I would love to write a blog post but I have at least 2 and a half hours of French homework ahead of me tonight and it is already 10:19 pm.
Unless I stay on the computer and not do my homeowrk................. hmmmmmm!

NOPE, French then blog. Hopefully I will be back tonight with a solid update for you all!

Never a dull day!

I think I would get bored if our lives were ever normal........ yup pretty sure I would!

Today is a day to record in the history books.
First things first.............. I drove today WOOT WOOT WOOT, happy dance inserted right here!
I have not driven since leaving Calgary just about 7 weeks ago. Evan and I received our drivers licenses today and I drove home from work! Now doesn't sound like a big deal but it really is, driving is CRAZY out this way. No rules, no lines, no lights, no stop signs, no shoulders, just traffic in every direction and people walking out into the middle of the road. As much fun as it was to drive and drive standard at that it is totally sensory overload! It will get better when we get used to it!

Also we got to experience a little unrest in Kinshasa today. I was supposed to teach this afternoon from 1-2. Freddie dropped me off at the club and I walked into a completely empty clinic and studio....no one in sight!
Called Evan who was with Freddie to come back and get me, so Freddie left Evan at the Western Union and came and got me.
On our way to get Evan my phone rings and Evan is calling saying that he couldn't get out of the Western Union until now because they locked everyone who was inside in and everyone who was outside out. There was a huge protest march happening down the main boulevard in Kinshasa, hundreds of people marching and singing. After we picked up Evan we had to head to yet another Western Union and from behind us you could see tear gas going off to break up the protest.
I got home that afternoon and opened my e-mail to find a mass e-mail being sent out to everyone who works at UN, us-aid and a couple of the other larger companies that a lot of ex-patriots work for stating that they are not recommending any unnecessary travel into the city due to tear gas and shots fired.
I still went to work but no one else showed up........ oh well!

We are all safe and sound, as crazy as it sounds I thought is was a pretty cool experience and never once worried about our safety.

All in a days work.

scrambled

What a huge stretch it has been for the kids to have a french nanny for me, but aside from that she is AMAZING ! ! ! ! ! !
Right now the kids and Nene are playing at a huge play center in Kinshasa will blow up castles and stuff like that. Why is it a stretch? Nene doesn't speak any English......... at all! I need to be able to tell her information which has drastically forced me to dig deep inside and pull any french out that I can remember! I was explaining to her where we leave money for her in case she wants to take the kids out and she stood there and LAUGHED at me........ she got the point but busted a gut at the same time!
It has shocked me because I seem to know a little more then I thought but it ALWAYS sound better in my head the out of my mouth! In order to get this communication down I just upped my french lessons by 2 more hours a week, let hope it pays off!

When speaking a new language I find myself making LOTS of mistakes, yesterday I told Nene the kids could play pretty...... who knew!
Today, I told Julee my french tutor that I go to work on paper and that I am a difficult friend. Apparently I am learning a whole new side to myself! :)

I just finished 3 1/2 hours of solid french lessons, my brain is shot but I have Pink cranked so all balances out.

Bonobo adventure

We went to visit the Bonobo Chimps on Sunday this past weekend! It was a great experience especially for the kids. Really the only down side to the day was me stepping in a fire-ant hill! Lets just say that their name serves them well!
Both Evan and I had the opportunity to feed the chimps which was incredible, the kids also had the chance by they both turned it down.
We had to stay arms distance away from the fence because it was electric and the vet standing by way paranoid! Also the Bonobo's are known for grabbing anything they can get their hands on.


The first thing you notice is how much they bonobo's are like humans. They walk upright for the most part and they actually part their hair in the middle and smooth it down. These chimps are super playful , fairly gentle natured and settle all differences with sex! There is very little fighting with in the Bonobo family just a whole lot of lovin'.

Gonna let the photo's speak for themselves!

Mom and Baby.

Another one of mom and baby.

A cutie, this little one was abandoned and is now thriving in the nursery.

We have so many more pictures so hopefully over the next couple days I can do another post or to of pics.

Answers

Sometimes it takes snapping to realize how certain situations in our lives and not working. I snapped today.......... WOW!
We pay a nanny to take care of our kids, to show them love and have fun in our absence. I had french lessons this afternoon outside on our patio. When it was just about over I could hear Micah crying in the kitchen, I waited it out until my lessons were over and then walked inside to find our nanny sitting on the couch watch TV! I went into the kitchen and found Micah so upset because she was having trouble making a Nutella sandwich. Where was the nanny??????? Oh ya watching TV!
I made Micah's sandwich and dried her tears but it was the last straw. I walked into the living room and LOST IT........ yelling at the top of my lungs for the TV to be turned off. The remote was right beside her and she didn't move.
In the last month she has not made my kids a snack once, Emmanuel had made Micah her snacks and that is not right! There are so many more issues but I am not going to get into them so I like to think my "snapping" was warranted.

Evan and I just got off the phone with his parents and we have decided that the nanny will be fired tomorrow morning. We have another nanny lined up, she is our housekeeper and she LOVES the kids. The only down fall is she doesn't know English but our head guard does so if there is a huge problem he can translate. I am super pumped by how fast the kids will learn french with her around and it will push me to learn faster.............. not like I am not trying! :)

This is a huge but great step!
On a completely different note Saturday night we had the privilege of playing soccer with one of the guards. You could tell at first that they were unsure of what to think about playing and the one guard that agreed to play was very careful around us. Not to kick to hard or throw his body into it. 1/2 hour in and all walls were down, he ran us hard............. seriously danced circles around us! SO MUCH FUN !

Problems with the nanny STILL, crazy children, frustrating french lessons, intermittent power failures and now no water has left a foul taste in my mouth. Top that off with already feeling off and grump for the last couple days....................... NOT good!
Lots of tears have been flowing today.

Hopefully I will snap out of it in order to put up a good post yet tonight!

Grand intentions

Well I had grand intentions to do a post about our trip to the Bonobo's today but I do not have the energy to upload all the pictures go through them and get a post together. I will make sure to do that tomorrow. I do have to say that the day was fantastic, we live in Africa yes but we spend Monday - Friday working, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in french lessons ( for 2 hours for each of us) and also grocery shopping on Saturday and grocery shopping take hours. Sometimes on Sunday it is great to feel like a "tourist", even just for an afternoon!
More on the Bonobo's tomorrow!

We have been living in Kinshasa for 6 weeks now and I can believe everyone of those days. It has actually felt more like 6 months instead.
Lets talk health and bug bites that we have acquired in that time.

We are all covered in mosquito bites, that's a given.... enough said!

A couple weeks ago Evan was bite by a nasty wasp, it was not a regular wasp. He said it hurt so bad and his arm got hot, red and swollen. IT took about 3-4 days to heal but about 4 weeks later you can very distinctly see the puncture mark and it is big. I wouldn't be surprised if it scarred. Evan actually tracked the wasp down after it bit him because it didn't die and killed it himself!

I decided to take one for the team on the bite front and stepped directly into a fire ant hill this morning, in sandals! I was taking pictures of Evan feeding the Bonobo a banana so I held it together as long as I could but very soon my sandals were flying off and I was hitting off as many as I could while choking back the tears. I was a sight to see.......I bet! My feet and up to the middle of my calves are covered in little red dots ( a lot that were bleeding) and they still burn a little but for the most part the swelling and major discomfort is gone.

What about on the health front? We have been fairly healthy since arriving. We do need to be very careful when we take our malaria pills because if our stomach is a little too empty then we get very nauseous. I actually thought that because I was running 24/7 for 2 months before leaving and then moving to a new country that I would get sick but I have be fortunate enough to hold all sickness off. Both Emmanuel and Micah complain of a lot of stomach aches but we are thinking it is one of 3 things;
1. Malaria pills taken on an empty stomach
2. anxiety as we try and develop a sense of belonging in a 3rd world country
3. Stomach issues ( we all have them). starts with cramping and is followed by a very fast run to the bathroom. Which goes together with getting used to new food.

Evan has had to go to the hospital though ( which is also our doctors office). Evan developed an "eye" infection about a week and a half ago. It started with itchy and irritated skin around his eye and turned into swelling, pus filled redness! it had nothing to do with his eye ball though. Evan went to the doctor and was given a prescription but just to be sure they called in a eye specialist (who know we had those..... it didn't). I couldn't believe they would call in a specialist! Evan's eye is all healed now and looking good.

Welcome to Kinshasa #2

I was able to get a couple more pictures today in our travels of the city and how it is made up, I hope this continues to give you a broader picture of our surroundings.
This is taken on the Poids Lourds, we live just off this road in a compound. The Poids Lourds take you directly into the city center.
Looking through the Truck window, the man in front of us is pushing a Pousse-pousse. A huge number of men push these carts for a living, a large number of things could be on them and they are often stacked incredibly high. You should see the muscles on these guys...... enough said!
Another pic of a pousse-pousse coming into the city center. This road you are looking at I take into work every time I go. It is packed with people selling EVERYTHING !
Fountains! There is often music playing here as well.
Looking down the Boulevard!
Apartment buildings!
On our way home along the Poids Lourds again!

Not sure how many more times we will take our camera to town because it is not really allowed but hopefully you got a small taste of where we live.

Tomorrow we are taking our kids to the Bonobo Chimp sanctuary to play with orphaned Bonobo chimps! Check back for a report and probably another post very heavy with the pictures.

Maluku

A couple weeks ago we went to a near by Village to hear stories about how the war and soldiers have impacted individuals lives in a negative way. we had the privileged of hearing stories from the teenage girl who were raped by soldiers and became pregnant. After sharing lunch with the girls and ladies who run the group that supports them we went to a near by military camp where the wives and family's of the soldiers live. A lot of these women are widows and these kids are without their fathers.
Not feeling a super heavy post tonight but I do want to share a couple pics with you.
Emmanuel and Micah were definitely a little unsure of the whole situation but it is very over whelming when so many kids are following you around and trying to push to get a little closer.
Over all it was a really good experience, one that I never thought that I would get to have but definitely one that I think Evan and I and our kid will not forget.

Welcome to Kinshasa

So, We decide that we would "bend" one of the un-written rules out here ( none of the rules in Kinshasa are actually written, I don't think), on Thursday it was Independence Day in Congo so Evan had the day off from work. In the afternoon we took the kids swimming at TASOK and brought along our camera.
Yup, we took pictures....... shame on us! the entire ride that Evan was taking pictures Emmanuel was freaking out..... put the camera away dad...... watch out there are police.....etc!

So here is a small tour of our new world, a very small part of it! Most pics are blurry and out of focus because Evan was concealing the camera and just snapping away.

and another

What about one more

Hopefully we can take some better pictures yet, these don't really do it justice but it might give you a small idea.
If you have any questions about any of the pictures just ask!