December in Congo

It's hot and in the nineties, definitely not "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas". For our school's Holiday concert, one of the songs the kids are singing is "Jingle Bells", which cracks me up, as - it's a snow song. We decorated our house with a big paper Christmas tree, and we're making paper ornaments and gluing them onto the tree. We also made Christmas chains and they're hanging from the ceiling (thanks to Anna for that idea). I did find some lights at a store here that weren't crazily overpriced, so - those are around our window, and - I found a sign that says "Joyeux Noel" (Merry Christmas) with Santa on it. Yes, Santa's caucasion in Africa, if anyone's wondering, at least in Brazzaville he is. We leave in two weeks for Tangiers, Morocco. Our flight leaves at 3:00 in the morning, great time, eh, especially with small children. We stop in Kinshasa first, which is not cool. We can see Kinshasa from Brazzaville, as - it's just opposite us on the Congo river. It's so close, yet, so inaccessible. You have to have a visa to get there, the currency is different, yet - we can literally see its sprawling city whenever we're at the Congo river. So, we won't change planes or even get off the plane, (so, don't need visas for this stopover), but - have to stop there first to pick up more people, and then fly straight to Casablanca. It's like a 7-hour flight to Morocco. Then we loiter at the airport in Casablanca for a few hours, and then fly to Tangiers. We'll stay the night in Tangiers, then the next day, take the ferry to Tarifa, Spain. We'll spend 5 days/nights in southern Spain, and - then Dec. 28, take the ferry back to Morocco, where we'll rent a car, and drive to Fez and then Casablanca, and then fly out of Casablanca back to Brazzaville Jan. 3. A travel agent in Spain arranged all this for us, my friend Judi's travel agent. It would have been impossible for us to do all this without a travel agent, as - internet connections are just bad here, and - the travel agency I found in Brazzaville, only does flights - nothing else (booking hotels, ferries, car rental, etc.). We'll spend those days in southern Spain with Judi and her family, so excited!!! Matt and I will go to Seville on Christmas eve, by ourselves (less than an hour from Judi's casa), and spend the night there and Stuart and Paloma will stay with Judi's family in Rota, Spain. We requested a hotel by the Giralda, as - that is where Matt and I got engaged in 2006. Since our children are still small, they don't know dates yet, so - we'll officially celebrate our family Christmas before we leave, - like December 21st, Santa will come to Congo:)) Our even bigger news is this: in Johannesburg, all the teachers from the Brazzaville school met with our Director, Dr. Sheppard, to discuss all the things that are going well and the things that need improvement, at our new school. To everyone's surprise, he announced that he'd change anyone's contract from 2 to 1 year, with no penalty. Nobody was complaining about the school, it was just a meeting, so - we were really surprised he suggested that proposition. It is RARE for an overseas teaching position to have a 1-year contract. So, Matt and I have been talking incessantly about this, what to do, stay or go. We had to tell him by Dec. 4, when he was visiting Brazzaville (he lives in Cameroon). So, even though there are many reasons to stay, we told him to change our contracts to one year. We got the official email the other day, stating that "semester one" will be treated as "year one" and "semester two" as "year two". The school will pay our airfare back, our shipping back, everything. So, we are very happy we are getting to experience this, and - have many months still to go, and have been a part of such an exciting venture - a new International school. However, we think we can "get it in", in one year versus two. "Get it in", meaning - the overall experience of life in Congo, learning French, teaching African kids (and a few expat kids). The other teachers are staying. Paloma is really learning a lot of French, more than Stuart, because - her pre-K teacher uses a lot of French in the classroom (she's French Canadian) AND - Paloma is with Elian four hours a day, five days a week, only hearing French. Today, Paloma's little friend, Anais, is coming over, and - they speak French together. I'll try to capture some on video. And back in Kansas - here is our news: Alba is doing great with Matt's parents, our house in Topeka hasn't sold yet, and.....I'm totally out-of-it with US news. When our TV is working, it's often on a kids' channel and - tooo slow to browse the internet. And, sorry I'm not posting pix on the blog, it takes like an hour to do it, and - often doesn't work. So, I'm emailing Heather pix and she's starting an album called something like "Congo Campbells by Proxy", and tags me and Matt, so - to see pix, go to FB. A bientot -