Made it to Memere's house!

After 6 hours to Addis and 12 more to Dulles, we finally arrived at Memere's house!

We all got comfy, and Blu found a snuggle partner..

...and of course, there was the basement full of toys!

Some jetlag...

...and chilly weather and holiday decorations!

Getting ready for the holidays

It still seems funny to be getting ready for the winter holidays in the tropics--and we still have that weird thing about figuring out what to do about a Christmas tree/Hanukkah bush.. but we decorate anyway, and Blu kinda got in the way.

And we had the Holiday show at school which went through holidays all over the world. It was cute, and now we know that Eben can sing in Japanese and Jaffa knows the story of Holi (Hindi festival of lights)!

Headed to the US

Our first evacuation in October was a strange experience, and then came the anticipation in the months before the last day of Kabila's last term (December 19).. but the Governor of Kinshasa had banned demonstrations so things stayed relatively quiet. A good thing, and a bad thing. Nevertheless, we were told that we had to be out of Kin by December 14th, and so we packed up the house and put Blu in his crate and headed back to the US for the holidays. In booking Blu's ticket, I made friends with Mr Asnake at Ethiopian Airlines, who helped us once we got to the airport with Blu AND put us on the fancy bus from the terminal to the plane. It was a super fancy 3 minutes and a great start to our trip!

Flowers in Zeric's garden

One of the fantastic things about DRC is how fast things grow, and how many different kinds of plants there are! Zeric and Maker have so many beautiful flowers in our garden (and banana trees and papaya trees, and all kinds of other things too!).

This one is the one from the tree that we planted for Mercy on top of her grave. It's beautiful just like her, and it smells very sweet <3 

Swim gala

On Friday, the elementary school had a swim gala. Zeric went up to cheer the kids on.. and said it was like a non-competitive swim competition. It was pretty intense!

Swim Gala for Grades 3, 4, & 5

• Bobbing for one minute (holding onto side or independently)
• Front and back glides – THREE TIMES EACH
• Dive & Freestyle width of pool – flip turn – ONCE
• Dive & Breaststroke width of pool – ONCE
• Dive & Butterfly width of pool – flip turn – ONCE
• Concurrent: Dive from block and swim underwater length of pool – TWICE
• Concurrent:  Enter from slide and swim underwater width of pool – TWICE

 

there was, however, time to be goofy..

mark, set, go!

helping each other out..

some moments of stress?

The kids said it went well, and they felt good about having done it.

Lots of great new things to learn from at TASOK!

Thanksgiving

We did not host Thanksgiving again this year, but we sure did do some cooking!

We made pies and rolls and ice cream and salad.. and then headed over to the Schaans late afternoon.

Chris, Michelle, Bella and Kat welcomed us, along with their dog, cat, rescue bird, and cameleon named Blaze. 

Zeric making magical pie crust

Bella's rose napkins

Two kinds of green beans and stuffing, chickens and a turkey.. and mashed potatoes of course!

and squashes... yum!

We were also there with the de Marcken-Sampson family.. 

so the kids table was (clockwise from Eben) - Eben, Bella, Mia, Jaffa, Kat
and Leo (yes, he is holding a turkey leg).

The grown-ups were (clockwise from Zoey) - 

Zoey, Chris, Zeric, Natasha, Adam, Michelle, and Aaron

We ate and ate and ate.. and drank.. and then ate pie! There was apple, cherry, pecan and pumpkin.

And then.. brought but not eaten.. was Jaffa's first ever pie: kiwi custard! 

We ate it the next day, when we could really appreciate it.. and it was fantastic!!

TASOK Flag Day

It was a celebration of all of the nationalities at TASOK, and it was wonderful!

The flag parade started with DRC, of course, followed by at least two dozen other countries.. in a school with about 350 students!

The Americans were near the end, but showed up in force!

And these cute little Koreans looked fantastic in their national dress!

and so then.. everyone got ready and stood where they were supposed to.. 

and the camera guy gave instructions

(this makes my stomach flip flop just looking at it!)

and ta da!! the wifi symbol 

(to compensate for what we don't have much of here!!)