Sarah's List:
Tomorrow morning begins the big trek home for Famille Sensamaust. Funny I just found this list of the
10 Worst Airport Terminals. I go through two of these on an annual basis (Nairobi and Paris). And I can say for sure that all 10 of these airports look like the Taj Mahal next to Kinshasa's N'Djili. We really should do a post about that cattle barn of an airport. I think my proudest moment of coordination was pumping in the "bathroom" there with no running water, a door that didn't shut and a stall with every inch covered in untouchable, unidentifiable substance. Oh and Congolese women shouting outside in French, "What's she doing in there!?"
Though we try not to get too political, c'mon this
is us here. Is
Israel the new South Africa?
I knew the vaccine ruse was a bad idea!
How killing Osama bin Laden may have derailed eradicating polio. The polio outbreak in Republic of Congo (our neighbor across the river) is mentioned here. Last year when Adam and I got back from there, I was cornered at the port on the DRC side while some guy tried to give me a polio vaccine, despite the fact that I was hugely pregnant and already vaccinated. Thanks
Rotary Club.
This looks like a really
fascinating documentary. Have corporations really taken over everything?
No children? No problem!
Child free women explain themselves.
Charlotte chipped her two front teeth this week.
Remember this list of things NOT to do before we leave. And to think the Mamas were afraid of facial bruising and mosquito bites. You should have seen the look on Mama Youyou's face...
And Tony,
everyone agrees. You need to come to Congo.
Remember this?
Jill's List:
I've been following the notes of children's book illustrator, Sophie Blackall as she is introduced to Congo this week. Apparently she's teamed up with The Rubella & Measles Initiative to develop a series of illustrations showing the plight of children in the DRC suffering from these illnesses.
“I can read that 380 children die a day globally from measles, and yet, as I wave my own healthy children off to school in the morning, I cannot possibly imagine the truth of this until I see it,” said Ms. Blackall. “I love making pictures that encourage children to turn pages or that cheer up subway commuters, but I've never worked on pictures which might conceivably save lives. I am very pleased to contribute to the Measles & Rubella Initiative’s effort to do just that.”
We're flying to BRU and then, IAD. beginning Sunday night. Our second flight is on United. I'm trying really hard to get over a deep feeling of disappointment fueled by extreme Euro carrier bias. Sarah keeps talking about her double decker AirFrance flight with a 24-hour snack bar. Whatever. Maybe United will strike. That should be just as fun as a European luxury long-haul, right?
Making final arrangements for LouLou to attend French Montessori preschool next year.
Elias is going to have to get even better at sibling rivalry au Francais.
"Arrête!" and "Laisse!" will be a little too elementary soon.
Hilariously accurate article for those of us finding ourselves needing to shop for underthings in the training bras section.
Planning on
feasting on this menu upon our return to Harrisonburg next week. (Can't wait to try the desserts
made my our lovely friend, Rachel.)
And...cannot wait to visit this beauty (co-owned by the above friend):
Maybe they'll let me order in French? That would be an example of really inappropriate expat behavior...
However, I might just have to make
this to tide me over until next week.
And. Speaking of food. I really agree with
these tips.
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We are planning to keep up a 3x/week posting schedule during our Stateside vacation. Please excuse any delays next week as we get settled in a gorge ourselves on salad and fresh milk. Yum.
