SIGHT SEEING WITH THE ELDERS--POINTE NOIRE

We took the elders sightseeing guided by President Caillet. This is the first stop.

This library was funded by the Church Humanitarian effort and labor from the members, in a village outside of Pointe Noire, RC

There are seven thousand books for several levels, kindergarten to college.

The "librarian" is a retired bureaucrat who decided to make a free library for the villagers. President Caillet heard about it and the Church helped build the collection and create the reading area outside.

This the reading area under the pavilions on the concrete slabs.

The librarian was quite pleased with his age, he proudly announced to be 77, not bad in a country where the average age of mortality is 55.

We stopped at Diosso Gorge known as the "Grand Canyon of he Congo."

Panorama of Diosso Gorge.

Second Panorama of Diosso Gorge.

The group at the overlook into Diosso Gorge.

Estate of a lawyer and government official next to a large golf course, not far from the ocean far from Pointe Noire.

Waling toward the ocean overlook.

Slave station along the slave trail.

Heading down the slave trail.

The trail is lined with Mango treas because the slaves ate lots of mangoes and tossed the seeds to the side of the trail.

A house on the way to a monument that attracted my attention.

Fallen tower commemorating the location of a town from which the slaves embarked for the Americas.

Plaque left by the Mitchell Family from Alabama.

Fallen obelisk tower that marked the slave embarkation point.

View from the tower emplacement.

Ants on the march.

Walking to the beach through the bamboo.

Rent a beach-side lot.

By the beach.

Empty beach.

Missionaries, minus elder Hatch.

All accounted for, plus Sue and Sister Caillet.

Elder Johnson vaulting with a bamboo pole.

The path back to the trucks.

We stopped to eat at a hotel with a seaside terrace.

Seawall where Elder int he distance got waved, very wet.

Waves at the sea wall.

Elders will eat everything and anything, almost. We had sandwiches, chicken and cheese, on whole wheat, white, and baguette.

We drove to Kouilou to the bridge over the Bas Kouilou River where, from the bridge, one can see upriver, and down river to the ocean a few hundred yards away.

Pirogues depart for the villages upriver carrying bidons of palm wine.

Free roaming pigs.

Pirogues headed over the river.

Pirogues and bidons tethered at the bridge.

The Lieutenant in charge of security at the bridge lectured us about coming to Africa as part of the wave of new "religion" colonists, when we should be solving our problems at home. Africans often question us about homosexual marriage and can't comprehend how a great nation can pass such idiotic laws against all human nature. Neither can we.