..........with African rain storms! They are unbelievably incredible.... almost like nothing I have experienced before! The rain falls fast and hard, not really letting up for the duration of the storm, it gets dark and windy quickly. I don't think I even have the words to describe it, next storm I will hopefully remember to take my camera out and take a couple picture ( it is time to get some pictures of the blog).
Last week I was training the soccer and swim team and during our training session the rain hit.... I sent my teams running laps in the rain and yes I run with them! We had to end up canceling practice due to the raining falling to hard. That same day I went running with Maggie and we thought we would be fine to run amongst the trees...... we were soaked within a minute and then the thunder and lightening hit. Lightening strikes are common in Kinshasa due to the high mineral count in the ground. We were not just running to work out we were running for cover!
Good times!
The sound of the storm is also amazing, it is so loud on the tin roof. It is almost like you can hear the individual rain drops! The last storm we had Emmanuel was counting the between the clap of thunder and bolt of lightening, there were many times that he didn't finish saying 1!
Hopefully more updates will start happening, still no internet at home, trying to work out all the electricity and water issues as well. We have also been dealing with sickness in our home, I have been sick for a week already and Micah was fighting what I think was a migraine this weekend. Fingers crossed we get better soon!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
My mom heart
I often wish that my kids will not have to experience certain things in life, I know that I can't stop it from happening but it often creeps into my mind.
Both my kids are struggling in school right now and I am not sure what exactly is happening or how to help them.
Emmanuel complains of stomach aches often, I will send him to school and tell him to go see the nurse if he is feeling worse and she will call me or come get me in my classroom. Emmanuel never goes because he is to scared to ask. Today I sent him to school with a stomach ache and he wasn't pretending. I told him again to go and see the nurse if he feels worse, I just ran into him at Art class and he came to me in tears saying that he needed to go home. I told him he would have to see the nurse whether I take him or he asks his teacher..... not sure what he will do because I had to leave for a meeting.
Emmanuel has friends, he plays soccer, karate and doesn't find the school work to hard yet..... I can't figure out what is causing all the stomach aches before school and he says nothing is wrong!
Micah............ my social butterfly has almost stopped flying!
Micah is the kind of girl who will not stick to one group of friends, she moves from group to group all the time. The girls in her class have stopped playing with her and they do not let her join in at all when she asks. This is breaking her heart and she is starting to withdraw a little. Micah has made one best friend, this little boy named James. He is so cute and writes Micah these little notes saying how he missed her at home. Well the girls are calling James Micah's boyfriend so now she doesn't want to hang out with him either. I make sure to reminder her that having a boy that is a friend is AWESOME!
It is so hard to see your kids struggle, I wish I could fix it! I know I can't and all I can so is guide them but it would be nice to rush on a "fix" the problem.
Both my kids are struggling in school right now and I am not sure what exactly is happening or how to help them.
Emmanuel complains of stomach aches often, I will send him to school and tell him to go see the nurse if he is feeling worse and she will call me or come get me in my classroom. Emmanuel never goes because he is to scared to ask. Today I sent him to school with a stomach ache and he wasn't pretending. I told him again to go and see the nurse if he feels worse, I just ran into him at Art class and he came to me in tears saying that he needed to go home. I told him he would have to see the nurse whether I take him or he asks his teacher..... not sure what he will do because I had to leave for a meeting.
Emmanuel has friends, he plays soccer, karate and doesn't find the school work to hard yet..... I can't figure out what is causing all the stomach aches before school and he says nothing is wrong!
Micah............ my social butterfly has almost stopped flying!
Micah is the kind of girl who will not stick to one group of friends, she moves from group to group all the time. The girls in her class have stopped playing with her and they do not let her join in at all when she asks. This is breaking her heart and she is starting to withdraw a little. Micah has made one best friend, this little boy named James. He is so cute and writes Micah these little notes saying how he missed her at home. Well the girls are calling James Micah's boyfriend so now she doesn't want to hang out with him either. I make sure to reminder her that having a boy that is a friend is AWESOME!
It is so hard to see your kids struggle, I wish I could fix it! I know I can't and all I can so is guide them but it would be nice to rush on a "fix" the problem.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
update
We have now been in our new house for just over a week...... what a long week it has been! I love the fact that we are closer to TASOK, it is so nice to be able to walk to and from school in about 15 mins. We are right now just trying to get everything fixed and up to livable standards..... I guess they are livable just not comfortable.
Some of the things we are working on are getting electricity to work more consistently, getting electricity to work PERIOD in half of the house, get water to run at more than a trickle when it is running, getting water to run more than 10% of the time, getting hot water, fixing the tiles in the house and a bunch of other stuff! We have no internet at our house and I am not sure when it is going to come so bear with us if posts are a lot less for the next 2 -3 weeks or so. I will need to write them at work for the time being.
Our pool is in the process of being fixed right now and we are crossing our fingers that it will be done and ready to swim in at the end of this week. The pool is going to be awesome; the weather is definitely changing around here.... it is getting a little hotter. Yesterday morning I went for a run at 8:00 am with another teacher and then sun’s rays were beating pretty strong already. Oh I almost forgot we have had one or two days of almost blue sky! We can see some blue starting to poke through the clouds! Yesterday got up to +32 so the heat is slowly starting to come!
Here are a couple little tid-bits for you
- Evan and I figured out that we have been at the hospital ( for medical treatment) 24 times in the last 3 months and 3 weeks! Not a great average!
- between the 4 of us we have had 5 staf infections. The one I got almost 2 months ago still bothers me on a daily bases.
- Emmanuel and Micah have started to feel a little more comfortable speaking french to strangers. They may only say 1 or 2 words but it is a start!
- I just remembered that I have some AWESOME to blog about but forget what the topic was..... I will have to ask Evan tonight!
Okay, I've got to get back to work !
Some of the things we are working on are getting electricity to work more consistently, getting electricity to work PERIOD in half of the house, get water to run at more than a trickle when it is running, getting water to run more than 10% of the time, getting hot water, fixing the tiles in the house and a bunch of other stuff! We have no internet at our house and I am not sure when it is going to come so bear with us if posts are a lot less for the next 2 -3 weeks or so. I will need to write them at work for the time being.
Our pool is in the process of being fixed right now and we are crossing our fingers that it will be done and ready to swim in at the end of this week. The pool is going to be awesome; the weather is definitely changing around here.... it is getting a little hotter. Yesterday morning I went for a run at 8:00 am with another teacher and then sun’s rays were beating pretty strong already. Oh I almost forgot we have had one or two days of almost blue sky! We can see some blue starting to poke through the clouds! Yesterday got up to +32 so the heat is slowly starting to come!
Here are a couple little tid-bits for you
- Evan and I figured out that we have been at the hospital ( for medical treatment) 24 times in the last 3 months and 3 weeks! Not a great average!
- between the 4 of us we have had 5 staf infections. The one I got almost 2 months ago still bothers me on a daily bases.
- Emmanuel and Micah have started to feel a little more comfortable speaking french to strangers. They may only say 1 or 2 words but it is a start!
- I just remembered that I have some AWESOME to blog about but forget what the topic was..... I will have to ask Evan tonight!
Okay, I've got to get back to work !
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Moving Day
Today is moving day for us! Whoo hoo!
For the first week at our new place I am not sure what our internet situation will be like. I will try and for sure write a post from work on Monday if I have the time.
Have a great weekend everyone!
For the first week at our new place I am not sure what our internet situation will be like. I will try and for sure write a post from work on Monday if I have the time.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Karate Kid
Yesterday our kids after school programs started...... I will be teaching after school programs as well so I guess they started for all of us!
Emmanuel is taking Karate and he completed his first class yesterday afternoon! He absolutely LOVES it! Walking from the cafateria to the car Emmanual and one of his friends were practicing the moves that they learnt.
It is Micah's turn this afternoon with hands on fun! I am looking forward to hearing all about what she is doing!
Emmanuel is taking Karate and he completed his first class yesterday afternoon! He absolutely LOVES it! Walking from the cafateria to the car Emmanual and one of his friends were practicing the moves that they learnt.
It is Micah's turn this afternoon with hands on fun! I am looking forward to hearing all about what she is doing!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
When is it enough?
Some times I wonder if we are exposing our kids to to much?
I know TV has it all, the radio, magizines and lets not forget the other kids at school!
I have had a pretty sleepless night with this thought running through my head.
Here is where this thought is steming from ( I am not telling this to toot our own horn.... AT ALL!)
Yesterday we were driving home from TASOK and there was a group of about 5 individuals carrying a limp woman. We quickly stopped and picked them up, on the way to the hospital I took a glance to the back seat of the truck and notice a middle aged healthy looking woman who was completely unresponsive. I was looking for any type of movement..... there was nothing, I couldn't even detect if her chest was raising and falling.
Evan and I talked a little bit about it later and we were wondering if she was even alive!
This has me shaken, Micah cried at first but the kids have been abnormally silent aside from asking about heart attacks and if they are going to have one! YIKES!
Do they really need to see this stuff? hmmmmmmmmmmm!
I know TV has it all, the radio, magizines and lets not forget the other kids at school!
I have had a pretty sleepless night with this thought running through my head.
Here is where this thought is steming from ( I am not telling this to toot our own horn.... AT ALL!)
Yesterday we were driving home from TASOK and there was a group of about 5 individuals carrying a limp woman. We quickly stopped and picked them up, on the way to the hospital I took a glance to the back seat of the truck and notice a middle aged healthy looking woman who was completely unresponsive. I was looking for any type of movement..... there was nothing, I couldn't even detect if her chest was raising and falling.
Evan and I talked a little bit about it later and we were wondering if she was even alive!
This has me shaken, Micah cried at first but the kids have been abnormally silent aside from asking about heart attacks and if they are going to have one! YIKES!
Do they really need to see this stuff? hmmmmmmmmmmm!
Livid with a side of frog
This blog post is a weird mix of topics! Keep that in mind as you read ahead.......... ready?
Since before we moved out to Kinshasa I knew there was a lady from Germany teaching Les Mills programs. I wrote about 20 e-mails to Les Mills in New Zealand asking to buy the copy rights to Les Mills so I could keep teaching while living out here. I was told that Kinshasa is not in the expansion plan for Les Mills at least for another 4 years. I begged and pleaded but NOTHING!
This lady from Germany is teaching the programs without the rights because Les Mills has no recollection of her ( I asked).
Well last week this lady advertised her Les Mills programs all across Kinshasa, saying new releases coming this fall and etc.
I am LIVID....... I actually went about teaching the right way and got shut down and she is going on her marry way undetected to Les Mills and reaping the benefits! I don't even know how she got the new release because I can't!
I have been asked to turn her into Les Mills, I have decided not to because I have heard that she has run 3 or 4 other fitness instructors out of business and I want to keep offering free style class at TASOK which happens to be about 10 mins away from her studio.
Evan's dad is willing to send an e-mail to New Zealand for me copying her advertisement....... I guess we will see where this goes!
Another a completely different note, my children cooked a frog last night during our bon fire. Micah was out catching frogs while Emmanuel, Evan and I were sitting around the fire. After Micah caught one they wanted to find out what would happen if the put the frog in the fire. Well, we wouldn't put an alive frog into the fire because that is plain torture SO Evan smacked it with the blunt end of a machete and then they put it in the fire.
Okay, everyone who thinks we are cruel just calm down! :) It was like science class in our back yard!
The kids got to see the frog get bloated, leak fluids and expel it intestines...... all in all it was a good time!
Since before we moved out to Kinshasa I knew there was a lady from Germany teaching Les Mills programs. I wrote about 20 e-mails to Les Mills in New Zealand asking to buy the copy rights to Les Mills so I could keep teaching while living out here. I was told that Kinshasa is not in the expansion plan for Les Mills at least for another 4 years. I begged and pleaded but NOTHING!
This lady from Germany is teaching the programs without the rights because Les Mills has no recollection of her ( I asked).
Well last week this lady advertised her Les Mills programs all across Kinshasa, saying new releases coming this fall and etc.
I am LIVID....... I actually went about teaching the right way and got shut down and she is going on her marry way undetected to Les Mills and reaping the benefits! I don't even know how she got the new release because I can't!
I have been asked to turn her into Les Mills, I have decided not to because I have heard that she has run 3 or 4 other fitness instructors out of business and I want to keep offering free style class at TASOK which happens to be about 10 mins away from her studio.
Evan's dad is willing to send an e-mail to New Zealand for me copying her advertisement....... I guess we will see where this goes!
Another a completely different note, my children cooked a frog last night during our bon fire. Micah was out catching frogs while Emmanuel, Evan and I were sitting around the fire. After Micah caught one they wanted to find out what would happen if the put the frog in the fire. Well, we wouldn't put an alive frog into the fire because that is plain torture SO Evan smacked it with the blunt end of a machete and then they put it in the fire.
Okay, everyone who thinks we are cruel just calm down! :) It was like science class in our back yard!
The kids got to see the frog get bloated, leak fluids and expel it intestines...... all in all it was a good time!
Saturday, September 3, 2011
I have such a hard time knowing what to write posts on, life is life out here! the good, bad and ugly all become normal....... not always easy but normal!
Evan told me to write a little bit about the ugly yet slightly humorous side of our week. I am not necessarily agreeing but here we go................
As a lot of you know Congo has presidential elections coming up in November, with elections comes an increased number of demonstrations in Kinshasa. To anyways be ready for any situation TASOK practices something called a Code Yellow drill. This code yellow drill is when Kinshasa is unsafe due to demonstrations turning violent. On Thursday the head office called a code yellow drill at 2:00 pm, we all went to our homerooms and as teachers took roll call to make sure all students were accounted for. 15 minutes later ( practice drills never take longer then 10 mins) a piece of paper was dropped off to all homerooms explaining that the demonstration down the boulevard had turned violent and they were not letting anyone in or out of the TASOK compound. So we sat at school until 3:30 until the danger died down.
I think the hardest part of the entire lock down was the unknown? We had no idea how long we would be there and knowing the kids were across the campus and I couldn't go to them! Thankfully we are all safe and that is all that matters!
That was mine and the kids adventure, now for Evan's adventure this past week.
On Friday Evan was driving around Kinshasa running errands for work and coming to pick up the kids and I from school so we could look at more houses ( long story). During his travels he was stopped by the traffic police for an alleged infraction, I think they said he didn't use his blinker or something like that! We have always been taught to just keep going so Evan tired but soon his car was surrounded with police and one jumped on the hood of the truck. While this was all unfolding another police was ripping the plates off of Evan's truck and running down the boulevard with them! I am not entirely sure of how the story unfolded from this point and Evan isn't home so I will try my best.
I know that Evan was taken down to the police station, but this was 45 minutes after they had already stopped him and to my knowledge there was a lot of name calling and yelling ( everybody yells out here..... everything revolves around drama).
By the time they had gotten him into the police station they had come up with 4 or 5 different infractions ( anything to get more money). Oh, I need to back track, Evan has the chief of police's phone number so he called him and the chief talked to the police but they didn't believe Evan that is was the chief of police, they said Evan had called someone and told they to act like the chief of police.
When Evan got to the police station he had called the chief twice and wasn't getting anywhere.
So while Evan sat in front of the judge he called the chief again and then the chief said he would call the head of police at that station from his own phone instead of Evan just handing them the phone. About 5 minutes later Evan was handed his license and a very bent up license plate back and sent on his way, without an apology I might add!
Very thankful that Evan has some good connections at times like this!
** I may have told the story wrong so Evan may need to correct me.
Evan told me to write a little bit about the ugly yet slightly humorous side of our week. I am not necessarily agreeing but here we go................
As a lot of you know Congo has presidential elections coming up in November, with elections comes an increased number of demonstrations in Kinshasa. To anyways be ready for any situation TASOK practices something called a Code Yellow drill. This code yellow drill is when Kinshasa is unsafe due to demonstrations turning violent. On Thursday the head office called a code yellow drill at 2:00 pm, we all went to our homerooms and as teachers took roll call to make sure all students were accounted for. 15 minutes later ( practice drills never take longer then 10 mins) a piece of paper was dropped off to all homerooms explaining that the demonstration down the boulevard had turned violent and they were not letting anyone in or out of the TASOK compound. So we sat at school until 3:30 until the danger died down.
I think the hardest part of the entire lock down was the unknown? We had no idea how long we would be there and knowing the kids were across the campus and I couldn't go to them! Thankfully we are all safe and that is all that matters!
That was mine and the kids adventure, now for Evan's adventure this past week.
On Friday Evan was driving around Kinshasa running errands for work and coming to pick up the kids and I from school so we could look at more houses ( long story). During his travels he was stopped by the traffic police for an alleged infraction, I think they said he didn't use his blinker or something like that! We have always been taught to just keep going so Evan tired but soon his car was surrounded with police and one jumped on the hood of the truck. While this was all unfolding another police was ripping the plates off of Evan's truck and running down the boulevard with them! I am not entirely sure of how the story unfolded from this point and Evan isn't home so I will try my best.
I know that Evan was taken down to the police station, but this was 45 minutes after they had already stopped him and to my knowledge there was a lot of name calling and yelling ( everybody yells out here..... everything revolves around drama).
By the time they had gotten him into the police station they had come up with 4 or 5 different infractions ( anything to get more money). Oh, I need to back track, Evan has the chief of police's phone number so he called him and the chief talked to the police but they didn't believe Evan that is was the chief of police, they said Evan had called someone and told they to act like the chief of police.
When Evan got to the police station he had called the chief twice and wasn't getting anywhere.
So while Evan sat in front of the judge he called the chief again and then the chief said he would call the head of police at that station from his own phone instead of Evan just handing them the phone. About 5 minutes later Evan was handed his license and a very bent up license plate back and sent on his way, without an apology I might add!
Very thankful that Evan has some good connections at times like this!
** I may have told the story wrong so Evan may need to correct me.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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