We have been told that there isn’t much to do around here, so you get to be creative and make your own fun. Our last P-Day was one of those days.
President Calle is one of our 2 branch presidents. He speaks a little English and is absolutely wonderful to try to help us with whatever he can. When we go to church, there are only 2 other cars in the parking lot besides our truck. President Calle’s nice SUV is one of the other 2 cars. On Thursday, July 15, we all loaded into our truck or President Calle’s car and headed for north to
Diosso. Our city is land locked and there are few roads going in or out, but the one road going north that takes about 40 minutes to drive, and that’s what we did. We drove about 25 minutes and then stopped at a village "boutique" for snacks.
We stopped at a slave trail museum, but it was only open on weekends, so we didn’t get to go in. We will do that another day.
Then we went on to the “gorge” (
Gorges de Diosso) which is a beautiful lookout point that has red rock formations. It was amazing, if you look around the Congo. You don’t see anything else that hints of red rocks.
After the gorge we went to the beach,
where the guys played football. Ed amazed everyone on the first play as he grabbed the ball out of the air and ran a great play.
However, on the 2nd play, he tripped on the uneven African ground and wiped out.
He played the entire time with those 19 & 20 year olds, and had a ball.
The highlight of the day was going to the one and only golf course.
We went over to the only person we could see to see if they had a score card for Morse Travers’s collection. They didn’t. We talked to the man, who seemed to be the only one on the course (working or playing). He said that it costs the equivalent of $40 American to play, plus $20 for the caddy and club rental. I had the interpreter ask if they have twilight rates, like in the United States. He said “No” this isn’t the United States. In my very broken French I explained that we were missionaries and didn’t have very much money. The guy smiled and said in French… “Would you like to play one or two holes for free?” He gave us 6 clubs and 8 balls and the 13 of us headed off to play golf. The elders had a ball. They all caddied or hit or just laughed and ran around like little kids. Several had never played before and thought it was great fun. Ed will now take over a description of the play.
This is my caddy and our zone leader, Elder Chirwa.
After my drive I am actually in the middle of the fairway. Many of you may not think this looks like a fairway, as there wasn't much grass. It made the Kahuku golf course, which we nicknamed the "Eternal Sandpit" look quite plush. It is tough to hit a 180 yard sand iron, so I tried it with a 3 iron.
Looking at this sand trap above, you can actually see the difference between the grass and the sand trap. However, there is really not much difference. If you look below you can see that the grass, or mowed weeds, are sparse. Great form on this golfer, though.
My approach shot was headed for what I thought would be the green. There was a flag there. Little did I know that there would be no grass at all on the green. It was made of hard packed, oiled down dirt. The green actually had little walls around it, because an approach shot would actually roll and not stop on the green. By the 2nd hole, we got the idea that you wanted to hit short of the green and let it roll into the pit.
It was amazing how flat the green/dirt was. It was a very hard surface.
Nice Put. I made it! This hole in the ground reminds me of how when I was a little boy we used to dig holes to shoot our marbles into. There was a metal part at the bottom of this hole that held up the flag.
Then we tried books. 
And then our son Chuck and his wife Ashley sent us a real net... with clamps and 4 new paddles and some balls. We are now set! We held our first official tournament a week ago. Elder Gates is an outstanding Ping Pong player
... but Elder Thompson was nothing short of amazing... and he was the champion!
Stay tuned for future ping pong action.
One of the best parts of our mission is dealing with these great young men. We try to treat these boys as if they were our grandsons, and truly love them. Then after they have been here from 4 to 8 months, we have to say goodbye. Some are transferred to Cameroun or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which are other countries in our mission. Some have finished their missions here, and then we have sent them home to their families. Transfers happen every 6 weeks. The first transfer that we were here we were still new and getting to know the boys and figure out what we were doing. These guys did a great job of training us. 
We started with 12 elders, but we are now down to 8. The mission is growing faster than we can get the elders over here. We think of our boys that we have had here so far in 3 sets. Our first group were those of our "original" elders we started with that were transferred within 3 months after we arrived. These included Elder Kessler 
& Elder Palmer from North America,. 
and Elder Mboui (DRC), Elder Tumba (DRC), & Elder Bally (Ivory Coast). 
Thanks to each of them for welcoming us to Pointe Noire! 
After my drive I am actually in the middle of the fairway. Many of you may not think this looks like a fairway, as there wasn't much grass. It made the Kahuku golf course, which we nicknamed the "Eternal Sandpit" look quite plush. It is tough to hit a 180 yard sand iron, so I tried it with a 3 iron.
Looking at this sand trap above, you can actually see the difference between the grass and the sand trap. However, there is really not much difference. If you look below you can see that the grass, or mowed weeds, are sparse. Great form on this golfer, though.
My approach shot was headed for what I thought would be the green. There was a flag there. Little did I know that there would be no grass at all on the green. It was made of hard packed, oiled down dirt. The green actually had little walls around it, because an approach shot would actually roll and not stop on the green. By the 2nd hole, we got the idea that you wanted to hit short of the green and let it roll into the pit.
It was amazing how flat the green/dirt was. It was a very hard surface.
Nice Put. I made it! This hole in the ground reminds me of how when I was a little boy we used to dig holes to shoot our marbles into. There was a metal part at the bottom of this hole that held up the flag.
