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!!!