Virtual Tour of the Homestead

This is the front of our house. Sub-Saharan architecture tends to be rather boxy and unimaginative, but the garden is great! Part of the interior was remodeled a few months ago, and so I'm very happy about that as well.

One of the things that I really like about our house is all of the trees. There is an amazing variety, and a LOT of them.

This is a picture from one of the "wild" areas of our yard. Part of our garden is manicured, and we have several large grassy areas (it costs $15 per week just for the gas for the lawn mower). We also have a few sections of our yard that is in a more "natural" state, which are absolutely perfect for hide-and-go-seek.

This is the entry way to our house. These plants used to be a lot more dense and bushy. However, my gardener decided to trim them up and thin them out for whatever reason (he explained to me in French, but unless someone is talking about apples, rice, or water, I have no idea what they are saying).

This is our dining room. From past experience, we decided that a carpet under the table is not a very good idea with three boys. Notice the lovely towels draped over some of the cream upholstered chairs. Tres chic! There are double doors on both sides of the dining room that open up to our back yard.

This is from the top of the stairs. The large piece of tan and black cloth is called kuba cloth, and I bought it at a local market. The fabric is made out of raffia, and then the black and tan pieces are hand stitched together with orange raffia. There is also a piece of kuba cloth on the dining room table.

This is our living room. We have 4 sets of doors that open up to our garden and so we get quite a bit of light in the room.

This is my room. It is long and narrow, and it has a weird lay out. However, it does have long balconies on both sides, and so there is a lot of light in the room.

Notice the wild monkey that lives in the garden. Oh wait, it's Soren! There are many, MANY great climbing trees (if you can avoid the biting ants). Soren likes to swing out of this tree like Tarzan.

I took this picture of the Congo River from my back bedroom balcony (I know that it is hard to tell that it is a river, but the light area beyond the trees is indeed the Congo River). Our back yard goes up to the razor wire, and then it is our neighbor's yard that has been taken over by the Congolese police/military in the name of "national security."

These are my favorite flowers that grow in our yard. I don't know what they are called, and so please tell me if you know!

We would love for you to come and visit us!

"There Were Three in the Bed and the Little One Said..."

Okay, so our nightly ritual goes something like the following:

(middle of the night) Anders tiptoes into our room and whispers, "Mommy, I'm scared." I roll over, he quietly climbs in, and sleeps on the very edge of the bed.

(middle of the night, but a bit later) Anson barges in the room, jumps into the middle of the bed, proclaims that we taking up all of HIS space, and he pushes the rest of us out of his way. Charles then climbs out and finds another bed, while Anson and I fight over the "preferred" pillow for the rest of the night.

The other night Anson again climbed into the middle of the bed in the middle of the night and announced, "Mommy, you're squishing me! Squ-ishhh-inggg. That means squishing!" Yeah, a 4-year-old is now defining words for me. I have officially entered the "not-smart-parent" phase of the child-rearing years. Whatever happened to the old adage that "Children are to be seen and not heard?!"

Over the River and Through the Woods it's to Brazzaville We Go!

I took a picture of our yard from the boat - the picture's not great, but it was the best that I could do considering that we were traveling rather fast on a small boat. You can't see our house but you can at least see our trees!


Yesterday I went on an outing with our embassy to Brazzaville, R. Congo (the country across the river from us). We took one of the embassy boat, and the expediter at the embassy was able to clear everything at customs for both countries. This was really nice considering the chaos that is typically found in sub-Saharan customs offices. Our first stop was to Le Memorial Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, and boy was that exciting! It is a large, marble mausoleum that houses the remains of the founder of Brazzaville. We were given an 80 minute guided tour of the facility, and we were even accompanied by the local press. We really wanted to sneak away to a patisserie across the street, but well, we were kind-of scared of being caught by our tour organizer (yeah, I sound like I'm in middle school). We then went to a craft market, and as unbelievable as this may sound, I actually did not buy anything (gasp!). I did have my eye on a pair camel skin ottomans with cow horn legs (these would have been the perfect accents for my room of death-and-carnage complete with Nguni hair rug, leather and fur pillows, etc.). However, the vendor and I couldn't reach an agreeable price. Oh well. Our final stop was to a restaurant on the river. The food was okay, but I really did enjoy visiting with everyone. We then loaded back up in the vans and headed back to the river.

Carolyn, Kristen, and Meeja in Brazzaville

The Congolese version of Carnival Cruise Lines.

And It Was Long Like a Weasel

Last month I experienced the local Zoo not once, but twice. On my first outing to the zoo I took Anson, and my friend Rebecca and her son also came with us. Neither of us had been to this zoo before, nor had we heard of anyone else who had been there. We thought that this was odd seeing how there really aren't many things to do around here. Anyway, going with my new mantra of "Why not?" we ventured off to the zoo. The zoo is all that you can imagine a 3rd world country zoo to be (and more!). We were greeted by the sight of random police officers and military troops toting beat-up guns milling about. This is quite normal - both military and police everywhere, and them just milling about. The zoo grounds were also larger than I anticipated, but they were not particularly well kept, and they are very run-down. One of the first enclosures that we saw housed some adult crocodiles. An older man then came up to us and said that if we gave him some money, preferably "cinq dollar," he would "play" with the crocodile. I wasn't sure if he was employed by the zoo or not, or what exactly constituted "playing" with the crocodiles, but hey, "Why not?" I gave him some cash, and in hopped the Congolese Steve Irwin. This man then started poking this adult crocodile with a stick, which of course annoyed the poor caged critter. At this point, I was kind-of hoping that the croc would make a snack of his provoker (but not really because we had 4-year-olds in tow). We then saw some birds that looked like a cross between an eagle and a vulture. However, they sounded like a chicken. Crazy! In fact, there were quite a few animals that looked like they were a cross of this and that. Well, in all actuality they looked down-right inbred. Later on that day, I told Soren and Anders about all of the animals that Anson and I saw at the zoo. I told them about a genet that looks like a cat, but it was long like a weasel, and about a porcupine that looked kind-of like a rat, but it was long like a weasel. I then started to tell them about another animal, and the boys piped in "and it was long like a weasel." They then burst out laughing. Ever since then, whenever I start rambling on and on about something (and this occurs on a frequent basis), they interject, "and it was long like a weasel." Agh! My own children have already started to mock me!



The next week when the older two boys were on school holiday, I took all three boys to the zoo. My friends Meeja and Bibha also came with us with their children. Again, we were greeted by the same sights, and it certainly hadn't lost any of its charm. However, this time we noticed that the cage to the adult crocodiles was LEFT WIDE OPEN WITH NO ZOO KEEPER IN SIGHT!!! My driver, Mamba, assured me that this really wasn't that big of a deal because the crocodiles were pretty old. Yeah, I felt safe. Mamba, who was quite thrilled to be our self-appointed tour guide, humored us with stories of atrocities and horrific accidents that have occurred throughout the history of the Kinshasa zoo. At this point, one of my friends looked a wee bit stricken, and I am pretty sure that she was sending us psychic messages to leave this place ASAP. However, none of the children had been mauled, or received any scratches for that matter, and so we carried on. The boys were very excited to see the leopards being fed, especially since they could hear the bones of the chickens being crunched. This provided me with a good teaching moment - I pointed out that this is what would happen to them if they stuck their arm in the cage (yeah, you can walk right up to the cage - no safety barriers whatsoever). Anders and his buddies also almost walked too close to some of the chimpanzees, and so we had to explain to them that chimpanzees are very talented at sticking their exceedingly long arms through cage bars and ripping off limbs of unsuspecting children. Speaking of which, the chimpanzees reminded me of those scenes in dungeons in medieval period movies, where the inmates are wildly holding out their arms and are hollering at the characters walking by. We had also attracted a group of Congolese who kept on following us, and I felt like I was one of the zoo exhibits (Scientific Name: Kristen; Habitat: everywhere; Diet: Omnivore with a preference for high fat items...) By this point, my friend who was sending the psychic messages (I presume), was practically PULLING us out of the zoo. The boys were also anxious to go, but I think that they just wanted to go home and play video games.



Now you may ask, will I return to the zoo? Well, "Why not?!"



(P.S. - I will attach photos later.)

(P.P.S. - No crazy comments about the name of this entry. This is a FAMILY blog!)

Les Serpents du Congo

A few weeks ago I volunteered to chaperone an outing to Les Serpents du Congo for all of the children from kindergarten through second grade at my boys' school. As you can tell by the name, it is a park filled with all manner of snakes. The property is actually clean and well-maintained, but safety for young children was obviously not a factor in its design. Many of the snakes are housed in pits that have a two foot high wall around them with removable lids. The caretakers removed the lids so that the children could get a better look at all of the vipers, cobras, mambas, etc. Of course all of the children leaned over as far as they could to get a better look, and of course I held on to the back of Anders's shirt to help prevent a round of anti-venom treatment. The whole time I kept on thinking A) please do not let any of these kids fall in, and B) if A) occurs, will I be held liable? Fortunately, there were no biting incidents (big sigh of relief). However, there was plenty of interaction of the snakes and children. As you can see by the attached picture, Anders has a snake on top of his head. I don't remember the name of this reptile, but for protection it knots itself up into a tight ball. The children were also able to hold and pet all sorts of other serpents (all non-venomous I presume), including a very large python. I was standing very close to said python when it decided to relieve itself on me. Fortunately, I carry a very large tote bag filled with items to handle any contingency. After immediate treatment with wet wipes and disinfecting gel, I was good to go.

If any of you know Anders, you will know that he is curiously obsessed with rodents. He was rather distressed at the thought of the snakes' staple food item (rodents), and so we decided to "rescue" a couple of the little critters. Well, we have owned many, many hamsters but we have never had mice. In fact, my only experience with mice was in my dad's laboratory when I was growing up. On occasion, we would visit his lab at the research facility where he worked, and look at all of the research participants (I like euphemisms). Once, my dad even let me hold a white mouse, which proceeded to latch onto my hand with its sharp, little teeth. The darn thing would let go until my dad pulled it off by its tail. Okay, enough about that traumatic episode in my life. Anyway, we took home two white mice and the boys decided to name them "Popcorn" and "Blizzard." All was good and well until Blizzard discovered that she could squeeze through the bars of the hamster cage. We first blamed the boys for being so careless to leave the cage unlocked. However, we soon discovered Blizzard's trick. I then moved the mice into a large plastic bin. A few days later we found Blizzard missing again. We caught Blizzard a few more times, and each time she disappeared shortly after being captured. I then happened to be in the room with the mouse when I saw the wily rodent JUMPING out of the bin! I think that we are going to take another trip to Les Serpents du Congo soon so that the mice can return to their roots...

Psych!

Anson hangin' with FARDC

(Yup, my house is on the other side of this wall. The man without the uniform is just one of their friends who stopped by to play a game of bottle cap chess.)

I'm not sure how much you've heard about the Laurent Nkunda situation we have going on in this country, but it certainly has made things exciting. Nkunda is the Congolese Tutsi rebel leader, and he is claiming that he is fighting to protect the minority Tutsis who are not being protected from the Hutu fighters that fled into DRC after the Rwandan genocide. The fighting has been going on for years, but it has really intensified since late August. Since then more than 250,000 people have been displaced, and it is uncertain as to how many have been killed. Nkunda claims that he is going to march through Goma and down into Kinshasa if the government won't speak with him, but people at the Embassy think that his threat is highly unlikely because his force is relatively small. Early last week people seemed particularly on edge, since that was when Nkunda was particularly wrecking havoc around Goma (it is the largest city in eastern Congo). There is currently a supposed unilateral cease-fire, but a bit of fighting broke out again today up by Goma. Anyway, on Monday of last week when tensions were particularly high, I heard a loud "boom" and the house shook. A short time later I heard another loud "boom" and the house shook again. My driver and guard then ran to my door and stated, "Madam, Madam this situation is not good!" They were visibly freaked-out, and so I decided to call Charles at the Embassy to see what was going on. He heard the boom as well and so he indicated that he was going to check on it. Well, the "booms" were explosions, but it was just the Republic of Congo (the country directly across the river from us) setting off old ordinance for whatever reason. My theory is that the Brazzaville Congolese knew how tense people were in Kinshasa, and so for a practical joke they decided that it would be the perfect time to set off their extra munitions. Okay, so I don't have any facts backing up my theory, but wouldn't it be funny (in a sick sort of way) if that were true?

For a fun-filled outing today, I decide to take a walk down the alley that runs directly between our house and another property. The Congolese military has some of their men positioned in the alley at all times of day and night, since it leads directly to the Congo River. The military guys were very friendly and they were very enthusiastic about doing some posing for the camera. I then asked if I could take a picture of the river, and again they were more than happy to let me do so (the Congolese gov't/military usually doesn't let you take pictures of ANYTHING). Anyway, I continued down the path with my entourage consisting of my driver and my new Congolese military buddies. However, when we got to the river, the supervisor forbade me to take any pictures but he said that I could look at the river. Of course, later on when his men weren't around, it was suggested that if I gave him a little money then it would be okay for me to take a few pictures. No thanks.

I attached a couple of pictures of some of the Congolese military troops (FARDC) that are posted next to our wall. If you look closely at the group shot, you can see some of the many bullet holes that were left from the Bemba episode of March 2007.

The Three Bears

On Wednesday Anson and I took a little day trip out of Kinshasa again with some of my friends (Ingrid, Ingrid's mother Heather, and Christine) and their pre-school age boys. The drive this time was a bit less exciting, although still an "off-road" experience. "Symphonies Naturelles" is a collection of fish ponds, a small cave area, and a picnic/recreation area. It is just outside of Kinshasa in a hilly area with DENSE vegetation. If one of the boys decided to run off and hide, we would probably never find them (that is until they heard the crinkle of a chips bag). When we first arrived we were notified by the gardener that the area is only open on the weekends. Fortunately, he let us in anyway. We then walked around the ponds and looked at the fish and tadpoles. One of the boys brought a net, and so the boys had a fantastic time catching the tadpoles. Some of the ponds were covered in gorgeous water lillies (or some sort of aquatic flower - if anyone knows its name let me know - I attached a photo).

Anson's favorite part of the outing were the caves. The caves are not exactly awe-inspiring to the average adult since they are quite small, but to a 4-year-old boy they are the perfect setting for pretending one is a bat, a super hero, or a bear. I tried to get all three of the boys to pretend that they were bears and face the camera for a photo, but they just wanted to attack each other once they were in "bear mode." Speaking of bears, the boys were getting a bit wound up in the car on our way to the ponds, and so I brought out the old "Sleepy Bear" game that my Mom used to have us play when we were kids. The rules are simple - whoever closes their eyes and pretends they are a "sleepy bear" the longest wins. I find that this game is most successful, and rewarding for the adults involved, when there is a bribe (er... a prize) available. We used to make our youngest brother play this game all of the time. We were such mean siblings! But I digress, the boys absolutely loved the caves. I did see a bat in the cave and that did make me a bit nervous. Not that I'm afraid of bats and not because they frequently carry rabies (the med unit is stocked with rabies vaccines). It is because around 14 years ago I read a non-fiction book called "The Hot Zone" which tells the story of an Ebola/Marburg filovirus outbreak that started in central Africa. Anyway, some guy went into a cave loaded with bat guano, got ebola, bled out, and died. Super scarry. Yup, my region of the world is famous for emerging viruses. Fortunately, I didn't see any guano, but they were still under strict orders to not touch anything.

The boys were also were fascinated by a giant snail shell BOILING with maggots. UGH!!! Another popular attraction were the fish flopping around in a drained, muddy pond that were being fetched by two workers. The workers would collect the fish in cartons and then dump them into a vat filled with water. Of course the boys stood too close to the vat so that they could get a closer look at the fauna, and so every time the men would dump the fish in, mud (filled with fish slime I might add) was splashed all over them. Very exciting! After our tour around the ponds, we had a picnic. It was such a beautiful day that none of us wanted to return to the city. I'm hoping that we can return to Symphonies Naturelles soon!

"There are Chickens in the Trees..."

(Thank you Ingrid for the photos!)

Okay, so I haven't really seen any chickens in the trees yet, but I just remembered that song from Sesame Street and this posting is about chickens. So there you go. Anyway, on Saturday we went to a lake that is approximately 45 minutes from where we live. We went with two other families (one American and the other South African), and we drove through some neighborhoods that I can't really even describe. Although I've lived in four African countries, I am still absolutely shocked by the way many people exist. These neighborhoods are densely packed with shacks made out of whatever people can find. The ground is completely saturated in mud, garbage, and other filth. Some of the roads in these places are completely underwater, and so we had to drive on the sides of roads and through business properties. What gets me is that more people in the world live like this than live the way that we do. People talk about poverty in the States, but this is beyond poverty.

Shortly after we left Kinshasa, we were in the beautiful, hilly countryside of the Congo. I didn't realize that this landscape existed adjacent to the city, and it felt wonderful to have a change of scenery. We drove on a mud road (or bog) to the lake, and then we took all of the children on a little hike around it. It is a 2 mile walk, which is quite a distance for my boys (I can hear Mom laughing now). Fortunately, there were enough crazy bugs, fish, and sticks to distract the young-uns from their physical activity of the trek. Unfortunately, one of the families had to leave the mini-hike early in order to attend a birthday party. We didn't think that we had even gone half way at this point, and so they back tracked and we carried on. Well, about 15 minutes later we turned a corner, and ta-da!, we were back at the start. By this time it was getting very hot and humid, and so we decided to sit and get some sodas at the little restaurant. Meanwhile, we saw the other family trudging around the other side of the lake. We weren't sure whether to hide under the table, send a boat across the water to fetch them, or just wave. We discussed the pros and cons of these various options until they returned, sweaty and exhausted.

After we cleaned off the bulk of the mud off our legs with wet wipes, our South African friends suggested that we visit one of their friend's chicken farm that was in the general area. Why not? Anyway, we loaded up the children and we headed off for another adventure through the boggy roads. I'm quite glad that Charles has skills in driving, we have a 4WD vehicle with high clearance (and testosterone infused shocks), and I also reminded myself many, many times that our friends had a tow kit on their SUV. Fortunately, we made it to the chicken farm with no incidents. The chicken farm. Should you visit one? Perhaps. Should you bring air freshener to directly spray into your nose? Definitely. This chicken farm houses over 150,000 chickens, and we got to take a tour to see all 150,000 of these birds. Why see merely one chicken house (full of 1000+ birds each) when you can tour ALL of them. Actually, it was a pretty interesting experience, we had a great time visiting with everyone, and it helped me realize that no, I do not want to have my own chickens after all. After our grand tour, we were invited to stay for a bar-b-q. Fortunately, when it was time to eat we moved inside. Guess what we ate? Chicken!

Ya Ain't From Around Here, Are Ya?

Believe it or not, I have FINALLY started a blog. I have been thinking about this for quite some time, but it just hasn't happened by the power of my intent (kind-of like my French studies, but that will be another entry). Anyway, I was pretty much hung-up on the name for my blog. In fact, my sister and I spent the better part of an evening over this past summer trying to come up with a name for my blog. No luck, and so no blog. A few weeks ago I was telling the same sister about an experience that I had during one of my first real jobs out of grad school as a "Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant" with a company in West Virginia. Basically, I evaluated individuals who were injured on the job (typically in coal mining or heavy manufacturing incidents) and tried to come up with ways to get them back to work as quickly as possible in order to save the companies money on their Worker's Compensation rates. On my first evaluation with a client, I was feeling all spiffy with my brand-new suit, enameled pen, and attache case. After I walked in to the evaluation, the born-and-bred West Virginian looked at me up and down and declared, "Ya ain't from around here, are ya?" Yeah, I took that as a compliment. Anyway, that comment has been rather applicable to my situation since that point.



I am currently living in Kinshasa, D. R. Congo. For those of you who slept through 9th grade geography (or haven't paid attention to the recent World News Reports on genocides and other general attrocites in Africa), D.R. Congo is on the western side of central Africa. It is a country that is the size of Western Europe, yet it is estimated that there are fewer than a 700 miles of paved road in the entire country. Most of those roads wouldn't even be considered paved by U.S. standards due to the many, many potholes. There are only two roads leading out of Kinshasa: one leads southeast to the port city of Matadi, and the other leads northeast to the inland city of Bandundu. These are not cities that are known for their tourist attractions, and the roads are not maintained. Basically, if you want to go anywhere, you have to fly. Flying will set you back around $1000 per person (minimum) if you do want to go to a vacation spot. Approximately half of the world's commercial air crashes occur in Africa, and approximately half of those happen in the Congo. The DRC has the worst air safety record of any country in the world, and therefore we are not permitted to take any flights operated by Congolese carriers. We do not have a land telephone line, we frequently use a diesel generator to power our home, and it would be insane to drink the water (of course that would be a quick and effective method to lose weight and/or get a medivac to a developed nation...). Kinshasa is a large city of approximately 6-9 million residents. We spend the vast majority of our time in a section of Kinshasa known as Gombe that is approximately 1 mile by 4 miles. Sometimes we do venture outside of the city, but this is only done in a caravan of 4-wheel-drive vehicles (never alone due to banditry, militias, and undisciplined soldiers). By now you are probably thinking that I am whining and making up these statistics. I wish that was true, but you can always contact the our embassy to verify this information for yourself.



Okay, I've done my venting. However, I must admit that I actually enjoy living here for the most part. We have an absolutely amazing yard that is at least 2 acres of landscaped garden, we have one of the best houses with the embassy, we have a swimming pool and tennis courts (the latter being converted into a corral for some antelope due to the fact that no one in our family plays tennis anymore, and clay courts are definitely a high-maintenance item in a tropical environment). We also have two full-time gardeners to take care of everything outside. I also have a driver, a cook, a housekeeper/nanny, and guards 24/7. That all sounds great, but you also must realize that there is no dishwasher, all fruits and vegetables must be scrubbed and bleached prior to consumption, and due to the dust and general grime in the air, all of the floors must be mopped every day. There are very few convenience foods available (and those that are are extraordinarily expensive), and so most of what we consume, including yogurt, must be made from scratch.



Rainy season in Kinshasa lasts for 8 months of the year, but at least it is rain and not snow and so I won't complain about that. I absolutely love to go out in our garden and look at the amazing trees, flowers, plants, and birds. Every evening, I can hear and see African gray parrots as well as many other types of birds that I never knew existed. We also have some crazy-colored lizards that Anson refers to as "push-up lizards" because they look like they are always doing push-ups. These reptiles are black, purple, orange and white striped. The Congo River is also directly behind our house (although part of our neighbor's yard is sandwiched between the water and our property). We can see Brazzaville, Republic of Congo (a different country), as well as many of the fishermen out on their wooden canoes, and large masses of vegetation that has been washed down the river from upcountry. The river is at least a mile across at this section, and is amazing. There are also small wild cats that come into our garden at night, but I have yet to see them (although they do leave their, um, landmines).


However, I do not appreciate all of the wildlife that exists in this country. We happen to have what I estimate to be the world's largest cockroach colony in our house. These nasty little critters have been here since we've moved in, and despite my best efforts, they are not going anywhere. A direct nuclear hit would not destroy these things. I tried to get the embassy to exterminate the place, but they won't due to the fact that some years back a few diplomats died from pesticide poisoning after their homes were exterminated. Oh well.



There is also a wonderful ex-pat and diplomatic community, and so we haven't been lacking for social entertainment. I wouldn't mind if someone built a movie theater (there are none), but at least there are plenty of dinner parties and certainly no shortage of birthday parties.