Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

It's Congo Week! Okay, Congo Week is actually next week October 20-26, but we celebrate a week early here. Because we live in the Congo and we do what we want. Here's what Congo Week looks like where we are:

Students mapped Congo's natural resources. Computers = Coltan, Cans = Tin, Volcano = Volcano

Shak Shakito made an appearance. Check him out here.

Infographics are all the rage now. We can't get enough! Here are 13 of the year's best informational graphics. (Check out the iPhone inky fingertips one.)

Bonus: Congo Week infographic!

  by  Jon Gosier 

What do you think about these tips on how to be a man?  

"If you are wittier than you are handsome, avoid loud clubs." YES.  
"Pretty women who are unaccompanied want you to talk to them." Um. Not always.

Real men play the harp.

  by  twm1340 

Real women are amazing multi-taskers. Check out all the things we do while breast-feeding or pumping. (That plank photo's for you my workout ladies.)

See. You can nurse and stay out of trouble at the same time.

  by  Children's Bureau Centennial 

A great post from our friend over at Mama's Minutia on reorienting, resettling and regrouping after time abroad. The Adjustment. So, so true.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Jo. Coming home kinda feels like this fog. (Please don't sue me, Jennifer Jo, in your adjustment fog, for using your photo without permission. P.S. Can I use your photo?)

From the "in case you missed it" department. Can you read people's emotions?

Bill and Melinda discuss their marriage. And saving the world.

Relatedly, the latest on the malaria vaccine. (Thank you, Bill and Melinda.)

  by  tanakawho 

And finally, check out this article from a local Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspaper about a Congolese refugee. I thought it was just a typical interview until I got to about 3/4 of the way through the article (2nd page). See what refugee Terry Mulumba says about the first time he met a gay couple. That's some profound cultural adjustment. Bravo, Terry.


Jill's List: 

I'm in Ghana!  Accra is really a great place.  Just the chance to smell the sea is amazing.  I'm hanging out at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel for a conference...which gets some horrible reviews online, but it actually kind of incredible. (Or maybe that's the power of the mama-cation speaking?) I even watched about five minutes of Amish Mafia last night...

There is this painting in my hotel bathroom that I can't stop thinking about.  I'm don't usually consider myself a big fan of this style of art, but this woman on her hot pink background is just calling me to inquire of the manager if I might purchase her off the wall above the toilet.

Some of my Grade 7 students "re-imagined" this commercial for an assignment on Public Service Announcements this week.  I cried (secretly, I think) every time they showed the original version, and harder when I saw their re-make:

And, then, Johan forwarded me this article about how serious even a small car accident can be in Africa, and I cried again.  Wear your seatbelts, friends!

Yes.  Wear them, even if it makes your face go like this.

I'm on a mission to find Esther and her fabric shop while I'm in Accra.  Yes, I must buy more amazing Ghanaian fabric for myself and everyone I know.  But, more importantly, I must show her a picture of Mama Vida wearing the gorgeous outfit she made using the fabric I bought her during last year's trip. Read about how I chose what to buy here.

Loulou and Mama Vida on Wednesday.

Oh! The Internet is luxurious here.  What should I download?!  Orange is the New Black?


Love this post showing what it can look like to teach Middle School.

Images by Alice Proujansky.

What do you think?  Is the journalism you just read on Africa trash?  Or is this article just overly-reactionary?

If a political report devotes a substantial chunk of attention to tribal dancing, and “vibrant African music” — beware. You wouldn’t sample the nightclubs and “vibrant American music” in Adams Morgan when doing a piece on Democrats and Republicans arguing over the U.S. budget. Just like the sky is the sky in Africa and not the African sky, music is music in Africa and not African music. And if music wasn’t vibrant, well then it’s probably not music.

And.  The Accra beach - despite it's abundant human-made flotsam and frothy gray jetsam - is lovely....and possibly described as "vibrant."
See? (sorry Johan, Elias, and Loulou.  Next time, you can come with me.  I swear.):



Also.  In need of more shea butter.  Trying to find time to buy loads (probably at Global Mamas) - but the local stuff vs. the "imported" French variety.

Want some?  Buy it here if you're in Accra!