For dessert: Berlin

And after all my adventures in Egypt and Congo, for dessert there is Berlin. I joined Peter, and his son Sandy's family (Sonia, Klaus, and Hugo) here for my last week of the 2017 winter sojourn. It has been about 11 years since my last visit. What I remember from then was cranes everywhere and construction. Things have settled down a bit now and the new construction seems to be public infrastructure--new subway station near Museum Island, big additions to public museums, road work.

At Museum Island

We have enjoyed multiple museums (and have a long list for next time), but the most satisfying for me were the Pergamon and the Neues, both of which have large collections of archeological finds discovered by German scientists in the late 1800s. At one time I felt dismissive about this and referred to it as "stolen art," which I still maintain it is. At the same time, given what has happened in Afghanistan and Palmyra, maybe it is good that these treasures have been preserved.

Schnitzel und spargel

Peter and I also enjoyed seeing a performance of Balanchine's "Jewels" by the Staatsoper rep company and orchestra and a concert of choral music by the Edinburgh Singers. We have eaten schnitzel, goulasch, fresh pike, lots of good vegetables (white asparagus!) and one or three desserts. Despite a lot of walking I think there is no question it was not enough to counter the spaetzle.

Sonia interprets the Time Machine

On the rear deck of our boat

Sonia, Sandy, and the boys have been up for anything and did a great job of finding things kids would enjoy here. The technology museum and the natural history museum were big hits, but Klaus also got into prehistoric stuff and Egyptian mummies. Hugo is happy to be in the convoy (in his stroller). We have met several of their friends here as well. Vincent (who once lived in LA) arranged an afternoon boat trip on the Wannsea and other waterways near Berlin. It happened to be on one of the sunniest days we have had. We stopped at the dock at his Mom's house and picked her and a brother up for the ride. Many boaters had just the previous day put their boats in the water and a fair number of sailboats were enjoying good wind. Another pair of friends, Pedro and Nina, both architects, have been involved in restoring the Mies van der Rohe-designed grave of a great-aunt of Sandy's who died in 1920. Yet another friend of Sonia, Ute--her roommate from fashion school in Antwerp--also joined us for lunch one day. She is busy doing the style side of launching a new high fashion clothing label in Shanghai. They are on their second collection, backed by a Chinese businesswoman.

Although Berlin ia very spread out, getting around is relatively easily due to a variety of public transport options--subways, trams, busses, trains, taxis. We took a fairly short train ride to Leipzig for the day to pay homage to Johann Sebastian Bach. Leipzig feels like a very manageable size and has an assortment of architectural styles that have blended well. We visited both Nicholaskircke and the StTomaskircke, the latter of which was Bach's home church for decades. Next door there is an extraordinarily well done Bach Museum that employs a variety of media approaches to highlight his history and music. We also found a contemporary art museum filled mainly with installations that left us feeling happy.

Peter nearly caused an international incident when he sat down next to a young woman in hijab on the train to Leipzig. We failed to reserve seats and so were looking for vacant ones after we got moved out of our first choice. One of 4 men traveling with three women in hijab said the seat was taken. Then one German man reminded him of the rules--if you do not claim your reserved seat within 5 minutes after the train departs, it's gone. That did not help. But a very kindly woman arranged a game of musical chairs by asking another woman to sit there and Peter got that woman's seat. All was well, but this was obviously something very close to the emotional surface for both sides. The folks mentioned above, with whom we have been talking politics, all seem to be pro-immigration. Vincent's partner, Frederika, who works in the SAP Innovation Center on health care applications, noted the demographic changes that demand immigration for both child care and elder care at the very least. They feel confident Merkel will prevail in the next election because people want stability now for awhile.

Peter is fearless in speaking his German and even I have been surprised at how much I understand or can read. Not sure if it is the college German creeping back or just crossovers from Dutch. But I hope it bodes well for our time in Mexico later this year.

For our last evening we will visit James Turrell's chapel with Pedro and Nina (http://www.sleek-mag.com/2016/08/23/james-turrell-berlin-cemetery/). This is in a cemetary and was built in 1927. No documentation remains of what it looked like originally.

It is not easy to leave here. So we have to look forward to next time. We have stayed in a centrally located hotel next to the ruined Kaiser Wilhelm Church Memorial and across from the zoo, ten minutes from shopping and great restaurants, right on the U-Bahn line. From our window we can see the continuing remembramces to those who were killed in the Christmas Market terrorism attack.

Marrying Traditions - A Unique Party

First dance!

Conga line!

Congolese and American wedding traditions don't have a lot in common, but that didn't stop Stro and Serguei (Momo) from trying for a unqiue blend. And they got a great result. Despite bureaucratic holdups that delayed the actual, official marriage until a date soon (we hope), a great time was had by all celebrating this twosome.

Every the smallest guests wore
pagne! 

Chela, Serguei, Paty

We were really fortunate that several representatives of Serguei's family and friends could travel to DRC from ROC for the festivities. In all there were about 15, all of whom sported some version of the wedding pagne, or special occasion fabric, a Congolese tradition Stro and I embraced happily. Of special importance were two of his sisters, Chela and Paty. We housed most of them in the apartments or homes of gracious friends.

Stro with hosts Kimball

And then there were our fabulous hosts, Richard and Rama Kimball. Their big garden looked gorgeous and Rama especially master-minded the food and produced The. Best. Beef. Brochettes. Ever. toward the end of the party. This was after hours of delicious chicken dishes, a very special beef and rice dish served only at weddings, saka-saka, chikwanga, and all the accompaniments. The there were cupcakes in the pagne colors to boot.

We skipped the goats and other dowry exchange items featured in traditional weddings but the principals did exhange rings in front of the group gathered.This was where it was obvious to all that these two are made for each other. They had no pre-planned vows but both warmed to the occasion and spoke beautifully to each other in front of us all. Some people said they cried. I was distracted in the moment by the perspiration dripping off my hair and running down the sides of my face and legs.

Stro and Serguei

Stro and Rilla

And it was the hottest day/evening of my month in Kin. How hot was it? Well, the pictures fall into "before our hair got wet" and "after our hair was dripping." Here are two from the "before" group, taken about 5 p.m.

After that, all bets were off for everyone. I drank several bottles of water, which probably only made matters worse. A breeze developed about 9:30 so it seemed safe to drink champagne then.

Dancing to the 8-piece rhumba band led by friends Poppy and Sara was virtually continuous once they got started. This included some very set dancing routines to certain Congolese popular hits and also a lot of free form movement (my best kind). When the music from Serguei's mother's village was played the whole family descended on the stage to dance to amazingly fast rhythms. I was thinking that for me and my cohorts, "That Old Time Rock 'n Roll" would havehad the same impact.

The official party ended about 10:30. Most of the ROC visitors and some friends joined an after party at a local club for every more celebrating. I chose to go home, get out of my wet dress, take a shower, and sleep. Feeling happy and grateful and hoping to be able to welcome Stro and Serguei to Vermont this summer with the children.

ESL Congo - Part II

Not surpisingly, many people I have met here in Congo consider facility in English to be a career-enhancer. Some have hopes of employment here in positions that require functional bilingualism. Others want to continue their education in English-speaking countries, which invariably requires proficiency in English as demonstrated by either the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for the US or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in other countries. These comparable exams are the high-stakes gateways to English language higher education.

The Congolese American Language Institute (CALI) has a steady stream of hundreds of students who every ten weeks pay $200 plus $45 for books to study English. CALI uses Cambridge curricula and offers six levels of English instruction, plus a TOEFL prep course. They also have extra-curricular activities designed to provide varied opportunities to pratice English, such as a choir and English Club. Among the 40+ teachers, none is a native speaker but all are trained in teaching English.

One service they do NOT seem to offer, but which may be needed, is preparation for work. This might include interview skills, personal presentation, resume preparation, how to network, etc. Vanessa will soon complete her six levels at CALI and is basically untutored in any of these skills, believing she can't get  job without a university degree or five years' experience. At the same time, every day I see young people working in jobs and using English well--in coffee shops and other hospitality venues, for example. So there is some key to finding a first job that awaits discovery for Vanessa.

I recently observed CALI classes at two levels--one an advanced beginner class and the other a level 5 class (actually, Vanessa's class). This was a terrific opportunity for me to learn how other teachers approach the challenge of teaching English, especially on a ten-week time line. There is no time to waste to complete the curriculum for the level. While this system keeps the students moving at a pace, the pressure also makes those extra practice opportunities especially valuable.

As a favor to a friend, I am also coaching a Congolese physician on how to improve his TOEFL score. He took it the first time without much preparation and did not achieve a score that would permit him to apply to the public health master's degree program that is his goal. So we are working especially on the writing and listening parts of the test, which is where he thinks he needs the greatest improvement. This is somewhat new to me and so his need is also a favor to me to learn how to do this (there are whole courses available on how to do TOEFL prep, of course, both for the teacher/coach and for the person prepping for the test, but they are expensive).

As a Spanish student myself, I fully appreciate that it takes consistent study and the acceptance that learning another language well is a lifelong endeavor. Yes, I could probably get along in Mexico now as a tourist with what I have. But I would not be able to have very meaningful conversations, especially about ideas, yet. When I look at the demands of the TOEFL, it is hard to imagine obtaining or achieving an equivalent level in Spanish.

Weekend in Town with Granddaughters

My second weekend here, my soon-to-be son-in-law and two of his children traveled on the Congo River ferry services from Brazzaville for a visit. Because this involves an international boundary, passports and a lot of slow paperwork are involved on both sides, with fixers at each step in the process (meaning tips).

Naomie and Klavna in new dresses
from Cairo

Serguei (Momo), Naomie (age 8), and Klavna (age 5) arrived on Friday bearing a zillion hugs and kisses to share with me and Maman Stro. As someone who is late to the grandma game, I am just as enthusiastic with the hugs and kisses. Having missed the baby years of these girls, as "Mémé" I now get to help them learn English and buy them cute clothes and books. Is that a great deal or what?

We had a relatively relaxed two nights and two and a half days together. Stro has taught them about breathing (inspire...expire in French) and they are able to use that technique when they need to settle down a little. This included a couple of time-outs for Klavna at the swimming pool of a friend. Both girls are still learning to swim but are fearless in the water--which has both good and bad aspects. Klavna doesn't want to wear her PFD but neither will she stay in the shallow end. Naomie learned to flutter kick and almost has floating down. They had such a busy pool time that they fell asleep over their homework and then slept 12 hours at night. Conked.

I had a good time teaching them equivalent phrases using our hands. Holding out our right hands, we would say "please," and then hold out our left hand and say "s'il te plaît," for example. We followed this up with the old camp song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes."

We went to a family friendly Friday night place called Hal de la Gombe, where we enjoyed a couple of (smallish) roasted chickens, french fries, and fried bananas before a concert. We got rained out of the courtyard for eating but everything was dry by the time the music started. I am pretty surprised at the energy level the girls kept up during the music, dancing and running around. I think I have a lot to learn. Actually I learned from watching Momo on an early exercise walk we all took together. To keep them interested he had them doing squats and then push-ups, raising their knees, walking backwards. Channel all the energy!

The girls will attend The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK) next year, Klavna in first grade and Naomie in third. We have visited the school, which is set on 42 wooded acres, complete with athletic fields and a swimming pool, pottery studio, theater, and science labs. Their big brother Dolys will probably be in 10th grade. All of them will have support as English learners, but it will still be a huge transition from the French system to the American. The school has 330 students from pre-K through 12th grade, from 40 countries. Teachers come from eight different countries and most live in housing on the campus (so it's like a small Vermont town). International Day is understandably one of the BIG days of the year. Their ahtletic teams compete internationally and this weekend they were sponsoring a Model UN weekend with teams from other countries. Our visit made me want to go to school there.

The Staycation Begins - Les Pieds dans L'eau

Stro took this week off and we started with a full regime on Sunday (no surprises). First, an early morning walk on the river loop. Then a latte and croissant at a new-to-Stro place. First time for a croissant with za'atar, which as a person who favors the savory, I liked a lot. Then a trip to a place I have been hearing about for a long time, Les Pieds dans L'eau.


Located about a hour (with no traffic) out of town in the direction of the airport, LPDL is the creation of a couple who have Belgian connections and live here. They basically created a dammed up spot in the Nsele River (but not far from the Congo River) and lined it with white sand and sandbags (and a few tires). The area surrounding this waist-high water is shaded by a variety of trees and it is indeed possible to sit at the edge and put your feet in the water as well as to get all the way in and float around on inner tubes, both of which I enjoyed.

On Sundays the $25 admission includes a sumptuous buffet with green salads vinaigrette, very good potato salad and a host of Congolese favorites, such as rice, chikwanga (manioc), saka-saka and poulet a la moamba. They also grilled a lot of meat and chicken (what I call Congolese fast food). All the usual accompaniments were there, including and especially pili-pili or "pima." Accompanied by Tembo beer it was the perfect Sunday. Until the storm came.

With advancing dark skies, thunder, and lightning we decided we had enjoyed LPDL fully and would drive the sand track back out to the main road before it became impassable. Going home took an hour and a half that seemed like 3. We were driving into a sure-enough thunder boomer with sheets of rain sweeping the road and people crowded together under any available roofing material. What had been vibrant markets on the way out were now vacant. Cars traveled with their double blinkers and relatively slowly. The wipers were going as fast as they could and at times were ineffectual. The storm also brought strong winds and we got giggly remembering a time in Florida when we were in a hurricane and did not know it (Stro was about 7). Every pothole threatened the car's alignment if not the axle. In case you might be wondering why we did not pull off the road and wait it out, I just have to say that option would never occur to offspring of Bill Reinka. Stro did an amazing job of driving, which included maneuvering through a broken road after making a wrong turn--think washed out roads in Vermont. Thank goodness for four-wheel drive and then my GPS for getting us heading back in the right direction. The white RAV-4, known as Violet, performed well.

We arrived back home in time to get cleaned up to meet Vanessa at Kinshasa's new movie theater, called CineKin. The English version (with French subtitles) of Hidden Figures was showing at 5:15 to a pretty good sized crowd of mostly Americans and other ex-pats. The audience applauded the movie at the end. We headed out to the best pizza in town at O Poeta. 

Esengi Maternity Center

new incubator

U.S. Taxpayers: for two small gifts of $6500 and $8500, you have contributed to better birth outcomes for mothers who live on the rural edge of Kinshasa. Those amounts, USAID small grants, bought an incubator and solar panels to assure back-up electricity for the Esengi Maternity Center in Kisenu. Our tax money should always be so well spent.

One day old and clothed in
many layers.

Every month, 200 babies are born at this center, whose name means “joy” in Lingala, the local tribal language. It is one of the few maternal and child health centers in the region. Women pay a total of about $15 for their pregnancy care and five years of well-child care. This rate is heavily subsidized by the Archdiocese of Kinshasa; no local government funding is involved.

Today I was privileged to ride along with the USAID director

and Stro for an official visit and “ribbon-cutting” (without the ribbon). We met the chief doctor, many nurses (no midwives), and church officials, and were followed around by members of the press and the embassy’s public affairs staff. More importantly, we met many mothers and babies, some only one day old. Despite the heat all of them were well wrapped in several layers of clothing and blankets. Plastic bags recycled as diaper wraps. Some babies had names, such as three-day old “Winner,” his mother’s first son. Others did not have names yet and would go home with birth certificates that said only “baby.”

Pharmacy--note old incuabtor
now storage

Proud mama

This center provides a full menu of well-child services (up to age 5) as well as maternity care. Over 150 prenatal patients were present for an educational session about mother-to-baby HIV transmission. There were about six babies who had been suffering malnutrition in a ward with their moms, most of them doing much better. A large group was attending a breastfeeding workshop, complete with cheerleading, singing dancing, and clapping nurses, and health educators. Laundry was drying everywhere—on lines, on bushes, on fences.

Women come here because their friends tell them they had a good experience. The faces of the mothers, whether shy or eager, show their great pride. Esengi is indeed a place of joy.

Maman Mapassi (mother of twins)

Whirlwind Week

Rilla - Eve - Stro at Patisserie Nouveau

A few glimpses into a whirlwind week:

Member of Parliament, Head of Party, Chair of Parliament's Socio-Cultuiral Commission - The Honorable Eve Bazaiba

Eve Bazaiba hails from Kisanangi Province, which is 1700 miles by boat or two hours by plane. She is the Executive Secretary of one of the opposition parties, and a force to be reckoned with in parliament and politics. She is a strong supporter of the December 31 agreement brokered by the Catholic Church between a coalition of opposition leaders and the Kabila government regarding elections. We had a lovely lunch after her English class at CALI but she was reluctant to practice her English much. She had a lot to tell Stro, a day ahead of the parliament's opening and did that in French. She made a gift of a pagne (see below) dress to me because she is so fond of Stro. Her own daughter is a physician in Kinshasa busy educating other physicians about new methods for testing cervical cancer.

A Touch of Pagne

Rilla with Ginette Martin, Canadian ambassador to DRC

Two local international groups collaborated on a major event called “A Touch of Pagne.” The International Women’s Club (mostly English-speaking) and Kinshasa Accueil (mostly French-speaking) raised cover $7000 to help two maternity centers in and around Kin. They put on quite a show, complete with door prizes (fabric from Woodin was a favorite) and a lovely continental breakfast donated by the brand-new hotel. In many ways, it felt very much like similar gatherings in Amsterdam and Yerevan. Get a group of women together who have more horsepower than they can use, and they raise money and otherwise organize for good.

Tablemates

Hundreds of women attended at $25 each. It looked like a veritable United Nations of Women. Half of my table wore head scarves, most attendees wore pagne (the local brightly colored fabric), either as a dress or an accessory. Friends of Stro greeted me at the door and got me seated next to a friendly English-speaker who turned out to be the Canadian Ambassador, Ginette Martin. She admired my pagne-accented clutch and told me she would like to have the person who made it come to a special event at her residence in April. Done. Stro sent her the info.

Madame Therese

Rilla and Vanessa

Madame Therese, robot engineer

After a delightful lunch with Vanessa Massamba (oldest granddaughter) following her English class at CALI, we both went to hear a woman introduced as Madame Therese. She is the Congolese engineer who invented the big traffic robot that governs (sort of) the largest intersections in the city. An animated speaker, Madame T told her story of becoming an engineer and how important the support of others, especially her father and husband, had been to her success. Ironically her own mother told her she could not be an engineer because she was a girl. CALI produced a huge audience for her talk and then invited all to stay for cake.

Rose Kuningu

Rose is a Wonder Woman. She is about 30, came to Kinshasa from her village about seven years ago and has done amazing things. First, with the support of her many siublings (her mom died when she was an infant), she completed  university in law. Now she works for the government highways department and is the only English speaker there. When business partners from RSA come to town she brokers all the conversations. But the amazing part about Rose is that after teaching herself a lot of English she finished quickly at CALI and then started the CALI Ladies Foundation for Excellence (CALFE). CALFE’s slogan is “Together, let’s promote girls and disabled children’s education.”

In their first year they helped 27 children by raising money for school fees, books, and uniforms, and by persuading their parents to let them go to school instead of producing income for the family. CALFE members visit the families once a month to be sure the child has remained in school, to see how things are going, and to answer any questions the parents have. All of this work is done by volunteers. Rose thinks volunteering is very important and she is committed to building civil society institutions here in Congo.

Little by little, they are putting in place the infrastructure needed to sustain the organization. Their website is www.calfe.org and they are hoping to set up a bank account that will accept donations made through the website. Rose collects used items from CALI students and they repair and/or resell or give to the children as needed. She visits CALI monthly to ask the students to donate. I am hoping to help her network with the IWC women and others who might be able to help her raise money and who might also like to volunteer. Her enthusiasm is contagious and her leadership skills are remarkable.

Wedding Pagne

Pepe - seamstress and designer

Making sketches

Most of Friday afternoon was taken up working with a seamstress/designer named Pepe on the dresses for Stro, me, and a friend, Rama, for the wedding on March 25. We (and many others) will be wearing dresses/shirts from the same fabric, or pagne (“pan-ya”). Pagne is a waxed cotton sold in 5 meter lengths, about one meter wide.

It is a tradition that for a wedding friends have the option of having clothes made with the same fabric. In large weddings, sometimes the bride’s family will have a pagne and the groom’s family will have a different one, and even the couple may have yet another all to themselves.

Working with the designer involves looking at a lot of pictures, thinking about how the chosen fabric will work with different designs, and then eventually coming up with combination of features—sleeves from this one, change this neckline thus, skirt from that one, bodice like this other one. Then with vocabulary and language gaps, it is essential to review the decisions carefully. Rama was indispensable in this part of the process. Words like hemline, gusset, darts, etc. do not come up in ordinary conversation. They form a specialized vocabulary that poses a challenge to the French-impaired like me and even to some French-fluent like Stro. The dresses are to be delivered for fitting on Wednesday afternoon.