Pointe Noire, Congo Travel Blogs

Making progress
Oct 19, 2008

... Regis and Nathalie from France; Georgina and Danel from Canada; David and Fiona from Australia; Magali and Madenga from France and Congo; Elke and Kelia from Germany and Congo.    We've been pushing our boys to eat more food and a wider variety ...

South of the city
Aug 13, 2008 (3 photos)

... thatched roof guest huts, open air restaurant and bar, pool and tennis court, all overlooking the coast. About 30 minutes from Pointe-Noire and the population thins out to not much more than roadside dwellings. The surf was pounding and the beach was ...

Meat Face
Dec 3, 2008

Anyone out there own a Lab?  Well, we didn't dry our off properly after going to the beach on Sunday and he's got a hot spot, which is a bacterial skin infection.  In the states, if you catch is soon enough, you just put some antibiotic goo on ...

Dental Floss
Dec 14, 2008

... dental floss for a long time, and my cavity rate has gone down accordingly since I was a teenager.  Since living in Congo, however, I have had occasion to increase my admiration for the slender waxy string.  The first time it came in handy was ...

Eight weeks in
Oct 31, 2008 (9 photos)

Eight weeks into school and things are going fine.  The boys have been on a two-week break from their school (they have a six on, two off schedule), so we've been hosting them back at ours for this week and next.  Fun and flabbergasting, exacerbated by a ...

Boy am I pooped!
Oct 15, 2008

... serious planning and photocopying done without students.  Oscar and Henry still have school so we have a freedom unprecedented here in Congo.  Yipee!  The kids are learning lots of French and Henry loves to come home and tell me his letters ...

Aussie BBQ
Dec 26, 2008

Our Australian friend David waited about five weeks to get into a house here, since there's more demand than supply.  He and his wife Fiona had been planning to have everyone over for a barbecue, but time just stretched on with them getting their ...

Curriculum and a package
Aug 22, 2008

... with their ziplocs of lego pieces while we waited for Ann-Mary's driver's license photos to be developed. Walking through downtown Pointe Noire with Oscar and Henry is never dull -- they elicit the most bemused looks from just about everyone. And my ...

Central Square Postal
Jun 9, 2008

So were piled up to our necks in boxes.  I went to the Central Square post office in Cambridge, to get passports for the boys.  The very angy goggle-eyed clerk started shouting "Unacceptable" at me when I showed him the kid's paperwork, and ...

Pimp my Ride
Feb 17, 2009

Call him Ismael.  He's the brother of Ali, the guy who owns the garage. We went for a long while without any worries from our car.  We didn't exactly know where we would bring it to get fixed, so that was a good thing.  Finally, we knew ...

Celebrations Abound!
Sep 30, 2008

... are you going to do?                The following weekend was another party of ex-pats hosted by a couple on their way out of Pointe-Noire to Lybia, although timing is still up in the air.  Delicious home-made Ethiopian food and lots of wine (natch) followed by ...

Pointe-Noire, Year 2
Aug 26, 2009

... please please have some fucking mercy, I know everybody wants it, but I really really need it! Especially on the leg from CGD to Pointe-Noire. Needless to say what I really do is walk meekly back to my crappy seat like all the rest of the sheep. It was ...

We Are One
Jan 19, 2009

I watched most of the Obama concert on cable and was glad of several things; First, I wasn't standing outside freezing my ass off.  Second, I hadn't wasted my time on mid-eighties has-beens.  Why was the entire playlist from my eight-grade ...

Healthy Wealthy and Wise
Sep 28, 2009

I cannot seem to get healthy. We have been here for over a month and I am still struggling with assimilation.  Last Thursday I came down with a sore throat, on the heels of what we like to call here "Africa bum".  I let it ride, convinced that ...

Stomach bug
Aug 29, 2008

David got bit by a stomach bug this week. It wasn't pretty. My system had been in great shape, but I obviously let something slip in. Luckily, the clinic took great care of me and I had an Algerian roommate who spoke very good English. Ann-Mary sent ...

Overcast again
Aug 14, 2008

Every day so far has been overcast except one which was mostly cloudy. Every day is about 75 degrees. We've begun to hear some descriptions of what the rainy season will be like...streets like rivers of mud..should be interesting. Ann-Mary and I left ...

Le Chien Terrible
Aug 28, 2009

... on your passport.  There is a guy has been kicked off the police, but still has his uniform, who wanders drunk around Pointe-Noire harassing people in the street for cash.   White guys strut around the pool side, ordering the teen-aged girls ...

Beachy Keen
Aug 9, 2008 (12 photos)

So if your ever in Pointe-Noire, get the fish. Holy Cow, it is so good. Today was a lazy Saturday; we went to lunch at Twiga Restaurant right on the beach, so yummy. All the travel guides tell us not to eat salads, but I had a salade Niciose and the ...

One Week Till School Starts
Aug 23, 2008 (8 photos)

We had our first school meeting today, which was very productive but otherwise unnoteworthy. Except that during it Oscar and Henry decided to give themselves haircuts. They took their little blunt preschool scissors and cut big bald spots in their hair. ...

What's new...
Nov 6, 2008

Today we were invited to our neighbor's house for a coffee and sale.  Julie passed along the invite, so we knew there would be good people there.  We've known for a while that this French family lived a few doors down from us, but they have a five-month ...

Food
Aug 10, 2008

... 's coffee, and a French-English dictionary. International School Pointe-Noire C/O Services Techniques Schlumberger WSA-Pointe-Noire Office,CONGO Le Palatin 1 1 cours du Triangle 92936 LA DEFENSE cedex FRANCE This is the Schlumberger mailing ...

Looking for the monastery
Jan 17, 2009 (4 photos)

Last weekend on Sunday we went alone to our favorite beachside restaurant, but it started to rain almost as soon as we got there.  Light splatter turned to driving sheets and we decided not to wait it out.  Instead, when it lightened up a little ...

Nanny cooks
Dec 26, 2008

We've been trying to get our nanny on board with cooking more for us, and we finally seem to hit the nail on the head.  Ann-Mary came back from the French School holiday craft fair with a student-made Congolese cookbook, complete with pictures.  ...

Nanny #2, etc
Aug 13, 2008

... vacations that we missed. But we're off on a little day trip tomorrow, thanks to Schlumberger, to a little beach town south of Pointe-Noire. Our contact person here, Tony has taken a bit of pity on us, and arranged for his driver to take us. Thanks ...

SUSHI?
Jan 9, 2009

... they had sushi, at somewhat outrageous prices, but it was tasty and the whole experience was totally refreshing -- like stepping out of Pointe-Noire for a few hours.  There was only one other table of people there, and we ended up starting the meal at ...

Armistice Day
Nov 12, 2008

Yesterday was Armistice Day here in the Congo, although, as far as I can tell, only our school and the kid's school were closed.  The Congolese kids were all in their uniforms walking to school in the morning.  David made arrangements to go with ...

one week done
Sep 6, 2008

... rooftop patio with a barbecue, and he;s big into X-Box and karaoke and it promises to be another step forward into the Pointe-Noire expat experience. Next important step: finding the most efficient way to get our money here from our bank in the states. ...

School Time all The Time
Sep 10, 2009

Last year, before we left, we chose a school called Les Poussins, for the kids. We were told that the school began on Monday, September 7. On the 5th we were having a small gathering at a local restaurant for the school families to get to know each ...

The Reverse of Sysyphus
Sep 7, 2008

So I was at the beach last week with the boys and their full-sized shovels. They got busy using them as levers, trying to roll a six-foot log down the sand into the water. The waves kept pushing it back up the slope. They kept at it for a good twenty ...

Work as usual
Oct 5, 2009

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