Aug 2007

I had my first run in with the Brazzaville Police a few weeks ago. Someone cut me off in traffic. I slammed on the break, but forgot the clutch. The car died, and would not re-crank. Apparently, the battery came loose from the connection. Anyway, there is a cop stationed at every intersection. A cop came up to my car and asked me to roll the window down. Well, battery dead. I tried to open the door. He shut the door, and insisted that I roll the window down. Hmmm…battery dead. All the while, this guy is standing in the street about to get run over by traffic which is now backing up behind me. The cars in the other lane where stopping beside me just to yell at me, which now blocked both lanes of traffic. I made a motion of trying to crank the car, and the cop finally understood. He called his buddies over to help me push the car. We got through the intersection and they wanted to push me up on the curb. My steering wheel locked up. So they are pushing, and I am steering towards the wall. I had to pull the emergency break. Help finally arrived. Our interpreter talked to the cop. The cop wanted to write me a ticket for now using my emergency blinkers when the car died. Hello… dead battery. I pushed the blinker button, but they did not come one. The mechanic is fixing my battery connection while the negotiation is going on with the cop. The cop finally agrees to let me just pay him for helping push my car out of traffic. In my mind, I was really paying him to get my driver’s license back (He took my license and insurance information early on and refused to give it back… without payment). What an experience! I have no idea if that makes any sense at all.

My mom mailed me a package through the US Postal Service. It was supposed to arrive in 7-10 days, but apparently the USPS does not know where the Congo is located. That is ok, because neither does UPS. UPS sent our office packages back to the US twice. Back to the package from mom… it has been over a month and no package has been delivered. However, this is not surprising as there is no postal service here. Everything comes to the main post office and goes into a PO Box. I went to the post office and asked about my package. They laughed, but they did take my name and phone number. Hopefully, they will find the package and call me soon, but I am not holding my breath. That place looked like a zoo. That stinks.

I finished HP. It was pretty great. I liked the ending, but I felt bad for some of the people that died at the end. I did not cry, though. I cried in Book 6, but not in this one. I can not wait for the movies. Hopefully, Order of the Phoenix will be up on iTunes in a couple months.

I made it over to Kinshasa. I like Kinshasa, a lot. There are a ton more people, and the streets are filled with life (unlike Brazzaville). It is pretty expensive to get over there. I think it costs about $50 per trip. I found a real supermarket with other stores upstairs. There was a salon owned by a French guy. I will definitely check that out at some point. I came out of there with Apple Jacks, a scented candle, some Steadler pens, gummy bears, and dog bowls for Charlie. It made my week!

Last weekend, we went exploring in Brazzaville. There is a missionary compound on top of a hill close to the rapids. We went up there and I got some great pictures of the old church and banana tree plantation. I also got a lot of pictures of the Congo river rapids, but it was overcast so the pictures do not look that great. I will try to post some more pictures later this week.

Lastly, I need some prayer for my health. Every week here has brought some new illness and it is really getting me down. Also, I live in constant fear that I could have something serious. Thankfully, each problem has gone away after about two weeks. I did meet two American nurses here in Brazzaville, but still no luck with the doctor situation.

After 2.5 months of overcast skies, it is finally raining. It is very calming. Good day to make a blog entry

Love you all,
Eat lots of Moes,
Allie