Day 9 - Brazzaville to Pointe Noire - Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Today was a travel day. From Brazzaville, Congo to Pointe Noire, Congo. I actually stayed with Apostle Dzur at his hotel, in his hotel room, in his bed. OK, secret's out. I slept with Apostle Dzur. It was late on Monday night and there were some fears for my safety so Apostle suggested that I stay over. Early (~ 7 AM) I took a taxi back to my hotel to start packing and get ready for the trip.

Shepherd Doriand came around 9 AM to pick-up my luggage and to do the formalities at the airport. Apostle Kalala picked me up around 9:30 AM with his wife but the RAV-4 finally gave up the ghost. We took a taxi to the Apostle Dzur's hotel and met him with Apostle Kab in his room. They had a small breakfast in the room and after a small discussion, Apostle Kalala requested that I go with him to the "Beach" to exchange some money for Apostle Dzur. Traffic's bad today. Thousands of taxis out. During the trip to the "Beach", the Apostle Kalala's wife, Florence, tried to get a mechanic to come and look at the car. To say the least, Apostle Kalala was a little agitated today and he was on the phone almost all the way to the "Beach" and back. He was even talking to himself some of the time.

We arrived back to the Olympic Hotel and I pushed the Apostle Kalala that I didn't want to miss my flight. Finally he agreed to leave the hotel shortly after 11:00 AM. The flight was to leave at 12 Noon. There were rumours about that some officials wanted to see us before leaving for Pointe Noire but the Apostle Dzur silenced the request as they had seen "higher" officials on Monday morning who assured them that everything would be fine. Before leaving the Apostle's room, I said to him that he should leave fast, I didn't have a good feeling. The Apostle Kalala furthered delayed in the lobby and I almost left without him. Finally on our way ~ 11:20 AM and a quick 20 minutes later, we arrived at the airport at Doriand's anger. A short few minutes later and we are relaxing in the VIP lounge at the airport. We also then found out that the aircraft hadn't arrived yet. It was designed to leave at 12:30 PM but we didn't leave until after 1:00 PM. The Apostle Dzur and Kab arrived only about 5 minutes after us, so they took the warning seriously. They were flying together (the 3 Apostles) to Dolisie (Mouyondzi) for a divine service tonight and going onward to Pointe Noire the following day. In a fluster, we all got out on our respective flights to Mouyondzi and Pointe Noire. The Apostle Dzur flew Air Congo and I flew TAC (Trans Air Congo). This is in addition to the airline TAAG (pronounced like TAC but with a "hard" G instead of C). You can just imagine the confusion between the tag lines of these three companies. You have to explain it 2-3 times otherwise you're on the wrong plane or the buying the wrong ticket. Separated from Apostle Dzur now for the next 24 hours.

The 40-minute flight was uneventful and the anticipation of Pointe Noire increased with each minute. As we disembarked the plane, it was a welcome atmosphere to be back in Pointe Noire, a city of 1,000,000+ people live in this Atlantic Coastal city, famous for its port of goods from Europe, North America and elsewhere for all of Central Africa. Many items in Chad, CAR, Congo, go through Pointe Noire. To say the least, there is a lot of money in Pointe Noire and therefore it is quite protected. Pointe Noire resembles more a city of the Caribbean than Africa. The streets are fairly modern (at least in the main city centre) and everything's available from Italian Salami to French Cheeses and Wine to Local Langouste (Lobster).

A strong delegation of brothers met us at the airport. The warm breeze and fine sand reminded us we weren't in Brazzaville anymore. A half an hour ride to downtown and we arrived at our hotel for the night, MIGITEL. An interesting place, 2-star, for about USD $100 a night. I was reserved in a "suite" so that I could host the meeting the following morning with the Congo National Music Committee. After we prayed, the brothers left me for about 15 minutes to freshen up before leaving for Choir Practice at our "only" church in Mawata. Pointe Noire is a different place. They say that it's a place for the lazy as Brazzaville has the politicians and workers and Pointe Noire has the vacation homes and holidays. Actually Congo-Brazzaville is accused of this altogether as a country compared to their big brother in DRC. DRC is seen as the working-class and Congo-Brazza as the "privileged". More remarks and remour than observation and fact.

The roads are a lot smoother due to the sand roads and not the dirt roads. After driving for 20-30 minutes we arrived at the Mawata church for our choir practice. Tonight they were to rehearse all the pieces for the concert prepared for our Chief Apostle Visit to Pointe Noire in early July. A very impressive evening altogether. It was nice to meet up with my friends Rector Alfred and Shepherd Mabiala (choir leaders from Pointe Noire).

To be continued.....