Getting situated

(I was able to snag these pics in from an office building in the center of Kinshasa. It looks like any other city, but if you look closely you might be able to see some of the mayhem of the traffic and how the roads are being repaired. There are not many high-rises in Kinshasa, but I somehow managed to visit one. J)

It has been a while! So, recapping what I have done in the past 2 weeks:

- Not sure if I mentioned it yet, but finally got to dance! For my b-day celebration we went to a place where there was a small club and we got to dance for a whooping 20min. But the day after, my actual b-day we danced at the residence and I was invited to my first official Congolese party were they couldn’t believe their eyes when I started dancing—they were surprised to see a white person with rhythm.

- My classes finally got their first quizzes back and they did their first oral presentations—in some cases the whole class started laughing, causing me to laugh as well!!

- I went horseback ridding in the middle of Kinshasa, in a very typical ex-pat place, it was nice to have a little break. It felt like we had literally been transported to the colonial times because it was like a little paradise in the middle of Kinshasa with 65 acres of trails. It was the true jungle. (Will put up pics soon, the Spanish hospital engineer took some that are amazing, but I have yet to get them.)

- I ate caterpillars—lots of them—they are considered good here and have lots of protein. Got to admit that it wasn’t bad and I had no side effects. J

- Unofficially joined the choir at the parish for the University of Kinshasa—making a lot more friends this way and I even ventured out last Sunday on my own to go to the rehearsal. I’m technically not really singing with them—they are amazing and my voice is in no disposition to actually be able to accompany the performances.

- Met with CALI—the institute that works with the U.S. Embassy to teach English. It has a very high reputation in Kinshasa and we will hopefully be working with them if they start back up in the next month (has been closed for a few months now, but they mentioned they were starting at the end of this month, cross your fingers!)

- Meeting more people that work at different ONGs, embassies, etc. and making a few visits here and there to find out more on the functionality of the international affairs world here.

Journee de la Femme!!

The 8^th of March is a day that celebrates woman throughout the world. I’m wearing a typical “pagne” which is a skirt and top made from some fabric I bought here and custom tailored by the cousin of one of the women I work with—a total of $20. As I walked down the street today I had countless people telling me how good it looked and smiling, they were so happy that a “mundele”—(a white foreigner in the local language of Lingala, literally meaning the color white, although French is normally spoken by all in the ca

pital). “Mundele has become a Congolese!” “Oh, mundele looks beautiful!” There was no way for me to avoid blushing and smiling like crazy—I finally felt accepted by the locals and in return I displayed my respect to them by wearing their traditional garments.

It’s ironical that this day is more celebrated throughout Africa and other developing countries than in the U.S. The woman here is slowly gaining some rights, but from the experience I have had here so far, it is far far from anything we are used to. I live in the capital, so I’m able to witness a situation that is much better than that in the rest of the country, but polygamy and dowries are still very frequent here. I live in a residence with some of the nursing students at the school where I teach and some of them alrea

dy have boyfriends who have paid the dowry to the respective family so that when they return home they will be married right away. They love the boys they are engaged to, but fail to see that this price essential labels them as property. I have been able to make some friends with some other unmarried women that think that this is unacceptable, but even so, they understand that they might never marry a man who treats them as an equal. They know that they will probably always have to have a meal prepared for their husband, no matter if they work throughout the day and have the small ones to take care of. To top it off, some of them are in their mid-20s and late 20s and getting worried that they are not yet married—it is not sociable acceptable to hit 30 and not be married. This is something I have encountered personally by men asking me why I have no children or husband in the U.S.

As dismal as the situation might seem here, women have an opportunity to show their power on days like the 8^th of March. I walked out the street to get lunch at the residence and I was greeted by the sound of music and a mass of women and girls marching in the sand filled streets, dancing and chanting, celebrating what they are, all dressed in the traditional “pagne”. Police escort them throughout the street and are on their beck-and-call. At least one day out of 365 they get the recognition they deserve.

Shedding some blood

Written on Sunday:

It figures that the first time that I give blood is in Kinshasa. I’m not able to give blood in the US because of their fright that I might still have mad cow disease from the time I lived in a western European country—here they have more important things to worry about.

I was able to go to the HIV/AIDs clinic that Monkole hospital also has. They call it Monkole 3, it’s only a day clinic and it gives free HIV tests and free medicine to those that they find are HIV positive.

They screened me before I gave blood—making sure that I wasn’t positive and that my hemoglobin was high enough for me to give blood—making sure that I didn’t have malaria. J I was able to give a quart of blood and found out that I’m O+, didn’t know until then that I had my mom’s recessive O.

That same day I made my first official live translation, there is a nurse here who leaves tomorrow and has been working on sickle cell disease. She’s from London, Kim, and works at the Royal London Hospital as a specialized nurse on SS—sickle cell. I had to translate her presentation—which she luckily had already tried to work into French—and overall I think the students understood me. It was quite nerve wracking but since they are all so friendly it was a great first experience!

I was also invited to my first birthday party this weekend. Maggie—one of the teachers at ISSI—had a daughter who turned one and I was able to go with two of the students that live in my residence, which accompanied me. While we were making our way through the crowds at rond-point (got to buy a little doll for the cute b-girl!) to find a transport, I randomly ran into Joelle and Serge with a couple of other people that were also going to go to the same party. The world is soooo small. As many of you know—I have a very very weird custom of running into people I know almost everywhere I go! This wasn’t the first time it had happened in Kinshasa—on our way back from the concert of Joelle’s choir I saw the guard that works at our residence on the street—as we were driving by!

Well, apart from the world being small—the party was very nice. I was able to talk to some of the “grown-ups” while still having fun with the little children that kept running around. I was able to actually participate in an intellectual conversation with some of the guests as they discussed what this country needed in order to develop—the subject that was most discussed was the conditions of the roads—figures. J