Flowers, Typical

I know I always wax poetic about flowers on campus, and this year I have seen most of them before, but it is just gorgeous to live here. Spectacular.

First my gorgeous white flowers from my friend Pippa. Not as awesome as Frangipanni, but close, and in convenient flower form instead of large tree.

Then they multiplied! Love this early morning shot. 

Something sort of like Birds of Paradise outside my living room window:

My favorite dark green and purple stumpy plant with it's cute white flowers hidden down by it's leaves. You can see the dirt from where the rain splashes it up onto the leaves. 

Pretty white flowers in my yard:

And what I believe to be baby and adult Flamboyant tree flowers:

My favorite for last, a shot of a fallen yellow blossom on some broken road concrete. These blooms, like the white ones from Pippa above, are also a close second on my favorite flower list after my Frangipani obsession. 

 I hope to see (or at least send mail) to all of you when I am home, but for now, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Warm New Year Greeting from Ellen and Davy in Congo.

Cats of Campus

So this post may not be as epic as I like, but you will get the idea. Other than Davy, many cat characters inhabit the campus. So many, in fact, that we are a little worried it's going to negatively affect the birds! So I thought I would give a little overview. Friends and I enjoy interpreting the various cat personalities to imagine a veritable cat soap opera going on around us... frankly I don't think it's that much of a stretch. I am sure there are cat politics aplenty!

Davy mid-yawn

This is Muwah, who my neighbors 'inherited' as part of their house (with their permission) The housekeeper fed her for the summer and then they met her when they arrived with me in August of 2014. She is very demanding.... very very demanding... whether it is to be let in, let out, fed, petted, or anything, she makes sure she gets her way. Attitude to spare. Love to see her regally sitting on her porch, though this picture was taken in my yard. She is very vocal and will usually reply when you say her name.

Her mom Luna moved to campus with my last spring roommate - very very shy and retiring, she doesn't make many appearances except to be fed and never bonded with me well at all. However, the new inhabitant of my roommate and I's house agreed to 'inherit' her as part of her house and they have bonded very well. Luna also likes to relax on her porch (in or out).

Tinkerbell also moved to campus with my roommate last spring and spent a lot of time bonding with me, more than my own cat at that time! She is very affectionate and loves everyone and everything - pretty much the most pleasant cat of the bunch (I will admit that Davy looks cute but is not the most nice to everyone, he is rather territorial haha) She now lives with my former roommate's future son-in-law who took her job and also took this picture!

As you can kind of see from these pictures (and I am also biased) Congo cats (Congo-born cats) are different than Davy... Their legs tend to be shorter and they are smaller than Davy (not that Davy is large). There are many other cats on campus, two at the far end, one that the new superintendent 'inherited' from the previous one, two VERY talkative cats who are Tinkerbell's neighbors and another large male cat who is Luna's neighbor, and that is only upper campus. On lower campus we have an indoor cat, I believe the only one around.

We also have a wild civet cat that occasionally makes an appearance, just to round out the bunch. Never dull, in the human or cat world, here!

Symphonie des Arts Holiday Show!

Hello! Spent a lively afternoon at the Symphonie des Arts (local ballet school) holiday show. One of my students, as well as many others from grades 2-6 (and up) from TASOK participated and did an amazing job. The location is a lovely plant filled garden that includes essentially a covered picnic area that is filled with Christmas merchandise, food and MANY hot parents, siblings, and associated onlookers such as myself. (Without enough chairs!) Through some bizarre and insane turn of events, I did not seem to be the most uncomfortably hot one there (I had napped before and that had maybe regulated my temperature?) which is very unusual for me! So I had a lovely time. First was a stop at the oldest church in Kinshasa (very close to the dance school) for a view of their lovely garden (Frangipani obsession! Look how perfect! Even the spiraled buds!)

and the Brazzaville bridge they are slowly building on the other side of the Congo.

Photo Credit:Emily 

We were greeted upon arrival by this huge angel, Christmas tree and the nutcracker you can see behind it. 

We had a fair amount of time to spare before the show (we were trying to get seats, too late for that, so we shopped instead!) Here is a sample of the goods on display, this aisle was all stuff from the nice store that the dance school runs. You can also see the decoration of the building in the background.

I am so glad my Christmas shopping is all done! So I could just enjoy looking. Incidentally this store is where I finished my shopping (when it is located in the dance school, not in the outdoor area) so you might be looking at your gift! haha. I went on a quest to find more chairs... and ended up finding this stork instead, because apparently a dance school and store also needs a stork?!?! Only in Congo.

I was supposed to be taking the month off from Nice cream, but it was so hot - you can see our fans in the picture - that I couldn't resist the incredibly yummy treat provided by another recital-goer in our group. (Thanks Marie!) You can see the decor and stage in the background, as well as one of the dance teachers in a Santa outfit handing out the programs. Overall a fine (and warm!) Kinshasa afternoon spent! Still acquiring the pictures for my next post, slowly but surely! Next weekend! 

Photo Credit: Nikki

Miscellaneous (Read: Cat)

Sorry for the short miscellaneous post this week, I have a concept for the next one but haven't taken all the pictures to go with my idea yet, so this will have to do.

First, my swag from Kinshasa's very own Oktoberfest held at the dance studio in town. A very surreal experience. The cookie (and many other things) were imported from Germany... at a discount we assume because Kinshasa Oktoberfest is always almost (if not actually) in November!

My extremely photogenic cat. I cannot get enough of him... so glad he is here with me.

Here he is again, napping today while I chatted with a friend.

New pagne! I need to stop buying.. but the one on the right, yoyo bird, I have been coveting for almost a year now. I was avoiding it because of the red, but eventually caved. The one on the left was just screaming my name. Anyone who knows me knows about my purple/green combo obsession.

Davy the cat model posing with my final two pagnes (I think I am totally fulfilled forever... need to be or I will be broke. (Not from the fabric but from the tailor costs! I have a good inexpensive tailor, but with the amount of fabric here I need a lot made!) I am justifying it because it is so much more rainy therefore hot and humid than last year and pagne does breathe better than some other fabrics that I was able to wear last year without a problem.) The one on the left is a very classic common print that everyone has, but I was unable to find a color combo that I liked until now... I will get a shirt made where your head takes the place of the large green inner circle, it seems everyone in Kinshasa has one. We were looking through old yearbooks of TASOK from 30 years ago and people had shirts in this print... apparently it's timeless. Fell in love with the pagne on the right several weeks ago - Davy has approved from day one as you can see below. Not sure what it will be, but the purple is so deep and gorgeous and the blue is very me. I will keep you posted with my new outfits once I call the tailor and set up an appointment between my many basketball practices!

That's all for now! Have a good week! 

More Flowers

Hello there!

Thought I would try to upload some more photos of the gorgeous foliage that is around... it is all so beautiful. The verdict is in, this rainy season is much rainier than last year, which is adding more excitement to planning outdoor events. Not to jinx us, but no indoor recess yet however. Whew.

Davy and I apparently have a new pet snail who invited himself (or perhaps Davy invited) onto our porch one night. Love it. They make the coolest 'spit' trails that you see in the mornings.

The only flowers that I know of in Kinshasa that were grown from seeds from the Enosburg Pharmacy! 

Some of my favorite purple blooms in pretty light... they remind me a little of Chickory how they kind of glow ultravioletly in the right light.

Flamboyant blossoms on the ground with leaves from a nearby tree - I always think of fingernails, and babysitter's fingernails and then the moon when I see them.

The flamboyant tree in bloom.

Troll hair tree giving off troll hair.

Happy Weekend!

Lists: Love 'em or Hate 'em

Happy weekend to all! This stream of consciousness post will encompass just about everything... and nothing... I know the internet loves to hate lists, but I have always liked them myself, and since this is my tiny corner of the internet, I get to do what I want. You can read it or not! haha (One thing I forgot from last week: There are JAC trucks to go with the TATA and MAN trucks. And only like 2% of the cars are fancy. The rest are.... junky. Car fixing in Kin is not easy or cheap.)

Stream of Consciousness:

•             LONG overdue note from about 2 months ago: I was doing reading testing with my students in an office in the library, which is in the same building with first and third grade. We had a productive morning and were readying for a similar afternoon when a student and I heard "Shuffle Shuffle" from the lowest shelf of some cabinets in the office. We looked over, and saw a lizard like the one below: about a foot long with the tail, so fairly large, just hanging out. The child was unperturbed, impressive since the kids in my class make a HUGE deal about every bug in our classroom, but after the "Shuffle Shuffle" interrupted the third kid (they are doing a timed reading test so the distraction was bringing their scores down somewhat) I had to take action. I ushered the child out (they were finished) and grabbed a trash can and a clip board. I brushed the lizard into the trash can and covered the top with the clip board, then attempted to proceed to an exit, with a fair amount of fairly loud remarks (ie scream muttering) that the poor library assistant was very confused by. Of course, only a few feet out of the office, the lizard jumped out of a crack between the top of the trash can and the clipboard and started running around the library, so I (screaming continuing) tried to brush him out of the library using the clip board. It turns out that one of the library exit doors has a large gap between it and the ground - and he left without us having to open a door. Think we may have solved the mystery of his presence. The library assistant also christened me a commando for my performance (not sure that commandos do that much screaming while dealing with lizards) so that was an entertaining "Only in the Congo" day. 

• Because we are under the equator, we don't have much for 'seasons' per say, but when we arrive back in August it is the fairly temperate 'dry season' which would have been going on since about June. This can lead to dry brown foliage and absent water in our houses. TASOK has city water, but it doesn't work a lot of the time in dry season, so there are reserves within the campus, but they aren't always enough. Learning the art of the bucket bath made me feel VERY VERY thankful for the running water I have most of the time. Rainy season has begun (apparently last year's rainy season wasn't that rainy) and we are getting more and more hot each day (seems more intense than last year at this time) but our water challenges didn't stop. The reserve tanks for our house (which are now full thanks to the increased water in Congo) were not feeding our new hot water heaters, hence more bucket baths. A pump was installed, and voila, consistent hot showers. I feel so lucky every time I get in. Especially considering that SO MANY people within a 5 mile radius of my house NEVER have the luxury of a hot shower. Ever. Also, read an interesting account about the ramifications of power outages (something we are so lucky to never have for long, due to our great generators) here.

  

  You can't quite see the reserve tanks for our house, but they are to the left between that large tree and our building.

• Congo is in quite an interesting political time of late. In news that that is just really difficult for my VERY privileged brain to even remotely comprehend, there is an 'election calendar', but no money to follow it... so therefore the provincial elections can't take place and the Presidential one can't happen until those provincial ones do. So red tape. And frustration. Especially for the many Congolese who haven't been counted in a census in years (ie they have turned 18 within the last several years) so they won't be on voter rolls even if a vote can happen. (I think I heard somewhere at some point that anyone who wants to run for President can. Which means the ballot is like 10 feet long. Which means that it costs a lot to print, in a country where money is not easy to come by or even remotely fairly distributed. Oh dear.) Aunt Laurel found a GREAT article about the whole situation here. (My extra two cents: There is no Congolese Secret Service. While the President is not following the rules by staying in office, it is not really overly safe for him to step down either. Though if he had been fairer in office, perhaps it would be safer to leave it. Who knows. Above my pay grade. Do hope no one finds me talking about the President in my tiny corner of the internet.) The President has been doing his best to ensure that he is well thought of by reopening a financially-insolvent-in-the-past Congolese airline and EPICALLY revamping the Kinshasa Airport to the extent that I thought I had returned to a different country. Seriously. Before, either your paid helpers would come get you at baggage claim and actually help you with your bag(s), or unwanted 'helpers' could accost you at baggage claim and grab your bags so you were basically obligated to pay them to get your bags back whereas now none of these people are allowed in. Watching people who have never gotten their own bags attempt to steer baggage carts stacked full of TVs and fancy luggage that is ALL shrink wrapped in that plastic stuff does make one giggle. And also:

  

  A bakery. An awesome fancy bakery. In the airport. AH-mazing!
  
  

Heard on my (stellar) run this morning

• 1 "You are strong" from a walking club lady in her jogging pants, white walking polo and baseball cap. Walking clubs are exercise clubs in Kinshasa that usually meet on weekends. In matching shirts. And walk. 
• 2 "Courage" (typical thing to say to a runner, means good job, keep going) one of which I am sure came from the Congolese Teed Lawyer (awesome neighbor from home)            
• 5 "Mundele" Yes, I know I'm white, you know I'm white, and wouldn't it be nicer if you could think of something more productive to say that that? (Good for me to be the minority for a change and deal with it, though being the minority here is NOT like being a minority in the US, I am pretty sure of that.) Although one of these "mundeles" came with a greeting in Lingala ("Mbote") that I wasn't sure I had heard (no one ever speaks to me in Lingala: English, French, Whistle, Chinese (oh dear) but not Lingala!) so I didn't return it! Sad!
• 1 "Cherie"/prolonged whistling/"I love you" from a balcony, which I ignored.
• 1 "What's your name?" from some super cute kiddos
• Some intense hen clucking from a chicken running around with her cute chicks behind her (prompted me to remember the hilarious duck v. cat fight I saw a few weeks ago)
• At least 6 "Bonjours"
• One pack of soccer boys who I often see training were commenting about my route... so secret's out, I guess, they all know I run to Kintambo haha
• Two older ladies in BEAUTIFUL pagne dresses and head wraps greeting each other before heading into church
• And, on my final corner, EXACTLY when I was commenting to myself that I hadn't had one yet today, a "Yamado" from a moto. It's a song lyric from a super fun Congolese song... I have asked multiple people and no one yet knows exactly why anyone would yell this song lyric at a runner, but I will keep asking. And keep smiling about getting them. Because happiness. 
• So I guess this is why I run without my headphones on Sunday morning... and why I run outside the gates at all, when I can go out at 6am on a Sunday and see EXPONENTIALLY more people than the population of Bakersfield, Vermont in one 4 mile run. 

Things I will miss (in no particular order, I am sure there will be more)

• Lawnmowing with a machete. Yes, you read that right, outside our compound at the military base they mow the lawn with machetes. Smaller carbon footprint. WEIRD angle.
• Street noises: Making mouth noises and clacking wooden sticks together to get attention for your wares (usually on your head) The egg boys (boys with hard boiled eggs balanced on their heads to sell you with pili-pili salt (spicy salt)) usually do this. My own home made pili-pili salt is pretty good too.
• Pili-pili and mayo on your plantains (hot fried banana). Make sure you get your pili/mayo ratio right, or you will be spiced out the wazoo... and you can also buy ready-made pili-mayo, but I'm guessing it's gross. And not as fun as the mysterious gamble of trying to mix your own at the right ratio.
• Three men on a motorcycle. (moto) In Kinshasa the motorcyles are super quiet... and one man on the atelier (janitor/handyman staff) has one... so occasionally he will sneak up on you, or you will see him crossing the giant TASOK speed bump, with two of his colleagues bumping along behind... just stellar. 
• Dudes riding on top of busses. And trucks. And truck gas tanks held together with packing tape. And Virgin Mary/Disney Princess/Che Gevara stickers on taxis (These stickers were all on the same taxi. Who's your decorator? My guess would be someone under 8.) And so many other things you see when driving. (Che Gevara did come to Congo at one (short lived) point to try to help with a revolution. You see him on a lot of taxis.)
• Ladies with INTENSE Kinshasa Wizard Skills (my rating for Kinshasa people who can do cool Kinshasa stuff, adapted from Mr. Frappier's 'Piano Wizard Skills' ratings) who can balance not one, but two of these bowls, full of bread and other food to sell, on their heads. One on of top of the other. Plus carry a sack in each hand. Plus a baby in a pagne wrap on her back. (This part was not actually witnessed in concert with the other parts, but would add to already sweet wizard skills) Impressive.

  

  http://www.malika.org.uk/plastic%20buckets%20(1).JPG?0.1480674444271416

• The taxi fare taker/bouncer guys. Who are forever popping out of the taxi at odd angles (Can you say "Whack a Mole"? however I hope they don't get whacked!) riding in taxis at odd angles, holding on at odd angles, yelling destinations "Badoo, Badoo, Badoo" or whatever they say outside my house!!, holding their money folded the long way and then the short way so that every bill you get has these folds permanently faded into it, running and then jumping into moving taxis, rolling under balking taxis at red lights to perform repairs (maybe with packing tape?!?!) and just generally being amazing. Like this guy, whose pants we took a liking to last year. (Though not sure he is a money taker, he is awesome, and also on the phone! Thanks for the pic Adiya.) (I have seen these guys get aggressive with people who don't pay, but usually they are just going about their business, holding onto the door frame, or the sliding door, or the window frame... so crazy to think how different some people's lives are from yours. And yet we all somehow manage to share the roads of Kinshasa!)
  

Now that I have been writing for 8 years, and no one can read this post without a nap in the middle, I will leave you until next week (new flowers!) with this cuteness. Or annoyingness. Or cute annoyingness. Depends on whether or not he's getting his dirty outdoor cat butt on YOUR clean clothes. Usually my clothes are more organized, I promise... this incident prompted a reorganization. Man I can write (and talk) a lot. Do I write like I talk? hahaha Will anyone actually read this? haha Love to you all from my corner of the internet!!!

Cars of Kinshasa

While I have now accumulated scads of cat and foliage pictures to spam you with (read: boring), I want to start documenting the things I will miss in Kinshasa so as not to forget them. And this brings me, immediately and without a doubt, to the most adrenaline pumping and never-dull experience in all of Kin: driving a car. Even riding in a car can get interesting, so you can imagine that the driving part is extra-exciting.

First there are the intersections. To get to most shopping and activities that I do, I have to pass through two great intersections: Kintambo and Socimat. Kintambo is a at least 5 way intersection with a square in the middle for pedestrians. (That is shaped like a triangle. HAHA) There is really no way to illustrate the insanity of this intersection... it is just madness. There are no lights, (the robot is not near where I usually am) no signals, occasionally there are traffic police but people listen to them only about 40% of the time... my favorite is when cars sneak behind the police officers (who are on foot) while they are not looking and the officers are surprised when the cars have disobeyed their signal to stay put.

People are crossing the road, cars are driving in the wrong lane, taxis and buses are stopping wherever they like to let people out and take people aboard, traffic cops are telling you to stop and go and sometimes both. Usually I deeply enjoy this chaos, only sometimes am I angry... usually I stay very close to the car ahead of me if he/she is doing what I want to do and just follow like mad. This works for me much of the time.

Then you head down a very smooth, (usually except for the traffic of one school that is on the way) easy, three lane paved road to the next intersection. Socimat is a very straightforward 4 way lighted intersection, but equally as amazing. You could almost fit a soccer field in this intersection, it is so huge. This means that people can basically do whatever they want and there is room to get away with it. On a good day, when no accidents have occurred and the power is on, all the lights are functional and have protected left turns and everything. (The things we take for granted) They also count down to when you will get a green light again. This is only a suggestion, however, and there are so many crazy things going on (including pedestrians), it's excellent. Street sellers trying to get you to buy their wares, people sneaking an illegal left turn through oncoming traffic, a police truck that they push from a service station (ironic) into the intersection every morning because it is non-functional and just for show. The whole thing just makes me so happy to witness.

Then there is the matter of the cars. You see ALL MANNER of vehicles driving in Kinshasa.

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As you know, Asia has very strict emissions laws, and when the cars no longer meet them, guess where they come? We have an inordinate amount of these: most, inexplicably, in Easter colors...

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Although you do see the occasional Ford pickup or Edge, usually you see TATA trucks, MAN trunks, or other Asian trucks (Nissan or Toyota) as well as SUVS ( Rav Quatre (frenchy Rav Four) Prado: the school has two) and the occaisonal EuroDumper (my favorite) It's a real thing: Look it up!

My favorite car, detailed below, is a good old-fashioned Jimmy: the picture speaks for itself.

While I really really hope not to jinx myself, thus far all of my driving has been very successful and safe - just hair-raising, sometimes sad and always fascinating. It gives me so much confidence to go out into the world successfully when the driving is like this!

More October Vacation: Zongo Falls

We got up the next morning, ate breakfast at the garden's restaurant where we witnessed a LONG staff meeting for the garden's workers, and then proceeded to head out of Kisantu and onto the LONG gravel road that would take us to Zongo Falls. This was a very well maintained and pleasant road, with views of awesome African villages, goats on tombs, and interesting trees. However, our trusty car, my personal sentimental favorite in the TASOK fleet, does not really have a strong suspension.

Yes, I did indeed eat an entire jar of peanut butter (with a spoon) in a week. I was on vacation!

So let's just say the drive was a bit sensory-overloading with all the bumps we felt... but we arrived in one piece (and only one spare tire used!) at midday in Zongo. We met the Zongo goat

and headed right out onto the rocks while the 'grown-ups' talked to the hotel staff at the reception desk. 

Once that was finished we walked immediately to the falls. It was a short but challenging walk in the humidity -

We did not have to walk over this, just next to it...

and we were rewarded with this view!

I am sure there is a picture with my tongue IN my mouth, but I am not sure where it would be HAHA We sat by the falls for a long time, playing in the spray, watching the birds, and waiting for a rainbow that never materialized.

After that adventure, we decided to take another drive (another jarring drive for those of us in the Jimmy) to Seli Beach, on the Congo River and not the Inkisi River where Zongo is. It was the perfect time of afternoon

for a swim in the Congo

and adventure to Massage Falls, another short but challenging walk away.

This is not exactly an attractive picture of me, I was trying to avoid the rocks on the bottom because the water was not clear enough to see them, but it does prove that I was indeed there! 

After our 'massage', we headed back to the beach to change our SECOND tire of the day...

and drive back to Zongo as a giant storm brewed.

We were supposed to stay in the tents you can see above, behind the goat, but after multiple rounds of "Our tents are all good, only some of them leak" with the man at the reception desk, we decided to upgrade to a cute chalet. Worth the extra money!

As the rain poured down, we ate yummy pasta at the restaurant and zonked out!

The next morning we had enough time for a photo shoot of the awesome plants at the resort (below) before we headed to Etaka Springs and home. Returned at about 5:30pm after a hammock negotiation at the Furniture Market (not for me!) and I passed out for the whole day on Wednesday to recover. What a beautiful (and much-needed) vacation! Thanks to all!

PS I deserve a medal for waiting for this many pictures to load! You should all consider yourselves lucky. Happy (and Safe) Halloween to all. Much love.