Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

Looking for the meaning of life? Look in poor, religious countries.

Photo credit: Jill Humphrey

More on the meaning of life. Today is a pixel.


How figure skaters pick their music.

  by  isla_yelo 

Who is this guy?! The pope tells women to breastfeed in the Sistine Chapel.

Another nanny photo essay. Can't get enough. (Latest addition to the series of links I send to Jill at work just to make her cry.)

First day of school.

Take a wild guess where $10 will buy you the least amount of stuff.

And did you see this?! Guinness uses Congo's Sapeurs in their newest ad. Yes, it's the other Congo across the river, but we've got our Sapeurs over here too. Side note: Adam and I have been to the random bar used in the ad. I can assure you, they were not serving Guinness.

Les Rapides. Brazzaville. No Guinness.

Finally, my sister moved abroad this week. As she packed up she said those words we've waited 8 years to hear. "How do you guys do this every year? This is hard."

It helps a little when this is where you're headed, Katie.

Jill's List:

Can't stop looking at Afrographique.  Unreal.  For example:

Can't stop thinking about [Love X Infinity] Squared.  Not sure what I mean?  Check out this site by my beautiful friend about being a "not-quite-fairytale cancer princess".

She was not a princess in a pink, sparkly, vomity kind of way, but rather in a more “when life gives you truly horrible lemons you get a tiara” kind of way. She also had long, blond hair, and if Disney has taught us anything, it is that princesses have long blond hair. (Disclaimer: The author in no way condones the use of racist Disney princesses unless they can be used to make a point about long blond hair). 

She wasn’t especially brave, or good, or kind. In fact, most of the time she was a real pain in the ass, but she, however, did love. She loved fiercely and unapologetically. And if there is one quality all princesses must possess, it is love. 

Randomly, my home in Kinshasa is one of the largest houses I've ever lived in.  I fully expect to return to the world of 500 square feet when we go back to living in the U.S.  Reading My Tea Leaves is full of tips for folks in that sort of situation.

Or maybe, it's not so random.  An amazing post titled, "'The Help' in Togo."

Have you seen a Lego ad recently?  They've certainly and sadly drifted very far from their 1981 reality.  Though, we are still fans.  Can't help it.

Beyoncé on gender-equality.

Such an interesting topic.  Zero-tolerance in schools.

I keep thinking about this article about old men trying to sit and drink McDonald's coffee for hours. My grandma loved McDonald's coffee.

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Friday List...and a Happy Birthday!

JILL'S LIST:

"A birthday once apocalyptic..." Oh, this was written way back in 2003. 30 is clearly all the rage now, in modern days. 

Here, I am shaking my finger at 30-haters.

I've wanted to be at least 30 for a really long time.  I was always kind of lying about my age when I was a kid.  Like, saying I was "almost seven" when I had just turned six.  Or.  "I'll be 24..."(in about 2 years).  Being a nurse, it has never been terribly helpful to be or look young.  People don't really want to place their life in the hands of a chipper young thing.  Really, they feel safest with old, brusque, and gray-haired.  So, I've been hoping for at least 30 for years - as a professional requirement.

So, today, I really feel like, finally!  And, if as a birthday necessity, I have to tally off my life achievements, it's looking pretty good.  Almost 10 years of marriage, check.  Two lovely kiddos, check.  Living in the Congo with a bunch of my closets friends, check.  Gray-hair, check.

So, read on...and go 30!

Awaiting me in 5 years?

I must see this immediately.  Surely one of my students has this on a hard drive somewhere...

Oh man. Statistics.

So, who's making me a photo montage?

Apparently, Kinshasa didn't make this list. 
  
1982.  Good for so many things.

That's right, Roger Federer.

I mean, I want to be like Beyonce.  Don't you?

In good company.

It should be noted that, for my birthday, my dearest husband contracted malaria.  Yes.  This is true.  He feels very bad about it.  So, in a weird fit of fever-induced guilt and love, he filled my computer with little pieces of paper.  Confetti!  (Don't worry.  He is being treated appropriately and has promised me a complete recovery by tomorrow.)


SARAH'S LIST:

$180,000 a year for being a nanny? Bonus points if you speak French? We're getting the deal of the century.

Photo credit: Jill Humphrey.

Fascinating photos of Congo. Here's what the photographer has to say, "I originally chose the Congo because I wished to find a place in the world, and in my imagination, where every step I took I would be reminded of the limits of my own articulation, of my inadequate capacity for representation. I wished for this to happen in a place of hard realities, whose narratives urgently need telling, but cannot be easily described. Congo is just such a place." And I couldn't agree more.

  by  Ana_Cotta 

Next week is Spring Break...#2. Oh, the life of an international teacher. In the past we'd be gearing up for a trip to Cape Town, or Zanzibar or safari in Kenya. This year I really couldn't be more excited for swimming at the pool, looking out for these funny birds with Charlotte on the field (their tails are so long they can barely fly!), and cuddling up to watch Mr. Maker (our favorite British arts and craft-er for preschoolers).

Oh, Tori. Happens to the best of us.

Happy Easter! Getting up at dawn for sunrise service on the river at Sim's Chapel. One of the oldest in the city.

  by  Julien Harneis 

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Wait. Where's the leather La-Z-boy room?

Adam and I have lived outside the United States for about 6 years now. I don’t deny my American upbringing. I don’t try to put a “u” in color or insist that drinks without ice are “way better.” I'm American cultured through and through. But Jill’s breastfeeding post made me think about how I totally missed the boat on the American culture of breastfeeding. The baby thing happened to us after we left the States, so I had paid zero attention to this while we were still Stateside. Therefore I find myself embarrassingly oblivious when it comes to how Americans think about nursing. This article about Beyonce seems like it’s from outer space.

My guess is the readers of this blog also find it ridiculous that Beyonce nursing in public would be trendsetting.

I've totally missed out because Charlotte was born in South Africa where the malls in Cape Town have rooms with leather La-Z-Boys for nursing mothers. Then the remainder of the time I nursed her was in Congo, where it’s obviously a non-issue.

  by  Iain Farrell And those Cape Town rooms looked kinda like this.
 

Annaïs, however, was born in the States. Enter a very strange feeling on my part for having no idea what is culturally acceptable in my own country.

I didn’t even know how much I didn’t know until we were at T.J. Maxx with one week-old Annaïs. (We usually spend the entirety of our summer vacation in American discount stores.) So Adam looks over as I’m casually shopping while very obviously nursing Ani. He runs over and yell-whispers, “WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING??” I paused in panic and thought, Oh, I…I…I have no idea what I’m doing. Is this ok? Am I going to get in trouble? What’s the social norm here? I looked around to see if anyone had recoiled in horror, which they had not. But that may have been because there were only Mexican women around, and I’m pretty sure they were ok with it.

I'm still pretty out of touch with how and when and where it’s considered not-so-weird to be nursing Stateside. My guess is that the social norm falls somewhere between my complete obliviousness to breastfeeding in public and Adam’s terrified we’re-about-to-get-arrested response.

Now, I’m not crazy. I realize private leather La-Z-Boy rooms are not universal and nursing involves a part of your body not normally exposed. But I still don't understand why Beyonce nursing in public is news. My beloved Facebook has an anti-nursing photo policy? And the group that thinks that’s wrong is called lactivists. People have to stage nurse-ins. There's an entire industry of nursing cover-ups. A woman got kicked out of church for nursing? What is this world?

In our church I’m rarely the only woman nursing mid-sermon. But I’ve recently discovered it is socially acceptable to go sit outside the church to nurse. I suspect, however, that this is because it’s much cooler out there, and I happily joined them in using the excuse of nursing my child so I can get a breeze. (Congo Mamas: I’m on to you and your schemes of skipping the sermon for fresh air!) Last week a little tot saw me finish with Ani and reached down my shirt as if she was next in line.

The idea of sharing milk isn't so strange either. Thanks to the wonder of the breast pump, I've shared milk in several countries and not even considered it strange to ask someone if they're interested in my donation. In the middle of the night the idea of a wet nurse seems really amazing. Ask Jill, I've flirted with this idea often. The point is, what's weird when it comes to nursing and what's not weird? I go for everyone nurses everyone else's babies anywhere, anytime. Ça va?

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