Brazzaville, Congo...

We're in the Congo now and we're staying at the USG Villa which is a fairly sizable house. We have our own laundry room and we're all very happy about that... except Devin, who spent fifty dollars getting his clothes cleaned at the hotel in Conakry. We also have free internet... the only drawback is we're on the same network as the Embassy, so from 8 am to 6 pm it's really slow. Our flight arrived at midnight on Tuesday. We were all pretty hungry but there was nothing open that late so we stopped by the Embassy and picked up a box of MREs. That's "Meals Ready to Eat". I've always wanted to try one and now I have. . . interesting flavor.

I should get you caught up on our last day in Conakry. In the morning before our workshop, we made a quick stop to watch a bit of the National Ballet of Guinea rehearsal. It's hard to explain the experience we had through words or pictures but it was quite the show. They even pulled us out and danced with us at one point. We had our workshop with Gombo Jazz, the group we saw play on the opening night of the Jazz Festival. Their rhythm guitar player looked just like Miles Davis to me. That night we went to the French Cultural Center and closed out the 3rd Annual Jazz Festival of Guinea. Unfortunately the hall wasn't full... there were probably 60-70 people there but they really enjoyed the show and that's what's important. From there, we had some dinner and checked out of the hotel and you know the rest...

Back to Brazzaville... it's our last day here. We played at the US Ambassador's residence last night. At the start, we were background music while all the diplomats entered the courtyard but later in the evening, we were more of a showcase. Diplomats can party! I would say they're the equivalent of Bankers... once they have a drink or two, their ties come off and they start dancing. It turns out the Ambassador is a banjo player... he came up on stage and played a blues with us. He's quite the pick! After the show, I mentioned that I got my start playing bluegrass and his eyes lit up. We went back and played a couple of bluegrass tunes. One of which, Andrew played bass because it was a song he knew... we have a good video to prove it.
Today, we attended and played at a wonderful function. The Ambassador and his wife decided to clean up one of the local schools that had really been run down. We saw some pictures of how it looked before... there was no roof, the walls were basically falling down and it was dirty beyond belief. With the aid of some local US businesses, they were able to fix it up completely including brand new desks and blackboards. At today's ceremony, the school was given boxes and boxes of school supplies that were donated by a grade school in the States. Andrew said, "It's really cool to see this type of thing from the other end..." as he remembered doing programs like that in grade school. Off to the side of the ceremony, there were seven to eight hundred children all clapping and singing. There's so much energy in these children. We played at the end of the ceremony and all the children came up to the stage and watched us... it was a sea of bright eyes and smiles. They were all enthralled with our instruments and performance... wow! I think that's the reason we came to Africa. As we were leaving, all the kids came up to us and wanted to shake our hands or just touch us. This was definitely an experience of a lifetime.