Pieds en l'air

Art exhibit at school, with the theme up "upside down". 

Here is Eben's picture holding a ball with a friend in his class on a scooter. 

They did a nice job, and had fun taking pictures for it.

Welcome Agatha and Owen

Jaffa and Eben have been waiting for their new pets since the day they brought Geckie and Sophia to the Australian school in Jakarta.  We thought they would be hamsters, but after consulting some experts, we learned that guinea pigs are more fun and interactive.  As soon as we got into our house, we headed to the pet store (don't get me started) and got the last two remaining guinea pigs.  A couple (yippee).  [Tell me if you want me to send you a guinea pig, as I'm sure we'll have more soon.]  They each claimed one, keeping with their own sex, and named them after the main characters in the books they are reading: so, Owen and Agatha.

 

 

 

Blu is VERY interested in getting to know Agatha and Owen.

 

Owen is the one with lots of white fur, and back feet that are different colors.  Agatha is mostly black.

 

They LOVE lettuce and hay and their pellets, and they drink a lot of water. 

Cage cleaning daily!!

see Blu and his eyes here too!

17 rue Lemera, Gombe (with additions)

This is what we have been waiting for!  We have moved into our house after two months in two other apartments.  You'll see that we have two balconies, and here is our view of Brazzaville (the capital of the Republic of Congo).  Did you know that Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the two geographically closest capital cities in the world?  It is also our first evacuation point.. as we would take boats across the Congo River.  But not right now given that their political situation is worse than ours.

Inside the house, we have four bedrooms, four full baths, and one half bath.  We have living room, dining room and reading corner downstairs.  And.. here is our kitchen:

and from the other direction.. you'll see more countertops, and a pantry.  It works!!  Now we just need our stuff.

 

The back story on the table is that I ordered it just before I thought we were moving in, so it arrived before we did.  The thing is, neither the carpenter or I thought to make sure that the thing could get through the door (any door!).  Nope.. so it lived in the garage for a week or so and the electricians used it.

 

I am not ready to give you the tour of the house yet, but there is this nice one of our reading corner.. it will get super stocked and spiffy, but for now, it's already appreciated!

 

I did also want to show you some of the very special things here.  First, there are several beautiful mirrors in the bathrooms..

 

And we found this very practical thing in our bathroom

Not even kidding.  It was actually hanging like that. 

Guess how long it took me to pull it out of the wall. 

There's a shower in the other corner, and who needs a curtain for the bathtub anyway?

 

There are also FOUR fantastic light fixtures in our living and dining rooms. 

Let me know if you would like me to send you one.

The furniture is the same as what we had in Jakarta, so we feel quite at home.  That said, we do have a few of these beautiful lamps that I haven't had the pleasure of living with before.  I'm happy to send you one or both of these too.

 

As we wait for all of our stuff to clear customs, Zeric has been working with Maker (our gardener, great name, right?) to get planting underway.  We are also planning the chicken coop, designing the swing set/fort, and checking into materials needed for the pizza oven.

As far as the dogs go, Mercy has her spot in the front corner of the garden so she can guard.

Blu has also assumed guard duties when he is not helping Maker by digging holes in the yard.  We have 24-hour guard service at our house, and so far, all of the guards love having Blu as their #2 guy.

So, this is home for now!  Will keep you posted on our settling in.. 

I feel a dark red wall coming on in the living room.

Buying fabric at The Beach

Now that I am back in the office five days a week (it's been awhile since this last happened), I gotta get myself some more work clothes.  I'm going to venture into tailored skirts made with African fabric, as I once did a lot of years ago in Ghana.  Mind you, these are not things that white girls can wear outside of Africa.  At least not white girls like me.  We'll see if I can even make it happen here.  Stay tuned, I will post pictures.  Even if my skirt is a bust, surely Jaffa's dress will turn out great.  [Note: All of the fabric is sold in six-yard lengths, so you'd better really like it!]

 

Zeric, on the other hand, wears all kinds of memorable things everywhere, all the time.  After much bargaining with the ladies at The Beach--which is a line of about 40 stands selling fabric on the road to the port--he now has plans to add two more shirts to his repertoire.  Both will include two patterned fabrics: one orange-and-black themed, and one pink-and-gray themed.  We'll see if Eben can get on board and agree to matching shirts with one or both of those. 

 

Thanks to Zeric's commendable observation and research skills, we learned that Dutch wax fabric originated as something that the Dutch intended to export to Indonesia, to offer a less expensive alternative to batik.  It wasn't refined enough for Indonesians, so the Dutch looked for alternative markets, and found them in Africa.  That explains why many of the designs that you see all over Africa look very much like batik designs (and my tattoo).  Nothing like a good colonial connection!

[Check out this article!!  http://www.messynessychic.com/2015/10/30/made-in-holland-the-chanel-of-africa/]

When we had bought enough fabric and Zeric had saved about $13 bargaining with the ladies, we went for a drink at the drink place just behind the fabric sellers.  The baobab tree was enormous.. and it has a corrugated metal 'skirt' under which there is a restaurant.  There were the requisite very cold beer, 45 flies on our table cloth, five semi-stray dogs running around, and the one crazy guy who wouldn't let go of my hand. Overall, a pretty tame day at the market.

Driving in Kin

I think I'm going to have a series on driving in Kinshasa.. this is #2.

 

It should be #3 but I couldn't get to my phone fast enough to take a picture of the dump truck driving down the main road in rush hour traffic with its bed fully tipped. 

 

Here, you will see one truck pulling a car using some kind of cloth through traffic and then trying to take a left turn.  We didn't stick around long enough to see how it went.  My favorite part was the look on the woman's face who was in the passenger's seat.  She was completely made up with her hair done, looking fantastic but none too impressed with the whole situation.

 

The Boy Scouts climb Mount Mangengeng

The Boy Scouts started the year with a challenge!  About 30 minutes past the airport in Kinshasa, you start the climb up Mount Mangengeng that takes you through the Twelve Stations of the Cross, straight up a steep hill in deep sand.  It's only about three kilometers to the top but the steps are triple the size that any Cub Scout can be expected to climb.  On the way down, Eben took a rest.  Our new friend Zoe is resting as well.  All the scouts (and parents) met the challenge and made it to the top!!

Chukudus

I love these combination scooter/wheel barrow units that ply the streets of Goma and multiple surrounding towns in eastern Congo and neighboring Rwanda.   

Fully home made, they are able to carry hundreds of pounds of cargo.

HEAL Africa

Sexual and Gender-based Violence victims are provided with physical, emotional, economic, legal, and psychological support via one our USAID activities in eastern Congo.  At the HEAL Africa hospital, they learn new skills that will allow them to provide for themselves and their families.

Find here a video that talks about the help their support provides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCoyo1FulmY

Feeding the children

Two critical programs at Mugungu 3 are the infant feeding and the school feeding programs.  Together they assure that the youngest residents of the camp are provided highly nutritious rations that reduce the likelihood of malnutrition. 

Pre-mixed packets are provided to the most urgent cases of malnutrition and are able provide children the resilience needed to grow and eventually start school.  

Because the displacement in this case is long-term, school feeding is also needed.  Each child receives a full meal six days a week at mid-day at school.  The class of 60 greeted us in unison when we entered and each one waited patiently while all their class-mates were served before beginning to eat on the signal of "bonne appetit" from their teacher.

Goma IDP camp Mugunga 3

Over 5,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) victimized by ongoing violence in the provinces of North and South Kivu are housed in Mungunga 3 camp just 13 kilometers outside of Goma city.  This camp is managed by the government via the National Refugee Commission, and supported by multiple donors.

This young girl, probably 5 years old, is coming back to the camp from school with her baby sister on her back.   

Helping former child soldiers heal

One of our activities in Goma focuses on integrating former child soldiers, previously recruited or kidnapped and serving in armed groups, these kids have now been liberated and are in a three to six month program to help them regain citizenship and social skills that will allow them to renter their communities.

Soccer (football) is a favorite past time when not in class. 

And math is both learned in theory... and in practice with games.

Meeting the Governor

We end our day-long meeting that brought together the government, USAID, and many of our implementing partners.  Here is my colleague Alpha with me and the Deputy Governor who spoke at the event.  Nine other line ministers were also present and all committed to assure donor and technical coordination to help improve aid effectiveness in the province.   

Goma

Zeric spent last week in Goma, a town at the north end of Lac Goma, for donor and government coordination.  A cool alpine tropical climate, coffee in the hills, heavy methane in the lake that is currently being harvested by innovative floating gas gathering units, the scenery is as lovely as the difficult history of violence that has plagued the region of the past number of decades.

Sapeurs

La Societe des Ambiances et des Personne Elegantes

SAPE or Sapeurs = The Society for the Ambiance (Mood) of Elegant People

Mostly working class, the Sapeurs are the height of Congolese working class fashion.  They represent both an ethos of elegance and an aspiration to high class living that inspires and impresses with their creativity and dedication to style.  Zeric has found his inspiration! 

USAID: another one bites the dust!

This is my picture, taken by HR last Monday morning when I signed my contract to become the new Deputy Director for the Education Office for USAID/Kinshasa.  It took me awhile to decide to 'work on the inside' as I've spent my whole career as a contractor for USAID... but the team is great, the director is a rock star (her name is Aissatou, and she's from Guinea), and one of the programs will help get two million kids in school in the next five years.  I'm on board with that!  Hope I can survive the learning curve, and that the bureaucracy doesn't crush me.  I guess I can always go hide in Zeric's office if it gets too bad!

'champion' - Eben's back in to tennis

There's lots to do here.. and Eben decided he wanted to keep playing tennis so we found Paul, the tennis instructor.  Two lessons in, and things are going really well.  Paul is the right mix of chill rasta dude and drill instructor.  And he calls Eben "champion". It's sweet, and Eben's pretty good!!

If you are wondering about that stunningly beautiful purple building in the background, that's a cell provider.  Their colors are purple and orange.  I'm threatening to paint Eben's room those colors ;)  It's actually a can't-be-missed landmark as we figure out this part of the city!

And then.. the day that Paul couldn't make it, Eben assumed a leadership position on the court!

The Belgian butcher

Lots of great Belgians here.. give that it was their colony and all.  This one is a great butcher.  Give that I'm headed back to being a vegetarian, we saved our first visit for Saturday when Zeric could be there.  It was pretty impressive.. all cuts of cow, pig and sheep, some of which was prepared or just marinated.

.   

They also have lots of sausages (including the blood sausages that the French like so much),

and ham--the kids' fav for sandwiches. 

Sending our bad stuff down the river

Another visit to the river. This time, it was to send our bad stuff away for the new year.  I've figured out the flour and yeast well enough, so we all said our prayers, wished for a good year to come, and sent all the nasties westbound with chunks of challah.  While looking across the river at Brazzaville.

 

Just like Beyonce

One really great thing here is that our internet seems to be working well (knock on wood, and crossing fingers and toes).  So, we've been FB junkies and watching videos to keep ourselves in good spirits.  A few weeks ago, we got onto talking about Beyoncé's All the Single Ladies, and Justin Timberlake's spoof.  So we watched the videos.. then the kids went off for baths. 

 

Suddenly, a freshly showered Jaffa showed up singing "I'm a single lady".  We all laughed very, very hard!! 

   

I'm planning to keep this photo for a long time..

I'm sure there will be a time when it will be appropriate to bring it out again ;)

RIP Mercy

Mercy and Blu arrived in Kinshasa two days after we did, from Jakarta via Paris.  We hadn't seen each other in two months, so we were very very happy to be reunited!

 

Pretty soon after arriving, Mercy was having a hard time.. we thought that maybe she was just stressed from the trip, but it was her kidneys.  Dr. Pierre, the Belgian vet here, was wonderful with his explanations and advice.  Finally, it became obvious that things were going badly, and bloodwork confirmed it.  He helped us let Mercy go peacefully on September 18th.  We are so very sad, and miss her so very much.  At the same time, we are grateful that she was strong enough to make it back to us so that we could love her, and hold her and help her for her last days.  We kept reminding ourselves that, when she became a member of our family, that what we really wanted was to make her last years good ones.  We did that.. she knew how much we love her.  Blu too!

 

Blu kept finding ways to get close to her.

wearing Zeric's sunglasses

We are all a little lost without Mercy's big snores, good zen, wiggly stubby tail, and gentle eyes.  We hold her close in our hearts, and let Blu snuggle into us a little closer.  Luckily, we were able to bury her in the yard of the house where we will soon be living, so she will be with us there too.

Rest in peace, Mercy. 

We feel so lucky for the two years you blessed our lives, you will always be in our hearts.