Bracelets With Meanings

Here rolling!

Hey, hey, there's not to say I'm having really here! It's exciting as life, every day of surprises, sometimes slaps and when I begin to say "I go around" wham something new I fall on the mouth. I feel fully live for a month. (As if I did in Switzerland too much ...)

Not later than yesterday, so I drank a sweet (read: a Mineral, coca cola, sprite, tonic) with Matthew in-Bouis Bouis, I felt invaded by a strange feeling. I look around me and everything seems strangely familiar (even more than in India), People, their approach, the cars, the atmosphere, the light, I would be in the market place in Neuchâtel that would be the same thing. Yes, I feel good, I'm acclimated!

But no! Ha! At this moment we breath "flag! "And indeed all people of the land had risen, we do the same. Pedestrians and cars had stopped, within seconds the whole neighborhood was petrified, plunged into a long silence! It was unreal. Farther to the police station we solemnly began lowering the flag to whistle and clap heels. Then after a long whistle of life takes its course and everything is resuscitated. It's crazy in a country where everything starts to spin it so well respected. Afterward Mom Helen will explain that if someone moves it may be amended (your money ended up in the pockets of the cop) or jailed and that during the presidential motorcades is worse, if you move here, they opened fire! In fact you might want to leave a weapon to assassinate the president ... But hey, if he deserves it!?!

Otherwise we started the African fashion, after buying the fabric we went to the tailor who made our measurements. And after a few days of work is the result is ... colorful eh?

Wednesday, I am addressing in the street by a cop who asks me to pay him a beer! I hesitate to ask if I have a choice, but not wanting to play too provocative, I just wonder if he has the right during the service. He replied that one or two it is (here is the Primus of 7.2 dl), as he insists, I explain that I'm a poor penniless student and then he asks me "tomorrow then" , maybe ... and finally it breaks. I knew if I was not too position to negotiate or if I risk retaliation but it went very quietly.

Other nice habit in public service, among teachers. Under the pretty name of "Handicrafts" children must bring a broom or other object they crafted themselves. But it is now regarded by teachers as a mode of payment so they ask their students to bring toilet paper, soap, detergent, body etc.. These are classes of fifty students, so imagine what it represents. Then they use as currency for barter or sell on the black market. (Luckily my mother is not paid by the Catholic school in boxes of soap!)

Then children who do not provide the requested material are punished or beaten. Parents do not have much choice. More "bad payers" get a bad grade in class 'handiwork' this beating down their GPA and their sometimes doubling their year. Ah lovely country!

Hey I would ever have to shower with ½ liter of bottled water. It's possible, yesterday there was no water!

Helvetic Confederation Democratic ... Now I know why we did not need to specify!

Some expressions Congolese An educator spoke of a young in his exams "He brilliantly successful" and there was no humor.

Otherwise the sign of a health benefits and announced proudly in the maternity section "desired births" I do not know how they recognize unwanted children!?

Yeah, I get a little criticism ... I think

Another small picture, this is David's nephew, mother Helen, who lives with us.

Voili voilo bye kiss and the next.

Honeywell Thermostat Conversion

a little rain!

Hello, first a big thank you to everyone who left a little message, that give me super happy.

I found the parade those who call me "Mundele, well I tell them to make a wish that his luck (yeah, it's rare to see a mundele here, like a four leaf clover or a shooting star!) . Otherwise when a child approaches me in the street and say to myself 'I'm hungry "I replied" me too "is perhaps a little harsh, but they treat all like that here, and the only way I found that they leave me leg! After perhaps a way to protect myself and not let me touch.

Tuesday it rained all day and here is pretty special, it's like when it snows in Switzerland but worse, all life is slow, everything is calm, people stay home and will not work. In fact the streets are turned into a battlefield, the many holes in the floor fill with water and you never know their depth. Over power lines, understand a single cable buried underground to ten centimeters, are in such bad shape that some pools are electrified!

The temperature also dropped significantly, I would never thought one day that it was cold at 25 degrees! So I put on a sweater.

As part of my work after a week of observation, I began to identify my various tasks. Among them the school supports. It emerges special atmosphere of the classroom where I work, tin roof, wooden benches, blackboards and walls crumbling. An atmosphere of nostalgia but also a harsh reality and burning. I find myself in place of the teacher, face to myself, a student can not find meaning in this jumble of obscure grammar rules and trying to feign interest more politeness vis-à-vis the teacher for me! It gives me great feedback on my mediocre school career, at which time we expect something else from life. Teaching is another job, do not you Sab?!?

Otherwise I attended a seminar team where everything I learned at HEF-TS collapsed in a second. The vision of education here is not the same as ours. Nevertheless I was able to temper this later by making better acquainted with other educators as more nuanced Aziza brother, mother Yvonne, brother Simplice, Mouna Mom ...

My program is organized like this:

-Monday conversation with my reference or administrative work for the HEF-TS

-Tuesday day of rest,

-Wednesday M'bongwana or House of Hope,

-Thursday District and Victory M'bongwana,

-Friday Colloquium team and meeting different houses,

-Saturday M'bongwana or House of Hope,

-Sunday Worship (optional thankfully) and afternoon recreation for children in Mena,

Here the golden rule is "no more than two activities a day" because the organization is quickly limited by transport (30 min 3 hours in town), delays (here we start to worry between 1:30 and 2 hours late) or the absence of young people as educators or meals. Here we only eat twice a day and never at the same time! So I'm hypoglycemic three quarters of the time and the last quarter I have a huge hangover because I ate too much.

But I'm starting to find my rhythm, and monitors the BCD (Top Fuel, Heat and Dodo) These are the three lights for a good day and hope to do a good job. The other night the dogs barked all night, the day it was super hot and we dined at not before 16h I will not tell the state.

If my stomach is doing well and he greets you fingers crossed that it lasts!

A few words about the job, evangelization in the area of Victory is a weekly activity at low threshold for open environments for street children (50 more than 100). It includes lots of different problems, violence, malnutrition, disability, sex, drugs ... It's a place of growing as taking as I go and I recognize faces. This activity offer a religious message (still here), a loaf of bread and a drink and care given by a nurse. These children come here to escape without doubt a moment with the laws of the street, but found it submerged once the activity ended. It's hard to abandon them whenever their fate. It is true that here the "honest people" treat street children as animals (and they are already not very kind to animals!). I saw a passerby struck a violent kick in the back of a child whose only wrong was to hang out there. What image of the adult can they have after treated like this?

M'bongwana is a foster home, semi-open for street children (twenty) where they are in school and possible re-inserted into their extended family. Children are likely to know their parents and where they live but are not welcome.

Finally the House of Hope is a home for children following closed school or learning (forty) and phase of empowerment. Even if we do let's face it there are very few opportunities in the labor market, 3% of the Congolese people have a stable job!

It's good to hear some of Didier Super, a little sarcastic, provocative and critically it contrasts quite strong here.

So much for today and next to new adventures

Bye kiss.