FINAL WORDS!

It's been 2 months since we arrived back home in Cape Town, and it took me this long to write, as I never felt inspired to do so. All the changes makes you feel like you are living on the outside of a fishbowl, looking at everyone else's life as though their's makes sense, and yours doesn't. But nonetheless, that has finally passed, and we are now part of the rat race.

We all need closure to progress, and that's why I needed to write this last entry, not that my life will come to an end, just that this chapter is now closed, yet never erased! I lived another life, for me it was a role I played, and featured in many people's lives, made a difference, and that makes me eternally grateful for this experience. I will embrace any of life's callings head on, and all the challenges it endures, makes it all worthwhile!

One day, hopefully soon I will write again, with perhaps another story to tell........

Fin is home!

Well after a stressful morning, Fin has arrived in Cape Town after being stuck at Johannesburg International Airport for almost 24 hours. The Pet Travel Agency, managed to convince the State Vet that he needed his legs stretched. The Travel Agent kindly forwarded these photo's of Fin while taking him for a walk, and the other photo is of him at the Doggie Hotel at the aiport. Kinda neat!

BON VOYAGE FIN!

I clearly cannot explain to you how utterly busy we have been these last 2 weeks prior to leaving this city and country. I suppose anyone who has been through it all, will be able to share. It is so overwhelming that I can't even take a piss ( not my usual words, but I needed to use them)!

I will share a few photos to explain. Our dear dalmation, FIN, left at midday on a flight bound to Cape Town, with a lay over in Johannesburg for 2 hours. We froze his water overnight, but on route to the airport had already defrosted. Being the hyper dog that he is, I dosed him with rescue remedy, and Paul said it seemed to have helped. But he couldn't stop his tears as he saw them take our dog in a crate away like a piece of luggage. Luckily, the pet travel agency will handle the rest of the trip. The poor animal now has to go into quarantine for 2 weeks. I'm not sure if I would ever want to put an animal through this whole move again, especially if it's only for 2 years.

Easter Dinner turned Kareoke at Meeja

Birthday Brunch and welcoming for baby Ming
at Helle's.

Carolyn's Birthday Lunch (above)

Farewell Crazy Hat Party! ( one of the many still to come!)

Biorythyms!

I came across an article on biorythyms and how to calculate it by entering your birthdate and the present date. It calculates your emotional, physical and intellectual well-being for the moment. Well mine is on it's way up on all 3 levels. It is phenomenal, considering the highs and lows I am experiencing at present. I would've thought that my emotions are running low, due to my inner-self saying good-bye to all the people I've grown to love here in Kinshasa over the past 2 years. Last week, my driver told me he couldn't sleep and was up all night, as he kept on thinking about Torden, and how much he is going to miss him. When he mentioned this, I couldn't speak for about 5 minutes, as I had to hold back lots of tears. The hardest part is going to be saying goodbye to the people that have lived with us as a family everyday. This was very hard for me in the beginning to actually allow them into my space. To me, it was an invasion of my privacy, I always felt that they would resent me for having "more things" in my life, but I was wrong. They entered our living space with no intention of harm, greed or hate, they lived with around us but not with us. Although they worked for us, they worked with us. We had our ups and downs, but we learnt to love these people. We were invited to an Easter Dinner at my friend's house tonight, and I was asked why am I so sad to leave Kinshasa, I should be celebrating, as it is the one of the worst places to live! She said the only reason should be because I am leaving my friends behind. I disagree, and said that I had felt the same way when I first arrived here, but you learn to close your eyes to the worst things, and only look for the good all around. You find the positivity amongst it all, you manage to look for good all around. I believe this made it a turn around for me, I turned the bad into good. All I know is that, I started journalling my thoughts, and wrote down all the good points about this place, and it far outweighed the bad points. I just kept on telling myself that this was temporary, which also helped, not that I wished my time away. Just because, I knew I had such a short time to find all the things I needed to do or that the universe required me to do here. And as a warning to you all, if you want to do so many things with your life in the next few years, plan it all and list it in order of preference as you may run out of time just like I have......

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Just to let you all know that I'm back from Holiday in Bali and a short stay I had in Cape Town. Now I only have the following 3 weeks to get organised, packed, say a hundred goodbyes and return to my home city! We are still tired from our jet lag and holidays, and Kinshasa is just the place to re-energise.

SHOPPING!

Shopping Kinshasa style has never been easy. For an interesting read, please look at my friend's blog, Kristen. She has explained it so well, except for the part where she gets to order clothes online, and luxury edible items! A diplomatic right!

http://kristen4d.blogspot.com/

CHOCAHOLICS!

It's friday late afternoon and I am so exhausted from this busy week of socialising, I need to get back to Cape Town just to chill! Lucky me, we are going in two weeks for RnR. The caption on the picture on the left is specifically intended for my American friend, Kristen. "This is so you darlin!" She is the queen of chocolate, any dessert to do the with the sinful ingredient, is made by madame herself. I cannot imagine how many calories I have consumed by eating her desserts alone. Today she made "Crack", which her sister named, because you could get hooked on it so easily, a mouth-watering sort of mini cake made from Oreos. Well I am not a fan of chocolate but she will certainly turn me into one very shortly.

I did Scrapbooking on Wednesday morning, and one of the girls made biscotti, which I'd much more prefer, a real appertiser for cappuccino. I brought home a few that she packed in especially for me. Later that afternoon, I decided to have one with my coffee, and found only one left, but it had been dipped in water. GUESS WHO?? Torden decided that he liked them to, I was so mad, I demanded he dry the last one out, and I tried to eat it later that evening, well I can assure you, it's not the same. Not one place I know of sells them, so I now have to wait a few weeks until I reach South Africa, and you know the feeling when you want something you can't have, you automatically want it MORE..............

Well up to date, I have sold a lot of our household goods, that is the greatest feeling, to be able to discard, sell and give-away! I feel like I'm on the reality tv show " CLEAN HOUSE", except, I don't get to keep the house, and I don't get a home makeover, I need to do that all by myself.

I also have an issue with Torden and his school. I dropped him off this morning at school, something I hardly do anymore, as Lepauld ( our driver), is quite capable and enjoys doing it, and it gives Torden a chance to speak a little French with him. I was immediately called aside by one of his teachers, to reprimand me for not spending enough time with Torden in the afternoon after school with his homework, and how I need to consider doing numbers with him, as he doesn't recognise the numbers 1 - 10. I mean, c'mon, the child is 4 years OLD. It's ridiculous the way they push the children. Besides he is in Montessori, where they are supposed to work at their own pace. And not be compared to children in his class his own age. She specifically mentioned his friend's name. I felt really bad at first, but after thinking about it seriously, I am MAD! I told his teacher from when he started getting homework that I am not going to push him, and I don't. He does some of his homework while eating breakfast before school, as he is so tired when he comes home from school which is from 8am - 2pm Mon - Fri. You know she even said that he should be aiming to write 1 - 100 soon. HA ha ha ha! I don't know what we are doing pushing our children like this, I know that things are bad around the world, but hey give us a break!

ANY COMMENTS PLEASE????

ICE-CREAM DATE

On Saturday, Torden went on his first date. Yes he is only 4 years old, but such a romantic at heart, ever since he discovered his masculinity about 2 years ago. He told me dozens of times that he wants to marry me, and his imagination takes him on the these "prince charades". That was until he saw the girl of his dreams last year on Valentine's Day, that is when I first heard about Selina. I came to pick him up from school, and he was sitting next to her on the bench.

I never knew however, that this beautiful little girl, was the daughter of the owner of a bakery/restaurant, who we knew very well. Well then word got out, and now it's been the standing joke, that Torden wants to marry her, and we need to pay a lot of money to her father one day. Yes it might seem over the top, but it's all very light-hearted.

It started off, with Torden receiving marbles for good-behaviour, and as soon as he receives 10 of them, he gets to choose what he wants to do, he chose to take Selina for an ice-cream. I arranged with her Mom last week to bring her over to Chantilly in the afternoon. They sat together and each chose their own flavour, all innocent, and enjoyed themselves tremendously. For the next 10 marbles, he wants to take his friend, Rudra for pizza! I think it's a great reward, and somehow the it works.

Bopping Lizard

I love the way you bop to the beat of nature,

your brightly coloured capes you wear, show off your true beauty,

some may think you ugly,

some may even be scared,

I think the Sun knows who to worship.

Friggin Frogs!

Paul told me to write about this episode in my blog, sorry "our blog".
Well it goes something like this; On Tuesday evening, just about half past ten, I went to bed after having good night to Paul who was watching tv, just to get tire himself in order to have a good night sleep. He hadn't slept well the last 2 nights, as we often have long endless nights of thunder and lightning, and Fin barks the entire time. Paul usually has interrupted sleep, consoling the dog, while Mom and son sleep through it. Well just as I switched the light off, a frog started croaking, and then a few more of them joined in. Well it felt as if these darn little frogs were under our bed, they were so loud! I then pulled the covers over my head and tried to fall asleep. I usually sleep through anything, but these %*&^# frogs were too loud. I eventually dozed off, and woke up with the loudest croak I have ever heard. Almost as if the King BULL Frog had returned to the choir. Now I've seen these frogs, and they are the tiniest, cutest little frogs, in fact, I pointed it out to Torden the other day in the garden, and commented on them. Now I feel like pointing them out, and stepping on them. Someone said, I should shine a light on them, with a torch or something, and they'll jump away...... So long little frogs... Tonight I'm going to find me the strongest Mag-lite and guess what, I'll be singing in my dreams.....

Things I'm going to miss or Not going to miss.....

Things I'm going to miss about the DRC;

1. The lush, tropical nature, trees, plants and flowers and the birds that sing from morning till night.
1. I'm not going to miss watching the Congolese/Chinese destroy the beauty that is still left in the city. Today we drove past the Golf Course, which you can see from the Boulevard, and there must have been about 5 huge trees that have been hacked to death, some of the trees landed on the border fence of the golf club, and totally destroyed the beauty of the boulevard. Where have all the birds gone, far far away, not ever coming back again.......la la la......

2. The low petty crime rate ( remember I'm going back to SA).
2. I'm not going to miss the aggressiveness of the street children and the corrupt policemen.

3. The hot climate all year round.
3. I'm not going to miss the humidity, it drives one insane, and can lead to a slow suffocation, I'm sure.

4. My Friends, socialising and night clubbing and gin & tonics. I'm going out again this Wednesday with the girls, while the husband stays at home.
4. I'm not going to miss the late nights, sore heads and feet from dancing all night.

5. Our staff at home, the gardener, the maid, the driver, the guards. We are going to miss their smiles when they run to greet us every morning. Especially their attention towards Torden, they love him so much, and treat him so well. Most Congelese are so child-friendly, it's one of the things we noticed right away on arriving here almost 2 years ago.

Friday the 13th!

"To be or not to be" - Afraid, be very afraid.... I'm really not put off by not getting out of bed on Friday the 13th! Man, I was born on that day, so why should I be. Big bad things don't really happen. One year, I did have the electrical garage door, bang down on my car, I was holding the remote, but pressed the wrong button, and couldn't get it up fast enough. Just dinged the top of roof of my car a little. This year, I broke 3 things, and then it stopped. ( a glass, an egg, and Paul stepped on my glass of tonic water, and it broke too)
I had a lovely day last Friday, I organised a Spa Day with a few girlfriends at my home.
The next day was our 11th wedding anniversary! We went out for breakfast, and that evening, a good friend of ours came over, and we had Laurent Perrier champagne ( the best France could ever produce)! He handed us a lovely gift, wrapped in the most gorgeous wrapping, something you never see much up here. I had romantically lit some candles, and proceeded to pose for a photo, when Paul noticed the packaging gong up in flames. Well there goes my idea of not being superstitous, even though this was the day after. We were in fits of laughter, and went out and had a lovely dinner together.

We also ended up at a Bubbles Pool Party, which the Dutch expats, usually arrange, lots of fun, reminded me of those American Movies, where young students are usually joking around the pool, and consuming loads of alcohol. We hid under the palm trees to avoid been thrown in. Anyway Paul was quite sick with bronchitus, so it wouldn't have been good for him at all. Well my poor husband, is now at home with a touch of pneumonia. I am really fortunate ( touch wood), that I have not caught many bugs and illnesses in Kinshasa. I just think, that most of us Moms are tougher!

Au Revoir!

News is out and it's official, we are leaving Kinshasa at the end of April Not the best news, but news anyway. It's been a great journey, and although I must say, in beginning I thought I'd never be able to feel at home here. I'm happy to say, with persistent good thoughts it became a reality. I am extremely sad to be leaving. My life is an absolute joy at present, there are always good and bad days, and that is if you live in any city in the world. What better life could I possibly want than where I am right now. We all have different desires, so what some may think is not desirable, makes me content. I love the French word " content" which means happy. There is a definite similarity in that being content, you are automatically happy. The wonderful friend's we've made as a family, my girlfriend's, the activities, social clubs, sport and relaxed home life, the gardener, our excellent driver, the weather ( I love the fact we are able to swim all year round, in the outdoors)


Our beautiful colonial home, and everyone that visits us, mentions this fact, is being demolished to accommodate a high rise building of apartments. Unfortunately, with rentals being in the region of $9000 - $12000 a month for a home in the central area of Gombe, most expats cannot afford a freestanding home, and stay mostly in compounds. Pity that they are tearing down the city, and taking out all the beautifully lined avenue of trees, to make way for a new 4 laned main road.

So for us, it's back to normal life in Cape Town with no more chances of catching malaria, amoeba, typhoid, bronchitus, and any other disease. One of my selections for returning would be to be able to go to the cinema, shopping mall, eat healthy fresh food, "Kahui" here we come......

Today's Visit!

Marianne picked me up this morning after yoga at 9:15am and I was late, so caught her playing with Fin in the garden. I mean who wouldn't want to play with our lively dog in a beautiful garden on a warm sunny morning. It took us about 45minutes to get to Binza, and we side-tracked onto a dirt road. The weather was much cooler out there, it clouded over and eventually it started to rain. We went through a white barrier with a guard who greeted us, and drove through to the last building, which looked nicely painted and fairly new. I was told that a South African company operating in the DRC donated the money for the construction of this building. The orphanage houses about 60 children in different sections of the huge property run by an Italian man. He has been here in the Congo, with the children for over 30 years. Marianne, herself has been coming here for 5 years.
The first section we visited, was with the handicapped children, which Marianne feels need more attention than most. some of them don't get to leave their beds. We handed out a few construction toys to the children on the stoep, and helped them try to build it. I expected the worst in conditions, but was fairly surprised at the good, clean and livable place, these children call home. What I was not expecting was a little fight that went on between 3 little boys, and they managed to clunk Marianne on the head with a wooden toy in the battle. These children, yearn for attention, and just need to be given a short time of your love and affection. Upon entering the interior of the home, we both picked up two toddlers out their beds, and at once smelled the urine stains in the beds all around. I played with the blind boy, who clung to my arm, and just wanted to touch my skin. He also loved it when I clapped his hands. I'm not sure what I was feeling at this stage, my heart told me to not to feel pity, and just enjoy the moment, and I went with this lovely feeling. It wasn't that I wanted to feel self-worth, just love. I am happy for feeling this, and I really expected to be bawling my eyes out at the sight or thought of even visiting the orphanage. I never did, instead I enjoyed every minute, and would do it all again soon. We went onto visit the other little building, where lots of little ones between the ages of 18months - 3years, were grabbing onto my legs and calling me "mondele" which means "white person" in Lingala ( local Congolese language). I laughed at the thought of this, and then they were touching my hair as I bent down. I realised, after playing with them for over an hour, that besides basic needs, these children are in need of just someone to show them affection and attention for a few minutes, if not longer. It makes me think of just how much my own child needs.
I now sit and wonder what will become of them, if they are deprived at such an early age, how will they ever know how to love and live.

Me? Dancing Queen!

Cape Wine Sales

When I got back from holiday 2 weeks ago, and our yoga group hadn't started up yet, I was persuaded by one of the Mom's at Torden's swim lessons to join them for a Salsa exhibition dance at the next LADY's NIGHT. It turned out to be a Lady's night with partner's on a Friday evening, not the normal Thursdays, and it would be at Vicky's house, not the usual night out at a restaurant in Kinshasa. I never turned the opportunity down, being the "dancing queen" that I am. I grew up dancing, around the house, in the car, yes I even did modern dancing lessons for my entire schooling life, as well as a few years in my later years. I did shows and exhibitions before, so I was game! Well, I was also unfit for Salsa, had 2 weeks of 2 hours dancing non-stop, my neck hurt for a few days thereafter. It must have been those sharp, dramatic head twists to the back ooh la la..... Our tutor, Christian, is a great dancer, not letting us giggling girlie's stop for just any excuse, he encouraged us, gave us the confidence to put on a small show. There were 4 of us faithfuls, and we had lots of fun! Now, the BBQ was set outside on the lawn, and the new stage was set on the grass, euw.....but nonetheless it turned out to be a great evening. I even had a SA stall selling some good white wine from the Cape. Now to get me back to a Salsa class, of course!

A WISH FOR MY SISTER!

THIS IS A BIRTHDAY WISH FOR MY SISTER, KIM.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISTA!

I remember my little sister while growing up as being the tough cookie!

Whenever she got mad at me, which was quite often, as I could be quite irritating at times, she would have that look in her eyes that would send me running.................

Yet, she has the kindest heart, the bluest eyes and a funny sense of humour! You know how when two people think something's humurous, and all they need to do is just look at each other and start laughing, nobody even knows what they are giggling about. That's us, always was, and still is today.

Friends forever!

You'll love this one Kim, describes us.....

"Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts." -- Author Unknown

Can you think of anyone?

SAME - Same

When Torden sees 2 alike things, he always says: same-same. It reminds of the how we started the new year, everything is the same. Nothing seems to have changed in Kinshasa, a few friends have left, one more friend is departing us at the end of January, yet life still seems to be the same. There are always going to be lows and highs of every change, but realistically we carry on living. The prices at the supermarkets have gone up, but then again, last year they also went up, not too mention the few times during the year that the groceries went up in price. Globally, there is a financial crisis, locals are getting less for their dollar and the situation is that they are still poor, nothing has changed. We have been told to be cautious on the roads, as there seems to be more of a chance to be harrased for money as there is not much out there. We were caught out last year a few times by bribes on a small nature, and it hurts this economy, it hurts the man on the street and Africa is not going to change. The fighting in the East of the country has apparently decreased. My wish is that the attitude out there will not be the same, the dreams of the DRC and it's people will be changed.

SOUL'S PURPOSE!

I have just been doing some soul searching this evening, I did a reading from my favourite deck, Classical Mythology Deck, and found the following few things.
That I am maturing ( or evolving), while living here, this I can believe! But that I have a spiralling negativity attached. Not sure if it's attached to me, or if Kinshasa is a negative place to be right now. I have a wild flare, and have spent time in Nature in my past year. That's for sure, living here, you are surrounded by nature, just my garden has 4 huge palms, not too mention the little palm trees and birds that sing amongs the noise of traffic, I live on a thoroughfare, if the traffic is heavy,everyone uses our road as a detour. Friendship is my strength, and gives me just as much power, as I give to my friends.
I realise that I am here to learn from our experience, and whatever the future holds will be just as great, if not better!

When I stepped off the plane last week, I looked back, and saw my friend and her family stepping onto their plane, leaving Kinshasa. I wished she had urned around, so I could wave to her, but it never happened. I wanted to call her and tell her this. I never did. I know that she had great times here, and was sad to leave. She told me that in Germany, it's not as easy to make friends, even though she was a friendly person. Here friendships, are made based on familiarity, or similarity, we are all on the same level, no better off that the other. Our children, are all the same, we all go back to our "other" homes once or twice a year, we all know that we are here for a short while, some shorter than others. This makes life almost easier. It is simpler, yet effective in that we concentrate more on evolving ( there's that word again) our relationships. On that subject, all relationships should improve, if not, they were never happy to begin with. I love the feeling of being in a world that works for us, our lives, and our families.
An almost, "Perfect world" if this exists.

Today, while out shopping, a group of street children, accosted us while walking to our car, quite scary, as they came up our of nowhere. And were darn rude, showing us the parted finger, and they openly displayed metal objects, with which they could cause harm.
On seeing this today, nothing could be worse, than the headlines of our local newspaper, in Cape Town, The Cape Argus, where a man was outside mowing his lawn, when 2 guys shot him in the head, and made off with just his cellphone. This man happens to live in my suburb, just up the road from where we lived. ( NEGATIVITY, it's all in the air, unavoidable)

I shall end on a happy note of Friendship.

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
Anaïs Nin

COLD AND HOT!

Here we are another year, and life is just passing us by! Happy New Year!

We managed a 35degree Celsius temperature change on our arrival home on Saturday night. They say, ( and I suppose you've heard this one before) that Europe is experiencing the coldest winter in 10 years. I actually believe them this time. As we drove through Belgium on Friday, we saw the most beautiful snow capped trees and just knew it was colder than the week before that when we left Belgium for Austria.

There is so much to tell when you've come back from holiday. I cannot sum up the entire holiday, but I suppose I can give you the highlights in date order.

1. 19 Dec - 28 Dec Rovaniemi and Helsinki, Finland

2. 29 Dec - 1 Jan Brugge, West Flanders , Belgium

3. 2 Jan - 8 Jan Salzburg and Tirol, Austria

4. 8 Jan - 9 Jan Traben- Trabach, Germany

Not too mention we hired a car in Belgium and drove for 9 hours through Germany on the Autobahn. Each and every city was beautiful, and each part of our holiday was different. The most beautiful part for me was to spend Christmas in the snow, and to have an Artic Circle experience. I loved Rovaniemi, ( The home of Santa Claus) and I loved each and every part of my day spent in this warm, friendly and delightful place. From the snow mobiling, to the husky dog farm, to the cooked salmon eaten under a warm teepee in the freezing temperatures, right down to the reindeers. You cannot imagine, coming from South Africa, that this is really what Christmas is all about, you see it on pictures, you sing about it in the songs, but you never experience it. I know that besides not being with my family, it has been the Christmas I always dreamed of!