Brazzaville

We ended up staying a few days longer than we wanted to, but we survived the hot, sleepless nights and managed to get bus tickets home for Sunday.

Because the car needed lots of repair, Orcxance stayed behind to see that it got done. Our week had its challenges but there were some highlights too.

Thursday evening we went with the boys to get Silas from the airport. Waiting for the flight to come in:

Orcxance got back from Kinshasa on Saturday morning

Jordan and Willie

Faturelle and Molly

We went back to the same ice cream place this time with Uncle Silas

Daicha and Molly having a cold drink

Silas assisting with the pondu effort and Molly helped wash dishes

Aunt Joseline offered to do the girls’ hair. First it needed to be unbraided and then Faterelle combed it to a frizz!

Ci Gusta: It’s Good! A visit to the Italian Ice cream shop and playground

This place was amazing. Nice air conditioning inside and a beautiful, clean shop with so many flavors of ice cream.

There were also elaborately decorated cakes and other baked goods for sale. I didn’t get any pictures of the cakes but here’s a few pics of the ice ice cream selection.

Many and I both got tiramisu and chocolate with chocolate brownie. It was so good but if I’d realized how much it was I would have just ordered one scoop. We finished it anyway! I let the girls pick what they wanted and they chose chocolate because of the Thunder Cake story. I got them one scoop to split and it was plenty!

After enjoying the ice cream we went outdoors to the play area. It was pretty hot and sunny so it was nice that one section of the play area was shaded. The girls enjoyed their first experience on a playground. (Technically it was Molly’s second but she was too young to enjoy a playground much when we were in America).

They absolutely loved it and got to burn off all the sugar energy. It was a very happy few hours spent and so much fun being able to give the girls a special treat and fun and new experience.

In the future I think we will make a point of coming here every time we come to Brazzaville.

On the Move

This has been a full week. Our plans went a bit awry but we managed to accomplish what we set out to do. Instead of us all traveling together, I had to take the girls on the bus and Orcxance came later so he could get the birth certificate for Aravis. The girls the morning of our trip:

The bus trip was a new level of challenging for me but the girls did very well and acted above and beyond their ages. I was very proud of them. Here they are eating boiled peanuts while we got a little break from the crushed seating arrangement.

We arrived at the bus station in Talangai around 3pm and went to stay at my sister-in-law’s house. Orcxance came later on his own and got in about 4am. Joseline is always very gracious to host us but it is never an enjoyable experience due to intense heat, power outages and very cramped sleeping arrangements.

Orcxance bought me a hamburger from a “southern fried chicken” restaurant. I thought it was kind of an odd name for a restaurant here but it was a decent hamburger, and very nice to have some special food as a treat.

We spent a long afternoon at the US embassy and got all the stuff for Aravis done. It will be ready in about 3 weeks so Orcxance can pick it up when he comes back here in June. I didn’t get any photos of the visit to the Embassy because photos are not allowed, nor are you allowed in to take anything inside, even a baby bottle. The girls got very hungry and antsy while we had to wait so much but eventually we made it out and went in search of money and food. A lot of the ATMs weren’t working so we went back to the house and Orcxance went out later and succeeded in withdrawing money for the rest of our stay. The plan was for Orcxance to cross the river that same afternoon but we ran out of time so he went the following day.

To avoid a whole day at the house with cousin Willie terrorizing Eileen, we went out with my brother-in-law Many to an amazing Italian ice cream shop that also had a kids’ playground. I will post pics in another blog post. It was a fun little spot and the ice cream was probably the nicest I’ve ever had. We found out about this spot from our friends the Combests who had been there before.

Because of our financial limitations we usually just stick to a few places when we’re in Brazzaville but it’s nice to be able to try some new things and splurge a bit once and a while. I’ve found out about some interesting places from missionaries, including a zoo with hardly any animals and a very fancy grocery store, among other things.