The day I lost my watch

The best thing that could have happened to me!

Sept 3^rd, 2013

I didn’t even notice, as I walked under hanging branches, over fallen logs, and dodged vines along the rainforest trail, that I had lost it. The watch I had bought, only hours before leaving the US, from the DC drugstore, had found a new home amongst the dried leaf forest floor.

I spent the morning afterwards searching around my house but when I realized it was gone…my entire concept of times evaporated….and I almost felt free.

I spent the rest of the day creating a vertical garden out of 1.5 L empty plastic bottles. I become totally immersed and the children helped me throughout most of the day. Even when I got hungry, I made a quick snack and then was back at my construction. Even as the rain became a steady drizzle I continued my work; no longer pre-occupied with it being “time to start making lunch” or “only 2 hours until it’s dark, I better go on my daily stroll through the town so they know I’m interested in Malagasy life”.

It was so refreshing to not be concerned with what others may think or expect of me…which had been a discussion going on in my head for the past 3 months as I adjusted to life in Madagascar on my own. I think I am finally able to embrace my own life here, and that it does not revolve around others. Balancing work and rest but in the Malagasy lifestyle, is more and more natural with each passing day of my new life here.