Love to all,
Allie

Cork, South Africa remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Hello South Africa remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I just wanted to give quick updates on the Congo projects:

Orphanage Update – A church in the US agreed to help collect funds for the orphanage. We were not able to secure the property owed by Mama Dorcas for the orphanage, as it had been designated by the President as a wildlife or tree reserve area. However, the team was able to help find a compound for the orphanage to purchase. Fundraising then began with the goal of about $60k-$70k. But they would not be afforded the time to raise the funds before they would get the eviction notice from their current landlord. In order to move into the new place without purchasing it, they needed to raise 6 months worth of rent in advance. God made a way for this. Now, we have 6 more months to raise the remainder. There is currently about $12,000 in the House of Hope account, so we have a ways to go. Please donate if you feel led to do so. I will post the link later.

Makana Housing Project – We had a groundbreaking with the DCM and the director of IPHD in Makana. Gebran and I laid out the approximate location for the first house with a tape measure, rebar stakes, string, and a carpenter square. Gebran and I both have degrees in AE (African engineering). After I left, construction actually started on some of the houses. I was getting periodic updates, but I have not heard anything in a while. I know that at least one home is complete. I am sad to report that one of our team members passed away in Kinshasa, in addition to the passing of Millard Fuller. However, I hope that the work will go on as they both spent their lives dedicated to making a difference.

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Malonda Lodge – The US Ambassador to the Congo told a colleague of mine about this amazing resort on the ocean in Pointe Noire. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined such a place could exist in the Congo. However, it does. Malonda Lodge is owed by a charming French couple who have put the last few years of their lives into building this resort. Each room is actually an individual hut with a real thatch roof. Each space is decorated uniquely with hand carved cabinets, doors, and furniture. The bedroom has a cabinet top made completely of one tree with no joints. The huts are located on a hill, overlooking a lagoon which is directly adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. The pool also shares this view. There will soon be (or may already be) a bar next to the pool. Each public space is architecturally shaped with an ocean theme; the restaurant is a turtle, the breakfast bar a shell, and the new clubhouse is a starfish. In this secluded spot, transportation to the resort is interesting. At the airport, all the taxi drivers knew the place, but few dared to offer the trip. Once we turned off the main road, we realized the problem. Our taxi bottomed out on the high sand which had collected in the center of the road. We almost had to get out to walk, but even facing this challenge was well worth it. As the place is far (45min taxi) from Pointe Noire, the resort restaurant is really the only option. Nevertheless, it was excellent, so no problem there. We tested the steak, the lobster, and the fresh fish. Overall, I would recommend Malonda Lodge to anyone who needs a break in the Congo, and I might even go back to Congo just for it some time. Search for it on the web.

Last Trip to Lefini – The last trip to Lefini was by far the best and most eventful. We ended up with a big group including Jamie, John, Leslie, Will, Jessie, Gebran, and myself. We stopped at another local dive for lunch, which was a cultural experience for Will and Jess. Upon arriving at camp, we got to see more babies than before and we had a great new forum for viewing them (although, nothing really tops them running around us illegally before). We also got to see some mosquito projects that they had set up around the reserve (yikes!). Afterwards, Jaime made a great New Orleans dinner. The darkness was impressive again. It was probably the most amazing stars I have ever seen and may ever see. The cabins were cooler than before. In the morning, we were told that the hippos might be on the move from the river. So, we went to track them (of course, as if enough people don’t get trampled by them each year). Unfortunately, tracks were all we saw… I was so disappointed. The river was too low for them to come back to it overnight, so we missed them by a day. Despite the hippo setback, the rest of the day was extraordinary. The drive out of the baby camp was breathtaking as before, and we think we saw a wild dog. Once we reach the boat dock to board for the trip to see the male silverback gorillas, we had to “suit” up. Will was the only one who got “assistance” with his vest. He ended up with two straps between his legs... hilarious! Once we made it onto the boat, we started up the river. On the way to the silverback feeding point, we saw the family of gorillas that had been released into the wild on the opposite side. The guide pulled the boat over so that we might get out, but the rangers got out first to check things out. All of the sudden, we see the rangers RUNNING back to the boat, telling us to push off of the bank. About the time the rangers jump in the boat, a huge gorilla jumps out of the brush and almost into the boat! We were always told that gorillas hate water, but this one was waist deep in it. There went our security. It was wild and intense. We were so close that he was literally staring into our eyes. We took phenomenal pictures at this distance. Apparently, this male had broken off from the family group and was pretty dangerous. Awesome. This experience made our next task of feeding the island gorillas seem pretty mundane. In the end, getting home turned out to be the biggest adventure. The drive back to the main road was completely sand and quite steep in parts. We attempted the biggest hill/dune and had to slide back down again. On the second try, Gebran hit the edge of the sand roadway bed and almost flipped us over. Now that would have been a story. Ray would have killed us (as it was his SUV).

Il Fignond – Another trip to Il Fignond brought another opportunity for entertainment. Getting to the island was no problem. We were able to remember the way from before. The kids at the boat dock were the same: playing, singing, and laughing. The boat across the river was smooth enough. The view was still stunning with the river and the mountain backdrop. On the island, though, Will and Jess were terrified. After exploring, they noticed an empty/abandoned tent not far from the main camp. They began to formulate theories about where these missing campers went. Basically, they scared themselves stupid and had to sleep inside. Will was still so scared that they were going to get murdered that he stayed up all night reading Harry Potter. Gebran and I had a good time actually camping (no bugs or allergic reactions this time).

Cookout – After returning from the camping excursion, the Sing N Share group threw Teresa and I a going away BBQ. It was great to see everyone, but sad to say goodbye. Gebran and Dana made a slideshow for me. Wow. How to measure a year in the life? Presents are nice. The SIL girls gave me a shirt, bag, and some placemats (which are all still sitting in the port in Pointe Noire with the rest of my stuff from Congo after 8 months). John and Caitlyn gave me a nativity. This is currently displayed in my new house, even though Christmas is gone. It was really hard to say goodbye to people who had become my family. There are no words to express how I felt that night, but I am confident I will see them all again one day (In fact, I have already seen the Beattys and the Littetons).

Final reflections –Congo was the rated the worst place on the planet to live by BBC. Yet, somehow, we lived it. It wasn’t pain free, but we managed to get by day by day. With the struggle, came great joy and immense personal growth. This can not be summed up on a blog. I just hope I left it better than I found it for the sake of my Savior God.

Love, Allie

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EMI came. They were such a blessing and an encouragement to all of us here. The trip was God ordained like nothing I could ever imagine. 1. The trip happened over a holiday weekend in Congo, so I was able to spend more time working with the team than originally expected (awesome timing). 2. I was not sure how I was going to provide all the meals for the team, but they were provided. Many of the missionary families and some of the Embassy guys volunteered to host the team for dinners. There were also many pot luck dinners, including one for Easter Sunday. For lunch, I was given an allowance to buy food from Fuller Center. The team ate all this food in 3 days. I supplemented with some of my own savings, but this wasn’t enough. Out of the blue (and my distressful prayers) one of the mission families gave me money. What is wrong/right with this picture? 3. I already told you about the housing that was provided because of the family that was on a retreat in South Africa. 4. I think I also mentioned about the transportation that was provided because of a colleague who was on vacation during this period. Also in regards to transportation, the team evaded several disasters as God put people in the right place at the right time. For example, my car had a flat tire on the way to the village and so Gebran pulled over into a gas station. He called his work driver to come pick up the team. The driver (with the large van) said “Chief, why are you calling me? I am standing right behind you.” 5. This trip was planned during rainy season. During rainy season, it RAINS like every day. The team was here for 10 days with no rain during working hours. It did not start raining until after they had finished their final presentation. This is very important because the teams main objective was a site survey. 6. The team was able to accomplish every task set out for them, which in the beginning seemed impossible and overwhelming. 7. The shipment of supplies for the orphanage showed up in a container the day before the team was scheduled to visit the orphanage. We were able to use the team to deliver all of the items. The orphanage mother was in tears when she saw everything we brought (thanks to my work people in Birmingham!).

While the team was here, we visited a CMA church where a friend of mine is the pastor. It was so much fun. The church was full of life. It was the first time I introduced myself in French. I was excited that they actually understood what I said. After church, I ate my first real Congolese meal. It was pretty good.

The Makana project is still moving forward, although not with the same momentum as after the team had just left. We broke ground on the first house a few weeks ago. More and more construction materials are being delivered to the village. However, we are waiting on some plan revisions to be approved by the Minister of Construction. Once we get this, we will be back in full force again.

Part of the dulled momentum was due to my recent, much needed vacation. I was able to meet my parents in Spain for a week. We had a blast. Spending time with them was great. Plus, I love Spanish food. I did a lot of shopping, too. After my parents left, a friend from home met me in Spain (after some major drama with her train tickets leaving us to believe she was abducted). We traveled up the Mediterranean coast to Italy. We met so many interesting people and experienced so much culture in the span of a week. Italy was the best. I will always favor Cinque Terra and the Portofino coast over the rest of Europe. We extended our stay in Italy and skipped the majority of Paris. Although, we had to make it back to Paris in order to catch our flights out. Well, all the trains were booked from Milan to Paris on the day we needed to travel because we ended up having to travel on a holiday weekend. It was horrible. We had to train hop (starting at 7am) all the way from Italy to Paris. We were very scared that we would not make it in time to catch my flight out. We ended up making it to our hotel in Paris at about 9pm at night, so I was able to catch my flight the following day back to Congo with plenty of time. It was such a fast trip. Oh, I bought a new cell phone because mine got stolen in Congo. It is such a neat phone. It can hold (and utilize) two sim cards at one time. It is perfect for my situation. Although, all my numbers are gone. So don’t be surprised if I don’t call you when I am home in August. I have no numbers.

Wow, so when I got back from vacation I met this young couple at the Bill’s house. I went to introduce myself, but they already knew me. Apparently, my blog is being read. Who knew? They are here working for the outreach part of CMA. Turns out they had read about the Bill’s on my site. How crazy they were coming to actually work with them.

Their arrival was also very timely. We found out that the orphanage we donated all of our stuff to was sold. A group of us who are involved with the orphanage got together to decide what we should do. The new owner wants the orphanage to move, but is allowing them to stay temporarily. We decided that we are going to build a new orphanage for these kids. However, we were struggling as to how we were going to raise tax deductible funds and who was going to manage the accountability of the funds. Then, BAM, these people showed up. Perfect timing. I will have to update more about this project later.

In other random news:

Gebran and I lead our Sunday night service a couple weeks ago. It was fun. I lead music and Gebran gave the message. This is the first time we have lead in a year of going to the service. Guess we haven’t really been pulling our weight. Oh well.

Two of our friends are in an African choir. We went to see them in concert. It was packed out. They were really good, but they blew out the power after the first song. Thankfully, there was an electrical engineer in the house to save the day.

Our main grocery store in town got bought out by the Casino chain. It is so exciting. The meat and cheese counter looks a little less sketchy now. And they have real dog food. Charlie is a happy dog. And they have feta cheese. Enough said.

I bought an African dress a while back, but have not had any chance to wear it. So, I hosted an “African Queen Party”. Well, my gas on my stove went out and I had to cook on two side by side electric grills. It was hilarious. I had 10 people at my house and had to cook on a little electric grill. It took me 2 hours to stir fry one bowl full of chicken and veggies. We didn’t eat until 9pm. We had the best intentions of watching the movie, but didn’t quite make it. Also, I made a cake but could not cook it. I ended up cooking it later in the microwave. Never would have thought that was possible, but desperate times…

I have been reading a really good book by CS Lewis called Mere Christianity. It is not really “mere” in any way, but definitely worth reading. The idea is that he is describing the basics of Christianity. Although, it is actually very deep and thought provoking. It is also interesting because it was a series of radio shows done during WWII.

On the health front, I am feeling much better. My vision is still blurry at times, but my eyes are no longer read or swollen. For those who don’t know, I had pink eye for 3 weeks straight. My eyes were swollen shut for many of those days. I couldn’t work because I couldn’t see my computer screen. I wore my big sunglasses everyday and our site superintendent called me “Hollywood”.

This week is the 4th of July, so there are many parties. We have a VIP party on the 3rd at a nice hotel in town. I finally get to wear another of those fancy dresses I brought. On the 4th we are having a BBQ with all the Americans in town. Should be a fun week overall.

In a couple weeks, my brother and his girlfriend are coming to visit. We are going to try to make trips to the gorilla reserve and the rainforest. Should be action packed. I think they are both a little nervous about coming.

I guess some pretty big news is that I am coming home on August 6th. I was expecting to come home for a bit after this job, but wasn’t expecting any thing this sudden. I am going back to the home office work on a new project start-up. MORAL OF THE STORY IS THAT I WILL SEE YOU ALL SOON.

Thanks for reading and putting up with my long periods of silence. I will try to write at least one more time from Congo.

Love to all,
Allie

Long time, no blog entries… remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We got a new restaurant in Brazzaville. It is called the Corsica Tavern, because the owners are from Corsica. It is interesting. The food is good, but the restaurant is not quite finished. Sound echoes off the walls because they don’t have anything hung on the walls yet. They do not have any light fixtures yet either. However, I go there for the pizza. They have a ham pizza to which I add pineapple. It is so delicious. My mouth is watering as I type. I have half a pizza in the fridge now.

In other news, our friends finally got into their house. They had everyone over last night for Japanese chicken curry. It was really good. They got a huge Easter shipment from the US, so we all split a big chocolate egg for post-dessert. Real dessert was pineapple casserole. My mom puts cheese in hers, but they did not. It was still good though.

I had everyone over today for a Mexican lunch. I used all my remaining rice and chicken packets, but it was worth it. I made salsa chicken with corn and green peppers, guacamole, beans, and spicy rice with stewed tomatoes. We also had salsa that I found at a store here, cheese and diced tomatoes for additives. Someone from the home office sent me a taco packet awhile back, so we had hard taco shells. I used pita bread for makeshift burritos. It turned out really well. I have one plate left that I intend to eat tomorrow.

After lunch, we had a company luncheon. For reaching our work milestone, we had a big party for all the workers at the Rapids. Can you imagine 250+ people in one place? It was perfect though. The Rapids is an outdoor restaurant on the Congo River, where the rapids start. They had so many tables set up with plastic chairs. Everyone came. They all wanted pictures. I can’t wait to see what ended up on film. It is like when you give out plastic cameras at a wedding, you never know what you will end up with. I believe someone was taking video as well. My house staff is now technically employed by the company for insurance reasons, so they were invited. It was nice to see them away from my home. I will post pictures of them when I load them to my computer. Notice how I told you that I served lunch at my house, then went to the “luncheon”. I was scared to eat at the Rapids… You never see white people eating at Rapids. I took that as a sign.

I have one week until the eMi mission team comes here to help us with the Fuller Housing project. They are gong to survey the village, help us plan the new village layout, and design a water supply system. All I can say is that God is amazing. I am still in awe of how this all came together for his glory. Last month, we had no shot of getting our project approved before the summer. Three weeks ago, we had no shot to get a team together in such a short time. Last week, I had no place for the team to stay and no transport. Now, every need has been provided for. I wrote about the opportunity to work on the village housing project on my blog back in the summer of last year. Now, we are fully committed to this effort and I am leading the way into uncharted waters. Thankfully, I am not alone. Christ is in front, dragging me along. I am so glad that we are meeting physical needs, because I fully believe that the message of Christ is not as affective with hungry/homeless people. I pray that through these works, the villagers may see and know the love of God. Faith without works is dead, and vice versa. Please pray that team is able to accomplish their goals this week, and also pray for strength for me. I am taking some time off work, but it will still be a stressful time. If anyone would like to partner with us in this ministry, please email me and I can send the address for Fuller Center headquarters in GA. I may send out fundraising letters so people will have the opportunity to participate. I will keep everyone updated with our progress on the blog.

My real job is going well. I may be back in Birmingham by December. Keith and Maria know what that means…We are all working hard to make it happen.

Happy Palm Sunday to all!
Love,
Allison/Al/Allie

Pondering the week behind and week ahead remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Picturing Congo in National Geographic
When eating dinner at a friend’s house here in town, I was telling everyone about our trip to Lefini to see the gorillas. After dinner, we went into the family room to watch a movie. One of my friends picks a National Geographic out of a pile from the end table and starts flipping through it. She leans over to me and says “look, Congo gorillas.” It turned out to be the exact place I was describing to them earlier in the night. WOW. The pictures in the magazine look similar to the one’s I had taken. If anyone has the February 2000 edition of National Geographic I would gladly take it from you!

Road blocks to Church
In the US, road blocks are put up by the police to check insurance, id, sobriety, etc. In the Congo, anyone can set up a road block. One Sunday morning we were on the way to church and we had to go through two road blocks. Each of these road blocks consisted of three little boys, two fuel drums, and a long bamboo stick….ha. I think they actually made some money. Anyone want to try that on I-75?

Raining like Pooh
Rainy season in Congo started last October and will rain on and off until next summer. The rain in Brazzaville is very different from the rain at home. It rains really hard out of the blue, and then stops out of the blue. However, on some occasions we have torrential rains. It rains so loudly that you can not hear anyone talking inside our office building (tin roofs). One day, I was sitting at my computer and it started to pour. As I was looking out the window, sweet tea (honey pot) in hand, the song from Winnie-the-Pooh came to my mind… “oh the rain rain rain came down down down”. It made me smile and think of my crazy group of friends from Auburn.

Halloween Pumpkins
Halloween was a very fun time in Brazzaville. In preparation for Halloween, I searched all over the city looking for pumpkins, oversized squash, or anything of the sort. When the search came up empty, I tried to think of another approach. I came up with the idea of carving watermelons. I got some small round watermelons. Everyone came over to my house, and we have a watermelon carve. It was super fun. The watermelons ended up looking really good and scary, glowing red.

Chinese = Brain
Chinese people are everywhere. They are even working in Congo Brazzaville. They hold most of the government contracts for the railroad, and they are building the new airport. They are also building the minister of constructions house for free, showing gratitude for awarding them so many contracts. Seeing them around town, I began to wonder what good they are getting out of investing in a place like this (besides the obvious harvesting of the rainforest and oil). I came to the conclusion that they are trying to take over the world (hence the reference in the title of this section to Pinky and the Brain cartoon character).

Chinese = Bad Quality Around the Globe
How hard would you laugh to hear Congolese people in the middle of Africa curse the Chinese for their poor quality products? One worker was hammering something when his hammer fell apart. Someone heard him cursing the Chinese under his breath... everyone was laughing so hard that no one told the guy that the hammer was made in the USA.

Tennis Club
The tennis club has been a great source of joy. Nights are spent playing tennis, and Sundays are spent layout out at the pool with friends. However, the French people didn’t really want us in their club and have started denying American applications. Their hostilities don’t really bother me, though. They refuse to speak English so anything they say to me sounds like gibberish.

Marine Ball, Kinshasa
The marine ball in Kinshasa was really great overall. It was difficult to get to Kinshasa this time, because we did not take the Embassy boat. The trip is miserable without Embassy escort because you have to wait in line for a boat and then be hassled by everyone around. However, upon arrival at the beach in Kinshasa, I went through with my official passport and Gebran tagged along as my translator (ha). The hotel was relatively nice, and over priced at $250/night. The city itself was a breath of fresh air (so to speak, the air is actually dirty). We got to shop at a decent grocery store and eat real food. At the ball, everyone danced all night (after the formal presentations, of course). I met a lot of interesting and important people at the ball. It was a blast. It was a wonderful excuse to get dressed up.

Handicap People
On the return trip from Kinshasa, I saw some very interesting things. Apparently, if you are handicapped in Congo you do not pay customs fees for importing and exporting goods. You can not imagine what people do to take advantage of this. I saw a wheel chair being pushing down the street by two large men. It required two large men to push because on it was a two meter high stack of goods and sitting on top of that was the handicapped guy.

Street Walkers
If you order rebar in Brazzaville, it will not be delivered on a truck. It will be delivered by hand and foot. When driving down the road in town, you must be careful not to hit these guys on the side of the road. Congolese pile supplies of every kind on these rolling metal carts and they proceed to push them down the side of the streets. Often times, you do not even see the guy pushing, you only see the rolling cart. Supplies seen rolling down the street include: a stack of 5 meter high mattresses, bails of hay, bundles of rebar, and live animals.

Military Road Blocks & guns
Real road blocks are placed around town whenever the president travels. All the military police carry big guns. Whenever they get tired of carrying their guns, they prop them up on the ground pointing in the direction oncoming traffic. What a wonderful feeling to drive towards a loaded gun…

Cook
I am not sure if I told everyone that I got a cook. He used to work at a restaurant in town, so he is pretty good. He chooses what to cook everyday, and he is doing a great job so far. Charlie is definitely enjoying the leftover benefits of having a cook.

Football and Keith at Villa Washington
In the fall, we watched football games late at night at Villa Washington. One night we were watching the Auburn game, and all of the sudden… there is Keith Beard. It was such a pleasant surprise to see him on the field during the football game. It made my week. I have a semi-famous friend.

Car Trouble
My car is constant drama. This time, my mirror fell off and I had to tape it back on with clear packing tape. That was very effective.

Drugs and Charlie
Apparently my guard or neighbor smokes illegal drugs at night near the back of my house. I came home one night and Charlie was STONED. Yikes.

Voodoo
I think I have seen the Skeleton Key one to many times. My upstairs neighbor’s girlfriend got kicked out of the house and I thought she put a voodoo spell on our house. I woke up in the middle of the night to take Charlie out and I saw a skinned cat hanging from the back fence. I flipped out. I could not sleep, but kept walking to the window to look at it. I called someone to come over in the morning to look at it. The skinned cat turned out to be a clump of leaves caught on the fence. Hmm. No more scary movies for me.

Taxi driver
When making a U-turn on day on the main street in town, we cut off a taxi driver who was trying to turn in the opposite direction. It should have been courtesy for him to stop for us to pass. Well, he wasn’t happy. He leaned out the window and started yelling and flailing his arms. He got what he deserved when his watch went flying into the intersection.

Christmas Tree and Ornaments
For Christmas, I bought a tree and ornaments from the Asian store in town. The tree was a great addition to the house, but I wasn’t able to buy a star. In the Asian store, they had stars made for other trees but not for mine. I kept trying to buy one of the other ones, but every time I would put the star into my cart, a lady from the store would come behind me and take it out. After several episodes of trying to buy (or steal the star at last resort), I gave up and bought an ugly ball for the tree top.

Christmas Party
I held a Christmas party at my house. All the expats in town (that I know) where invited to the party. We played Dirty Santa where we stole each others gifts and we had delicious food contributed by all.

Being home
Being home was fun, but entirely too short. I enjoyed hanging out with all my friends and family. So many things got packing into twelve days that I could rewrite the song “twelve days of Christmas”. I returned to Congo with wonderful memories, presents, and pneumonia.

Bugs
Upon returning from Christmas holiday, I found my house was infested with these little white bugs. They were eating everything in my house, including the furniture and the packaging for my food. I had to throw everything away and blast my house. It spelt so bad that I could not enter for three day sand Charlie had to stay outside. If anyone wants to send me a care package, now would be a perfect time. I almost cried throwing away all of Charlie’s dog food.

Total Market
I finally got to go to the market and look around the Sunday before last. It was similar to the market in Uganda, but much smaller. I got some fabric for making a few skirts and a ball for the kids who live across the street from me. Gebran could have gotten some amazing pictures, but the people were unwilling to be photographed. Next time we will start with the camera out and shoot as fast as possible.

Dinner with the SIL girls and Dinner at the Bills
For the past two weeks, I have been invited to Monday night dinners. The girls at SIL cooked quesadillas last week and another lady made dessert. It was fun to hang out with them because we had a lot to catch up on. This past Monday night, dinner was at the Bill’s house (CMA missionary family). It was a big group including: the SIL group, some missionaries from Pointe Noire, and also a doctor from the missionary hospital in Enfondo. The Bill’s house is so neat, because they have been working in Africa for over 20 years and have collected a lot of cool artifacts (animal skins and tails, a turtle shell, a snake skin, various animal skulls, etc.)

New people in Congo
This month is bringing many new people to Congo. Thankfully, it has brought a new couple for us to hang out with. The guy works for our owner and his wife is hoping to work at the embassy. They are from Washington and North Dakota, and they have been living in China. That makes for some interesting conversation. I am just happy to add to the list of expats.

Ok, I am exhausted after writing all of that. I have to energy for proof reading, so please excuse me if there are mistakes.

I can’t promise to write again soon (as I didn’t write for many months prior to this), but I will try. Thanks for reading. I love and miss you all,
Allie

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Gebran and I have been hanging out with the guy from France and girl from Namibia. They are really fun. We have eaten out with them at Nenuphar, and also cooked at my house two times. We have been trading movies and cds. Lee is watching all my Dawson’s Creek seasons and I borrowed her Skeleton Key movie. Some of the guys from work and I had a movie night to watch Skeleton Key at the 5 bedroom house because they have a BIG screen TV. I stole mom’s Boy Scout popcorn when I was home last, so we ate that. I forgot for a minute, or at least a second, that I will in the middle of Congo.

I got my first taste of Malaria last week. It wasn’t too bad. I caught it early I guess. I started having crazy dreams, woke up one night with chills, and woke up one morning with my muscles feeling like I had just run a marathon and like I had been hit by a truck. That morning I went to the clinic. Blood test showed Malaria. I took the herbal Chinese medicine Artesunate. It is supposed to be really effective. I continued to feel tired, but was pretty much better by Saturday morning.

Saturday was a half day at work, so we took advantage of the off time. A group of us drove up north to Lefini. The Project for the Protection of Gorillas has a reserve and camps outside Lefini. The drive took about three hours. National Route 2 is paved from Brazzaville all the way to the Congolese President’s village. NICE. We stopped along the side of the road to eat lunch and have a drink at some village bar. It was cool. The restroom facilities weren’t cool, though. The toilet was a hole (as expected), but it was swarming with bees. YIKES. Eventually, we got to the turn off that goes to the camp and gorilla nursery. That road was not paved. It was one lane through the middle of fields, forests, hills, and valleys. We saw the most interesting flowers I have ever seen, but no animals at all. It was really strange. The scenery was gorgeous. We saw all different types of landscapes within our off road drive. At one point, we had a following of hitchhikers. There were about five or six little boys from a village that we passed that rode on the back of our landcruiser for a couple kilometers. They wanted to go swim in the lake close to our camp, so they came along with us for the ride.

The road to the camp was not clearly marked. You could really just make your own track in the middle of no where. It was like trekking into the unknown. Thankfully, we brought the GPS. Once we arrived at the camp, there was a very short hike up to the cabins. They have built wooden platform walkways (like at the Okeefenokee) over flooded forest bottoms and the Lefini River. The cabins were well laid out in a square. Each room opened to the inside of the square and outside for ventilation. SMART. Once we got settled in, we went to the dining hut to hang out and cook dinner. At dusk, the baby gorillas that stay over night in the nursery came in after playing all day in the forest. Their handlers just follow them around the forest all day to make sure they don’t get into trouble. What a life. The nursery currently houses three babies; two older ones that stay together and one really young baby. The older two put on a show for us, chasing each other around the yard. Also, when we were photographing them, they kept handing us their food then grabbing it back. It was great. Apparently, we were really lucky to be able to get that close to the gorillas. The director of the camp was gone on vacation. Yeah!

After dinner, we got to interview the project workers. One lady, who I like to call “Mama Gorilla”, raised like 16 gorillas at the nursery. Wow. The workers had some fantastic stories. The nursery gorillas get released with the others when they are about six years old. The workers said that it is really like loosing a child.

Before bed, I went to the bath house. No water or power. Hmmm. Good thing I have a headlamp and some bottles of water. I laughed to myself as I put Clinique face wash on and rinsed with bottled water in the middle of the forest. The night started out really hot, but cooled off eventually. Mosquito nets don’t help with the heat either.

In the morning, we got up really early to try to see animals drinking at the pond by the camp. We walked down to the camp, but we scared the animals away as we walked up. We did see some hippo tracks. Apparently, they sleep near the pond at night and move to the river for the daytime. We ended up walking past the pond to the old gorilla cage. Can you say JURASSIC PARK? SERIOUSLY. I have pictures. The filmmakers of Jurassic Park must have gotten their ideas from this place. It was a HUGE steel cage, filled with plants and swings and gorilla sized toys.

After breakfast, we packed up our stuff and drove to Abio. Once again, GPS came in handy. At Abio, we got on a boat to travel up river to an island in the reserve containing four silverback male gorillas. There are not enough female gorillas in the area for all the males, so these males started fighting amongst the group for the females. It eventually got so bad that these males got banished to this island together (poor guys, bachelors for life). However, they are very well fed. They can feed themselves, but they get treated when visitors come to see them. It was really comical because the rangers were chucking food at them, many times clocking them hard in the side of the head. The gorillas would just look up and grunt. Ha. There used to be five gorillas on the island, but one drowned last week. Two of them were fighting and one got knocked into the water (gorillas can’t swim). Sad.

Overall, it was a great trip. I came home with tons of great pictures and only five bug bites. On the way home, we stopped again at a village restaurant for lunch. The owner of the place had on a Cleveland Indians shirt on. Go Indians! I meant to ask him if he knew about baseball, but I forgot. Chances are he got it free somewhere.

More later…
Love ya’ll - Allie

Life and Lefini remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Once in the US, my parents came to meet me in DC. I am surprised that I had any energy because I was suffering from jet lag, but we had a great time. I got to shop at Banana Republic in Georgetown and go eat at some really great places. Although, it was not smart to eat a hamburger and have a shake at Johnny Rockets for my first meal back in the states. The monsters in my stomach were very unhappy with me. Too much grease, and too much milk. Yikes. My aunt, uncle, and cousin came in town to eat dinner with us one night. My cousin left her keys with the valet at the restaurant. The restaurant closed, leaving her with no keys. So, she had to spend the night. It was really nice though, because we got to eat breakfast together. She is amazing, but that’s another story…

After DC, I got to fly home to Atlanta. It was raining in Atlanta, which means the airport shutdown. Our flight kept getting delayed. We did not get home until after 1am. It wasn’t too bad for me, though, because dad drove all the way home and I slept in the back. While I was home I got to go see my doctor. Afterwards I met my mom for lunch at Panera Bread Co, then met Sara to get my nails done and hair cut. In the afternoon, I had to drive to Birmingham to pick up stuff for work. That gave me the opportunity to see Maria and Krista and eat Moes! I got to hang out with Christina too later that night. We went to our high school football game. We lost as usual, but Chilis was good after the game. Dad cooked ribs on Saturday and we all watched the Auburn game together. I was so tired that I didn’t make it through the whole game. I had to watch the highlights on ESPN in the morning. It was nice to be home, but it did not feel real. It was serious culture shock. I didn’t have to worry about checking my food for bugs, driving in to bottomless pot holes, or sleeping under a mosquito net. However, all my stuff is in storage, my car is for sale, and my apartment is no more. Those facts made me kind of miss Congo. That may sound strange, but I guess it’s just what you get used to

Traveling. Can I please just tell you how horrible Charles Degaulle Airport is??? I had to get off my plane, and on to a bus. I got off the bus and walked to a tram. I rode the tram for 5 minutes, got off and waited for another bus. I got off that bus, went through security again, and waited at the terminal. At the terminal, you check in and take yet another bus to the middle of nowhere France to catch your plane. WOW. Why can't all airports be arranged like ATL? Think logically people. I realize you're French, but you can do it...

Back in Congo, the time transition was very hard for me. I got up and went to work the day after I was back, but I crashed during lunch and slept for a couple hours. The next day, I didn’t wake up until 9am. I slept right through my alarm. After that I was better. I thought I might be sick again from the food or water, but I wasn’t. It was great to be back at home with Charlie. One of the guys from work looked after Charlie while I was away. Apparently, they had male bonding time and didn’t miss me at all. I think that is just a cover story. I mean, how could Charlie not miss my smiling face? He was happy to see me when I returned.

Since I have been back, I have been very busy. I got my shipments of food, so I have only had to go to the grocery store twice. That’s kind of nice. I already ate one box of Cheezits and one bag of Famous Amos cookies. Last weekend was fun. I got up in the middle of the night to go up to work to listen to the Auburn game. Game was on from 2am-5:30am. I was upset about the loss, but I was happy that I got to listen to the game live.

I tried to have a vet come see Charlie. However, the vet that was recommended to me got mugged and robbed by the Ninja bandits that were in Brazzaville last week. Needless to say, he didn’t answer his cell phone because it was stolen from him. Yikes. When I could not get in touch with the recommended vet, I decided to take him to the Ministry of Agricultures vet clinic. The vet at the clinic said that Charlie is getting natural pigmentation that comes with age. Hmm… not sure I believe that. While in the clinic, Charlie tried to eat a monkey in a full body cast and a sick puppy. I think next week we will go see the Wildlife Conservation Society vet. He has agreed to see Charlie. He usually only takes care of wild animals. What he doesn’t realize is that Charlie falls into that category…

This weekend was crazy. Friday night, I accidentally committed to attend two parties at the same time. When I realized what I had done, I tried to do both. I went to dinner with the missionaries first. The guy from BBC was there, as well as another guy who is doing construction on the mission compound. That was really fun. After that I went over to the restaurant where all my work people were eating. I nearly missed them. Everyone was walking out as I arrived. The dinner was for one of the guys wives, who had just arrived in Congo. They appreciated my effort, even though I missed dinner.

Saturday was even more crazy. During lunch I had to run errands. We went to Score to look for hamburger buns, but found nothing. We tried Manderine. Thankfully, they had buns. Next we went to the market to buy veggies. After that we hit Park N Shop for juice, plates, napkins, and plastic utensils. On the way back to work, we stopped at the Post Office were they have artwork lining the street. Someone gave me a tip that it was a good time to buy. The artists need money right now so that they can pay their art school fees, so they are selling their paintings for cheaper prices. I got two large paintings for my living room for $40 each. Gebran got two smaller ones for $10 each. He got the better deal, but oh well.

Saturday night I got invited to the DCM’s house for dinner. It was potluck, so I was scrambling around trying to figure out what to take. I started off thinking about brownies, but when I got home I found out that the brownie mix called for yougart. What is that about? Anyway, so I threw together a bean dip with refried beans, chicken, salsa, and cheese. I also made some chocolate chip cookies. The party was fun. I knew about 50% of the people there. Some of the missionaries were there, the embassy staff, my company staff, and other government people. I met two young people. The girl was from Namibia and the guy was from France. I have seen them around town several times. We are going to start hanging out with them. I am excited.

Sunday, I got up really early because I invited everyone over for barbecue. It was sort of in honor of Charlie’s belated birthday, and sort of just because we wanted to have a barbecue. One of the guys from work brought over the grill that he built. It is a huge electrical box that he welded legs to. The grill is actually 10mm rebar welded together. African style! He cooked the chicken, hamburgers, and fish. Everyone brought side dishes and drinks. It was so much fun. We had almost 30 people at my house. The bad part is after the party. My house is a mess. I picked up all the trash, but I left the dishes and the cleaning for the maid. She is going to hate me when she comes into work this morning. Ha.

After the party, I went to this English club that one of our site guys invited me to. I was impressed. The embassy started the English club in Brazzaville, but now there are off shoot groups all over the city. This particular group had about 50 members. Almost all the members were at the meeting on Sunday. I talked about where I am from, my education, my job, etc. Then they started asking questions about cultural differences in American and Congo, Congo and Uganda, etc. They asked about education and government, predestination, and all sorts of other things. It was so much fun. The fact that they want to learn English in a French speaking country is so amazing. At the club, they go every week to practice speaking to one another, present songs, and drama. It turned out that the guy that invited me was the president of the club. Wow. That gave me hope for this country. If they are that motivated to self educate themselves, I believe that they can change the future of their country.

Sunday night worship was good, too. I found out that three young girls are arriving in Congo this week. I got invited to join a bible study that they will be attending. I am excited to meet more girls my age. I’ll let you know how it goes. I am meeting them next Friday at dinner.

I am feeling much better now. Thanks for your prayers. Continue to pray for the mission groups here and for my health. My spirit in this place is very affected by my health status.

I think that is all for now.
Love you all,
Allie

Good times in America…. remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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

My first run in with the Police. remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Electrically, my house is messed up. The power is so bad that half of the lights in my house don’t work unless the generator is running. Unfortunately, my fridge is not working some of the time too. My chicken thawed out almost completely one day last week. I am kind of scared to eat it now. Thankfully, I have not had to do too much cooking lately. One of the guys from work is feeding me almost every night because they got a cook. Yeah for real food! I might just have to break down and pay their cook to make my food too. He is really good. The guys were lucky to find him.

We played tennis again last night. I was much better than before. It was a lot of fun. I wore my glasses this time and I could actually see the ball. I think things will drastically improve when my own racket arrives. Playing with a new racket every week is frustrating. I think we will play again tomorrow. I really need the exercise after sitting at a desk all day. I’m not even getting as much exercise as I was in Birmingham. In Birmingham I was walking Charlie a couple times every day. Now, we just run laps around the house at night.

My Harry Potter book is coming soon. It was supposed to be in today, but the guy coming from our office got delayed. So, it should arrive on Friday. That’s actually probably better. If it came today I would have wanted to stay up all night reading. I am really excited because Will said it’s amazing. I did get my first Instyle magazine today. I need that small piece of the outside world once a month. I am excited to look through it tonight. It’s like window shopping. Ha.

I attempted to go to church on Sunday. That was crazy. One of the local guys from work came to my house to ride with me to church. We left at 7:30am for the 8am service. The church was about 25 minutes away from my house. Once we got close to the church, the guy tells me to turn right. I was like, "what?" Right is up the side of a huge hill. So, I turned right. Several times my car started to slide backwards because of the sand. WOW. I can not believe that we made it up. We get to the top and turn into this missionary compound. There was a nice church at the entrance. The service had already started, and it didn’t sound like English so the guy that was with me went to ask. The service we were looking for was up the road a bit. So, we drove up the road and found the English church. We walked up to the church, but their service had already started and it didn’t sound like English either. It wasn’t. The English service started at 10am, not 8am. So, I went back home and back to bed.

Jane Goodall spoke at Villa Washington last Thursday night. Villa Washington is a house owned by our government. Every week they have speakers. The locals can ask the person whatever they want, which encourages freedom of speech, etc. Jane was good. She spoke about how we should take care of the animals, our environment, and our own people. She even spoke a little bit in chimp language. Interesting. I think some of us may go to see her reserve in Congo. It is close to Point Noire. After Jane, the Ambassador of Congo to the US spoke. I thought the locals were going to boo him off the stage. He talked about his life as a diplomat in Washington… wake up, go to meetings, go to a reception, meet with the president, entertain other ambassadors. It was horrible. The locals asked him about government spending and also about how the US Congress got word that the elections in Congo went well (which is far from true). It was crazy.

Anyway, life is good. I am planning to cook Mexican this week, so that is exciting (pending my chicken being edible). Well, catch you guys next week.

Love/Miss you all,
Allie, Al, Allison, PB

Charlie is now an outside dog remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our owner’s rep was at the party, and he started asking me about eMi. Apparently, he thought about volunteering with them a long time ago. He said he heard of them about 30 years ago. I told him how scared I was coming to Congo, not knowing if I would find any Christians. He invited me to this meeting on Sunday night where all the missionaries in town get together to have praise time and pray. I really thought I was going to cry. What a blessing! And to think, I almost skipped the party.

I went and got groceries on Sunday morning (stores are only open on Sunday ‘til noon). I spent $200 on basically nothing. I did get some chicken breasts and mozzarella cheese, though. In the afternoon, Charlie and I walked to the company’s five bedroom house (where all the guys live). They live on the street parallel to mine. Charlie likes those guys a lot. They play rough with him, like Dad and Will used to do.

Sunday night, I went to the meeting. There were some people there with the Christian Mission Alliance, and with Bible Translators. My friend, who is a news correspondent, was also there. I was glad to see him. It was really great. Those guys reminded me of people at WRUM. They told me about the English service on Sundays, and one couple invited me for dinner on Wednesday.

After that I went home and made chicken parmesan (substituted mozzarella). I made it on the stop top. Necessity is the mother of invention, right? I am scared to stick my hand in the oven to light it with a regular match.

Then one of my friends came over to hang out. The power went off, and we had no diesel in the generator. So we went to get some. We drove to three gas stations before we found one that would let us fill without a license. While we were filling up, the power at the station went out. Hahaha. It was crazy. By the time we got back to the house the power was back on. Typical.

Rest of the week in a nut shell:
Tuesday, I played tennis with one of the guys at the tennis club. That was really fun, but I am out of shape BAD. We are going to start playing twice a week. My racket hasn’t come in the container yet, so I have to borrow from the club.

Wednesday, I had dinner with the missionary couple and their kids. We had chili, salad, sugary southern style cornbread, and chocolate cake (with nutella for frosting). It was great. We then played this game called St. Petersburg. It was really fun. They want to make it a weekly thing, and maybe invite some other people from Sunday night to come.

Thursday, the cable guys hooked up my satellite dish at the house. I watched BBC for an hour. I then watched Six Degrees (a new episode), and ER (a very early episode). Yeah!

Friday (today), one guy from USAID and one guy from an off shoot of Habitat for Humanity wanted to come see our site. Our PM let me come along to meet them, since that is my bag. They are looking to team up to do a housing project in Congo. They would like for us to provide some expertise on what material is available locally, and maybe help with labor issues. I told the Habitat guy about eMi. He is very interested in having eMi come and design a prototype house for us. I am meeting with him on Monday night to talk about his vision, and how eMi/and our company might help. Our owner really wants us to participate in a couple of these projects during our time here. No complaint from me! The US AID guy gave me some bad news. International Monetary Fund moved Congo down in the country list for those most needing aid because of the oil revenue the country is now generating. Although, all the oil revenue here goes to the few people in power. That makes me mad. I asked him if he would tell the people living in villages with no jobs, and no food that their relief from WFP and others was going to be cut because of the governements oil revenue. WOW.

I am so jealous that Maria, Krista, and Keith got to see Harry Potter before me! Thanks for calling me this morning. Sorry I couldn’t talk long. I was running out the door. You got me so mixed up that I forgot to put my boots on, and I had to come back to the house later to get them. Ha. Good talking to mom the other night as well! Keep the phone calls coming.

Love/Miss you all,
Allie, Allison, Al

Surprisingly, God does live and move in Congo... remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The stove at the house is gas, without an electric ignition. Last week, I had no matches at the house. The guy who lives upstairs let me borrow his lighter. He actually came down to light it for me the first time, and he burnt the hair off the top of his hand. Oops.

Driving is going pretty well. I am learning quickly…. Don’t stop completely without the clutch all the way down… Don’t hit pot holes in 3rd gear… Always remember to take off the emergency break… etc. Fun stuff.

Kimberly: Thanks so much for thinking about me! I love the magnet reminder for your wedding. It is on my refrigerator now.

I missed the 4th of July party at the Ambassador’s house. I was not feeling well. My diet here is not so good. Pizza and chicken every day is not the best for your health. Back to the vitamin bottle! I also bought some fruits and vegetables around town. I ate a grapefruit yesterday and thought about Grandpa. Although, it wasn’t as good as the ones we used to eat at his house.

The job is coming along. I have been out working with the surveyor for a couple days now. Brings back memories of surveying in Kampala… walking up to our benchmark to find that it has been moved, GPS elevations being off by 5-10m, standing by every tree/object with the prism, move back 200mm, move forward 15mm, move back 3mm, ha… Good times.

I think this weekend will be similar to the last; Saturday night at Hippocampe for the Vietnamese buffet with all the other Americans in town. On Sunday, though, I will try to find the English speaking church and I might go play tennis at the club.

Buy some phone cards people so you can call me on my local number! DO NOT CALL MY BIRMINGHAM CELL PHONE, BECAUSE IT COST ME $2.99/MIN EVEN IF YOU TALK TO THE VOICE MAIL!!!! You can text me on the Birmingham line, though (only cost me $.30/text).

Love you all,
Allie

Time flies when you are having fun (or working a lot) remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I got curtians for the house earlier this week. Nothing here is easy. I had to go to this area called Poto Poto to pick out the fabric. WOW. It is like that huge market in Kampala, except that you can drive through it. CRAZY. It took 30 minutes to drive to the shop, and 30 minutes to get out. Walking would have taken 5 minutes or less.

I also got a car this week, a Toyota Rav 4. Stick shift, ha. The only stick shift I have ever driven was my dad’s trunk when he tried to teach me one day when I was about 17 (and when I backed the ARM Land Rover into the ditch in Uganda but that doesn’t count as driving). Yikes. I was able to drive the Rav 4 from the office to the hotel. I can not drive it anywhere else for now, because it is not registered.

I still haven't gotten the dog house, and outdoor furniture yet. We keep going back the shop, but they haven't finished. Then, last week the guy told me that it would cost more to get the cushions for the chairs.... WHAT??? Grrr. We had to go to Poto Poto again to pick out material and get the cushions. Yikes.

If you haven’t seen my BZV pictures, check out the photo gallery under “author profile”. I am trying to upload a few pictures at a time.

One of the girls from the embassy is moving back to the US this week. She had a sale at her house and sold all of her remaining groceries. I bought pancakes, syrup, canned peas, canned corn, refried beans, popcorn, brownie mix, rice, chocolate chips, ketchup, mustard, and all kinds of sauces. I also bought her DVD player. Unfortunately, it is from the US so I will have to get a converter.

One of our interpreters in the office told me that there is one English speaking church here, so I think I will try to find it next week.

Giving Charlie another bath tonight. Wish me luck. Also may do some laundry in the tub again. So, I am going now. Don’t want to waste my one day of freedom sitting in the office.

Love/Miss you all,
Allie

Moving Day remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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

Life goes on in the hotel. remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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.

One week down. remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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.

Bienvenue a Congo? remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I have been doing many different things in the last few days:
wiring light switches
wiring receptacles
putting on face plates
putting in ceiling tiles
pulling wire
cleaning floors
dusting and
moving furniture

My experiences here have been good. However, I did get "bitten" by a 220volt circuit. OUCH!

There is more work to be done before our owner comes to check things out tomorrow morning, so I better get back to work.

Love you all,
Allie

All Work and No Play remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We went to this place called Frankies today for lunch and it was all Ex-pats. They even had a flat screen tv with CNN then MTV. Aah. I came here to get away from that. Can you believe that people in Africa watch "My Sweet Sixteen"? I hope they do not think all Americans are like the girls on that show. Grr.

For dinner, we are eating from Champs. When we went in earlier today, they had big tvs with football (soccer) matches on every one. It felt like a pub in England. Accra is really westernized in some ways. Although, the power is out for 12 hours of every day. I guess they do what they can. You can not watch tv with no power, so when the power is on they go full out.

The beach was GORGEOUS. There are some rocks along the water that are really nice. It would be a great place if it weren't for the trash they throw into and burn around the water. If they would clean it up, it could be a resort town. Problem is, they also dump raw sewage straight into the ocean. Not exactly a prime swimming hole these days.

The hotel is really nice. Hard wood floors, air conditioning, and a tv. Sweet!

I am so glad that I came. I am really anxious to see the jobsite. I will finally see in person, what I have been looking at in plan for 9 months. And maybe I can do some real work while I am here.

I will write more later as internet permits.

Allie

Accra remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Unfortunately, though, I am missing my friends wedding. Sad. I am also missing seeing all my old building science friends at the wedding. Oh well, hopefully they will all forgive me.

Allie

Ghana Ghana Ghana remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Introduction to my trip:
I am moving to Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, in the next few months for work. I will be on this project for two years. I fell in love with East Africa. I hope that I will come to love West Africa as well. There is just one problem; The Congo use to be a French Colony. I do not speak French. Yikes! Par le vu engles? (spell check?)

Update on current events:
My current departure date has been bumped again. It now stands as the second week in May. We will see what happens when the time actually comes...

Before I found out I was moving far, far away I thought blogs were STUPID. I think the use of this one is justified. Thoughts??

Allie

More time in America remains copyright of the author alliefloyd, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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