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.

Kinkole

Yesterday I headed out with friends on my second Hash walk/run (First one was in October, see earlier post) in the small town of Kinkole, a bit past the airport so about an hour drive, maybe a bit less (I don't exactly remember as I was very occupied looking out the window at the ever-interesting view). Your neighborhood jeans store, with the awesome wall-painted advertisements as a backdrop:

 

Average public transportation, a privately owned van painted Congo colors of blue and yellow. There are vans painted other colors as well. Usually they have a saying or Bible verse printed in the windows, front, back or both. Someone is usually hanging out the large door on the other side, collecting fares from those who board.

Not a great shot, but this is my current favorite billboard in Kinshasa. Just deeply cheesy and amazing. "I'm cool. You're cool. We're cool. AquaKool." (Advertisement for Aqua brand bottled water, which I have never purchased, so apparently my adoration of their cheesy advertising is not encouraging my consumerism.) Directly in front is a soda/beer truck with crates of glass bottles on board. Many establishments (TASOK included) have weekly deliveries where the truck arrives, takes back our crates of empty glass bottles, and gives us crates of full ones re-sealed with metal tops, which we often drink at school events and weekly professional development (soda, not beer). 

View down a busy market street off the main road where we were driving. I especially enjoyed the Shakira billboards. Man in foreground is trying to sell us drinks while we are stopped.

This hash was very exciting, as most of the neighborhood kids wanted to come with us the WHOLE way. It was also a large group of walkers to begin with. This is sort of an example of the congestion, though the trail was wide here so we could spread out a lot. Not a completely rural walk as you can see.

Did manage to capture some un-congested pictures of the more rural scenery. Part of a hash walk/run is false trails, so here we are, having just found the flour marking on the ground telling us to turn back.

View down a side 'street', with my friend's camera lens undoubtedly snapping it's own superior picture :-)

A duck, just chillin'

And us, just chillin', happy to be out and about!

Lac de ma Vallee

Hello all! I have been busy and lacking topics to write about... PLEASE let me know if there is something you'd like to hear about in Congo. I do need to do another animal/bird post. For now, vacation has finally begun and we (teachers staying at TASOK over break) went on an outing near the Bonobos sanctuary to a place called 'Lac de ma Vallee,' a restaurant and walking area. The bus ride was very adventurous as the dirt roads have dealt with a lot of rain in the past few weeks, but we made it! First we walked to the eating area, where we looked over the lake through the beautiful flowers to a small shrine on the opposite side which we would later pass on the walking path. (Yes, I realized as I was taking the pictures that many of you have been sitting under 4 feet of snow freezing your bums off for months. I am sincerely very sorry that I can't send you some African heat and green but the photos will have to do.)

 After getting the lay of the land, we ordered our food (Chicken kebab with French Fries for me, 17,000 congolese francs which on today's exchange rate is $18.38) and 7 of the 17 teachers/kids who had come set out on the 6km walk around the lake. Most of the man-made lake and it's surrounding path lies to the left of this upper photo, so when you pass the shrine you are nearly back to the eating area for your food.

This was the view as we began the hike, looking back on the eating area and the kids of our party enjoying their paddle boat rentals. Aside from the squeaky boats, the quiet was perfect!

 

About 1/3 of the way around, we came upon what we guess to be some kind of fish farming area where food for the fish is put into pieces of bamboo and put in the water for them to eat (we may be totally wrong!) I thought it looked cool, kind of creepy but pretty. Then, I had my fellow hikers take the requisite "Ellen was actually there" picture:

We continued the hike and ate the lovely chicken, then headed for home.. I was very taken with this sign as we were leaving, the pastel 'Primus' painting. Primus is one of the big beer brands here but their paint didn't quite stick for this one billboard. (The logo is read, yellow, white and blue, not traditionally pastel) So cool! Overall a very pleasant outing!

The BIG Move

This weekend, my friends and I from house 98 moved into new temporary housing so that our house can get a new roof. My two friends moved into different apartments (one right on the opposite side of me just like before) and I moved in with another teacher at TASOK who is leaving at the end of the school year because her husband took a new job. She recently moved on campus leaving the large house where she had lived with her husband, and on Saturday I joined her. Photos of our new digs follow and the proposed date of the move BACK to house 98 is May 31st. I took today off to continue organizing what I have unpacked. Vacation begins Friday at 3pm! Wahoo!

Our front yard and my roommate's car out front:

Our front walk. Yes, that is the exterior wall of TASOK in the background.

Our front porch, where I just ate lunch.

Our living room. All my furniture looks so funny in a different house! You can see how much the cat does to help out around the house. To the right of where I'm taking the picture is a large TV from my roommate and to the left is another coffee table with a nice lamp. Straight ahead is my bedroom and past the roses is our dining room and kitchen as well as my roommate's room.

Here's my room with most of my worldly possessions, nice windows to the left.

Here is our dining room with my roommate's roses from her students for running the school talent show. To the right is the other bedroom and to the left is the bathroom and kitchen.

Last, the kitchen. We brought the long wooden cabinet in to make more counter space. Cake is left over from book club! And, yes we have a drinks fridge and a food fridge!

The Post I Owe from LAST Week!

Hello all! I am so sorry about my exhaustion, it prevented me from dealing with these pictures and getting them posted for you last weekend (Long story: As my personal computer is no longer on internet, I have to load the pictures onto it and then move them from that computer to this my school one... When tired it is kind of a daunting process.) Anyway, I swear these pictures were TAKEN in time for last weekend haha.

New fruit that I have been obsessively eating. SO good! Mangosteen it is called.

 

You use a fork to take off the top (middle of photo) then you get the rind (to the left) and the white edible bit (to the right.) It is in sections like an orange sort of, but tastes different, a bit like sour and sweet at once. Very good. 

The cat's new hangout. In my desk. On top of papers. Never mind that he has every comfy chair available.

My new haircut! The hairdresser wanted to blow dry it, and this was the result!

The library.... finally!

Hello all!

Upon a LONG ago request for pictures of the inside of our library, I thought I would post some. We are so fortunate to have a gorgeous library for both elementary (pictured here) and high school (which is undergoing renovation soon! and not in the pictures)

 

This is the view to the left as you enter the front door, the picture books section.

Straight ahead is the circulation desk (with Destiny! YAY!) and Scholastic Guided Reading books behind on shelves and door (slightly to the right of this photo) that leads to my classroom.

 This is to the right as you enter, the reference section with young adult books behind on the wall and a couches corner behind the people pictured where you can read. We are so lucky to have a gorgeous library that is well stocked.

Thought I would add a picture of the indoor recess/indoor PE room (1/2 of it anyway). Quite an echo-y space but great to have.

Also of note this week, on Thursday we just woke up to the most ridiculous explosion of butterfly hatching that I have ever seen (fully reinforcing my hunch that I might live in some sort of magical fairy land). These butterflies are literally everywhere. Like I really can't explain how many there are. The campus is totally and entirely 100% coated with them. It is absolutely insane to see. Evidence of their abundance: Two ended up in our room (we might not be great about keeping the doors shut all the time). This photo was taken before we successfully reintegrated both of them back into the wild so I could stop hearing "Miss Stanley, a butterfly!" in the middle of me trying to explain the math game. :-)

We tried Maple Syrup at our Class Behavior Reward Celebration on Friday: Very mixed verdict but happily there is some left over for me! YAY! Have a great week everyone! Hope your Valentine's Day was wonderful. <3

New Spiky Fruit

Sorry for the tardiness and general lame-o-ness this week... seems that the week got away from me. But in any case, the photo-worthy event of the week was walking under one of my favorite trees on the way to work and looking up and seeing this: (I am sure I have a pic somewhere of what the tree looked like when it was flowering. Now it has FRUIT! Super cool fruit!)

I picked one up and brought it home to the outside of my porch and the ants ate all of the orange fruit you can see below within 24 hours, leaving nothing but a pile of seeds. Further discussion with the foremost bio teacher and environmental guru on campus revealed that I too could eat the fruit and seeds. I tried it and felt like I was eating oddly semi-sweet Playdough. With seeds. Not for me as far as daily obsessive consumption, but if I ever were in need of something to eat, I know I can eat this!

Also thought you might enjoy Davy's new "Profile Picture" as he has taken to sitting in the kitchen and bathroom windows in the dark. Love that cat.

Need to do a lizard and bird update post as well as a long-promised library post but not this week. Exhausted! Be well everyone!