Oct 3, 2012

It's starting to feel like we LIVE here and - are not just visiting. Swimming started at our school a few days ago. There are just a few pools in Brazzaville, and - our school has one of them. So, swimming is now a part of our school's curriculum. Most of the kids don't know how to swim, so - the school hired a swim teacher (two, actually) and now all kids get swimming 1-2 times a week. This past Friday was the first day, and - each teacher had to get his/her students ready, and THAT was very hilarious. I guess it's a cultural difference, or perhaps their young age + culture, BUT - my kids had no modesty whatsoever. I have a bathroom in my classroom, and tried to send them two at a time, but - (remember, they range from ages 5-7), about half walked OUT of the bathroom, naked, b/c they forgot something, and they all just acted like no big deal. Which, it isn't, but - for me, quite shocking. One of my boys asked me to put his underwear on for him, he's in 2nd grade. These kids are quite privileged and all have nu nus and drivers, etc, so - many don't even know how to dress themselves. I had a parent write me to please help her son get his swimsuit on. The IT guy from our sister school in Yaounde came last week to help set up our computer lab, internet, etc. at school. So, we all got mac laptops for our classrooms. I wish we had projectors and not crappy internet at school, but - looks like I'll just have to teach like I did before the information age hit. For some reason, he only stayed 2 days, which wasn't nearly enough time to get the computer lab set up, oh well, we're all getting good at being creative and resourceful with what we DO have. He did get our computers set up to a printer, thank Dieu, that was really getting annoying not having a printer. Looks like I'm now a "futbol mom", which I wasn't in the USA, but here, Stuart decided today that he DOES want to play soccer, so - again, like last Saturday, Frida's driver came to pick him up and he did play today, yes, all in French. So every Sat, he'll play soccer in this public park. There's no organization here that arranges such things, but Frida herself found this soccer coach and found moms who wanted their sons to play, so, voila, now we're doing it. Today, after soccer, Stuart and Paloma went to Frida's house again, and Stuart got to ride on her son's bike, something he hasn't gotten to do for nearly two months. Then, Frida's nu nu and driver took them to a bday party, and after that, they came to get me, and I went with them to ANOTHER bday party. Last Sat, I met a mom at soccer, who invited us to her daughter's bday party (age 3). Since there are NO places for bday parties, people always have them at their homes. It was nice, I met some new people, nobody English speaking, so - that was good for my French. The kids had fun. The electricity and the water went off, so - that wasn't fun when both Stuart and Paloma needed the toilette and went in the dark and couldn't flush or wash hands, blaaaaahhhh. La vie en l'Afrique. Last night was our colleague, Kashia's, bday, and her beau, Patrick arranged a surprise party for her. It was at Jeannette's place, so - we just had to walk up the stairs. The children came, of course, and both ended up falling asleep on the sofa, so Matt and I stayed late (11:00pm, late for us these days) and we all played Catchphrase, and some Congolese people were there, too, and it was great playing that game with limited English speakers. It was a good time, our first party. In three weeks, we go to Jo'Burg, can't WAIT to go, especially to shop, where we can buy a blender for $20 and not $100 (what they cost here), and get lots of other stuff we need. And, I'm looking forward to being able to drink the tap water, and just be in a developed country, and another country in Africa. We're trying to decide where to go over our 3-week Christmas holiday. This will be the first Christmas in my whole life that I won't be with family (but - instead, just the family Matt and I created). The choices are: Morocco, Gabon, or Tanzania. I think Gabon may be out b/c of the damn malaria. It would just be awful if a child got it, and - we wouldn't know where to take them for medical help. In Morocco, there is no malaria, and in Tanzania - we'd visit Matt's friend (from Paraguay), so - no worries there. And this marks the end of this blog entry, a bientot........