a little update

The choir just left our house. They all came over after choir practice to have a little appreciation dinner. The power's been going out every day this past month, and today of course it went out.... and it stayed out til about 8:45! We have a generator, but that doesn't run the oven or stove so we had to heat all the food on our camp stove. There was SOO much food, too! Congolese mostly, so i didn't eat very much. Congo food for me is good only in small amounts. You can only have so much rice, beans, and greens! Or that's what i say anyway! But we had some realllly good chicken and lots of drinks! We had fans going but it was still so hot! Thankfully when the power came on we could turn the AC on... We had about 25 people in our living room! Our neighbors are having a birthday party right now, and so before the choir left we went over and sang happy birthday to their brother whose birthday it is! i felt kinda bad for them because we sang happy bday in Lingala, then french, then English, and then we sang this other song in those 3 languages and they just stood there smiling awkwardly at us!! I could kinda see them thinking "okay this is great but ... when will you stop?" Haha no it was fun. But their backyard is so amazing! They put candles around the pool, and they hired caterers in tuxedos and bartenders! Sarah goes "Man, why can't we have parties like that?!" Haha, it would be nice... but it's not that important! We had fun tonight regardless of our awful furniture, lack of seating, no a/c, and whatever else we might have been lacking. Oh the men in tuxes... :-) We sang a lot and everyone ate a lot... and now i want to sleep, but I know i haven't blogged in forever so i'm gonna keep going.

Boot camp ended Friday! :-( Made me sad because we only got to do it for 5 weeks and now the new after-school activities start. Todd will continue boot camp for anyone who wants to join, but i really wanna do swimming and it's on the same days so I unfortunately can't do it again. It got me in really good shape though! I am so happy I pushed myself every day to do it. It was reallllly hard, but it was so good for me. We had pre-tests on the first day of boot camp to see how many sit-ups, push-ups, dips, and flexed arm hangs (girls) or pull-ups(guys only) we could do in a minute. On the first day I think I did 40 sit-ups and around 40 pushups in a min...and i could hang for 15 seconds. Oh and i couldn't even do a dip on those 2 parallel bars. On Friday I did 50 sit-ups and 62 push-ups in a minute, and i hung for 42 secs. I could do only 2 dips, but hey i improved and that was the record for girls! I set the record for girl's pushups too:-) and beat all the guys in sit-ups. We ran the mile after doing all that and on the first day my time was around 9 mins and friday it was 8:07...which i wasn't happy with. I really thought i'd be faster but i just proved the point i've been trying to make all along. I wasn't made to run! My little sister has a faster time than me! So that was kinda disappointing but kinda expected also.

The talent show was 2 weeks ago and I sang 2 songs. One I played the guitar and sang with JoJo Top of the World (Dixie Chicks). It went really well and everyone said we sang like angels, lol! ...the other one i did with Chaima and Liz and it kinda flopped....well i won't say that, but it just wasn't the greatest! We sang Cowboy Take Me Away - another dixie chicks number. But we had fun... last sunday i sang a duet with this guy Jonathan in choir, who is like the coolest & funniest congolese guy i've met so far at church, and he has a really good voice. So i'm very glad i did that song... i'm also really glad all that performing stuff is over for the moment. I am working on Midsummer Night's Dream now in drama... and it's tough! Shakespeare is hard to memorize!! I am the fairy queen, Titania. It's a fun role but it won't be fun until everyone in my scenes have their lines memorized because it's hard to act when people have their noses in their scripts!! I'm really excited about my costume for this one though ... i'm gonna kinda look like galadriel i think, we're gonna somehow put extensions in my hair or find a very long wig, and i'm gonna have like a 3m long train coming off my dress! Mr. Ligon is ordering me a nice rhinestone tiara which is gonna look awesome!! So i'm pretty excited...it's weird that i'm a fairy again.

hmm, the fact that I'm graduating in 3 months still hasn't sunk in. Or if that fact has sunk it, the fact that i'm LEAVING THIS CONTINENT hasn't sunk in yet. I'm really going back to the States and I'm really going to college!! That just seems unreal. I'm so excited but I don't want it to sound like I'm dying to get out of here. I'm not! This place has been such an awesome experience for me. I have learned more than I ever thought I would, and last year I said I regretted a lot. Well now I am trying to not regret anything. Everything that happened happened and it has made me who I am now. And I can be thankful for the lessons it all taught me.
But how did I get on that subject?
I'm gonna miss quite a few things about Congo.
I will miss the choir.
I will miss being with so many nationalities and the funny cultural differences of those many nationalities.
I will miss not having to worry about being late to something...because running a little late is very normal here!
I will miss fresh GIANT mangoes, mangostan, avocadoes, and pineapple.
I will miss not having to wear a seatbelt.
I will miss the entertaining car rides---watching to see how much people can carry on top of their heads, seeing how many people can squeeze into one van, seeing the clothes people wear, etc!

I will add on to this list later when I'm really about to leave I think because I'm sure there are other crazy things i will miss!
Then I will make a list of I wont miss-es!

Okay it's time for some sleep. I miss you people in the States!!

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.