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!

Pssst..............

Opa,
Emmanuel took your pickles...................... just thought I would let you know!
:)

Sun, songs and sweat!

This is going to be a miscellaneous post but everything and nothing at the same time!

I was teaching Pilates this afternoon and I had my Ipod on Shuffle, I am not the biggest Nickleback fan but I do have some of their songs. The song "If today was your last day" came on and I have heard the song so many times but a couple lines really hit me. Right in the middle of Pilates it is almost like a light switch came on.

My best friend gave me the best advice
He said each day's a gift and not a given right
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind....................................

This isn't going to make anything better and being realistic I know that I am not going to instantly be happy but it made me actually stop and think for a minute.
Each day's a gift but not a given right..............
Enough said! I need to make sure that I pick out one positive thing about each day and I will be starting to enforce that with my kids as well. Even if the day really sucks and as hard as it might be to find a positive at the moment I need to try!
Leave no stone unturned, leave your fears behind...................................
100% percent honesty, I have a lot of fears. Some really big and some small, but all fears in the end! Time to start thinking day by day and not worrying about anything further then the day we are on.

On a completely different note we had SUNSHINE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Whoo hoo!
It wasn't incredibly warm but who cares it was sunny. The kids were so excited they begged me to hauled out the sprinkler and they played in it this afternoon.
As soon as we had sunshine the kids love it when I sing a song from the movie Corrina Corrina.
Sunglasses,ya we've got some sunglasses
cause sunglasses protect our eyes from the sun.
Okay, I admit it I like the song as well! :)

Rant

I know I have done a lot of complaining lately and I have been holding back on the blog…. Sorry guys! This post I will not be complaining but ranting, there is a very distinct difference. :)

I have been feeling rather down on myself and the rate I am learning French, I am really trying. I take lessons 3 times a week and try and speak what I know when I feel comfortable enough to and for the most part I let the laughter that follows my sentence roll off my back. It is all part of the learning process, right?

I went into French lessons this afternoon feeling like I haven’t learnt anything substantial so I asked my French teacher if we could review from the beginning and work our way over everything I have learn up into this part. Well it is impossible to concentrate when I have 2 children constantly asking for my help to for me to get things for them….grrrrrrr!

I was feeling like the lesson was going downhill at that point but I really hit rock bottom when my French teacher looked at me shook his head say “oh Mel, you should know this.” I felt like a huge failure and all I want to do is be able to have a conversation, that’s it!

There are times during French lessons that all I can think about is screaming, my brain is so full and jumbled that processing becomes impossible.

On to my kids, why do we pay money for a nanny when she can’t even keep the kids out of my hair for French lessons? 2 hours tops! I am fighting a personal crossroad with her, I want to keep her because she knows English and to find someone in the position that wants to be a nanny and knows both French and English is hard to find. All she does is watch tv and then on the days I am not working and doing lessons at home my kids come and bug me for everything under the sun! I am pretty much paying her to sit around and eat my food, good times for her!

What a bloody frustrating day!

Okay, I am now done ranting! On a positive note we stood on Canadian soil today! Who hoo! Yup, we went to the Canadian embassy to register and they have actual Canadian soil on the ground.... okay not that exciting!

Universal balance

Today sucked, no other way to describe it but SUCKED!

On my way home from teaching a triple ........ yeah Pilates... whoo hoo cough...cough choke
I had a realization that did my heart a little good, even though my day sucked there were little glimpses of a silver lining.
I had a member show up to my Pilates class at 1:00 in a unitard, I think it is a unitard. It is one of those full sleeved dance body suit the snaps together in the crotch and to top it off the body suit was paired with a lovely pair of ballet slippers. It made me smile.

The second sliver lining, driving home from teaching tonight stuck in un embouteillage ( traffic jam) wonder what was going on! all around us was chaos, sirens going, lights flashing and military with machine guns out. As the traffic jam moved closer to an up coming bridge the story started to unfold ( Mom and Dad S, I am guessing you know where this is going). A huge truck got stuck under the bridge, it actually looked like they gunned it in hopes that the speed would help them under. This truck was some kind of wedged! The truck was wedge at an angle covering both lanes on two wheels ( the two right side wheels). Seeing as we have no tow trucks here I wonder how they will get it out.
Anyhoo, it gave me a great laugh! Shit happens!

** Disclaimer, I am not knocking Pilates at all! I just never thought I would be teaching it.

Sigh

I can’t take it anymore….. I am officially done…………………………………………………………………………. With the lack of sunshine here! Every morning I open the blinds and hope for a couple rays of sun, but every morning I open the blinds and my head hangs a little lower with the gloomy clouds that hang in the sky. It has actually started to affect my mood; it is hard to see clouds all the time especially when we just came out of 7 months of fall and winter in Calgary where the sun doesn’t show itself very often. It is time for some serious Vit. D!

I think we have had 3 days of sunshine since arriving…………… sigh!

Kinshasa

Questions are fun! Thanks Lana for asking these questions, they are good ones! Time to get a small glimpse ( a very small) into what life is like in Kinshasa.

1. Are people friendly?
- I am not sure if I am the one to answer this questions properly but I will try. Yes, for the most part people are friendly ( I am going to answer this trying to separate from the fact that I have been called horrible and told that I am not wanted here). It is so hard not speaking the language because you can't get to know anyone and people are very stand off because of the language barrier. Right now I feel very isolated and almost like people look at you with hostility but I keep telling myself that when I know more french that will all get better.
Evan is sleeping right now so I am going to answer for him, Evan knows french and communicates wonderfully. I often find him laughing and having a great time with the guards, housekeepers and lots of other people on the courtyard. He loves the people out here!

2. What is the City like?

- The City varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, where we live it is very very poor around our compound. A lot of people don't have homes and sleep on the ground next to their stand of products to sell. There are homes as well but they are concrete with no running water and very little electricity. About 20 mins away is the city center, it is busy full of cars, people walking, individuals ( lots) selling things on the street, apartment buildings and offices. Further towards the other side of the city ( towards TASOK) you get so many small shops, selling everything you can think of. I need to get picture of this because it is incredible to see but pictures in the city are really hard, you need to be careful that a police doesn't see you taking it because it is illegal.
This is a city you have to see in order to fully comprehend.

3. What do most people do?
- What don't people do here! There is everything........ absolutely everything ( well I have yet to find a movie theater)! People sell EVERYTHING... from fruit, rice, flip flops, clothing, water bottles, toilet paper.....etc on the side of the road. Some have office jobs, construction, housekeepers, gardeners, guards, chauffeurs...... EVERYTHING!

4. What is it like having house keep?
- This answer has 2 sides both very different. It is awesome to not have to clean the house, do laundry or dishes. Everything is so dusty here that floors need to be swept and mopped everyday. Kids get so dirty that clothes are washed on a daily bases! I would never have time to keep up with everything. NeNe our housekeeper starts work around 6:30 and finishes around 3:30-4:00 and she works that entire time. On the flip side it gets tiring having someone in your house all the time, from before we wake up until late afternoon. You are always aware of what you are doing especially if certain little feet or big feet are tracking in sand on a clean floor! They are cleaning up our mess and that is so weird for me!

Keep the questions coming it is hard to think about what to blog about sometimes.
Next post Evan's eye!

Pink

........nope not the color! Really could anyone see me wearing a pink shirt ( wait I had one in collage and I think it mad an appearance once or twice)!

Yesterday I taught a triple, for the three hours I taught one single phrase that was playing full blast in my head kept me going.

It was...................................................

So, so what, I'm still a rock star
I got my rock moves and I don't need you
And guess what, I'm havin' more fun
And now that we're done I'm gonna show you tonight

I'm alright, I'm just fine and you're a fool
So, so what, I am a rock star
I got my rock moves and I don't want you tonight

It seemed to help a little! WOOT !

Transplanting and Chickens

For the last couple weeks my kids have been asking for a pet, they want anything exotic. So we talked about a Monkey, Lizard.......etc and then we came up with an awesome idea. We are going to get chickens, I know they are not exotic but the kids are excited and we get fresh eggs and meat from the deal.... WOOT !
We will still be getting another pet for the kids, we are going to look into getting a Bonobo Chimp but I doubt that will be happening anytime before spring.

So this weekend we started the task of building a chicken coop, there was already a coop in Evans parent yard but we had to tear it down and pretty much start again. There also were a couple trees growing in the coop so we transplanted a young avocado and mango tree from there yard into our yard. Evan and I will be finishing the chicken coop this weekend and then we will get the chickens on Monday.

Pictures make everything look cooler, here ya go!

Evan and the kids moving the avocado tree


Squeezing mangoes for compost

starting the Chicken coop
I don't know who trusted me with that thing....... but I am glad they did!

Evan and I will be finishing the coop this weekend so I will post more pics when it is done.