A Day in the Life

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From Ann, 9/12/19 (This date is a palindrome!)

You may wonder what our daily routine is like.  I wonder myself, since every day is different from the one before and the one to come. But there are things that happen every day.  

• Every day, breakfast begins with oatmeal and powdered milk, supplemented by toast and jam, juice from a box, sometimes an egg.
• Each morning, a driver picks us up. Yes, I have a chauffeur! It’s always Didier, a fine man who doesn’t speak English and chatters over his phone in Lingala (one of three official languages here) while he drives like a shark through minnows. Even among fearless road warriors, he takes aggressive driving to a new level. There’s some comfort in the fact that his car has fewer scars than most, but maybe that’s because he hasn’t had it very long!
• Our private security guard in the maroon uniform opens the tall gate for us.

• Our trip to wherever we are going (more about that later) begins with a bouncy ride down alley-wide dirt roads past nice homes and apartments with security guard standing watch.
• Soon we hit paved streets with no lane lines, so you’re following one car and in an instant are facing one head on as if in a game of chicken.
• We watch Kinshasa wake up: entrepreneurs setting up rickety wooden kiosks to show off their wares, long lines at bus stops, motorcycle taxis shuttling smartly dressed women on the back, diners eating breakfast at an outdoor café with a hand painted sign and open pit cooking, parents walking to school hand in hand with their uniformed children in white shirts and dark skirts or pants.
• On our way, I practice French, which is improving at a sloth-like pace.
• While we are gone, a beautiful woman named Clarise comes to iron and tidy up, and then, like a desert miracle, makes a fresh loaf of bread! That bread alone is worth the trip. A warm slice with butter and jam rivals French pastries.  
• I always watch for a white person. Today we saw one! Except for Mormon temple missionaries, it’s the first in ten days.
• At least one stranger smiles at me. Today it was the daring policewoman risking life and limb to direct traffic. Trying to direct traffic, that is.
• We take turns cooking much healthier dinners than I do at home. Marcy uses beans as an artistic medium.
• Dogs bark through much of the night.  
• Every day I shiver in disbelief that we are in Africa.
• Every day I miss my tribe at home.