Today is my birthday and people have been emailing me birthday greetings - thanks, everyone. I don't know what birthdays entail here in Kinshasa in terms of local traditions. I'll have to ask around. My wife surprised me this morning with pancakes and bacon which was a huge treat. Now, they don't have Oscar Meyer bacon here so what I had instead looked to be some sort of animal fat, but that's okay. Big, big thanks to my wife. The plan for tonight is to go out to a local restaurant that supposedly has decent pizza.
In the meantime, I'm still hanging around the house. The power problems have been pretty bad here lately, and most of Monday and Tuesday there was no power. It comes back on at night, but it makes for some boring afternoons when all I have to keep me busy is reading or studying French. My classes have been going well, although we never meet for the full two hours that we're scheduled to be there. The recent power outages have been affecting most of the city, so that means no air conditioning or lights in the classroom, and we haven't been using the tapes that came with our textbook. I should also mention that I didn't get an actual textbook when I started the class - I got a photocopy of a textbook. I don't know how rigidly they enforce copyright infringement 'round these parts.
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Charlie, you are hilarious. Thanks for making me laugh out loud in my cube. Sorry to hear about the bugs; you know I would not be able to handle that! Looking forward to reading more postings.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Happy Belated Birthday!
Happy birthday!!
ReplyDeleteDidn't know you had a blog. Saw it on your Facebook page.
Anyway, I hope you have better luck with the French classes in the future. I'm sure you'll be pretty good after a year. Stick to it!
As for copyright laws, I seriously think those only exist in the USA.
Happy Birthday Charlie! Sounds like you two are having quite the adventure. We are headed to Rwanda next year - maybe we could meet up!
ReplyDeleteHey Charlie! Thanks for keeping us posted on your happenings in Kinshasa. It's good to be able to picture where you are and what you guys are doing--even if it's experiencing bed bugs. . .
ReplyDeleteHappy belated b-day!!!!!
Lindsey & Jeff :}