The Night the sky lit up!

We had a lovely visitor all the way from Cape Town last week. Petiswa, we sincerely hope you are not too shell shocked from your visit to the city of Kin. You are always welcome.....

It was a lovely Friday evening, and while we were enjoying a Fondue with John & Joan ( Paul's boss and his wife), what sounded like gun shots was in actual fact an enormous light display that took to the blackened skies of the almost boring city. We were at the right place at the right time, as we had the perfect view sitting from our window seats in the restaurant. The fireworks were part of the celebration of the 2nd year of the Jazz Festival. One of the many things this city has to offer. No, it doesn't compare to Cape Town, but then again who needs perfection! At least we have excitement!

SCHOOL'S OUT!

I'm sorry for not keeping my blog up to date this past week. Firstly, we are having problems with our computer. Don't ask me what it is, but it needs to be updated. Paul has asked his brother to look into finding parts in SA. With all the abrupt power cuts, and the motherboard, ( not sure what that is and why they call it that), all the info and and and....... Besides that we also recently had a virus, which was eradicated with Norton ( I do like him)! I also tried to write an entry on Monday, and I got an error report and lost my entire page.

Okay, enough excuses, school also finished last week for the big "Summer Break! Last night we watched an excellent show at Torden's Little Jewels International School. A lot of people are packing up and heading out for the holidays, it feels quite strange, as in SA it's really cold at the moment. And here most people are going to Europe, where it's supposedly warm.

The Mom's around here have been great, everyday having a turn for the children to play at their homes. Today was my turn, and my friend, Joan, the American Lady with no kids, brought around beads for the kids to make bracelets with. They loved it! We all did I think!
It's also quite strange for me, to not have a Nanny here for Torden, and most of the children do. So with all 6 kids, came along, 5 Nannies. And of the 5 Nannies, I would only say that 2 of them were really interested in the children. Quite sad, if you think, that they get paid to literally just look at the chilren, and wipe their snotty noses now and again! Anyway, maybe one day, when I'b big, I'll get one to look after Torden.

Housekeeper Diaries Part III

I'm not sure if the work on our home in Kinshasa will every be complete, but that's all part of the excitement we get to experience here. During the week, I asked my Aimee (our housekeeper), to clean the curtain rails and hang up our new curtains in the dining room. She had to use a ladder, which has been made use of by every contractor that comes to work on our home. Of both the companies, that we use, neither of them have any tools, including hammers, screw drivers etc, and they make the biggest mess, and never clean up after they have left, be it inside or outside.

I was busy with my French lesson on the verandah, when we realised poor Aimee, had taken a tumble. We both ran to her aid as she was sprawled flat on the floor, and the ladder had split in two. She had a really bad gash to her leg, and said her knee was paining. We pulled her to the side, and I called Paul, who is very good at First Aid, luckily his office is only 2 minutes away. He cleaned her up, and Lepauld took her home. The next day, she went to hospital where they gave her a tetanus injection and changed the wound. She has been booked off until Monday, where she goes for another check-up on her wound.

To top it all off, we have a house guest, and 2 extra dogs, which really makes the house look that extra untidy! Well today, Paul put our curtains up, which look stunning, but oops, I just heard a crash, oh no, apparently a bottle of red wine that was on top of our wine cabinet, dropped off and spilled onto the new curtains. Well, I'm too afraid to go and look at the damage. Do you think these curtians may be cursed.....

Feels like Christmas...

Yipee, our container finally arrived! Not sure how long we have been waiting for some goodies to arrive, a couple of months. This afternoon was so exciting as we watched a guy in a bakkie drop it off, then we waited until Paul came home before opening it up. Torden was happy with his share of things, and managed to store all of it, including a box of chocolates, Otee's and Oros juices in his bedroom cupboard. It's a joy to see how excited he gets and knows that all his goodies came from "Afrique du Sud" as he now calls it. Just last week, he told us at dinner time, that he doesn't belong here, " I belong in West Beach" he said. We both looked at each other, and tried to contain our laughter. It happens more and more, where we try so hard not to laugh at the grown up things he says. But the cutest of all is when he climbs into bed with us, puts both his arms around us, and says " I love you guys"!

This morning was our last coffee meeting for the year ( The new year starts in September) with the International Women's Club. It was held at the American Embassey Residence along the river, which is a great spot. Lovely for a coolish dry season ( I want to say winter) morning. We had a speaker from Proctor and Gamble talking of statistics within the DRC, as well as marketing of a sachet to purify water. Interestingly, only 1,5% of the population have HIV/Aids, half the population uses birth control, a large percentage of women die of illnesses related to problems after having too many children close to one another and malaria, is the biggest cause of death amongst children up to the age of 5.

So yes it does feel like Christmas as Paul also received his belated birthday gift from me, a " Tin Tin in the Congo" special edition hard cover. He also got his own ipod speaker system that we are going to us outside and in the bedroom, Paul and his toys! As well as everything seems to be coming to a close here in Kinshasa, lots of friends taking off for far away places as soon as next week. We also attended a painful end of year school play at the Belgian school. I never ordered the year book at Torden's school, and apparently there is a lovely picture of him in his class. Hopefully, I will be able to attain a copy somehow.

Season Changes!

It's that time of the year when you can feel that something different is happening with regards to the weather. Although they say, there are only 2 seasons here, the rainy and the dry season, it definitely feels a bit cooler than usual especially early morning and late afternoon/evening. At around 5pm, the humidity normally rises, but over these last few days, it has been cooler, more breezes, which makes a huge difference on how comfortable you are. I now enjoy sitting more out on the verandah, where most afternoons, it's unbearable. The temperature still soars to 31 deg C, but at least not to 38 or 40 deg C. This is what they call the dry season, with more grey skies, but not much rain.

We are also experiencing changes, like for instance, Torden has a runny nose, in fact most of the children he plays with have it. I had a sore throat yesterday with an upset stomach most of the weekend. Paul calls it the "kinshasa shuffle", a term, most expats use, specifically knowing that someday or other, you will come across it. It could be the water you perhaps drank, the fruit in the salad that wasn't washed properly or simply some or other bug you picked up.

We are just happy that most of the pre-warned marches that took place since last week, regarding the imprisonment of Bemba, by the Belgians, was peaceful! That feeling of anxiety has left me this week.