Life in Pointe Noire

Most children know how to work hard.  These boys are breaking up chunks of cinder blocks and cement.  They will probably fill the wheel barrow and take their load some where to sell.  Usually this is used to fill in holes in the roads.  This week, there are huge piles of broken up cement on the road to our house, from a home that is being demolished.  People will come and gather the chunks up to use.  We have lots of them on our road, in the holes and dips.  First the chunks are big, then they gradually disintegrate until they are mostly dust, as vehicles drive over them.

On our way to District Meeting we saw this across the road we drive on.  We took a different way going home, because the traffic will have to cross over the median and go both directions on one side.  We weren't sure what type of a gathering this was going to be.  It was probably too big to be a funeral on the main street.=

A few people have started coming - it's about 9:45 AM.

This is a road we traveled down with some of our elders to visit a family out of town a little ways.  It soon developed into......

   ......this road, or non-road, if you want to be realistic.  We are so grateful for our truck and 4-wheel drive.  This is pretty mild - it gets really interesting when it rains, even in the city.  Actually, especially in the city, because that is where we are most of the time, and the people mostly live in cartiers which have dirt roads and lots and lots of huge puddles and ponds.

On our way to and from our visit above, we crossed over this water hose.  This area has no wells and no electricity.  The water here probably has to be paid for because it is trucked in to a tank.  Even large, fancy homes, which are built right next to the small humble ones, have to carry their water in.  The people who can afford it, have generators.  Most people can't afford them.  In the city, in many areas there is electricity - more common and available than water.