Hotel Residence Saint-Jacques Bord de mer Pointe Noire

... to us. Angela and Klaus have abandoned all of us here in Pointe-Noire for such trivialities as dependable electricity and water you can drink from the tap. It was sad to see them go but sadder knowing that they can go to Farmer&#8217;s Markets and the cinema. <br>

... us our money for Oscar, but wouldn't return the deposit we'd given for Henry's tuition, saying that Henry was still welcome to come, like we can send him without sending Oscar? That's how it is here, **** you and if you don't like it, **** you some more! And while re-telling this story to a friend, she told me how "lucky" I am to be able to bring our kids to our school, and how other moms here don't have that choice ...

... the Congo. <br><br>After a smooth landing we exited the plane and walked to a big room where there was more chaos than in a kindergarten class. Welcome to West Africa! My previous experiences with the continent having been in Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa I never had to witness such an interesting scene. Although French is widely spoken in the country I couldn&#8217;t quite figure out what I was supposed to do. I asked a gentleman who directed me to a certain line but as I was ...

Je craignais une réception agressive de la part des autorités congolaises et du premier regard leurs têtes de voyous m'ont faire croire au plus probable: "ils vont trouver un moyen de m'embêter pour m'alléger de mes maigres économies". Eh ben je me suis trompé. Dès qu'ils se sont rendu compte que j'étais angolais c'était la fête, ils m'ont même parlé avec une certaine déférence et me demandaient permission pour fouiller un tout petit peu mon sac "si cela ne vous gène ...

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 we had to get around to doing a few minor repairs over the winter vacation (a/c, rear brake light, windshield wiper fluid not squirting...), and luckily our friend Regis also needed to do some ...

I have to admit that life here is getting kind of boring. The novelty has worn off and there are no movies, ice-rinks, video stores, bookstores, or anything to go to. Restaurants are about the only place to go, and it's just not that fun to go to restaurants with little kids. Additionally frustrating, the service in all the restaurants is utterly lethargic. The last time we went out to eat with Phil and Melanie at Twiga, the waitress was miserable ...

So we have some pigs who live in the neighborhood. They used to be less visible, spending most of their time up on the rise above the swamp dump land across the street. Then they had babies and suddenly Lyle was all electrified anytime we passed by. Every now and again he would bark and get up on the low concret wall that surround said swamp dump land and we'd hear some pigly ...

... directed me to the "chief", who provided me with the list of goods (not all of which were available). I ended up with my own good-sized carton of beef tenderloins and another box of pork chops, for the grand total of about $400 (US). I figured we could split it with friends if we wanted to, but we did manage to cram it all in our freezer and we figure we'll just keep it and maybe not have to go back there again this year (optimistic ...

... was psyched that she presented a little-kn*wn piece *f hist*ry. And then, just as I was feeling the l*ve, Ms. And**s*n was pre-empted by J*sh Gr*ban and Heath** Healey with the All-White-B*y ch*ir. Wh* are these pe*ple? I kn*w that I'm n*t exactly the m*st avid participant in p*pular culture, but s**i*usly, wh* are these pe*ple? Sh*uld I kn*w them? And why make a speech ab*ut race and inequity *nly t* have three *f the whitest pe*ple p ...

... a form of baseball (with a big sponge ball) at our school for a couple of weeks' worth of phys ed classes, so they remembered about running the bases too. We played with a whiffle ball and they were really whacking it all over the place. Our lunch arrived -- fabulous seafood as always, only we forgot to bring the ketchup that the boys require to eat the fries or plantains, so they just ate rice. This week was ...