I’ve written about Christmas, now it’s time to write about the holiday right after it. New Year’s Day. A lot of things happened around that time, so it’s going to be hard to write about it. But I’ll do my best.

As some of you know, my mom and we kids went to Brazzaville for New Year’s. We left on Thursday (New Year’s Eve). We had had plans for a party here in Impfondo of doughnuts, games, a movie, and countdown to midnight, but due to circumstances, we had to change that rather suddenly.

Thursday was kind of a bummer. At least the 12 hours of waiting for the airplane weren’t very pleasant. We eventually got to Brazzaville and thing got better. Very good missionary friends, the Julians, were having a party at their house, so we went there after dropping off our bags at our base in Brazzaville (we call it Bravo). Then we joined the party. Leticia (Julians 3^rd oldest) is very good friends with us and she was home from boarding school for vacation. And the Phillips girls came after a while. We hadn’t all been together in a long time so when all of the “Girls Of Congo” were there, we all started talking. There was another family that we hadn't seen in a very long time—the Howells. It was good to see so many people all at once, but also a bit overwhelming.

There was some food left when we got there so we snacked and talked and snacked and talked some more til midnight. As usual we counted down from “10” and yelled HAPPY NEW YEAR! on the hour.

Soon after that, people started to leave. And then it was time for us to leave too. Claire stayed and spent the night though. So we drove home, and all took turns taking a shower to get off all the dust and sweat left over from our day of travel.

The next day we all slept in and didn’t do much. The Phillips (who live at Bravo), left for an overnight camping trip. So we didn’t have them to hang out with. And Claire didn’t come home from the Julian’s house until nighttime when both of our families were invited to the Howell's house. So I slept and read my book all day, and then met up with Claire and the Julians. There we had a really good meal. After we got our food, we picked a chair in the living room or a spot on the floor, and ate and watched the Rose Bowl on television. After we were done eating, some of us went and played a Bible game (I was in this group with most of the other girls), some played a video game in the boys’ room, and some kept on watching the football game. The game that we played took a long time. We also had coffee breaks so that made it longer. After we were done, we ate some snack/dessert things and watched the football game for a while. Then a few of us kids and Uncle Gary went back in the boys' room to play a soccer video game for a few hours with the a/c on full-blast. That was a lot of fun. The football game ended early morning, and then Mama woke up from the comfortable chair she was sleeping in and it was time to go. We said good night and drove home. Leticia was with us.

We all slept in the next morning. That day the Phillips got home. And Rachel came to Brazzaville too. It was really fun to have her there that week. Nothing really exciting happened that day. The GOCs just kind of talked a little bit but I mostly read my book all day. Sometime in the afternoon Leticia went home.

The next day was a Sunday. We went to a church called Bon Berger (which means Good Shepherd in French) with the Phillips, and the Julians and Howells were there too. The service starts at around ten, so we didn't have to get up early. We went to church and then my family, but not Rachel who was eating elsewhere, went to La Mandarine (a really nice restaurant that sells ice cream, pastries, and food). We all shared the delicious Sunday special and then headed home for a leisurely afternoon. Soon it was time for Sing and Share, a gathering of missionaries to sing and share in English. Afterwards, almost everybody went out for ice cream together. The Mandarin didn't have any cones, so we went to Noura (another good restaurant) to get ice cream and shawarmas (a sandwich wrap thing-y). We were going to give everybody a ride home, but after everybody piled in the Land Cruiser, we had to all pile back out. The truck had a flat tire. Rachel started climbing on top of the car to get the spare, as people got out the jack. It took a long time to change it. One of the problems was that after we got the spare tire on, the jack wouldn't go down. They finally just lifted the car up and pulled the jack out. We said goodnight and then all went home.

Monday, Leticia planned and prepared a five-course meal. But since she had cut her right thumb pretty badly while washing dishes, she wasn't allowed to do some of the work. So she called and asked for us to come earlier than we had planned to. So we flagged a taxi and went to her house and helped her all day. The meal was scheduled for around 6 pm. During our lunch break, we had mashed potatoes and watched a play Leticia had been in at school, and ate grubs. That might sound like I did that disgusting thing, but I didn't. Brave and a little bit crazy Claire, Chantal, Olivia, and Dr. Brantly did though. Yuck! If you'd like to know more about it, you should probably ask somebody else. I was in another room eating food that was more enjoyable to my senses!

At around 6 my mom and Rachel joined us for the meal. The food was really good. There was an appetizer, salad, soup, roast beef and dessert. I especially enjoyed the lemon meringue dessert. The adults talked for a while after the meal while we girls got ready for bed and talked. All of us kids stayed for a sleep-over.

The next day, we hung out a bit at the Julians, and then all went back home. At lunch time, my family and Rachel went to Aunt Barb's house at SIL for lunch. When we came home to Bravo, it was time for our mini re-entry seminar with Aunt Sharon, Brandon Julian, Jessica Howell as the speakers. That was really good. Afterwards it was doomsday for the Phillips' poor male cat Oreo. Since Olivia has done this procedure a few times on other animals here in Impfondo, the Phillips had asked her to castrate their cat. She agreed, and Tuesday was the appointed day. All went well in the surgery. The hardest part was giving him the shot of Ketamine for anesthesia. After that everything was fine and Oreo slept deeper than a baby. After the surgery, we played a few games led by Uncle John Phillips, and Jessica and Leticia spent the night.

Wednesday, we went on a treasure hunt created by Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle John. It was actually more of a memory and goodbye trip around Brazzaville because Miriam and Chantal were going to be leaving Congo forever that our human eye can see. SO we went all over Brazzaville to memorable places, remembering. That was really good and fun, but also a bit sad. The rest of the day we just hung out.

Thursday was a day of goodbyes. The whole Julian family except Brandon, the two Howell boys, and the Bellamy kids from Pointe Noire all left to go back to barding school. It was a very sad day with lots of tears. That night though, we finally got to record some more songs for our first Album. You see, Tuesday, we girls were sitting in a traffic jam and we started singing. We joked around and someone suggested we start a band called Traffic Jam. So we now had 3 songs recorded so far.

Chantal and Miriam left Congo that Friday. It was a very sad day, but we didn't cry that much. We had already used up our tears for that week. We did manage to see the happy things about that day and that was good. At night Rachel went out with somebody to eat, and we watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the Phillips. Mama and Olivia had to leave in the first half hour of the movie though, to go pick up Joana new missionary at the airport. Joan is going to be in Congo for a year. The movie was really funny. We all loved it. At the end of the movie Mama came home with Joan and Olivia. We all introduced ourselves, bombarding her with names all at once. We then showed her to her room, talked a bit, and finally left her to take a shower and go to bed. Uncle John started showing us pictures on their computer around then. We all lost track of time. It was soon close to midnight. But we didn't got to bed yet. Are you kidding me! 12 is too early! Mama, Olivia, and Rachel (she had come home by now) wanted to see Mr. Bean, so we watched it again. We all, again, loved it.

The next day was Saturday and we were supposed to leave early that day. Instead we slept until noon. The flight had been canceled. Yes! We had pancakes for lunch, and slept the whole afternoon. At night when everybody woke up from their afternoon-long nap, we went out to eat with the Phillips and Joan at a Vietnamese restaurant called the Hippocampe. We had the buffet and it was SO good, I couldn't help stuffing myself. I played on the swing set in the restaurant yard with Noah for a while until it was time to go.

The next day was Sunday and we ended up actually leaving. The flight was early morning, before church, so Uncle John and Aunt Elisabeth drove us to the airport. Thankfully we never had to wait long at the airport or in the airplane. It was actually comfortable in the waiting lounge! Amazingly, the air conditioning was working! That made our morning much better.

We arrived at Impfondo at around 12:00 pm, Sunday the 10^th of January, 2010. We had been in Brazzaville a week a three days. It had been a very special, fun-filled vacation, and a good start of the new year. “Thank you God for my wonderful week and a chance to see my friends one more time. It may be the last time I'll see them; but I hope not. Thank you God very much!”