Silver and Gold

Before I moved to Nigeria, I went through a time (which I try not to think about..Emmy knows what I'm talking about) where I just couldn't even begin to ever think I could ever be happy here.  I thought to myself,

 "How will I survive in a developing country?"  

"How can I ever feel safe?" 

And most importantly," How can I leave my friends and family back in the U.S.?"   

After almost two years, I can say that 

"Yes, indeed, I can survive in a developing country!" 

"Yes, I can feel safe (of course the level of safety is always relative)!" 

And "Yes, I am away from my friends and family in the U.S., but I can still stay connected to them through the phone and Internet (thank goodness for those blessings!)"

  But, something else happened to me while living here.  Something happened that I didn't really expect to happen at all.  I never really expected to find such great friends here in Nigeria.  I was so worried about everything else that it didn't even occur to me that there would be wonderful people here who were thinking the same things as I was.   Living on a compound in a developing country is hard some days and fun on the others, but the one great thing about it is that we are all in this crazy place together.  When you live in a different country along with so many others who are also not in their native country, there is something that binds you together.  It's strange and fun how quickly you become friends and how you do so many things together.  Should I even dare to say that your friends here start to feel as if they are like family????!!!! ( I guess I just did!) 

Tonight , some of my great friends took me out for an early birthday dinner since we will all be going our separate ways this summer and won't see each other until August.  If someone told me 10 years ago that I would be sitting in Nigeria in a sushi restaurant with friends from the U.S., Colombia and Sweden all at the same table having a great time, I would have thought that person was crazy!  

My Lagos buddies!

But, here I am in Nigeria eating sushi with friends from the U.S., Colombia and Sweden......who's crazy now???!!!

Tonight when I got home I couldn't stop that song I learned from Brownies going over and over in my head.  Some of you may know it...it's the "meet new friends but keep the old...one is silver and the other's gold" song.   I am so thankful and blessed to have my dear friends who have always been there for me before I moved here and who are still there for me now.:)  And, I am equally blessed to be able to have great friends here to help make my life brighter.  There is no way I would be able to be happy here without these great ladies!:)  Because , let's face it...."us girls have to stick together" whether we're silver or gold.:)