On Monday, September 17^th, we crossed the Congo River to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo (a different country).  That was quite an experience.  Someone from the Church Service Center who knows the ropes for this complicated experience, took us to the river.  There he hired a “facilitator” and negotiated a price for him to figure out how to get us across.  He left with our passports and a couple hundred US dollars—and we waited, and waited, and waited in a locked car with the windows rolled up.  I guess the facilitator was negotiating and bribing and doing whatever he had to do to get our passes and tickets—and then he had to find a boat for us to squeeze onto with our luggage (the boat was meant for 10 people and there must have been 20 or more on it with lots of luggage & STUFF).  It took about 3 ½ hours to finally make the 10 minute crossing of the river.  But, when we finally got across, the incredible sights on the Brazzaville side are hard to even describe.  The throngs of people with cargo of every kind trying to get onto boats and barges—everyone talking at once—loudly—people pushing and pressing to move forward when a boat became available.  Handicapped people don’t have to pay for the crossing, so others pay them a small amount to carry cargo across for them.  Many blind people with loads of cargo on their backs were moving toward the boats—holding onto each other in long lines with only the lead person being able to see.   We tried to snap a few pictures without being noticed, but pictures can’t even begin to do it justice. 

We spent a lovely day visiting with members of the Church in Brazzaville and one dear man took us on a long driving tour of the city.  It really is a little better and cleaner than Kinshasa—the economy is somewhat healthier.  The members are so kind and wonderful.  Bishop Gaeton & his wife went to dinner with us in the evening and they gave us beautiful gifts that were way too costly for them.  I received a lovely African dress and Dave an African shirt—they wanted us to have a part of real Africa to take home with us—such generous, good people.  Going back across the river the next day was a complete repeat of the experiences from the day before—3 1/2 hours for a 10 minute crossing.  Dave had encouraged me to read “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad before we left, and it made the Congo River crossing even more meaningful for me.  It’s the second largest river in Africa, but it actually puts out more water than the Nile River.  Most of the central African rivers flow into it.

In both countries, the people (and particularly the police) are extremely paranoid about anyone taking pictures.  I got into a few bad situations by trying to snap a few with my little phone camera here and there.  I don’t know what they are so worried about—but, you can really get into trouble trying to catch any photo memories.  Most of our pictures were taken quickly from inside a car, through the window glass—but we did end up getting a few good ones.

 This is the huge Congo River--It's not as long as the Nile, but actually sends more water output to the ocean.  You can see the rapids a little bit in the middle of the picture.  Unfortunately, the river is not navigable from the ocean outlet because of these rapids and falls that you can see in the picture.  From Kinshasa north and eastward, it is very navigable all the way into central Africa, however they had to build a railroad from the coast to the city to transport goods.  The railroad was built at terrible cost to human life--and, since almost nothing is produced in DRC--everything must be transported in and is VERY expensive.

 We had lunch at our hotel in Brazzaville with some of the members of the Church.   Neche, on the left, was our driver and negotiator for crossing the river.  The one on the far right is President Boyembe of the Brazzaville stake.  He is also a colonel in the army--a dear, gentle man.

The pictures above and below are just an idea of life near the river.

Several new friends came down to the wharf to say good-bye to us.  What good people!

This was a building in downtown Brazzaville covered with bullet holes from the last revolution.

This is Bishop Gaeton and his wife sharing a dinner with us in one of the nicer restaurants in Brazzaville.  He was the one who went to Gabon with Dave.  His sister was close to government officials there and was able to help them get the signatures needed for the Church to finally be recognized in that country.  He is a very special person!