A Different Part of Brazzaville

We went directly from the "beach" to our first set of interviews held in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. We have 6 sisters and 18 elders there.
 Because it had rained several times during the week, it was impossible to get by car to the stake center. It's on a dirt road that  is under construction and is impassable after a rain. There is a stake in Brazzaville but no buildings constructed by the church. More than a dozen wards meet in rented buildings. This time we met in one  that we had not been to before but was more accessible. We started out on a good road, but as we traveled farther the road deteriorated until we were on one that was not even what you'd call a "good dirt road."  The building was located  on an even smaller dirt road farther still into the residential neighborhood. The building is nothing fancy but was well kept and adequate. I thought that it was, by far, the nicest building in the neighborhood. 

 

 

 

 

I met with, taught and visited with the missionaries in the chapel while they waited for their interviews. Brent was set up for the interviews  in the room next door. It took about 4 hours to interview all the missionaries and is an intense and exhausting experience for Brent. I taught the principle of "returning and reporting" and had a good time with the missionaries.

   

We had a productive visit with them and then they headed off, back to their areas to go to work and we headed for the hotel, very ready to end this long day of travel, teaching and interviews.

 

 

Minutes after we got to our hotel a huge black cloud spread across the sky and it began to pour.  Congo rain is like Arizona rain. It comes in buckets full. We had planned to walk down the street a block or two to the restaurant owned by the hotel, but within minutes the street in front of the hotel, which is at the convergence of two other sloping streets, was a river.  Luckily, the owner of the hotel and restaurant sent someone to the restaurant to bring us two paper plates full of spaghetti covered with tin foil. We were grateful to have a warm meal and a dry place to stay, when so many others out there in Brazzaville would have neither that night.