Friday List!

Sarah's List:

We're about to make that flight across the Atlantic in a few weeks. So it's about this time of year when we allow ourselves to get itchy for the things we miss. Jill says the things she misses change from year to year. Mine stays the same. Which has been confirmed since my three-year-old told me at breakfast this morning that I have "beaucoup eyebrows."

Alternatively, here's what Adam dreams of. Seriously. I swear if he could sit around all summer and do one thing, it's watch people get hit in the crotch on America's Funniest Home Videos. Someone actually made a list in descending order of all the ways this happens. Adam thinks it's genius. And this is where our understanding of each other goes in very different directions.

From here.

Did you know the word "mama" is universal? Here's a fascinating explanation. Except for my child who has decided to call me "Mamas." No, no Ani, "Say, Mama. No 's.' Not plural." Okay, nevermind. You're right. There are lots of Mamas.

Here's another one of those, if-you-read-just-one-thing-this-week articles. On examining adoption ethics. First families, first.

From here.

I needed a therapeutic laugh this week, so I went to my favorite speech of all time. I still remember the first time I read it in my tiny office at my terrible summer job. There was no hiding I wasn't working when I went into one of those embarrassing laugh/cries. Luckily these days I work with this saint and he pretends not to notice the laugh/cries...and real cries.

I love blogger Mama Minutia's intro to this piece, "I have a maid. It can get messy. (And I'm not talking about the house.)" Talking about help.

From Mama's Minutia.

Jill's List:

Hoping to finish strong tomorrow.  And I'm not even running.  How did I become a race coordinator, again?  Read more about how the Kima Mbangu (Run Fast) 5K came to be here.  If you are in Kinshasa and want to run and support an amazing local organization (Les Fonds Pour les Femmes Congolaises) - be at the TASOK campus at 8:30am!

Red carpet pregnancy.

Image from NYTimes.

Johan is obsessed with our microbiomes.  He's trying to get us all pumped up about kimchi and buttermilk.  He's obviously been reading way too much from this guy.  I gently reminded him that we live in the Congo and our children frequent eat dirt.  Germs are certainly our friends.

Yeah, something like that.  Image from here.

We lived in Guatemala City for three months soon after we got married.  Yeah, super romantic.  Rios Montt was hoping to run for president again and his face was plastered everywhere.  For many, his image was a disturbing, repeated reminder of unspeakable atrocities.  Last week, people spoke, and he became the first head of state to be tried and convicted of genocide in a domestic court.  Nunca Más .

Image by James Rodriguez for Mimundo.org  At the trial of Rios Montt.

I love this space.  (And such a beautiful blog, too.)

Image from Le Dans La.

Busy parousing You Tube for dessins animes for upcoming plane and airport hours.  Best score yet?  

1967  L'Araignée  - the original series - in French. 

Last minute add-in because it's quite the read for anyone and everyone living and working in a developing country.  Foreigners "trying to do good."

And here is what they don’t know: These houses? We could never afford them back home. These houses we have because they don’t. We have a job because they are poor. And because their poverty is extreme, because the country they were born in is hot, dusty, stormy, messy and perilous, we are paid well.

Image from the cover of Jonathan Katz's book "The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster."

If you are in need of amazingly curated suggestions for kid's books, apps, movies, and websites, check out Tinybop, Inc.  It's pretty flawless.  Sure fire sign that they are good:  they include most everything that William Steig has ever written.

Image from here.

Bon weekend!

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Friday List!

Sarah's List:

Tipped off by good friend Andrew Jenner to Vice's Guide to Congo. An excellent five-part series. Look for Andrew's guest post coming up on Mama Congo.

  by  Julien Harneis 

 

Can you tell me how to get...how to get diapers without Sesame Street characters on them? Some good points about advertising and our children. And finally someone asks why newborn diapers always have a design with yellow swirls that fool all new parents into thinking their baby has a dirty diaper. This tripped us up every time, with both babies.

Remember this pic from this post? Jill and I both marveled at how beautiful this diaper is. Man, so beautiful.

Best part of my morning was seeing Robin Roberts' face when Maggie Gyllenhaal used the word vibrator twice before 8am. Anyone seen this movie?

I know I'm the last person on the planet, but I'm loving the show Girls. Nothing beats a funny girl in my book. Totally worth it just to watch Brian Williams' beautiful daughter. And in an interesting plot twist, Adam has become a bigger fan than me. He somehow manages to say, "It's just like that one time in Girls," in most conversations.

Speaking of working Girls into every conversation, here's a piece about f-ing redheads. As Ani's hair starts to peek out, we might have two redheaded girls on our hands. Only once has someone said, "Well, let's just hope that hair color is just a phase."

Redheads unite.

  by  e³°°° 

Jill's List:


Let's talk about this decorated diaper issue.  After peeling Lou out of the weird Turkish diapers we bought for the plane ride, I was ready to splurge for my old, I'm-a-lazy-hippie, standby of Seventh Generation diapers.  I mainly like them because they are an earthy shade of brown and nothing else.  They are aesthetically pleasing as far as diapers go.  No longer.  I went to buy a pack at the Friendly City Food Co-op and found that Dr. Suess has attacked them.  I'm not the only one who's mad.   How quickly I get picky after re-entering.

Just because we've become semi-famous for our attention to eyebrows on this blog.  The NYTimes is copying us and doing salon pieces.

Donna Alberico for The New York Times

Johan just got back from a 5 mile run with our favorite ultra-marathoner.  I'm super jealous.  It's not that I like running.  I don't at all.  But, I have been so busy this week that I haven't gotten to exercise.  And I'm really grumpy about it.  Am I like these people?

Have you all read this article?  Thoughts?  I have definitely made less-ambitious (or weirder.  move to Africa, anyone?) career choices because I have two young children who I'd rather spend time with.  I'll save my upcoming, lauded, high-powered, international public health career for later.

And, more from the Atlantic.  We talk about this "idea" a lot at my job place.  So interesting.

Not in the Congo, we don't.  See:

Oh, the French.  Adorable.

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My Eyebrows...and other world problems.

I feel like I've been preaching a lot about major world issues like hunger and breastfeeding. So naturally this has led me to thinking about my eyebrows.

It's that time of year again when we all start making Must-Do and Must-Eat lists for our trip back to the States. While Adam is busy telling Charlotte about the wonders of Taco Bell and stores that sell bubble bath, all I really want to do is take care of my eyebrows.

Note: This is usually where I would insert a nugget of wisdom from Mama Youyou or Mamicho about the current topic from their perspective. But I am far too smart to walk into the minefield of asking secure, proud, naturally beautiful Congolese women how they feel about little white me getting my eyebrows shaped. By the way, they both have naturally perfect eyebrows.

When we lived in Egypt, we didn't go home for two years. I distinctly remember the first place I went when I got back to the States: The Beauty Spa for my eyebrows. My time in Egypt had taught me all about the ancient art of threading. (I actually have no idea if it's ancient. But isn't everything in Egypt ancient? I bet there are some great hieroglyphics of Nefertiti and her beautifully threaded eyebrows.)

Even Nefertiti's restoration required shaping up her eyebrows.

  by  GeometerArtist 

So off I would go with Adam to his very manly Cairene barbershop and after he was finished, the same extremely hairy, falafel-scented Egyptian man would run thread through his teeth and then work on my eyebrows. And they would still look pretty crummy--mediocre at best--certainly no where near Nefertiti's.

Just as it's the first thing I do after getting home, it's the last thing I do before giving birth. Both Charlotte and Annaïs were induced into this world. Obviously as soon as I found out I'd be having a baby the next morning, I went straight to have my eyebrows done. Because really when you're 9 months pregnant, there's no better accessory than shaped eyebrows to make you feel okay about yourself. I distinctly remember, on the last day of my pregnancy, lying on the table getting my eyebrows fixed and afterward the kind woman saying, "Your baby is moving like crazy. It's kind of grossing me out."

Newborn Charlotte

Newborn Ani

Looking back on these two photos, I realize my eyebrows don't even look that great. But at least I felt like they did. My guess is they probably looked fabulous the day before, but this goes to show how childbirth can mess up even the most perfectly shaped eyebrows.

--And while we're looking at these photos. Can I just point out the startling difference between a random South African nurse and Jill doing your post-delivery photo shoot. I distinctly remember labor and delivery nurse Jill taking this second photo as I'm thinking, "Please never show me that picture. I feel like a truck just hit me. Just put the camera down. Jill! Jill! Stop with the pictures!" And of course it turned out beautifully. Well after a bit of help...

Here comes the confession: I'm sure you're shocked at how rested I look after a hellish labor. Well I'm here to tell you that I Photo-shopped away the dark circles under my eyes. Yep, I said it. Come on ladies, I can't be the only one who's ever Photo-shopped their "happily with newborn" photo. Okay, I probably am, but I'm fine with that. Now if only I could figure out how to Photoshop better eyebrows...

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