You know you live in Eugene when....

Your 3 year old comes home from daycare singing this:

All-American family

As of yesterday at 1:30 pm, the whole Compaore family is American. Congratulations Papa! :) He did super well on his citizenship test. The question that he said he hesitated on, I have to admit I would have said, "Well, I guess I'm going to have to find another nationality, because I have no idea." Most of the questions were pretty easy though, apparently. For a smart guy they were easy.

We are so excited! Now it will be much easier to travel, find jobs, etc. Papa signed up to vote right away, and wants to get his passport soon too. He is such a good citizen already. :)

loyalty days 2012

We went to Newport for the Loyalty Days Parade two weekends ago. I was glad we went! Last year, during one of my practicum experiences, the SLP I was with had to explain to an elementary school student what a parade was. She had never seen one. Gotta make sure Isaac gets exposed to as much as possible. We're well off enough for that, really. Well off in knowledge and experiences at least. And a parade is free - you just have to drive to get there.

We had the perfect size chairs for Isaac and London to sit in.

 Not that little ones sit all the time.

 It started off with the Loyalty Days run, which is a 2 mile run. Of course Uncle Mikey was in it, and it was pretty obvious when he passed us that he was going to finish in 2nd place. The 1st place guy was about 200 meters ahead, and the next guy was at least 200 meters behind. There was going to be no making up that difference. 

Then we had the flag. 

 And the fire trucks. Isaac covered his ears for the loud fire trucks. I still have an internal dislike of green fire trucks after all these years.The Siletz fire department's truck is green.

 Some rodeo queen/princess, but I was a little confused. I don't think Newport's rodeo queen was there. These people were all from Philomath and Benton County.

 London doing her princess wave. It was pretty darn cute. I think I have a video but it is too late tonight to post videos.

Uncle Mikey did indeed finish second. On another note, he finished 1st in the 800 and 2nd in the 400 in Districts this last weekend, so he'll be going to State this coming weekend in those two events. Luckily, State is here in Eugene, at Hayward Field. Nice and close.

When I ran the Loyalty Days run several years ago, I thought I was going to die. Apparently this wasn't an issue for Uncle Mikey. He even got a balloon and some special stuff. As we all know, balloons are just about the coolest thing to a child under the age of 4. 

 Ronald McDonald - they downsized a bit this year. They used to have this huge shoe car, and it would drive around all crazy with Ronald waving out of the top. Uncle Mikey thinks the shoe was creepy, so I guess for people that thought that way, this might be a move in the right direction. 

 Oh no, wait! Uncle Mikey did die! He collapsed right in the middle of the parade route!!!! HELP!

 Nah, just kidding, he was being silly and stretching on the highway. 

 I had to put this picture on, not because I agree, but because of how ridiculous it is. Kick out all those rich CEOs from Newport! We're taking over. All 5 of us. Which out of 10,000 people, is a whole lot less than 99%. The silliest thing to me is that it is either unemployed people or people in relatively comfortable, non minimum-wage office jobs that seem to empathize with this movement. The fishermen and loggers that make up so much of the workforce in Newport? I'm sure every one of them thinks this is a bunch of bull.

 Well, that's not really what the parade ended with, but usually it seems like they have the less exciting stuff towards the end. It's always surprising to me when it's over, like it was shorter this year. But I don't think it really was - I think it feels like that every year.

Here are Isaac and London test driving the stroller/bike trailer Nana got for them.

 And then I tried to take a picture of the sunset. I think I already mentioned this in the Burkina pictures (which incidentally, I never finished posting.. hm...), but for some reason the sun always shows up really differently on my camera. Maybe you need a special filter.

 The moon looked extra large that night. Not giant, but still big. My picture turned out really funny, but I kind of like it. It looks like some minimalist painting.

Well, that is about it. I am of course behind on some other pictures, but hopefully tomorrow I can post some of those. Right now I just need to go to sleep! This next week is really weird so I'm only working tomorrow as far a se

La musique d'Isaac: South Africa

Well, we don't know as much about South African music. We don't really understand what they are saying (well, unless it is in English). But we like it all the same. This isn't a genre, just a collection of several South African artists.

One of our favorites is the group "The Mahotella Queens". We have one of their CDs.

 

You might have already heard of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. They are, coincidentally, not ladies, but an all-male vocal group.

Then there is Brenda Fassie! 

And Yvonne Chaka Chaka

Those are some of the South African artists we have listened to over the past few years. Of course Lucky Dube is one too, but we already covered him under the African reggae guys.

La musique d'Isaac: Mbalax

Um, so I didn't know this music genre existed until this week. I was telling Papa how I was running out of African music genres we listen to as a family and how maybe I would just do a few more artists, but then he pointed out that Youssou N'Dour and Baaba Maal are both musicians that belong to the Mbalax genre. "How do you spell that?" :)

This is a Baaba Maal song, "Fanta". Actually I'm not entirely sure if it is the same genre as Youssou N'Dour. We really just listen to Youssou N'Dour. :) Still, it is good to know about him!

And this is Youssou N'Dour, who definitely sings "Mbalax".

La musique d'Isaac: African reggae

Another genre: African reggae. It was funny - I typed in "African reggae" in Google on accident, not thinking. Anyway, the three artists I was thinking about sharing here, that Papa listens to, were all mentioned three of the "four most famous reggae artists in Africa".

Alpha Blondy: We like him - he is from Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). He has opinions on a lot of issues, political and otherwise (see also"Abortion is a Crime"). He also has some songs that don't have a deep message at all - maybe it is about 50/50. This one is called "Sankara", after Thomas Sankara, who is the revolutionary leader who was president of Burkina Faso and renamed it as such.

Tiken Jah Fakoly: Also sings in French mostly. Also from the Ivory Coast.

Lucky Dube: We used to listen to this South African musician more - he got fatally shot a few years ago (in 2007). It was a really sad story - some carjackers shot him after he dropped two of his children off at their uncle's house. I just can't ever fathom why people kill other people over material possessions. So low.

And Papa just reminded me of another of his favorites: Ismael Isaac. Of course we are a little biased towards the francophone West African artists. :) He is also from the Ivory Coast.

La musique d'Isaac: La musique mandingue

Mandingue music comes from the Bambara (aka Dioula) people who are found mostly in Mali, the southwest part of Burkina Faso, part of Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, and Gambia - it is from the area of the former Mandingue empire. One of the most well-known Mandigue kings and fighters was Samory Toure, the emperor of Wassoulou, who fought against the European invasion. He was known to be a fierce fighter - the French had a lot of difficulty fighting his troops. He used a strategy called "terre brulee" meaning, burn the ground, where they would set fire to everything if they thought the enemy was getting too close. There you go, a little history lesson, courtesy of Papa.


Here is Sekouba Bambino. Notice that this music style sounds a bit more melancholy than the others! It can be used to address a wide range of subjects, but has a more serious tone than zouglou or zouk.this one is a love song though.

Amy Koita - Diarabi (pronounced Jarabee), which I believe means "my sweetheart". Again, another love song, but a more serious and poetic take on the subject.

Salif Keita - Moussoulou. This is a song about women and how important they are to society. Salif Keita is pretty famous internationally. He is albino and was the son of a traditional ruler (I think!). His father disowned him when he decided to pursue music, but the rest of the world really appreciates him and his beautiful voice! Although it is more of a cross-over song, you can also look for "Yamore" which he sings with Cesaria Evora. Very pretty.

Amadou et Mariam - Dimanche a Bamako. This one can be problematic if you understand French, because the refrain says "Sundays in Bamako (the capital of Mali) are the days for weddings/marriage!" It has a tendency to get stuck in my head if I listen to Papa's Amadou & Mariam CD. Apparently they are both blind and met at a school for the blind. Also pretty well known outside of their country.

I am sure there are many more mandingue artists out there, but this gives you a good sampling of some of the more famous ones!