The Long and Winding Road: There's A Place

This post is for my friend Angela who is leaving for the Congo in four days (Woo Hoo!!!) and for anyone else planning to stay at St. Anne's. We'll call this post the "St. Anne's Survival Guide".

Hopefully your driver from the airport will already be familiar with the location of Procure St. Ann. If not, you can tell your driver that Procure St. Ann is on Dumi right off of Avenue des Aviateurs and across from the United States Consulate. As you approach the gate you will see...

The entrance gate to Procure St. Ann

The buildings on the left (north)

The buildings on the right (south)

The main building of the Procure (also on the left)

Your driver will park and help you bring your bags into the reception hall. Walk up the main steps and through the double doors directly in front of you.

Procure St. Ann

The front steps of Procure St. Ann

If you speak French you should have no problem checking in. If you don't speak French you will need your escort or translator to assist. Sometime there is a young man working in reception who speaks English fairly fluently and sometimes you might get lucky and run into one of the residents who speaks both English and French - but I wouldn't count on it. It is best to be prepared.

When you check in you will notice that they do not use a computer for reservations. Reservations are simply written down in a big book. Even though you made a reservation in advance it may or may not be written in the book. It is best to come with a print out of your email exchange with the St. Anne's staff person who took your reservation. If your reservation is not in the book you will likely still be able to get a room.

The reception area is the only communal area at Procure St. Ann with air-conditioning. It has a little seating area around a small table, a nice fish tank courtesy of Father James, several chairs along one wall, and a large flat screen television on the opposite wall. This is not usually a hang out spot for residents but it is a nice place to wait when you are meeting up with friends to go out somewhere or are waiting for your driver. For a number of adoptive families (us included) this is the place where they will first meet their children. It's a little awkward to be sitting on the floor holding your new babies and trying not to scare them off by crying while having people walk past (because the reception area is the access point for all of the rooms at the Procure). But at least it is air-conditioned!

The reception desk at Procure St. Ann

The kids love Father James' fish tank - but please don't tap on the glass

If Blandine (on the right) happens to be covering the front desk when you arrive give her a BIG hug from me!

Once you have checked in you will go through the double doors towards the back of the reception area. Welcome to the Procure!!! You will turn right and walk down a corridor. On the right are doors into the offices of the administrative staff at St. Anne's. On the left is the bar as well as windows out to the courtyard. You will notice buckets on the floor with water dripping into them. These are collecting the condensation from the AC units. You will also notice places where the walls there are holes in the wall with wires hanging out. I don't think these are dangerous but we didn't touch them just to be on the safe side.

The double doors at the back of the reception area

The corridor that leads to the stairs

Katie always wanted to play in these buckets of water

We were grateful for the air-conditioning

Probably not dangerous

But probably best not to touch

For some reason I didn't take any photos of the stairwell or the upper floors where most of the rooms are located. But our friends Adam and Jennifer made a great Gotcha Day video and you can see them leaving their room (which was right down the hall from our room) and going down the stairs, through the corridor, and into the reception area where they met their two adorable boys, Asher and Dacian.

Our room was on the first floor (second floor for you Americans) and had a great view of the Congo river. I was so focused on getting settled in when we first arrived and I neglected to take any before photos. Each room is a little different but ours (room 105) was equipped with two twin beds, one desk, two chairs, and one bedside table. I pushed the two beds together and put the chairs along the side of the lower bed so that Katie wouldn't roll out of bed. We also had a little screened patio that we didn't use. The patio had two chairs and a small table. I moved that table into our room so that I had an extra place to pile our things. I used the desk as our kitchen area and the little table for the kids' toys. Because we were staying for so long and had so many supplies I also used my luggage for storage. Some rooms were equipped with nice wardrobes but ours was not. It would have been good for the clothes and diapers but probably not much else. I'm sure I still would have been using luggage for storage.

Because I took these photos with the MacBook the images are all inverted

I used the desk for food storage, water filtering, "cooking", and doing dishes

Without much storage the luggage really came in handy

Procure St. Ann provides mosquito nets, one set of sheets per bed, lumpy pillows, and two (very small and not clean) bath towels. I brought quilts for the beds as well as crib pads to use under the baby. I was really glad I had the crib pads because when Nat had diaper leaks at night the sheets stayed clean. I also brought two nice big bath towels from home. We used the St. Anne's towels as bath mats. Because it takes so long to get laundry back we ended up all using one towel while the other towel was out being laundered.

The bathroom is small and there is no hot water. But the bathroom is also not air-conditioned (the room is) so it stays pretty warm. It really wasn't to bad to come in from the heat and run through the tepid shower each evening. The water is stored in a tank on the roof and the sun does warm it up a bit during the day. But if you wait until later at night or until morning for a shower then it can be a bit chilly. Because I didn't bring a blow dryer and I definitely prefer to not go to bed with wet hair I settled on a routine of showering in the evening and washing my hair (head hanging upside down over the shower and just using the hand held sprayer) in the mornings. I only washed my hair a few times a week and Katie thought it was pretty entertaining to watch.

Bring your own soap - and bring something you really enjoy. It makes you feel good to have something that smells like home. Unfortunately, the longer you stay the more you just are going to stink. You never get completely clean and your clothes never get completely clean. And even when you are relatively clean it doesn't take long to start sweating again.

Each bathroom had a big bucket. I know some people have used that to give their kids baths. I was too skeptical of the whereabouts of the bucket so I brought I flexi-tub instead. I am so glad I did!! Bath time was the favorite part of the day. I heated water with a hot pot I purchased for $14 at Hassan Market and made I nice warm bath for my kids each evening. I brought yummy smelling Shea Body Wash from home and afterwards gave them each a nice rub down with coconut oil. It was a GREAT way to wind down before bed. We did use the bucket for washing laundry when we got too desperate to wait for the St. Anne's laundry service. There aren't a lot of places to hang laundry in the bathroom or room so we tried to only do hand-washing when we really needed it.

LOVED the flexi-tub

The infamous bucket

On the topic of laundry, St. Anne's does provide free laundry service twice a week. Each room is supposed to have a laundry basket - but mine did not at first and I had to improvise. Fortunately I had a massive red Target gift bag that I was using as a laundry bag and I just sent my laundry out in that. Laundry is picked up in the morning on Monday and Thursday. I just set it outside my room before heading down to breakfast. They do ask that you include a list of the items being laundered as well as your room number. I did write the list each time but I'm not sure it was all that useful since it was in English.

I'm not sure if other people have had their laundry returned to their room (which is what the front desk said was supposed to happen) but the entire time I was at St. Anne's I had to retrieve my laundry from the laundry house. I would usually fetch laundry the day before I was to send laundry out again (so...sent laundry on Monday and fetched it on Wednesday...sent laundry on Thursday and fetched it on Sunday). To retrieve laundry I had to go down to the reception desk during normal daytime hours and ask for my laundry. They would then send a staff person out to the laundry house with me and the key. The person would unlock the door and I would go in and search through the various piles for my laundry.

Usually my laundry was mostly together. But occasionally I would have to hunt for my bath towel (usually in the back room) or the babies' socks. Twice I helped myself to new sheets (and then sent my old sheets out in the following day's laundry) and bathmats. That was quite the treat! In the back room there are several industrial sized washing machines. We had wondered if all of that laundry was hand washed but it clearly is not. All laundry is hung out on the lines to dry. And then I think it is usually ironed as well.

The laundry house in the pouring rain...but you can see on the far side of the laundry house is the burn pile where you can take your trash.

Laundry out on the line

Because I was living at St. Anne's with a baby I also did a lot of dishes. Nat ate 6-8 bottles each day and I washed and sterilized nipples every single day. I brought a big bowl (wish I had brought two), a scrubby brush, dish detergent, 6 nipples, the Zadro portable nipple sterilizer, and various cups, bowls, plates, and utensils. We used everything regularly and did LOTS of dishes. I only used filtered water (we hand pumped all of our water using the First Need water filter) and was glad I could heat it in our hot pot. I used the playtex bottles with drop-in liners so it was really nice to just be able to toss out the liners rather than washing the whole bottle. I also brought a few kitchen towels but I never sent those out with the laundry.

St. Anne's does not have regular housekeeping. You can request to have your room cleaned or they might occasionally come knock on your door and offer to clean it - but in my five weeks there I cleaned my room myself. Every other day or so I would grab a broom or floor squeegee from down the hall (or down in the bar behind the door) and sweep out my bathroom and room. And every 1-2 weeks I would wipe down the bathroom and the floor with lots and lots of Clorox wipes. I brought LOTS of plastic Target bags, kitchen trash bags, and gallon Ziploc bags and used them for diapers, bottle liners, food particles, and other trash. I was super paranoid about bugs and rodents so I took out our trash daily (to the burn pile north of the laundry house) and tried to keep our room very, very clean.

I made good friends with much of the staff at St. Anne's. My favorite buddy was definitely Blandine. She works in house keeping and would come by room each morning after breakfast to visit with Katya (Katie) and Etienne (Nat). She and Victorine (a very elderly and very lovely woman) and another awesome gentleman who was great with my kids were the regulars for house keeping. They laughed and laughed at me borrowing the brooms and cleaning my own room. Blandine would say, "Britta you are very woman" and give me a big hug!

I love Blandine!!!

One of the biggest benefits of staying at St. Anne's is that you have the option of eating all of your meals there. Breakfast is included and usually consists of bread (which you can toast), butter, jam, raw honey, and then some sort of fruit and some sort of protein. The fruit item was usually papaya, bananas, or mangoes. The protein was usually laughing cow cheese, sliced cheese, hot dogs, or a shredded meat sludge that most kids liked but most parents did not. Occasionally we were served yummy salami or hard boiled eggs and once we had omelettes! That was a happy morning for me. For beverages there is tea, coffee, chilled filtered water, and sometimes juice.

Breakfast is served at 7:15 am - but you have to wait for the bell. If you come to a meal before the bell is rung you will get on Francoise's bad side. You don't want to do that! Francoise is a lovely woman who does most of the cooking at St. Anne's. Make friends with her!!! And definitely respect the dining room rules!

Our friend Francoise

Everyone sits at communal tables and at breakfast the food is on each table. The round table is for the administrative staff at St. Anne's. The far rectangular table is usually for the St. Anne's regular residents (Leone, Jos, etc.). The adoptive families usually sit together and it is a nice time to visit with each other. There are four or five high chairs - but be sure to make sure that the smallest kiddos get first priority.

Near the front door of the dining hall there is a book. You have to sign your name in that book every morning and indicate if you will be eating lunch and dinner at St. Anne's. The first column is for your name, the second column for your room number, the third column for lunch, and the fourth column for dinner. Write "Abs" if you will be absent from a meal and write "Pres" if you will be present. Lunch is $15 per person - including children. Dinner is $10 per person and children are free. Lunch is the main meal of the day and there is a larger spread and occasionally even a dessert. Dinner is a smaller meal and often is leftovers from lunch. Check the white board by the book and see if they have indicated what is being served for lunch and dinner that day. It might help you plan. Remember - you MUST sign the book or you will be charged for both meals.

When we first arrived the meals at St. Anne's were lackluster. But a few weeks into our stay some Italian adoptive families raised quite a ruckus about the food being served (and after eating caterpillars and possibly bush meat I was rather glad). Then the meals got SO much better. Some of our favorites included spaghetti and meatballs, fried fish, fried chicken, roasted beef with au jous and mashed potatoes, and grilled chicken. We also enjoyed a great basil soup and loved crepes for dessert. The only beverage at mealtime is water but you can get a beer in the bar for $1.

Jennifer, Adam, Dacian, me, and Jeremy at breakfast (before Jeremy and I had our kiddos)

The infamous caterpillars (sauteed with onions)

A much tastier lunch of fried chicken and crepes!

Lunch is served at 12:30 pm and dinner is served at 7:00 pm. Again, wait for the bell to ring. If your room is too far away to hear the bell then you might want to hang out downstairs at mealtime approaches. Lunch and dinner are also served communally and everyone is expected to come right when the bell rings. If you arrive late you might miss your meal. At lunch and dinner the food is placed on the long table buffet style. Sometimes a cart is left in the dining hall and everyone is expected to clear their dishes and place them on the cart.

For families traveling with young children the meal times might conflict with nap time and/or bed time. For us, our kids' schedules conflicted with both. Dad and I developed a routine of eating breakfast together downstairs, taking turns eating lunch (the first person had to eat fast so the second person could go down and fill a plate before the food was cleared) while the other sat in the room with napping kiddos, and then for dinner Dad would go get take-out from Hassan Market or we would order pizza from O'Poeta. We usually alternated between the two except Saturdays were always pizza night since Hassan is closed on Saturdays (it is owned by a Jewish family). We also had some days were we ate meals from our stores of food from home or from groceries we picked up at the market.

O'Poeta was the only food delivery we could find. Thankfully it is quite tasty. You can call +0819922909 anytime between 12:30 pm and 11:00 pm. They will not deliver when it is raining because their delivery is by motorcycle. Our favorite pizza (by far) was the Pizza Pepperoni. It is actually salami rather than pepperoni but it is very tasty. I ended up with a Pizza Americaine and a Quatre Saisons on accident and did not like either one. When you call you can ask to speak with someone who speaks English. You might get lucky. Or you can try to recruit a French speaker to help you order. I usually was pretty lucky with my limited French and the other person's limited English. The hardest part is explaining the address of Procure St. Ann. You just have to say (over and over again) that Procure St. Ann is on Dumi right off of Avenue des Aviateurs. The Pizza Pepperoni is $22.40 and we usually paid the driver $25 and the change was his tip. Pizza also comes with a free Coke or Fanta but they are not chilled.

One O'Poeta pizza fed me, my Dad, and Katie Mumbi quite well. They do have other items on the menu (fish, chicken, other meats) but their menu didn't list prices. We have a friend who ordered their fish a few times and it seemed to cost as much as the pizza but be less food overall. Dad and I just stuck with the pizza.

On our non-pizza nights we ate take-out from Hassan Market. Hassan Market is just down the street from Procure St. Ann. If you walk south on Dumi you will pass the U.S. Consulate and walk straight into the side entrance of Hassan. We only did this during daytime ours and we always felt very safe. I heard that walking north on Dumi towards the river is actually quite dangerous and not recommended. My Dad confirmed this when he witnessed a mugging along that road one morning (from the safety of the St. Anne's rooftop). Later into our trip we also discovered that you can get to Hassan Market by going out the gate to the east of the Cathedral and walking west on Avenue des Aviateurs. This puts you right at the front entrance.