Four Wheels of Freedom

We would like to introduce you all to the newest member of the TL&M family - Ravvy. We finally bought a car. It has all 4 wheels, an engine and room for at least two people. We are so very proud.

Welcome Ravvy!

With our new found freedom we decided to get out and see Kinshasa these past few weeks. We met some friends for an afternoon of lawn games at a nature reserve at the edge of town. Matt was on the winning bocce ball team and Toni Lyn single-handedly beat Team England in the lawn bowling championship while a crowd of Congolese children cheered from across the pond (to be paid in pastries for their participation in the event when it ended).

The Champ

Matt took a turn haring the hash last weekend. This means he volunteered to do some reconnaissance work to find and lay out the running route. The route has to be laid out the morning of the run so it also means that the hares have to run a 7 - 10 kilometer route twice. "Luckily" there were three other people to help. They picked a place about 20 minutes outside of Kinshasa along the Congo River called Mbudi Nature. The run was called "A day at the beach - well . . . maybe . . ."  The first 2 kilometers consisted of boulder hopping along the banks of the swift and powerful Congo River. If you are thinking "That sounds a little dangerous" you would not be mistaken. But when the vote is 3 to 1 there is not much you can do. I guess that's the difference between people who have taken a wilderness first-aid course and people who haven't. It was wet, sandy, slippery and slow moving as 30 people of varying levels of fitness and coordination picked their way over the enormous boulders. In the end nobody got hurt and most people had a good time, but I don't think Matt is going to volunteer for hare duty for a long, long time.

The Hares

Paying the price in beer

You have No Idea how dirty this cup is.

But Down it goes!

The hat means he was voted "Hash Hero"

Instead Matt volunteered for something equally dangerous - substitute teaching Kindergarten for 2 weeks.  If you are looking for a test of will give it a try. Day One he was a deer in the headlights. At the end of Day Two his head was at the point of exploding. By the end of the week he was nearly broken but he survived.  Between Monday and Friday all of the 16 kids cried for some reason or another (most of the reasons are still unknown). One day it rained before lunch recess and the puddles on the playground were big enough to swim in. So, guess what the kids did. Yep, they swam in them. So the rest of the day all the kids walked around barefoot to let their shoes dry and had to change their clothes.  

To celebrate the end of a hard week of work for both of us we decided to throw our first house party since we arrived in Kinshasa. We first decided to invite 11 people for a game night because we had only 11 chairs, but got too excited so instead invited 19 people and 19 people showed up. We played UNO with the first arrivals, "Contact" and Boys vs. Girls Charades with the big group and Bohnanza with the night owls. Someone even threw up at the end of the night. Success!

Saturday we went to the market in Kinshasa, which we'll have to describe in further detail in another blog post cuz it's worth it. Sunday we got up early so Matt could run in the Kinshasa 20k. We drove to the Stadium of Martyrs (where Ali fought Foreman in the "Rumble in the Jungle") for the start of the race.

Let's get ready to rumble!

There were about 5000 people registered for the race and about 100 of them looked like they have done any kind of distance running before. People were doing warm up sprints and dancing around for about an hour before the race finally started. Matt saw guys preparing to run in loafers, socks, barefoot, converse All-Stars...you name it. One of the contestants was even running barefoot in his briefs (yes, his underwear).

Ready to run

The race was supposed to start at 8:00am. At about 8:45, when the sun was starting to turn last night's rain into steam, they finally took off.  And the crowd really took off. With $2500 on the line for the winner in a country where the average wage is a dollar a day, guess it's to be expected. But this wasn't your ordinary 1/2 marathon.

The Starting Line: It looks like a riot but it is really just a garbage fire we have to run past

Once the runners passed the "start line" there was no crowd or traffic control. As they ran through the streets and sandy sidewalks they were dodging buses, cars, carts, and crowds of people. Then they had to watch out for the sink-holes, broken glass, jagged steel in broken concrete while inhaling black smoke spewing from talepipes and trashfires. As the sun climbed and the runners hit the half-way point, people started to drop - at that pace in that heat it was only a matter of time. Matt saw four people passed out and carried away by paramedics (he even stopped to check the pulse on one that looked particularly bad).

The race for 631st place (Matt is the one with the backpack)

Finally, the contestants were directed to a sandy lot about a mile away from where they were told the race would finish (Meanwhile Toni Lyn was driving all over town looking for them and managed to get pulled over (for legally changing lanes) and had her driver's license temporarily confiscated before finally paying off the police). People were fighting over prizes, passing out in the sand, unable to walk, crying with pain and confusion because they had lost motor control of their legs and couldn't walk. It was amazing in a lot of ways, but not something to stick around for. Fortunately, Toni Lyn eventually got away from the police and found Matt.  Overall, it was the most physically challenging race that Matt has ever run and probably his most memorable.

A rare opportunity for a photo in public (pre-race)

Well, now we are ready to come back to the U.S. for a couple of weeks to recharge the batteries. We are looking forward to indulging in, well, everything.