a day at the beach

Okay, so we've only been here a week, but yesterday was a national holiday here and we've been in a waiting position for looking at housing, so we went to a beach by a river about a 90 minute drive north of where we are with some other Americans (mostly embassy folks).

Loading videos is a challenge I'm not sure I can overcome here- but I'll keep trying (for you Mom) maybe if I do 10 second clips and really lower the quality??- we'll see.

Anyway, here are the pics from yesterday:
A pic of the Brazzaville sprawl from a hill

Taxis like these go through anything- water like this, roads with huge potholes, etc.

We passed a lot of trucks loaded up with goods and workers
The view outside the city was beautiful too- not so many trees, but nice rolling hills
The road down to the beach definitely required 4WD- I don't know if you can tell just how much from this pic, but it was impassable with a regular car.


We went swimming in this lovely fast-moving, clear river and managed not to get burned despite being out in the heat of the day.
Sam ran around butt-naked (literally) the whole time.
There were loads and loads of butterflies on our little beach- I saw at least 5 different kinds, but I'm sure there were more.
Here's our group- the guy to my right knew my parents in college
Sam acting like a big kid- actually it was kind of funny. Just before this I had picked him up saying that he didn't need a chair to himself. Then he launched himself over my shoulders and began pushing my back with his feet. I scooched forward- and he wasn't content to leave it at that- pushed me off the chair entirely. Then he sat there like a king.
He had a great day- playing in the sand, water, etc. But he only slept for 45 minutes total all day (as opposed to his normal 2 1/2- 3 hours. So he's still sleeping this morning (an hour late already :-) )


I talked to some of you about certain things that I was praying for our life in Brazzaville- things that would help us have a well-rounded, satisfying life here. Each of those things seem to be realizable which is so great. For example, I really love being a part of small group Bible studies but wasn't in Morocco. Some women here started a 10 week study last night- perfect timing. I think it's going to be awesome. The study has 5 daily lessons each week, then a meeting with everyone to discuss, pray, and watch a video with teaching for the next week. The women are so awesome too- I really am stoked.

Also, I remember having specific conversations with some of you about how there are very few sacrifices in raising kids overseas, but one of them is not having public libraries to borrow kid's books from. Well, it turns out that there is an American culture building here with a little library- apparently there are a lot of kids books and they may even start a borrowing system. Even if they don't- I am so excited to take Sam there to look at books :-)