Step two in the Zone Conference-go-'round.

We spent the night in the "President's hotel," which is what our Congolese helpers Bishop Gaetan and Brother Nitch call it. The Adonis Hotel has became a home away from home for us in Brazzaville and they treat us very well. They always have the air on before we arrive to cool down "our room-#212."  It's the nicest room in the hotel and we get a good deal on it, since we have been there a lot and the young men who run it have become friends.  They now put "two" towels in the bathroom for us and have things just as we like it.  We have given up trying to get to a restaurant since we're always too tired and hungry to go and wait for a meal.  So at the end of the day we have a good camping meal which is just what we need.

In the morning we eat on the terrace and have our favorite meal of croissants, raisin rolls, pain au chocolat and hot chocolate, or if we take the early plane they put our breads in a little "take away bag" for us. They're so nice to us at the "President's Hotel!"

Notice the bags that we have with us in this picture.  We've learned to make a trip for nearly two weeks with just one small bag and a briefcase each.  We  can take them as carry-on bags and never lose sight of our things. It's wonderful to always know that we will arrive at our  destination and have our luggage arrive there too

At the airport in Brazzaville Rule #1 came into full effect this trip. After many trips through that airport with no problems, this time they couldn't find us in the computer. We had electronic tickets, but they still wouldn't issue us boarding passes. We usually do this process alone and it goes fine. For some reason,  Gaetan didn't leave us to do it ourselves this time, but had an airport facilitator walk our papers through. Thank goodness! It took him nearly two hours of going back and forth from the airline office in the airport to the check-in gate. So, we just stood in the airport and waited and watched. It's always quite a show.  We stood for over an hour in a crazy African style line and...

then finally got  into the ticketing area and sat and ... 

watched our  facilitator struggling to get us tickets and....

enjoyed seeing  people in their interesting African clothing. Loved his man's outfit the most!

Our plane was to leave at 9:30 and at exactly that time we finally got boarding passes. We still had to clear passport control and security and it was already time for the plane to leave.  We were sure that we had missed our plane.  We raced through the airport and made it in record time, only to find that for some reason, which was never explained, they had not boarded .  All the passengers were standing in a huge mob waiting at the door.  We were SO relieved and this as a little miracle we had received.  Our schedule is always tight enough that a missed plane can put us off for the whole next ten days.  Forty-five minutes later and with considerable relief, we collapsed into our seats and headed to Pointe Noire.