LAST TRIP TO BRAZZAVILLE AND POINTE NOIRE

Shortly before leaving the Congo we visited Brazzaville to train for Public Affairs and to attend an ecumenical meeting about educating younth in Pointe Noire. During this time Republic of Congo was in process of expelling a hundred thousand illegal Congolese from the RDC. This photo shows Congolese waiting to board decrepit ferries preparing to cross the Congo River for Kinshasa. Those who had relatives could find a place, those who didn't were temporarily housed in a stadium.

Expatriate families were gathered by the thousands at the entrance to the boarding area with all their earthly belongings. Many of the young children were born in the RC and know nothing else. Life is a bit better in the RC than the DRC.

Mbuyi put is in the Leger Hotel which was overly expensive so when we returned from Pointe Noire we stayed in the Platinium and were comfortable.

Food at the Leger for lunch on the patio by the pool

Elder Johnson's fish dish.

Brother Laurent Florent Nkounkou the National PA Director who accompanies is on visits to Interweave business sites. Members who had taken the business course have learned how to manage their small business.

WE had visited this bakery a year before. The Johnsons wished to see some of the projects.

One of their most popular products, sweet rolls.

Account books to track payments on small loans taken by the entrepreneurs who graduated from Interweave.

A backup wood fired oven in the yard outside the bakery.

Nitch Ekiridzu our guide and chauffeur when we visit Brazzaville. He is a member of the Stake Presidency and manages the Church's maintenance department. A very happy man.

The group, the Johnsons, Nitch, Laurent, and Sue.

La Mandarine, one of our favorite eating places when in Brazzaville.

Waiting for our order.

The Johnsons outside the offices of the Immunization Department where we met with the doctors to offer assistance from Church members in publicizing upcoming immunization programs.

Government vehicle for vaccination programa.

Waiting for the meeting.

Meeting with the doctors.

Vaccine storage refrigerators.

Vaccine in the refrigerator.

After the meeting outside the office with the Dr., Brother Yengo, and Nitch.

On our way to the maternity ward to talk with doctors about neo-natal resuscitation education. 

Women, mother and infant hospital.

Patients waiting to be seen.

New born care facility.

Intensive neo-natal care facility.

New born.

waiting for the meeting.

Meeting with the Doctors and staff in the hallway. Most children are delivered by mid-wives who will be the target audience for training in neo-natal resuscitation training. 

The public affairs trainees. It was a good group.

Nitch took us to a view point for the river rapids.

Women washing clothes in the river.

A barge drifted from moorings a couple of years ago and was stranded on the rocks amid the rapids. Passengers were rescued by helicopter after a few tense days.

With Nitch.

Johnsons and Bybees.

This island in the middle of the river hosts Egret rookeries and is feared by the locals as a place of evil spirits. It would be only accessible by helicopter anyway, being surrounded by dangerous rapids. It would be wonderful to explore. The forest there is probably untouched.

Panorama from a bridge across a tributary pouring into the Congo.

Contractor supervising repairs on the parking area by the Pointe Noire Chapel. He is washing his motorcycle. Congolese are obsessive about having clean cars and motos.

Workers repairing a spot where the ground had subsided. A pit had existed there and a worker was killed when it collapsed during construction which gave the neighbors the occasion to say that the Church was being punished because it was of the devil.

The Bailey couple with President Caillet in his office.

Fish for dinner. One of the guards at the couple's home wasd preparing dinner.

The guard whose family had finally come to town from the village needed a place to stay so he rented two small rooms adjacent to the couple's home in a cluster of small apartments around a small courtyard with outside shower. He was cleaning it up so they could move in.

Inspecting the apartment.

Anicet, the guard showing us the apartment.

Sister Bailey at the entrance doorway to Anicet's apartment.

The courtyard communal shower.

Entrance from the roadway in front of the apartment.

View of the street in front of the couple's home, a nice villa behind the wall to the right.

Vendor on the street by the couple's apartment.

Barbecue across the street from the couple's home in Pointe Noire.

Neighbor cutting sugar cane to make a medicine good for digestion.

Christian Center for the Salvation of Souls, across the road from the Pointe Noire Missionary home.

Doorway leading into Anicet's two room apartment, located just to the right side of the Pointe Noire couple missionary home.

Proprietor of the small grocery store across the road from the couple missionary home.

The neighbor who manages the well across the road, Sister Bailey, Anicet in background, Sister Sue Bybee, Elder Bailey

The reservoir and spigots where locals come to buy well water.

Sister Bybee, Patrice one of the two guards, and Sister Bailey standing by the steel gate entrance to the home where the couple missionaries live in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo.

Branch President Caillet, official with the department of education, Elder and Sister Bailey, Director of the department of Education in Pointe Noire, Elder Howard Bybee, Sister Sue Bybee

If I remember correctly this is the secretary to the director of the department for education of the youth in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo.

Branch President Eric Caillet in front of the Prefecture in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo.

President Caillet in front of the Sea Club restaurant.

Eating area at the Sea Club restaurant by the beach in Pointe Noire.

Bybees by the Banyan.

Chef at the Sea Club Restaurant.

View of the beach across the road from the Sea Club Restaurant at Pointe Noire.

Beach photographers waiting for business.

Marquee for the restaurant.

We enjoyed a meal at the restaurant which serves very good food. They open at 19h00 each evening.

This impressive banyan stands at the entrance.

Night view of the eating area.

Sisters Bybee and Bailey.

We went to Pointe Noire to attend a meeting of local organizations to discuss educating the young.

Missionaries welcoming attendees at the meeting about educating the youth.

Presenter at the education meeting.

Attendees at the meeting. Some protestant and catholic churches elected not to attend because the meeting was held in an LDS chapel and we were not officially part of the ecumenical movement. I asked President Caillet to try to change that and to seek out and join the ecumenical organizations.

The director conducting the meeting.

Reception held following the meeting on the basketball court on the chapel grounds.

Dignitaries attending the meeting.

The bed in the Platinium Hotel where we stayed the night in Brazzaville on our return trip to Kinshasa.

Deported DRC Congolese leaving RC for Kinshasa. We were waiting in the truck for authorization to board the speed boat for Kinshasa.

More deportees bringing their possessions to the embarkation point for Kinshasa. 

Another view of goods belonging to deportees heading to Kinshasa from Brazzaville.

The couch must accompany the family.

Loaded ferry bound for Kinshasa across the Congo River.

A member of the church who works in Brazzaville returning to visit family in Kinshasa who asked to cross in our private boat. We were happy to oblige. She would have had a difficult crossing otherwise.

View from the boat to Kinshasa and the area of our apartment not visible in this photo. The clumps of floating grass and water hyacinth come from upriver and meet their demise in the sea which they reach a few hundred kilometers downriver.

Dock area showing some of the logs lining the quay.