This time in the Congo is a bit different in that I’m spending a greater amount of my time with children. As most know, on my first return I met a family, Guy and Yvette. The family eventually took me in kind of like a part of their family. At the time, Yvette was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl about a month after I left. They named her Del in honor of my wife Del. My little Congolese Del and I have developed a relationship over time and her and her friends are taking up a fair amount of my time now. Wonderful, happy children who are not yet aware of the limited opportunities that await them. Yvette pleads daily that I take one of her daughter’s home with me to Canada so that she may eventually send money home. Actually, if I were 50 years younger, I would seriously consider it. Children have always been the retirement plan of parents, but in Congo, that is no longer a given. I have chatted with several university grads, one a medical doctor and the other a lawyer. Neither is optimistic about finding work. Congo is one of the potentially richest country in Africa. As one chap put it the other day, the last good government they had was the Belgium one in the 60’s. Pretty sad. But I best say no more. I already hear helicopters circling overhead.