The "I Miss" Mantra

We are in the final hours.  We'll head to Kinshasa via Istanbul on Friday.  It's that time where the emotions are incredibly conflicted (i.e. hysterical sobbing during Downton Abbey is not really normal) and for me, at least, it means that I just want to get on the plane. The anticipation of the countdown is grueling. Lots of folks have written about the weirdness that goes into the nomadic goodbye - maybe they can explain our issues.

LouLou at this very moment. What the what?!
(Found as we were going through old stuff for the storage space).
Can we say "regression"?

Practically, however, we have to figure out how to pack our eight crates (these are the best should you ever be in the market for what airport personnel call "missionary trunks") full of the things we thought we would *need* for another year in Kinshasa.  Rolled oats, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap All-One, bug-proof food storage, hazelnuts, and Epi Pens have made the cut so far.  So did two boxes of macaroni and cheese.  And a ridiculously expensive candle.  Ahem.

So, while Johan does that (he likes it, weirdo), I'm thinking of the things I particularly miss about our life in Kinshasa.  Like:

1.) A routine.  They say children crave routines.  Well, so do adults.  I miss the ins and outs of our daily lives with all the people that includes - our neighbors, school friends, teachers, students, and mostly the Mamas.  I can't wait to catch up with these women whose lives intertwine with mine.  Facebook chat just doesn't cut it.

Mama Vida, LouLou, and Mama YouYou

2.) The porch.  I really love our porch. We eat breakfast out here every day.  French lessons take place here.  It's best during a rainy season downpour.

Tchic and Elias during French lessons.  (Tchic, I'm sorry I didn't email you in French like I was supposed to.)

Downpour at dusk.

2.)  Jambo Juice.  I've tried a variety of $11.99 cold-pressed-coconut-lemongrass-etcetera juices while in the States this summer.  Congolese-made Jambo Juice still wins.  Especially the lemon. Mmmm.  

Image from here.

3.) Pili pili by Mama Vida.  We're almost out of the gallon she made us to last the summer (yes, we carried hot sauce with us in our luggage).  

Hands of steel.

4.) French.  I miss French and Lingala.  I was truly sad when I heard LouLou playing in the other room with a group of dolls yesterday...speaking to them in English!  It's time to get back to a land of many languages.

5.) Dr. Laure's clinic.  There were a series of events last year that changed Dr. Laure's life and the plans Sarah and I had for regular visits to learn more about her work as an OB/GYN.  I am hopeful we will see her very soon.  I'm also eager to hear more from the doctors, nurses, and others working to build a new maternity hospital in Kinshasa.  Their work is so complicated and important.  

Construction at the maternity hospital.  June 2013.

I can't even begin to make the other list.  The list of everyone we will be leaving 7,000 miles behind for another ten months and what that means.  

So, the above five points become a mantra for the coming days.  One, two, three, four, five, and breathe.

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Friday List!

Jill's List:

First off, the only flight attendants banned from decking themselves out in pink lipstick, fancy nails, and platinum blond hair.  Well, at least we won't risk suffering from "impaired visual integrity" on our flight to Istanbul next month.

Image from Into the Gloss.

Ugh.  In other airport news this week: decapitation while strolling along the tarmac  at N'Djili.

Image from here.

A visit with a midwife in Uganda.  (By Jennifer from World Mom's Blog.)

That set up looks familiar!  Image from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Such incredible, eerie photos.  There are so many abandoned houses, boarded up in Virginia.  I always wondered what was inside...

Image by photographer Niki Feijen, as seen in the Daily Mail.

Damn it.  Congo makes the top (bottom?) of the "toughest place to be a mother" list.  Again.

In DR Congo, one in 30 women die from pregnancy-related causes, whereas in Finland it is one in 12,200

Image by J. Humphrey.  From this post.

And, in a completely different universe: a new-to-me-known-forever-to-everyone-else beauty/style blog.  I've known and adored her boyfriend's street style for ages, but Garance Doré's collection of illustrations, flashed-out photography, and product reviews is superb.  Even better, if I'm feeling particularly classy and/or motivated, I can switch to the French version for a little practice (ha.)  However, after reading this post, I may have asked Johan, "So, what would you think if I ordered a $150 face oil?"  Hmmm.

Image from  Garance Doré.

Best juice ever.  Fresh squeezed + local ingredients = a super rare find around here despite the crazy fruit selection.  I've only found it at La Patisserie Nouvelle and Eric Kayser.  Can you buy it elsewhere, Kin folk?

Image from here.

Sarah's List:

When I saw this article, I gasped. Here is my ridiculously awesome extended family in the New York Times(!) Caught in Methodism's Split Over Same Sex Marriage. I could not be prouder/angrier. The last time I saw Tommy Ogletree he was dancing his head off at one of his children's same-sex weddings mentioned here. Just as any father/theologian should do. Best quote of the week:

 “Sometimes, when what is officially the law is wrong, you try to get the law changed,” 

Dr. Ogletree, a native of Birmingham, Ala., said in a courtly Southern drawl over a recent lunch at Yale, where he remains an emeritus professor of theological ethics. 

“But if you can’t, you break it.” 

Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times

“I actually wasn’t thinking of this as an act of civil disobedience or church disobedience. I was thinking of it as a response to my son,” said the Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree of officiating his son’s marriage to another man.

Here's a list of 12 Countries Where the Government Regulates What You Can Name Your Child. Okay, before we all freak out about China restricting names to ones with characters computer scanners can read, the USA told us Annaïs was not allowed her special character on her passport or birth certificate because, "We don't have that button." Fair enough. Even I still don't know how to make a trema on a PC. I usually go into Word, add the special character, and then paste it in. Seriously. Ah, a mother's love is never-ending. (Wait, just looked it up. Alt+139, really?)

Did you see this study that says having three children is the most stressful number? Maybe makes you want to reconsider this post. Note in the photo below how excluded that poor "third child" is. (Also of note, look at those babies! My, how they've grown.)

Photo from Jill's post, The Third Kid.

I've often wondered about this. How on earth are babies supposed to learn to walk while wearing those bulky diapers? Especially cloth diapers. I've always thought that the hindrance of the bulk of cloth diapers, also worked the other way to cushion the fall when learning to walk. But it turns out it's true that "once freed from the albatross of that bag of pee, babies walk less like babies." Go figure. I wonder if diaperless Congolese babies walk sooner? For sure they do! But maybe it's just because they've been expected to help fetch water and balance things on their heads at the same age my kids are just learning to crawl.

You'd have trouble walking in one of those, too.
Photo by iStockphoto/Thinkstock

And finally we're making this dessert for a dinner party this weekend. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to secure graham crackers, cream cheese and a can of cherry pie filling in Congo. All at the same time. Here's how: 

1- Fight for the graham crackers brought by the embassy worker at the Christmas gift exchange.
2- Bring the cream cheese back frozen from the States. 
3- Happen upon a random can of imported cherry pie filling in the bowels of the Indian grocery store. 

A dessert one year in the making.

Paula Deen's Cherry Cream Cheese Pie

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