Goma… will I ever understand?

Compiled in March... I'm sure more to come in the future!

1) Women here are proud of any facial hair they may grow… I am fascinated by the curly growth on their chins, cheeks or upper lips. After finally asking, I learned that men here consider facial hair on a woman a sign of fertility. Sigh. I clearly will never be able to give off signs of being fertile in this country!
2) Youth grab their crotch all the time. All the time, I mean, and it’s not just little boys. Especially in public or when performing, especially when they seem to want to show off, portray manliness or confidence. The music scene seems to encourage this display of manhood. Rap away!
3) High heels on uneven, rocky roads. How women do it here, I cannot understand, but I pay them my respects. These mzungu ankles couldn’t handle it for 10 minutes!
4) A friend here, who can actually pull off wearing a black Halloween costume as a regular outfit and make it look stylish! She also sports powerful “signs of fertility”.
5) Why I get to go for a run in the mornings to stay healthy while I run past hundreds of impoverished Congolese who travel long distances to fill up yellow bottles with lake water, just to survive each day, every day, day after day. In the afternoons, after classes are finished, the schoolchildren hike over there again to fetch water for the remainder of the evening. On the other hand, when I get home, I get to admire the tranquility of the lake for its beauty.
6) How one moment you are evading a bunch of goats and motos on the road, and the next moment, a brand new white Land Rover branded with the UN logo and a preposterous flag roars past you, Indian soldiers with their blue turbans riding high.
7) At my one month mark, I was celebrating my great health so far, and was rewarded with an answer- a not-so-fun stomach illness and much nausea. Four days later, not having improved, I finally took meds. I awoke the next morning still ill, also finding my cheek and neck were itching and burning- they had been ravaged (OK, maybe just dime-sized marks) by the “Nairobi fly,” which leaves an angry, red rash on any skin it touches.
8) Wearing a thumb ring in the Congo means that you are available- and looking. After several men and even some women asked me why I was wearing one (“um, cause it’s cool and I like it- why else?”)- and finally getting an explanation from them as to the meaning of it, I sadly had to retire that special ring that adorned my thumb for the past 8 years. I hardly recognized my left hand without it!
9) You may be driving down the right side of the road minding your own business, but whenever there is an excess of cars, motos and bikes all going in wrong directions, and people are pushing a stalled car against traffic in your lane, YOU are clearly the one at fault, to be blamed and to have to back up into the oncoming traffic to make way for their vehicles. Ah, fine, I give in... again!