Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

My husband is the type of person who invests time in getting 30 eight-year-olds to sort their school supplies by color. I'm the type of wife who sneaks in his classroom and does this:

Heh, heh, take that 8-year-olds. Nobody's growing up organized on my watch!
(There are 6 more baskets just like this one. That's 48 perfectly sorted cups.)

After seeing this, he immediately turns a color that would send him straight to the red cup. So I sent him this link, 30 Infuriating Images That Will Trigger Your OCD. He had a hard time recovering.

I imagine these organization/order folks would enjoy searching the Smithsonian's National Design Museum by color.

How does this guy get cataloged?

  by  Brett Jordan 

Want to have an adventure? Join the Peace Corps. The deadline to sign-up is quickly approaching. Want to get married? Join the Peace Corps. Did you know over 75% of Peace Corps folks return home in love? I believe it. The majority of couples we meet abroad fell in love in the Peace Corps, no exaggeration. Go dopamine!

New Peace Corps volunteers waiting for their flight to Chad. Can you spot our neighbor-friends James and Becca falling in love? They had just met 2 days before this photo. I'm not going to lie, I teared up a little when Becca sent me this pic. Good work Peace Corps, good work.

This Painting of the Danish Royal Family Will Steal Your Soul. Yep.

Condolence telegrams for Jackie Kennedy from MLK, Duke Ellington and more. 

Happy Thanksgiving from Congo! Where we now have Martian pineapples to add to our cornucopia. Seriously, what is this thing? Oh wait, just Googled it. It's a real plant.

Ananas bracteatus.

Be sure to stay tuned next week for more posts about making that Moving Abroad leap. And a very special guest post.

Jill's List:

It's that time of year when I start to fake shop.  (Remember?)  Currently open in my browser is this, this, and this.  Stay tuned for an excellent fluff post about my newest found-in-Kinshasa beauty obsession.

An image from the spanish subvertising group ConsumeHastaMorir, www.consumehastamorir.org

Ordering ten pounds of these.  We really like them "dark, oily, and swarthy."  Oh, and one of these so my parents can transport the precious cargo when they come for their Christmas visit.  Best "suitcase" ever.

"Suitcase" that doubles as closet storage.

Speaking of caffeine...are my years in Seattle to blame for my tendency towards maybespeak?  Hmm.  Maybe.  That sounds interesting.  I'll have to check.

This girl has inherited none of my wishy washy-ness.
Here she is telling me in no uncertain terms that she does not want her picture taken.

Looking forward to seeing my kid play a very white, very blond version of a Siamese prince.  A full community orchestra, featuring these folks among others, will be providing the soundtrack.  (Kinshasa readers: the show runs December 5-7 at 6:30pm at TASOK.  Tickets are $10 in advance/$15 at the door!)  Such an interesting musical for this post-colonial setting.  Apparently, the Brits hashed this issue out way back in 2001.  Thoughts?

Two exciting food finds yesterday:  gelatin sheets (planning to try some of this), and "Magic Time", dinosaur-themed, boxed macaroni and cheese.  Gelatin sheets = success.  Macaroni and cheese = full of bugs.  Damn, I hate that.

Trying to figure out a way to get a pair of Kenyan Bata desert boots in size 11/46 to Kinshasa for Christmas.  Any ideas?  I can't even seem to find them on eBay...

Two recent examples of fabulous grocery graphic design.

Thinking that the peppermint flavor should go into some sort of festive baked good, like these.  But, the bottle seems to scream heavy metals! or something else similarly un-festive.

As Kony "considers" surrender, the guy who has been analyzing China's role in Africa writes about Congo's ghosts.

Chinese site manager.  Kinshasa 2012.

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Fake-shopping

I have developed a serious fake-shopping addiction since moving to Kinshasa.

It mostly involves jcrew.com.  Sometimes kiehls.com.  Often the "natural" section of sephora.com.

(No underwear though.  Those sites are all blocked on our super student-safety-centered iBoss internet security system.  As is Target.com.  Go figure.)

This is how it works: I carefully examine the website (usually while Johan is being a good parent and reading long bedtime stories to Elias), putting anything that catches my eye into my fake cart.  A sweet French-ish dress for Lou.  A hot pink leather belt for me.  A trendy hair pomade that Johan definitely needs.  Some awesome round kid's glasses for Elias.  Six pairs of multi-colored matchstick jeans.  You  know, all the essentials.

An image from the spanish subvertising group ConsumeHastaMorir, www.consumehastamorir.org

When the fake-total of my fake-cart borders on enormous, I then force myself to whittle it down to the "reasonable" realm. (Thinking that I will actually be purchasing these items?)  At this point, my fake-cart sits there in cyberspace for weeks.  Until it times out, erases my goods, and I'm forced to start all over again.

Yes, I really do this.

But, you have to understand that when we moved here, I packed extremely light.  I was more concerned about fitting eight bottles of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps All-One! into our 10 plastic trunks than a good wardrobe.  So, my theory at the time was to pack all black.  Mix-n-Match.  So, I almost-literally packed an entirely black wardrobe.  Which, has led to me being cornered in school bathrooms by missionaries and asked why I "always wear black."  Luckily, my reply to this concern ("I was making space for thrifty concentrated soap!") is more than acceptable and has actually earned me respect. 

Don't get me wrong.  I still love the power of all-black.  But, living in a country where everyone drapes themselves in the most beautiful of insane color at all times, I find myself feeling incredibly drab in my practical, French (that's what I call it) uniform of all-black.

  by  United Nations Photo 

Which leads me to obsessively fake-shop for hot-pink leather belts.  And red pants.  And green sandals.

  by  actionhero 

While I (obviously) love my American online shopping, it's Vlisco that dominates my current dreams.  The perfect collision of pagne and design.  The company's fantastic billboards shock me every time.  They are unlike anything else around them in this city.  (or the Universe.)

The other day, I went to their beautiful showroom in downtown Kinshasa and found it closed.  The guard said I could window shop.  So, while the police loudly harassed an accused voleur next to me, and Kinshasa haphazardly passed behind me, I pressed my nose to the window and fake-shopped high fashion locally. 

I continue to fake-shop with great frequency.  I've only actually tried to order one thing for real.  But, that order quickly got lost and never arrived in Central Africa.  My red pants are who knows where.  I'm seriously considering getting myself some incredibly expensive Vlisco fabric as a 30th birthday present to myself...

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