Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day, Congo, Africa I considered trying to explain "Groundhog Day" to some Congolese, but, decided against it, having remembered the confused faces when I attempted in vain to explain Halloween. 1) there are no groundhogs here, - how could I explain that animal?; 2) there are two seasons here, rainy/dry - and it's never, ever, cold, not even cool. And, how strange "see its shadow and then the animal makes the decision about the upcoming weather" - they already believe in a lot of what we'd call "black magic", the groundhog story would for sure freak them out and think we Americans are really weird. I'm determined to get invited to one of our neighbor's homes, I really want to see how a "normal" Congolese lives. "Normal" meaning not super rich. We've been in the homes of some Congolese, but - they are not the norm. So, I often chat with Jean-Paul and Roget, who live next door (along with 8 other families), and they are often outside in the front yard. Roget is always sewing, and - Jean-Paul ,he's just hanging. I already invited myself once to Jean Paul's and it ended up being a church service, which was really interesting, BUT - I didn't get to see any rooms other than their worship room. A few days last week, I brought food over to them (Elian makes TOO much and we only like what she cooks like 1/2 the time), so - I gave it to them. The other day, Jean-Paul and his son brought us some avocados and barbadines (no idea what it is in English, this fruit does not exist in the USA), from their trees. He brought his grandson, Bryan, (12 years) and we chatted for a bit. I surprisingly got Facetime to work, with our bad internet, and - they got to see my sister and me have a Facetime conversation, and they were totally amazed, having never seen such technology (this was on our Ipad). AND, then Jean Paul invited us over tomorrow night (Sunday), so - I am finally going to get to see how they live. I gave them a tour of our place. Oliver arrived from Bath, England, right before Thanksgiving, and - we've really gotten to know him well. He's our school's intern (Teddy went back to the USA). We call him "Oli" - and he's only 18, and - was hired because he has a father/son relationship with our Director, Paul. Oli thinks he may want to be a PE teacher, so - this is like his time to try it out. He assists all of the teacher's in various ways, and - the students and our own children really like him. He lives right above us, so - we see a lot of him. He watched our children last Saturday so Matt and I could go out to dinner with Elena and Stephan. He came out with us last night to dinner at a Chinese place. The food was good, but - like most places here, it took over an hour for the food to come (not good with small kids) and the bathroom was revolting (and no soap). I'm going to teach Elian today how to make meatloaf. We're totally over her three dishes (meat/vegetable stew on rice, spaghetti, and baked chicken). We discovered a woman down the street who makes chicken there at the corner, cooks it right there on the street, and it's really good. So, we'll eat that once or twice a week, have Elian cook something a few times a week, cook ourselves some, and go to a restaurant maybe once a week. Groceries are SO expensive here that it doesn't cost much more to eat out as it does to eat at home. I wanted to make lasagna, but then saw that a SMALL container of ricotta cheese was like $10. Kashia made two lasagnas the other day and it cost her$60 to make them, she told me. There are watchdog agencies here in Brazzaville b/c the cost of food is a product of the corruption here. By the time the food makes it to Brazzaville, which is in the middle of the country (unlike the port city, Point Noir), sooo many taxes have been added, that even sliced bread at the supermarket is $8. We can get sliced bread at the boulangerie (bakery), for super cheap, it's just quite inconvenient to get there and they're often out of the bread (and long lines). Food here is really an issue. There are few healthy options - fruit and vegetables are also crazy expensive. So, the Congolese eat their cheap food (breads mainly) and their life-span average doesn't surpass 60. This is also due to the diseases and inaccessibility to good healthcare. We are spending approx. $1,000 a month on food alone. But, that is pretty much our only expense, so - c'est la vie. We met some new friends last weekend, and went to their house. The dad is Portuguese and works for the same EU aid agency as Stephan and Flora (Ange and Dario's parents), and the mom is from Spain. Their kids are the same ages as ours. They also invited a few French couples over. Their house is NICE, swimming pool, super big. Gonzalo's job pays for it, so .....we had bigtime house envy. Gonzalo and Maria, like, Flora and Fillippo, totally impress me with their ability to effortlessly switch between 4 languages. They speak English, French, and Spanish perfectly, and - then Flora and Fillippo also Italian, and Gonzalo and Maria - also Portuguese. As a language acquisition afficionnado, I know that this is simply a result of meaningful exposure to those four languages, and - being European, and their jobs, their education, that is why they are proficient in four languages. How I want that for our children. Last night, Paloma was talking in French in her sleep, she said "arrete" ("stop!", something the kids in her class often say to each other). She also sometimes speaks to us in French b/c that's what she's heard mostly throughout the weekday, so - she's on the "French channel". She said to me last night "Maman, pas ca" (Mommy, not that). Today, I'm taking kids to a swimming b-day party, our missionary friend's daughter is turning 5. The dad is from Manhattan, KS. There is no internet at our home now, so - by the time I get this posted on the blog, it may be well past Groundhog Day. A bientot....