Final View From My Perch

Nearly three weeks have passed since I left Cote d'Ivoire, and although I have a lovely mountain view here looking into the foggy valley below, somehow it just can't compare to the sunny view from my perch in San Pedro. I'm not saying San Pedro was better, I'm just saying they can't be compared... (however, I DO really miss the eighty degree weather!!!)

It's sad that the memories of the last several weeks are beginning to get a little cloudy in my memory... there was the graduation at the Bible school. Five students completed the program,

and we celebrated a number of students who completed their first year. We wrapped up things in the library... it looks much neater and is more organized and the books are ready to be checked out! I enjoyed listening to the Bible school students serenade me as we all worked hard that last week to get the school ready for graduation. They sang as they worked and it was so beautiful. I will miss my little buddy Josue (and his sister Grace) who 'helped' me out in the library. How I enjoyed chatting with him those afternoons. He was so patient with me as he let me stumble through my French

We had our last English class during those last couple of weeks. We gave out Bibles to the students who had been there every week and they were beyond thrilled! They were so excited to have their very own English Bible. It was really neat to see how much they had improved in such a short amount of time. They were a great class and I already miss them!

There were sleepovers with the girls and picnics on the beach with the kids. Then there was one last evening by the beach and dinner with friends, and we were off to Abidjan for a few days before the journey home.

We spent an afternoon at a beautiful pool (it even had a waterslide!) And the kids and I enjoyed somber evening in pitch black city when the lights went out. Our solitary candle

soon burned out and we spent several hours singing and reciting verses. Good memories.

I love this picture of Hadassah taken on our final road trip to Abidjan... it makes me laugh every time I look at it. :)

I can't believe eight months have flown away so fast...

My time in Africa has inspired me to be more aware of life in other cultures and to be thankful for my American heritage.

Please remember Cote d'Ivoire in the months to come. Elections that were to have taken place last November are now scheduled for this coming November. I'm concerned, but not worried. Things seem to be calm, but one never knows. It is just one nation in a continent of unrest and turmoil. I've come to a place where I realize I don't have the answers, I can't fix it all, but that doesn't mean that I should stop caring or praying.

Here's a link to just a few more pictures I posted... not too many (they are at the end of the album.) http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30376115&l=e044be87e1&id=1516050484

Of Babies and Weddings... and a Funeral

School has officially ended, but that doesn’t mean this week was by any means dull! Quite the opposite! In the wee hours on Tuesday morning we got a call that Emma was having her baby, thinking we wouldn’t get a call unless it was imminent, we charged down the street running as fast as we could, surely causing the night guards to wonder if they were dreaming as we jogged past in the dead of night. Well, Emma didn’t have her baby until just before nine that morning, and it was a scary delivery, but the baby is doing much better now and breathing normally. However the day after the baby was born, we learned that Emma’s father in the village had died. I hate to even write about this, because Emma still doesn’t know. Her husband doesn’t want to upset her, with the new baby and all. It will be a very sad day for her tomorrow when she is finally told. Please pray for her and her new baby.
On Thursday I had the privilege to attend a dowry ceremony for a couple in our church that just got engaged. It was very exciting to hear that Raoline and Parfait will be married in August and though we are all sad to miss their wedding, they wanted to do the dowry while Andy was still here. Now that the dowry has been paid, they are culturally married, but they won’t be officially married until the mayor performs the wedding in August.
Then today, I had the opportunity to attend a wedding. It’s nice to have an idea of what Raoline’s wedding will be like. First everyone met at the mayor’s office where the official ceremony was performed, then we journeyed to the church where the pastors spoke and prayed for the couple and the choir sang. It was quite an affair… and very long, but it was exciting!

(Picture: Steve and Gayle with Amandine and Achille)

Where has all the cocoa gone?

How is it that this is the land of chocolate, the number one chocolate exporting country in the world, yet there has been an obvious lack of cocoa in this city? No more brownies, chocolate cake, hot cocoa... I have never used cocoa as much in my life before coming to Cote d'Ivoire, but now that it's not on any store shelf, I realize just how much a part of our life it is! The kids used to make hot cocoa before school every morning and bring it up with breakfast! (What a spoiled rotten teacher I was!!) And while I have to admit that there is still hot cocoa powder available, it's not the same as the pure cocoa they used to make it with. But I found proof in a village that there's no problem procuring the beans. The whole village smelled like cocoa. So, my only conclusion is those greedy Europeans are buying the whole country out cocoa beans and now there is none left for us natives! (I was tempted to buy some beans off the villagers and crack them and grate my own cocoa powder, but I suppose this addiction has to stop sometime.)

River Adventure

The rainy season has descended upon us, and it has me wondering if I will ever see the sun again before I leave. It blew in from the south in the middle of the night and splattered dirty muddy water over everything before I realize I had left some windows open! The red clay roads are quite treacherous when wet and I was amazed I didn’t fall flat on my face today (as I am in the habit of doing on rainy days.) But before this rainy season began, we spent a gorgeous day last week hunting for hippos on the Sassandra River. Well, not really hunting (that would have ensured that the most aggressive animal on this continent would have flipped our flimsy canoe for sure), we were just looking for them. I was told that the river was the smallest one in Cote d’Ivoire, however it looked mighty big to me! It seemed at least 4 times as wide as the Merrimack, which the guide would have probably thought was a mere stream. We took a shortcut through an island lined with mangrove trees. I’ve never been to the Everglades, but it made me think of something you would see there. I was just glad the water was too brackish for crocodiles, though I was informed there were snakes in those waters. Our journey continued on and on, and what I thought would be a 2 hour hunt for the hippos turned into an all day adventure. And while we were sad that we never met the hippo clan, it was a beautiful day for a canoe ride (ok, until the end when the wind picked up and the waves began to grow). We enjoyed a lovely stop at a village by the river, trekked through the wilderness to visit another village where we tasted palm wine (don’t worry, it hadn’t fermented… yet, the missionary guys made sure to check that out!), watched fish jump out of water, marveled at the only living creature we saw (other than the fish)- a yellow and black iguana, and basically enjoyed a nice lazy day in the sun while our guides did all the paddling… (well, until the end that is, when my parched throat urged me to swipe a paddle and give it a go, which almost resulted in knocking Joanne out of the boat.)
For pictures check this out: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019800&id=1516050484&l=141d6c3bf4

Journey to Yamo

Crazy to believe that we are in the last week of school! Only three more days to go... well, three more days of "real" school that is. There will still be a bit of reading and geography and spelling to sneak in over the next few weeks :) I look forward to returning to America on May 28th. Last week we took a quick trip to the capital of Cote d'Ivoire, Yamoussoukro, where the world's largest Christian church is. It was beautiful and quite remote for being the largest church. The stained glass windows were exquisite! It was truly gorgeous, just seems bizzarely out of place. It is actually owned by the Vatican now, which explains how it can maintain the upkeep it demands. The bus journey back was very interesting. What only took 4 hours in the car coming up, took 8 1/2 hours going back. We were continually stopped at checkpoints for identification. The bus was haunted with cockroaches- I think I only brought back one in my backpack, which was surprising seeing how infested the bus was. We squished in tight with chickens and ducks and yes, it made for a long, hot journey. But I was amazed to see how dressed up the other passengers were! Going on a trip is an occasion to dress your best apparently- it made me miserable just looking at them in their hot dresses and long sleeved shirts. Oh, and you should have seen the men biking on the road in the HOT noon sun- in sweatshirts and jackets. I will never understand! But despite the long, hot, sticky bus trip, it was a very beautiful ride through the countryside. Lots of little rice fields and small villages. And everything such a rich lush green.

Here are some pictures of the basilica, they show a little glimpse, but cannot truly capture how enormous and magnificent it was http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005237&id=1516050484&l=660ace7629

Zydeco in San Pedro

Who would have guessed that I would attend my first zydeco concert in Africa of all places? It seemed a bit surreal last night as we sat in San Pedro's cultural center listening to the Creole Cowboys from Louisiana. It was a program put on by the American Embassy. Zydeco is the black cousin to cajun music complete with accordion and washboard. (Yes, literally a washboard, I think the African women were enlightened on a new way to use their scrub boards.) They were very good, but my favorite part was listening to the performances of the local African groups. With their simple drums and no other accompaniment their voices rang loud and clear... so beautiful I wish you could hear it.

Nightime Rambles

It's the random little moments of the days here that make it worth spending these months away from all I've known. It's the lazy picnic day spent out in the sticky sun playing games with the kids and watching everyone get a chance to ride horses. It's listening to Hadassah sing songs we've learned together and watching Prisca's face light up with excitment when her sister gets a special treat. It's taking late night walks to see the colt, less than a day old wobble around on his little white legs, or holding an owl and marveling at her beauty and tranquility. It's struggling to communitcate with people and realizing we are having a successful conversation! And it's being able to spend time with the Ivorians and getting to know them better as people, rather than a mass of humanity chattering away in incomprehensible French.
I had the opportunity to listen in on a Crown Financial conference last week held at the Bible school. Joanne led it and did a wonderful job (ok, here I have to admit that I was more than a little lost on all that was taught due to my language barrier, but she sounded awfully good!) It was good to see a lot of people from our English class there. It is exciting to see this stuff being taught, because the people really have no concept of how to handle money. Husband and wives do not share their resources and the idea of saving money seems practically unheard of. The people do not comprehend expense vs profit. One woman recently had started up a business where she was losing money every day, but had no idea that was the case until someone sat down with her and showed her that the cost of her goods exceeded the profit she was bringing in. The idea that you need to spend less money than you make is revolutionary. I think a lot of these concepts that are taught are things most of us Americans know, but we fail to put into practice. But for the people out here, they just haven't thought of business this way.
I feel that I have been so sheltered here. I really have not seen the poverty first hand or the destitute conditions in which people live. I got the smallest glimpse of it last weekend when I merely stepped a few feet around the corner of the Bible school. I wish you could have seen the face of the little boy playing with a cardboard box. His smile was breathtaking, even in the midst of such a slum. It hurts to see how much America has and how little these people have. I'm not saying it isn't fair. I think America has worked very hard and quite diligently to become the nation she is. But, well, seeing it all around you just makes you think and wonder and ask, "Why them, why not me?" This is precisely why these financial seminars are good though. We can give the people all the money we wish, but until they learn how to use it properly, it will fade away quickly. Writing all this out reminds of history class yesterday and how we are learning about the UN. We see their presence all around us here in Cote d'Ivoire, and I've always wondered what they are really accomplishing here. I want to know more. I want to know that we aren't just giving this country the funds they desire, but that we are encouraging an ethical government and training the people of this land to take care of themselves. Until the greed in the government stops this country will always be poor, but at least if the people have a good handle on managing their money, perhaps, just maybe, they won't be quite so destitute.
Well, enough rambles and thoughts for tonight. They never seem to end.... they just spiral on and on.... but for the moment sleep calls. These six small ones have exhausted me this day!