what have you done with my husband?

Since arriving in Arusha, it's been interesting for me to note the considerable changes in our topics of conversation. Things that we would never talk about at home have become everyday discussions. Things like water: "Do we have it? Enough for the week?" "Do we have enough of Eleanor's water?" "Should we get some more just in case?" "You can get it for 75 shillings less per 1.5 L at Pick 'N Pay compared to Shoprite." Roads: "I think we live on the worst road in Arusha, have you seen the new crevasse near Jackie's house?" "Did you see that they added another speed hump on the Simeon road?" "This new traffic light has a different flow than the first one and it's screwing up the flow of traffic." "The road will probably be terrible after the rain last night, we better wait a few hours before going out."  And the whole of the class of insects: "Did you see the size of the moths flying in the kitchen tent last night? One of them dove right at my headlamp." "There were ants in the kitchen again today." "Have you heard the beetles and new hatching of flies around that tree in the front yard?" "Can we please open the car windows to see if we can get some of these flies to leave?" 

This afternoon, sitting in traffic, I heard Tim say to Gabriel "What kind of car is that, is that a Land Cruiser? It doesn't look like a Land cruiser." Gabriel replied that it was, in fact, the new Land Cruiser from Japan. "Wow," Tim said without a hint of sarchasm. "That's a good looking car. And look at those tires. Those are nice tires. Much better than the tires on this Duladula. Those are great tires." And after a short pause, "That's a good looking car."

I should not be surprise by Tim's response. As I said, some of the strangest topics have become regular dinner-time discussion. But this...this man gawking at an automobile in the turning lane...was not the person I married. When did he become interested in cars? And how does he know what a "good tire" looks like?

As Tim had this conersation with no one but himself, impressed over the size of the treads on the spare tires, I couldn't help but think "Who are you, and what have you done with my husband?"