And the Winners are...(drum roll)

1-The Good Life (Linda Anderson)

2-Mary Delmege

3-Bianca Rose

4-Jen Nicholes

5-The Martinez Family



And the grand winner is Bianca Rose
(These results have been verified by Spencer and Associates)


Thanks to all those who participated by becoming a follower of our blog. For those of you who didn't win, fret not, as we will do this contest once or twice while we are in Zimbabwe. (Remember everyone is welcome to come visit us in Zimbabwe and you will have a place to stay while you go on Safaris, ride elephants, and play with lion cubs. For those soccer fans, the world cup is in South Africa so Harare is a good place to spend some time before or after you go to a match.)


As for the winners what I need from you is

1) If for some reason someone from the family of the winner was actually the one who signed up as a follower and not the actual person listed, please let me know. For example if Jen is actually Lindsey or Ashely or Nathan, or maybe even Bart, or if Mary is actually Scott, or Bianca actually Colby or Luke or Melissa. If the names listed above is actually the person who signed up as a follower then there is no need to let us know.


2) Please let us know what type of prize you want. Some example of items are masks (wood and fired clay, old and new) wood carvings (elephants, giraffes, alligators, pots, bowls, jewelery boxes), jewelry (malachite, wooden, beaded) malachite carvings (Malachite is a green semi-precious stone and there is jewelry made of it and other carvings such as eggs, frogs, elephants, dolphin), paintings (of african scenes), african cloth, kuba cloth, greeting cards, a monkey (wait I can buy this, but it may be difficult getting it past customs), an african doll, or if there is something you collect let us know and we will try and find something to add to your collection (money, stamps, spoons, etc)


3) Almost everybody we will be seeing while we are back in the states in July and August, I think that is everybody besides Bianca. So most of these will be hand delivered, but if for some reason you would prefer we send it to you in the mail let us know.


4) Bianca since you are the grand winner, let us know of two things from the above list that you would like.



In response to the comments. We will do a future post about church here. As for more pictures, unfortunately taking pictures in the Congo is a big no-no. It may or may not be against the law, either way if the military or police see us taking pictures they will confiscate our camera (and since we have already lost three cameras in the two years we have been here, we don't want another one lost.) However I will be taking some video footage over the next couple of weeks and when we are back in the United States with good internet access I will upload the video. In Zimbabwe the no camera rule doesn't exist, so we plan on taking alot of pictures.

Pretty Flower

Spencer and Tyler picked me this flower on Saturday, I thought it was beautiful, so I took some pictures. :)

And here are the ones I played with. :)

B I T T E R S W E E T

Since we are leaving the Democractic Republic of Congo soon, I thought I would list things I've learned here, or seen here, things I might miss, and things I can't wait to have again.

• Thankful that we could meet the people here and learn a little about their culture.



• Never will forget the airport or the men who stand there with AK-47s.


• Had some tramatic stress dreams here, which I will be glad to be rid of.


• Had a wall and barb-wire around our house, with guards, OH and one who had a key to our house and stole my only jewelry (yes my engagement ring I will never be able to show to our children, very sad.)


• Everything is expensive here!!! $40 for a quart of cream!


• you can sell ANYTHING--on the side of the road (monkeys, dogs, coat racks, suitcases, maps, newspapers, tissues, lamps, food, pictures, clothes hangers, random things).
  
• Will be grateful to drink from the tap instead of distilled water.


• No more malaria pills!!! (finally we will sleep well)


• Motto in Africa -> If you don't ask for it then you won't get it (i.e. the maid has asked for things around the house knowing there is a 50/50 chance of getting it. no harm in asking).


• Another motto in Africa ->If you have more (wealth, things, food, money) you should feel obligated to give it to others who don't have as much. (Example: if someone gets hit by a car here--which happens A LOT--if you help that person, you could be the one paying for medical stuff and kids' future schooling!)


• Can't wait to have more fruits and vegetables and not have to bleach them this summer(Although I will miss our banana tree we have and the fresh pineapple for sale on the side of the street).
  
• I most likely will be able to drive at the next place we go, nothing like no road rules to scare a person from driving.
  
  
• I will never forget the anxiety I had here, there was always a threat of something bad happening. I wish the world was a safer place, we are all human, right?


• On the flip side of the previous one, this place has made me a more laid-back type of person. I'm not quite so controlling (only about no crumbs on the floor-then the ants come!) and I have started to react differently to things.


• I learned that being the minority and not speaking the language you become a little invisible, but I didn't mind. :) I could observe more that way. But you also had to be aware when it made you the target, thankfully we haven't had anything bad happen!


• I have gotten used to seeing soldiers with AK-47s walking down the street by us and not think twice about it...and the military tank too.


• Nature is beautiful especially when it's NOT man made.
  





• Nature has lots of sounds, and some of them can be quite loud, but beautiful too! Never before have I seen so many different kinds of unique birds!


• I will be happy not to take a dirty bath anymore, there is no clear water here.


• Being basic & simple is GREAT!


• Slowing down things in life won't make things worse just better. You enjoy things more.


• Children are precious and sometimes wise beyond their years, yet so innocent still. We could learn a thing or two from them. The children here are beautiful and have smiles that light up the room.
  
  


• I will miss how quiet church is here.


• Bugs in Africa are HUGE! Will not miss them, or seeing them in the middle of the night hanging above us on our mosquito netting around the bed. (true story, this happened the other night with a cockroach up there!).
  
• And in that case, I don't like sleeping with mosquito netting around our bed, especially since the husband gets tangled in it every night (he tosses too much). :)
  

• I am glad we have lived here to help bring our little family closer together. We have had to depend on each other numerous times and it's made us love each other more and more.

Even though you might hear us gripe of the daily struggles of living here, we have liked it. We are thankful that we were able to enjoy another part of our world that is so different from what we grew up in. Spencer will have such different childhood memories than Tyler and I ever did. I can't begin to tell what a blessing it has been to be here, really it has. We will miss the people we met here, and especially our church ward who have helped us to become accustom to life here in Congo.
Our next adventure: Harare, Zimbabwe!!! Here we come! :)

CONTEST AND BLOG TOPICS

Okay so I think it is time we have a contest on this blog. The prize will be a souvenir from the Congo. Now to be eligible for this contest you have to become a follower of this blog. To do that, just look over here: ------------------->


Okay so here are the rules. In order to be eligible you have to become a follower of this blog. Currently we have 10 individuals who qualify. I will select 5 people at random, the prestigious law firm of Spencer and Associates will verify that the names were in fact drawn at random. Those five winner will each receive a souvenir, to be chosen by us at a future date. The prize will be from the Congo and you will receive it by the end of the summer. Out of those 5 winners, one will be randomly selected to win the grand prize which will be a super souvenir. As of now there is a 1 in 5 chance of winning, with a 1 in 10 chance of being the grand prize winner. If some one is unable to become a follower for a variety of reasons, please leave a comment explaining why you can't be a follower, the law firm and Spencer and Associates will look over the responses and make a ruling if the reason provided is convincing enough to allow your name in the drawing without becoming a follower. You will have 2 weeks from today to become a follower. On 27 June we will announce the winners.



BLOG TOPICS
Since we live overseas and want to share this experience with you, please request what topics you would like to see. For example do you want to have a detailed blog on what they eat in the Congo? (you can substitute Congo with Zimbabwe) What is the vegetation and fauna in the Congo? What type of animals are in the Congo? What traditions do they have in the Congo? What is it like to go to school as a Congolese,? How is church in the Congo? and any other questions that come to your mind, let us know and we will try to answer your questions and provide pictures if possible.

Guess what Spencer did today!

This is what Spencer wanted to do today...

Yep, and he sat there and washed every last one of those rocks. 'Cause you know..."rocks need baths too, they get dirty from the mud." (as Spencer informed me)

Fun in the Sprinklers!!

Yesterday Spencer wanted to play outside in the mud, then the gardener got the sprinkler out for him. He had a blast! Makes you want to be a kid again. :)

This was the stream he was making down the driveway, he has made a rock collection here so he can use them to make dams in the stream.

After playing in the water and mud, he took his bath and now he's all fresh and clean and even includes 5 mosquito bites her got while playing.

When I see this smile, it makes my day!

Young Men's Activity

Since Tyler is involved with the young men in our ward/church, he challenged them to bring their scriptures to church for 10 weeks. If they did it, then they could come over to our place and play video games and have good food. They did it! So last Saturday night we had the young men from our ward come over for some fun. We all had a blast. Even a member of our bishopric got in on some Wii boxing!!! :) It was great.

The young men and leaders with two men from the bishopric, and Spencer. :)

Spencer eating and watching them play. He loved having all these boys over.

First counselor's son, who was watching his dad box. Cute kid!

The first counselor and a boy boxing.

We had two TVs, one with the Wii so 2-4 players could play and then the Xbox so 2 more could play. These boys are concentrating on basketball.

More boxing.

Trying to figure it all out.

Basketball playing.

One boy got some of Spencer's games out (Candy Land and Memory) and Spencer tried to explain to them how to play.

Tyler teaching. :)