Grocery Shopping.

I am not sure if we have mentioned this before, but the shopping experience here is just that an experience. To give you all an inkling of the experience let me walk you through the typical shopping trip. First off the store we shop at the most frequently is City Market. It is run by a member of the Lebanese community here. One of the nicer, if not nicest stores in town. There is very little parking at City Market and you basically have three choices.
1st choice: You park in the guarded gated area. This place fills up pretty quick as there is probably only 20 spots. It is the safest spot and is void of any beggers or people trying to sell you things. You might think this is the best spot because of that, but I think otherwise. As far as parking goes, it is the best but in order to get out the gated area you have to do a 12 point turn out of the parking lot into a one way street that often has alot of traffic. Not an easy thing to do, but it is pretty easy to scrape the side of your car on the iron fence next surrounding the exit.
2nd choice: Park next to the store in one of maybe 15 spots. These spots are guarded by one of the security companies in town, but you still get people trying to sell you everything from alchol, to tomatoes, to belts, to mangoes, to dvd's, to purses. Becca doesn't usually go shopping with me, because these vendors swarmed her and would not leave her alone, even after she got back in the car. The funny thing is they almost always try to sell you their wares after you have gone shopping. So for example I will go in and buy carrots, on the way to my car, a vendor will try to sell me carrots, not the smartest way to sell things. This spot does have the advantage of not having beggers. It is also custom to tip the security force there, usually 500 Congalese francs or less, which is about $1. The security guard will also help you back out of your spot as you back out into traffic and without their help your likely to get into an accident.
3rd choice: This choice has the most parking spots, but is usually the last one to be filled, so therefore the one I most often park in. This parking is on the side of the street, usually across from the store, or at the corner down from the store. Sometimes these spots are not actually on the side of the road, but in the road. These spots also have a security force, several homeless children ranging from 12 to 25 probably. Usually what happens is when you drive up to the store one of these guys will try and get you to park in one of "their" spots, usually the only ones available. They will help you park and tell you they will watch your vehicle. They may not actually watch the vehicle, but they will not steel the mirrors or hubcaps which is a plus. This choice usually comes with one or two beggars as well as the whole fleet of vendors, as this "Local" security forces doesn't really care the vendors get in your way. These homeless boys are nice and will open and close the door for you and are friendly. They will also back your car out of your spot and make sure you don't get into a car wreck. I also tip these boys 500 congolese francs. Sometimes you have to be careful as there may be several boys you want to "watch" your car. The best thing to do is choose one out of the group and tell him he is the one who is going to guard the vehicle. I have seen some heated arguments as one boy might try and move in on the turf of another boy. Today when I went into the store, it was rather busy, so one of these boys basically just had me park on a corner kind of in the street. I didn't block anyone else in, and there was still room for other vehicles to get around me, but it definelty was not a "legal" parking spot.

Okay now that we got through the parking situation. Let's do the shopping. City Market is kind of like a Fred Meyers, Walmart, Super Target store, but maybe a tenth of the size. They sell video games, clothing, food, school supplies, toys and CFC (think KFC). First lets talk about the pricing. Most things in Congo are imported as there isn't enough infrastructure to make alot of their own goods. With everything being purchased overseas using the dollar, the prices in the store often fluctuate due to changes in the exchange rate. Instead of changing the prices on the shelf every few days. They assign all products a number between 1 and 350. Below each product is a number, to find the price you take that number and look at a paper usually somewhere on the aisle where you look for that number, next to the number will be the price of the item in congolese francs. For example all items that at one time cost 4 dollars maybe were assigned the number 56. As the exchange rate and price of goods goes up, they do not need to go around and change all the $4 items to $6, they just need to change the several charts around the store that match the number with a price. Saves time and energy.

So you go around and buy all your food, we can get some america products here like Kelloggs, Mr. Propre (Mr. Clean), Act III popcorn, Del Monte, and several others. They have a large cheese counter and meat counter and they have a very good juice section. One of Spencer's favorite part of the store is CFC, either called Congo Fried Chicken, or City Fried Chicken. At this place in City Market you can get Fried Chicken, Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken Strips, and French Fries. Today Spencer had the kids meal and Becca and I had the Chicken Strip Combo. Pretty good chicken. In the corner they also have a little playground area the Spencer has just recently discovered.

Okay now let me go through our shopping list today and tell you how much everything cost:

A small package of 6 small milky way bars- $8
Small package of iced animal cookies- $3.50
Pampers diapers 30 count- $30
One medium bag of mozarrella cheese- $4
3 granny Smith Apples- $5
One liter of Whipping Cream - $40 (Used to make homade Ice Cream, never realized it was that expensive)
One Bounty candy bar- $1.75
One large bagette- $1.25
6 Count Special K breakfast bars - $10
Large Mr. Clean cleaner- $11
1 kilo hamburger- $11
4 frozen pizzas- $35
One bag doritoes- $7
One small container of strawberries- $12
1 cantelope- $20
6 carrots- $4
2 bags of bread- $4
one medium bag of pretzels- $3.50
CFC- $25

In total we spent $229, food is expensive here. Well that is about all the experience of shopping in the congo, I hope you enjoyed it.
Tyler

Cute Spencer

Spencer is so cute when he sleeps. Like an angel. But I couldn't not get a picture of this. If you can see it, he has both hands under his face. So cute!!! He falls asleep like this most nights, I don't know where he got it from, but I love it!

Snakes and Crocodiles!!

This is when we went to the Reptile Farm here in Kinshasa. It was sooo much fun! As you can see they let everyone hold the snakes and walk around with them. I decided not to do that, and Spencer was unsure of it, but he warmed up to it and had one wrapped around him. Tyler of course was holding a few of them throughout our little tour of different snakes. They had cobras, vipers, and pythons there. A lot of them were venomous, and one the tour guide took out and handled. They fed the snakes rodents while we were there too, which was really interesting to see four snakes in a cage and see which one got the one mouse that was dropped in. The first time we saw that, one snake went after it, then another snake started coming at the one who had bit the mouse (and yes the mouse was alive and it started squealing). So the one came after the first one, the first one dropped the mouse, and the second snake bit the first snake and had his head in his mouth! It was so weird, to see a snake biting the other snake. When the snake got his head out of the other snakes mouth there was a little blood. There were almost all boys that were there with us, and they were all just loving it. :) We also saw a crocodile, and they even fed him a big rodent, and had him jump up for it. A little more dangerous since the walls of that cage weren't high enough we didn't think. But all in all, it was a VERY fun day!

You Can't Stop the Beat

Short Stories of Spencer

-Spencer thinks he needs to play basketball EVERYDAY, because when he grows up he is going to be a basketball player. Which is true, that he needs to practice, but mommy does not need to practice.
-Spencer loves musicals! He dances with mommy to the songs on Hairspray, and screams like Penny and Tracy do when they see Link. He thinks that part is funny. He has started to learn some of the steps too, since we watch it so much!
-Spencer explained to daddy what "you can't stop the beat" means: "It means that they don't want to stop dancing, and the music won't stop."
-Spencer wants to help Maria, our maid, clean. So yesterday when she was here, he followed her and tried to help sweep and put books away. He told mommy to clean the carpet, not vacuum, just clean the carpet.
-Spencer has learned that if it's rainy outside when we wake up, then it's a movie day. :)
-Spencers favorite words are: "delicious", "amazing", and he has used the word "mistake" a couple of times in the last two days.
-Spencer loves to watch Spongebob Squarepants, and knows the song.....yes it is sometimes annoying. :)
-Spencer is loved by all here who meet him, he is such a charmer!
-Last but not least....Spencer has grown up, and is turning into a little boy. He's so cute! :)

smart boy or smart alec???

On Sunday we had a Pig Roast at the Marine House to go to, and they really did have a pig on a spit spinning around for I think they said twelve hours. Anywho, we went to the pig roast and it was such good food! Spencer had lots of fun running aroudn with the other kids there too. So by the time we got home Spencer was quite tired, especially after not getting a nap. He wanted Tyler to carry him into the house from the car, but Tyler had his hands full so he couldn't. So Spencer did walk and when he was two steps from being inside the house he started pouting. I asked him what was wrong, he told me that Daddy wouldn't carry him into the house. Tyler looked at him and asked, "Do you have two feet? Because if you have two feet you can walk into the house." Well, Spencer looked down at his feet and you could tell that he was counting to see that he did have two feet. So he then lifted one foot off the ground and put it behind the other leg, looked up, and said with a smile "I only have one feet." Tyler and I just looked at each other and laughed. He thinks through things so quickly. And he did walk the two more steps into the house.

Then yesterday, Tyler was playing with Spencer and was using him as different instruments. Holding him like a guitar, and drums, etc. Well when Spencer had had enough of that, he goes, "Daddy I don't want to be instruments anymore, I'm just Spencer." We don't exactly know where he learned the word instruments, bu the said it clearly. He surprises us everyday.