The Swiss Husband saga continues...

Wasn't I surprised this morning to read our branch newsletter (sent to around 50 members) and find this amazing advertisement for my Swiss man! Our personnel advisor Katherine is hilarious and I always enjoy her newsletters, but this was the ultimate. She also happens to be an American married to a Swiss, so maybe the subject was just so near and dear to her heart that she couldn't resist.



As CAG's P.A., I certainly do care.
In need of forms, counsel or prayer? I'm there!
It came to my attention, what I'll now share.
This is serious. Scout's honor. I swear.

To serve in Africa, it was first nécessaire
For our dear Jessica to learn French, in a land bright and fair.
The cheese and chocolate made her heart sing.
But she was simply taken with the yodeling. :-)

French study complete, Jess was Africa bound.
But oh, so hard it was to leave this oasis she'd found.
She thought and thought - and finally - a plan...
To remain linked to Switzerland, marry a Swiss man!

Here are the criteria for this lucky bloke:
Christian. German-speaking. Alp horn player. (No joke.)
Desire to live in Africa is also key;
For the other qualifications, you can email me.

Attached is a photo to send to your friends.
If we all work together, maybe by year's end,
Our dear Jessica will have found her mate.
And CAG can help plan the wedding - July 4, 2008.

My request ends here - I've got to take flight.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. :-)

Random Cat Pics

 Self portrait with Freckie. I love my cat.
 Look at this furball. She's just so scrumptious. I just watched March of the Penguins and we decided she looks like a fuzzy little baby penguin, which is funny 'cause I remember my sister and I thinking her cat looked like a seagull. Go figure. 

Thanksgiving

 I celebrated Thanksgiving last week with my teammates Byron and Annette and colleagues Elizabeth and Gabrielle.
 Thanks to Elizabeth's family's visit in September, we actually had canned pumpkind, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and decorations! All we lacked was the turkey, but I made some very tasty chicken if I do say so myself!
 This looks pretty traditional don't you think?! It was amazing to pull it off in Congo! The holiday felt rather artificial, though, since everyone else was at work and it was hot outside.
 British Gabrielle and Swiss Sabine said it was the best pumpkin pie they'd ever had! I thought it was very pretty. We even got some whipping cream at the supermarket! 

 Yum yum!
 Afterwards we were delighted to have Gabs read Winnie-the-Pooh to us. There's no way I can describe to you how delightful her British accent is and how well she does all the voices of the animals. Too cute and hilariously funny!
 This picture tells me it was a proper Thanksgiving gorging :o) I told Gabs that one of the traditions is to overeat, and I think we were faithful to uphold our wonderful American culture. I was thankful for friends to celebrate with and for great food. The only time that I was really sad about missing the celebration at home was when I called my family (at 5am my time!) and they were all talking about my baby niece Everly. I forgot how much a baby changes family gatherings! So I was sad to miss that, but otherwise it was a good day. 

It's rough being a rockstar

I'm gearing up for my concert tomorrow night! Please pray that I won't be sick! I'm all snuffly and tired :o(

We had our last rehearsal last night. It was in a recording studio where we're renting our instruments and microphones and everything from. I had an identity crisis. It's already weird enough to live in Africa and to be the only white person in this group and to sit there while they speak languages I don't understand and to be wearing African clothes. But then you add the element of being a singer in a music group rehearsing with microphones in a studio and it gets to be too weird! I'm like "Who am I?" "How did I get here?!!" It was a blast, but at the same time it felt kind of lonely. It's just such an obscure part of me, yet it's the only part of me those people know. Living overseas definitely puts you in positions you never imagined yourself in and brings out sides of you nobody knew existed.

OK, I'm going to go lay down for my second 2 hour nap today and try to sleep off this cold!

Hike to Bachtel

 
 
 
  

 During my visit with my colleagues the Phillips family in Switzerland, we hiked up Mount Bachtel.
 Chantal, the cutest Swiss Miss ever :o)
 My German friend Andrea who I knew during my time in French school last year came to visit me, which was great fun.
 The view from this tower was fabulous 

 I'm sure no one has ever had so much fun on this toy as we did that day.
 ...even if we didn't even fit into it! Don't worry, I was able to extract myself before the fire department got called in :o)
 Yeah, it's pretty much the coolest toy I've ever seen. We were laughing so hard and got really dizzy...I'm sure we caused quite the scene. My friend Andrea and I have a tendancy to do that when we get together! 

My Life as a Rock Star

Tonight was hilarious. In my search for a way to get the word out about the concert I’m singing in next weekend, I stumbled upon the “American Corner” at the UN, which happens to be one block from my house. Apparently every Thursday night about 200 aspiring English speakers gather for a talk given by mildly important people, such as tonight’s jazz singer guest. I was allowed to get up in front of everyone and give an announcement. I thought this was really nice of them since my concert really has nothing to do with the American Embassy, except for the fact that I’m American.

Anywho, I get up there and charm them with my little speech about how I’ll be singing with some Congolese musicians. It won’t be in English but I’ll be singing in French, Lingala, and Laari. The monitor guy (a Congolese) was like “So you speak Lingala?” He had some little kid come up and told him to ask me a question. Thankfully (!!!) I understood it and answered correctly. Phew!

But then he was like “And you speak Laari too?” “No, I only sing it.” “Oh! OK, sing us something.” Yikes! I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to sing an entire refrain acappella in a language I don’t speak in front of 200 people! And it actually sounded good! This was a lot of fun and they totally freaked out about it. I’m super encouraged ‘cause I’ve been super afraid of what my solos will sound like the night of the concert because my voice gets really weak when I’m nervous. But if I can pull that gig off tonight, the concert should be no problem :o)

Photos from Chasseral

 
 
 
  

Midnight Climb

My friend Lionel has fun ideas. By "fun" I mean ideas for adventures which no one in their right mind would take him up on. Luckily for him, I live in the Congo, so I'm obviously not in my right mind and I'm always up for a new adventure.

His idea for a fun adventure during my stay in Switzerland was to climb Chasseral, the highest peak in the Jura Mountains of Western Switzerland. This in itself isn’t a very shocking thought. It’s fairly simple day hike. The real goal was not the climb itself…it was to see the sunrise from Chasseral! The plan: Leave as soon as he got off work at 11pm on Saturday night, take the bikes to the funiculaire at Chaumont (tram that takes you up the side of a mountain) for the last trip of the night, ride the bikes for a number of miles to the base of Chasseral (think dark road through the woods, across pastures, down rocky hills, etc.), climb Chasseral, arrive at the peak around 3am, get a few hours of sleep, be up in time to see the sunrise, book it on down the mountain, pick up the bikes, ride like the wind all the way back home in time for the harvest festival Sunday morning at church. Yeehaw!

When we took off on the bikes I was winded after about 5 pedals. Bikes to me is something kids ride around the block. This was perhaps an over ambitious first cycling trip, but I survived. My butt hurt though.

The climb was not so bad either. It wasn’t even cold! Plus Lionel was carrying almost all the stuff :o) The only crisis of faith was when we started talking about how much we love cereal. We almost had to turn around just to go get a bowl. But we pressed on. We tried turning off our headlamps to see how it would go. After a few steps we turned them back on and were shocked to find we were already off the trail!

We arrived at the top earlier than anticipated and set up camp in a charming little carport :o) I don’t think I’ve ever had as good of tea as was in our thermos that night. We chowed down on apples, bread, and cheese and zipped up our sleeping bags as cozy as we could. One hour later… “Are you cold?” “Yesssss!” Out came the giant refrigerator size plastic bags which instantly blocked the chilling wind out of our beds.

Got up in the morning and it was FREEZING cold! This was the only point when my attitude may have faltered a bit. Staying positive was my #1 goal for the trek. Making it to the top alive was only secondary. I bundled up as best I could and sat down on the hillside. “Are you sure this is east? Where is the sun? Why is it already light out?” Yeah, who knows why, but for some reason we never saw the sun that morning. Too many clouds I guess. Disappointment!

Making it down the mtn was fine. Until we reached the bikes. For anyone out there who is as ignorant as I am about cycling I do not recommend, I repeat DO NOT recommend riding downhill on gravel roads. These were my thoughts: “This is the most miserable experience of my life. I’m getting the snot beat out of me.” At this moment I hit a large hole and the snot literally did fly out of my nose. This was too much. Lionel, speedster that he is, was long gone. But I had to press on. And I did.

We did make it back to Neuchatel. I’m sure I looked 100% ridiculous zooming down the streets with Lionel in front of me carrying ALL of the stuff, even my little backpack. He looked the part. I looked...ridiculous. But again we did make it back. All of 15 minutes before the harvest service. I’m sure that was the fastest recovery anyone ever made from such a trek. Moments later I was back on the bike and then sauntering into church looking as lovely as ever.

 
 
 
  

 
 
 
  

On Monday I went to Zurich with my friend Lee who spent a few months here in Congo as a tutor for the Phillips' daughters. Besides seeing a beautiful cathedral and doing some shopping, we needed a little entertainment. When I told Lee I had learned to say "I want a Swiss husband" in Swiss German, she dared me to try it out on some unsuspecting Swiss man. She works at Starbucks and we decided if I pulled it off she would buy me a mug. That was too good to pass up! Plus we had a lot of laughs along the way...

I was so proud of myself when I approached these two young men at McDonalds and rattled off my little speech: "Ich bin Americanerin. Ich will en Schwizzer hurate. Ein foteli?" Their answer? "Uh, sure you can take a photo. But we're Dutch." No!!!!!!!!!!!

I learned my lesson and when I approached this hotdog man, I first asked the question "Bish tu Schvizzer?" But the answer came bluntly and disappointingly: "Nein." Why can't I find a Swiss guy in Zurich?!! I had to work up my nerve all over again and find someone else to ask.

He may have his eyes closed, but here I am with my Swiss man! Mission accomplished! We finally found one in the train station. I felt bad afterwards 'cause Swiss Germans aren't exactly known for their spontaneaity and I think he was confused :o)

Here I am with my prized Zurich mug. It even has a photo of the church tower we climbed that morning! I can get good coffee at the Exotic Palace in Brazza, but nobody has lattes here and something about Starbucks just makes you feel so good, like taking a little sip of home.

I took literally thousands of photos during my stay in Europe last year, so I didn't feel the need to take too many this time, but I coulnd't resist this beautiful shot through the autumn leaves.

I stayed with Lionel and Diana (left) who were pretty much the greatest hosts ever. It was wonderful to meet Heather (center) and Dana (right) who will be joining my team in Congo next year. I also really enjoyed hanging out with Angi (2nd from right) who will be working from Nairobi for Eastern Congo Group. Here we are enjoying an amazing curry meal prepared by our personal chef Lionel.

The appartment I stayed in had a great view! I forgot how wonderful the architecture is and I really enjoyed seeing the beautiful lake again.