Touch-me-Not!

We see some fantastic things here.  This "Touch-me-not" plant recoils when you touch it.  We had a similar one in Texas, but I don't remember it being this large.  The kids are constantly stooping over plants now stroking them - hoping for the same reaction. Its proper name is Mimosa pudica, but Touch-me-not has stuck in our house.

Rise, My Glorious Blog, RISE!

Someone once said the blog is dead, and it might well be, but - I'm going to dust if off and give it another go.

It has been a little bit of time since my last post.  Sorry.  It got so tedious.  I would write something, self-editorialize it down to about 2 sentences, decide to tweet it instead, wonder why I should share it at all, hate self for wanting to share privileged experiences that occur in a under-privledged country, loath the whole process and purpose, and then press delete.

But as we have just recently changed country again, I find myself a little alienated from a dispersal of friends and family.  I realized that I just need to go back to what the original intentions of the blog were - to keep in touch, no matter how infrequently, with friends and family. 

So here we are.  No longer in Angola, but in our new location in the Republic of the Congo!  It is great to be back together as a family again.  Over the past 3.5 years we have spent most of it separated from Dad.  After child no.3 (hence forth known as E3) was born, it took us 10 months to obtain a visa for him and return to Angola.  Then following 8 months in Angola, after our visas were not renewed, we spent another 16 months either trying to get back to Angola, waiting to be transferred elsewhere, or waiting on the appropriate paperwork and visas to come through in order to get here!  We did see M.  for periods during this time - but it was always with the understanding that he wasn't staying with us, that he was just a visitor.  So we are just wild with excitement that we are together in the same country!!  I tip my hat to single parents.  

   

Right - I think that is enough for my resurrection post.  I will hit "publish" before I edit this one into oblivion.

We went to a french boulangerie in Pointe-Noire last weekend.  It didn't look like much from the outside, but inside...so many pastries, cakes, and cookies!   The kids had Choc-au-pain.  It may well become a Sunday ritual.  We don't have a car, so we ride our bikes - which was a little nerve wracking for me.  M. took my bike, plonked E3 in the basket (safe), E2 on the back.  E1 rode E2's bike (she was all knees) and I went on M.'s.   I'll see if I can snap a picture next time of the travelling circus.