Pictures of Fungurume school and hospital

Jensen just gave the pregnant lady in green, a little baby shirt.
Dustin sitting on the "chairs" in the Fungurume school.

The classroom in Fungurume that holds 102 children at one time!

Bill and Dustin planting a tree in front of Fungurume hospital.

Bill and Dustin in front of the "chalkboard" at Fungurume school.

Volunteer Work at Fungurume Hospital

One of the rooms in the hospital. This is the "before" picture.
This is one of the operating rooms in the hospital.

The maternity ward in the hospital. No medical equipment--just mosquito netting.

The entrance to the hospital.

Bill and Dustin painting the first room you saw in the pics.

Hello everyone,
Last weekend, our family drove to Fungurume (the mine site) in order to do some volunteer work in the local village. The project was to clean up and paint a local hospital. This hospital was smaller than most doctor offices that we go to in the States.

Before we began painting we had a short tour. You cannot believe that people were actually coming here for care. The rooms were tiny and disgustingly dirty. Everything smelled like urine. Operating tables were covered in dirt and dust, though not due to lack of use. Small pieces of fabric covered doorways; there were no actual doors on any of the rooms. People waiting for appointments waited in chairs outside of the hospital. We were able to peek into the maternity ward, where new mothers lay on beds covered with colorful blankets (this was one of the rooms that had already been renovated by Bill’s company). Their babies were on beds next to them—not in cribs or bassinettes, but on regular twin sized beds. In another room down the hall, a doctor was performing surgery (a mother giving birth via C-section). Here we were, getting ready to paint, and just down the hall, a woman was giving birth, paint fumes and all. Throughout the tour, I did not see one room that had a sink, or any kind of running water. Can you imagine going into surgery without even doing a simple act like washing your hands???!!!!!

After the tour, we set to work, cleaning and painting. Jensen and Dustin were the only 2 kids there, but they painted right along with the rest of us.

During breaks, the kids gave out candy and pencils to the local children, while I took pictures. The local kids went wild! Jensen and Dustin were completely surrounded. At times, I couldn’t even see them, as they were buried in the throng of children. They couldn’t hand things out fast enough. It was actually quite overwhelming, and I thought the kids would be scared. But they handled themselves quite well, despite being pushed, shoved, and grabbed by the local kids. Later, Jensen blew bubbles for the kids, and this was quite the sight to see. She would run with the bubbles, and all the kids would follow her, like she was the Pied Piper. Jensen also had a chance to hand out some baby clothes to the new mothers for their babies. This whole experience really had a great impact on Jensen and Dustin. They both said they wanted to use all the money they had saved (to buy things for themselves) and instead, buy things for these kids. Jensen went home and immediately got on the Oriental Trading website looking for things to buy for the local children.

Later, we visited a local school that Bill’s company is also planning to help renovate. The classroom, which holds 102 children at one time, was probably less than half the size of classrooms in the States (about 20 x 27 feet). There are no desks or chairs; the kids sit on brick lumps that are built into the floor. All that is in the classroom is a blackboard, and not even the black shiny ones that we have. It looks more like a piece of stone that can you can scratch words into. I know that Bill’s company is building desks and seats for the classroom, but I’m not sure what else. It’s sad because anything that is given to the school needs to be locked up because otherwise it will get stolen.

Because Bill’s company has done so much work in the village, they said it was okay for us to take pictures, so I went crazy taking pictures. The whole time I’ve been here I’ve been wanting pictures of the local people, and the way they live. Well, I finally got some! The local kids were really cute because at first, they were a little shy about me taking pictures. But after I took the picture, I showed it to them on the camera, and they thought that was so cool! After that, they started posing for me! One of the pictures that really had an impact on me was of a young girl (definitely no older than Jensen) with a baby on her back, the same way that all the women carry their babies. I was hoping that it was a sibling she was carrying, and not her own baby.

I think I’ll have to make this blog entry into 2 separate ones. I can only load about 4-5 pictures at a time onto the blog, or else it takes forever to load. So, I’ll do a separate entry that will just be pictures.

Well, we leave tomorrow on vacation (it’s our Spring break, even though it is Fall here). We are going to Mozambique, a small country on the East coast of Africa. We will be going to one of the small islands of Mozambique, called Bazaruto Island. I will write all about our trip for my next blog entry.

Hope everyone is well! Our time is flying by here. Before we know it, we’ll be back home for a visit! We should be back to AZ about the beginning of July, so just 3 more months!

Cheers!

Laurie

P.S. More pics to follow!

Zoo field trip

The J.A.C.K billboard, seen as you come up to the chimpanzee area. The sign says (in French and Swahili), "Don't buy me!", "Don't eat me!", "Don't sell me!", "Respect me!" And that is a real chimp sitting on top of the sign.

A couple of the chimps in their outdoor enclosure.

All of the expat kids (and a couple of adults on the ends) in front of the J.A.C.K. sign.

Hello everyone,
I thought it was about time I wrote about our field trip to the zoo. This zoo (The Zoo of Lubumbashi) used to be a world renowned zoo. But during the war, all the animals were eaten, as people here in the Congo were starving. Slowly, the zoo has been rebuilt, and animals once again reside at the zoo. There are not a lot of animals here: a couple of tigers, lions, elephants, and crocodiles, some birds and snakes, lots of monkeys, and chimpanzees. The zoo has very few precautions put in place, as far as not getting too close to the animals goes. Most of the cages have no fencing around them, so you can be right next to a cage, and animals can stick their hands/paws out and grab you! Mostly it is the monkeys that try. There are also no good paths to walk along, so often you are trekking through muddy fields to see the next animal. And in one part of the zoo, you have to cross this balance beam type of thing (over a small river of water) to get to the other side of the zoo. I had thought there were crocodiles in this little river, but I was told that there were not, so that was good. I’m telling you, if this zoo were in the States, it would be one lawsuit after another!

The most interesting part of the zoo is the chimpanzees. All the chimpanzees are there as part of a rescue program, called J.A.C.K, which stands for Jeunes Animaux Confisqués au Katanga (Young Confiscated Animals in Katanga). Katanga is the province that Lubumbashi is in. Founded in April 2006, J.A.C.K. is a refuge center for orphaned chimpanzee babies confiscated by the Ministry of Environment. This program works with the Congolese government to end the illegal trade of chimpanzees in eastern DRC. Unfortunately, people here still seem to think it is perfectly acceptable to eat chimpanzees. The other problem is that expatriates (us) see these baby chimps on the street for sale, and they buy them, thinking they are helping to save them. The problem is that the local people know that we will buy them (thinking we’re doing the right thing), so they continue to obtain more of them. For every baby chimp that is for sale on the street, an average of 10 adult chimps were killed, trying to protect the baby.

I believe there are about 20 chimps now at the zoo. They are in a special part of the zoo, part of which is not open to the public. We were able to get into the part not opened to the public because we have connections there. A couple of the expat families are very involved with the chimps and they go twice a day to feed them, and can sometimes play with the babies. The chimpanzees have a large outdoor enclosure to play in, and at night, they go into a covered area.

Most of these chimpanzees have been badly abused by humans. One of the chimps was an alcoholic, forced by his human owner to drink alcohol at bars and then perform stupid tricks for other patrons of the bar. Another came to J.A.C.K with burns all over his body. His owner would put cigarettes out on the chimp’s back. A third was treated just like a human child. The couple got her because they thought they could not have children of their own. However, they ended up getting pregnant with their own child, and then no longer wanted the baby chimp. They actually started physically abusing this baby chimp. Regrettably, almost all of the chimps at J.A.C.K. have similar (or worse) backgrounds. If you want to read more about J.A.C.K. the website is http://jack.wildlifedirect.org/.

That's about it for now. Hope everyone is well.

Laurie

That's a little personal, don't you think?

Hello everyone,
Well, it’s 3:00 AM here, and another major storm has hit. It’s impossible to sleep through it (though the kids are). The thunder sounds like a sonic boom—it literally shakes the whole house. The rain coming down is so loud that it sounds like you are standing in the middle of a waterfall. I keep thinking the ceilings are going to cave in any minute and the rain will come pouring in. I haven’t seen any rain flooding in through the windows yet, so that’s a plus!

Speaking of ceilings caving in, I have another story about that. For the last several days, we have had no hot water in our house. We have 4 small water heaters (about 20 gallons each) that heat water for the different parts of the house. Unfortunately for us, three of the four were not working, which meant no hot showers, and no hot water to wash dishes. The one heater that was working, went to a shower that was broken, so we couldn’t use it, so cold showers have been starting our days. For dishes, I’ve been boiling water (it’s not like I’m not boiling water anyway) to wash them in. We found out that you can’t just replace the element in the heaters, you actually have to replace the entire heater. So, we got new water heaters, and 2 of them needed to be installed in our attic, above my bedroom. So for the last few days, I’ve had several Congolese men up in my attic, trying to get these things installed. And, as is typical Congolese fashion, before they even get them fully installed, they’ve already cracked both of them, so now they are leaking.

Now onto the caving ceiling part of the story. As they are installing the water heaters, I am in Dustin’s room, which is adjacent to mine, putting away laundry. I look up and see red, rusty water pouring out of Dustin’s ceiling, down his walls. Luckily I was there because the water was about to hit his dresser where he keeps all his souvenirs that he has collected so far from our trips. And he had a whole bag of Webkinz stuffed animals sitting under the dresser as well. All of it would have been ruined, had I not quickly moved it out of the way. As I’m moving stuff out of the way, there are pieces of paint and plaster flying all over the place, making me feel like the ceiling was about to cave in. Whatever they were doing up in the attic, was apparently right over Dustin’s room. Well, they got everything installed, repaired, and cleaned up, and we once again have hot water!

Here’s another funny story, not related to anything—just funny. My friend’s driver was sick (thought he might have malaria), so my friend told him to go to dispatch and arrange another driver for her, and then go home. When he got to the dispatch office and told them he was sick and needed to go home, they looked at him and said, “You’re too fat to be sick—go back to work”. And they were not kidding! You have to understand that there are very few overweight Congolese people. And this guy is one of the few that is overweight. He’s probably only about 20 pounds overweight, about the same as the majority of Americans. But to them, he is fat. Could you imagine having someone tell you that???!!! Anyway, my friend ended up going down to the dispatch office and telling them that if they didn’t get her another driver, then she would drive herself around. Well, that got them moving fast, as we are not supposed to drive here, and her husband is one of the big bosses here, so they knew they would get in trouble if she was out driving herself around.

It’s so different here, regarding things that we consider to be personal information. One of my other friends went on vacation. When she got back, she said she had eaten out so much that her stomach was sort of bloated. Her driver looked at her and said, “Madame, vous etes grosse”, which translates to, “Madame, you are fat”. Could you imagine someone working for you telling you that?

And another time, I was in a store with a friend of mine. My friend walked out, and the guy behind the counter asked me if she was my daughter. I said that she was my friend. And he says to me, “Oh, you look much older than her”. And he acted like he was telling me something nice! And another customer walks in, and joins in the conversation, and agrees, saying, “Oh yes, I can tell you are much older than her”. They were smiling and happy, like they were giving me this great compliment. I just smiled, and said thank you, and left. For the record, this friend of mine is 13 years younger than me, but still, not young enough to be my daughter!

I still need to write about our field trip, but think I will save that for another post. In the meantime, I want to direct you to another website. The kids’ teacher, James, has created his own webpage here, and on it, each expat kid has a link where they can put their own information and pictures. Eventually, each kid’s page will also hook up into their own blog, but they are still working on that part. The website address is: http://sites.google.com/site/tfmdrceducation. Once you get to the home page, down the lefthand side you’ll see a link to the students’ pages. When you click that, it will take you to another page, where each kid is listed with his/her picture. Then you can click whichever kid you want to read about, and it will take you to their page. I would encourage you to read James’ page as well. James has put a lot of little picture slide shows on the site, so you can see more pictures of the kids, their friends, and how they spend their time here. He is also more daring about taking pictures of things that we are not supposed to, so you can see a bit more of Lubumbashi than what I have shown you. I encourage you to look through the whole site. Let me know if you have any questions about things that you see on this site.

Guess that’s all for now. I guess I should try to go back to sleep now—it’s 4:30 AM.

Cheers!
Laurie

Rain and floods

Hello everyone,
Last night we had the storm of all storms! I know we are in the rainy season, but I have not seen a storm like this since we have been here. It seemed like a hurricane, though I have never been in one of those, so I don’t really know if that’s a good comparison.

It all started as usual, with Kami pacing around, shaking, and panting, as she can detect the storms way before we hear the first sound of thunder. The sky had gotten dark, and I knew our daily storm was on its way. The kids and Bill had gone over to the office to make some copies, so it was just Kami and me. I was busy making the kids’ lunches for the next day, and didn’t think much about the storm. It started raining pretty hard, the wind was blowing hard, and I could hear thunder every few minutes (louder than usual), but I just went about my business, as this was really nothing too unusual. Kami was more agitated than usual, and would not leave my side, to the point of being a complete nuisance.

I came out of the kitchen, and saw glass all over the floor, in the entry way. I couldn’t figure out where it had come from. It appeared to be from a light bulb, which must have completely blown out from the vibration of the thunder. At first I thought perhaps we had been hit by lightning, but aside from the broken light bulb, I could find no evidence of that.

I went to get the vacuum to clean up the glass, and as I passed our office, I saw standing water all over the floor, and more water pouring in from the closed windows. I know I’ve written before that we have a problem with our windows leaking, but we have never had a problem with it in this particular room, and never has there been this much water.

I didn’t know what to do first—vacuum up the glass or stop the flooding water. As I went to grab a few towels, I saw that we had water pouring out of just about every window in the house! I had floods in nearly every room—rooms that we had never had a problem with in the past. I quickly grabbed every available towel (forgot about the broken glass), and started trying to mop up the mess. I was fighting a losing battle. It was still pouring outside, and water continued to stream through the windows inside. As fast as I could get towels down, they were soaked almost instantly. I put towels on the window sills to try to stop the water from coming in, but it just soaked through the towels, and continued to stream down the walls onto the floor. I just kept going from room to room, trying to clean up the best I could.

Kami was no help at all. In fact, she kept making things worse because she wanted to be as close to me as possible, which meant she was standing in all the water and on all the soaked towels. Then, she would walk away, and leave little, muddy footprints everywhere. And when I finally got around to cleaning up the broken light bulb glass, she kept walking through all of it so she could be close to me. She did not appear to get any glass in her paws though, so that was good.

By the time Bill and the kids got home, the storm had died down, and was mostly over. It had hailed over at the office, where they had been, which is just a couple of miles from our house. Bill was funny because he said, “Did you get much rain here?” I laughed as I took him around the house and showed him all the floods. I ended up using 20 towels to clean up all the mess. And these were all big, full sized towels or bath sheets. Some were beach/pool towels. Every one of them was completely soaked, to the point of dripping water all over the floor as I picked them up. I am still washing them as I write this. I had to get some washed quickly yesterday, so that we would have clean towels for our showers today!

Well, this blog entry was supposed to be about a field trip that I took with the kids, but I thought the storm and floods would be fun to read about. I’ll write the entry about the field trip in the next few days. Hope everyone is dry over there! Although, AZ could really use rain like this! Bye for now!

Laurie

A little bit of this and that

My birthday cake! The kids decorated it. Notice it says, "Bon Anniversaire", which is French for Happy Birthday.

Bill getting his first haircut in the Congo, by me! Yikes!

Jensen, her friend Stephanie, and James on the kayak.

James, the kids' teacher, with his wacky sunburn

Hello everyone,
Well, it’s been about a month, so I figured it was time to post a new entry. I’ve actually been wanting to post for about a week now, but have been busy. I still can’t quite figure out what keeps me so busy all day, but I do know that I am never bored, I have a long list of things that I need to do that I never seem to get to, and I’m exhausted by the end of the day.

Yesterday I spent my day cleaning out all the cupboards because we have had a problem with weevils. We never had this problem in AZ, but it seems to be pretty typical here. I know that the weevils are not harmful, and that they are born right into the food products, but they are still gross, and none of us want anything to do with them. Except Bill. He doesn’t seem too bothered by them, and even offered to strain the weevils out of the food. I told him thanks but no thanks—I just threw it all out. And let me tell you—it about killed me to throw away a $15 box of Frosted Flakes, and Bisquick that someone brought from the States, but it had to be done. After I cleaned everything out, I took everything out of its original packaging and put everything into containers. Don’t know if this will help or not, but it’s worth a try. The sad thing is, is that all the food I threw out, my housecleaner or guards will fish out of the trash, and take home. I would offer it to them, but I don’t want to say, “Here—this food isn’t good for us, but would you like this tasty food full of bugs?” See what I mean?

We’ve also had a mouse in our house, and I’ve been dealing with that for the last few weeks. At first, I would only find evidence of this mouse, but would never actually see it. Then he started getting brave, and would dart out while we were eating breakfast, or while I was washing the dinner dishes. This freaked me out, and really made me anxious. Whenever I was in the kitchen, I would think I was going to see it. I finally put poison down, and I have not seen the mouse or any evidence of it for at least a couple of weeks. I had to be extra careful that Kami didn’t get to the poison, or to the mouse. I was so afraid she would find the mouse and eat it, and then she would get sick from the poison the mouse ate. Anyway, it seems to be gone now, so I am thankful, but still worry that it (or its friends) could still be around.

And as long as I’m talking about yucky creatures, I’ll mention my extreme phobia about the possibility of running into a cobra or black mamba. Both are very real threats here, and although I have not seen either one, I know many people that have. I’m almost absurdly fearful of seeing one. When I get into bed at night, I’m fearful that one will be in my sheets. When I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I always look around the toilet to make sure one isn’t coiled up around the toilet. I’m not sure where I got this phobia from, as I actually sort of like snakes and think they are pretty fascinating. I like to look at them and touch them at the zoo, or if they are someone’s pet. But the thought of running into an extremely dangerous one in the wild, just puts me over the edge. When we did our visit here in April, snakes never crossed my mind. Then someone mentioned it to me, and that almost made me make the decision not to come back. But I did, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. But, what I really want to convey here is that even though I love it here (despite the challenges), there is quite a bit of anxiety that I live with all the time. And I guess most of this is not a big deal, but it just seems like there are so many little things like this that I consciously or subconsciously deal with everyday, that I always feel a bit jumpy and on edge. I’ve actually seen the same with the kids. Dustin went to turn a light on in the bathroom, and the light blew out. The noise scared him so bad that he started crying. He’s really not a wimpy kid. I just think that we all walk around a little anxious, without really realizing that we are anxious, and this just makes us extra sensitive to things that typically would not faze us. I realize that none of these things are all that significant, especially when compared to other things going on in the world (poor economy, people losing jobs, etc). We actually feel very fortunate to be here at this time, as Bill’s company is closing mines left and right, and tons of people in the Phoenix office have lost their jobs. It’s quite possible that had we stayed in Phoenix, he would be one of the people out of a job.

Last week, I had 3 kids at my house sleeping over (in addition to my 2), and the first thing that happened was that our generator wouldn’t work. That’s not such a huge deal, except that our stove and microwave don’t work when the generator doesn’t work, and all the lights in the house are very dim (sort of like a brown out). I went to make all these kids dinner, and all I had were 2 pizzas (not enough for 5 hungry kids). So now, all the kids have eaten all the pizza, but they are still hungry. But I can’t make them anything because the stove and microwave don’t work. So I offered them things like cold cereal, fruit, etc. They ended up eating cold (room temperature) ravioli. So, the next thing that happens is all the power goes out completely, so now we have no lights or anything. Normally the generator would kick in, but since ours was broken, no such luck. The kids had a blast though, and the 2 factions (boys vs. girls) even played together during this time. Bill and I were bored though—no internet or TV and no light to read by. About 11:30 PM, they finally got out to our house to fix the fuel pump on our generator, and we had lights again!

About 3 weeks ago, there was a Congolese holiday, remembering the assassination of the previous president of the DRC (Laurent-Desire Kabila). That happened in 2001, and at that time, his son (Joseph Kabila) was named president (he was not actually elected). At age 31, he became the youngest African president. It wasn’t until October 2006 that he became the first democratically elected president of the country since 1960. Anyway, this apparently is a big holiday. My house cleaner and gardener did not show up for work, all the stores (including grocery stores) were closed, and all schools were closed. We were told to just lay low and not really go anywhere on this day, as there might be people shooting guns into the air, etc. So we just stayed home all day. This wouldn’t have been so bad, but it happened to fall on my birthday, and we were planning to go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, but we had to cancel our plans. Here, because there is really no other form of entertainment, we go out to eat. It’s a wonder I haven’t gained 20 pounds! But, because it is so expensive to eat anywhere (usually at least $100), we don’t go out all that often. On the plus side, we did get to eat a very yummy chocolate cake on my birthday, from a cake mix that we had picked up in Kenya.

And speaking of stores closing, today all the stores were closed downtown, but not for a holiday. Apparently, because of the poor price of copper, most of the mining companies here are closing down and leaving the Congo (not Bill’s company though). One of the mining companies that are leaving sold a bunch of their equipment to the governor here. So, he decided to have a parade and show off all the new equipment and I guess that was reason enough for all the stores to close down! Go figure!

Getting back to the president, I’ll mention that there is a street here called the president’s street. That is not the actual name, but it’s what we all call it. This is the street where the president has his house (when he is here in town). When you are driving on this street, you cannot go even one kilometer over 40 km, you cannot pass anyone, you cannot have your headlights on (unless it is night), and you cannot talk on the phone. If you do any of these things, you will immediately be pulled over by a ton of military guys, your car will be searched (not sure for what), and you typically will need to give them money (bribe them) to get yourself out of the situation. If you don't have your car doors locked, they will actually get into your car to try to intimidate you. Fortunately, my driver knows the rules well, so we have never been stopped. When the president is actually home, they just block off the whole street, so you can’t drive on it at all.

Speaking of driving, Bill has gotten a Congolese driver’s license so that he can drive while up at the mine site. It’s a big, pink laminated card, that can’t fit into a pocket or wallet. Anyone can get one. All you need to do is send in $50 and a picture. You don’t need to take a written test or a driving test, which is probably the reason why there are so many scary drivers here. One of the expat girls here will be turning 16 in July. We always joke that if she went home to AZ and tried to take her driver’s test using the Congolese method of driving, she would definitely fail. I can just hear her saying, “But I flashed my lights when I drove into the oncoming traffic, and I drove up onto the shoulder just like I was supposed to, and I honked my horn when I made that illegal left turn, etc”. Pretty much anything goes when it comes to driving here.

We have gotten a couple of security bulletins recently, from Bill’s company. One was regarding several expat murders that occurred in Lubumbashi, and the other was about several cases of hemorrhagic fever that have been documented. The bulletins were scary to get, but in general, we were told that there is nothing to worry about, so I don’t. If I worry about every little thing, then I would never leave the house. Instead, I just keep myself more aware of my surroundings, take basic precautions like making sure our car doors are always locked, and making sure I don’t eat any rodents or primates (associated with getting hemorrhagic fever).

Finding good, healthy food to eat continues to be a problem, especially fruits and vegetables. What you find in the stores is so disgusting looking that you can hardly look at it, let alone think about buying it. Many of us here have gardens in our backyards, and we have been enjoying the fresh food out of our gardens. We all share and trade. I provide onions, peppers (yuck—I give all of those away), and peas. From others, I get corn, tomatoes, avocados, and bananas. We will be planting more, but because it is the rainy season, it is not the right time to plant a lot of stuff.

Bill had his first haircut here in the Congo, by me! There is really no place to go to get your haircut, so most of the guys just wear the buzzcut look. I will likely not have my hair cut until we get back to AZ in July. Dustin had his trimmed up in England, though it is still very long. Bill had his cut in England too, but since we won't be going anywhere for awhile, it was time for me to get out the clippers! I think I was more scared than Bill, but overall, it turned out okay. At least Bill had a good attitude about it. He said, "If you mess it up, I don't really care", so that took the pressure off.

A couple of weeks ago, we all took a “school” field trip. The kids’ teacher arranged it, but almost all the parents went too. Like I said before, there is so little to do here, that any chance to get to somewhere new is always welcome. We went to a lake called Lake Kasombo, which is about 45 minutes out of town. We all had to drive together in a convoy, with a security car leading the way. Supposedly this lake was safe to swim in, so all the kids, some of the parents, and the teacher all swam and jumped off cliffs into the water. I couldn’t get pictures of the kids jumping off the cliffs because it was on the other side of the lake, and I was not one of the brave ones who actually went swimming, so I was too far away. The teacher brought along an inflatable kayak and took the kids for rides around the lake. It was a very nice, relaxing time. The kids all had fun, and the adults all relaxed up on the shore. Everybody got a lot of sun (except me, who had on SPF 40), and most everyone came home with sunburns. The kids’ teacher always wears a baseball hat. Well, on this day, he turned it around and was wearing it backwards. He got more sun than he realized, and boy did he have a funny looking sunburn on his face. On the way home, we stopped at a couple of roadside markets and picked up some fresh vegetables and fresh made yogurt. All in all, it was a fun field trip!

I think that’s about it for now. We don’t have any trips planned at this time, but we may go to Mozambique for Spring break, which is at the end of March. Jensen however said, “I don’t want to go anywhere for Spring break. I like it here.” This is coming from the kid who thought we were ruining her life when we moved here!

Hope everyone is well!

Laurie

Nairobi, Kenya

Laurie getting kissed by a giraffe!

The whole family with the giraffe.

Bill getting kissed by the giraffe!

The 10 day old baby rhino--so cute!!

Hello everyone,
Finally, here is the last installment of our trip! And this has been a very long trip! What we have learned is that this is too long of a time for our family to be away from home. At this point, the kids don’t even want to leave the hotel. They don’t want to see anything new or learn about a new country or a new culture. And I don’t blame them—it has been a long time away. We are ready to get back to our normal routine, even if our living situation is not the best in Congo--it’s still home. Jensen said she was double homesick—first homesick to get back to Congo, and then homesick to get back to AZ.

We got into Kenya on Tuesday, 12/30. Our flight got in at 9:40 PM. However, we had to get a Visa upon landing at the airport (which we did not know about), so about 1.5 hours (and $80) later, we were finally collecting our baggage. A friend of ours here in Kenya had arranged for a taxi service (with a very large car to accommodate all of our luggage) to meet us at the airport, so it was nice that we did not have to deal with finding transportation too. We finally got to the hotel about 11:30 PM. When we got to our room, we found we had one double bed, and one twin bed, not 2 doubles as we had been told when we made the reservation. Because of the late hour, there was not much they could do, so Dustin and I shared the twin bed that first night. The next day, they were able to bring in another single bed, so sleeping arrangements were fine after that.
The next day, everyone was tired, and we barely made it down in time for breakfast (they stopped serving at 10:00). Because we were not originally planning to be in Kenya for more than 12 hours, we had not planned anything to do. So, we started off just walking around the city of Nairobi, stopping in shops, and just enjoying the warm weather. I was instantly in a good mood as soon as I saw the sun and felt the warmth. Bill ended up buying a pair of shoes, which he had looked for in London, but could not find, and then of all places, he finds them in Nairobi! Nairobi is a much more modern city than Lubumbashi (where we live), but still nothing like what we would see in the US. However, we felt very safe and comfortable walking around this city, despite being some of the only white people around. Everyone here is very pro-Obama. There are Obama t-shirts, stickers, and buttons all over the place. Our friend that is here told us that if we got stopped by a cop here, all we would need to say is that we are from the US and we voted for Obama, and we would be let go without any problems.

New Year’s Eve, we met up with our friends for dinner. These are friends of ours from Congo. James is the kids’ school teacher, and he was here with his wife, Gladys, who is from Kenya. We went to a little Italian restaurant, and the food and company were good. We got back to the hotel about 10:00 PM, and just stayed in, playing cards. It was a good thing too, as at midnight, it got wild just outside our hotel. The people here must really like New Years! The people were screaming and yelling, dancing in the streets, running in front of cars, dancing on planters, etc. There were tons and tons of people outside. There were so many people in the streets that traffic came to an absolute halt. The celebration lasted at least until 2:00 AM, when we finally went to bed.

New Year’s Day, we had a hard time getting up again, due to staying up so late the night before. We’re trying to get back to Congo time, getting used to getting up at 6 AM, instead of 9:00, but we’ve not yet been very successful. Most everything was closed, due to the holiday, so not much to do. The kids did a little homework, and Bill did some work. I read, and worked on my blog entries. We almost went to see a movie, but decided against it. Bill and I walked over to the theater to check it out. They only had 2 screens, so only 2 movies to choose from. The bathrooms were filthy, with no toilet paper, so we sort of decided against the movie. Bill wanted some popcorn though, so we stopped to get some. Everything was outside, except the actual movie, so we were able to walk right up to the concession stand without actually buying a ticket for the movie. Bill asked for butter and salt on his popcorn, and they said, “We don’t have butter. We tried it, but it just didn’t work out”. Then, when Bill asked for salt, the guy pulled out a napkin, spoon, and a small jar, and he proceeded to spoon some salt into the napkin for Bill. It was quite humorous.

Our last day in Kenya (Friday, 1/2) we went to a giraffe center, where we got to interact with several giraffes. They ate right out of our hands, and Bill, Dustin and I all got kissed by a giraffe—similar to our experience with the elephants back in South Africa, except the giraffes kissed us right on the lips! Jensen did not want to get kissed this time. The giraffes had purple tongues, and they were pretty slobbery and slimy, but they were fun to feed.

After the giraffes, we went to an orphaned animal park, where they take in baby animals that have been abandoned. They mostly had elephants there (about 15 of them), ranging in age from 4 months to 27 months. They named them according to where they were found in Kenya. We got to pet them and watch them play them get fed with a bottle. This park is only opened one hour each day, as the rest of the day the elephants are roaming free in Nairobi National Park. They try to keep them in as natural habitats as possible. Once they get to about 3 years old, they will be weaned away from the orphaned animal park, and they will live in Nairobi National Park permanently. They will stay with the group that they have been growing up with, as they form close bonds and friendships.

There was also an orphaned rhino that was only 10 days old! He was so cute! We got to pet him. There was also a 2.5 year old rhino that was blind. He will likely never leave the park, as they believe he was abandoned by his mother due to his blindness.

There was also a crocodile park and an ostrich park, but we did not go to those, as Jensen was not feeling well. We did however make a quick stop at a store that was the closest thing we have seen to a Target/Walmart. They called it a grocery store, and it was mostly food, but also had some housewares and clothing. I had to run in quick, as Jensen needed to get home, but in about 10 minutes, I came out with cereal, cookie mix, cake mix, cake frosting, muffin mix, pancake mix, and biscuit mix. Most of this was all Betty Crocker brand, so that made it all the better. All of these items (except the cereal) are things that we cannot get at all in Congo. We can get cereal, but it just costs so much! And, we are pretty much limited on brands. We can get Kelloggs Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes (they call them Frosties, but they are Kelloggs), but that’s it.

Once we got back to the hotel, we had lunch, and then went out to do some final shopping. Then, we packed our suitcases and got ourselves ready to head home. We are anticipating a joyful reunion with our dog Kami, who we have missed terribly. We have never been away from her this long. She has been staying with friends, and I think she has been doing okay, though she tends to get depressed when she is away from us. I am also dreadfully anticipating the potential floods that might be in my home due to the leaking windows. It should be interesting to see what we find!

Well, twenty days after we set out on this vacation, we have finally made it home! All was good when we arrived (no major flooding), and all of our luggage (and the contents) made it here safely. I’m busy doing a kazillion loads of laundry, Jensen is happily watching Disney channel again, Kami is sleeping on the couch, and Bill and Dustin are out playing golf with their new clubs! Life is back to normal!

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for being such enthusiastic readers of my blog. I enjoy writing it, and it helps me keep track of all our adventures here in the Congo!

Laurie