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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 4 hours ago
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo So I was at the beach last week with the boys and their full-sized shovels. They got busy using them as levers, trying to roll a six-foot log down the sand into the water. The waves kept pushing it back up the slope. They kept at it for a good twenty minutes, occasionally getting it into the water, only to see it wash up a minute or two...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | yesterday
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo I haven't blogged in a while because it's been a rough couple of weeks. There were many times when I was surfing the Air France web site, ready to plunk down several months worth of my as yet unearned salary to make a swan dive into homlessness and unemployment back in the states. To his great credit, my brother Dave was immediately willing...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 09/06/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo We finished our first week of school, ending with a community reception. David recovered from the stomach bug to slug it out with the youngest kids all week, but Ann-Mary went down with a flu bug and had to miss a couple of days. Luckily, we got a great substitute to come in -- someone else, in fact, who's a blogger here in Pointe-Noire...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/29/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo David got bit by a stomach bug this week. It wasn't pretty. My system had been in great shape, but I obviously let something slip in. Luckily, the clinic took great care of me and I had an Algerian roommate who spoke very good English. Ann-Mary sent over some chicken soup (no kidding), a good book, and an iPod with a bunch of Weeds episodes...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/23/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Dear everybody, I made a real castle (photos to follow!). We're still unpacking. Workmen are helping us down in the school. I'm helping unpack the boxes, too. We went out with Davina to a restaurant. I am trying new food. I had some french fries from Davina's plate. And I'm trying some biscuits. Henry says, "And I will just stay here for...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/23/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo We had our first school meeting today, which was very productive but otherwise unnoteworthy. Except that during it Oscar and Henry decided to give themselves haircuts. They took their little blunt preschool scissors and cut big bald spots in their hair. So much for letting it grow. We took them to a coiffure and they skinned them just about...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/22/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Our 3 pallets of curriculum finally arrived last night, and a team of us unloaded and verified that all arrived intact. Today was spent cataloguing and pushing it around and getting organized for tomorrow's school association meeting. We're hoping they;ll agree to push back the start of school a week, and we've already arranged with our...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/19/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Our road doesn't really have a name, but the Schlumberger van drivers know it as Villa 27 (Ven Set, excuse my poor french spelling). There has been significantly more sunshine these last few days, but still not overbearingly hot. I'm hoping that the hotter weather to come will be a dry heat when it's not raining,, but what do I know? The...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/15/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Today was Congolese Independence Day, 48 years free of French rule. Our boss, Tony took us to a party he was throwing at a local restaurant for his employees. The food, once again, was delicious. We were even given our own Schlumberger tee shirts (what my sister-in-law, Shari would call vendor-wear :D) Tony attempted to take us to the various...
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Travelblog (Free subscription) | 08/15/2008
... Gaulle at night with the illuminated facades of shops, restaurants, casinos and night clubs shows Pointe Noire in a new light. It almost seems like a European coastal resort - save for the drone of generators and accompanying stench of burning diesel. Yet once beyond the main avenue the city plunges into the darkness of all other African cities with candles and kerosene lamps illuminating...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/14/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Every day so far has been overcast except one which was mostly cloudy. Every day is about 75 degrees. We've begun to hear some descriptions of what the rainy season will be like...streets like rivers of mud..should be interesting. Ann-Mary and I left the boys with Adele, the new nanny, for a bit as we ventured into town on a couple of important...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/13/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo We were taken to a small "resort" south of the city for a day. Malonda Lodge, with a few thatched roof guest huts, open air restaurant and bar, pool and tennis court, all overlooking the coast. About 30 minutes from Pointe-Noire and the population thins out to not much more than roadside dwellings. The surf was pounding and the beach...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/13/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Nanny #2 Although our first nanny was great in the market, she was not so great at the whole kid-watching thing. I think that she was just a young girl who happened to speak a little English. So we are on to Ardelle, who speaks no English, a mother of seven who 's most recent job was working for another ex=pat family for sixteen years....
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/10/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Food is incredibly expensive, a head of cauliflower costs $8, and a wedge of cheese is $6. When David and I were planning this trip we estimated food costs at about 3 times what we had been paying in the states. We thought that that was a conservative estimate, but we were pretty much right. The good news is that we can absorb the extra...
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TravelPod.com Recent Updates (Free subscription) | 08/07/2008
Jump to the full entry & travel map Pointe Noire, Congo Well, the smell of the generators continues to annoy me, but I got my first look at the market today. How effing cool. Packed, jammed, crammed, teeming. Everywhere you look there are these beautiful women in these crazy patterned cloths made into the most beautiful creations. Sometimes sewn into real outfits, but sometimes just worn sarong...
