Jun 2007

Wow, this past week was pretty crazy. I got a letter from Catherine, a travel magazine from Bobbie, and my cruise packet. Yeah!

I have not moved into my house yet. I went to the house yesterday. It has a ways to go. They are still painting (inside and out). They are also putting screens on the windows, as well as putting up the ceiling in one room. We measured for Charlie’s fence while we were there. It is going to have to be pretty high to keep him from jumping over. At home, he jumped over the back of the couch one time. My furniture is all there already, sitting in the living room. Wow, pretty nice stuff. It’s way better than my futon and fold out bed in Birmingham. Ha.

I did laundry on Saturday. I turned on the hot water in the bathtub, and dumped all my clothes in it. One of the guys let me use some of his laundry detergent so I dumped that in the mix. Then, I used both hands to twirl my clothes in a “wax on wax off” motion for five minutes. I then had to drain the tub, because the water was brown. Wow. I had to rinse with running water, because the clothes kept making the standing water dirty. Ha. It was quite funny. I hung all my clothes on the shower curtain rod, the sink, the toilet, the bathroom door, and the closet doors. One of my shirts is ruined from the closet door varnish. Oops.

The primary elections in Congo were last Sunday. No cars were allowed on the streets unless you had a diplomatic pass (which we did not). Everyone had to walk to the polling booths. Not all the booths opened on time, and some never opened at all . It was pretty messed up. Not all the candidates ended up on the ballots. Also, there is no age limit to vote, so some people brought their six year old kids to vote. We were instructed to stay home all day. I stayed at the guy’s house. We watched movies all day. Charlie enjoyed the yard, although there was some drama. The guard let him out, accidentally. Grrr. It is a really good thing they did not tell me until he was back. I think I really would have preferred to not know at all.

I found some dog shampoo at the store here. Charlie got a bath yesterday night. The European shower heads made it really easy. I could just hold him in the tub and spray him down. How come he loves cold dirty lake and river water, but hates warm bath water???? Dogs….

Funny stuff from today: It seems that Charlie and I are having similar intestinal problems. He had such a problem on the rug this morning while I was in the shower. I cleaned it up as best I could and went to work. I returned to the hotel room for lunch, and the maid came in to clean. Side note, it took two maids one and a half hours to clean the room because it had not been cleaned in a week. The maids have stopped coming in since I have been leaving Charlie in the bathroom, not in the crate. Back to the poop story, the maid grabbed the rug to beat it against the wall outside. Well, while she was beating it against the building to get out the dirt and dog hair. I saw her grab the poop spot, and then make this hysterical face. I have never laughed so hard. I did feel bad for her though.

There is a really great guy here from Florida that works for the owner. He reminds me of home. He had everyone over last night for pork chops. It was great. I always meet new people when I hang out with him. Sometimes it is a news correspondent, or foreign diplomat. Last night it was some business people from South Africa. I don’t know where he meets all these people??? Fun times.

I am trying to upload some pictures now. We will see how that goes.
Love you all,
Allie

I am not really sure what to write about. Lot's of things have happened in the last week. I am still taking everything in. I am actually learning my way around. Let's see...

We figured out how to get our outgoing email working on Outlook. Yeah! No more webmail.

My house looks like it will be finished this weekend. The generator went in yesterday, now we are just waiting on the water pump. Furniture is going in today.

I went to see the "wicker people" yesterday to commission a dog house for Charlie and some chairs for the porch. I tried to draw out the house that I wanted them to build. We will see how it turns out. It should not take long for them to build. It is only 4 posts, with a wicker roof, and wicker bed. The chairs I picked are the round ones, like the ones at Pier 1. I can't think of the name of them right now. Those wicker guys are pretty good. They can build anything if they have a picture.

I can't find a mosquito net. Hmmm. You would think that in a place like this they would be readily available. I need to get one before I move into the house next week.

Charlie has made friends with some of the guys in the hotel. He will miss them when we move into the house, but overall he should be happier to have a yard to run around in.

We have been eating at some good places. One place has a French cook. It is amazing. We tried to go to the best place in town last night, Jardins (across from the Presidents Hotel), but it was closed for a private party. They had white table clothes, wine racks, and real art. I was impressed.

A bunch of people here play tennis. I think we will start a club of sorts to play on Sundays. Should be fun.

Gotta work now. Catch ya later.

Matt and Loraine came to meet me at the airport. Poor Loraine decided to hang on to Charlie. He had to go wiz so bad (poor Charlie) that he almost got her.

Matt and Loraine took me to their hotel for dinner, as it was very late by the time we got out of the airport. I had spaghetti. It was safe enough. I met some South Africans that are here working for an airline. They seemed nice enough. After dinner, we went to my hotel (my house is not quite finished, hence the hotel stay).

The room is big enough for Charlie to run around in, but has to stay in the crate while I am at work. He hates that, but he seems ok. People in Congo are terrified of dogs. The maid won't even come clean my room unless I am home. After the civil war, the dogs got so hungry that they started to eat the dead bodies. Now, the people think that dogs are possessed with the spirits of dead people. yikes. No one should mess with us!

I have already had some drama at the hotel. My faucet busted in the tub and it was spewing water for two days straight. It almost drained the entire tank at the hotel. Today, they finally just replaced the entire faucet and pipe.

Food here is pretty good. Alot of Lebanese people own resturants in Brazzaville. Matt took me to a few good places, as well as to the grocery store. You can get anything you want at the store (including Puma tennis shoes), but it is very expensive. Good news is, I won't starve.

Traffic is not too bad. Nothing like the craziness of Kampala. I may actually get my own car soon. We will see.

My house is almost finished. It is so awesome. It is a two story, with Jay (vietnam vet) living upstairs. My part is 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a living room, dining room, and kitchen. The best part is that Charlie will have a yard to run around all day. I will try to post pictures when I take them.

As far as leisure activities, all activity will probably revolve around eating as there is not much else to do here. Sunday we went swimming at Jaime's (business manager) place. His apartment complex has a pool. Matt and Loraine also took me to see the Congo rapids, and to the tennis club. It is pretty cheap to use the club, so I will probably hang out there on Sundays. They also have a pool.

Work is slow because the internet is SLOW. Hopefully we can get that fixed pretty soon. We are taking in applications for workers. We received 1,000 applications just yesterday. Sorting through that pile should be wild. We received our first containers on Saturday (Yeah!). In trying to unload them, one lift got stuck in the sand. Typical africa. Back to the old mantra.. TIA (This Is Africa). I am having fun, though.

Anyway, that is enough for now. I will write more later.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, which does not sound that nice to those who have been to one in the states. However, the one in Paris is very nice. It has a very good resturant, which I did not expect from a HI Express. The room was also nicer than expected. There was a couch for Charlie to jump on.... Charlie and I enjoyed our stay.

In the morning, we got up really early to leave for the airport. The taxi driver dropped us off at the curbside. Once again, NO Air France baggage people. I stood in the same place so long that people started to wonder if I was alright. One guy was pushing another cart, but he looked like an airport worker so I stopped him. He would not help me until I pulled out some money. What great people, huh? He wheeled two carts inside, knocking Charlie off the cart upside down in the process.

We did finally make it to the Air France check-in counter. It was the WRONG Air France check-in counter, but the guy felt sorry for me so he agreed to check me in anyway. He also preceeded to inform me that only 3 bags are allowed on flights to Africa. I had 6, plus Charlie. He called every other person working for Air France over to help figure out what to do. He eventually decided that he would have to let me on since I flew from Atlanta with the bags and already paid for the bags. WOW. He was really nice, though. I was lucky to have gotten him. After I got checked in they came and took Charlie. Charlie wouldn't swollow the sleepy pill, so he was WIDE awake.

I got through security at about 7am, with 3 hours to wait before my flight. I did a little shopping in the duty free stores. I had thrown so much stuff out of my bags before leaving the states, I had no face wash or makeup at all! Once they called for boarding, we all boarded a bus and drove way out to catch the plane. It took 10 minutes by bus to get to the plane. CDG is crazy.

On the plane, I was seated next to a member of the Congolese National Football Team. This was pretty cool, until he called all of his friends over there to huddle around my seat (I was pinned in the window seat). I got asked out by 4 of the team members. Fun stuff. I kept calling for the attendent, but no one came.

Once in Brazzaville, we got off the plane and boarded another bus. This time, I got to work the system. I got to board the VIP bus, because of my new passport. The workers did not want to let me into the VIP lounge because I was wearing flipflops. Oops. In the VIP lounge someone takes your passport to get the thing stamped for you. It took a while to get mine back, because the guy put mine at the bottom of the pile.

Once I got the passport back, I had to go pick up my luggage. Matt was there to meet me with a Congolese guy who would help with my bags. We got to the baggage claim, but my luggage never came. Finally, we saw Charlie. They put him on the luggage belt and someone tried to take him off before we got him. I have never yelled so loud. Grrr. After Charlie it was forever before we got my luggage. Because I had checked in so early, my luggage was the very last to come off the plane. We did end up getting all of it though. (once again, no one checked Charlie's paperwork?!?)

Then, we ventured out into Brazzaville... more to follow