Travel Update!

Hello to all!

Disgracefully did a very poor job of taking photographs on my November 2016 voyage, but it was a fun one. Visited IKEA for the first time (and found St. Albans Cheese at the Paramus, NJ Whole Foods), walked/ran with lovely dogs, and watched Zootopia (again!) in New Jersey. Went to workout class, ran and ate amazing salad in Pennsylvania. Had a stopover in Nashville, where apparently there is an actual size replica of the Parthenon. Who knew?

Sorted and organized my friend's apartment, classroom and papers, went to IronTribe and ran my fastest 5k ever (recorded on my running watch) in Memphis (where the fire hydrants are silver and "someone got drunk and planned" the street grid, according to one of my friend's coworkers)

Much driving to get home for town band! Including books on tape, Radiolab and many school busses in Canton, NY. Facebook summary of driving events:

Musings from my multi-state road trip: Why are there so many fireworks stores by the interstate? Do they think that we have an urgent need for them while driving? It would, I guess, make it more interesting. Flea market named Flea World. Really? SOOOOOOOOOO many trucks, and dead deer :-( and other dead things. Also, people pulling over to the side of the road at really weird places... and abandoned cars get these stickers on them apparently, maybe tickets? I thought it was a scavenger hunt! Saw a goat in Kentucky just chillin' on the interstate, no big deal. Can America make up NO original place names? I drove by Scotland, Glasgow, Sparta, Verona, Seville... who knew I could do that in America? And finally, some states have really pretty names/labels on their roads that pass over the highways. Not boring like Vermont! Safely made it to visit dear friends in 3 states!

Then I was off to London after a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner to witness my friend's wedding (they let Americans do that!?!), go ice skating

find a map of Vermont while Christmas shopping,

watch some Gilmore Girls and run before my flight home. Overall read some good books and felt very loved visiting so many friends. 

Today I have almost 100% (waiting on one Airbnb confirmation) planned (in my incredibly anal pre-planning Ellen kind of way) eight weeks of travel starting in Montreal on January 4th at 8pm and finishing in Burlington on March 1st at 3pm. I am sure there will be bumps in the road, and I am sure there are more authentic ways to travel that would result in me finding/knowing/realizing/discovering more things, but for me and my anxieties this is the only way to go, and no matter what it's going to be an adventure. I am excited to see many friends and get my backpack good and christened with a whirlwind tour as only a Stanley is capable of! Upon arrival at home I anticipate sleeping for several weeks and starting to make some more concrete life plans. I will try the best I can to keep everyone updated here and hope for a smooth a trip as possible! Holiday love to one and all!

Travel Plans

Hello to all!

Wanted to update you on my plans for a crazy travel extravaganza Fall 2016 - Spring 2017. At least 25 friends and relatives, about 7 flights, 1 backpack, 1 Ellen, and 1 fabulous multi-part vacation.

In November, I am headed out for a road trip to Memphis to visit a friend, with multiple stops along the way to see others. I am very excited. Recently learned that this road trip will be punctuated with an after-Thanksgiving whirlwind voyage to London! So November 2016 is very booked!

Then in January 2017, I will head to my European Half-Marathon (working toward all the continents) in Tromso, Norway. After seeing some of Norway, it will be on to Scotland, England, Germany, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, West Coast USA, and then home. I am excited to (1) run at a more reasonable elevation (2) have my fortune told (3) see my friends (4) see new countries and continents (5) surf (6) do yoga on my 5th continent (7) drive through a redwood tree (8) go to Vancouver, Canada and generally have a great time. I think my jet lag will get so weird that I will just be back to normal again when I get home!

That's the excitement from here!

Dear Kinshasa

Dear Kinshasa,

Thank you.

Thank you for the innumerable safe drives and runs I have had here. I know I am very lucky, but I will not leave here with anything but fond memories of traffic and training.

Your sidewalks made sure my Kinshasa parkour skills were always on point (I did fall once! But only once)

The occasional smile and friendly (or disbelieving) comment made me happy to be out early.

The sunrises were amazing.

I will sincerely miss running at 5:30am in Kinshasa. It's about as peaceful as this place gets, I think.

Thank you for allowing me to safely exist here for two years, observing, learning and soaking it in. I consider myself very lucky to have spent time here, meeting remarkable people from all over the globe and teaching classes of students so surreal-ly diverse, I never could have imagined them if I had tried.

This thought occured to me while I was running several weeks ago. Forgive me if this is maudlin or patronizing, it is not meant to be either... At the end of the day, Kinshasa is what I hope I am: a colorful, gorgeous, chaotic, beautiful, resilient, remarkable, confusing, wonderful mess.

I am a lucky girl, to have been here.

Love,

Ellen

Horseback Riding

Hello there!

I had intended a horseback riding post way back in February, but some unexpected events caused me to wait until now. Last year I was very much interested in riding, but I never got the information on how and had heard a lot of rumors about the pricing being atrocious, so I was a bit turned off. This year, an intrepid friend and I managed to get through the hoops of the pricing introductory meeting to wrangle a deal for $150 each, which was supposed to only buy 5 rides, but we were given a 6th one for free (which turned out to be more than justified!)

Circle Hippique de Kinshasa

The riding ring, where the jumping competition is held every fall.

Our first horseback riding day dawned perfectly adequately and we headed over to get started.

We both had backpacks with our money in them, which no one ever wanted to take, so we proceeded to ride with our bags, which turned out to be a mistake. My friend's horse startled at the motion of her bag, and long story short we ended up in the Kinshasa-eqivalent-of-emergency-room-on-a-Sunday all day long. It was quite traumatic, I felt bad that I hadn't reacted more quickly to help her and felt bad that it had been her! SO, after a concussion, which she definitely had, she decided it was best to wait a few months to get back on the horse! We went back in April, she had the SAME HORSE! (as did I, a horse Massimiliano who was overly fond of dragging me under EVERY low hanging branch, but very calm) and we made it perfectly through the hour long trail ride.

The third time we went, Massimiliano was not feeling well so I got a different horse, Haiti, who had a lot more spring in her step than he did and was fun to ride, though she was smaller than he was and I was worried I was large for her the whole time!

Anyway, this $150 was money extremely well spent (if we consider the free ride the one that my friend was hurt) because the trail rides we went on were nothing short of African fairy tale amazing. The rides took us through immaculately well maintained paths through fairly dense jungle. At times we could see houses and people on the borders of the area, but for the most part it was just these gorgeous trees, little streams and tons of butterflies and birds all around us. It was like what I think of as walking in the English countryside (and a little bit like the paths behind my house where I lived in Sheldon) except the African version. It was insanely beautiful and so fun. By the third time my knees were slightly more used to the saddle pain and I had absolutely the best time (could also have been due to the shorter, less wide, nicer horse who was not intent on getting me covered with dew, twigs and leaves from the overhanging branches.)

This is just the way down to access the more wooded paths, but you can start to get the idea.

Horsies with their awards they've won at the jumping competition.

Overall, I am very happy I got to ride in Kinshasa, smell the perfect horse smell, and enjoy the gorgeous nature right next door to TASOK.

Everything I own is now pulled out of the desks, cupboards and drawers and waiting for me to pack it. I should get on that. :-)

Rwanda: Photo Edition

I tried to grab a photo of everything I wanted to mention, but first things first:

Rwanda, from what I saw, does not use plastic grocery bags. In Kinshasa, they are everywhere. In Rwanda I think I saw two. ALL grocery bags I was given were paper. SO cool. However, they seem to really like drinking straws in Rwanda, all drinks come with them (even cans/bottles)... so not sure what the net environmental impact is of fewer grocery bags and more straws, but I enjoyed the extremely clean atmosphere everywhere I went!

View from the hotel, 1,000 hills indeed:

Motorcycles and Bicycles (Tour de Rwanda! is actually a thing!) are VERY common. Motorcycles all have a helmet for the passenger and driver (many match, but not all... I was on the lookout for drivers whose passengers had to wear non-matching helmets!) Hilarious to watch the lady passengers (somewhat) try to get helmets over their hairstyles!

Bicycles carry EVERYTHING. Humans. (As in there is a seat behind the driver so the bike can be a taxi of sorts, remarkable with all the hills. Drivers earn their money!)

People stopping at stop lights! Novel!

Cauliflower. Doors. Couches. Squash. (Saw both couches and squash on the same bicycle!) Both motorcycles and bicycles are decorated and have fun mud flaps and guards under the pedals to keep mud from coming up that way. Nifty.

Gorgeous, incredibly well maintained road the whole way! View back into Kigali as we were departing:

Such beautifully painted buildings near the road: My favorite, for Crown Paint, "If you like it, Crown it!" All I could think of was "If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it"... I was just in awe that small towns on the side of the road have enough need for a paint store!

SOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY BANANAS!

Beans. Fields and fields and fields and fields of beans!

COWS! and sheep and goats, but I don't have the patience to load the photos!

Sooooooooooooo many people. Everywhere. Walking, chatting, out and about.

Cabbage Patch! How many did that doll lady have mom? Did they beat her?

Fields of tea, with more people out walking. You can see the terraced hills to the right.

The Scouts (scoots!) out on a Sunday afternoon stroll.

I have so many more pictures, but I can't wait for them to load. Sorry for the delay, I was doing report cards all weekend my internet hasn't been strong at my house. Have a great week! 

Rwanda 2016

Where to begin? What started out as three days of worry free, timely African travel (eerily too good to be true) turned into a fourth day that I would much rather forget! But I am home now, finally, and ready for the final 13 day push to the end of school. Whew. So many sub plans for this trip!

Headed out Friday morning at 5:30am for an 8:00am flight. Very interesting amount of not-that-great-at-the-concept-of-lines and odd ticket counter having-to-go-back-out-the-way-you-came-in?!? But onto flight without a problem. (Except the inspector who didn't want me to take any food on the flight... so I ate some and gave him the rest. Unimpressed.) Arrived in Goma (an hour ahead of Kinshasa! Who knew!??!?) and was promptly ferried to the AMAZING hotel (Lac Kivu Lodge) by the protocol guy and his driver... the protocol got a phone call about renting one of his boats from the Chief of the Central Bank or something... so he was pretty thrilled by that. Settled into my room and found this on the closet.

Just can't get away! (Sticker from the horse riding place next door to TASOK.) Small world. Had some of the best pasta ever (Pili-pili-bacon cream sauce) with this view (!) and got ready for Rwanda in the morning.

Up and out, transferred to the border, where I walked from the Congolese side, past some corn and barbed wire, and into my FIFTH (!) African country. My driver was there waiting, I paid my reasonable $30 visa fee without any problem or hassle and headed out for the 3.5 hour drive. I was totally captivated. Admittedly I have seen very little of Congolese countryside, but this was just magical. Green green green backdrop of incredibly fertile land with every kind of vegetable and farm animal, gorgeously painted buildings and fabrics, so incredibly pretty. I asked 80 million questions and the poor guy (the driver that my friend uses when she is on business in Kigali) tried as best he could to answer them. We descended one of the many hills into Kigali, (Smuggler's notch, Grenoble, Corsica and Greece in one?!?!) ran into the stadium for my 'physical' and race bib, and found my very close-by hotel easily. Next was a jaunt to the grocery store for peanut butter and nutella! I even remembered to buy a knife, plus plenty of water to try to hydrate. Then I asked Emmanuel the driver to take me to the Genocide memorial. It was just staggering the sheer numbers and the history of it all. Very sobering, I am glad I went. Headed back to the hotel to relax. I did actually sleep fairly well the whole trip, considering my nervousness.

The next morning, I headed out with my water backpack and music for the 7:30 start time and was bombarded by not insane amounts, but lots of people all around (including a large contingent with a DRCongo flag, upside down?!? I will never get that?!?). We were let into the stadium at about 7:15 and the gun went off pretty early at about 7:25. I realized early on that it was a lot of gentle downhill... so that was not encouraging, but I continued on, waving and smiling at friendly people headed to church or just doing their thing. Miles 1-5 were pretty fine. I didn't exactly find a rhythm, the downhills had me going a little fast and the climate (much drier than Kin) had my lips and nose all dry, but when we got to an uphill that I could almost touch the hill with my hands in front of my face, I realized that I was going to have to walk some. And I did confirm on my running watch that my walking uphill was faster than my running, so that was good anyway. I made it to the 10K distance without trouble, but now it was time to repeat all of the downhills I had breezed down in the opposite direction. And more walking commenced. I never really ran steadily after that point... I had some funny side stitches (tried eating my running food but it didn't seem to help), and other sad excuses, but soldiered on. We passed the stadium eventually, and looped around to get back to it... and I clocked in at 3 hours and 6 minutes. Which, incidentally, is only 8 minutes slower than my training run, where I walked NOT AT ALL. So perhaps it's better for me just to walk?!? But also perhaps better for me to run where the elevation is not 1,000 feet higher than the highest peak in Vermont. Seriously. Thank goodness I didn't look that up until AFTER I ran. Side note: Being lapped by the real marathon runners twice, it did make me feel better seeing that, while running INSANELY quickly, they did also look like they were out of breath and working hard. They didn't 'make it look easy' (though they made it look a lot easier than I did) and that was somehow comforting.

Headed out from the hotel at noon to get back to Congo, dealt with some hassle at the border (Courtesy Visa does not mean they will be courteous to you. Seriously.) but got back to the hotel fine and happily had another helping of pasta.

Monday morning things turned sour... my ticket said 1:20pm flight. So the protocol said he would send his driver at 11:30 to get me at the hotel. That seemed reasonable to me for a domestic flight. However, when we arrived at the airport, either the flight was earlier than 1:20 or the rules are just very strict, but the check-in had closed at 11:30. I felt sick to my stomach (still do) about my idiocy in believing the protocol guy and getting duped so royally. I spent several frantic hours on the phone, trying to fix my ticket, get my sub plans together, reschedule everything, and obviously get a room for another night in the hotel. I still feel terrible about it, but I guess what are you going to do. This morning, we headed out at NINE AM! For the flight and I made it on time... so now back home and ready for whatever the rest of the week will bring. I am so happy that I went to Rwanda, it is so pretty, and I am so happy that I worked hard to train (which was therapeutic in it's own right, doing something for myself and doing something out in Kinshasa in the early morning). I am also happy to say "I did it!" but will need to find a lower elevation for my next race and see if I can run more of it!

So many thoughts about Rwanda I might need another post about it... but I will leave this here for now. Have a good week all!

Long Awaited Street Fashion Post

Hi all - Was asked a LONG time ago to take pictures of people wearing pagne on the street. I finally got to it on Thursday, and of course it was a very light day for people wearing pagne, not a lot of variety and not lots of people about. It seems that every lady I caught was wearing a conservative dress with sleeves, which is not always the case, but this is what I was able to capture. Didn't get any guys shirts, but those are pretty self-explanatory if you know the fabric. I did manage to get a few bonus street sightings that I thought you might enjoy (egg man!) Here goes!

Lady waiting for the bus in pretty shirt with skirt... my personal favorite is when the frame has the President's face in it, but it can also have a saint or in this case maybe a building?!?

Pretty bordered pagne for the shirt and skirt, along with her sun umbrella!

Generally Congolese people love the large pouffy sleeve - I could never get into it, but it's very popular.

Balancing things on one's head is an art form here! Also, see guy with his two wheeled cart carrying bottles. They are used for everything here. It never ceases to amaze me how much the wheels look like they should fall off but they stay on!

EGG MAN! If you can see on the left side of his eggs (hard boiled) there's a red jar of pili pili salt (spicy salt) attached for him to season people's eggs!

Need any shoes today?

This is a more casual look with a pagne skirt and regular T-shirt. I hate to generalize, but mostly (from what I have seen) worn by people who are slightly less well off.

Have bleach, will travel (carrying container in his left hand)

Ok, so sorry for the terrible picture quality and the fact that I only seemed to get ladies leaving the office who wear more loose outfits, there are very fitted ones that you can see as well, but I hope you get the gist. I now have a photographic record of my commute to weightlifting on Avenue de Justice, my favorite street. (Tree lined and busy but not crazy) Before I arrive in Kinshasa, they widened the main boulevard to allow for more traffic, which is a good thing (imagine if they hadn't) but the trees and character of 'The Boulevard' are now much less pronounced. (It's still teeming with people and all kinds of activity, but there is little foliage and just a lot of cars, 3 lanes each way.) That's why I love this street instead. Anyway, next weekend I am headed on my little jaunt to my 5th African country! I will be sure to update you upon my return. Much love!

Congo River Boat Trip: 2016 Edition

Hello all!

Last Sunday, another intrepid group of TASOK teachers (some of the same as last year, some new) took another boat trip to a sandbar in the middle of the Congo River. Last year, I remembered that I was disappointed with my attempts to photographically show the river banks as we left the port. So I enthusiastically set out to rectify this... and then put my camera away and took no further pictures on the beach or on the way home. So there's that. But, if you want to see those type of pictures, you are welcome to refer to my post from last year! I spent the whole time under the tents napping, playing 'Spot It!' and 'Set', both of which I love, and eating. Oh the cherry muffins! and chips & dip! and just so much good food. We TASOK teachers do know how to picnic!

Before we were able to set sail, there was the small matter of passing through 'customs' (as we enter international waters) and paying. Since I was the point person for this voyage (last year I teamed up with someone else) the responsibility fell to me. Three guys pulled me out around the 'Yacht Club' to review everyone's documents and re-check the checklist I had made 4 times. At the end, they started in "Do you want to have a good time on the boat?" "Then you need to have a drink first..." Apparently the customs guys were also the owners of the Yacht Club bar. After fighting with them that no, they did not need to retain our copies of our passports 'for next time', and no, we did not need to drink to have a good time, I finally got up and walked away - comforted by the fact that our boat owner was not in the group, so it appeared that our boat ride was not in jeopardy by my abruptly ending the conversation. I rejoined the group to find the boat owner, who I paid a hefty sum, and then he skipped off into the sunset, leaving his 3 employees to take us out onto the river. Never dull in Kinshasa! Other than me forgetting a bottle opener, I think a great time was had by all and we came home sandy, tired, and relaxed from a lovely outing.

Departing the Yacht Club! Thank heavens! We were approved by customs! Whew!

Backing the boat out of dock: notice the traditional boats docked in the background. And the impending traffic jam to the left.

Traffic:Not just for cars in Kinshasa. We had to get very up-close and personal with this boat to escape from the port!

And almost escaped!

View on the other side: "Is that metal or wood?" Pretty legit question... The boat was non-functional, but still afloat.

We made it to open water! We saw these boys with their fuel or water in their yellow containers, steering their pirogue (traditional boat)

I am now the resident TASOK goat-freak... because there are no cows in Kishasa, so I have to get my ruminant fix from somewhere... so when my colleagues saw this goat on a boat, they were very excited for me to get my photo!                    GOAT on a BOAT! = Happy Ellen! While the guy in the foreground is waving happily, the people on the boat were not that pleased with my photographing their goat. I said "Don't put your goat in a boat if you don't want me to take a picture of it!"

Egrets under Houses 

And a lonely grass island in the middle of the Congo.

Happy weekend to all!

New Basketball Court

Hello all!

Wanted to update you about our new gym. As a reminder, this is what our old gym looked like: Cement with green paint on it. It used to be uncovered, so the cover is good, but the surface was very slippery and very hard for falling. 

Therefore, the school decided to buy a new court surface. We thought it would be perhaps foamy like the Montgomery Elementary School, but instead it turns out that it is this hard plastic tight webbing (hard to see in photo) made out of recycled plastic milk cartons (which we ironically don't have in Congo). So there are these squares of plastic webbing fit into this frame, and that is how they stay together. When some players move quickly or aggressively, the tiles can pop up, but so far it seems functional overall. It is not really that much softer to fall on (and you get web marks on you!) but it is much much better for stopping. New rims were also added and the famous 'cage' has been removed. Quite a transformation. It was a privilege to coach this year on the final year of the green cement and at the tournament for the inauguration of the new court.

On another note, sighted this morning: 

• Breathtaking sunrise over Kinshasa
• Some beautiful chickens including a very tall thin rooster and a pretty grey hen
• Lawn-mowing with hedge clippers (I guess it could be worse mom)
• An appreciative smile and giggle from a lady watching me struggle up a hill
• A thumbs up at a gas station
• Not one but TWO dudes on their morning commute with their saw (have saw, will travel?) 
• Some eggshells in my shoe tread (running on eggshells?) 
• A great smile from a girl and her little brother (I can't usually get smiles from kids, but these guys delivered) 
• My favorite turquoise lion and dolphin gate
• To top it all off: a dude sticking his head up out of the drainage grate in the sidewalk. As in up from the drainage area under the sidewalk. I thought I was hallucinating. 

Wasn't happy with my pace or distance, but plugged in my running watch to reveal that I have run more than twice the mileage that I ran in March. I guess that's an accomplishment! I am so thankful for my continued good health.

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Vacation Bonus: Fabric

I am so sorry I really did blog last weekend and then somehow it just saved in drafts and never posted! Silly me! Whoops!

Thought I would show off the fabric purchased (with the paid-in-tuna cat model extraordinaire). Tailor has not come yet and I am still hemming and hawing about what I want to get made. Suggestions welcome.

First, the hand-dyed Senegalese fabric (these are in no particular order)

I guess I will model if you insist.

Next is the super-soft more expensive fabric from the mall in Ghana - the one that will drape. I have too many ideas for this and not enough fabric! It is so soft! But seems like it would be wasted on a pillowcase. But that I could sew myself!

That pesky flash is getting in the way of my napping.

 Then the pseudo-kente cloth I got in Ghana. Real kente is very expensive and has a disarming habit of involving the color bright orange. Not my jive. So I got this fake in my colors instead.

You are boring me mom... boring me.

 This purple is also from Ghana. So pretty. Can't handle it.

So I guess I will sit on the fabric..,

And there is some classy Congolese side-eye for your day... the glare that says "Feed me now! Modeling over!"

I hope you have had a good week. Much love!