Christmas in the Congo

We celebrated Christmas at our house on December 23 with an open house. We had about 80 guests to come to join us, and for our entertainment we had the choir from the International Evangelical English Fellowship, created "to help English speaking people to worship God in English in a French speaking country". They sang beautifully and brought speakers, equipment and used the grand piano here at hour house.

Here are some pictures I took at the supermarket of Christmas goodies for sale...many people are scrambling to make ends meet, but some are able to buy the nice things as shown here. I took these pictures in the Casino Supermarket, the most upscale store in town. Most things are available, for lots and lots of money.

Employee Christmas Party

The Congolese employees of the US Embassy here in Brazzaville held a Christmas lunch party after their intramural soccer game. Our two sons are visiting so we all took the opportunity to travel to the home of one of the employees, not too far away but takes awhile to get there as there are only a few main roads and lots of traffic.
Here are Mark and Michael with Benjamin, our host and the Economic Aide in the Embassy, at his home.

Here are a few more of the attendees, the people who loyally serve and support our Mission here in Brazzaville.

in Pointe Noire...

Here is a look at the "Grand Marche" in Pointe Noire, very busy and crowded..fish preserved in salt at left, and fresh..

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Pictured above are bags made of "plarn" or plastic yarn, strips of plastic cut from shopping bags. These bags were for sale in the market in Pointe Noire, I had never seen how to actually do it, and this lovely young lady showed me how. I thought it would be a good use for the bags that litter everywhere, but they were using new ones, which of course are clean and easier to work with.


Here is a seller of cloth material or pangas printed in beautiful colors and busy designs. I was surprised to find many of them are manufactured in England. The ones I saw cost about $10.

The French influence shows in the sidewalk cafes on Avenue Charles DeGaulle
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Here's the ad on the wall at "La Citronelle" and the reality of living it up in Pointe Noire.

Ship Visit at Pointe Noire

Light area in map at left is Republic of Congo with Pointe Noire southwest

The USS Leyte Gulf, pictured above, visited Pointe Noire, the Atlantic port in the Congo. The ship was in port December 7 - 12, and the Captain invited Americans in the area and Congolese military and civilian leaders to go aboard for a reception on deck with the added attraction of the opportunity to tour the ship and, memorably, to stand on top of Tomahawk missile storage. The sailors performed a community service project of rebuilding, in cooperation with Chevron Oil, a local primary school as well as enjoying liberty ashore.

USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55) is a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy. She was named in memory of the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific. She is powered by four large gas-turbine engines, and she has a large complement of guided missiles for air defense, attack of surface targets at sea and ashore, and anti-submarine warfare (ASW). In addition, she carries two "Seahawk" LAMPS multi-purpose helicopters, whose primary mission is ASW.

Pointe Noire also is a site for several oil companies including Chevron, Murphy, Conoco and Texaco.





Two of our sailor hosts...
Anchors Aweigh....
Until we meet once more, Here's wishing you a happy voyage home

US Embassy Congo Brazzaville New and Present

Here is a picture of our new Embassy which will open January 20, 2009. Below is a picture of where the offices are currently located, in the BDEAC Building (Development Bank of the Countries of Central Africa), as of March 2006. Our original Embassy was looted and damaged in the civil war in 1997, and operated for years across the River Congo in Kinshasa. Embassy staff is planning a big opening and open house, and the U.S. flag will fly over its Embassy building here for the first time since 1997.

Signs

One of the things I like best about this town is the abundance of hand-painted advertising signs, some even signed by the signmaker. These pictures show a bit, but there are thousands out there that I have not had a chance to photograph. In many African countries, they have abandoned these in favor of more modern sign-making methods, but these really do it for me.

More Shopping

This is the local vegetable and fruit market, Marche' de la Plateau, near our house. I call this woman in the first picture "Michelle", I told her she looks like Michelle Obama. They are very friendly there, selling flowers, mangoes, pineapples, peanuts, bananas, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, also Congolese "fast food" which is a baguette with your choice of fillings, mostly avacado.