Weekend List!

Sarah's List:

18 Athletes Going to Sochi Alone. P.S. When do the Olympics start? As you can imagine, winter sports don't get a whole lot of press on the continent of Africa.

If you know me, you know that before I agree to watch a movie I have to figure out how disturbing it is. A dog dies? Someone is tortured? A child is unhappy? I'm out. I use the Parent's Guide on IMDB because that means stuff-you-no-longer-want-to-see-in-a-movie-after-you're-a-parent. Right? Check out these great charts on MPAA ratings. 

Photo secrets of modernist cuisine.

Apparently a lot of people don't know how to make a baby.

The art of presence during grief. 

Kid's author Mara Rockliff visited our students in Congo this week! We all read My Heart Will Not Sit Down in preparation for her arrival. A great book about the time a village in Cameroon sent $3.77 to the city of New York during the Great Depression.

Buy it here!

A fascinating read on money and happiness.


And guess the baby...

Photo credit: Robert Maust

Jill's List:

Beautiful photos of life with kids.

My own photo.  Little kid carrot fist.

Have you ever heard of oil-pulling?  I hadn't until I read this post.  And now I'm really curious...

Making this chocolate bombshell.  (In theory.)

Because I'm always almost going to dye my hair.

From this post.

A follow-up on the McDonald's story that sparked some interested debate.  Where should elders gather?  I love some of the quotes in this piece.

Logo from WikiCommons

Leaving affordable, plentiful French school options is going to be so painful.  Maybe we have a shot at a program like this?

We love school in French.  Photo of Lou and Charlotte's Pre-Maternelle class by Sarah.

Interesting doctor perspective on vaccination and non-vaccination. The most compelling idea in this conversation for me is the fact that we are not islands.  My decisions affect others whether it's obvious or not.  I've been on every side of this argument during my parenting years.

Our old favorite picture of me giving baby Ani a vaccine at the supper table.

Eeek.  I need to order our Valentine's Day cards.  I'll probably go with this place or this place.

Last year's edition.

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NY List!

Jill's List (NY Edition):

I think I creeped out the folks at Fox & Fawn today when I confessed at the register that I had been "dreaming of you all year."  So, then, realizing that I sounded freakish, I had to throw in the magic "I-live-in-the-Congo" phrase to turn the situation around.  But I do literally dream of their amazingly edited clothes for 10 months of the year...

Preparing to indulge in something along the lines of these tomorrow.  Thank you, Alice.

Found a bag.  Not what I thought I wanted, but I did.  Especially at that discount.

Johan took a picture of me and my funky (their word, not mine) wine at Marlow & Sons.  It's so incredibly enjoyable to eat really good food.

Found some amazing photos of Haitian solidarity in 1970's Brooklyn stuffed into a basket in this shop.  While I was leafing through, I realized that many of the snapshots in the pile also featured a person who I'm pretty sure is Morgan Tsvangirai.  Haven't figured that one out yet.

However, after seeing one too many adorable parent/kid groupings today...I'm officially really missing my two babies, who are having some quality grandparent time this week while we hang out with family in Brooklyn.  Email from my mom today:

So, E & L are playing house, with Elias as the father and Lou as the daughter. Do you guys call E & L "honey" and "sweetie pie"? 

So cute and funny….

(We actually call them "Bubba" and "Lucy girl" or..."chicken" - which sounds so much sweeter as the French "ma poule".  I really need to add some culture to my baby nicknames.)

Photo that accompanied the email.  I think they are surviving.  Sniff.

And.  Johan and I on a pier with Manhattan in the background.  Lovely.

Finally, I'm thrilled that Sarah is driving up to the city for an extra-special Thursday morning brunch...

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That Light

There is the particular and unreal light that hits on some evenings - at around 6:10, right before sunset.  All photographers know the Golden Hour. It's when everyone and everything looks soft and gorgeous - like they all stepped out of some beautiful novel. Imperfections disappear and all is perfect.

For example, at least 3 out of our 4 children were crying during the seconds between each of these shots. But, thanks to the Golden Hour, I don't really remember the nasty mood I was in after wrangling those sticky little bodies, bribing for acceptable smiles, and repeatedly wiping the Congo-shine from my face. Instead, as I look at these images, I recall a blissful evening in my jungle backyard with my darling children and good friends.

So, basically, the golden hour is to memories like oxytocin is to labor - wiping your memory clean of the nasty bits and convincing you to do it all again.

I swear this magic time must be at its most persuasive here in the Congo.

All photos by some combination of J. Humphrey, J. Grimsrud, A. Sensamaust, S. Sensamaust.

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One Day in Accra

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this bloated past.

At the risk of appearing quite like my grandparents (who used to subscribe to the wholesome magazine called Reminisce), I want to show you all two more links to amazing photographs of Kinshasa's crazy past.

It's fascinating to me.  Almost distorted and disgusting.  This bloated past.  But beautiful and enticing all the same.

First, is this masterpiece of a research blog, Kinshasa: Then & Now.  Last night, I spent hours pouring over the photos.  So many buildings that are barely recognizable but still standing in some sense of the word.

And second.  This retrospective by photographer Jean Depara (1928-1997).

In Leopoldville, later known as Kinshasa, this is taken for the "American way of life", it's cars and fashionable Bills in cowboy outfits, the electric guitars, sax and the music that takes the merengue, the cha cha cha, and above all, the rumba, into a mad dance known word-wide as "Zairian music". The bands of young Kinshasans, each with their own distinctive attire and their female muses, attend frequently the inumerable bars/dancing halls, support a music band here: Franco's "Ok Jazz", another one there: Joseph Kabasele's "African Jazz".  Athletes, proud of their bodies, parade before their admirers at the pool of the Funa sports complex.

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