Miscellany

Sorry a million times over for the delays. I have been very sick for two weeks now. Trying to regain my strength for the last stretch of school. PLEASE let me know any requests for topics. (I may have forgotten some requests in my illness as well so please remind me!)

Have had requests to describe my internet situation, which has been pretty funky of late. I am not overly 'techy' by any means, but here's what I understand. On arrival, we were told that our school devices would have connection to the school's internet but not other devices could use it because of limited bandwidth. This internet that the school uses for all school devices comes from Israel. In order to have internet on my personal computer, I bought this plastic do-dad ($25) and paid $100/month to have personal internet with a Congo-based company.

Using both internets worked well for the first several months that I was here, until we had some unrest in Congo in mid-January that resulted in the government shutting down the Congo-based internet for several weeks. When re-instated, it was very slow so I refused to pay, and therefore was relying only on the school's wireless campus-wide internet on my school computer. (Unaffected because it is from Israel) If you have intrepidly attempted to skype with me in the last few months, you know this hasn't always been easy. Last Sunday, I broke down and decided to try the $100/month again and have had amazing success with it so far. I will probably pay again in April and May to have personal internet as a supplement to school internet until I leave.

No yogurt yet, don't want it to get soggy! 

Grapes: 5,700
Pineapple: 3,000
Oranges: 2,700
Marshmallows: 3,000
Vanilla Yogurt: 2,000
Happy Easter Ambrosia: (Sort of) Priceless! (16,400 Francs = $17.70)

Admittedly (1) because of the location of my haircut, I was doing my shopping at one of the most expensive stores in Kinshasa, so the Pineapple and Oranges I could have gotten a lot cheaper, but didn't have the fortitude to do multi-stop shopping and with the mileage that I pay in the car, multi stop shopping also has it's costs and (2) I didn't use all the marshmallows or yogurt so we had leftovers. The limiting factor was the grapes which are not common and always expensive in Kin, no matter where you go (that I know of anyway).

Easter greetings from Davy:

From his new favorite hang-out on the washing machine

And from his chair: Davy's idea of helping with Easter cooking.