Hotel Azur International Pointe Noire

Two of our closest friends left town for good. It is kind of like college here, people come and go. It is also like college in that you get close to friends quickly and develop huge amounts of love for people you've only known a short time. And that is exactly what ...

... Completely! At this point it was too late to get into another program, so they just decided to **** us over. When we went to complain, the place was in the middle of a huge building project, the entire school was torn apart: dangerous holes and tools and scraps of sharp metal everywhere. Then we had to argue to get our money back! We had to return three times! Finally they agreed to take back the school supplies, and ...

Not sure how to talk about this trip to the Congo. I feel there's either too little I can say or too much. Sometimes words aren&#8217;t enough. <br><br>I took a train from Lyon to Paris on August 24, then a plane from Paris to Brazzaville. As we were landing in Brazzaville I was already surprised by a few things. I expected Brazza to be full of lights. Instead I saw a huge "village" from the air with some fire pits everywhere. Not really what I had pictured for the capital of the Republic ...

... compound with my ****** French?<br><br> And to be fair, it&#8217;s my own fear of the unknown, the gun, and the power which prevents me from approaching the neighbor who may be the nicest, most approachable guy in the world. He might look straight at me and say &#8220;Holy cow lady, I am so sorry about my dog, thanks for letting me know in such a neighborly way and I&#8217;ll take care of it&#8221;.

... o que tinha de anunciar dali p'ra frente as autoridades para que ninguém me pedisse dinheiro «diz que és turista, nós não pedimos dinheiro aos turistas ». Até me requisitaram com muito jeitinho autorização para dar uma vista de olhos na mochila, coisa que fizeram apenas superficialmente. Depois só quiseram exibir o português que tinham aprendido quando vieram em formação militar para Angola « no Kapolo 2 ». Eu tinha de passar ali a noite, por isso dirigi-me ao chefe ...

... garage might. Sidenote number two: last weekend I was pulling away from Melanie's house, turning around where a driveway was barricaded with cinder blocks in front of a house under construction, and I drove into a drainage trench! Oops! I never saw it, and of course to either side of the driveway there are bumpers to prevent such an accident. Even with 4 x 4 action, there was no getting out of it, and Angela tried to pull ...

... t been done properly. Here, there just not that many professionals and jobs get Gerry-rigged all the time. The infrastructure just isn't there so if you have a toilet, then why grumble if it doesn't work exactly the way it should? I understand it, but my American standards constantly need to be adjusted. At this point, I had to leave it in the hands of my administrator, but the toilet is better now, we'll see how long it lasts. I have also ...

... then I misunderstood and thought it was open until 2. So finally last Saturday I got up before 7 and got down there with a wallet full of CFAs. It is kind of an open market, with everybody congregating in little clusters along the loading docks. Lots of cartons were piled up and people were backing up with taxis to load up and I wandered about just trying to see if the cartons were organized by style of meat or what. Finally ...

... Wasn't that a mic in fr*nt *f him? And what ab*ut J*hn Mellencamp's hair plugs? N* but really aside fr*m the fact that he l**ks like J*hn Prine's l*ve child, he l**ked pretty g**d, alth*ugh, again, I wish he'd ch*sen s*mething a little less *bvi*us than "Little Pink H*uses". I l*ve Queen Latifah, and have been a fan since h** earliest care**. Wish she'd sung "U.N.I.T.Y", h*w appr*priate, and what a n*d t* the *ft-*v**l**ked Hip-H*p ...

... the beach. Only Henry and I actuallymade it down to the beach, or the rushing red river to be more precise. The rain had depoited fresh silt and the water was about the same temperature as the sea. We only spent a little while down there, and then we went up to play baseball with Oscar. We hadn't brought out the gloves and bat in a long time, and the boys were very focused on good batting as a result. They had ...