Friday List!

Sarah's List:

For what feels like years (because I think it has been at least 2) construction crews, led by Chinese men in their Chinese hats, have been working on a tiny two lane bridge nearby. With some excellent motivation from the Francophonie, they've finally finished it. And it's named after, drum roll please, Dag Hammarskjöld. This is extremely convenient for me as I've recently become obsessed with the conspiracy theories surrounding his death. Read all about them here. Catchy name for a bridge, right? 



If we have to have packaging, it may as well be thoughtful.

I will always have the image burned in my brain of the poster that hung in my high school sex ed class: a crotch, in tight stonewashed jeans with a padlock and chain wrapped around it. I was so sure that poster would show up in this awesome slideshow. Because we all know the most effective contraception is a really bizarre poster on the wall of your classroom. Worked for me.

Wait. The Civil War was in color? Rare historical photos: Part 1 and 2!

It's true. Perhaps there are some Mama ailments by design. Or the NYT has been reading Mama Congo. 

My favorite memories of listening to This American Life are from my late night commute on the Cairo Metro to and from grad school. I laughed. I cried. As Egyptian men stared wondering what was wrong with the white girl. These two recent episodes are Ira Glass gold. Send a Message and P.I. Moms.

I'm pretty sure I wrote this piece about celebrating "the subtle joys of festivals of numerical coincidence." It's exactly how I feel about such dates. After all, we did choose to have our baby on 7/11/11. But it's not so cool when you live in the date/month/year world.


Jill's List:

Living overseas, it seems that you meet a lot of people with vague, pan-Brit-opean accents.  You're never sure where exactly they are from.  (I usually guess they are just closet Yankees.) Sometimes, I too try saying things like "uni," "posh," and "knackered," but then realize that this is difficult with an American accent.  Read this article for more on the temptation to sprinkle one's vocabulary with adorable British-isms. 

Thanks, Jo!

I've been thinking a lot about New York City.  Someone suggested I should watch this documentary.  Or this one.  Or this one.

Also, thinking about Cape Town.  As in booking my tickets for December.  So, naturally, I'm looking at applicable style blogs.  Like this one.

Holy Francophonie!  We're hoping to go to the Stadium and visit the "village" this weekend.  Photo Minute moments, here we come...

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Friday List!

Jill's List:

I remember seeing this book before we moved to Kinshasa and then trying to buy it and finding out it could be mine for only $7,848.19 + $3.99 shipping.  This is not a joke.  See for yourself. I guess it is hardback...  But, it's haunting and I still want to read it.

We had to give back some of the furniture we have loved over the past year.  It's not all that bad - it gives us an excuse to have a look around this place and see what we can find.

Happy to use some of the rad "thank you" cards I bought at this great spot last summer because a lovely mom from school made me a chocolate salami!  

Yeah, PBS!

Weirdest craft project ever.  Beautiful blog.  Weird craft.  Seriously.

Beautiful flying houses.  I keep thinking that there are so many colonial shells around here that would be perfect for this project.

This might be our Halloween this year.  Except, I can't find any paper bags...

We swear we just found out about this very sweet blog in Kenya! Mama Congo loves Mama Mzungu and hopes we can share the rights to the expat mama blog name trend...

And.  Just discovered this Congo-centric blog.  Anyone know anything about this project?

And, still always reading this, this, and this for perspective.

The Francophonie is coming!  The Francophonie is coming!  Stay tuned...

Photo by J.H. on a Saturday drive.

Sarah's List:

Man, I'm always nervous when we check in our bags, but there's something about those stickily-perfect luggage tags that makes me think everything will be okay. Design genius.

“Gee, I would enjoy this banana so much more if I didn’t have to take off the peel,” said no one ever. Want to incur the wrath of an angry mob? Pre-peel bananas and package them in plastic. Design fail.

Last year we got South African satellite television just so we could watch this guy. The title of his book almost makes us want to re-up our subscription.

Their are lots of confusing words out they're. (Ha!) Fix 'em here.

Best of: Street Art.

  by  TOTORORO.RORO 

Is giving birth easier for animals? Yes it is. And no it isn't. And what's obsession with dolphin births?

  by  M.-J. Taylor 

Thinking up my own Dear Blank, Please Blank.

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Restaurant Review: Roi du Cossa

Don't get too excited. This will not be a series. Adam and I have long given up on dining out in Kinshasa because it's not worth, well, dining out in Kinshasa. A cheap pizza is $20. A meal for two is almost certainly over $50. And these are not great restaurants we're talking about here.

But it's our anniversary so to give the house chef (Adam) the night off, we went out for dinner. Thanks to the upcoming Francophonie Summit traffic was a nightmare. The kind where everyone turns off their cars and gets out. After we had been sitting in the same muddy pothole for an hour, I told Adam I really wished we had just stayed home and watched Master Chef Australia. Just what every husband dreams of hearing on his anniversary.

We eventually made it those 5 miles down the road to Roi du Cossa, a Portuguese restaurant specializing in, you guessed it, cossa cossa. We were seated between parents of one of Adam's students and parents of one of my students. The perfect, romantic evening.

Cossa cossa are giant Congo river prawns, which are so big they could possibly pass as lobster tails. They're ridiculously delicious and I could eat dozens, but they only give you 6 so you don't embarrass yourself.

Speaking of embarrassing yourself, they tie a bib on you. Without even asking. But not in the novelty beach restaurant kind of way, in the you're-about-to-splash-garlic-butter-all-over-yourself-this-is-serious-business kind of way.

And just in case the bib doesn't do it's job, there's a bathtub in the bathroom. I would like to point out that I know of several restaurant bathrooms in Kinshasa with bathtubs. I feel an investigative report coming up...

In the end, Roi du Cossa was definitely worth the 5 mile/hour and a half trip. That's saying a lot for a few river prawns.

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