Jet Lagging. With Babies.

We got back to Kinshasa a few days ago and the first night everyone slept perfectly. We had beat jet lag. We were back in our normal routine. We were proud of ourselves. So much so that I bragged to our neighbors that jet lag is totally psychological and the proof is our children who we just put to bed, tell them it's time to sleep and they do it.

Then last night came. Again Charlotte and Ani went to bed without a problem. Adam and I were wide awake. The rest of the night went like this:

9:30- Toss. Turn. Toss. Turn. Yell at Adam for doing the same.

10:45- Stare at the ceiling. Contemplate my future. What am I doing with my life? How many days until Christmas vacation? Can't sleep.

11:00- The future is boring. Finally fall asleep.

11:06- Receive sad text message from Jill and Johan. They've just returned to Congo. They're back home, but locked out of their house.

11:07- Reply with short, unhelpful message.

11:07- Feel like bad neighbors/friends. Reply with more optimistic message offering our apartment for them to crash for the night.

11:10- Pray they don't crash our apartment and wake our children.

11:15- The children wake up anyway on their own. Charlotte comes into our room to confirm Papa is making pancakes in the morning. Yes Charlotte, we'll make pancakes.

11:16- This is when I send Adam a telepathic message to stop talking to her. Do not wake up her brain. I have a theory that when our children wake up in the night, if we don't look them in the eye or engage them in conversation they will fall back asleep.

11:17- She then asks, "Pancakes cut in squares?" Yes. "With syrup?" Yes. She's obviously been thinking about her future too. Her brain is totally awake. There's no going back.

11:25- Ani starts screaming. She joins us in our bed. There we are. All 4 of us tossing and turning. Wide awake.

11:45- Charlotte strokes Ani's cheek to help her fall asleep. She gets a little too close to Ani's mouth and she bites her finger. Hard. Charlotte's feelings are hurt more than her finger. She cries. Adam tries to explain intentions vs. feelings to Charlotte.

11:46- Adam, stop talking. Do not engage her brain!

12:30- Ani starts plucking hairs out of my head one at a time. She's doing a pretty good job. People have told me she has good fine motor skills, now I understand. I completely ignore her and say nothing. This is how strongly I believe in my no-brain-engagement theory. She keeps plucking away.

12:45- Charlotte whispers, "Mama?" Um, hmm. "Mama, do you remember the Congo?" Yep, sure do.

Welcome Home. Photo by Jill.

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Friday List!

Jill's List: 

Found this great travel blog.  Which then led me to this little tool.  Which might prevent me from tearing out all of my hair in the process of trying to understand Frequent Flyer Miles programs.  Arrrggghh!

Everyone at my house is a little nutty.  Don't they say that it takes as many days as hours of travel to get over jet lag?  Maybe we should have tried this?

Happy that I bit the bullet and just bought this instead of a bulky new lens for my Canon. You'll see why in future posts...

Elias refuses to talk about school.  Well - that's not totally true.  But he has ALWAYS hated answering questions that I love to ask.  Like, "What did you read today?  Did you write in your journal at school?  Did you sing any songs?"  He says things like, "Mama, when you ask those questions you are disturbing my peace."  Should we try this?

Part of my job includes teaching sex ed to Middle Schoolers. Now you're all really jealous of me, right?  It's actually super interesting and even...dare I say it...fun.  This article is an interesting discourse on how parents could/should/do/don't approach teenage sexuality.

These pictures are so freaky.  Space pictures have always induced vertigo for me.  (But they are amazing.)

I'm so embarrassed (so, I thought I'd share on the blog).  I downloaded this.  And am using it.  It involves a lot of inspirational British pop.  And in this Dry Season, my ankles are completely black with dirt by the time I'm done.

Wowzers of an Op Ed, Tom. Now I'm really curious. Which Rage Against the Machine song is Paul Ryan's favorite?

Wondering what the heck is going on in Eastern Congo?  You should be.  It's horrible.  Read more here.

Sarah's List:

When your whole country is a closet. My rule of thumb is to avoid this topic like the plague while living on this continent.

  by  torbakhopper 

People always ask if it's possible to drive across Congo. I always say no. Turns out I'm wrong. You can follow the US Embassy's not-so-easy trek from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi on Facebook. Just friend them here.

I've always been fascinated by this guy, so I'm finally reading his book Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone. It's been added to my recommended Congo reading list and I'm only on chapter 3.

It's back to school week here in Kinshasa. All the kids rolled in Monday morning with their shiny new school supplies. These multicultural pencils have started popping up in backpacks. They're perfect for TASOK students. Which made me think of the Pantone skin color project.

What's your Pantone color?

  by  Rocco Lucia 

Remember these guys? My first impression was totally right. Some have "mysteriously disappeared" after the Olympics in London.

Though he's barely even heard of Mama Congo, this one's for Adam.

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