Weekend List!

Sarah's List: 

Check out the When Nurture Calls Campaign.

My new obsession is buying quality, consignment clothing for my children. African wear and tear is hard on their clothes. And I can't run to Target for new toddler leggings when their knees poke through. Do you know about the world of online consignment shopping? A lot of the clothes on these sites are brand new with tags, others have only been worn once.

Here are my favorites:

Moxie Jean: Upscale Resale. It's easy to sort through the options on this site. They add new clothes every Monday and Thursday.

Schoola: More great consignment clothing. 40% of each sale goes to a school. Win-win. Plus, I had a few kid's items sitting in my shopping cart for less than 24 hours and they sent me an email saying, "We noticed you haven't made your purchase yet, we'll give you free shipping." Um, okay. Win-win-win.

thredUP: This one's a little bit dangerous because they have clothing for kids and adults. And purses and shoes. Oh my.

There is a shocking number of these kids consignment clothing websites. Do you have another favorite?

50 Completely Unexplainable Stock Photos No One Will Ever Use.

Sara Rich talks race, class and privilege in Congo. Good work, Sara. Good work.

This girl is always thinking.

And here's what happens when you try to read too many Onion articles from abroad...

Jill's List:

This is what I have been Googling today.  We have a mirror and an amazing print by Arno Debal that I can't figure out how to transport on a plane to America intact.  Any suggestions, fellow travelers?

Print by Arno Debal.

Photo by Jill.  Packing composition by Johan.

Spring (or "Rainy Season", depending on your location) hair.

I finally joined Instagram this week. My 7th graders told me I was dumb because I hadn't yet and so I did. This is my favorite thing to follow. (Some of my photos of Kinshasa street life are supposed to be appearing in the related Everyday Africa Project.  I'll keep you posted.)  And this was my inaugural photo:

Loulou, constantly perfecting the death glare.  I told her to smile before snapping the shot.

In 2006, I nicely asked the city of Seattle to let me defer my jury duty until I was done breastfeeding my baby.  They said okay.  I assumed they would.  Turns out, I should have been surprised. (Thanks, Alice.)

Eli and I in 2006.  Not serving on a jury.

Long live the library!  (Thanks, Olivia.)

Our most complicated packing issue.  Books are heavy.

A little magic is coming to Kinshasa.  As in a magic show.  Here.  Halle de Gombe. June 3 & 4.  (Thanks, Becca.)

And.  Kima Mbangu 2014 is done and dusted.  Still waiting on the grand tally raised for our partner organization, Les Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises.  A real, visible and holistic impact on the lives of Congolese women.

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Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

Congratulations chemical weapons watchdogs on your new Nobel Prize, you probably have a very tough job. While I was rooting for Malala just as much as the rest of you (Holy Malala Facebook feed!), I've been following this guy for some time now. There aren't enough Nobel Prizes in the world to recognize Denis Mukwege for what he's doing for women in Congo.

I think Alfred would agree.

  by  BlatantWorld.com 

And here's an opinion on 12 people who should not have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

This article has been getting a lot of forwarding action this week. It's a good run-down of Congo's history. It's a basic primer on Congo if you don't know where to start. One striking line that pretty much summarizes everything you need to know:

"The Portuguese, Belgians, Mobutu and the present government have all deliberately stifled the development of a strong state, army, judiciary, and education system, because it interferes with their primary focus, making money from what lies under the earth." (emphasis added by me, that's the most important part!)

  by  Julien Harneis 

Meanwhile in the States, kids can't shake hands after games because they'll attack each other?

Disney Princesses in Accurate Fashion? (Not all that different from Disney fashion, huh?)

 

  by  kevin dooley 

And Happy 50th Birthday Mama Youyou! For some reason I felt like I needed to give her permission to celebrate herself so I said, "Turning 50 in the States is a big deal." To which she basically said in French, "Umm yeah. It's a big freakin' deal in Congo too." Touché, Mama Youyou.

Joyeux Anniversaire.

Jill's List:

My parents are coming to visit Kinshasa!  It will be a Congo Christmas for us this year...and we are really super excited.  Where else do you get to celebrate with a holiday visit to the bonobos?  You do remember that you are 1% away from actually being a bonobo, right?

Elias and the esteemed Matt Lippart from All the World's a Rage taking in some bonobo action circa 2011.

Found an absolutely hilarious learn-French app.  The designers at Le Monde are brilliant and obviously love Michael Jackson.  Plus, they use the word, frantastique.  It does not get better than that, folks.

Want this app?  Go here.

I just need to mention Malala one more time.  Because.  Wow.

I started thinking about that, and I used to think that the Talib would come, and he would just kill me. But then I said, 'If he comes, what would you do Malala?' then I would reply to myself, 'Malala, just take a shoe and hit him.'  But then I said, 'If you hit a Talib with your shoe, then there would be no difference between you and the Talib. You must not treat others with cruelty and that much harshly, you must fight others but through peace and through dialogue and through education.' 

Holy pagne on Project Runway!  (I know, we're like months behind...it's how we roll with TV around here.)  I keep trying to decide if Mama Youyou and Mama Vida would be proud or annoyed.  We'll be watching some P.R. and getting their opinions.

My haul from Au Beach today.
Loulou begged to come along to the tiny alleyway full of fabric
 because she wanted to pick out something with "rouge and rose for a new jupe"

Looking for a great SPF face lotion that stands up to rainy season humidity grease.  My lovely Josie Maran is...well...a little slick now that it's steamy outside.  I'm liking samples of this and this.  Any other suggestions?

South African bowls as product storage.

This is funny.

Admiring Arno's art from afar.  When are you coming back to Kin, friend?

Watching this story develop.


And.  One more time.  We are so proud to know Noela.  Read her thoughts on being a young Congolese woman.  She rocked this interview for Every Mother Counts from start to finish.

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