i'm dreaming of a ... white christmas?

Christmas Day

Christmas in the Congo is, again, very different. My second Christmas, and I'm still not used to the way things are. I should have written earlier, but just didn't get a chance. In the States, you start hearing Christmas music in stores and in your car and home about the day after thanksgiving....and every year the decorations on and in people's houses seem to come out earlier and earlier. The familiar red, green, gold, maybe silver, decorating everything, the weather starting to get colder and colder...people seem to start getting happier (or more stressed...either way). You begin the hectic crazy shopping, buying in bulk because you just never know who else the gifts might be used for. You never know when the relatives will call and you have to be ready to get a room ready for them if they tell you they're coming... You start finding you have a lot less money saved for Christmas than you thought you had.... You hear the bells at WalMart & Target telling you to give to the Salvation Army or another charity...and people drop in their extra measley change...The parties start....the fires, the egg nog, picking out the tallest tree in the lot --hoping it will fit in your house under your ceiling without having to cut TOO much top off.....driving out at night to go look at lights on people's houses, there's no doubt about it. It's Christmas time, and Christmas is coming fast!
That is how it always is for my family in the States. But here in the Congo, things are quite different. The spirit isn't really the same. You don't see very many decorations. Some of the decorations you do see are the tacky kind that were rejected in other countries so it comes here (you know, the pink and blue wreaths... the NoN-christmas colors, but they're all sparkly so it's still decorative or festive?) It is blazing hot because it's summertime. You don't ever want cocoa or a fire (but you don't have a fireplace anyway), you don't wish for a white christmas because it's just not possible. There are no malls to have a crazy all-day shopping marathon at. There is no Salvation Army. You have to break down and buy a fake tree no matter how tacky you think it is. You have to break down and buy some tacky decorations, sprinkle some tinsel, as well....You don't worry because the relatives just aren't going to call, but you may have some friends that hint they need a place to eat Christmas dinner at....no matter how many decorations or fake trees you put in the house it still doesn't feel like Christmas. You will never have as many Christmas presents under the tree as you might in the States, but you will for sure have some very unique gifts you can only find in the Congo!!

And the list could go on. But there is at least one thing the same. You celebrate Jesus's birth, and remember He is the reason you have all the traditions and celebrate on the 25th. We had an amazing service on Christmas Eve, and even though we didn't have a candle light service at night, we had an awesome day. I've never sang Joy to the World so loud, i don't think, as i did in choir yesterday! Being in the choir has been so good for me. I can't get enough of singing with that diverse group....even if we spend most of our time sweating, and waiting for the altos and tenors to figure out their parts! that's part of the fun I don't really know what it is exactly that I love about that international choir, but yah...
And spending time with my sister has been too much fun! And the Stones moving here, following us all the way from Congo! And the other families who came at the end of the summer too! How could it get any better? I'm SO THANKFUL this year for everything God's done in my life and lives around me.... I can't say I prefer a Congo Christmas to a normal one, but there is something (quite a few things actually) that I do like about it...and it's a totally different experience that I've loved this year!
Thank you to everyone here in Congo who has helped me enjoy this year, the encouragement, the laughs, getting together and sharing memories or stories....I love you all! I'm almost done with the 2 years here and soon I'll be off to college, but every day keeps getting better, and I never thought I'd ever be able to say that! So thanks. That's about it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you ALL!

out of water

From left: Shannon & Theo, Todd, my dad, and (bottom) Mr. Steve!

I had a good week, but Saturday was definitely the highlight!
I went to choir practice.... and afterwards, the Stones, Mr. C, and Mr. Ligon came over to our house. When we got there, there was no power, and it had been off all day, so i was a little disappointed. Ok, i was really bummed actually! My dad goes, "Why don't i just pray that it'll come on so we can have some fun and cook some dinner?" and so we all close our eyes except Mr. C. who is sitting by me, poking my shoulder going, "Is he serious? Is he actually seriously praying? What's he doing?" !! and my dad is actually praying a nice prayer....but it was SO funny!!! then the rest of the night he was like "I'm so sorry Waltie, i feel bad about that, i really didn't know you were seriously praying though......will you forgive me waltie? i feel bad..." Mr. Steve's famous words are 'I FEEL BAD!' :-) And he gives you this little innocent i feel bad face and puts his hand over his heart! hahah it's a scream!! So then a little later the power does come on and we all clap and Todd goes 'Hey walt, since it worked, i have quite a list of other things that i need to pray for, so can you--?" he was kidding, of course, and Mr. C. was like "It's a miracle!!" :-) And then he was "feeling bad" again because he was all surprised that the prayer had worked! So our casserole finally heated up while we're watching scenes from Tyler Perry ---this really funny actually christian comedy show called I Can Do Bad All By Myself. So anyway we are about to eat and my dad tells mr. c. to bless the food which he should know by now, is a mistake, because every time he does it the prayer is long and makes us all crack up! He was like "Dear God, thank you for Walt. .....Thank you especially for Daniel [mr. ligon] because we don't get to spend very much time with him, but i do not thank you for todd and shannon because i see them ALL the TIME!!! ....And i pray for sarah. Lord, she's got problems [his other famous line-- 'you've got' or 'she's got problems!!' -- he always jokes about sarah having the major problems]. Thanks for theo but thank you especially for Eva. She's just perfect. .. .. ...." -----And our dinner went downhill from there! Kidding. *well, kinda...* First Mr. C. put the christmas napkin rings on his ears which looked REALLY funny, and then sarah & theo copied, then shannon put the wooden napkin rings on her ears, and dad and todd put their red napkins as do-rags on their heads...I went and got 2 tiny ornament balls and hung them on my ears, put tinsel in my hair, and a big silver bow around my neck. Sarah put a wreath over her neck, and mr. ligon got the ornaments and a big silver garland thingy to put around his neck. I took a few pictures!! it was too much fun! Somehow we got talking on the subject of food fights and mr ligon said his mom one day started one at their house when he was a kid by throwing a glass of water in his face from across the table!! My mom.... about 5 mins later was going around filling everyone's glasses up, and when she got to Steve's glass, she goes "Would you like some more?" and before he had the chance to say yes, she poured the ENTIRE PITCHER right on his back!!!!! My dad's jaw dropped to the floor, my jaw dropped and sarah and theo's too. It was shocking!!!! I was like "there's no way my mom just did that" everyone else was just laughing! And mr. c. the whole time was going "Do you actually think this is funnY? Why are you laughing? This isn't funny!!" Not in a million years had he expected my mom to do something like that!! WELL, ME NEITHER!!!! Since moving here (or since meeting the cabalkas, i dunno which!) my parents have gone crazy!!! but it was so funny. My mom went over to my dad and stood behind him and suddenly mr. c. threw his cup of water on both of them!! They threw some more back, todd tossed some on sarah, and then we were out of water! Todd put an ice cube down sarah's back too. :-) awesome night!!! We then watched some Jeeves & Wooster and had dessert. Mr. Ligon told me "Sorry Eva, we're letting our hair down tonight." I was like does he not know i'm used to this? Just not the water thing and my mom... but i am totally cool with the Cabalkas and Stones gettin crazy!! They're too much fun.

Well, Hope you enjoyed the story..............i'm on my way to bed!

A truly Congolese Experience

My goodness gracious!! Today was a Congolese experience! :-)I love Congolese.... but i haven't sweated so much in my life. Ok let me explain.Today after church, we (the choir) drove to the British Embassy to sing for them at their Royal Ambassador's Christmas Staff Party! We were all in black and white church-type clothes, and the ambassador shows up in a tshirt. It was funny! You just don't expect that of a british ambassador! So I got to meet him, and he was nice... asked me about my family and how I liked it here. What do people expect when they ask me that? One of the ladies in the choir was asking me which I liked better. Congo or America. Hmmm...wellllll.....les deux! (both!) I don't wanna make it sound like i hate it here, and my french isn't good enough to explain that I like parts of Congo and I've made good friends here, and my families also here so i have to like it....so i will be sad but a bit excited when I graduate and head out. But it's just funny when they ask me that question. I think they know that it's not the most fun place to live and life is hard every now and then! But I also like it here at the same time. I've made awesome friends and there are just some amazing people here with really kind hearts. Then there are days when I feel like screaming at Congolese. The driving, the pushiness of them, the selfishness, the "GIVE ME MONEY" thing, the madam! madam!!!, the squishing 40 people into one van, the coming late to everything thing, the electricity/water deal, the kissing noise guys make to get my attention.....okay this will never end if i don't stop now!! C'est la Vie! I am not complaining, i have actually learned how to be happy in a place like this. And you really enjoy the little things when you come to a place like this. But back to my day today.We sang, and I had a really short solo in Lingala that i've done like 50 times for church (maybe 3 times actually but it seems like 50!) and my voice cracked or something weird and i just couldn't make the real high note. Every time I've sung it, i've messed it up in some little way!! Gosh, it's not that hard but i always have some kinda problem and it really frustrates me! I think it's nervousness, and i've told the choir guy i don't wanna do the solo, but he and everyone else always say i should. It was the second song we did so i was just so glad it was over. We sang mostly christmas carols and then we ate lunch. There were so many Congolese at this party, which surprised me. But then again, i knew that there weren't that many British people because i would have seen them by now! They had so much food. Congolese food -- the pondue, foo foo, beans & rice, fish (with the heads still intact), fried plantains (the bessst!!), chicken-- beef, kebabs, salad, green beans, bread, 3 kinds of rice... everything! And mince meat pies for dessert:-) So it was fun, just extremely hot! When we were getting ready to go, Mrs. Francis (the choir director and missionary here) drove the 12passenger van. Most of the choir members had somehow missed their rides they came with so 18 were trying to find a ride with her but she only had 11 seats. So 14 came! I was squished in the back. I felt so congolese...What shocked me was that, though we were all sweating (for some reason i was sweating the most!!) and it didn't smell bad! hahaha ... i had sweat just dripping down my face and body, it was bad. I spoke some french with Mignonne (a choir member) and told her about going to "l'universite" next year. I really need to get over my shyness and speak french more often!! What's my problem? I know more than i give myself credit for i think, i just am afraid of messing up or something? I don't know what it is, but i just close up. We took the choir members to church and then to this main street where they all could get off and catch a "taxi." Now taxis here aren't at all what taxis are in the states. Here, they are big vans, little vans, and cars. Basically, anything that runs, is a taxi! Usually the drivers will take out all the seats in a van so that he can make his own little wooden benches which will fit much more people. When the taxi is full, that doesn't matter at all, because all you need to do is get on the back and hold on. Yeah i've seen like 4 people hanging onto the back door of a van. It's insane!! And the vans are jam-packed, with about 8 people just sitting in the front by the driver, on top of the driver, squished against the windshield!! I mean can you imagine living like that? And when it rains, not many taxis run, so you're just stuck! One of the teachers at TASOK lives near us, and last year she rode these taxis! Brave woman. You have to guard your purse like your life and know good french or lingala. I could never do that! And she did it every day! But I am thankful for this experience here. It's changed my life in many ways i know, and i would not be the person that i am had i not come here. I know i am fortunate to get to live overseas in a totally different culture, meet people from all over the world, and see things you just never would get to see staying in the States. Singing for the British ambassador at his house in a very international choir.... i think that's cool! I'm gonna go do some homework now. I'm so tired! I just needed to get that out of my system.

Kloofing with baboons

So I just got home from South Africa on Friday! Missed only a whole week of school, but was gone almost 3 weeks! --Our school shut down because of the elections and the unrest--There really wasn't anything too major that happened in Congo besides the Supreme Court being burned down... but it was good to get outta the country for a bit anyhow!My birthday celebration went on for a long time! One of my gifts was to get to go Kloofing. Kloofing is like SA's word for canyoning (canyoneering?). Canyoning is hiking up a gorge, rappelling down a cliff, and jumping off high rocks into water. I guess that's a good definition for it. So I went with Todd and Shannon, and the night before we did it, we stayed at a Backpacker. A backpacker is a very cheap hotel (this one cost us like $11!) with bunks and not much else. They gave us bedding but they are made for people with no money like hikers or backpackers to rent them out, and usually a backpacker would have his own sleeping bag and whatever he needed. But we got soft pillows and blankets and i slept like a rock, even though this place was located on Cape Town's main street, and had a very busy night life! When we got there, it was midnight and the guy said he was just about to "lock up and light a joint." Todd apologized we interrupted THAT! The place was decorated all hippy like, and there was a Masai warrior eating something in a bowl. He had his spear and red uniform, and BIG hair with cow dung in it (looked like it!)!! I was like duuude... there's some african security for ya!We slept safely.In the morning we walked down the street a little ways to Abseil Africa, the office of the adventure place that was taking us out kloofing. Abseiling is the south african (and apparently british, and maybe everywhere else except america!?) word for rappelling. We met the rest of our group there. It was the Stones, me, Ms. Sarah Ewbanks (an elem. Teacher @ tasok), a british girl, and 3 british guys. We were supposed to be ready to leave at 7:15, but it wasn’t before 7:40 that anyone appeared at the Abseil place to let us in the door. Finally we went up, and by this time Todd had gone and got us all some coffee. It was raining outside!! But people were saying “Don’t worry, it’ll probably clear up, and it may not even be raining where we’re driving!” so we didn’t worry. We met our guides – Shane, LoLo, and Chip. Chip was from Gombe in Congo, and he had walked from Congo to SA 9 years ago!! Well walked/hitchhiked…but can you imagine? LoLo was I guess South African, but he had lived some years in NY, and he was really funny… Shane was a different story all together. He was about 24 I’m guessing, and from Texas and MA (well kind of all over but mostly from texas). He graduated high school in 2000 but never went to college. This might be kinda harsh, but you could tell. Not one sentence out of his mouth went without at least one cuss word! And at first, I kinda liked the guy, .. kinda thought he was funny, but after that first hour in the car, I just got plain TIRED of all the swearing he did. He was a nice guy besides that, but just a little too much. So anyway, we rode in a van to Sunbird or something Bed & Breakfast. The owner of the B&B (a crazy adventure-loving guy named Philip) works together w/ Abseil Africa—packs lunches for them and serves them breakfast. So that’s what we did. We had fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, croissants, muffins… but I really didn’t feel like eating so much. I’ll admit it, I was pretty nervous to start out, because the name of this trip is the Kamikaze Canyon trip. The motto is “For the slightly insane.” Well I just didn’t know if I could handle everything and since I heard it was all day, and I’m not the biggest hiker, I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to do much. The drive to the B&B took like an hour, so by now it was 9am and we’re all thinking “shouldn’t we be starting by now?” LoLo said he’ll start the ‘safety briefing’ as soon as he felt we were about done eating. So we had a long leisurely breakfast and finally he gave his short speech, which basically was, “if we don’t get to abseil today, we’ll give y’all a free abseil down Table Mountain.” He was saying we might not be able to do a lot of things if the weather stayed like it was because it would be too slippery and dangerous. Part of the trip was to abseil down a really high waterfall cliff, and that they said we probably wouldn’t get to do. We finally set out at like 9:30…maybe it was 10 even! Me & Ms. Sarah were in a t-shirt and shorts with our swimsuits underneath. We weren’t prepared at ALL for the rain! I did bring my jean jacket, and put it in a grocery bag and gave it to someone carrying a backpack so I would have something dry for later. In the car ride to the B&B, we heard stories about the baboons which attack groups frequently! Like they will come down the mountain and grab at your bags, unzip them (they’re very smart), and take whatever they want. So we were warned to be careful. Shane said he took this one group and there were a bunch of girls with their boyfriends who were bombarded by baboons. The guys jumped into the water, and just watched, scared, as their gf’s got pulled on and tickled by the baboons!! The man baboons would put their arm on the girls’s arms or wrists and wouldn’t let go when the girls tried to pull away. The young baboons would try to tickle them, and the more the girls tried pulling away, the stronger the grip the older baboons put on them. I prayed that we wouldn’t see any baboons!! Well that’s the first thing we saw, walking out of the B&B down the road. The hike started down from this bridge, and across the road were 3 baboons. 1 big one, and one mom holding a baby. Chip went back to the owner of the B&B and he brought out a gun, but it was just a pellet gun. Crazy! The owner shoots these baboons whenever they come on his property, and you could tell the baboons had seen the guy before and knew who he was. The guides also told us other stories about a baboon they named Scarface. He was huge and one day tried breaking in to Philip’s place, so he shot him 3 times. The first in the skull, which didn’t kill him, and the next broke his jaw…he showed us the skull after our trip and the two big teeth that stuck out of the jawbone were as long as a box of cigarettes! Philip told us he could go to jail for killing baboons, but it wasn’t like he cared. I wouldn’t either! Enough about baboons though… all that happened was Philip shot near the ones we saw across the road and scared them away. We went on our merry way in the cold wind and wet rain. I was soaked to the bone immediately, but I was kloofing and it didn’t matter! :-p The hike wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been imagining. It was on a really nicely cut out trail, and we didn’t see any more baboons. The only hard part was that it was cold and cloudy…the rain didn’t let up until we got to our first pool, but the whole time the British guy walking behind me was making funny sarcastic remarks like “There is nothing in all of Cape Town I would rather be doing…” and “I haven’t had this much fun in years!” totally sarcastic though… he was hilarious! He was just touring SA on “holiday.” SO the first hole/pool had a big 7m rock that we jumped off of. I slapped my feet hard on the water because 7m is over 14 feet… and it hurts if you don’t point your toes! I was just thankful I didn’t slap anything else that hard. I jumped it twice, my feet stung both times but that pain didn’t last. There was a 10m jump right above, but I was too cold and a bit too scared. It doesn’t help when you’re the only girl jumping 7m and only guys are jumping that with you and higher. So we hiked a bit further, to a bigger pool, with higher rock cliffs to jump off of!! One was at least 70feet but only our guides did that one. Todd jumped from about 50-60ft I think! I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I had a bad experience jumping 30 feet once, so I waited. We abseiled down the cliff, which was really cool, but harder than it looks! We went right down into the water. I wanted a little more instruction but all I got was “Keep your feet well spread apart, lean back, and walk down.” Well what about when there isn’t any place to put your feet? I kinda struggled, and smashed my leg a bit once against the rock. Wasn’t so bad, though, and was pretty fun, just hard! When I got into the water Shane swam over and unattached me and was like “I love my job” lol…then he continued to flirt with me a bit. I decided then that I wanted to get my money’s worth and since the British guys had done it, I could. I climbed up the rock and went up to the 40foot jump. I kept my shoes ON this time, but when I walked out to the edge and looked down and around, I hesitated big time. Do I really wanna do this? It’s a looong way down! Wonder how many seconds I’d be in the air. What if I squat at the last minute and break my tail bone? What if I spread my legs apart too much? What if my arms go up and I hurt my shoulder like that one Brit?! …. Etc….! I went up to the edge again. Todd started cheering for me and Shane was there encouraging me. He goes “would it help if I went off with you at the same time?” I wanted to say no way! I don’t need you! .. so I went. I got up my courage and just jumped. Perfect Landing!! I had such a rush of adrenaline. You can get high on the feeling I had after jumping. What an awesome feeling! I had done it. But I didn’t get my courage to go off again and I didn’t have enough courage to jump from higher. Now I wish I had! I kinda regret that but all those what if’s were in my mind… and I knew you can’t always repeat a perfect landing. The day was going great and I didn’t want it ending bad! The sun was finally starting to peak out, but I was still shivering almost uncontrollably. I got jackets from 2 people and put on my jean jacket after I took off my wet t-shirt! Then I was nice and dry. We had lunch up there, then hiked back down and walked back to the B&B. Philip had a bar there, and he served all of us drinks. He gave all of the jumpers shots. haha! Lol, I still don’t know what was in it, or what it was called, but it was something south African that really burned! I had something called a Savannah Dry which wasn’t bad – it was like a cider. Then Phil told us all these stories about him, people he had known, and baboons…. He went on for hours (it seemed) and most of it was unbelievable. Todd said most of it probably was bs—it was too crazy. I went over to talk to the girls and then we decided we’d be there all night if we didn’t get up and tell the guys we should go, and we got back to Cape Town at like 6 or 7. I bought an Abseil Africa tshirt and they gave us a free poster. Said bye to our guides, and went out to eat at an Irish Pub! They had good food, and don’t worry, I only had water! J We ate with Mr. Ligon, Ms Sarah & the Stones, then Sarah & I drove back to Porterville where we stayed the whole 2 weeks, which was 2 hours out of Cape Town. I slept really well that night – I was worn out big time, but that was probably one of the best times/experiences I had on this SA trip and definitely the most adventurous/extreme!!