Ah, life in the tropics. Gets a bit hot, but at least we get the sun! Sunshine, beaches, palm trees and blue, blue skies. That's how you picture it, right? A friend posted a beautiful holiday photo the other day, and it took a moment to dawn on me what was so appealing about it.… Continue reading Blue Sky Gazing
Tag: pointe-noire
Congo Sketch: The School Run at Walking Pace
It's another typically untypical morning in Congo, where no day ever goes quite as planned. Today, our driver isn't with us, as he had to take his child into hospital overnight with suspected malaria. So MT has taken the car to work with him, and I've hitched a lift with our neighbour to drop the… Continue reading Congo Sketch: The School Run at Walking Pace
How Congo is More French than France (and one way it’s a bit like the Big Apple)
Before arriving in Congo we had high expectations. We were not coming to Africa for the first time - our year in Uganda had dispelled many of the apprehensions most people would have about life in the sub-Saharan continent. There was much to enjoy and appreciate there; we’d had a good lifestyle (although that is easier… Continue reading How Congo is More French than France (and one way it’s a bit like the Big Apple)
Congo Sketch – Balls to the Wall
Another Sunday, another trip up the coast for some beach time. After a couple of years of African living I don't always stare out of the window on every road trip, like I did at the beginning. But I still do it often. There are moments where the thought presents itself - I'm living in… Continue reading Congo Sketch – Balls to the Wall
The Power of Yes
Time to start carrying a towel... Recently I wrote about the feeling I had, a couple of years ago, that I'd given (up) the best years of my life to being a trailing spouse and having babies. I entered my forties at that time, thinking my peak years were behind me, work-wise. Irrational though I knew… Continue reading The Power of Yes
Getting Out Of Town
I was recently emailing a friend who's on her way to live here. I described Pointe-Noire as a 'grey, flat shabby town'. I stopped to ask myself if I was being ungenerous. Well, no. Sometimes it seems like half the sites in town are either in the process of being built (a very positive thing)… Continue reading Getting Out Of Town
Congo Sketch – Waiting Room
The clinic's always busy on a Monday morning, the maladies of the weekend being called to order as the doors open. Patients sit, patiently, on long wooden benches set in schoolroom rows. Like the GP waiting room I remember from my childhood, where eyes were all raised expectantly to the number display. (I remember that waiting… Continue reading Congo Sketch – Waiting Room
A Fresh Rentrée
Yesterday was la rentrée for my boys at their French school after the two-week October holiday. This is rentrée with a small 'r' though, rather than La Rentrée - the grand back-to-school and back-to-everything moment that happens in France around the 1st of September. After two full months of summer holidays, September in France is… Continue reading A Fresh Rentrée
The Frustrated Nester 