We made it through the first week!

Hello everyone!

All is going well here. We finally have internet here at the house, as well as working lights and working toilets! That's always a plus! Especially because Dustin and I continue to suffer from the "Welcome to Congo stomach virus". It's nothing that's keeping us down, but we do spend a lot of time in the bathroom! Unfortunately, it will likely be like this for the next couple of months, until our stomachs adjust to the new food and water.

We have 2 dogs here at our house right now--Kami and a little schnauzer named Mimi. She is the dog of our friends who picked Kami up at the airport for us. They have a house, but it is not done yet, so they are still staying at the apartments, which does not allow dogs.

The kids seem to really like it here--most of the time. Jensen hates the shower (and I'm not super thrilled with it either (worse than the Lair). All of us had cold showers today--not sure why. Bill said his was warm, and we took ours quite some time after his. We've had lots of plumbing and electrical issues, but people are getting out here and trying to fix them. Bill has obviously made some good contacts here because we are getting more help than most people get. I've had plumbers and electricians at the house almost everyday since we've been here.

I've been very proud of the kids as to how well they have adapted, even under sort of poor living conditions. The house is very dirty (I've been trying to clean it, but have had no cleaning supplies), we have cold showers, fluctuating electricity, and spotty plumbing. Except for Jensen's little attitude spurts, they have both been very happy, outgoing, and upbeat. Jensen even said, "I love Africa!" They seem confident with the little bit of French they know, and they seem comfortable with the staff (our guards, drivers, and hotel staff). We have 3 guards, who switch out every 8 hours. They are all friendly and seem good with Kami, though we really have to watch when they open our gate because they're not so careful about not letting her get out. Today she ran out, but stopped as soon as she got out there. This is good, because it goes straight out into the road, and the people here are not good or careful drivers. I keep her inside whenever we are not here.

The backyard garden is beautiful, and we have a banana tree, mango tree, and an avocado tree! The kids (with one of their new friends) have formed a treehouse club in the mango tree. They call it the Congo Club.

There are no closets in the house to hang clothes at all. However, in the master bedroom, they had special shelving built in ( a big clothing unit--not sure what you call it), and in that, there is some space to hang clothes. Unfortunately, we have no hangers--just couldn't fit any into the suitcases.

The weather here has been nice--chilly in the mornings and evenings (maybe 65 or so), shorts weather in the afternoons, but not too hot--maybe mid 70s. The humidity has not seemed bad so far, but it is the dry season right now. It is hard to get our towels to dry out between showers though, and things do smell a bit musty here--doesn't help that we have leaks everywhere. Rainy season starts in September, but probably not too much rain until November/December, and then heavy, heavy rains in January/February.

We visited the kids' school several times this week--so sad compared to what they are used to. Yucky, small little classrooms, that don't smell too good, and hideous looking uniforms that they have to wear. Jensen will wear a green plaid shirt with a forest green jumper, and forest green socks that go at least up to the knees. Dustin will wear a green plaid shirt, with forest green shorts that go below the knee, and also, the forest green socks. I just have to laugh, as they are so awful looking! I will take pictures! They are actually having to make Jensen's uniform special for her, as none of them fit her properly. A tailor will be coming to the school on Monday to measure her! Remarkably, they were able to find shorts to fit Dustin, and they didn't even have adjustable waists! The school is run by people from India, and the school population is about 50% Indian. The director and teachers that we met were very nice, and I think the curriculum will be decent. I will still be supplementing their schooling though. Both kids will have about 15 students in their classes--those are the big classes! Some only have 6-8 kids in them! They stay in one classroom all day, but they have different teachers rotating in, according to the subject. Some of the teachers have master's degrees, so that's nice, and most are accredited teachers.

We have found a house cleaner, a young man named Yves. We had been told to only get household helpers who are male, as the females tend to think the house is theirs, and they will try to take over and run things the way they want, not the way you want. They are in your house all day, so you want someone you feel comfortable with. Yves seems very nice, and his English is about as good as my French, which doesn't say much for either of us! I'm hoping that he works out, and that maybe we can even help each other become more proficient at the other's language. Yves will be coming Monday - Friday, from 9-5. For those hours, he only gets paid about $150/month. That is what is common--some only get about $100/month.

I had been hesitant to get a house cleaner because stealing is common place here. You have to keep anything that is valuable locked up all the time--computers, money, jewelry, etc. The household help will even steal things like laundry detergent, shampoo, and food. I don't blame them--everyone is so poor, and they see us (Americans) as very rich. I wanted to try living without a housecleaner, but the house is filthy, and for some reason, Kami (and the little dog) are tracking in mud all the time. The yard does not seem any dirtier/dustier than ours in AZ, but Kami is absolutely filthy all the time. We constantly have muddy paw prints all over the floors and our sheets! They don't really have mops here--they use a bucket, a cloth, and a squeegee to do the floors. You can't even buy a mop at the stores! There is no carpeting--only tile. You could almost just take the hose and spray the house out and then squeegee it.

I went to the store yesterday for the first time. We actually went to 2 different stores. One was tiny--almost like a convenience store. It was hard to navigate the aisles as they were so narrow. Their selection was poor, but they had things that were more familiar to us. This store is run by a Lebanese man. It is a preferred store, as the owner speaks English. The other store was huge--like a grocery store in the States. This is where many of the Congolese people shop. It is super crowded--you can hardly push your cart through the aisles. I was impressed with their selection though. Nothing is exactly like what we have in the US, but things are close. For example, there are Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, but they are called Frosties. And they have some kind of funky writing all over them--it looks to be Arabic. They do not have anything such as sliced cheese or lunch meats--you just get these big chunks and then slice it yourself. Between the 2 stores, I ended up spending $340 for very little food, and some cleaning supplies. Everything is very expensive. The box of Frosted Flakes cost $11 (for 500 gm--don't know what that is in ounces), and a box of Tide laundry detergent cost $17. The most expensive thing was peanut butter--$23! It was a big jar (48 oz), but still! I think at Costco it might cost $6 or so! At the end of our shopping experience (about 3 hours later!), after we have paid, and our groceries have been bagged, we had to stop at a little desk, and they check your bags. Not just mine (or Americans'), but everyone's! And they don't just do a quick scan and let you go. They literally take every single thing out of the bags and check it off on the receipt! The distance from the check out stands where you pay, to the desk where they check everything, is about 10 feet, and there is nothing (no merchandise) in between, so I'm not sure why they need to check the bags, but oh well--it's they way they do things here!

We are taking lots of pictures (as much as we can without getting arrested!), but I have not tried to download them to the computer yet. I'm looking for the camera directions because it says on the power cord (to operate in countries other than the USA, see the manual). I don't want to blow my camera up because of the different voltage, as then I won't have one at all!) so I want to read the directions first. We're still heavily into unpacking, so hopefully I'll find them soon!

On a non-African note, we've had an offer on our house in AZ! The offer is lower than what we asked for (and we had already priced it low), but in this market, we were just happy to have gotten an offer so quickly! The house went on the market last Friday. There was a showing on Saturday, and the offer was made Sunday! Closing date is supposed to be September 16th.

Laurie