Please consider donating.
http://www.congochildrensfund.org
2015-02-28
Congo Children's Fund
This won't really benefit Mireille, but a family in much the same situation we are in has started a fund to help bring food to orphans in need in Kinshasa. We're planning on doing some fund raising to help this organization. Despite your feelings on international adoption, it's hard to disagree with helping children to get nutritious food and water.
Please consider donating.
http://www.congochildrensfund.org
Please consider donating.
http://www.congochildrensfund.org
2015-02-26
Now with Video!!!
Update - the video permissions have been changed and should work now. Thanks for your patience while I learn to use computers...
As my brother pointed out, my Congo posts came out with images that looked like they should be videos. They were supposed to be videos! I've gone through the lot and switched them out for YouTube videos where applicable. Please go through from Day 1 and see some motion you may not have seen the first time through! You should be able to navigate to the posts from the nav-menu on the right. Enjoy!
As my brother pointed out, my Congo posts came out with images that looked like they should be videos. They were supposed to be videos! I've gone through the lot and switched them out for YouTube videos where applicable. Please go through from Day 1 and see some motion you may not have seen the first time through! You should be able to navigate to the posts from the nav-menu on the right. Enjoy!
2015-02-23
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 8 - On the way home
Kinshasa - Day 7
My last day. I feel bad, but I was looking forward to this in some ways. Over the last 5 days, Mireille has turned into a typical 2 year old, and taking care of 2 year olds is HARD! Particularly by yourself. Luckily, when you have nothing else to do, it makes it much easier. It's much easier to completely invest in what the child is saying and doing, which I did - once I got done showering, washing the dishes, and packing (I'm such an adult).
Last night was wonderful, for the most part. Mireille was super tired, but got restless around 11:00. So I gave in quickly and put her in bed with me. Both she and I fell asleep almost instantly and didn't awake until around 6:45. We kind of lazed around for 45 minutes or so - I can tell she's my kind of girl!
At 7:30 we got out of bed, brushed our teeth, and got some breakfast. Eggs, toast, and other assorted sundries. I got rid of much of what I had bought, but still had quite a bit to give away to the foster family.
After a quick shower (which Mireille again watched with interest), we both got dressed, then waited… Natasha and Elisa were supposed to come by 9:00, then Papa John by 10:00. So we hung out. First we made a video to show Quinton the hotel. It was a pretty good one. Then we just played. Mireille brutally killed an ant with her shoe, which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
After catastrophically murdering all ants within her reach, she turned her focus to the fly that was pestering us in the room. I was sitting on the door threshold, waiting for Natasha and Elisa, and Mireille would come over to me, then look at the fly, then say “Dee Doh” and chase after it, stomping her foot, then running back while giving a big belly laugh! This literally lasted for an hour… Again, this is something I need to consciously do with my kids in the US - it's the kind of time that I just never carve out!
While playing and getting full belly laughs, I started to pick up on some phrases. I have no idea if I have them right, but they sounded like the following:
Papa John eventually came and we began parting ways. Mireille screamed when they took her away, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, she clearly bonded with me. On the other hand, she is forced to go through so much change all the time!!! I suppose it's good for kids, but man did it hurt. I cried - a lot. In fact, I've continued to cry up to now, and will likely to so some more before all is said and done. What a wonderful gift and curse all at once.
Papa John took me downtown to the Air France depot there. In Kinshasa, since the airport is rather small, they do checkin downtown. So he took my passport and led me through the basically simple procedure of checking my bags, getting my boarding pass, and paying my $55 exit tax. All in all it was pretty painless.
After that, we went to get some Chawarma sandwiches, which Papa John treated me to. They are a middle eastern thing, from what I can tell, that have chicken, french fries, cole slaw, all in something that looks like a tortilla. It was pretty good! They were supposed to have Pilee Pilee in them, but I didn't taste it.
We got a couple of Chawarma sandwiches for the road then went to meet Papa John's girlfriend, Joyce, and to take her some lunch. She was just as young as reported, and very beautiful. She greeted and said goodbye to me with a kiss on the cheek, which made me feel very European.
We headed out of town so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic. Good thing, too, traffic was bad! It took an hour to get to the Kinkole fisherman village, which is probably about 15 miles past the airport. On the way we encountered several “funeral cars” which are just SAAB station wagons with caskets in the back. Apparently Kinshasa's cemetary is past the airport - and that's the only cemetary. It was busy!
Kinkole was everything I would have hoped a small village would be. People everywhere, but a nice restaurant and good music which sounded Caribbean, which I suppose makes sense. Papa ordered us a couple of beers and some fish cooked in leaves, big leaves. He was excited to take me here since I am the only American he's met that can handle the hot Congolese food. While we ordered, he flirted with the waitress.
While we were waiting for our fish, many street vendors came to our table. I bought a map of Congo, which I hope makes it home! As I type it is up in the overhead compartment, just waiting to be crushed! We were also offered live grubs (called Macoco?), something that looked like termites, shoe shine, shoes, baskets, and some seasoned crickets, which Papa John got for us and I ate! They weren't bad.
Our fish was delicious, served with plantains. It was a bit spicy and served in humungous leaves in a broth with onions and peppers. Quite tasty! The fish was right from the river and still alive when we ordered it. I think it was called a Mapongo fish…
After our lunch and 2 beers we went further west into the real bush to a place made by one of Kabila's generals to be a resort. Anybody can come, but it is heavily protected by armed guards and a gate/fence. It was beautiful. Here we had a great view of the Congo river where it was wide. There were several sporting boats out doing boat things, like water skiing and some jet skis as well. It was a beautiful afternoon, we each had like 5 beers each. I have a feeling Papa John was getting a little drunk by the time we left. More on that for the aforementioned beer or two that you can buy me.
Around 5:45, we left for the airport, which was about 30 minutes away. There I met Norbert (who's first name I can't recall) who guided me through the complexities of the N'dgjili International Airport, of which I am grateful. After that, it's just sitting around, thinking on what a week it was, crying quite a bit, and texting folks to see how they are doing.
I'm now sitting on the airplane waiting for my first 8 hour leg to begin. I hope all the beer is out of me, as I hate to get up a lot on the plane just to pee. I also hope I sleep… I've gotten used to the time zone in the days I was here, sort of unfortunately since it only benefited me one day while I was here! I'm really looking forward to getting home and spending time with my boys and Jenny. Of course, I think often about my week with Mireille. How she would grab anything that was flat on one side, put it to her ear and say “hallo!” Natasha says she likes to say “Hallo, kakeka” when she's talking to one of the other little girls in her foster home, Rebecca. It makes me sad… I know she is being well cared for here, I can see that. But it's not something that can be sustained… I see that now. Even if we pay for foster care through her 18th birthday, she is living in a country with 10% employment (I didn't say unemployment) and few opportunities for anybody to really put themselves in a better place. We need to get her to the US, for selfish and unselfish reasons - it's the only thing that makes sense. I've distilled my requirements into these two points:
My last day. I feel bad, but I was looking forward to this in some ways. Over the last 5 days, Mireille has turned into a typical 2 year old, and taking care of 2 year olds is HARD! Particularly by yourself. Luckily, when you have nothing else to do, it makes it much easier. It's much easier to completely invest in what the child is saying and doing, which I did - once I got done showering, washing the dishes, and packing (I'm such an adult).
Last night was wonderful, for the most part. Mireille was super tired, but got restless around 11:00. So I gave in quickly and put her in bed with me. Both she and I fell asleep almost instantly and didn't awake until around 6:45. We kind of lazed around for 45 minutes or so - I can tell she's my kind of girl!
At 7:30 we got out of bed, brushed our teeth, and got some breakfast. Eggs, toast, and other assorted sundries. I got rid of much of what I had bought, but still had quite a bit to give away to the foster family.
After a quick shower (which Mireille again watched with interest), we both got dressed, then waited… Natasha and Elisa were supposed to come by 9:00, then Papa John by 10:00. So we hung out. First we made a video to show Quinton the hotel. It was a pretty good one. Then we just played. Mireille brutally killed an ant with her shoe, which is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
After catastrophically murdering all ants within her reach, she turned her focus to the fly that was pestering us in the room. I was sitting on the door threshold, waiting for Natasha and Elisa, and Mireille would come over to me, then look at the fly, then say “Dee Doh” and chase after it, stomping her foot, then running back while giving a big belly laugh! This literally lasted for an hour… Again, this is something I need to consciously do with my kids in the US - it's the kind of time that I just never carve out!
While playing and getting full belly laughs, I started to pick up on some phrases. I have no idea if I have them right, but they sounded like the following:
- I dee dow - or I get down - when she's on my lap and wants to get down.
- Here we go! - this is something she says when I, or something is in her way and she wants to get past. My leg was in her way to get into the room, so she would say “Here we go” and I would move it. Probably something in Lingala, but that's what it sounded like to me.
Papa John took me downtown to the Air France depot there. In Kinshasa, since the airport is rather small, they do checkin downtown. So he took my passport and led me through the basically simple procedure of checking my bags, getting my boarding pass, and paying my $55 exit tax. All in all it was pretty painless.
After that, we went to get some Chawarma sandwiches, which Papa John treated me to. They are a middle eastern thing, from what I can tell, that have chicken, french fries, cole slaw, all in something that looks like a tortilla. It was pretty good! They were supposed to have Pilee Pilee in them, but I didn't taste it.
We got a couple of Chawarma sandwiches for the road then went to meet Papa John's girlfriend, Joyce, and to take her some lunch. She was just as young as reported, and very beautiful. She greeted and said goodbye to me with a kiss on the cheek, which made me feel very European.
We headed out of town so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic. Good thing, too, traffic was bad! It took an hour to get to the Kinkole fisherman village, which is probably about 15 miles past the airport. On the way we encountered several “funeral cars” which are just SAAB station wagons with caskets in the back. Apparently Kinshasa's cemetary is past the airport - and that's the only cemetary. It was busy!
Kinkole was everything I would have hoped a small village would be. People everywhere, but a nice restaurant and good music which sounded Caribbean, which I suppose makes sense. Papa ordered us a couple of beers and some fish cooked in leaves, big leaves. He was excited to take me here since I am the only American he's met that can handle the hot Congolese food. While we ordered, he flirted with the waitress.
Our fish was delicious, served with plantains. It was a bit spicy and served in humungous leaves in a broth with onions and peppers. Quite tasty! The fish was right from the river and still alive when we ordered it. I think it was called a Mapongo fish…
Around 5:45, we left for the airport, which was about 30 minutes away. There I met Norbert (who's first name I can't recall) who guided me through the complexities of the N'dgjili International Airport, of which I am grateful. After that, it's just sitting around, thinking on what a week it was, crying quite a bit, and texting folks to see how they are doing.
I'm now sitting on the airplane waiting for my first 8 hour leg to begin. I hope all the beer is out of me, as I hate to get up a lot on the plane just to pee. I also hope I sleep… I've gotten used to the time zone in the days I was here, sort of unfortunately since it only benefited me one day while I was here! I'm really looking forward to getting home and spending time with my boys and Jenny. Of course, I think often about my week with Mireille. How she would grab anything that was flat on one side, put it to her ear and say “hallo!” Natasha says she likes to say “Hallo, kakeka” when she's talking to one of the other little girls in her foster home, Rebecca. It makes me sad… I know she is being well cared for here, I can see that. But it's not something that can be sustained… I see that now. Even if we pay for foster care through her 18th birthday, she is living in a country with 10% employment (I didn't say unemployment) and few opportunities for anybody to really put themselves in a better place. We need to get her to the US, for selfish and unselfish reasons - it's the only thing that makes sense. I've distilled my requirements into these two points:
- I want to bring her to the US as soon as possible.
- I want to be able to bring her and the rest of the family back to Congo to visit someday…
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 7 - Kinshasa
Kinshasa - Day 6
Getting down to it! Today I'm nervous again, but that hasnt changed much from day 1 here, or day -2 for that matter.
Last night started out rough. Mireille was restless. She didn't fall out of bed, but was up like 3 times up until about 1:00 AM. She didn't cry or anything, but she got out of bed and asked me to hold her. After rocking her to sleep the other two times, I convinced her to just sleep in my bed with me the last time. That ended up working very well. She settled down and was completely out in short order. Her only requirement seemed to be that she had one foot touching me somewhere. That forced me to settle down and not be so uptight and nervous as well, so we both got a good night's sleep.
At 7:00 we woke up and did our ritual. On a side note, and with the bad habit discussion from a couple of days ago in mind, I've been giving Mireille fruit snacks on a somewhat regular basis. If it were up to her, she would eat fruit snacks and bananas and drink only orange Fanta. Bad parenting aside, the way she eats fruit snacks is hilarious. She shoves all but one of the snacks into her mouth as quickly as she can chew and swallow them. Then for the last snack, she takes the tiniest of bites and makes it last for 10 minutes or more. She REALLY likes them.
Today was a Papa John day. Nothing special - we just wanted to get some souvenirs for taking home. Papa John came in cowboy regalia today. He was happy from having made up with his girlfriend the day before. She loves him again. There's plenty more to this story, but for the rated R version, you will most certainly have to buy me a beer or two!
The first place we went was to a closed market that Papa John called the handicapped market. I figured it was just a translation mistake, but when we got there it was indeed the handicapped market. All of the people there were disabled in some way, and the goods were made by the handicapped. I ended up purchasing a nativity, which I hope makes it home without breaking (it didn't), and a black doll with cool hair for Mireille, though she doesn't like it, so I'm taking it home in hopes that someday she will like, or at least appreciate dolls.
The next market we went to was the more traditional type. The vendors were pushy and it was close. All of the stuff there was more or less the same as what was at the handicapped market. I ended up buying some musical instrument, which I can't remember the name of, a beer truck for the bar, and some Congolese paintings that I thought were cool. I'm sure Jenny will have other opinions, but it seemed like a good way to spend a little money.
I asked Papa John to then take me somewhere to buy some soccer jerseys for the boys. He drove through the commercial part of town to a corner, pulled to the side of the road, talked to a guy, and within a minute there was another guy asking for the boy's ages. He told the guy, who went away and came back with two jerseys and shorts. They don't really look big enough, but they are definitely cool. As soon as we got them, Mireille demanded that I put not one, but both of the jerseys and both of the shorts on her! I convinced her to take them off before we got to our next destination, however.
We then headed over to the other side of the river where the fishing village was, which was interesting. We stopped at a restaurant on the river where Papa John had made up with his girlfriend the day prior. We ordered a couple of beers and a Fanta. He insists that the next time I come here we rent a boat and go out on the river where there are tiger fish, crocodiles, hippos, and all sorts of things that can kill you. Sounds like a fun trip, but at $400 for the day, it seems like I might need to recruit a friend to help me defray costs.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some pilee pilee, a pepper spread that we've eaten a couple of times down here. It is very hot and delicious, so I wanted to take some home for any of my hot food eating friends, which I must admit I don't have that many of - maybe Tim Ziegler will partake with me while I make him watch the hour or more of video and photos I've taken of Congo and Mireille!
Back at the hotel, the neighbor Andrew was waiting around in the courtyard until his driver came to take him to the airport. I invited him in for a couple of beers and we chatted for quite awhile. We hung out for a couple of hours, when he ultimately had to leave for the airport for his long journey home.
Andrew left, Mireille got CRANKY, but it turns out we didn't really eat any lunch, and that girl does not miss too many meals. So I managed to cook a meal while holding her on my hip, no small task. Once she had eaten she was sweet and happy again, after a nice poop of course. She even sang to her mom on the phone a little bit. She loves cell phones. She holds things up to her ear and says “hallo,” which she did while Jenny was on the phone.
After supper, I cleaned up, put Mireille down a little early since she had a negligible nap at lunchtime, then packed my bags, which are considerably lighter than when I came here. Tomorrow is a long day prior to finally disembarking for my flight back to the US via Paris.
As I sit here, mentally preparing and unloading for the emotions of tomorrow, I'm watching Cine + Star, a French language station. I'm watching some movie - not sure what it is, but this one, and the other French movie I watched this past week both had gratuitous boob scenes, which is making me appreciate French cinema more than I ever could have guessed.
Getting down to it! Today I'm nervous again, but that hasnt changed much from day 1 here, or day -2 for that matter.
Last night started out rough. Mireille was restless. She didn't fall out of bed, but was up like 3 times up until about 1:00 AM. She didn't cry or anything, but she got out of bed and asked me to hold her. After rocking her to sleep the other two times, I convinced her to just sleep in my bed with me the last time. That ended up working very well. She settled down and was completely out in short order. Her only requirement seemed to be that she had one foot touching me somewhere. That forced me to settle down and not be so uptight and nervous as well, so we both got a good night's sleep.
At 7:00 we woke up and did our ritual. On a side note, and with the bad habit discussion from a couple of days ago in mind, I've been giving Mireille fruit snacks on a somewhat regular basis. If it were up to her, she would eat fruit snacks and bananas and drink only orange Fanta. Bad parenting aside, the way she eats fruit snacks is hilarious. She shoves all but one of the snacks into her mouth as quickly as she can chew and swallow them. Then for the last snack, she takes the tiniest of bites and makes it last for 10 minutes or more. She REALLY likes them.
Today was a Papa John day. Nothing special - we just wanted to get some souvenirs for taking home. Papa John came in cowboy regalia today. He was happy from having made up with his girlfriend the day before. She loves him again. There's plenty more to this story, but for the rated R version, you will most certainly have to buy me a beer or two!
The first place we went was to a closed market that Papa John called the handicapped market. I figured it was just a translation mistake, but when we got there it was indeed the handicapped market. All of the people there were disabled in some way, and the goods were made by the handicapped. I ended up purchasing a nativity, which I hope makes it home without breaking (it didn't), and a black doll with cool hair for Mireille, though she doesn't like it, so I'm taking it home in hopes that someday she will like, or at least appreciate dolls.
The next market we went to was the more traditional type. The vendors were pushy and it was close. All of the stuff there was more or less the same as what was at the handicapped market. I ended up buying some musical instrument, which I can't remember the name of, a beer truck for the bar, and some Congolese paintings that I thought were cool. I'm sure Jenny will have other opinions, but it seemed like a good way to spend a little money.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped and got some pilee pilee, a pepper spread that we've eaten a couple of times down here. It is very hot and delicious, so I wanted to take some home for any of my hot food eating friends, which I must admit I don't have that many of - maybe Tim Ziegler will partake with me while I make him watch the hour or more of video and photos I've taken of Congo and Mireille!
Back at the hotel, the neighbor Andrew was waiting around in the courtyard until his driver came to take him to the airport. I invited him in for a couple of beers and we chatted for quite awhile. We hung out for a couple of hours, when he ultimately had to leave for the airport for his long journey home.
Andrew left, Mireille got CRANKY, but it turns out we didn't really eat any lunch, and that girl does not miss too many meals. So I managed to cook a meal while holding her on my hip, no small task. Once she had eaten she was sweet and happy again, after a nice poop of course. She even sang to her mom on the phone a little bit. She loves cell phones. She holds things up to her ear and says “hallo,” which she did while Jenny was on the phone.
After supper, I cleaned up, put Mireille down a little early since she had a negligible nap at lunchtime, then packed my bags, which are considerably lighter than when I came here. Tomorrow is a long day prior to finally disembarking for my flight back to the US via Paris.
As I sit here, mentally preparing and unloading for the emotions of tomorrow, I'm watching Cine + Star, a French language station. I'm watching some movie - not sure what it is, but this one, and the other French movie I watched this past week both had gratuitous boob scenes, which is making me appreciate French cinema more than I ever could have guessed.
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 6 - Kinshasa
Kinshasa - Day 5
It's a hotel day - all day at the hotel. It's a good and a bad thing. Getting out would be nice simply to stave off the boredom, but it also allows for a very concentrated, focused time for just hanging out with your child - something I'm not sure I ever did so much with the boys, or at the very least don't do it anymore…
Today started out much better than the last few, mainly due to the fact that I got a full 8 hours of sleep under my belt, which was sorely needed! Mireille even cooperated for the most part. She did fall out of bed around 11:00, which caused passed out me to catapult from the bed, vaulting both my iPad and iPhone onto the floor. I have a smallish dent on the corner of my iPad, which is the only thing I can see.
Once Mireille woke up, she looked over at me - I was up. She came over and crawled into bed with me for a couple of minutes, which was nice. Then we leisurely got up, brushed our teeth, and started breakfast. Today we had eggs, cooked in vegetable oil with cheese, a big difference from a couple of days ago. We also tried toast in the oven instead of frying it in a frying pan - way better. I'm getting better at this Kinshasa thing.
After breakfast, we just kind of hung out in the room. All day. We tried to swim once, but Mireille is terrified of the pool. She also goes into a shell pretty much any time we leave the room, the left thumb going directly into the mouth. Later in the day she did manage to start coming out just a little bit outside, but it's a slow process.
Highlights from the day - Mireille is quite the little blabber mouth once she gets going. All (or most) of her phrases are Lingala, though, so I have no idea what she's telling me. Occasionally she gets upset with me, but eventually just points or walks me to what she wants and eventually gets her way.
I started writing down the phrases that I hear from her and when she says them. Here is a sampling:
After lunch I was doing the dishes, somewhat of a tradition now. I prepare the meal while getting Mireille to start eating something cold, then I eat quickly and help her to eat some of the more difficult parts, then I do the dishes while she destroys the room. Tonight the dishes are unwashed and will remain that way until the morning - I'm spent! Anyway, while doing the dishes, I couldn't find one of the spoons that I knew we had used. I looked around a bit but didn't see it anywhere. I really wanted to find it, especially since Sunny Day is out one of their plates after Mireille decided it no longer needed to exist as a whole plate any longer. Just dropped it right on the tile - well, really threw it. Ah, love 2 year olds! A few hours later, going at the pantry yet again, I hear a clink in one of the items she's playing with, a ceramic tea pot. Sure enough, the spoon was in there. She loves to hide stuff from me - she must know I am an easy target for that.
On the topic of spoons, she has an interesting way of eating. She actually has quite a bit of manual dexterity and fine motor control. When she eats, she likes to use a spoon. She easily scoops up rice and whatever into her spoon, but then things start to get complicated. She sits so low on the chair that it's difficult to get a good angle. So she slowly brings the spoon to the space between her mouth and the table, then takes her other hand, puts it on the back of the spoon, then turns it all sideways and propels it to her mouth. She occasionally gets one or two grains of rice to successfully end up in her mouth!
We had planned to video chat with the boys and Jenny before school, which is 2:30 Kinshasa time, so I tried to get her down for a nap right after lunch. It was very hot, so after I changed her, I just left her in her diaper and nothing else for her nap. Well, not nothing else, I suppose. She demanded that I put her shoes on first! The picture is pretty funny.
While she napped, I quickly took a shower, then finished up the dishes I was unable to finish from earlier, then I went outside in hopes of wrangling a decent internet signal so I could feed the addiction. After about 5 minutes I heard a baby screaming - just SCREAMING. I assumed it was the neighbor since his daughter has been doing that all week for the most part. After a few seconds I realized that it sounded deeper than Blanche's cries. I ran inside to find Mireille standing on the floor simply besides herself. I imagine there's still a significant amount of separation anxiety and trauma she is experiencing, and maybe always will… She luckily is easily calmed - I apologized profusely, but paid for it the rest of the day where I was not allowed anywhere 2 feet or more from her until now, while she's asleep for the night.
After our successful FaceTime call with Jenny and the boys, we tried the swimming pool once again - fail. OK, pools aren't for this girl just yet. So we went back and spent the rest of the day in the room for the most part. I gave her a bath, which was surprisingly easy, once again. She is a VERY beefy little girl and has a prodigious stomach. While I was drying her off I got a picture to show Jenny when we get home. It's quite impressive, actually. I was surprised to find out that she is not only a willing participant in the lotion ritual, she actually likes to help out. She demanded that I keep filling her hand with lotion, then she would clap her two hands together, then wipe them somewhere on her body. It's actually much easier to lotion her than it is to lotion Quinton (infinitely easier than lotioning Ethan:)) One other thing that she makes very easy is getting her dressed. She knows how all of the things go and knows how to balance herself for each part. I suppose 2 year olds do this, but I was impressed nonetheless.
For supper I ordered the La Poeta pizza from “Kinshasa Pizza Company” (I made the name up, I'm not actually sure what the name is). The neighbor, Andrew, his daughter, Blanche, and us shared it. It's Andrew's last night in Kinshasa. I feel bad for him as he has pretty much been at the hotel the entire time since his ground transportation has been completely handled by his agency. I think I've convinced him to hire Papa John the next time he's in town. The pizza was actually quite good. We even managed to get them to deliver us a couple of beers - Heineken, but I can't be picky. Actually it tasted wonderful in the hot weather, tasting just a little bit of home (despite it being an imported beer, yeah, I get it)!
Tomorrow is another adventure with Papa John, which I'm looking forward to. After that I have to start thinking of packing for the two of us and prepping for Mireille's departure on Saturday morning. I'm sure she will probably be excited to see Elisa - that will make me happy, but also a little sad. It seems like we've made a lot of progress this week and there's no way to know how much longer it will be before we get to see her again…
As an aside, I'm writing this in my journal, DayOne, which tags the messages with the Lat/Long coordinates. It sort of makes me giddy to see 4.3… deg S. That's South of the Equator. And only 15.2… deg E. East of the Prime Meridian. That's almost the origin of the world from a graphing perspective!
It's a hotel day - all day at the hotel. It's a good and a bad thing. Getting out would be nice simply to stave off the boredom, but it also allows for a very concentrated, focused time for just hanging out with your child - something I'm not sure I ever did so much with the boys, or at the very least don't do it anymore…
Today started out much better than the last few, mainly due to the fact that I got a full 8 hours of sleep under my belt, which was sorely needed! Mireille even cooperated for the most part. She did fall out of bed around 11:00, which caused passed out me to catapult from the bed, vaulting both my iPad and iPhone onto the floor. I have a smallish dent on the corner of my iPad, which is the only thing I can see.
Once Mireille woke up, she looked over at me - I was up. She came over and crawled into bed with me for a couple of minutes, which was nice. Then we leisurely got up, brushed our teeth, and started breakfast. Today we had eggs, cooked in vegetable oil with cheese, a big difference from a couple of days ago. We also tried toast in the oven instead of frying it in a frying pan - way better. I'm getting better at this Kinshasa thing.
After breakfast, we just kind of hung out in the room. All day. We tried to swim once, but Mireille is terrified of the pool. She also goes into a shell pretty much any time we leave the room, the left thumb going directly into the mouth. Later in the day she did manage to start coming out just a little bit outside, but it's a slow process.
Highlights from the day - Mireille is quite the little blabber mouth once she gets going. All (or most) of her phrases are Lingala, though, so I have no idea what she's telling me. Occasionally she gets upset with me, but eventually just points or walks me to what she wants and eventually gets her way.
I started writing down the phrases that I hear from her and when she says them. Here is a sampling:
- bu tu nana te (pointing across the room)
- ma (when handing me something)
- do dah doh (singing)
- bee doh (more singing - kind of like the Minions)
- matoh (hot?)
After lunch I was doing the dishes, somewhat of a tradition now. I prepare the meal while getting Mireille to start eating something cold, then I eat quickly and help her to eat some of the more difficult parts, then I do the dishes while she destroys the room. Tonight the dishes are unwashed and will remain that way until the morning - I'm spent! Anyway, while doing the dishes, I couldn't find one of the spoons that I knew we had used. I looked around a bit but didn't see it anywhere. I really wanted to find it, especially since Sunny Day is out one of their plates after Mireille decided it no longer needed to exist as a whole plate any longer. Just dropped it right on the tile - well, really threw it. Ah, love 2 year olds! A few hours later, going at the pantry yet again, I hear a clink in one of the items she's playing with, a ceramic tea pot. Sure enough, the spoon was in there. She loves to hide stuff from me - she must know I am an easy target for that.
On the topic of spoons, she has an interesting way of eating. She actually has quite a bit of manual dexterity and fine motor control. When she eats, she likes to use a spoon. She easily scoops up rice and whatever into her spoon, but then things start to get complicated. She sits so low on the chair that it's difficult to get a good angle. So she slowly brings the spoon to the space between her mouth and the table, then takes her other hand, puts it on the back of the spoon, then turns it all sideways and propels it to her mouth. She occasionally gets one or two grains of rice to successfully end up in her mouth!
We had planned to video chat with the boys and Jenny before school, which is 2:30 Kinshasa time, so I tried to get her down for a nap right after lunch. It was very hot, so after I changed her, I just left her in her diaper and nothing else for her nap. Well, not nothing else, I suppose. She demanded that I put her shoes on first! The picture is pretty funny.
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| Shoes for a nap? Why not! |
After our successful FaceTime call with Jenny and the boys, we tried the swimming pool once again - fail. OK, pools aren't for this girl just yet. So we went back and spent the rest of the day in the room for the most part. I gave her a bath, which was surprisingly easy, once again. She is a VERY beefy little girl and has a prodigious stomach. While I was drying her off I got a picture to show Jenny when we get home. It's quite impressive, actually. I was surprised to find out that she is not only a willing participant in the lotion ritual, she actually likes to help out. She demanded that I keep filling her hand with lotion, then she would clap her two hands together, then wipe them somewhere on her body. It's actually much easier to lotion her than it is to lotion Quinton (infinitely easier than lotioning Ethan:)) One other thing that she makes very easy is getting her dressed. She knows how all of the things go and knows how to balance herself for each part. I suppose 2 year olds do this, but I was impressed nonetheless.
For supper I ordered the La Poeta pizza from “Kinshasa Pizza Company” (I made the name up, I'm not actually sure what the name is). The neighbor, Andrew, his daughter, Blanche, and us shared it. It's Andrew's last night in Kinshasa. I feel bad for him as he has pretty much been at the hotel the entire time since his ground transportation has been completely handled by his agency. I think I've convinced him to hire Papa John the next time he's in town. The pizza was actually quite good. We even managed to get them to deliver us a couple of beers - Heineken, but I can't be picky. Actually it tasted wonderful in the hot weather, tasting just a little bit of home (despite it being an imported beer, yeah, I get it)!
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| O Poema Pizza from Kinshasa Pizza Company |
As an aside, I'm writing this in my journal, DayOne, which tags the messages with the Lat/Long coordinates. It sort of makes me giddy to see 4.3… deg S. That's South of the Equator. And only 15.2… deg E. East of the Prime Meridian. That's almost the origin of the world from a graphing perspective!
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 5 - Kinshasa and Surrounding Areas
Kinshasa - Day 4
Bad habits I'm already allowing my daughter to develop, because, hey, she's under a lot of stress just hanging out with me. I hope I'm not setting myself up for bad things later:
Mireille got up around 7:30, thankfully, so I managed to get around 3 hours of sleep. As I sit here at 8:30 PM watching her sleep, I don't feel any fatigue. I'm worried I may start hallucinating soon, though. Hopefully tonight improves.
After brushing our teeth, we sat down for a quick breakfast. Today I tried to make toast in a frying pan. It didn't work too badly. So I had some peanut butter toast, Mireille had just buttered toast, and we both had cereal. Mireille also tried some applesauce, but didn't like it. Breakfast is really not her thing…
The plan for the day was to meet Papa John and go to see the Lola Ya Bonobo preserve. After the rough couple of nights of sleep, I considered calling it off and just doing something around the hotel. I didn't, and I am glad that I made that decision.
After breakfast, Mireille and I sat outside to chill while we waited for Papa John. It was a steamy one today, even by 8:00 when we got out there. Our neighbor had already left for the US Embassy to file his I600, the main purpose for his trip. After a few minutes, a group of people, two white people and two black, approached us. The white couple was probably in their early 60s and the woman was carrying a black child. Initially I thought it was Blanche, the next door neighbor's child. I figured that they were watching her as he had mentioned something to the effect of his agency providing nanny care while going on “adult trips.” Turns out it wasn't Blanche, it was some other 1 year old that the white couple were fostering. They are permanent residents and missionaries in Congo. Their work centers around adoption and they were at the hotel to meet up with some family. Maybe they were just looking for families that were there and talking with them, I'm not sure, but I had a nice conversation with them before Papa John showed up.
While Papa John entertained the missionaries, Mireille and I went into the room and got ready for the day. I briefly thought about shorts as Papa John was wearing them, but decided against it in the end and am happy I did. Both Papa John and Mireille got bit by mosquitoes on their ankles, but my pants prevented me from suffering the same fate.
The Lola Ya Bonobo Center is several miles south of the city. The drive there was crazy as expected. On the way through town, Papa John stopped at a local supermarket to get a water and some snacks. He bought us some fried meat and potato things that he called subrimas (I think I'm getting that wrong) which originated in India - these were the local version, and they were delicious. He bought two each for him and myself and one for Mireille. In the end, Mireille ate two and I ate one, though I could have eaten a lot more of them - they were delicious!
It took at least an hour to get to the Bonobos. At one point we transitioned from the city to the country and it was noticeable. The road, previously paved, turned to dirt, and there were farms lining both sides of it. The people there all seemed to be working very hard, digging sand from the creek or planting vegetables. Once on this road it still took another 20 minutes or so, despite the fact that we probably only traveled 5 miles on it. I was nervous at several points, but never as much as when we had to go high up on the left side of the road because the right side was completely washed out. I swear his car only had half a wheel on each side on the road!
Against all odds, we arrived at the Bonobo sanctuary unharmed. We parked, the only car in the “lot” and walked toward the entrance when Papa John told some folks doing some work in the area something in French. When I asked him, he told me that he told them to tell any young punks that tried to wash his car while he was in there to not even bother, otherwise they were going to do it for free. Amusingly, when we left, somebody had washed his car and was standing there waiting for him to pay him. He just got in the car and started to drive away, slowing briefly to roll down his window and shout at the kid. He said he is a “teacher.” How is he supposed to keep his car clean on this road!??!
The bonobo exhibit was very cool, though nothing near as cool as the trip to the exhibit. Seeing the country and large sections of the city is very interesting and eye opening.
We stayed at the Bonobos for about an hour. I purchased tickets for Papa John and myself (Mireille was free) for $15 (total). That gave us access to a French speaking guide, Marseille, a skinny, young Congolese man who clearly loved what he was doing. The tour was pretty short. We walked down a path, stopping a few times to observe some bonobos in their areas. They had 4 different areas with bonobos - two family areas and two areas for younger bonobos. All of them slept indoors on hammocks. There was a lot of good information about how they only live in DRC because they can't swim and they are surrounded by water where they live. The sanctuary gets all of their bonobos as orphans as people in that part of the DRC shoot adult bonobos to eat, which I found pretty disgusting. All told there are 71 bonobos at the sanctuary. One interesting tidbit, the bonobos entire hierarchy is based on sex, which they like a lot. They use it for pleasure or for showing dominance. And they don't discriminate against who they have sex with, which Papa John found pretty amusing!
While we were walking on the trail, Papa John started chatting up Marseilles, at one point he exchanged phone information with him. One thing I've noticed a lot of is cell phone use in this country. Papa John says that many Congolese actually have 2 cell phones for when one of their networks is not working. It is also the reason many businesses list two phone numbers in advertisements. Anyway, it was interesting to see him at work and is likely one of the reasons he is an excellent guide.
On the way to the youth bonobo areas we saw three pallets of vegetables set out which we were told was the bonobos lunch. Papa John didn't know the word for cucumber, so I told him. While we were walking away, I noticed him practicing the word several times, which also struck me as how he is able to be so conversant in so many languages. Very impressive!
We spent about another 20 minutes observing the youth bonobos in two separate groups. Each area had one or more caregivers to socialize with them since none of them had mothers. I found it very interesting that they had women there who were supposed to socialize with these animals like a daycare center. None of the women appeared very engaged - I'm not sure how long they sit in the pen with them, but it seemed like something they just do. The bonobos would occasionally interact with them, but the older ones mainly ignored their caregiver, who carried a bamboo switch to dissuade any of them that got any funny ideas.
After the bonobos, we went back out on the country “road” but stopped short and headed south to the Mal Valle Lake (may not be correct). This is a lake that is owned apparently by the Catholic church. It was quite beautiful down there and very peaceful. You couldn't even hear a car or anything - the only thing we could hear were the water, birds, and the guys burning extra bamboo nearby. We got a little lunch with the flies and Papa John and I had a beer - I finally got to have a Tembo and it lived up to the hype. Here, Papa John once again showed his worth as he literally knew everybody at the lake. I'm not even sure it was open as the gate was locked when we got there, but a honk and a wave from him and they opened it up and let us in!
On the way back I had Papa John take me to ShopRite so I could get some more bananas and some oil to hopefully improve my cooking. I'd been trying to cook with margarine, which is all they have here, and it's terrible. I spent about $2 to get half a liter of vegetable oil and it makes a big difference! While I was there, I also stopped at the pharmacy to get something to help me sleep a little better. While explaining that I would like Tylenol (they don't have it), one of the pharmacy techs took one look at Mireille and gave me a couple of free samples for some medicated lotion for her extremely dry skin. That was a little embarrassing.
Mireille took a little nap in the car on the ride back, which sort of sucked because I couldn't use the time for showering. She didn't get a lot of sleep, though, so she was a little cranky. One thing I've noticed is that she poops a little after noon most days (that I've known her, anyway). When she has to, she gets very cranky, then wants to be held for no apparent reason. Once she's done, she turns into one of the sweetest little girls you could imagine.
A little later in the afternoon, back at the hotel now, I was sitting outside when the neighbor came out and started talking. He asked if I wanted to share a beer with him. Never one to back down from a beer, I happily accepted and went in to get my last beer from the fridge. I feel bad for Andrew - he's had a VERY rough week. While his daughter, Blanche, is very interactive and sweet at times, many other times she is very difficult to deal with. She cried almost the entire day that day, apparently, and wouldn't let him do anything to try to comfort her. She just wanted to sit on the bed and cry. I hope it gets better for him.
With oil now in hand, I fried up a passable steak and rice supper, which is apparently Mireille's favorite meal. She sort of picks at her breakfast and lunch most days, but the last two days she's completely shoveled down her supper.
Mireille is now full 2 year old, blabbering Lingala phrases rapidly and smiling and dancing. Oh, and she loves goldfish crackers, but only to dump them on the floor then to put (most of) them back in the bag, then repeat. That's really her favorite game, from what I can tell. This pretty much is what happened until bed time around 8:00. It wasn't too difficult to put her to sleep - it was a bit difficult to actually put her in bed and have her stay there, however. All in all I think it took like 20 minutes to get her to sleep and stay in the bed, which isn't so big a deal - what else do I have to do? Oh, I think King Tuna is on Nat Geo again - better get right on that! I wonder if tuna.com pulls in the biggest haul yet again.
Amusing Papa John stories from the day:
As I'm finding is usual, I had a very interesting and insightful day with Papa John. Some of these stories may be elsewhere in my post, but I am so enthralled with this guy that I think it deserves to be written twice.
On our way to the Bonobo Reserve, Papa John told me about his girlfriend. She was texting and calling him but he wasn't calling. He said he is done with her, she only wants his money! He says, “Congolese women, all they want is your money. Are American women like that?” I told him there are some, of course, and we call them “Gold Diggers.” I figure I did my part to educate this man for the next tourists!
We have yet to go somewhere where Papa John didn't know either everybody there, or at least one person. At the Bonobo Reserve, we had a tour guide that he didn't know. John spent most of his walking time getting to know the guy and exchanging phone numbers. He's definitely a student of his craft.
The other stories I have for the day are probably not suitable for the written word, but as always, buy me a beer sometime and I'll happily share!
Bad habits I'm already allowing my daughter to develop, because, hey, she's under a lot of stress just hanging out with me. I hope I'm not setting myself up for bad things later:
- Drinking soda - this is a big no-no for the sub-40ers in our household, but Mireille has already had soda every day I've been with her. She likes it.
- Not brushing her teeth - it's difficult enough to get her to open her mouth for me, much less brush. She has finally started using the toothbrush herself, but she does a terrible job at brushing…
- Holding her until she sleeps - I'm pretty sure I broke my boys of this habit prior to them being 30 months old. I actually think it could be developmental progress in that she's regressing to a more infant state. My guess is that she didn't get a lot of personal attention as an infant, and perhaps craves it now. I'm happy to provide it, though it is frustrating at times to try to set her down and sneak away before she wakes up. Raising a two year old is hard!
Mireille got up around 7:30, thankfully, so I managed to get around 3 hours of sleep. As I sit here at 8:30 PM watching her sleep, I don't feel any fatigue. I'm worried I may start hallucinating soon, though. Hopefully tonight improves.
After brushing our teeth, we sat down for a quick breakfast. Today I tried to make toast in a frying pan. It didn't work too badly. So I had some peanut butter toast, Mireille had just buttered toast, and we both had cereal. Mireille also tried some applesauce, but didn't like it. Breakfast is really not her thing…
The plan for the day was to meet Papa John and go to see the Lola Ya Bonobo preserve. After the rough couple of nights of sleep, I considered calling it off and just doing something around the hotel. I didn't, and I am glad that I made that decision.
After breakfast, Mireille and I sat outside to chill while we waited for Papa John. It was a steamy one today, even by 8:00 when we got out there. Our neighbor had already left for the US Embassy to file his I600, the main purpose for his trip. After a few minutes, a group of people, two white people and two black, approached us. The white couple was probably in their early 60s and the woman was carrying a black child. Initially I thought it was Blanche, the next door neighbor's child. I figured that they were watching her as he had mentioned something to the effect of his agency providing nanny care while going on “adult trips.” Turns out it wasn't Blanche, it was some other 1 year old that the white couple were fostering. They are permanent residents and missionaries in Congo. Their work centers around adoption and they were at the hotel to meet up with some family. Maybe they were just looking for families that were there and talking with them, I'm not sure, but I had a nice conversation with them before Papa John showed up.
While Papa John entertained the missionaries, Mireille and I went into the room and got ready for the day. I briefly thought about shorts as Papa John was wearing them, but decided against it in the end and am happy I did. Both Papa John and Mireille got bit by mosquitoes on their ankles, but my pants prevented me from suffering the same fate.
The Lola Ya Bonobo Center is several miles south of the city. The drive there was crazy as expected. On the way through town, Papa John stopped at a local supermarket to get a water and some snacks. He bought us some fried meat and potato things that he called subrimas (I think I'm getting that wrong) which originated in India - these were the local version, and they were delicious. He bought two each for him and myself and one for Mireille. In the end, Mireille ate two and I ate one, though I could have eaten a lot more of them - they were delicious!
It took at least an hour to get to the Bonobos. At one point we transitioned from the city to the country and it was noticeable. The road, previously paved, turned to dirt, and there were farms lining both sides of it. The people there all seemed to be working very hard, digging sand from the creek or planting vegetables. Once on this road it still took another 20 minutes or so, despite the fact that we probably only traveled 5 miles on it. I was nervous at several points, but never as much as when we had to go high up on the left side of the road because the right side was completely washed out. I swear his car only had half a wheel on each side on the road!
Against all odds, we arrived at the Bonobo sanctuary unharmed. We parked, the only car in the “lot” and walked toward the entrance when Papa John told some folks doing some work in the area something in French. When I asked him, he told me that he told them to tell any young punks that tried to wash his car while he was in there to not even bother, otherwise they were going to do it for free. Amusingly, when we left, somebody had washed his car and was standing there waiting for him to pay him. He just got in the car and started to drive away, slowing briefly to roll down his window and shout at the kid. He said he is a “teacher.” How is he supposed to keep his car clean on this road!??!
The bonobo exhibit was very cool, though nothing near as cool as the trip to the exhibit. Seeing the country and large sections of the city is very interesting and eye opening.
We stayed at the Bonobos for about an hour. I purchased tickets for Papa John and myself (Mireille was free) for $15 (total). That gave us access to a French speaking guide, Marseille, a skinny, young Congolese man who clearly loved what he was doing. The tour was pretty short. We walked down a path, stopping a few times to observe some bonobos in their areas. They had 4 different areas with bonobos - two family areas and two areas for younger bonobos. All of them slept indoors on hammocks. There was a lot of good information about how they only live in DRC because they can't swim and they are surrounded by water where they live. The sanctuary gets all of their bonobos as orphans as people in that part of the DRC shoot adult bonobos to eat, which I found pretty disgusting. All told there are 71 bonobos at the sanctuary. One interesting tidbit, the bonobos entire hierarchy is based on sex, which they like a lot. They use it for pleasure or for showing dominance. And they don't discriminate against who they have sex with, which Papa John found pretty amusing!
While we were walking on the trail, Papa John started chatting up Marseilles, at one point he exchanged phone information with him. One thing I've noticed a lot of is cell phone use in this country. Papa John says that many Congolese actually have 2 cell phones for when one of their networks is not working. It is also the reason many businesses list two phone numbers in advertisements. Anyway, it was interesting to see him at work and is likely one of the reasons he is an excellent guide.
On the way to the youth bonobo areas we saw three pallets of vegetables set out which we were told was the bonobos lunch. Papa John didn't know the word for cucumber, so I told him. While we were walking away, I noticed him practicing the word several times, which also struck me as how he is able to be so conversant in so many languages. Very impressive!
After the bonobos, we went back out on the country “road” but stopped short and headed south to the Mal Valle Lake (may not be correct). This is a lake that is owned apparently by the Catholic church. It was quite beautiful down there and very peaceful. You couldn't even hear a car or anything - the only thing we could hear were the water, birds, and the guys burning extra bamboo nearby. We got a little lunch with the flies and Papa John and I had a beer - I finally got to have a Tembo and it lived up to the hype. Here, Papa John once again showed his worth as he literally knew everybody at the lake. I'm not even sure it was open as the gate was locked when we got there, but a honk and a wave from him and they opened it up and let us in!
Mireille took a little nap in the car on the ride back, which sort of sucked because I couldn't use the time for showering. She didn't get a lot of sleep, though, so she was a little cranky. One thing I've noticed is that she poops a little after noon most days (that I've known her, anyway). When she has to, she gets very cranky, then wants to be held for no apparent reason. Once she's done, she turns into one of the sweetest little girls you could imagine.
A little later in the afternoon, back at the hotel now, I was sitting outside when the neighbor came out and started talking. He asked if I wanted to share a beer with him. Never one to back down from a beer, I happily accepted and went in to get my last beer from the fridge. I feel bad for Andrew - he's had a VERY rough week. While his daughter, Blanche, is very interactive and sweet at times, many other times she is very difficult to deal with. She cried almost the entire day that day, apparently, and wouldn't let him do anything to try to comfort her. She just wanted to sit on the bed and cry. I hope it gets better for him.
With oil now in hand, I fried up a passable steak and rice supper, which is apparently Mireille's favorite meal. She sort of picks at her breakfast and lunch most days, but the last two days she's completely shoveled down her supper.
Mireille is now full 2 year old, blabbering Lingala phrases rapidly and smiling and dancing. Oh, and she loves goldfish crackers, but only to dump them on the floor then to put (most of) them back in the bag, then repeat. That's really her favorite game, from what I can tell. This pretty much is what happened until bed time around 8:00. It wasn't too difficult to put her to sleep - it was a bit difficult to actually put her in bed and have her stay there, however. All in all I think it took like 20 minutes to get her to sleep and stay in the bed, which isn't so big a deal - what else do I have to do? Oh, I think King Tuna is on Nat Geo again - better get right on that! I wonder if tuna.com pulls in the biggest haul yet again.
Amusing Papa John stories from the day:
As I'm finding is usual, I had a very interesting and insightful day with Papa John. Some of these stories may be elsewhere in my post, but I am so enthralled with this guy that I think it deserves to be written twice.
On our way to the Bonobo Reserve, Papa John told me about his girlfriend. She was texting and calling him but he wasn't calling. He said he is done with her, she only wants his money! He says, “Congolese women, all they want is your money. Are American women like that?” I told him there are some, of course, and we call them “Gold Diggers.” I figure I did my part to educate this man for the next tourists!
We have yet to go somewhere where Papa John didn't know either everybody there, or at least one person. At the Bonobo Reserve, we had a tour guide that he didn't know. John spent most of his walking time getting to know the guy and exchanging phone numbers. He's definitely a student of his craft.
The other stories I have for the day are probably not suitable for the written word, but as always, buy me a beer sometime and I'll happily share!
2015-02-22
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 4 - Kinshasa
Kinshasa - Day 3
Today, I met my daughter! Yes, I met her yesterday, but that version of Mireille was guarded, afraid, and sullen. She's asleep now - hopefully for the night. Today we made very good progress, and I am beyond excited!
The morning started out not so well. I slept terribly last night, by that I mean I didn't really sleep at all. I fell asleep around 10:00, but Mireille fell out of bed at 10:45, and I didn't sleep after that. I was worried about her, too many things going through my head… Every time she moved a little bit, I was up and on edge. So when 5:30 rolled around, I wasn't very excited to hear her up, though I wasn't surprised since she had been asleep since 6:00 the evening before!
When she awoke, she cried a little, then when I got out of bed to comfort her, she just put her thumb in her mouth and laid back down to sleep. I don't know if she actually slept, but I didn't care - I was TIRED! So I slept, a little. By 6:30, she was up, up. I got up and forced myself to make some breakfast, which she just picked at. Dry cereal and a scrambled egg. Not too interesting to her, I suppose.
After breakfast we played a little bit. I managed to get her to slap me five, which I thought was progress. Eventually we went outside and visited with the neighbor, Andrew, who is in town visiting his daughter, Blanche, and to file his I600 in country. I will probably write more about his situation in a previous post once I catch up, but it is nice having him around, being an English speaker and in a very similar situation to me. Blanche was up a few times during the night and we could hear her. While we were playing in the room, we heard her again, but this time she sounded happy and was talking! When we went outside, she was being very playful with Andrew, throwing a ball back and forth, teasing him, talking, dancing… None of which Mireille had shown any ability to do. That's when the dark feelings started to come. We had never really seen Mireille smile, and that hadn't changed since I got to Congo! Was she autistic? Did she have long standing emotional scarring that would never go away? What are we in for?!!?
We decided to try swimming, which didn't go very well. It scared her, but we gave it a shot - maybe we'll try again on Thursday. A brief aside about the weather here, it's been lovely. I don't know the temperature, but it's been very tolerable, and the mosquitoes haven't been too bad yet at all. We'll see.
After 10 minutes in the pool, we went back to the room and got Mireille a much needed bath, which she did very well during. I don't think Elisa is using any lotion on her, because she's got some very dried skin which seemed to soak up the lotion I applied. I'll have to make sure I send that with her on Saturday.
After the bath, she was tired! I don't exactly remember how it transpired, but by 11:00, Mireille was asleep. I wanted badly to call Jenny to tell her that we could maybe get Mireille out of the country for special needs due to psychological trauma or something. It was very difficult seeing the neighbor's daughter, a full year younger, interacting and playing just like you would expect a kid to behave. But, since it was only 4:00 AM where she was, I opted instead to read and ultimately took a nap myself.
When I awoke, it was 2:00, and Mireille was still asleep. After a couple of minutes, she woke up and we had some lunch. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for us, a banana and sweet potatoes for her, and some grapes for me. She didn't think much of the sandwich, content to just play with it and make a big mess. She absolutely devoured the banana, though, and eventually ate her way through the sweet potatoes. It was the first measurable amount of food she had eaten since arriving at Sunny Day!
After lunch we found out that Mireille loves books! We read them over and over again, then eventually she started “reading” them herself by paging through them.
At one point she was reading the Cheerio's book for the 12th time, I decided to give her some Cheerio-like snacks to put in the book. Then I had an inspired idea, I'll bet she would like fruit snacks. And she did! I think that was the turning point, honestly.
It wasn't long after that when I started fixing supper, rice and chicken. It was a long-ish process to make, so I started early. While I was cooking, Mireille came over to the cooking area near me and started dancing and singing! I couldn't believe it! I immediately grabbed my phone, but she had stopped already. It didn't matter, I saw it, so I immediately texted Jenny, then I cried…
Thinking I had lost the moment, I put my phone away, but she had gotten into a mood and was very happy. She started playing with me, smiling at me, flirting with me, teasing me with her food and kicking my tickling fingers with her feet. It's like a new kid was there!
I spent the next hour or more with Mireille, a 2 year old who loves to laugh, spin, dance, sing, smile, play with power outlets, stack things from the pantry, empty the garbage can… Oh, I forgot to mention, she annihilated her supper, eating ALL of the rice and ALL of the chicken, much of it with a spoon. She then demanded a cookie from me, which I happily gave to her.
Today was a day of extreme emotions for me. I went from wondering what we were going to do with this poor girl that didn't seem to have any emotion to getting smiles and playing with the most beautiful little girl I've ever met.
I suppose you take the good with the bad - to go to bed tonight, she demanded that I hold her until she was good and asleep, which I happily did!
Tomorrow we see Papa John again and may go to see the Bonobos. Hard to tell what will happen, but in a way it doesn't matter - I got everything I wanted when I came here today. I saw my daughter smile - she looked happy, and that makes everything else much more bearable.
Today, I met my daughter! Yes, I met her yesterday, but that version of Mireille was guarded, afraid, and sullen. She's asleep now - hopefully for the night. Today we made very good progress, and I am beyond excited!
The morning started out not so well. I slept terribly last night, by that I mean I didn't really sleep at all. I fell asleep around 10:00, but Mireille fell out of bed at 10:45, and I didn't sleep after that. I was worried about her, too many things going through my head… Every time she moved a little bit, I was up and on edge. So when 5:30 rolled around, I wasn't very excited to hear her up, though I wasn't surprised since she had been asleep since 6:00 the evening before!
When she awoke, she cried a little, then when I got out of bed to comfort her, she just put her thumb in her mouth and laid back down to sleep. I don't know if she actually slept, but I didn't care - I was TIRED! So I slept, a little. By 6:30, she was up, up. I got up and forced myself to make some breakfast, which she just picked at. Dry cereal and a scrambled egg. Not too interesting to her, I suppose.
After breakfast we played a little bit. I managed to get her to slap me five, which I thought was progress. Eventually we went outside and visited with the neighbor, Andrew, who is in town visiting his daughter, Blanche, and to file his I600 in country. I will probably write more about his situation in a previous post once I catch up, but it is nice having him around, being an English speaker and in a very similar situation to me. Blanche was up a few times during the night and we could hear her. While we were playing in the room, we heard her again, but this time she sounded happy and was talking! When we went outside, she was being very playful with Andrew, throwing a ball back and forth, teasing him, talking, dancing… None of which Mireille had shown any ability to do. That's when the dark feelings started to come. We had never really seen Mireille smile, and that hadn't changed since I got to Congo! Was she autistic? Did she have long standing emotional scarring that would never go away? What are we in for?!!?
We decided to try swimming, which didn't go very well. It scared her, but we gave it a shot - maybe we'll try again on Thursday. A brief aside about the weather here, it's been lovely. I don't know the temperature, but it's been very tolerable, and the mosquitoes haven't been too bad yet at all. We'll see.
After 10 minutes in the pool, we went back to the room and got Mireille a much needed bath, which she did very well during. I don't think Elisa is using any lotion on her, because she's got some very dried skin which seemed to soak up the lotion I applied. I'll have to make sure I send that with her on Saturday.
After the bath, she was tired! I don't exactly remember how it transpired, but by 11:00, Mireille was asleep. I wanted badly to call Jenny to tell her that we could maybe get Mireille out of the country for special needs due to psychological trauma or something. It was very difficult seeing the neighbor's daughter, a full year younger, interacting and playing just like you would expect a kid to behave. But, since it was only 4:00 AM where she was, I opted instead to read and ultimately took a nap myself.
When I awoke, it was 2:00, and Mireille was still asleep. After a couple of minutes, she woke up and we had some lunch. I made grilled cheese sandwiches for us, a banana and sweet potatoes for her, and some grapes for me. She didn't think much of the sandwich, content to just play with it and make a big mess. She absolutely devoured the banana, though, and eventually ate her way through the sweet potatoes. It was the first measurable amount of food she had eaten since arriving at Sunny Day!
After lunch we found out that Mireille loves books! We read them over and over again, then eventually she started “reading” them herself by paging through them.
At one point she was reading the Cheerio's book for the 12th time, I decided to give her some Cheerio-like snacks to put in the book. Then I had an inspired idea, I'll bet she would like fruit snacks. And she did! I think that was the turning point, honestly.
It wasn't long after that when I started fixing supper, rice and chicken. It was a long-ish process to make, so I started early. While I was cooking, Mireille came over to the cooking area near me and started dancing and singing! I couldn't believe it! I immediately grabbed my phone, but she had stopped already. It didn't matter, I saw it, so I immediately texted Jenny, then I cried…
Thinking I had lost the moment, I put my phone away, but she had gotten into a mood and was very happy. She started playing with me, smiling at me, flirting with me, teasing me with her food and kicking my tickling fingers with her feet. It's like a new kid was there!
I spent the next hour or more with Mireille, a 2 year old who loves to laugh, spin, dance, sing, smile, play with power outlets, stack things from the pantry, empty the garbage can… Oh, I forgot to mention, she annihilated her supper, eating ALL of the rice and ALL of the chicken, much of it with a spoon. She then demanded a cookie from me, which I happily gave to her.
Today was a day of extreme emotions for me. I went from wondering what we were going to do with this poor girl that didn't seem to have any emotion to getting smiles and playing with the most beautiful little girl I've ever met.
I suppose you take the good with the bad - to go to bed tonight, she demanded that I hold her until she was good and asleep, which I happily did!
Tomorrow we see Papa John again and may go to see the Bonobos. Hard to tell what will happen, but in a way it doesn't matter - I got everything I wanted when I came here today. I saw my daughter smile - she looked happy, and that makes everything else much more bearable.
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 3 - Kinshasa
Kinshasa - Day 2
After a rough night night, I managed to get up and get myself together by 9:00, when Papa John was schedule to show up so we could go grocery shopping. By the time he showed up, though, it was 10:30. Traffic… Common problem in Kinshasa! By then, we took off to ShopRite, a local, modern supermarket, where I purchased my groceries for the week. It was a little nerve wracking buying groceries for the week, let me tell you. Normally Jenny takes care of that kind of thing! I was very surprised at the selection, though. I managed to buy some fruit (bananas and grapes), eggs, butter, milk (which they store warm - weird), bread, sardines (Papa John insisted), cookies, and rice. Apparently a lot of the Congolese diet consists of rice dishes. Either that or “Foo-foo,” something I just learned of today from my new friend Andrew!
After I had showered and was ready to start my day, I met my next door neighbor, Andrew, who got in last night after I had already fallen asleep. His trip sounded WAY worse than mine. He's from Denver. From there he flew through Chicago, then London, then Istanbul, and finally Kinshasa! Something like 30 hours! He did have some good stories to tell from his flight, however, where he actually engaged some Congolese in conversation, and was able to lay out on a complete row of seats, something I didn't have the luxury of as all of my flights were FULL! Andrew and his wife already have two boys but always wanted to adopt. Andrew and his wife are 3 years into the process, but have much further to go, as he is in country to file his I600 paperwork, which I applaud them for. I'm sure I'll hear more from Andrew as the week goes on as he and I already have a lot in common - we're both in Congo meeting our adoptive daughters for the first time, by ourselves without our wives!
After returning, Papa John sat on the patio while I put the groceries away, anxiously awaiting the delivery of Mireille. They were supposed to show up at 11:00 - I think they finally did around 12:15. Natasha, the owner of the foster homes, and Elisa, her foster mother, delivered Mireille. She is SO BIG! I can't believe how heavy she is. Papa John was very impressed at how big she was! She sat on Natasha's lap for awhile. I tried to interact with her, tried to tickle her and talk with her, but she wouldn't have it - very serious. At one point she went to Elisa and cuddled up with her for quite awhile. At some point later, Papa John took control and told Elisa to give her to me - Mireille screamed! She screamed very loudly. I stayed calm, walked her around, tried to distract her. I took her around the hotel lot - showed her the falcon that they have for a pet (pretty cool, I think), showed her the swimming pool, just walked her around. After about 5 minutes of crying, she settled down and was fine, though very serious.
After Elisa and Natasha left (while I was showing Mireille around), we went into the hotel room and just hung out. Papa John and I went to try to buy her some formula and a bottle, which is what Natasha said she uses. I'm pretty sure something got lost in translation there, because she didn't want to have anything to do with that bottle. We also weren't able to find the formula that Elisa uses, so we are going to use what she has first then see if she will drink regular milk (which, did I mention they store warm here?).
Oh, driving in Congo is very interesting indeed! Actually I wasn't as appalled as I think Papa John thought I would be as I've experienced that style of driving in Mexico and Costa Rica, but it is still interesting to say the least. Lots of horn using! But, since they are such a law abiding country, kids absolutely cannot ride in the front seat! I don't know - I found it amusing that they bothered to ensure that kids couldn't ride in the front seat, but they had very few other protections in the vehicular arena.
I was finally able to get Mireille to eat a banana and a few cereal things that Jenny sent. She wouldn't touch the bottle, but I think a lot of that has to do with her still being very uncomfortable. She also managed to shit herself, so I changed my first girl-baby diaper - Achievement Unlocked!
At around 3:00, Papa John suggested we go see the river and he would buy me a beer. I was able to buy beer at the grocery store, but they only had Primus, which is brewed in Kinshasa. Papa John really wanted me to try Tembo, which is brewed in his province of Katanga, one of the richest areas of the country. In fact, that is the area where the Uranium was obtained to build the bomb dropped on Japan in WWII.
Anyway, we traveled to the River. The drive was as exciting as always. This time, though, we took this one road that was definitely “local,” It was a mud road and had not been graded, maybe ever. Papa John mentioned that he really needed a 4x4 - he was right! This road was terrible!
We stopped at a restaurant that had a pool and a bar. It was very nice. Papa John negotiated us a table which they brought out from somewhere and setup. He then ordered us some beers and a Fanta for Mireille, which she loved (don't tell Jenny). It was a very nice afternoon just hanging out on the river, watching the laborers dig up stone for concrete, observing the local animals (lizards and a python, which was caged). Mireille snacked on plantains and a little meat that PJ ordered for us - otherwise she just gulped down the Fanta that he ordered for her. It was a lovely afternoon - lots of interesting conversation.
On the way back from the restaurant, we traveled through the diplomat area, a very swanky area with guarded yards and nice streets. Many ambassadors live in that area. I even saw a number of people jogging for exercise.
Uh oh - as I type, Mireille is sleeping in the bed next to me. She is OUT! Rough day, and way off of her schedule. When getting instruction from Elisa I was told that she is not complicated at all, and that's exactly what I'm finding. She is very content, doesn't fuss much, doesn't move around much. I REALLY wish I could get her to smile, though - she's so serious… Anyway, the reason I say uh-oh is because my neighbor's daughter, Blanche, is up. She was sleeping when we got back tonight as well and he said she is having a very hard time adjusting to him. I'm not sure whether I am pleased that Mireille is quick to adjust or not. It could be that she does not attach well to people, or it could just mean that she accepts change readily. I don't know - adoption is a worrisome exercise, for sure!
That's more or less it for today, other than my ruminations on Papa John, which are included in the director's cut, some of which are included below, but others that you may have to ask me about after buying me a beer. I'm hopeful Mireille will sleep well for the night - I should probably go to sleep in case she wakes up in the middle of the night. I'm tired enough, anyway. I probably won't, though, and will go into bonus time writing out the last couple of days as well as some of my interesting conversations with Papa John.
Interesting Papa John Stories of the day
Papa John is one very interesting man. I haven't yet written of my encounter last night with him, so some of this might seem repetitive as I go back and write of my experiences after the fact. He is a very amazing individual from what I can tell. He speaks English very well, though he is not happy with how poorly he perceives his English to be. Besides English which is his “worst” language, he speaks 14 others! His primary languages are French and Swahili. He knows Lingala OK, but doesn't find it to be a very important language. Swahili is spoken in like 5 African nations, while Lingala is only spoken in part of two (Kinshasa and Brazzaville across the river).
Papa John is 65 years old, but doesn't look it. He has 5 children. A 31 year old daughter who just got married last weekend (he showed me the pictures), and 4 boys, the youngest of which is 19. All four of his boys live with him and don't yet have jobs.
Papa John comes from the Katanga province and was born to a Zambian father and Congolese mother. He actually fought in the Katanga/Congo civil war in the 60s as a very young boy. He moved to Kinshasa in 1971 when he came here to watch the Rumble in the Jungle. He even drove me past the hotel where the fighters stayed. Definitely an event in his life.
Papa John makes his living on adoption. He pulls down $100 a day as a driver/guide/bodyguard (which I've found to be well worth the money). When he's not doing that, which is often lately, he arranges for trips to orphanages where he delivers food and helps families to keep in touch with their adoptive children.
I think the funniest story about Papa John for the evening was when we were talking to Andrew, my neighbor. Andrew has obviously done more homework than I have for this adoption. He was talking about asking the foster mom to teach him how to make foo foo, a dish that apparently a lot of Congolese eat. I asked Papa John about it when Andrew was around and he said something to the effect of, “it is smelling like shit.” He prefers rice! I later found out from him that foo foo is a starch that is utilized like rice, but it's made of corn meal and some other plant (casava?). They are mixed then boiled. He thinks people should make concrete out of it instead, but then only if they wanted their concrete to smell like shit.
After a rough night night, I managed to get up and get myself together by 9:00, when Papa John was schedule to show up so we could go grocery shopping. By the time he showed up, though, it was 10:30. Traffic… Common problem in Kinshasa! By then, we took off to ShopRite, a local, modern supermarket, where I purchased my groceries for the week. It was a little nerve wracking buying groceries for the week, let me tell you. Normally Jenny takes care of that kind of thing! I was very surprised at the selection, though. I managed to buy some fruit (bananas and grapes), eggs, butter, milk (which they store warm - weird), bread, sardines (Papa John insisted), cookies, and rice. Apparently a lot of the Congolese diet consists of rice dishes. Either that or “Foo-foo,” something I just learned of today from my new friend Andrew!
After I had showered and was ready to start my day, I met my next door neighbor, Andrew, who got in last night after I had already fallen asleep. His trip sounded WAY worse than mine. He's from Denver. From there he flew through Chicago, then London, then Istanbul, and finally Kinshasa! Something like 30 hours! He did have some good stories to tell from his flight, however, where he actually engaged some Congolese in conversation, and was able to lay out on a complete row of seats, something I didn't have the luxury of as all of my flights were FULL! Andrew and his wife already have two boys but always wanted to adopt. Andrew and his wife are 3 years into the process, but have much further to go, as he is in country to file his I600 paperwork, which I applaud them for. I'm sure I'll hear more from Andrew as the week goes on as he and I already have a lot in common - we're both in Congo meeting our adoptive daughters for the first time, by ourselves without our wives!
After returning, Papa John sat on the patio while I put the groceries away, anxiously awaiting the delivery of Mireille. They were supposed to show up at 11:00 - I think they finally did around 12:15. Natasha, the owner of the foster homes, and Elisa, her foster mother, delivered Mireille. She is SO BIG! I can't believe how heavy she is. Papa John was very impressed at how big she was! She sat on Natasha's lap for awhile. I tried to interact with her, tried to tickle her and talk with her, but she wouldn't have it - very serious. At one point she went to Elisa and cuddled up with her for quite awhile. At some point later, Papa John took control and told Elisa to give her to me - Mireille screamed! She screamed very loudly. I stayed calm, walked her around, tried to distract her. I took her around the hotel lot - showed her the falcon that they have for a pet (pretty cool, I think), showed her the swimming pool, just walked her around. After about 5 minutes of crying, she settled down and was fine, though very serious.
Oh, driving in Congo is very interesting indeed! Actually I wasn't as appalled as I think Papa John thought I would be as I've experienced that style of driving in Mexico and Costa Rica, but it is still interesting to say the least. Lots of horn using! But, since they are such a law abiding country, kids absolutely cannot ride in the front seat! I don't know - I found it amusing that they bothered to ensure that kids couldn't ride in the front seat, but they had very few other protections in the vehicular arena.
I was finally able to get Mireille to eat a banana and a few cereal things that Jenny sent. She wouldn't touch the bottle, but I think a lot of that has to do with her still being very uncomfortable. She also managed to shit herself, so I changed my first girl-baby diaper - Achievement Unlocked!
At around 3:00, Papa John suggested we go see the river and he would buy me a beer. I was able to buy beer at the grocery store, but they only had Primus, which is brewed in Kinshasa. Papa John really wanted me to try Tembo, which is brewed in his province of Katanga, one of the richest areas of the country. In fact, that is the area where the Uranium was obtained to build the bomb dropped on Japan in WWII.
Anyway, we traveled to the River. The drive was as exciting as always. This time, though, we took this one road that was definitely “local,” It was a mud road and had not been graded, maybe ever. Papa John mentioned that he really needed a 4x4 - he was right! This road was terrible!
We stopped at a restaurant that had a pool and a bar. It was very nice. Papa John negotiated us a table which they brought out from somewhere and setup. He then ordered us some beers and a Fanta for Mireille, which she loved (don't tell Jenny). It was a very nice afternoon just hanging out on the river, watching the laborers dig up stone for concrete, observing the local animals (lizards and a python, which was caged). Mireille snacked on plantains and a little meat that PJ ordered for us - otherwise she just gulped down the Fanta that he ordered for her. It was a lovely afternoon - lots of interesting conversation.
On the way back from the restaurant, we traveled through the diplomat area, a very swanky area with guarded yards and nice streets. Many ambassadors live in that area. I even saw a number of people jogging for exercise.
Uh oh - as I type, Mireille is sleeping in the bed next to me. She is OUT! Rough day, and way off of her schedule. When getting instruction from Elisa I was told that she is not complicated at all, and that's exactly what I'm finding. She is very content, doesn't fuss much, doesn't move around much. I REALLY wish I could get her to smile, though - she's so serious… Anyway, the reason I say uh-oh is because my neighbor's daughter, Blanche, is up. She was sleeping when we got back tonight as well and he said she is having a very hard time adjusting to him. I'm not sure whether I am pleased that Mireille is quick to adjust or not. It could be that she does not attach well to people, or it could just mean that she accepts change readily. I don't know - adoption is a worrisome exercise, for sure!
That's more or less it for today, other than my ruminations on Papa John, which are included in the director's cut, some of which are included below, but others that you may have to ask me about after buying me a beer. I'm hopeful Mireille will sleep well for the night - I should probably go to sleep in case she wakes up in the middle of the night. I'm tired enough, anyway. I probably won't, though, and will go into bonus time writing out the last couple of days as well as some of my interesting conversations with Papa John.
Interesting Papa John Stories of the day
Papa John is one very interesting man. I haven't yet written of my encounter last night with him, so some of this might seem repetitive as I go back and write of my experiences after the fact. He is a very amazing individual from what I can tell. He speaks English very well, though he is not happy with how poorly he perceives his English to be. Besides English which is his “worst” language, he speaks 14 others! His primary languages are French and Swahili. He knows Lingala OK, but doesn't find it to be a very important language. Swahili is spoken in like 5 African nations, while Lingala is only spoken in part of two (Kinshasa and Brazzaville across the river).
Papa John is 65 years old, but doesn't look it. He has 5 children. A 31 year old daughter who just got married last weekend (he showed me the pictures), and 4 boys, the youngest of which is 19. All four of his boys live with him and don't yet have jobs.
Papa John comes from the Katanga province and was born to a Zambian father and Congolese mother. He actually fought in the Katanga/Congo civil war in the 60s as a very young boy. He moved to Kinshasa in 1971 when he came here to watch the Rumble in the Jungle. He even drove me past the hotel where the fighters stayed. Definitely an event in his life.
Papa John makes his living on adoption. He pulls down $100 a day as a driver/guide/bodyguard (which I've found to be well worth the money). When he's not doing that, which is often lately, he arranges for trips to orphanages where he delivers food and helps families to keep in touch with their adoptive children.
I think the funniest story about Papa John for the evening was when we were talking to Andrew, my neighbor. Andrew has obviously done more homework than I have for this adoption. He was talking about asking the foster mom to teach him how to make foo foo, a dish that apparently a lot of Congolese eat. I asked Papa John about it when Andrew was around and he said something to the effect of, “it is smelling like shit.” He prefers rice! I later found out from him that foo foo is a starch that is utilized like rice, but it's made of corn meal and some other plant (casava?). They are mixed then boiled. He thinks people should make concrete out of it instead, but then only if they wanted their concrete to smell like shit.
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 2 - Kinshasa
Kinshasa - Day 1 - Airport to the Hotel
I was happy when I landed in Paris that I finally got a text message back from my guide, Papa John. That made me feel much more comfortable about landing in Kinshasa, seeing as how I’ve read many bad stories about the experience.
It is 6:30 local time on Sunday evening as I land, and it is completely dark already. Since I was in the middle of the plane, I didn’t get a good look at the landing, but what I could see, there didn’t seem to be too many lights.
We disembarked the airplane at N'djili International Airport (FIS) down mobile stairs directly to the tarmac where we were herded into shuttles and driven to the immigration building. The immigration building was a little intimidating, though nothing nearly as scary as what I have read. Sure, there were many people in berets openly carrying weapons, but they were all very friendly, or at least uninterested, and mainly tried to move traffic along in an efficient manner. I did witness one French guy arguing with the customs official and then one of the soldiers. I’m not sure what he forgot or didn’t have, but they were giving him a hard time. While in line I met an American business man who had traveled to Kinshasa in the past. He said that they will occasionally ask to see your letter of invitation, a requirement for obtaining a visa to get into the country. I didn’t have mine, since it wasn’t returned to me after providing it to the Embassy in D.C. to obtain my visa. So that had me a little worried. He said if they asked for it, just play the dumb American, which isn’t too difficult, it turns out.
After presenting my passport and having my visa scrutinized without too much trouble, I was herded into the line where they look at your Yellow Fever card, a requirement for foreigners to travel freely in the DRC. After that rather painless experience, it was off to the luggage area, but not before having one more person scrutinize my passport. This one had me worried because he looked, then gave it back to me, then asked to look at it again. I had heard and read stories about how officials will occasionally mess with you to try to get bribes. It seemed like this guy was going to do that to me, but I kept calm, tried to hide any fear I had, and it apparently worked and he stopped messing with me.
In the luggage area, I met Norbert, or at least that’s what I came to call him because I can’t remember his actual name. I think that was his last name! He had my name on a sign that he was holding, and I was happy to see him there!!! It meant I was probably going to make it to my hotel after all!!! We waited for about 20 minutes while my luggage made its way to the terminal, then headed out to where my guide was waiting.
I had texted Papa John once I got off the plane and he was waiting at the airport for me as promised. Norbert ushered me through many throngs of people all offering to do one thing or another for a tip. I kept my head down and followed Norbert about 200 yards to where I first met Papa John, my guide for the week, who was wearing a Kansas Jayhawks t-shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat.
I paid Norbert and tipped the kid who pushed the cart for me, then loaded up my stuff into Papa John’s 2008 (year is an estimate) Toyota Tercel, then made my way around to the left side of the car and got in the front seat. That’s right, the car had the steering wheel on the right side, like in Britain. This made for some good conversation right away as I have never ridden in a car with the steering wheel on that side before. I was expecting that we would be traveling on the left side of the road as well, but that proved to not be the case. After looking around at other cars, there were many with the opposite configuration, with the steering wheel on the left, like here in the States. The best I can figure, they just get whatever used car they can get, regardless of where it originated. Papa John’s car just happened to originate from a country where they drive on the left!
The drive from the airport was an interesting one. The road itself was actually quite nice, and there were many street lights and the like. Papa John, who claims his English is not so good (it seemed pretty good to me), said that the Chinese were hired to build this and some other roads. The road had 3 lanes and was relatively clear of traffic, for awhile. Papa John threw in a CD, Merle Haggard. Papa John started singing along with “Okie from Muskogee” and asked me if people really didn’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee. I had to admit that I had no idea, that I had never been there… Papa John told me that he likes country music, and that he considered himself the world’s only Congolese Cowboy.
At one point, things changed. The road was still pretty decent, but it got dark. I could just make out the outlines of many, many people lining the road. They were very close to the road, but there wasn’t much for light in the area, so I couldn’t really tell what they were doing. I asked Papa John what people did on a Sunday night in Kinshasa, and he said he didn’t know, maybe listening to some music, maybe out for a beer… At several points, people would just cross the street, despite the fact that there were now many cars traveling at somewhat fast speeds.
The road also got busy! Not BUSY, busy, like I would experience later in the trip, but busy enough that there was a lot of horn usage, and a lot of weaving in and out of traffic. At one point, Papa John said that you don’t want to “bump” anybody out here. If you bump somebody, and you have a nice care like this (his car had 180,000 miles or kilometers on it), you will be killed. I was, at that point, very happy I had hired a guide and driver!
As we drove on, we eventually wound into an area that was less crowded and better lit. It was Gombe, the commercial area, and what is ultimately “downtown” for Kinshasa. There were some nice buildings there, but nothing like what you would expect for a city of 10 million people. Around 9:00 PM local time, we pulled onto a rough, dirt road, pulled up to a gate surrounded by 10 foot high fences with razor wire on the top (something you see EVERYWHERE in Kinshasa), and Papa John honked his horn, something I would get very used to over the course of the upcoming week. A man came down, peeked out of the gate, then opened it and admitted us to the Sunny Day Flat Hotel and Guest House.
After parking, a man walked us down to my room. I thanked Papa John, paid him for half of his week’s work, and he left, leaving me to myself. After 24+ hours of travel, I was physically and mentally exhausted. But I wanted to unpack, and I needed to take my malaria medication, which you’re supposed to take with food, so I decided to try out my kitchen facilities.
I took out a pot, filled it with some water from the tap, hoping that the boil I was about to give it would kill off any parasites in it, and put it on the stove. My plan was to make some Raman Noodles, some of which Jenny had packed for the trip. While the water was getting up to a boil, I unpacked a bit.
My room was pretty modern. It had a television, air conditioner, stove, refrigerator, full bathroom with shower and bidet, and a voltage regulator for when the power didn’t exactly run as advertised. This was a nice feature - I plugged my computer into this so I didn’t have to worry about power surges taking it out.
After 20 minutes, my water had yet to boil. Being quite tired, I tried to debug the situation, but was failing. I tried to use different burners, I tried to use 1 instead of 6, thinking that the Chinese stove (an IceStream, ironically) might use the opposite indications. Meanwhile, the water wouldn’t boil.
I decided to just forget it and trust that it would eventually boil. Meanwhile I decided to wash myself. A full day of travel made me pretty nasty. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to wash up in the bidet. I squatted over it, pants down, and tried to wash my nether parts in there. That didn’t work so well… I ultimately decided to just take a quick shower, which was a wise decision. The bidet went unused the remainder of the trip.
After my shower, the water still refused to boil. I spastically grabbed at the pot and it spilled all over my hands and pants. Luckily it didn’t burn me badly - I could just imagine having to go to the emergency room on a Sunday night in Kinshasa!!!
In the end, I took out a different pot with a heavier bottom, and it proved to do the trick. I ate my Raman Noodles, took my pill, then fell quickly asleep around 10:30 local time…
Things seemed to be going fine and I figured I would have a nice head start toward being adjusted to the +7 hour time difference. It wasn’t to be, though. After 4 hours of fitful sleep, I awoke underneath my mosquito net, sweating profusely. After an hour of tossing and turning, I realized that my air conditioner must not be working properly. I got up, tried turning it on using the remote control, got up on a chair and tried to fix it, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I just gave up, threw off my covers and sweated it out.
I must have eventually fallen asleep, because I woke up to my alarm at 7:00. Papa John was supposed to come at 9:00, but I figured I could afford another hour, so I sweated through another hour of sleep before finally waking to my newly set alarm.
I was happy when I landed in Paris that I finally got a text message back from my guide, Papa John. That made me feel much more comfortable about landing in Kinshasa, seeing as how I’ve read many bad stories about the experience.
It is 6:30 local time on Sunday evening as I land, and it is completely dark already. Since I was in the middle of the plane, I didn’t get a good look at the landing, but what I could see, there didn’t seem to be too many lights.
We disembarked the airplane at N'djili International Airport (FIS) down mobile stairs directly to the tarmac where we were herded into shuttles and driven to the immigration building. The immigration building was a little intimidating, though nothing nearly as scary as what I have read. Sure, there were many people in berets openly carrying weapons, but they were all very friendly, or at least uninterested, and mainly tried to move traffic along in an efficient manner. I did witness one French guy arguing with the customs official and then one of the soldiers. I’m not sure what he forgot or didn’t have, but they were giving him a hard time. While in line I met an American business man who had traveled to Kinshasa in the past. He said that they will occasionally ask to see your letter of invitation, a requirement for obtaining a visa to get into the country. I didn’t have mine, since it wasn’t returned to me after providing it to the Embassy in D.C. to obtain my visa. So that had me a little worried. He said if they asked for it, just play the dumb American, which isn’t too difficult, it turns out.
After presenting my passport and having my visa scrutinized without too much trouble, I was herded into the line where they look at your Yellow Fever card, a requirement for foreigners to travel freely in the DRC. After that rather painless experience, it was off to the luggage area, but not before having one more person scrutinize my passport. This one had me worried because he looked, then gave it back to me, then asked to look at it again. I had heard and read stories about how officials will occasionally mess with you to try to get bribes. It seemed like this guy was going to do that to me, but I kept calm, tried to hide any fear I had, and it apparently worked and he stopped messing with me.
In the luggage area, I met Norbert, or at least that’s what I came to call him because I can’t remember his actual name. I think that was his last name! He had my name on a sign that he was holding, and I was happy to see him there!!! It meant I was probably going to make it to my hotel after all!!! We waited for about 20 minutes while my luggage made its way to the terminal, then headed out to where my guide was waiting.
I had texted Papa John once I got off the plane and he was waiting at the airport for me as promised. Norbert ushered me through many throngs of people all offering to do one thing or another for a tip. I kept my head down and followed Norbert about 200 yards to where I first met Papa John, my guide for the week, who was wearing a Kansas Jayhawks t-shirt, jeans, and a cowboy hat.
I paid Norbert and tipped the kid who pushed the cart for me, then loaded up my stuff into Papa John’s 2008 (year is an estimate) Toyota Tercel, then made my way around to the left side of the car and got in the front seat. That’s right, the car had the steering wheel on the right side, like in Britain. This made for some good conversation right away as I have never ridden in a car with the steering wheel on that side before. I was expecting that we would be traveling on the left side of the road as well, but that proved to not be the case. After looking around at other cars, there were many with the opposite configuration, with the steering wheel on the left, like here in the States. The best I can figure, they just get whatever used car they can get, regardless of where it originated. Papa John’s car just happened to originate from a country where they drive on the left!
The drive from the airport was an interesting one. The road itself was actually quite nice, and there were many street lights and the like. Papa John, who claims his English is not so good (it seemed pretty good to me), said that the Chinese were hired to build this and some other roads. The road had 3 lanes and was relatively clear of traffic, for awhile. Papa John threw in a CD, Merle Haggard. Papa John started singing along with “Okie from Muskogee” and asked me if people really didn’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee. I had to admit that I had no idea, that I had never been there… Papa John told me that he likes country music, and that he considered himself the world’s only Congolese Cowboy.
At one point, things changed. The road was still pretty decent, but it got dark. I could just make out the outlines of many, many people lining the road. They were very close to the road, but there wasn’t much for light in the area, so I couldn’t really tell what they were doing. I asked Papa John what people did on a Sunday night in Kinshasa, and he said he didn’t know, maybe listening to some music, maybe out for a beer… At several points, people would just cross the street, despite the fact that there were now many cars traveling at somewhat fast speeds.
The road also got busy! Not BUSY, busy, like I would experience later in the trip, but busy enough that there was a lot of horn usage, and a lot of weaving in and out of traffic. At one point, Papa John said that you don’t want to “bump” anybody out here. If you bump somebody, and you have a nice care like this (his car had 180,000 miles or kilometers on it), you will be killed. I was, at that point, very happy I had hired a guide and driver!
As we drove on, we eventually wound into an area that was less crowded and better lit. It was Gombe, the commercial area, and what is ultimately “downtown” for Kinshasa. There were some nice buildings there, but nothing like what you would expect for a city of 10 million people. Around 9:00 PM local time, we pulled onto a rough, dirt road, pulled up to a gate surrounded by 10 foot high fences with razor wire on the top (something you see EVERYWHERE in Kinshasa), and Papa John honked his horn, something I would get very used to over the course of the upcoming week. A man came down, peeked out of the gate, then opened it and admitted us to the Sunny Day Flat Hotel and Guest House.
After parking, a man walked us down to my room. I thanked Papa John, paid him for half of his week’s work, and he left, leaving me to myself. After 24+ hours of travel, I was physically and mentally exhausted. But I wanted to unpack, and I needed to take my malaria medication, which you’re supposed to take with food, so I decided to try out my kitchen facilities.
I took out a pot, filled it with some water from the tap, hoping that the boil I was about to give it would kill off any parasites in it, and put it on the stove. My plan was to make some Raman Noodles, some of which Jenny had packed for the trip. While the water was getting up to a boil, I unpacked a bit.
My room was pretty modern. It had a television, air conditioner, stove, refrigerator, full bathroom with shower and bidet, and a voltage regulator for when the power didn’t exactly run as advertised. This was a nice feature - I plugged my computer into this so I didn’t have to worry about power surges taking it out.
After 20 minutes, my water had yet to boil. Being quite tired, I tried to debug the situation, but was failing. I tried to use different burners, I tried to use 1 instead of 6, thinking that the Chinese stove (an IceStream, ironically) might use the opposite indications. Meanwhile, the water wouldn’t boil.
I decided to just forget it and trust that it would eventually boil. Meanwhile I decided to wash myself. A full day of travel made me pretty nasty. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to wash up in the bidet. I squatted over it, pants down, and tried to wash my nether parts in there. That didn’t work so well… I ultimately decided to just take a quick shower, which was a wise decision. The bidet went unused the remainder of the trip.
After my shower, the water still refused to boil. I spastically grabbed at the pot and it spilled all over my hands and pants. Luckily it didn’t burn me badly - I could just imagine having to go to the emergency room on a Sunday night in Kinshasa!!!
In the end, I took out a different pot with a heavier bottom, and it proved to do the trick. I ate my Raman Noodles, took my pill, then fell quickly asleep around 10:30 local time…
Things seemed to be going fine and I figured I would have a nice head start toward being adjusted to the +7 hour time difference. It wasn’t to be, though. After 4 hours of fitful sleep, I awoke underneath my mosquito net, sweating profusely. After an hour of tossing and turning, I realized that my air conditioner must not be working properly. I got up, tried turning it on using the remote control, got up on a chair and tried to fix it, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I just gave up, threw off my covers and sweated it out.
I must have eventually fallen asleep, because I woke up to my alarm at 7:00. Papa John was supposed to come at 9:00, but I figured I could afford another hour, so I sweated through another hour of sleep before finally waking to my newly set alarm.
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 2 - In the Air
Seat 33G to Kinshasa
I'm Tired!
Despite there only being like 50 people in the gate area, this flight is completely full! I'm on the aisle in the middle section among the cattle again. The seat's not bad, though there's little leg room due to a heater or some box that is in my leg area. This is a cutting edge plane... from the 90s. It has screens in each of the seatbacks that are touch sensitive (sort of) and retain the old 4:3 aspect ration. Didn't matter - I slept for a couple of hours, woke up and watched Birdman (or most of it), then slept some more before watching the flight information channel as we descended to Kinshasa, where it was already dark by 6:30 when we landed… 1 Day down and I've seen very little sunlight!
I'm Tired!
Despite there only being like 50 people in the gate area, this flight is completely full! I'm on the aisle in the middle section among the cattle again. The seat's not bad, though there's little leg room due to a heater or some box that is in my leg area. This is a cutting edge plane... from the 90s. It has screens in each of the seatbacks that are touch sensitive (sort of) and retain the old 4:3 aspect ration. Didn't matter - I slept for a couple of hours, woke up and watched Birdman (or most of it), then slept some more before watching the flight information channel as we descended to Kinshasa, where it was already dark by 6:30 when we landed… 1 Day down and I've seen very little sunlight!
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 2 - Paris, France
Paris - Charles De Gaul Airport
I landed around 8:00 local time in Charles De Gaul Airport outside of Paris, France. For my first trip to France, it was a little underwhelming. I suppose it’s true what they say that you don’t really visit a country when you visit the airport…
After disembarking my flight, I followed the hallways and signage to where my next flight was taking off, Terminal 2E the K gates (I think). I bought the AT&T Passport plan before taking off, which allows for free text messaging and reduced call rates via cell phone, so I attempted to text Jenny to let her know that I landed. While my texts successfully went through eventually, Jenny was unable to text me back due to some complications with switching between iMessage and SMS texting. This is something I need to take up with Apple at some point, because it took us four days to finally figure it out. For those that might suffer the same issue, you have to turn off iMessage on your sending phone, then remove any text conversations that are on the phone, then send a new text message to the phone number and not the e-mail address… What a pain!
A quick train ride, which was packed, and I was at the next terminal where I finally encountered a security line. I was actually a little surprised at how little security was apparent until this point. I was freely moving about the airport despite having just arrived from the US. For all they know, I could have been infected with the measles!!! Anyway, French security was actually very courteous. I didn’t even have to take off my shoes. I was stopped and searched, however, because I had two bottles of water in my backpack. Stupid me, I didn’t figure I would have any water once I got to the hotel room in Kinshasa, and wanted to make sure I had enough to get me through to the morning when my guide would take me shopping. Despite the fact that you can keep your shoes on through security, they still don’t allow liquids through the checkpoint, and I had to relinquish my $10 worth of water purchased in Milwaukee.
After getting back together, I stopped by a French sundries shop to get a new water (for $6) to satisfy my worries about the upcoming 24 hours or so. It was interesting that, while everything was clearly primarily in French, it seemed that everybody spoke some amount of English, which was good because my French is atrocious (read, non-existent). In line I encountered a couple of very tall, beautiful girls that were very upset at how the French don’t have proper jam…
Finally at my gate about 90 minutes early, I took off my shoes and relaxed a bit. As expected, I was one of the only white faces in the crowd. Of all of the people there, I was also clearly the most poorly dressed. I don’t know what sort of business people do, but it seems clear that there are many business people that travel between Paris and Kinshasa, many of which wear full suits, or at least proper business attire - even on a Sunday morning.
I landed around 8:00 local time in Charles De Gaul Airport outside of Paris, France. For my first trip to France, it was a little underwhelming. I suppose it’s true what they say that you don’t really visit a country when you visit the airport…
After disembarking my flight, I followed the hallways and signage to where my next flight was taking off, Terminal 2E the K gates (I think). I bought the AT&T Passport plan before taking off, which allows for free text messaging and reduced call rates via cell phone, so I attempted to text Jenny to let her know that I landed. While my texts successfully went through eventually, Jenny was unable to text me back due to some complications with switching between iMessage and SMS texting. This is something I need to take up with Apple at some point, because it took us four days to finally figure it out. For those that might suffer the same issue, you have to turn off iMessage on your sending phone, then remove any text conversations that are on the phone, then send a new text message to the phone number and not the e-mail address… What a pain!
A quick train ride, which was packed, and I was at the next terminal where I finally encountered a security line. I was actually a little surprised at how little security was apparent until this point. I was freely moving about the airport despite having just arrived from the US. For all they know, I could have been infected with the measles!!! Anyway, French security was actually very courteous. I didn’t even have to take off my shoes. I was stopped and searched, however, because I had two bottles of water in my backpack. Stupid me, I didn’t figure I would have any water once I got to the hotel room in Kinshasa, and wanted to make sure I had enough to get me through to the morning when my guide would take me shopping. Despite the fact that you can keep your shoes on through security, they still don’t allow liquids through the checkpoint, and I had to relinquish my $10 worth of water purchased in Milwaukee.
After getting back together, I stopped by a French sundries shop to get a new water (for $6) to satisfy my worries about the upcoming 24 hours or so. It was interesting that, while everything was clearly primarily in French, it seemed that everybody spoke some amount of English, which was good because my French is atrocious (read, non-existent). In line I encountered a couple of very tall, beautiful girls that were very upset at how the French don’t have proper jam…
Finally at my gate about 90 minutes early, I took off my shoes and relaxed a bit. As expected, I was one of the only white faces in the crowd. Of all of the people there, I was also clearly the most poorly dressed. I don’t know what sort of business people do, but it seems clear that there are many business people that travel between Paris and Kinshasa, many of which wear full suits, or at least proper business attire - even on a Sunday morning.
The Great Congolese Caper - Day 1 - In the Air
Seat 9a to MSP
Leg one is done. Yes, the easiest leg, but significant nonetheless. My seat wasn't bad - I was on the window next to an older woman who didn't take up too much room, so that was good.
Things I learned from this step of the journey:
Seat 33a to Paris CDG
For my first trip overseas, I'm blessed to be on an Airbus A300-330 (or something like that), a big plane. It's a Delta flight, and this one looks to be newly decked out. The first class (or business class I suppose) cabin looks unbelievable. They don't really have seats more than they have cubicles, with LED screen televisions in each of them. Looks nice! Now to head to my seat - to the right.
Yes, I'm with the cattle in the back of the plane. The seats are pretty much the same as any domestic coach class seat - not much room, very little ability to recline. At least the guy I was sitting next to doesn't smell or take up too much room. It does have two really nice features, though. First, it has a USB port that you can use to charge your electronics. Sadly it doesn't carry enough power to charge the iPad, but it sufficiently works with my iPhone. Secondly, it doesn't matter if it doesn't charge the iPad, because I don't even need to take it out. They have little LED widescreens on the back of each seat where you can choose from around 50 or more recent movies, most of which I haven't yet seen. So for the flight I took in three movies, “This is Where I Leave You,” “Whiplash,” and “Fury,” all three pretty good movies, and ones I normally wouldn't watch (or get to watch).
Some other nice perks of this flight, all the drinks are free! Would that I only took advantage of that perk. I was so determined not to have to get up and go to the bathroom much that I pretty much went into hibernation mode. I did have to get up once during the flight, but timed it such that my seatmate was already gone, so I didn't have to bother him a single time. But hey, free beer! Also there was a meal on the flight, which would have been amazing had I known that. I gorged myself at the MSP airport thinking there may not be a meal. It wasn't a bad meal - I of course ate everything, including the “snack” they served as we approached CDG airport, a warm baguette with eggs and sausage on it. That was delicious.
As we took off from MSP, it was fun looking at all of the lakes with ice rinks carved out of them. Actually it was fun that I recognized them, I suppose. Another cool part of this trip, I actually got to see the sunset near MSP and the sunrise near Paris, all within an 8 hour flight! Technology is cool!
While not watching movies with my new, inexpensive headphones, I watched the map application that showed flight statistics and our position in the world. As we flew over Ireland I saw many tiny little towns with what seemed only a handful of lights. As the sun came up we flew south of London, which is as close as I've ever gotten to London! It was also interesting to note the air temperature outside the plane as we flew - it consistently read -100 degrees F. for the entirety of the trip until we landed.
Leg one is done. Yes, the easiest leg, but significant nonetheless. My seat wasn't bad - I was on the window next to an older woman who didn't take up too much room, so that was good.
Things I learned from this step of the journey:
- My earbuds suck. So much so that I have already replaced them with some cheap on ear headphones so I don't have to monkey with them the whole time on the next two flights.
- I'm too obsessed with food. Not knowing what the status of food on the upcoming flight is, I gorged myself at Charly's Philly-style subs. Delicious, but didn't need all that food! I think I'm afraid of starving in the next week and feel like I can stave it off by eating way too much before I go!
Seat 33a to Paris CDG
For my first trip overseas, I'm blessed to be on an Airbus A300-330 (or something like that), a big plane. It's a Delta flight, and this one looks to be newly decked out. The first class (or business class I suppose) cabin looks unbelievable. They don't really have seats more than they have cubicles, with LED screen televisions in each of them. Looks nice! Now to head to my seat - to the right.
Yes, I'm with the cattle in the back of the plane. The seats are pretty much the same as any domestic coach class seat - not much room, very little ability to recline. At least the guy I was sitting next to doesn't smell or take up too much room. It does have two really nice features, though. First, it has a USB port that you can use to charge your electronics. Sadly it doesn't carry enough power to charge the iPad, but it sufficiently works with my iPhone. Secondly, it doesn't matter if it doesn't charge the iPad, because I don't even need to take it out. They have little LED widescreens on the back of each seat where you can choose from around 50 or more recent movies, most of which I haven't yet seen. So for the flight I took in three movies, “This is Where I Leave You,” “Whiplash,” and “Fury,” all three pretty good movies, and ones I normally wouldn't watch (or get to watch).
Some other nice perks of this flight, all the drinks are free! Would that I only took advantage of that perk. I was so determined not to have to get up and go to the bathroom much that I pretty much went into hibernation mode. I did have to get up once during the flight, but timed it such that my seatmate was already gone, so I didn't have to bother him a single time. But hey, free beer! Also there was a meal on the flight, which would have been amazing had I known that. I gorged myself at the MSP airport thinking there may not be a meal. It wasn't a bad meal - I of course ate everything, including the “snack” they served as we approached CDG airport, a warm baguette with eggs and sausage on it. That was delicious.
As we took off from MSP, it was fun looking at all of the lakes with ice rinks carved out of them. Actually it was fun that I recognized them, I suppose. Another cool part of this trip, I actually got to see the sunset near MSP and the sunrise near Paris, all within an 8 hour flight! Technology is cool!
While not watching movies with my new, inexpensive headphones, I watched the map application that showed flight statistics and our position in the world. As we flew over Ireland I saw many tiny little towns with what seemed only a handful of lights. As the sun came up we flew south of London, which is as close as I've ever gotten to London! It was also interesting to note the air temperature outside the plane as we flew - it consistently read -100 degrees F. for the entirety of the trip until we landed.
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