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one week done
Entry 23 of 56 | show all | print this entry |
We finished our first week of school, ending with a community reception. David recovered from the stomach bug to slug it out with the youngest kids all week, but Ann-Mary went down with a flu bug and had to miss a couple of days. Luckily, we got a great substitute to come in -- someone else, in fact, who's a blogger here in Pointe-Noire and who had been in touch with AM already. So it was a serendipitous sickness, despite the fact that I had to hold down the fort with all the kids for a day. Our new substitute teacher/friend Magali had AM and the boys over to her house after school on Friday, right across from our favorite beachside strip restaurant, Twiga. She's got a great yard, with a patio, grass, a playset, a pool, and a trampoline!
At the school reception later that evening, we met some really nice folks who were very interested in getting their kids connected to some english-speaking experiences. Apparently the school was only a rumor until we actually opened, and the word on the street is that we may get a lot interest in the coming months. We made more friends, to boot: a Scottish couple with a couple of kids, who could totally relate to our experience of searching out English speaking friends and survival information about the way things work around here. So today we met them with all the kids at a restaurant with a park at the opposite end of the beachside strip where we hadn't been before. It was another nice place and much more populated by expatriates with kids than the other two places we'd gone to.
Another important turn of events is that I am now driving, with a Congolese license and all. What a difference it makes not to have to call and wait around for a ride or go places in a taxi. All of a sudden it feels like we really live here. The Scots, Phil and Melanie, are having a party next week. They have a rooftop patio with a barbecue, and he;s big into X-Box and karaoke and it promises to be another step forward into the Pointe-Noire expat experience.
Next important step: finding the most efficient way to get our money here from our bank in the states.
Another interesting development: Phil and Melanie have their kids in a local Congolese French-speaking pre-school, and it sounds like what we want to do with our kids, too. Their son Joseph is speaking pretty fluent French after less than two years, and he and his sister Maya both love the school. Sounds perfect! I'm sure our kids will hate it as much as Joseph did for the first three months...
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