Pointe Indienne

Trip Start Aug 01, 2008

Trip End Jun 30, 2010

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Flag of Congo Pointe Indienne, Congo
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Who loves Ethernet? We do!! Yay!! So now if you want to Skype us, the calls will actually work! I'd been looking for a packaged cable, but couldn't find one. They actually make the cable for you here in the store. They pull out a little bag of fire-wire plugs, and a roll of cable, and ask you how long you want it, and put it together right there. Also I downloaded the first episode of Project Runway last night and watched the whole thing in one shot, without cursing once! It was a slice of home.
Tony sent us up to the Schlumberger Pointe Indienne, beach house on Saturday with his driver, Valentin. It was really relaxing. There are two grounds keepers there who will wait on you and cook anything that you bring, and watch you like you're on television. We are pretty low-maintenance. I brought sandwiches, and bottled water so we didn't give them much to do. We laid on chaises and read books and dozed while the boys ran in and out of the surf, and dug and ran with Lyle. Then we went up to a near-by hotel for lunch. Now here in the Congo, one really has to get over the American notion of how dinner is timed. All the meals we've had here have been languid affairs, but this hotel took the cake. A record three hours for lunch. No wonder no one ever gets dessert.
Our school supplies and curriculum from the states are slated to arrive today. I hope to be spending my afternoon unpacking and setting up my classroom. As any teacher knows, we love to do this. It' has been a long time since I had my own classroom and I'm really excited.

The road to Pointe Indienne

Bulletin boards, name-tags, daily schedules, reading lists, and curriculum guides make me rally excited, and, yes, I know exactly how dorky that makes me sound, but it's true. Also, the books that we brought for the boys are getting a little tired, and I can't wait for all of our books to arrive.
Yesterday our neighbor decided to clear part of his lot using fire. It's common way to do that around here. But it freaked out the dog all the same. No one seemed worried, so we weren't either. See the attached pictures.
We had our friend Brian over for dinner and he told us a troubling story. He was doing his weekly shopping at the local supermarket and walked down the street to get croissant, on his way back two policemen in a taxi tried waving him over. He played dumb and pretended he didn't understand them. They insisted they needed to see his papers, and wanted him to get in the car with them. He told them that his papers were in his car, down the street, they said they'd drive him there. When he pulled out his phone and said he was calling the police station, they pulled away. Apparently, this is a scam that some cops pull to get one into the car, drive them to the middle of nowhere and rob them and leave them. Yikes, to Protect and Serve indeed. Brian was of the opinion that they targeted him because he was a white guy alone. The other thing that I've heard is that police will "fine" you on the spot if you're caught in a driving violation. All the more reason to keep it slow and steady.
That being said: Do not worry about us, all in all it is extremely safe here. The Congolese are very kind, calm people. These cops are certainly the exception, not the rule.