New?

It's amazing how quickly an old life can shed away. I don't know how it goes, but it does. Sometimes it slams a door and sometimes it leaves quietly. This one's so quiet, I can't tell if it's actually shut.

This morning I woke up to the call to prayer. I took my mandi, ate my makan pagi, dressed, packed my bag and headed off to school. I greeted each neighbor with "Assalamualaikum" and gave a big cheese smile to my new friend Rio. He's 9. Did I ever not know this life. Were these faces not with me in my childhood? I'm sometimes frightened by how familiar it seems. 

The days are long. It feels already like I've been here for months. I've never realized how much you can soak up in a day. While eating makan malam with my host family, we laugh about how much I'm going to sweat once I leave the mountains. I told them I'd run back to the village if it got too hot. I gulped down my Ibu's sweet tea and felt at ease in her laughter. I could understand almost every word. Amazing. I must've dreamt this place before.