My friend Margo and I after having our faces painted in South Africa
This is what you typically see little girls wearing to school
Me with the guy who helps me at the grocery store
All of the expat kids at their end of school year party
Dustin and his friends playing in the fireHi everyone,
We will officially be back home in AZ in just a few days! We are all so excited! Jensen has been looking at pictures of food from Panda Express and Sonic, and I think she is drooling in anticipation! At this time, we have plans to go to the Grand Canyon with my parents (none of us have ever been), and we will go to our family camp in Northern CA, as we have been doing for the last 38 years! But other than that, our plans are to see friends and family, shop for things that we can’t get here in the Congo, and eat! We really have missed good food. Oh yeah, and get hair cuts! We have not had our hair cut in a year!
I have been very busy here trying to get ready to come back to the States for our visit. However, what has kept me even busier is that I have had to pack up our entire house, in anticipation of moving to the mine site. We knew it would happen eventually, just didn’t know when. Well, it looks like it will be happening this summer, while we are in the States. It has been very poor planning on the part of Bill’s company. They are planning to move all of the families up to the mine site this summer, while we are all in the United States. I’m not really sure why they planned it that way, but it is what it is.
Unfortunately, what this means is that all of our stuff will be sitting in our empty house, all boxed up, ready to be stolen by our disgruntled guards. Because we are all moving to the mine site, we will not have a need for guards or drivers, and they will all be losing their jobs. They all already know this, and they are not too happy about it, understandably. They see that we have a lot of stuff, and they don’t, so they feel they are justified in stealing from us. We have not had anything stolen yet, but the guards are acting very suspicious, and they are making me nervous. They all stand around outside, talking in Swahili, looking toward the house. I even found nose prints on the outside of our front door (it’s glass), so I believe they have been trying to look into the house. We have a special type of glass on our doors and windows, so we can see out, but they can’t easily see in. And today, our guard let someone into our yard that was not an employee, which is not allowed. When I confronted him, and asked if he worked for the company, he said yes. But when I asked to see his badge, he was not able to produce one for me. He left quickly after that. All of this is making me anxious and on edge, and all the more anxious to get out of here.
You can tell that the guards don’t even care about trying to do a good job anymore. They get here, sit in a chair, put their feet up, and watch TV or sleep in their little guard shack that is outside our house. As far as I’m concerned, they are fairly useless, and I would actually feel better not having them here. But per company policy, we have to have them--at least until we move up to the mine site.
The kids are excited to move up to the mine site, and we are all happy that we will be together as a family again. Currently, Bill is at the mine site M-F, and we only see him on the weekends. But, once we move, we’ll see him everyday. I think I am the only one not real happy to be moving. The house we will be moving into (once it is built—we’re currently waiting for a roof), is tiny—about 1000 sq feet. That is smaller than the first apartment Bill and I lived in! I’m not sure how all of our stuff is going to fit in the house, and as far as I know, we will have no storage area. The house we are currently in is at least 3000 sq feet. We are leaving a lot of stuff behind (furniture, etc), as it just will not fit into the new house.
Our new house will be on a lot with 4 other houses; the houses will nearly be on top of each other. There will be absolutely no privacy, and no place to get away from everything. Although I have never lived in a small town, my understanding is that this will be just like living in a small town, where everybody is into everybody else’s business. I’m really not looking forward to that, especially since I already know of some people up there that seem to have nothing better to do than stir up trouble and interfere in other’s lives. Fun, fun, fun!
The other challenging thing is that at this time, there is no place to shop for food up there. I have heard talk that Bill’s company is building a store (I’ll believe it when I see it), and I’ve also heard of a couple of people that have stores down here, who will be building stores up there. But at this time, there is nothing. I’ve been stocking up on what I can so that when we return from the States, we at least have some pasta, canned food, dry milk, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and dog food. Once that runs out, we’ll need to take a 30 minute plane ride to Lubumbashi (where I live now) to shop, or drive the 3-4 hours that it takes to get to Lubumbashi. I’m guessing we might need to do that at least every couple of weeks. What a pain! Like I said before, this does not seem to have been a very well thought out plan.
The other thing that is up in the air is our actual move in date. Supposedly it is July 15th, but the supplies for the roofs have not even arrived yet, so I doubt that deadline will be met. There is even the possibility that the house won’t be ready by the time we come back from the States. If that happens, then we will be in limbo. Our house here in Lubumbashi will be all packed up, and our house in Fungurume (the mine site) will not yet be ready. Bill stays in a rondavel (a circular little house with a straw type roof), and it is really only big enough for one person, so we couldn’t stay there with him. I don’t honestly know what we’ll do if our house is not ready. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I can just see it now—we get off the plane in Lubumbashi, after having been traveling for 3 days, we’re totally jet lagged, and we find we have no place to go, so we end up sitting in the airport for hours upon hours. Believe me, this is not an airport you want to hang out in—if you can even call it an airport.
Anyway, I think it’s time to come home for a visit. Which is what we’ll be doing in just 3 days! I am hoping to get a Cricket phone, or something like that, so that I have a way to communicate with everyone once I’m home. I’ll send out an email when I get the phone, and give everyone my phone number.
Guess that’s all for now. Gotta finish packing! Can’t wait to see everyone!
A bientot! (See you soon!)
Laurie
We will officially be back home in AZ in just a few days! We are all so excited! Jensen has been looking at pictures of food from Panda Express and Sonic, and I think she is drooling in anticipation! At this time, we have plans to go to the Grand Canyon with my parents (none of us have ever been), and we will go to our family camp in Northern CA, as we have been doing for the last 38 years! But other than that, our plans are to see friends and family, shop for things that we can’t get here in the Congo, and eat! We really have missed good food. Oh yeah, and get hair cuts! We have not had our hair cut in a year!
I have been very busy here trying to get ready to come back to the States for our visit. However, what has kept me even busier is that I have had to pack up our entire house, in anticipation of moving to the mine site. We knew it would happen eventually, just didn’t know when. Well, it looks like it will be happening this summer, while we are in the States. It has been very poor planning on the part of Bill’s company. They are planning to move all of the families up to the mine site this summer, while we are all in the United States. I’m not really sure why they planned it that way, but it is what it is.
Unfortunately, what this means is that all of our stuff will be sitting in our empty house, all boxed up, ready to be stolen by our disgruntled guards. Because we are all moving to the mine site, we will not have a need for guards or drivers, and they will all be losing their jobs. They all already know this, and they are not too happy about it, understandably. They see that we have a lot of stuff, and they don’t, so they feel they are justified in stealing from us. We have not had anything stolen yet, but the guards are acting very suspicious, and they are making me nervous. They all stand around outside, talking in Swahili, looking toward the house. I even found nose prints on the outside of our front door (it’s glass), so I believe they have been trying to look into the house. We have a special type of glass on our doors and windows, so we can see out, but they can’t easily see in. And today, our guard let someone into our yard that was not an employee, which is not allowed. When I confronted him, and asked if he worked for the company, he said yes. But when I asked to see his badge, he was not able to produce one for me. He left quickly after that. All of this is making me anxious and on edge, and all the more anxious to get out of here.
You can tell that the guards don’t even care about trying to do a good job anymore. They get here, sit in a chair, put their feet up, and watch TV or sleep in their little guard shack that is outside our house. As far as I’m concerned, they are fairly useless, and I would actually feel better not having them here. But per company policy, we have to have them--at least until we move up to the mine site.
The kids are excited to move up to the mine site, and we are all happy that we will be together as a family again. Currently, Bill is at the mine site M-F, and we only see him on the weekends. But, once we move, we’ll see him everyday. I think I am the only one not real happy to be moving. The house we will be moving into (once it is built—we’re currently waiting for a roof), is tiny—about 1000 sq feet. That is smaller than the first apartment Bill and I lived in! I’m not sure how all of our stuff is going to fit in the house, and as far as I know, we will have no storage area. The house we are currently in is at least 3000 sq feet. We are leaving a lot of stuff behind (furniture, etc), as it just will not fit into the new house.
Our new house will be on a lot with 4 other houses; the houses will nearly be on top of each other. There will be absolutely no privacy, and no place to get away from everything. Although I have never lived in a small town, my understanding is that this will be just like living in a small town, where everybody is into everybody else’s business. I’m really not looking forward to that, especially since I already know of some people up there that seem to have nothing better to do than stir up trouble and interfere in other’s lives. Fun, fun, fun!
The other challenging thing is that at this time, there is no place to shop for food up there. I have heard talk that Bill’s company is building a store (I’ll believe it when I see it), and I’ve also heard of a couple of people that have stores down here, who will be building stores up there. But at this time, there is nothing. I’ve been stocking up on what I can so that when we return from the States, we at least have some pasta, canned food, dry milk, toilet paper, laundry detergent, and dog food. Once that runs out, we’ll need to take a 30 minute plane ride to Lubumbashi (where I live now) to shop, or drive the 3-4 hours that it takes to get to Lubumbashi. I’m guessing we might need to do that at least every couple of weeks. What a pain! Like I said before, this does not seem to have been a very well thought out plan.
The other thing that is up in the air is our actual move in date. Supposedly it is July 15th, but the supplies for the roofs have not even arrived yet, so I doubt that deadline will be met. There is even the possibility that the house won’t be ready by the time we come back from the States. If that happens, then we will be in limbo. Our house here in Lubumbashi will be all packed up, and our house in Fungurume (the mine site) will not yet be ready. Bill stays in a rondavel (a circular little house with a straw type roof), and it is really only big enough for one person, so we couldn’t stay there with him. I don’t honestly know what we’ll do if our house is not ready. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I can just see it now—we get off the plane in Lubumbashi, after having been traveling for 3 days, we’re totally jet lagged, and we find we have no place to go, so we end up sitting in the airport for hours upon hours. Believe me, this is not an airport you want to hang out in—if you can even call it an airport.
Anyway, I think it’s time to come home for a visit. Which is what we’ll be doing in just 3 days! I am hoping to get a Cricket phone, or something like that, so that I have a way to communicate with everyone once I’m home. I’ll send out an email when I get the phone, and give everyone my phone number.
Guess that’s all for now. Gotta finish packing! Can’t wait to see everyone!
A bientot! (See you soon!)
Laurie
1 comment:
Hi Laurie,
Looking forward to seeing you all. What a year you have had. Have a safe trip. Nanci
Post a Comment