Time

Time is the great equalizer. We all get the same number minutes in an hour and the same number of hours each day and the same number of days in a week. Race, religion, socioeconomic status doesn’t matter. We are all given the same amount of time in a week! However, it’s kind of incredible how the perception of that time changes depending upon what is occupying that time. To say that my last two weeks have been a whirlwind would be somewhat of an understatement.

Two weeks ago today (Friday), I was in a public transportation van traveling from Jos back to Jalingo so that I could attend graduation at JSS. Time crept along as I stared alternatively at my phone and at huts as they whizzed by waiting enter a village to get cell phone service and could text. (I’d already finished the last book I’d brought along and everyone around me was sleeping!)

Time seemed to miraculously shift into warp speed as I tried to maximize the last 36 hours spent with one of my best friends in the whole world before being oceans a part for an indefinite period time. There’s an axiom that states the length of a minute depends on what side of the bathroom door you’re on. I can attest that this holds true based on a 36-hour scale as well since I spent the following 36 hours between airports!

Today, I am sitting in a hammock in my backyard in El Salvador watching bright-yellow birds flit about landing on various tropical, flowering plants, listening to the new mixture of birds and bugs that will soon feel like home. Time has returned to a more relaxed pace from the frenzied speed that it traveled during my 3-day layover in the US. I’m hoping that my perception of time over the next two weeks settles into a new normal. To continue on in the manner of the previous two weeks would inevitably result in metaphorical whip lash!