Golf of BZV

Today is the 2nd day I go to walk the BZV golf course with Maurice the pro. It was so hot not like last Friday we went after rain so it was a lot cooler. But I manage to satisfy Maurice with many nice swing that he approved of. If it remain this way I will wake up earlier and go before 8 am in order to finish a little bit before 10 am before the sun get too straight over the head. This golf course has almost no level area and the green are very irregular. One need to get two caddies if I want to know where to aim because there is no flag planted at the hole. One caddy will be for the golf bag and the other one hold the flag to put into each hole as we go. They can not leave the flag permanantly in each hole because the flag got stolen. The fag has no number on it so it is up to us to know which whole we are right now. This is quite a labour intensive golf course arrangment that I know so far.

On the way back we stopped at the pottery workshop in the OMS compound. The artist potter came from France from Alsac region . He brought the kiln with him. He use all the local l'Argile. I will soon forget a lot of english word. Honestly , I don't know what is de l'argile in english. The word that came to mind right now is Kaolin which is finer quality than we can find here in Congo. Anyway, they don't have any Ragu and I am not too interested in what they have.
From my visit to Anias Legall yesterday ,I got a long list of phone numbers of people to call. Today I started with the pedicure name Blanche. I called her and she want to come today after lunch. I have to go tell the guard that I am expecting someone today. The guard asked me You are expecting a white or a black person Madame. It was hilarious that I have to explain to them that I am expecting a black lady name Blanche (white)and that she wears a red shirt and a black skirt.

After some confusion Blanche finally showed up at the corner of the street. She is relatively clean and like to do this kind of work like Rosette the pedicure I use in Pointe Noire. She told me that before the civil war she worked in salon very elaborated with Baleneo, Salle de gymnastic , Sauna, sea weed wrap and many other services . Sound like an institutes with complete soins de beaute. Very cleaned and very well run. Too bad I did not get experience that salon. It must be something so 'in style' like in Paris but better because they can train more people and congolese are very gifted in doing this kind of care. They have massage, Sauna, Whirlpool and everything. But the civil war has destroyed it all. Not only these thing but the schools and many other city's structures. The war lasted for 6months and enough to destroyed and scared away most expats who loose their faith doing anything in Africa for a long term. How can they invest in anything long term here if all around them only look just in term of today. But the chinese is everywhere now and they are capable and will change the face of Africa. If there is any progress to be made in this continent it will be with the new generartion of metis may be half black half chinese. Their home is here and they want to make it work with asian set of value and vision mixed with the old french sophistication and philosophy.