Almost Over

In 20 days, we'll be flying out of Brazzaville, heading to Paris for a few days, and then to Kansas City. Things I'll miss, in no particular order: 1) the incredible experience my children are having; 2) hearing Paloma and Stuart speak French; 3) our friends; 4) having house help; 5) the hospitality and kindness of the Congolese people; 6) hearing our neighbors sing glory to God every morning; 7) the funny things that happen when experiencing another culture (e.g.; random guy trying to sell you a Scrabble game walking down the street), and the list goes on. Things I won't miss: 1) the trash in the streets; 2) the difficulty finding healthy eating options, and worrying about whether or not the food is "clean"; 3) the outrageous prices of all the imported food at the supermarket; 4) getting pulled over by the police for not being African; 5) getting called "moundele" every day; and...6) all the bugs. Something that I'll miss and won't miss at the same time is... not being able to receive mail. Not having mail to check is one less thing to do, but also, rather inconvenient not being able to get mail. I don't look forward to being back in the USA and seeing people checking their smart phones so often and replying on FB, texts, emails - and not being fully present wherever they physically are. You don't see that here in Congo. SOOO - last weekend's trip to Kinshasa was quite interesting! It was like a 10-minute motor-boat ride across the Congo river. And then, VOILA, in another country. They do not accept the XFA there (DRC is not a member of CEMAC, so has a different currency than the five CEMAC countries). In DRC - they accept their franc, but prefer dollars. They don't use US dollars in our Congo, so - this was a surprise. We actually changed some of our XFA into US dollars. Kinshasa is REALLY big - I heard different numbers, ranging from 9 million to 40 million, so - ???? Anyway, it's big. There was a bus waiting for us when we got off the boat, that our wonderful school board prez. chartered just for us (5 teachers and 4 children). She also had ensured that we had a guide with us at all times. So, we were totally safe and well taken care of. We stayed at some apartments. In the short time we were in Kinshasa - I noticed that a lot of it looks like Brazzaville (many unpaved roads, trash in the streets, many street vendors), but there is also this huge boulevard - like what you'd see in a developed big city. And, a "Zara" store! The main languages spoken in DRC are French and Lingala. The highlight was going to the Bonobo sanctuary (an endangered monkey-like animal). It was very beautiful there, we hiked around. We also went to a swimming pool and a clean playground and the kids loved it. We found a fast-food restaurant (something non-existent in Brazza) - and got some good pizza, that was a treat. I went to get some African-style clothes made the other day - Elian came with me to haggle for the non-moundele price, and then took me to her favorite tailor. He changed his name to Obama, he's such a fan. So, everyone calls him Obama, so funny. The clothes will be ready in one week, sooo excited. Then, we went and bought her a mattress for her new home. Last night, Paloma stayed the night at her friend, Lwethu's house. Her parents invited us in when we dropped her off. So, Matt, Stuart, and I hung out with the South African ambassador and his wife for awhile. They served us some coke and we chatted. The ambassador told us Lwethu loves Paloma so much that she even talks about her in her sleep. Their house is HUGE, the mom gave me a tour, and then told me she used to get lost in the house when they first moved there. They speak English and Xhosa (one of the "clicking" African languages), they said some things to me in Xhosa - and I could not reproduce the sound, holy vache. Stuart stayed the night with his friend, Dario, so - Matt and I had the evening to ourselves. We discovered a Moroccan restaurant and talked a lot to the owner, Mohammed. I will miss this interesting life, but - am also really ready to be back home with family and friends.