BRAZZAVILLE, REPUBLIC OF CONGO, 17-19 MAY 2013

Waiting for the "canot" boat to cross the Congo River to Brazzaville from Kinshasa, the two closest national capitals in the world.

Friends and members, who work at the Beach, joined us in the waiting room, embarkation point for crossing the river. 

Load of foam on a pousse pousse, hand drawn, wheeled cart, that move goods about the cities.

Ninety percent of the cars on the road are taxis, all painted green and white, and almost all of them are Toyotas.

We arrive at the Platinum Hotel, owned and operated by a Lebanese Muslim Family.

Check-in desk. Nitch, on the left, our guide and chauffeur, gathers us at the Beach, handles the Protocol blizzard of paperwork and fees, is second counselor in the Stake Presidency, and is the mechanic for Church Temporal Affairs. He is also a consummate chauffeur, and can wend his way through the worst traffic.

The bed in the room. No we did not mess up the cover; that is the way it is arranged upon entering the room.

Sue, in a view across the room toward the bathroom, from the entrance.

Bathroom.

The armoire.

Under-the-bed structure.

Breakfast, served until 13h00, raisin roll, stuffed avocado with macedoine, omelets - your choice of filling- drinks. Fruit salad is also available. We had fruit salad the second day, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple. We also had croissants and chausson de pommes (apple turnover).

We came to Brazzaville to visit graduates of Interweave, the employment program directed by Olivier, that teaches students to form and manage small businesses. This is a woman who bakes cookies and distributes them widely. She began with one oven, made from fifty gallon steel drums, and now employs three people, and runs three ovens.

Inside the cookie maker's home.

Kitchen area, where an employee works with the tools of the bakery.

An employee, a returned missionary, kneads dough.

Another employee, returned missionary, preparing baking trays.

Work space between two structures, Nitch in the background, and our photographer who was documenting our visits.

Garden in a tray, fire wood below, gravel, and something in a bag in the aisle leading back to the front of the house.

Oven area.

Olivier taking notes and giving advice to the Interweave graduate entrepreneur.

Inside of an oven.

Demonstration of trays placed in the oven. Heat is controlled by removing burning wood if it gets too hot.

Sample product, Madeleine, and small round cake cookies, commonly eaten with coffee, tea, or some other drink. 

Worker, business owner, photographer.

We tried a sample.

The owner's daughter in purple, helps with the production. The two women also are seamstresses.

The business owner also rents a small building in her courtyard to other seamstresses.

We passed a Mosque on our way to another enterprise.

We walked through the local open air market place.

Vendors sell their wares from small booths.

Smoked Congo River fish.

Market place.

Many street vendors use these colorful umbrellas.

Boy in a shirt with some important person image on the back.

Merchandise varies widely.

Colorful buckets and tubs are used everywhere. We have two in our apartment.

Peanut butter, and jars of spices.

Member Interweave graduate talking with Olivier.

Perspective through the market place.

We stopped by the roadside for a moment where two men were rebuilding electric motors.

Closeup of the work in progress.

We visited an ice cream cone manufacturing business.

Molds for cones. Machine in the background quickly cooks the cones, which then are ejected into the pile below, later gathered and stacked in rows, then frozen for later distribution. They can stay six months in the freezer before they change flavor and are unsalable.

Filling molds.

Oven for baking little muffins.

Muffin making.

Worker manipulating the cone making equipment.

Filling the molds with batter.

Freezer loaded with cones.

Kitchen view.

The area outside the cone making kitchen was occupied by a circle of game playing children. Our guide pointed out that the large buildings in the compound were a Fine Arts University before the 2002 Congo War, and damaged and abandoned. Families made homeless by the war occupied the buildings, and still live there. The open areas between the classroom buildings, are filled with cars being repaired, and the rooms used for living or for small businesses.

Entrance to the cone making business.

One of the cars in which we traveled. The driver uses it occasionally for a taxi.

Stairway inside the chapel where the graduation ceremony was held in the afternoon. The building was purchased from a former government official who live here. It will eventually be demolished and rebuilt as a chapel. There is a wonderful garden behind.

Planning meeting on Friday before the Saturday graduation event.

Some of the Interweave facilitators.

President Russell Mbaya filled a mission in Cote d'Ivoire where he learned to love Senegalese food. We were happy to accompany him to have the experience. There were two choices, fish or lamb, with rice and onion sauce, with plantains -- delicious.

Menu. There were other items, but only two truly Senegalese dishes.

View across the restaurant.

The whole fish dish.

The lamb dish. I wish I had a plate now. The lamb is cubed, bones in. There was an internal organ, that I think was a kidney, and which I removed from my plate, which Nitch deftly scooped up and ate with relish, pronouncing it to be liver, but I have my doubts.