women were not equal to men, the bank system was ancient, people used checks (something I had seen my mum use when I was little) and so forth.

A lot of the foreigners I knew complained about how the country was so behind in everything. Then a friend, a foreigner herself, commented on one of the complainers: “If she really thinks it’s so bad here, then she should go back home.” That really opened my eyes. If you move into a new culture, you must adjust yourself or go back to where you came from.

England is a wonderful country, and I do love it dearly. I kept finding backward things there until I left the country for good, but I’m sure there were more forward things than backward ones. It’s wonderful how friendly people are compared to the Finns. It’s wonderful how you can paint houses different color – in Finland all similar houses in a certain area must be the same color. It’s wonderful that you can take your children to a pub for a lunch – in Finland they wouldn’t be allowed in. Who cares if the bank system doesn’t work perfectly, as it still works, and the staff smiles when they talk to you. And where else can you get such cheap flights? To me, England is perfect.

Thanks to my life in England, I feel I’m adjusting to the African life well now. Things don’t often work, but so what? I’ll either take it, or leave. The Internet seems to take a month to arrive, but this time I’m accepting the fact. Me cursing over it wouldn’t make the process any speedier.

Yesterday, India and I were at home because we hadn’t slept at night. She didn’t stop coughing until 8 in the morning. We then fell asleep and woke up at 11. We went for a walk at around one, and to our amazement they had re-surfaced the road in front of our house.

I was to pick up Matias from the school in a couple of hours, but I wouldn’t be able to get the car out. I chatted with the neighbors, who said no one had been told about the re-paving. Many people had seen the guys put up some roadwork signs in the morning, and Heikki had even talked to them. The guys had mentioned nothing about the re-paving and so everyone had assumed they were just planning to clean the street.

It was a hot day, and so the pavement had just about dried when I left to pick up Matias. I only had to drive on the newly paved surface for a matter of metres, so I risked it. I saw the paving guys when I returned from school, and asked about their future plans. They said they would re-pave the other side of the road today. I mentioned all the cars on our side of the street had been blocked by the new surface. They smiled back at me. This is my Africa.