Regularly Scheduled Programming...

...will return shortly.

But for now, we are October breaking here in Kinshasa.  This means various things for the teachers and students at our school, but for me, it's been a little of the following:

Devouring my first lobster with a side of Club Premium Lager for a very low price.  Yeah, really!  I figured that "at a dive in Ghana" was as good as any setting for such an important "first."
Afterward, I interviewed everyone at the table about their "my first lobster" story.
I won't lie, there were some tears.

Midnight swimming in this gorgeous pool.  I mostly worked at this hotel (more on that later), but some friends and I did take a midnight swim one evening.  We had to sign a waiver!  They sent a hotel representative marching out with official papers when they saw us attempting a dip.

Crashing a Ghanian wedding.  Sort of.

Frolicking with great friends and colleagues on the (sort of dirty) shores of Accra.

Resisting bedtime routines in order to hold sleeping (not really) babies (anymore) on my lap for many minutes upon returning home.

Taking this joker to "work" with us while Johan and I traded edits on grad school Statements of Purpose.

Documenting important specimens for our resident (mini) entomologist.

Watching the least scary parts of The Hobbit (and introducing Elias to the "this wasn't in the book" game) during Congo thunderstorms while wrapped in overly-touristy Maasai warrior airport souvenirs.

I was also able to deliver Mama Vida's second piece of beautiful batik to her - straight from the arms of her "sister" Esther in Osu, Accra.  She is every bit the businesswoman and I persuaded her with the promise of a large, eager-to-buy, crowd to stay open late for us:

This is what Mama Vida made with last year's fabric selection:

Can't wait to see this year's creation.

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One Day in Accra

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Mama Vida's Batik

Mama Vida has this dress.  It's purple and obviously not made of Congolese pagne.  It's batik cloth from Ghana.  This dress is old - at least 15 years, since that's when Vida left Ghana for Congo.  It's worn.  It's been repaired often.

Yesterday, I went out to  buy Mama Vida some new batik for a new dress to remind her of Ghana.  This wasn't a plan.  The only request that I had from anyone for my trip to Ghana was "Shea Butter!"  Right before I left, Mamas Vida, NouNou, and YouYou all lobbied me to bring back as much of the stuff as possible, for everyone's beautification.  Mama Vida had obviously been extolling it's virtues.

Mama Vida said she didn't need anything.  So, I decided she needed some batik.  Which brings us to Esther.  Esther was a name of a Mama given to me as the person to go to for quality cloth.  So, a group of us in the workshop I'm attending (more on that later) called her up and she agreed to stay open late so that we could swing by after working all day.

Here I am with Mama Esther.  I obviously love having my photo taken.

The process of choosing a batik print (made by Esther) was difficult.  So, her son, Joe, helped out.  He  asked what shade and size Mama Vida was ("Is she a very fat Ghanaian? Very thin? Very short? Ah, middle sized!  Very dark? Or light?  I know this type.  You will need lots of cloth, then.") and helped me find two pieces of cloth that he said would be perfect.  We disagreed on the wild purple and green.  Agreed on the yellow.  And came to an understanding about the muted blue and red.  In the end, I chose two pieces:

We'll see which one she chooses.  Mama Esther and Joe both said they were "Nice, nice" in the same tone and cadence as Mama Vida uses when she compliments LouLou on a drawing or praises Elias for reading.  "So nice, nice."

We also hit up a little fair trade shop called Global Mamas before heading to sushi.  That's right.  Sushi.  I'm a happy person.  This trip has been mostly intense work, but the play has been quality.

But.  I'm really missing these folks:

And Johan too.  Very, very much.

Tomorrow, my plane will stop off in Togo, Nigeria, and Gabon after Ghana and before landing home in the DRCongo.  Can't wait to deliver the goods to Mama Vida and squeeze my family.

For now, I'm off to the market.

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Friday List!

Sarah's List:

Couldn't raise my children without African women or coffee. Never knew they were so inextricably linked. Of course one of the best things on earth has women's hands all over it.

Karen Castillo Farfán/NPR

Dealt with these guys every time I stepped foot outside our Cairo apartment. Hamdallah for spray paint...solely for "identification purposes," of course.

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

On that same note, a few years ago this genius project created HarassMap to plot places in the city where women had been harassed. I can't imagine there's much un-plotted territory left.

A HarassMap Google Map shows the ares with high concentrations of sexual abuse incidents. (Image from Facebook)

Tina Fey's A Mother's Prayer for Her Child. I dare you not to laugh. Or cry. An excerpt:

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, 

Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, 

For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

 If you want to utter a bad name in Congo, it's SNEL (Société Nationale d'Electricité). Our electric company. A bit of insight into Congo business as usual.

The real story of the most-liked photo of all time. Yikes, those arms!

Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America

And what a week it was. Thank you for making our lives a bit easier abroad. 14 Foreign Policy perspectives on Obama. And a skip straight to the African opinion. Dare I say Obama should take a few notes from George W? PEPFAR's changed a lot of lives.

Photo from ForeignPolicy.com

Jill's List:
  
Our water filter crapped out yesterday.  We have this blue plastic bucket that looks fairly ghetto, but is actually an impressive purifying machine...when the filters don't have holes.  So, I took my medicine with Perrier last night.  Tres weird.  We might switch to these nifty little, life-saving, packets while we wait for new parts.

Photo from Cincinnati.com

A little too excited about shopping here this Christmas. 

Photo from the blog Itswhatiminto

   
Really interesting photo.  The ad as art.  Who knew that I would find the idea of the Marlboro Man  in my living room attractive?

More information about this image here.

This seems like the perfect piece of typographical quote art for a Middle School classroom.  (We just celebrated the opening of the first of our campus' environmentally friendly classrooms.  I'm looking for ways to spruce up the pristine white walls...)

Buy this print here!

Joanna! (blushing ensues)

Watching these videos of folks in Washington, Maine, Maryland, and Minnesota this week at the moments they learned that the voting public supported equal marriage rights for all people made me cry in my office.  Reminder to self:  Do not watch sentimental YouTube clips during lunch break.

Photo from the West Seattle blog.

And.  I'm headed to Accra in March for a little business trip.  I've never had a business trip before.  Let alone to Ghana.  Feeling quite excited.  But not nearly as excited as Mama Vida.  She is from Ghana and is already writing down addresses of family members that I absolutely must visit...

Image from here.

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