Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

How armies get fed. MREs around the world.

By Christopherlin (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

This week we hosted a dozen or so African presidents, prime ministers, and other VIPs in our little neighborhood. It wasn't disruptive to our lives at all. These guys would never dream of traveling via helicopter back and forth, nor close our roads. And a tank or two would surely be overkill. No, African heads of state are far more humble. (Ahem.) 

Sure hope all this was worth it and you solved Africa's problems.

Welcome to the neighborhood.

Meanwhile their spouses held a meeting of their own. During which they probably did solve all our problems. But I've yet to find any publicity of their roundtable discussion.

Notably, the president of Uganda was here. Probably taking cover from a very terrible decision.

If he had just read this: Don't be an asshole. (I especially like the line about Episcopalians.)

Politics of the Belly. A good guide to understanding leaders in Africa. The title says it all.

How to choose a font. How not to choose a font.

Nairobi readers: Did you know someone's trying to map your transit system? Matatus and all!

By Dillon Marsh (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Salif Keita was also in Kinshasa this week. He came to support the project Blanc Ebene, a benefit for Albinos in DRC.

Featuring a fantastic photo exhibition by Patricia Willocq.

See more of Patricia's photos in this interview.


Jill's List:

Moving from developed and developing to fat and lean.  A super interesting argument for changing the way we talk about the world.

As the old adjectives about Africa — “hopeless,” “war torn,” “impoverished”— fade, fat economies must stop assuming that poor countries should mimic them and instead embrace their models for social innovation and efficiency. 

I've been thinking about this article.  Old Yeller.  My Girl.  Sob.  And then, there were the books of my 80s/90s childhood:  Bridge to Terabithia and all of those teens-who-romantically-die-from-terrible-diseases novels by Lurlene McDaniel. Remember those?  What gives?!

Photographer Lynsey Addario happened upon this birth on the side of a rural road in the Philippines a couple of weeks ago.  I sent the article to nurse friend, Ruthie (remember her incredible guest post about having a baby in Kinshasa?), and she replied with a couple of photographs she just happened to have of birth in unusual places: on an Ethiopian Airlines airplane and TWINS in a canoe!  Do any of you have experience with surprise births?

This photo was taken in a remote part of Equateur Province, DRC.  Via Ruthie Schaad.
To get to this location it is a 15-17 hour canoe trip and at one of the stops along the way a woman gave birth to twins with the help of the midwife from the community who came to the canoe to help.

This is an absolutely crushing and incredibly important photo essay by Addario.

Um. Cannot wait to see Tey.  Saul Williams in Francophone Africa - with one day to live.  (Have I professed my undying love for Williams on Mama Congo yet?  No?  Well.  Consider it done.)

Current favorite app at my house.  Can't wait to show the kiddos that this place exists in real life.

American Museum of Natural History  -  Image from Wikipedia

Seems to me that I used to know this guy...   Kuddos, Konrad.  Check out more of Possessed by Paul James here.

We used to live right around the corner from Ezell's Chicken in Seattle. The smell used to waft beautifully up the street...   Hungry Lion just doesn't compare, Kinshasa.

Nope.  Just not nearly as good.  Sorry.  Image from Wikipedia.

And.  Grand merci to all of the nurses and doctors at Centre Privé d'Urgence (CPU) who helped take care of Lou this week during her "pneumonia adventure."  Our hospital stay included French cartoons, jus de l'hôpital (a.k.a. meds), and really quality care.

Our awesome nurse removes Loulou's IV while Papa Antoine, Mama Nounou look on, ready to take her home.

The above experience makes me think more deeply about a 19th-century mother's handwritten record of her babies' childhood illnesses.