Congo Spring

Spring has sprung in Kinshasa and I can't help myself, I have to get these photos up. I feel like I live in Fairy Wonderland. These flowering trees shed everywhere and carpet the ground with a gorgeous purple layer of beauty. I am sorry I'm waxing so poetic, but it's really just deeply beautiful and I had to share. They are everywhere! On the tree:

On the ground: 

On the road: 

And my hilarious attempt at a 'snow' angel... can you spot it?  

I have lots more beautiful spring photos to put up, but that will have to be all for tonight. I am wiped out. Much love and ttfn

Food...

Greetings y'all! Feeling a bit discombobulated this week, but thought I could take some food pictures for you all. First, here is a picture of the fruit and vegetable lady, Mama Jean, who comes to our campus. She is super convenient and available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Chatted with her the other day and she said that she has to take a taxi to her garden and also to our school, so it's a big deal for her... she doesn't have everything available every day, but she usually has a fair amount.

So this week I made a ginger/carrot/tomato soup with some chicken... something like a recipe I usually make at home. Apologies if it looks gross to you, I am not a food photographer, but it tasted good. Comments "It's your fault I ate so much, you made it taste too good" LOL Always nice to hear.

My other meal this week was a stir fry with chicken breasts, some herbs and lots of veggies. We have small zuchini-ish looking courgettes that are good and they are in there, as well as garlic, onions and green peppers. 

We have a new option for veggies on campus, a CSA type venture who is delivering to our school. For $7.50 my friend and I are splitting a large amount of veggies, carrots, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, onions. I plant to try to use up all the veg and also keep patronizing Jean. We will see how it goes. On tap for next week is eggplant lasagna and some fish in coconut milk. Also going to try some pork chops, maybe? I will keep you posted on my culinary adventures and try to take more pictures. Hold your breath, there may be more plant photos coming, sorry in advance. 

PS: In case you didn't know, my eating plan (I know there are many cons to this method, I have heard them all... but it's what works for me and I haven't died yet, I hope my multi-vitamin helps.) is to make 2 large meals on Saturday/Sunday that last me all week.

Thunder and Lightning

Short post this morning - with only one picture - it has been a crazy week! On Sunday morning at around 2am, we had our first intense Congo rain. It has rained (gently) before (once) but overall our days have been just (1) sunny or (2) slightly overcast. All the returning teachers have been telling us that this would change, and boy did it ever. The thunder and lightning that arrived on Sunday were incredibly intense, and the rain poured down with much more power than the little gentle shower we had had in August. I absolutely loved the way it made everything smell so fresh and look so green - just gorgeous. I know getting woken up at 2am may get old, but for now I look forward to the next thunder storm!

Now for some slightly more practical information - we are nearing the end of the dry season (hence the start of the rain) It has been really pleasant weather, warm but not too warm unless you are doing more strenuous physical activity. Apparently, with the thunder storms, comes much more humidity and heat (although people say it is still bearable) I will wait to pass judgement until I have felt it, but I am hoping that I will feel that way too (we'll see how my frizzy hair feels about the situation!) Also, Congo is a super lightning concentrated area:

http://geology.com/articles/lightning-map/lightning-map.gif

So we are advised to get in the habit of unplugging everything we are not using... I am better about it some days than others (it's hard to feel urgency when the lighting hasn't started en force yet) but I am sure that once the rainy season starts I will get better about it. We have to unplug our intercom system in our classrooms, all computer chargers, and the air conditioners so they don't get fried by lighting strikes. Looking at the above map, you can see why!

Lastly, I have been reading King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild to try to get to know Congo better. It had an interesting passage pertaining to the weather. 

Henry Morton "Stanley’s journey solved another geographical mystery . The Congo begins and ends below the equator, but the top part of its great half-circle lies above the equator. In central Africa, the equator is the rough dividing line between the dry and rainy seasons: when it is one above the line, it is the other below. Therefore , whatever the time of year , part of the Congo’s course passes through land being drenched with rain and part through dry country. This explained why, over the course of a year, the Congo’s flow varied much less than that of other tropical rivers."

Hochschild, Adam (1999-09-03). King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Kindle Locations 889-893). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition. 

It's a really interesting book with lots more facts and info about the Congo... I am slowly making my way through it. I hope your weekend is just wonderful! 

Fabric Shopping

Short post this morning:

Last Saturday I drove (!!!!) my friends and I fabric shopping. We went to a little alley where there were at least 30 booths that looked like this:

each with a different sales-lady trying to convince us to buy her wares. It was overwhelming to say the least, but this is what I ended up with. Projects to come (It is very easy here to pay to have clothes and things made. I don't plan to become an expert seamstress overnight!)

 My friend modeling the pagne for the couch...

And one for clothes...

And another for clothes. 

Three large bolts of 6 yards each cost $38. I didn't think that was too bad, although I am told similar pagne costs less in other African countries. I am quite happy with mine though and already looking forward to the next adventure! So many to choose from! 

Sunset on the Congo

Last weekend, friends and I loaded up in a school-owned car to go have drinks by the river. It was a gorgeous sunset, and yes, I have now taken pictures (of something nice) outside the walls of the compound. First, my favorite billboard of all time. Coming from a state where billboards don't exist, I've always had a fascination with them (French ones more than English, I guess) This one says NEVER BETRAY THE CONGO. Oh. My. It's at the bottom of our hill, as we are turning left to follow the river.

We sat at a little table and just watched the river go by. 

Throwing leaves in was another activity.

Just gorgeous. I am so fortunate to have met such lovely people and seen such cool things, already! 

I didn't photograph it, because we were so busy watching it try to catch it's dinner, but a cormorant-like bird landed in front of us with a very skinny neck and dove for a long time. We also saw some very cool birds in a stick nest blowing in the breeze. The bats on the way home were impressive as well. 

http://www.earthtouchnews.com/media/179103/14_02_2014_weaver-bird_nest-building.jpg

http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Bats-in-sunset-2.jpg

Something a bit like that, I suppose! I should have taken my own pictures! Have a wonderful weekend all!

More Plants

Friday is upon us! And time for more plant pictures! These are from a walk I took a few weeks ago and I just wanted to get them labeled before I forget what I was intending to photograph.

These (I believe) are the seed pods coming off our palm trees. I love the colors, and the palm trees:

These pictures were taken on my way home from school one day, I took a longer route to show you the walking/running path that runs around the compound. Cool tree roots:

And some very squash-like blossoms growing on the ground.

The coolest trees ever:

And another interesting flower.

This tree...

was dropping flowers onto the path below.

And here is a terrible photo of something that looks a lot like a Morning Glory:

This thing scares me every time I run... I think it's moving! It's quite large.

After taking the path up toward my house...

I came to our cool bean trees in front of the administration building.

Sorry for the lack of labeling, I don't know what things are called around here! But you can see it's the end of the dry season and things are quite, well, dry. It feels like back to school! We have been keeping our A/C on in the classroom, but at very low temperatures. The days have been pleasant. It can get sticky when the sun is out but nothing unmanageable yet!

Money Money Money

Greetings to you all on this lovely Friday morning. The second week of school has gone well, for the most part. Our science & math units have begun and our literacy block is starting to take shape (somewhat). The kids have a writing assessment to finish today, I am excited to see what they will come up with! On to the Congo: I have finally taken a picture outside the walls of the compound!

Hahahaha. Aren't you impressed with my photography-from-a-moving-bus skills? I have no idea what I was even intending to photograph, but it wasn't this. I promise I will get better at it!

I thought I would share a bit about the Congolese money situation. American bills are very common, in larger denominations than I am used to carrying... we got our 'settling in allowance' in hundreds and I am still working through that money. The american bills have to be in pristine condition, or people at the store can refuse to take them. It can be quite frustrating! For change, though, there are no coins, and people use the Congolese franc. (Which has no such regulations about it's condition. Many are very dirty and old.)

It is very common to pay with american bills and receive your change in francs because one dollar bills seem to be much less common than other denominations. 1,000 Congolese francs is about one dollar, 500 francs is about 50 cents, etc. Prices for most things in most stores are in francs, and at the cash register most stores have very nice checkout computers that show what you owe in both francs and dollars.

There are also 1,000 and 10,000 franc bills, but they seem, at least to me, less common than the ones you see here. As you can well imagine, trying to buy all your necessities with bills that are worth fifty cents each would be kind of challenging (while there are ATMs and credit card readers, it doesn't seem as common to pay with your card. Cash is very very very common.) I have definitely seen men at the grocery store with GIANT neatly folded stacks of 500 franc bills. They literally have to count out 40 bills to pay for something that costs about 20 dollars. You can imagine that it takes a while for the man, and then the cashier to count them all! 

(I am trying to show you the pictures on both sides of the bills, hence the abundance of pictures.) As you might wonder, this leads to some very interesting cash register drawers at the store. Most places I have seen don't seem very strict about having the "till" drawer pop open when the sale is made... the drawer is just open all the time, providing an interesting look in for someone as nosy as myself. 

(I promise, the last boring picture of money...) The cashiers that I have seen have large drawers where they can keep stacks of all the Congolese francs and the american money that they get, but there aren't the little clips that hold the money down usually, the ones I remember are just large drawers with no coins, only lots and lots of bills. As you can see above, they have had a recent reprint of the 200 franc bill, so there are new ones of that denomination, and you can see an old one behind it. Both are acceptable, no one will make any comment about either one.

So that is the money situation. I thought I would sit down and write this in 2.2 seconds, but it turned out there was more to say. I should have known it would be longer considering I was writing it. I am off for my stressful Friday of three afternoon prep periods and no recess duty. I LOVE Friday! I hope you all have a restful and enjoyable weekend.

I wanted to make one last comment.. a PS if you will... The title of my blog does in no way imply that I think I am clever or that my blog is clever. "Something clever" refers to that moment (ie you move to a foreign country) and everyone expects you to say something clever and insightful about all your new and wonderful experiences. But instead of saying something that's actually clever... because I am not so much clever as just long winded... I just made the title of my blog the words "something clever." Because I don't claim to know everything (or even very much) about my new country of residence or have any insights... I am just learning as I go, and sharing as I go. And that is all (even though it doesn't make a lot of sense.)