Boy Scouts go camping

Though there were a few girls and moms that came along,

Jaffa and I had a girl weekend at home while the boys roughed it at Bombo Lumene. 

By all accounts, it was green and fun and fabulous! 

The highlights included: 

marshmallows over the campfire (Eben brought his special telescoping roasting stick that he got in Idaho), sleeping in the tent, flashlights, and hiking.

 

Sammy and Eben





We girls are going to ask the boys to take us.. soon!

Matzoh (and the history of Jews in Congo)

So, there were some Jews that came to Congo about a century ago..

(the following thanks to Wikipedia)

The territory which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first annexed and colonised by Europeans after 1885 within what was then the Congo Free State. By 1908, the Free State had itself been annexed by Belgium, becoming the Belgian Congo.

The first Jews in the Congo were Eastern European immigrants from Romania and Poland. Within the next few years, more Jewish immigrants arrived from South Africa. In 1911, Sephardi Jews came from the Island of Rhodes in what is now Greece (then part of the Ottoman Empire). The same year a Jewish community center was established named the Communauté du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. A synagogue was built in Élisabethville (now Lubumbashi) in 1930. Due to an economic crisis during the 1930s, most of the Eastern European Jews left the Congo. However, after the crisis had passed more Jews immigrated from Eastern Europe and were joined by Southern European Jews.

 

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the Congo was home to numerous Zionist organizations, led by the Association Sioniste du Congo Belge. After the independence of Congo from Belgium in 1960 the majority of Congolese Jews left the country, with most of them settling in Israel or South Africa. At the time of independence, Congo was home to 2,500 Jewish people. 50% of the Jewish population lived in Élisabethville, while 70 Jewish families lived in Congo's capital Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). Jewish children at the time were taught classes in Hebrew and Judaism in public schools.

 

In 2013, the Jewish population was around 320 and was settled mostly in Lubumbashi. Most are Sephardi and speak Ladino, a Spanish-Jewish language. There is a synagogue in Lubumbashi that is served by a rabbi. There is also small Jewish community living in Kinshasa that is known as the Congregation Israélite.

 

And so, while the synagogue is too conservative for us, one of our favorite stores is Hasson et Freres.. and not only for their matzoh section!

 

 (note: CHOCOLATE matzoh too!)

 

the Prime Minister's garden

We live next to the Prime Minister's office. 

He has a garden, a garden so beautiful that there are streams of wedding couples

that come on the weekends to take photos here. 

Blu's not allowed, but we can go hang out there (when we're not on our balcony). 

Best to go late afternoon when it's cooler.

 

Patrice Lumumba

 

and he says..

"We're going to show the world what the black man can do

when he is free to work and we will make Congo the radiance of all of Africa."

(ahem.. let's get on that, yeah?)

 

See in the background the busts of all of Congo's leaders..
starting with the white dudes.

the dudes I need in my house

In case you were wondering, Congo is Africa.  Really Africa.

  We are just starting to learn about the art here. 

These are protection statues.  I need one.  Maybe I'll get one for my birthday.

Doin' Halloween

Okay, so it wasn't chilly and it wasn't dark but--

thanks to creative Americans--

we did Halloween anyway, as

Maleficent and one of Captain America's Winter soldiers.

 

First, we did a trunk-or-treat where the kids got dressed up

 and the parents decorated their cards and the kids went

and got their candy in the Embassy parking lot. 

Some of us were dubious.. but it all worked out and

I think we got 20+ pounds of candy. 

That's what Halloween is all about, right??

Eben and his best bud Joshua

Maleficent getting some goodies from the Ambassador

scary girls!

 

Eben, Joshua and Caleb and Gideon (Joshua's brother) enjoying their stash

After this, the Marines hosted crafts and cookie decorating

and about an hour of community Halloween fun.  It was nice,

and nice to start feeling a part of the community..

we did miss flashlight tag and hosting a party, but we'll get

all that down next year when our stuff is here.

 

 

 

eyeballs on the wall

We love our love boxes.. Memere send loads of fun Halloween stuff..

including sticky eyeballs to get us in the Halloween mood!!

ES2 Kisangani - EAGLE school

About a month ago, we had a visit from one of the State Department's Deputy Assistant Secretaries and I was asked to escort her to one of our beneficiary schools just out near the airport here in Kinshasa.  Her schedule was tight, as she had a meeting with president Kabila at 10, so I had to be at her hotel at 6:30.  We then had a police escort the whole way across Kinshasa (holy crap, they go FAST through traffic.. it’s crazy) to the school where a whole pile of kids were singing a welcome song.  This is one of the schools where we do a lot of things to empower adolescent girls.. mentoring, tutoring, support groups, community awareness.. and with boys and men too so they support their girls and women.  When we got there, these lovey girls were singing a welcome song about how their home was our home.. it was lovely, and I almost cried! 

 

 

 

Then the school director, the woman in pink, gave her welcome speech.

We did a tour of the classrooms, then saw a skit that one of the girls wrote about a dying father who didn't want his daughter to go to school because the brothers needed to go and she should just get ready to be married.  And how the girl herself and her friends convinced him otherwise. Yippeee!!

Then we did focus groups with students and parents.  It was good.. we talked with five kids (3 girls, 2 boys) in 5th and 6th grades.  They are hopeful and know that girls have rights and potential like boys.  When it was their turn to ask questions, they asked for a latrine and that we please build a wall around the school so that the street boys would stop threatening to rape them. These girls were probably 10 or 11, but Jaffa’s size.  It's really hard to be confronted with the horrible things that you read about.  Certainly helps you feel committed to doing allllll of the paperwork that needs to happen to make these things work.

And here we are, all together and feeling optimistic about what we can do together!