Welcome to The Congo

We left home between snow storms and single digit temperatures to begin our next service with Mercy Ships.  This time we are in Pointe Noire, the major port city in the Republic of the Congo.  (Not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

A short week ago we thought double digit temperatures were warm!

After 40 hours of travel, we arrived, were processed quickly through immigration, and found or luggage arrived without damage. We were greeted by friends who drove us to the ship.
Coming back is a different emotional experience.  It's a very welcoming community and even if we don't remember names, we recognize faces.  We found we quickly adjusted to life on the ship.  Jet lag from two overnight flights took a few days to get over.

The city of Pointe Noire is quite different from Conakry, Guinea.  We arrived in the morning and got to see some of the city.  It is relatively clean.  The port is huge.  It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the entrance of the port to the Africa Mercy.  The traffic is busy, but there are wide sidewalks that make it a lot safer to walk on the port premises.

Our cabin in on the port side (ie left) and faces the East, so when the sun comes up our room brightens quickly.  Fortunately sun rise is about the same time we need to get up anyway. Our cabin is the mirror image of last year's cabin, but now we have an ocean view!

Moon rise over Pointe Noire

Chuck

Sunsets  as seen from Deck 8