day 3 in Brazzaville...

...but day 3 is...travelling to Cameroon! They're coming to get us to take us to the airport soon, geeez, I am so excited to get on an airplane again. BUT - after coming from KS, going to the country next door (and these two countries are small, like travelling from KC to Chicago), will be a cakewalk. With the help of hotel staff, we just schlepped our 15 suitcases to the reception area, where they'll be stored for the next two weeks, and we packed just carry ons to take to Cameroon. So yesterday, we hung out at the gorgeous pool here at the hotel, and we quickly realized this hotel is where Brazzaville's elite come to hang out. There was a band playing at the pool, they played "La Paloma" and "Guantanamera", I loved hearing those songs in central Africa - yes, they sang them in Spanish. We saw a Congolese family who we'd met the day before, at the AISB party, who are here visiting family, but live in Paris, and - they brought their TWO nannies to help with their children, and - for the first time in my life, I saw white nannies working for African families. As it should be, color should be a non-issue, and it was refreshing to see the opposite of what we're used to seeing, a sign of progress, for sure. Then last night, we decided to venture out on our own, just our family, so we changed our US dollars into the Central African Franc (called CFA here)and had already done our homework on the $$$ and how it converts to US dollars, then asked about the taxi situation, and learned (and had read) to always negotiate before getting in a taxi, so - we easily found a taxi, negotiated to spend 1,000 CFA (approx. $2) to get to this one area of Brazzaville I'd read about, Poto Poto, where there's supposed to be lots going on. Well, maybe b/c it was Sunday, but - there wasn't much going on. It was also REALLY dirty, lots of trash, and when it was time to go, our taxi driver didn't know where our hotel was, and we had the address, but - he still didn't know, so that was interesting, well, we made it back, obviously, but - OK, they just knocked on our door, off to Cameroon!