Relaxing on the Congo River

We took a trip out to the Congo River while Todd was here, and it was quite enjoyable. I felt it was very relaxing to finally get out in an open space and breath. The road though to where we got the boat was a different story. It was VERY bumpy, think rolling hills, and it was like we were driving on a sidewalk, because EVERYONE was walking in front of us and beside us. But once we got out into the boat it was quite fun. Enjoy the pictures. These are the fishing villages. They are out on sandbars not too far from where the boat was docked. They also live on shipwrecked boats. Those yellow signs with Skol on them....that's the beer that is here. :) So this is where the fishing families live. And all the trash that is on the ground there....that's what it's like in the city too.

Once we started going and picking up speed, Spencer could feel something blowing through his hair. :) The wind. He kept putting his hand up to his head to feel his hair blowing around, not very much, but some movement.

Our family picture while going up the Congo River.

Todd really enjoyed going out on the boat.

Spencer was also amazed with the propellers. He was so curious about how we were moving so fast, and watching the motors work behind us.

These are some of the huts that we found out on sandbars while we were going up the river. People do live way out here, and in kinda isolation. They have to go back to the city to get things they might need, but they live out on the water.

This is one of the fishermen and his boat. They have those long skinny boats here.

We stopped and had lunch on one of the sandbars. It was very fun.

In this picture you can see our boat and also the airport is on the right side of the picture. It's hazy so you can't see it too well, but it's there.

Spencer had so much fun swimming. It's one of his favorite things to do, and Tyler showed him how to just let the current take you along. Although Spencer started worrying when Daddy was going farther and farther away. So he went to go and save him, but then could stand up because of a sandbar, and told Tyler to just stand up and he wouldn't go anywhere.

I didn't really swim in the river, but I did get a few chapters of my book read! :) I didn't want to be in the sun too long, for obvious reasons (I would have burned like crazy!).

Going back to the city. It was a wonderful day and I hope we can do it again soon. Maybe even go farther up the river to see the crocs and hippos!!

Swimming in the Congo and my Dad's feelings on his visit.

So I was able to cross one thing off my "bucket list" (see the post in archives) on President's day, I swam in the Congo river. Many of you probably think I am crazy because you probably think the Congo river is disease ridden, full of crocodiles and hippos. And it is true that on parts of the river you will find all those things mentioned plus a myriad of other things, including people living in shipwrecked boats, but we had the chance to go up the river about 20 minutes from Kinshasa, look at some small fishing villages (We will post the pictures later), anchor on a sandbar, eat a lunch and go swimming in the river. The water was a good temprature and very, very fast. I was able to convince my father to jump in for a little bit, but he was too scared of contracting the African Sleeping Sickness or something so he didn't swim for long. Spencer though loved playing in the river, swimming in it and throwing vegetation in the river and see it swept away by the current. Overall, a very fun time.

Maybe because I spent two years on a mission in Madagascar, but the craziness of Kinshasa has never hit me, but I was fortunate enough to have my dad come visit us this last week and I paid close attention to his reaction to Africa. I encourage you all to ask my dad for his opinion of Kinshasa, from the airport, to the streets, to the countless people who roam the streets. I also encourage my dad to write something on this blog of his experience. A few things my dad said was he was surprised by feelings of anxiety whenever we left the house. He felt our house was a peaceful, serene oasis (thanks to Becca) in the middle of the Daytona Race track. Because we were trying to show my dad some of the sites, we were able to go on some side roads, or should I say alley ways full of people and traffic going both ways. When I get a picture of the roads I will right more about them. Also my dad was constantly amazed at the amount of people on the streets who appeared to be eating, sleeping, peeing, wondering, working, selling, buying, walking, pushing, and yelling. I enjoyed seeing my dad's amazement at these things, he rightly said there is no way to describe this place, even if you had photos and video, you have to experience to truly appreciate it, or rather truly appreciate what we have in the United States. I would encourage you all to come visit and see for yourself, but it is rather expensive to get here, you have to receive several shots, take some pills, plus there isn't alot of touristy things to do here.

Poppa Nicholes' Visit

Spencer has loved having one of his grandparents here. When Todd got here, Spencer didn't stop talking from the moment Poppa walked in the door till he went to bed. He wanted to show him everything. They have been playing so much and we got some cute pictures of them together.

Our outing to go see the Bonabo Monkeys...which I will write about later about that adventure.

Spencer and Poppa were working on a Shrek puzzle on Sat. They were so cute trying to figure out where all the pieces went. Spencer LOVES puzzles, and is quite good at them too.

Here is Spencer and Poppa before church Sunday morning. Poppa played anything Spencer asked him too. They were going throughout the city in this picture, and before that they set up his train track.

We loved having Poppa Nicholes here, and I know Spencer will be sad to not have him here. He loves it when people come to visit, especially grandparents that spoil him.

Dad on vacation in the Congo

Okay so my Dad (Todd Nicholes) made it safely here last night. It was alot of fun to see his reaction to a place like this. Before his arrival I had told him that while at the airport he had to be careful because if he didn't stay on the outlined path that he would get pistol whipped, I must have been convincing because he believed me, although I was only joking. My dad says he is just amazed at the amount of people that are milling around in the streets and at the airport. We plan on doing some fun things while he is here and we will keep you posted.

In other news there was another earthquake in eastern Congo yesterday it was a 5.4. Also Ann Curry from NBC is in eastern Congo reporting on the major humanitarian crisis there look for a link to her reports on the side. Also in Time magazine underneath the numbers section they had this small article

"45,000- number of Congolese dying each month because of war, disease or malnutrition. In the past decade, war and its aftermath have caused 5.4 million deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - a figure equivalent to the entire population of Denmark.
$15- Average per-person health-care spending in Congo each year. In the U.S., it's $6,000."

On a lighter note I thought it was time to change to music to more of my taste, with a few African songs thrown in there. I hope you enjoy.
Tyler

Inside our House

Alright so here are some pictures of the inside of our house. Sorry about the ones turned sideways...just turn your head. :) I'll try to describe what our house looks like.

This is our main hallway. From the front door all the way down to the kitchen and the back kitchen door that we use the most. To the right of this hallway you have our bedroom, Spencer's bedroom and bathroom, and then the playroom is where the lighter area is, and then the kitchen. To the left is the living room and dining room.

I was trying to show how there are two hallways that lead into our bedrooms from the main hallway. And these two hallways have a walkthru in the middle of them. They have our closets and storage space.

Our bedroom. That is my exercise machine up against that window. But across from our bed we have a dresser and chest of drawers. Our bathroom is just to the right of the picture.

This is Spencer's room, half of it. That door behind the dresser and chest of drawers is a door into our room. Our dresser and chest of drawers are on the other side of that door.

Spencer's bed, and Poppa Nicholes bed (he's our only visitor).

Our play room.

We have our third bedroom as the playroom/video gaming room/scrapbooking room/movie watching room. :) Spencer thought that today, the day that I took pictures, would be good to make his DVD railroad. Which is a good activity for kids to do when they are bored. Spencer loves doing this. He gets all of our movies out and lines them up to make a road for trains or cars, then we race the cars on them. He loves it!

I thought you might like to see what kind of food we get here. Our bread comes in a bag, and it's not rectagular, it's more of an oval shape. Cheese we get in blocks and have to shred ourselves, milk comes in a box (and I don't prefer it), and our speghetti noodles are all in a different language! So it's a good thing I know how to cook them, if not I wouldn't be able to read the directions. Oh and the yellow package is crackers, which are very good with tuna fish. :) One thing that is hard here food-wise, is that it is not always there at the store. Like the place we used to get our milk (the kind that I would be okay with) doesn't have it anymore, and just has powdered milk. Also sometimes there isn't the bread that we like, it just kinda depends on when you go what you get. And Tyler does all the shopping, when he comes home from work he'll stop by one or two stores and get the food we need. That happens for two reasons 1) food here can spoil rather quickly (like fruit, vegetables) so you like to get them fresh that day and 2) I'd prefer not to go to the store, because so many people come up to me to see if I want to buy their things on the streets.

These are some pictures of our kitchen. It's a long room, and not too wide, and I wish I had more counter space.

Our living room/dining room, it's divided up by the columns.

This is our dining room. As you can tell we only take up the end of the table. But it's great for when we have people over to play games, or hang out to eat.

Okay the good part of our house!

Okay so the above pictures are part of our house but not the real part of the house. The bathroom and shower are there for the guards and househould help, the sink is an overflow for the washer, the old looking grill thing is an old grill in our yard, the window is our bathroom window, the barbwire, well that is for real. Below are the pictures of the yard of our house. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place. I will post pictures of the inside of our house later and will also take pictures out on the streets, but we have to be careful as the police and military don't really like people taking pictures.

We got our camera....We got our camera

We finally received our camera yesterday! So I immediately started taking pictures of Spencer. :) He was quite delighted that he can pose for these pictures again. So stay tuned, because the rest of the week and weekend we will be taking lots of pictures to show you all where we live! :)

Whole lotta shakin' going on

So we had an earthquake over here Sunday morning!!! BUT....we didn't feel anything. I'm sad, because I've never felt an earthquake before, and a little tremble wouldn't hurt, right? Anywho, there was an earthquake on the border of Congo and Rwanda (magnitude of 5.0), so far away on the eastern part of Congo, maybe it shook up the rebels that are out there? :) But we are fine, really nothing happens here, as of yet. We've heard the news in Chad, which is two countries above us. They are having an election, and if you have an election here things seem to get all crazy! So in Chad all Americans were evacuated, my mom actually told us that yesterday because we hadn't heard about that one. Anywho...we are fine.

News in the Congo

As soon as the United States Presidential Primaries are over and the General Elections start you will probably notice all the fighting between the Democrats and Republicans. When this starts and you are wondering why they all just can't get along, I want you to think about Africa. Elections in many parts of Africa are a fragile and tumoltous process, the Democratic Republic of the Congo included. Currently in Kenya there is violence between supporters of the Orange Democratic Movement and the currently elected government. In March 2006, a few months after the presidential elections here there was fighting between the Congolese Military, loyal to the elected President and the forces loyal to the Opposition leader who lost the election. Madagascar in 2002 also had some violence after the opposition political parties challenged the results of the presidential election that had the president, who had been in power for at least a decade, winning the election. Many of the political parties are based on tribal lines and grudges between these tribes have been around for centuries.

Not only do you have problems with elections, but you have rebels and opposition forces throughout Africa, you have several humanitarian crisises to include Darfur, Somalia, Eastern Congo, and now Kenya. I want all our friends and family to know that even though all this is going on we are safe. In an effort to keep our loved ones informed about what is going on in the Congo I have added a Congo News link to the side. As articles come out about Congo I will place a link on this blog. I encourage all to read these articles and feel free to comment on what you read. Some of the articles may worry you, so I also encourage you to look at a map and look at where the problems are occuring. For the most part these articles will talk about things going on in eastern Congo, which is at least a 3 hour plane ride away, and impossible to get to by car. So we are far removed from these problems. For those of you who also want to watch some movies about Congo and the regions close by, I encourage you to watch Hotel Rwanda, Lumumba and The Constant Gardner. I hope this helps people know a little more about the world and the place that we live.