Community Service

On Saturday the 15 members of the Foreign Service National Employees Association, (Congolese employees) at the U.S. Embassy got together with American friends and coworkers to volunteer their time, efforts and money to help out Mikalou Orphanage run by the Community of Our Lady of Perpetual Help here in Brazzaville. Kristina from IPHD identified the facility and got the supplies; and the project commenced. A latrine was dug and surround built, kitchen painted, concrete shower surface made, and concrete latrine top was made. Plans are to return two more times to complete the projects, along with rehabilitating a crumbling shelter and building bunk beds for the children. It was wonderful to see how much got done in so little time, with so many helping hands.

Brazzaville Skies

"If a house on the Congo River conjures up dark forest, luxuriant foliage, brilliant sunshine, excessive heat, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, mosquitoes, tsetses, sandflies and jiggers, it is deceptive. All these things exist in Equatorial Africa, but not in the same place or at the same time.

There is no tropical forest or luxuriant foliage within several days of Brazzaville. The country round is bare or overgrown, according to the season. Nothing thrives normally. I never remember seeing brilliant sunshine for a whole day. The sky is generally overcast, the sun rarely piercing through the clouds for more than two hours at a time. When it blazes down untrammelled it naturally scorches you. Of all surprises in Africa, this for me was the greatest, having lived in tropical Asia, where the sun is rarely hidden. "

From Life in French Congo by Gabrielle Vassal 1925

I say ditto to this, despite hearing the description from Al about the gray skies of the dry season, I never fully anticipated these cloudy skies...a surprise for me too, Gabrielle..

Traveling West

Breakfast in Dolisie

Piles of American rice in warehouse, below

Our hotel in Dolisie

School lunch ready to serve, U.S. beans and rice

Gifts from the school Students at Mongo School

Breton at Sewing Shop Project


Reading aloud

Last week I went along to see some US-funded projects in the south of the country...flew to Dolisie along with Al, IPHD (International Partners for Human Development )staff Christian, Kristina, and Roman, who are running the projects and Breton from our Embassy along with IPHD staff members. We travelled many kilometers on dry dusty roads enroute, visited the small town of Sibiti. We visited district Prefects, and a school where girls receive Embassy-funded scholarships, a sewing shop, market gardens in Thaiti; visited Mongo school where mosquito nets and supplies were donated, and where we saw one of the IPHD-run USDA-funded school lunch programs; and visited a village chief in Mouindi which was the last stop before our 5-hour ride back on a road being built by the Chinese, to the airport to catch the flight back to Brazzaville..

Following a log truck