The Recommendations Series

I’m starting a new topic for some of my blog posts which is called “Expat Mama Recommends...” each post with this title will be a different tip or piece of helpful info I’ve learned ranging from cooking and food to toddlers and toys and everything in between.

Most of my tips will be specific to Africa, or particularly Congo, so I doubt my readers will find it particularly helpful, but if you find yourself heading for Africa with little people, then you can be on the lookout for my “expat mama” posts.

“Unto you is born this day...”

Almost all the children we know are Herdmans. They are fighters. They come from broken homes. They don’t know how to read. They lie and steal and hit little kids. If they had a garage door to slam up and down they’d be doing that for sure. They wear ragged, dirty clothes that are often falling off, tied on with string and full of holes. They have a mean cat, or more likely a mean dog. They look out for each other and they teach the little ones to be just as mean as themselves.

It’s Christmas time which reminds me of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” What a story. What a special time this is.

This year, we plan to do our annual Christmas party that has become a tradition, and have flocks of children pushing and crowding, yelling and shoving each other. We will hand out candy and balloons and read the Christmas story. It will be chaos. Something like trying to organize a Christmas play when all the main actors are Herdmans.

But this year, in the midst of the gifts and candy, the pushing and the outrageous noise, what we really need is Christmas to become real to these kids just like it did to the Herdmans.

We need the beauty of Jesus to overwhelm Imogene. For her to believe that He came for her. We need Leroy, Claude and Ollie to give something away instead of always taking.

This Christmas, we need Gladys to understand that the good news is real. That she would hear “Hey, you!” and realize that angel is talking to her.

Family photo

My phone is no longer able to take photos, but a friend took this one of us, so I am counting it as our annual Christmas picture. Unfortunately the girls weren't up to smiling.

Clavie practices fancy hairstyles on a friend

Life As We Know It: Snapshots

Molly and Daddy coloring together:

Eileen tries out the potty

Molly wearing a "puta"

Eileen feeding Daddy

Gardening with Eileen

Molly was very excited about getting her nails done!

Snack time

an evening walk

Shoeboxes

In early September, I had the amazing experience of attending an OCC shoebox distribution in a town nearby to where we live. I’m posting about it now, closer to Christmas time, because that’s when most people in the West are shopping and packing boxes. Orcxance offered to stay home with the girls so I could go without having to worry about managing the girls while trying to fully enjoy the distribution.

It was a completely local event. No translators, no other white people except me. It was a surreal experience to watch from beginning to end, understanding everything that was said. I have been on both ends of it; from buying supplies to packing shoeboxes to volunteering in the warehouse to being right there when the kids are handed the boxes. I never thought I’d get to do this. It was like a dream come true. I feel so blessed. Not many people get this chance in a lifetime! And those who do probably don’t understand the local language so the experience is hampered by translators. You can’t get the full effect that way.

They started out with the pastor and his wife doing a gospel presentation with picture posters. Then there was singing and prayer and more singing. There were about 10 helpers/interns who wore red shirts and badges. They managed to keep the kids quiet (sort of) and sitting down for most of the time.

In some ways it was just like what you see from the videos, and just how I imagined it would be. The smiles, the singing, the excited drumming on the tops of boxes, the little kids going home carrying the boxes on their heads.

But in other ways it was totally different. Like the fact that not every kid got a box, or that a little boy got a 5-9 girls box because there were too many girl boxes! Or that some of the kids were very serious and intense, clinging to their boxes possessively. Or that some kids were crying and hysterical because they had to wait an extra minute to get their box and thought they were going to miss out.

Thankfully there was enough for all the little kids, and the older kids could understand that their gifts were coming later. I didn’t see anyone crying because of that.

The pastor gave me free range to take as many pictures and videos as I wanted, so I took advantage of the opportunity and got some great pictures. I even got to hand one child a shoebox. It was a little boy who was crying because he thought he’d missed out, so the picture I took of him he has tears running down his face.

The pastor said another truck would be arriving at some point with more boxes. I wondered why they didn’t wait and do it all at the same time, when there was enough gifts for all the kids, but I guess it’s up to the leaders to do it as they see fit. Maybe they were worried about the boxes being ruined since they were stored in a mud hut.

When the boxes were handed out, I think there were about 85 or so, it was complete chaos. All the older children crowded around to watch and the little kids were reaching out their hands for a box. The team was trying to get girl boxes to girls and boy boxes to boys but it got a bit jumbled when they realized there weren’t enough boy boxes.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them open their gifts. The team had the children go home with their boxes, which was probably best since it would have been even more difficult to manage the situation and the older kids very likely would have started taking stuff. We left after the crowd started to disperse and I went home with a lot of pictures and a very full heart.

Some days you end up sitting on a pile of shoes and missing all the fun...

Congolese Cuisine: Mbila

Mbila means palm nuts. You boil these for a long time and then crush in a wooden pestle and strain. Then you save the liquid part which is an oily orange substance and cook with it. People love cooking various foods, including pondu, with this oil called mossaka. I suppose it's healthier than buying regular highly processed oil. At least its very fresh!

Fun with sewing

I have really enjoyed learning my new sewing machine and experimenting with different ideas and projects.

The machine has had some issues but we’ve been able to get someone to fix the problems so far. It’s a very simple design so it’s not hard to repair. We are able to get free fabric scraps from tailor shops around town so almost everything I’ve made (with the exception of the pink birthday dresses) is with those scraps. Here’s my scrap pile:

I’ve also been repairing and modifying clothing for friends and neighbors, and hoping this will become a small side business as they are paying me for the work I do.

Below are some pictures of a few things I’ve made recently.