Mundele! Mundele!

During the 20 minute walk to TASOK (the American School of Congo; K-12) where I go for an occasional swim, the little children (adorable!) of the military families shout this greeting to me. White person! White person! I am, so far, still the only Caucasion on the road and they watch for me to pass by. They seem a little fearful, and will laugh and run away when I say "Bonjour. Ca va?" For the most part, all the adults are very pleasant and friendly. Occasionally, I'll get a weird look, but nothing dramatic. TASOK owns 43 acres of well-kept grounds surrounded by guarded walls. I feel rejuvenated after a long swim in their large pool.
The students cannot get enough English. I'm encouraging them to talk to the University about offering some additional classes geared for beginners. Dr. Mpunsa, Dean of the the Medical School just arrived from Europe last week and will meet with me this Wednesday about what he is expecting from my classes, which begin November 12. It is my understanding that I'll be teaching four different groups of 25 students every day (M-Th), two beginner English and two more focused on basic medical English. of advanced for 15 weeks.
English Club is organizing a debate tournament. The students have never participated in debate before and are very excited about it. They plan to use the same topic as debate teams in the U.S. high schools: "Should the U.S. increase public health aid to sub-Saharan Africa?" The embassy is providing coaches to work with each team. As of yesterday, 15 teams had signed up. My role is to be the liaison between the embassy and the students.
Although it's not my favorite thing, I've been doing some more driving in the Mitsubishi. I sure miss my Honda Accord, but it wouldn't last here. Take good care of it, Grace and Jon. Consider the use of it while I'm gone your collective birthday present, OK? Which, by the way are happening for both of you this week. Happy Birthday to you both, and an extra special #30 to Jon! Wish I could be there--maybe next year!

Goats, Flooding, Etc.

I know I haven't written on Congo Scenes for a whole week. I apologize, especially for leaving you with an emotional downer. I was struggling with the distance between us, but I am happy to report that once Sunday passed, I was back to my regular self. Thank you to everyone who wrote to encourage me.

Here's a brief glimpse into last week. Picture this: I'm on the way to work, and just ahead of us in traffic, is a beat up, rusted-out, no windows bus, probably half the size of a standard school bus. It was jammed with people. On top of the bus was the usual stack of canvas-wrapped boxes, stuff, whatever. Next to this pile, were three live goats leashed to the baggage, trying their best to not fall off with every lurch of the bus. I whipped out my little camera, only to discover that there were 7 or 8 more goats strapped to the rear of the baggage. If I hadn't gotten the photo, you probably wouldn't believe it!

On Thursday night we had a terrible rain storm. Severe flooding occured in many areas surrounding the Kinshasa area. I took my Canon with me to work on Friday and took some random photos out the window of the car. The damage was really devasting to the flimsy construction.

Friday afternoon Abbey, fellow colleage, and I took our Mitsubishi out for my first test drive. It's steering wheel is on the right (British), but the roads are all like the states, so I felt a little dyslexic. I was able to manuever around the stalled vehicles, multiple holes in the road and various bottle necks of people and traffic. Pretty cool, eh?

The English Club watched "Blood Diamond" yesterday at the Embassy. Although it is a difficult film to watch, it is well-done and shows quite accurately what some of the issues are here in Africa. I was surprised that the students seemed to appreciate its message. My primary teaching lesson this week revolved around a monolingual English Dictionary of American English, complete with CD-Rom. Teachers and students alike were very eager to obtain one for themselves. A good dictionary is a rare commodity. I probably could have sold 200 of them.

Oh, one more thing that I need to post on this blog. The U.S. State Department has requested that we issue a disclaimer in its behalf, that it is not affilitated with this blog and is not responsible for its content. There you have it. Best to you this week.