It's been a long time since I posted any news.  It's been busy -- more than 20 events in March with more than 15 of them at the Residence!  The first week of April, we received our household goods shipment - most of which we could live without but they do make the Residence more "homey."  We are especially grateful for our Select Comfort Bed. Each of the first 3 mornings, Bill said, "I didn't know how much I liked this bed!"  The house staff was impressed not only with the size of the bed but also that it uses air in the mattress.  That's my product endorsement for today. 

 

Our car has also arrived in Kinshasa. Although we now have diplomatic plates and local insurance, it still needs servicing. The catalytic converter must be removed and something "jiggled" loose during shipment, the lights won't shut off without disconnecting the battery.  The Embassy motor pool mechanics will work on it in their off hours and charge us reasonable rates. So it will be next week before it will available for our use.  But it's here! 

 

The great news is that we will receive our "Art in Embassies" selections this Thursday, April 17.  Ambassadors are allowed to choose a number of pieces by American artists to display in the public areas of the Residence.  The artists graciously lend their work.  We chose a number of pieces by Michigan artiststs: Martha Ceccio of Ann Arbor and Angela Saxon of Traverse City.  We also selected works by artists from the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria Old Town: Pat Cohen and Isabel Field.  We will feature a quilt by Pat Owoc of St. Louis, MO.  Finally we selected a number of pieces that have been donated to the State Department for the Art in Embassies program including work by: Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Susan Hersey, John Nelson, Synthia Saint James, & Jennifer Barlett.  Our themes are Americana, Nature, and global brotherhood.  Once these pieces are hung throughout the Residence, we will intermingle our own pieces from Bolivia, Eritrea and other parts of Africa. 

 

I'll give you a quick update of the other things that have been keeping me busy in the past month or so. 

 

 

Kinshasa English Day, March 19:  3 of the Kinshasa English Clubs presented skits.  I served as one of the judges.  We judged on timing, creativity, fluency, reaction of the audience and relevance to themes of Democracy, Human Rights & HIV/AIDS.  I'm impressed by the students dedication and presentation.

 

Spelling Bee, March 28: I served as a judge for the Kinshasa Protestant University's English Club.  Twenty-two very brave people stood in front of more than 30 of their peers and spelled words that were drawn from the actual Spelling Bee lists used for official competitions in the U.S.  It took more than 1.5 hours to whittle the 22 competitors to 2 winners.  There weren't any "gimme" words. 

 

We also hosted more receptions and attended 2 national day celebrations:  Greece on March 31 and Senegal on April 4.  The Embassy staff and I are busy working on our own National Day plans -- see previous post -- for the 4th of July.

 

Please page down through the previous posts.  I think I figured out the way to do photos and have added some throughout the blog. 

 

Until next time....