Migitel Hotel Pointe Noire

... no toilet paper, soap or towels. I usually carry tp around in my purse along with sand-sanitizer. If I can&#8217;t wash my hands, then neither can the waitress or cook. I can&#8217;t figure out if it is a cost-saving measure or hygiene is just not that important.<br><br>Last year during a bout of severe Africa bum, I had to use the local supermarket&#8217;s bathrooms, and it looked exactly ...

... went to a V.I.P. room. I had never been an airport V.I.P.! Now, I gotta say, this is not a V.I.P. room at the Braves&#8217; stadium. But the great part about it is the simplicity of the process: all I had to do was to sit in a chair, give him my passport and papers and he took care of everything. A few hours later I was on a plane to Pointe-Noire, and this time I knew someone was going to wait for me at the airport. <br><br>I arrive in Pointe-Noire and indeed someone is waiting for me ...

... my lap that should be asleep for at least the next hour and a half, who will be cranky and out of sorts all day.<br><br> Gil Courtemanche talks about how in Africa everybody is a little chief, all scrapping for their piece of power, however tiny. Whatever power is had is used to its fullest authority. David and I got pulled over last year by a military guy (who had no jurisdiction over traffic ...

... ils n'attendaient que deux, le deuxième étant en fin d'après-midi. Il en avait un troisième dont ils n'avaient pas le renseignement et qu'allait jusqu'à Nyanga, sauf qu'à mi-chemin il s'est solidarisé avec son camarade qu'était complètement embourbé et voyant que le secours allait prendre trop de temps, j'ai décidé de reprendre la marche. Il manquait une vingtaine de km, j'en ai fait 16 en marche et pour les 4 derniers un gendarme m'a cueilli en moto. Il s'est mit en ...

... we brought the car over to the garage to get the tire fixed, I asked Ismael to check the air conditioning to see if they couldn't get it any colder. They returned us the car with a new tire, showing us the old one was ripped beyond repair, but the a/c was back to being kind of warm when we got around to driving the car the next day. They are super nice at the garage, always willing to follow me home and take the car and ...

... Noire that trained people in service and that there was a generation of professionals, but they're gone, some to the Villa Madiba, but mostly it's just sulky kids who couldn't care less. Our vacation to Cape Town is at the end of the month and I am really looking forward to it. My friend Klaus assures me that I can get an iced coffee as soon as I get off the plane in JoBurg. I am also looking forward to congenial service, bacon, oysters, and new ...

... legs on the other, squealing like a pig. Lyle didn't go in for the kill, though. He's been more curious and alarmed than aggressive, and I don't know if he's a little bit scared of something that's about his size (the big mama and papa are quite a bit bigger than him, but they're rarely seen out in the road) that doesn't do anything when he comes charging up except hold its ground.

... costs around $7 or $8 (US), but since we bought that one time we now have the kids eating the low budget variety of what we still call "chicken cereal" even though the Kellog's chicken isn't on the package. This box costs about $3 (US). Our favorite cafe, not too far away either, is Le Citronelle. You can get some pretty good pizza there (sandwich bread sized) for less than a dollar, a good chunk of flan for a dollar, and madeleines ...

... d*es Garth get a three s*ng set? Then th**e w**e the celebrities, m*re than y*u can shake a stick at, but n*t *ne c*ntemp*rary Am**ican writ**. I d*ubt that Faulkn** and Kennedy w**e talking ab*ut H*llyw**d eg* giants when they w**e talking ab*ut artists. Ush** and Shakira (in vinyl pants and stilett*s, l**king like she just mem*rized the lyrics ten minutes earli**) singing "High** Gr*und" w**e t*tally sup**flu*us. Wh* d*esn't l*ve classic ...

Yes, sushi. It was a surprise to us, as we'd heard that the Japanese place in town had been bought by some Chinese folks and no longer served sushi. We had been planning a night out at a well-known Congolese restaurant, Chez Gaspar in La Cite (the local, non-expat part of the city) with some friends and their visiting family, but one of them had a bit of a bad belly and wanted something more familiar. So we met out for drinks at one of our regular hangouts -- Le ...