hmmmmmmmmm....................................

I have so many pictures to share with you, fantastic ones from swimming, pictures of the kids legs ( they are covered in mosquito bits), pictures of Evan"trying" to climb a coconut tree while being taunted by a group of men who were working in a factory across the street ( he got higher then the court yard wall but then got stuck) but in all honesty I have no desire to.
We are all struggling with culture shock, don't feel like getting into it tonight but it is hard, I am incredibly easy to tears, the kids are refusing to eat a lot of the food and have started to hurt each other over little annoyances (aka.. biting, hitting, stomping on each others feet) and Evan is still his normal cool self but definitely more sleepy and quiet so I knew something was bothering him.
I will hopefully touch on the culture shock issue really soon but tonight is not the night, want to try and keep the post light!
In the next couple days I will hopefully catch everyone up on the stuff going on around here but for now I will fill you in on what is coming up this week for us. Evan is starting his first day at work tomorrow........... full day in french! He will be working Wednesday,Thursday, Friday this week and then full time from Monday on. It has been awesome to have him around, I don't know the language that well so he really helps out! I will be heading into the physiotherapist office tomorrow to discuss what my teaching schedule will be looking like for the summer. Thursday I will be teaching free-style step ( I haven't taught step in almost 2 years, could be interesting) I am going to be watched this class to see if I have the right personality for teaching ( their words not mine). Friday I will be teaching in the morning at the International hotel in Kinshasa............... this place is the bomb! Mirrors, windows facing the garden and pools as well as a water fall, wood floor, etc..............
I am definitely looking forward to the weekend already, days feel full and really overwhelming, it will feel great to kick back and relax.
For now I will leave you with a single picture.
BTW, if anyone has questions please don't hesitate to ask, just click the comment button at the bottom of the post and ask away!

Micah pounding manioc leaves with NeNe ( one of our housekeepers). Micah loves NeNe, they are always found together when NeNe is working in our house. They can't really speak to each other but have definitely have formed a bond.

Today we were driving in the the city center when the kids spotted a boy on the side of the road selling a monkey........... it was so cute. apparently monkeys are awful pets that get into everything and they need to either be kept on a long leash or in a cage. Not sure if I could deal with having the monkey tied up, I would love to get one. Really debating it right now! Hey Ari, we are working our way up to the lion or Giraffe! WHOO ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Introducing...............................

Orange Vader.



Named by our kids, chased by our kids and generally tormented on a daily bases by them. But there reasoning is they do this because they want him/her as our pet. Definitely had some pet care etiquette to explain.

Water why............. who needs to shower?

Yup, you read it right we have no water! Our water stopped working this morning will be probably remain off until Monday some time. Everyone that I joked about living in a mud hut and wearing a loin cloth stop laughing! Man, it seems like I am heading in that direction........... okay it is not nearly that bad.
Had a good day today, it was hot and sunny. Sun is one of those things that we have not seen a lot of up until today, most days have been cloudy and humid. Spent a good portion of the day playing soccer with Emmanuel in the backyard, while Micah followed NeNe ( our housekeeper) around the backyard picking eggplant and manioc leaves ( which we ate for supper).
I will hopefully post pictures tomorrow, a little to tired to walk over to the table and get the camera.
We also experienced our first African thunderstorm, it is incredible. They seem so close, the energy is pure power, the lightening is bright and the thunder at times can be deafening. I don't think I have ever seen anything like it before, it is almost impossible to actually describe properly.

** wait a second, I can't believe I forgot this story**
Yesterday was a huge day for us, we went into the city center of Kinshasa which is absolutely massive. We also went to TASOK, where are kids will be attending school in the fall. It is unbelievably beautiful, they have everything there, swimming pool, basketball courts, tennis, beach volleyball, etc. It is also one of the places I will be teaching ( fitness classes) come fall.
While we were shopping at the malls in the city I was getting down right frustrated........ okay first true or false Do I (Mel) hate shopping? Post your answer in the comment section and I will give you a round of applause............. hey, it's very hard to mail anything from here! :)
Anyhoo, we were at the mall after a very long day and Emmanuel and Micah said they needed to use the bathroom, okay off we went. After walking into the bathroom I realized this man was staring at us and through the process of elimination I came to the conclusion that you need to pay to use the bathroom, 450 Congo Francs later we were moving in the right direction. This man then follows me into the women's bathroom trying to get my attention. After my VERY BROKEN french explanation that I spoke little french I realized that you don't pay to use the bathroom you pay for the toilet paper. After thanking him over and over we were able to finish our business. By the way, Evan just heard the whole story now and was killing himself laughing.... I am good at being the brunt of jokes around here.
So much more to say but not tonight, I am going to relax and watch a movie.
Tomorrow night I will fill you in on a lizard friend who we are starting to call Darth Vader, and hopefully a bunch of pictures.

Little tid-bits of info

Now that I have shown you our house and backyard as well as documented our flight out here it is time to get to talking about our day and little tid-bits of information that I can share with you.
My kids were on a lizard hunt this morning, we have seen so many different colors of lizards and last night we saw one with an orange head and tail and black body. It was so incredible, trying our best to find another one to take a picture. One of my closest friends back home LOVES lizards so Micah thinks that we can just catch one and send it to her in a box. Unfortunately we will have to show you pictures. The quest continues for the elusive black and orange lizard. On the lizard front, Micah "found" a gecko in her bedroom last night and we have been searching the house for this little gecko................. I found it this evening but not for long! They are pretty fast, search continues tomorrow I guess.
What can I tell you about today,Jet leg has been hitting really hard, last night we went to be at 5:00 am and woke up ( by alarm ) at 10:40 am. The kids only fell asleep at 3:30 ish am so we have all been pretty bagged here plus the humidity was high today with also saps all energy.

I cooked my very first meal since arriving in Kinshasa, a form of a stew. Can't say it was all that great........... okay it was not good at all, really salty! I didn't even put in that much salt!
This is Evan's Mom and Dads kitchen, our stove doesn't work yet so we eat together.
Pic of our backyard facing the house, so from the wall towards the house.

The last two pics for today will be of my feet.................. okay digest what I just said and hear me out. I can't believe how dirty things get out here, dust is everywhere. We have our home swept and mopped everyday. Before you look at the pictures take into consideration that I was wearing flip-flop all day so I never just walked in the dirt.

Tops of my feet!
Bottom.......... nasty!

House pics #2

Lets wrap up the pictures of our house and then I am going to watch a movie.......... whoo hoo!
btw, we now have skype for anyone who is interested in video chatting with us...... good times!Bedroom #2 Emmanuel's bedroom, same as Micah's. you can't see the door to the bathroom our the closet.
The master bedroom, picture doesn't do it justice but you get the idea. We are have a table on the side and a HUGE closet. In the next couple days we will be getting two night stands for the beside our bed.
And last but not least our backyard, I LOVE OUR BACKYARD! I am hoping to get more pictures of the next couple days. The kid spent a lot of time there this afternoon finding out the different trees and chasing lizards around. We have a banana, coconut, papaya and avocado trees. As well as some flower trees and a rubber tree.

Another little tid-bit into our lives is we have guards for our compound. There little shelter they sit in is outside our house. Evan went our to ask for a machete to open a coconut and they have been laughing at the fact that they can hear our kids talking still at 1:35 am.

If anyone has questions for us please feel free to ask and we will hopefully be able to answer them!

Maybe today is the day......................

that I can poop!
For everyone who travels you know exactly what I am talking about.......... enough said!

SO, I think a couple post back I gave Kinshasa a bad rap, I need to clarify. We went through the poor part of Kinshasa and that was hard to swallow but today we went to a huge market and were able to do some grocery shopping, go out for ice cream and the kids played in a huge play area. Apparently there is so much more to see yet, we are heading downtown tomorrow morning where we will be doing some shopping and I will be meeting the lady who runs the physiotherapy clinic where I will be teaching come next week.
One thing that has hit me hard these last two days is the fact that most of these people are so poor but they are always dressed so well............ I mean better then I dress but for those of you who know me that might not say much, I am the queen of jeans, t-shirts and flip-flop. Make that jean shorts, tank tops and flip-flops ( out here)!
Speaking of shorts it was so nice outside today, just standing in the backyard I was sweating profusely.....It was awesome! I may sweat a lot but I love hot weather! We are now entering cool season so our temperatures will be ranging from 20-30 ish.
What else??????
Time change is a bitch ( pardon my language). It is 1:09 am our time and my entire family is still up, it is hard to know you have been up most of the day and you should have been in bed hours ago but it still feels like we should be eating supper at the same time super confusing!The upside is I have more time to blog and I am eating a coconut with my hubby that is from a tree in our backyard!
Okay, here come more pics.

Our House

I absolutely love our new house!
Time for the grand tour, I am going to start off like we are at the front door and then work are way around the house. Take into consideration that we just got here so everything is a little messy and we have not yet got all of our furniture.



This is our living room, it is a nice size with half of it slightly sunken in. The floors are tile all through out the house.
Looking to the other side of the main room is the dinning room, we pretty much only have a table and a cabinet but more furniture will be coming in the next couple days or so. Our table is right in font of our patio doors with lead to a back porch and our back yard. The door to the right of the picture is the room I will show you next.This is an extra sitting room right off the dinning room, it also has a door that leads out to our porch/backyard.
Our Kitchen, fully equip with a fridge, stove, sink,cupboards and a microwave that is siting in the corner waiting for us to put it somewhere. We can't drink the water but we do have a filter right beside our tape that is Canadian water....... tastes like home!

One of our 3 bathrooms, yup you read that right we have 3 bathrooms....... whoo hoo! Ironically no master bathroom but our kids have a bathroom that connects to both of there rooms! This is a poor pic of the bathroom but it has a fantastic shelving unit also you can see that we have a Bidet (Bid-ay) aka the butt washer! Unfortunately I am not going to show you pictures of the other 2 because it takes forever to upload pics and the post is getting long. Guess you will just need to take my word for it.Micah's bedroom...... looks like a bedroom but also has the fantastic cupboards that are in the bathroom, actually all the bedrooms have them.

apparently blogger doesn't want me to upload any new pictures........... going for round 2 in a minute!

Our Journey #2

Time to pick up where I left on with documenting our journey.

Our flight from Montreal to Brussels was pretty uneventful, the one thing that through us for a loop was the time change. We boarded the plane at 7:30 Montreal time which is 5:30 Calgary time and we landed 6 1/2 hours later in Brussels at 8:35 am Brussels time. Our kid feel asleep 1 hour before landing and we had to try and wake them to get off the plane. They were not happy!

In Brussels we had to go through security again and they are picky in Europe it seems. That took some time so by the time we got to our gate it was pretty much time to board. The one big thing that stuck out in my mind at the Brussels airport was how much it stank, the entire airport stank of urine. The flight from Brussel's to Kinshasa was SO LONG and there are no personal tv's on air Brussels............. yeah not fun! 8 1/2 hours later we landed in Kinshasa. Getting off the airplane in Kinshasa is so different then anything I have ever seen, you taken from the tarmac to the airport by bus and then you walk into a room with a couple lines and military personal everywhere. All you papers are very carefully examined and they check to see if you have had yellow fever shots.

My first impression of the city was not a good one, we went through the poor area of Kinshasa and it was crazy. Drivers are insane with zero respect for the road or anyone on it. They also drive down the wrong side of the road and then cause major traffic jams. People are everywhere, standing on the sides of the road, crossing the road and they all have their little shops set up with no electricity. Definitely a completely different life style then anything I am used to.

We spent the rest of the night trying to grasp our surroundings and figure life out. We also had a fantastic supper that included fresh fruit from our fruit trees in the back yard. Dessert consisted of coconut from the backyard!


next post................ pics of our new house and 1 of the backyard, definitely will need to take more pictures to give you the full effect.

Our Journey

Well, it is 3:00 am Kinshasa time and I can't sleep. I totally thought after only sleeping about 3 hours since Saturday night I would pass out but my mind is going a mile minute. Here is a slight run down of our flights from Calgary to Kinshasa, you will notice that there are not a lot of pictures during the final leg of the journey. This happened for 2 reasons: 1. we were so exhausted at that point and 2. it is illegal to take pictures in Kinshasa. We will take as many as we can but we might end up describing the city to you the best we can.


Here is a good place to start, Saturday night Evan and I had to repack and weigh all of our bags. We had done a little more shopping that afternoon so things needed to be shuffled around. Our whole lives fit into 6 hockey bags, 2 suit cases and 4 carry on bags!



Sunday morning started really early but with a great breakfast! Lori and I took the time to make pancakes, eggs and bacon. Unfortunately the pharmacist told us to take our malaria pills on an empty stomach with resulted in 3 very nauseous Schellenberg's and Micah who cleaned her plate! By 9:45 the cab had arrived and we were on our way.



A huge thank you to everyone who had shown up to say farewell, I am sorry we didn't have a lot of time but it was special to take a minute with each of you.
Emmanuel and Evan as well as Micah and myself on the airplane from Calgary to Montreal. Montreal looked so incredible as we landed unfortunately with our tight itinerary we saw nothing but the halls as we raced to meet our connection to Brussels. Just picture 4 of us whipping down the halls, van with his carry on , Emmanuel's carry on and Micah's and myself with my carry on, a lap top and Micah on my shoulders. Must have been a sight to see.
Chapter 2 tomorrow, I've got to sleep.................. hopefully! :)

We are here

It is 1:40 am Kinshasa time and I am beat but also still feel like it is 5:40 pm Calgary time...... so confusing!

Heads up, I am going to grab Evan and we are going to take you all through our journey to get to Kinshasa, hopefully pictures and all.

First, thank you to everyone who came to the airport to send us off, we are truly blessed to have wonderful friends and also thanks to Ruedi and Lori fir putting us up for the weekend before we left Canada. You guys are the bestest!

T-1 day

So, the freak out is starting to really set in! We are leaving in just over 15 hours! In some ways it felt like this day would never come and in other ways it has come way to fast for my liking. We are officially moved out of our house and will be parking our car tonight. Thinking about all of this makes my heart jump in excitement and sink in fear at the same time.
Not much to say, hopefully I will post again tonight and be able to explain more about what we are experiencing, stay tuned. More post an pictures to come, we will for sure be documenting our entire journey through airports and country's but it might only be after we arrive in Kinshasa.

T-3 days and TIRED !

MOVING DAY! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Oh so very tired!
Not much to say this morning but tons of work ahead of us for the day. We need to be out of our house tonight at 7:00 pm. Tomorrow will most likely feel a lot more relaxed ( fingers crossed).
So much to do today and it is already 4:00 am so I better get started. Either myself or both Evan and I will give you an update tonight after all the craziness is over.

Oh, thanks to one of my dear friends for a fantastic idea of documenting our travel journey on here starting with photos at the Calgary airport and ending in Kinshasa. So cool!

T- 4 days

Well, it is the end of Wednesday which makes it 4 days until we leave. I've got to say that tension is starting to run very high in this house. Evan wants me to say that we are clingy to each other but that is not the way I roll........... love you babe!

Here are 2 more questions for you all to digest:

Motivation for making the move
Evan and Mel: We are going to answer this one together. We have always wanted the opportunity to see other parts of the world and to give our children the opportunity to experience a different way of life. Short and sweet answer, the world is huge, why limit ourselves to one place?

How Long
Evan and Mel: Minimum of 2 years! Evan is thinking longer term and Mel can't imagine being away from her friends longer than necessary! I will be coming back girls! :) (that wasn't Evan's comment) <- I always knew deep down inside you were a huge ladies man Evan!

Off to keep getting ready.

Questions and semi-intelligent answers

Here are some of the questions we get when people find out that we are moving to Kinshasa, DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). You will have the privilege of hearing answers from both Evan and I as we are equally ( hopefully) contributing to the blog!

Are you serious?
Mel: Believe me I ask myself that same question on a daily basis but YES we are totally serious!
Evan: Yeah....... Why?

Is it safe?
Mel: I don't think I would be going if it wasn't safe! Yes, it is safe plus we have added safety of traveling with a chauffeur.
Evan: Yeah, the Canadian government has a travel advisory against the DRC, but we are living in the capital city where there is a large UN presence and besides, there are no roads from the areas of conflict to Kinshasa.

What will you be doing?
Mel: I have the privilege of doing pretty much what I am doing here. I will still be involved in the fitness industry but in a different form. I will be running free-style classes for 3 different businesses plus running boot camps for TASOK, which is The American School Of Kinshasa and also the school our children will be attending. I will also be working along side of Evan's Dad trying to create a protein/breakfast bar made of Congolese ingredients. Lots of opportunity, that's for sure!
Evan: I will be running a company called SMS. It offers Service and Maintenance Solutions. I will be in charge of the construction needs of the umbrella company I will be working for, GBE. This will include building a few new banks, renovating some banks, building an apartment building, a restaurant, a few hundred kilometers of road through the jungle to get to the three factories I will be building. Also, maintenance of banks and some government buildings and the maintenance of the company's fleet of over 1,000 vehicles. Yes, I am grossly unqualified for it.

That is a small start to give you a little glimpse into how our life will change in a matter on 5 days. We are feeling lots of excitement with the different opportunities that will come our way but there is also a lot of uncertainty, fear and sadness. It has been very hard thinking about leaving; our friends have become very important and big parts of our lives.
Now, I am going to leave this in your hands, please feel free to leave any questions you might have in the comment section and over the next couple of days, Evan and I will take a couple moments to answer them.
Hoping that you all enjoy the journey will are about to take, we will keep you updated throughout.

T- 5 days and counting

First thing's first; the title makes me feel like I am part of the show on TLC "a million kids and counting"!

Welcome to our blog, we will see how strong our marriage is after writing a blog together. One thing you will very quickly come to realize is that I could care less about punctuation and Evan is a little high strung when it comes to grammar! Oh well!
Apparently the new deal (which was just discovered right now) is I write and Evan proof reads...... over my shoulder!

We are sitting at 5 days away from jumping on the airplane and starting our 24 hour travel journey............. whoo hoo!
Post coming soon about why we decided to go, how we are feeling and a basic update!

Welcome to our crazily overwhelming journey.