I recently got to go on a trip to South Africa for work. After two weeks of meetings I got to spend a few extra days exploring Jozi (Johannesburg) with a friend that lives there.  I got to go shopping, go see a movie, have fast food, eat cheddar cheese and strawberries (I don’t have them in Abidjan), eat game meat and visit the Lion Park.  

                      
 
One of the malls that I visited was Montecasino. It is a huge mall with a casino in the middle that is designed to look like you are in Italy. It is impressive and maybe the fanciest mall I have ever been in.  Beside the movies, candy Store and restaurants everything else was way out of my price range.

I got to visit the Lion Park where you can go into the baby Lion inclosement. I got to pet the baby lions! You can also feed the giraffes and ostrich there as well. It was to cool! The cubs would climb up in your lap and one even decided she want to play with my jacket.

                                                                           

The parts of South Africa that I saw actually reminded me a lot of California. It was a nice get away from West Africa and it almost felt like being back in the States.  South Africa even has McDonalds, KFC and coffee shops everywhere like home plus Wal-Mart is even starting to pop up there. I enjoyed my time in South Africa but by the end I was ready to get back home and get back to work.

     

Port-Bouët

I recently stayed with an Ivorian family in their home. I lived in their home as a daughter and a sister taking in the sights, smells, tastes and culture.  As a daughter in the home I helped out with the cleaning and cooking. Neighbors pulled out phones to take pictures of me “the white lady” who was sweeping, washing dishes and pounding the palm nuts for the family’s dinner.  By the end of my stay the shock that I would actually work had worn off and I could do my chores without an audience….well except for my little two year old friends Prince and David.

 

I shared a room with my Sisters

Family Living Room

Prepping for Dinner

 

 Throughout my stay I went and did everything with one of my sisters. She is a seamstress and owns her own business. She has been an answer to prayer in finding a friend my age. We are the same age and hit it off right away.  It’s amazing how much we can understand each other even with my limited but growing ability to speak French.

 

Each night after dinner, we as a family sat in the living room talking, laughing and watching television.  One of the funniest nights in the home was the night I was told by my teenage sister we were going to watch a “Chic movie” from America.  My Ivoirian mom popped popcorn and we gathered as many people as we could in the living room to watch the movie.  Credits started to roll and this is when I realize we are about to watch “Coming to America”. It was funny watching it in French and watching their reactions to horrible representations of African American culture.  Questions followed the movie about “Soul Glo”, the African American church and McDonald’s.

Sisters on Movie Night

 This sweet family has now given me a new name, a tribal name “Béikté” that I now answer to in their home and in the neighborhood. I am still not exactly clear what my new name means but I did understand it was given to me by my Ivorian mom because I was the daughter that grew in her heart.

I enjoyed my time with my Ivorian family. I am grateful for their hospitality and willingness to help me learn the culture I now live in.  They exposed me to many new local foods like Attiéké , Aloko, FuFu, different sauce and eating whole fish which can be purchased from street vendors throughout the neighborhood.  They even took me to the beach here for the first time. I look forward to visiting with them in the future and know now I always have a home in the southern part of the city.

  

 

I Live in a Big West African City

Abidjan has about 5 million people and is one of the top 10 largest cities in Africa.  Abidjan used to be considered the Pearl or Paris of West Africa. Now while this country is still recovering from recent war buildings are decaying, statutes/memorials lie in ruins from being destroyed in the war and the people struggle to survive in today’s economy. The people are searching for hope and stability. 

While I have big buildings and four lane highways around me it is unlike any city I have every lived in. Things I took for granted in America are hard to find here. I was excited when I found a case of Dr. Pepper. This one store sometimes gets things in from Florida or Vancouver so it’s a treat when you find something from home.

Someone wanted to know what type of fast food I have here in Abidjan. Well the closest thing to fast food is buying roasted field corn, fried plantains or fried whole fish (fufu) from street venders or ordering a Falafel or Shawarma from the Lebanese man down the street.  I do have some family owned restaurants in my area where I can get fried chicken, hamburgers, pizza and Vietnamese food if I want it. Sadly no Mexican…well there was one place but it is not really Mexican and WAY overpriced.

I am learning to adjust to not having everything I want at my fingertips right away. I now wash my zip lock bags and use them over and over again. When I finish anything that came in a container (example: Mayonnaise) the container is washed and put away for me to reuse. I have to make my own pickles, chocolate syrup, salad dressing, pretzels and granola, basically almost everything is made from scratch.  I cut my facial wipes into halves to make them last longer. I keep clean water in jugs in the bathroom and kitchen. Getting new clothes is a process, you have to find and pick out fabric, pick an outfit style you like from a bunch of pictures and then find someone who can make it. 

While things might take longer to do here in Abidjan it has it benefits. Along the way you establish relationships with neighbors and people throughout the city. I am looking forward to learning about the city and its culture on an even deeper level next week as I spend a work week with an Ivorian family.

I Made It!

I have been in Abidjan for almost two weeks now. It was really nice to finally touch down, unpack and start to get to know the city.  I am currently living in a temporary location and waiting for my future home to be ready for me to move in. So there is another move involved but till then I am enjoying the apartment that has been provided till the next move. It is the raining season here in WA so the rain brings a nice breeze making it not so hot, hot, hot.  I am thankful for this because it is nice to get somewhat acclimated before it gets really hot.  
 
Since arriving I have experienced and am learning the taxi system of Abidjan. There are multiple colored Taxi’s (blue, green, yellow and red) each are different types headed to different areas and all drive like they are trying to win the Daytona 500.  I will eventually be driving the city myself but for now it’s good for me to observe and get familiar with the different zones and districts before I join the wild game of dodge people, cars, bikes and random animals. There is organization to the chaos and I am starting to pick up on it.

 

When I’m not out exploring, visiting street vendors and at the supermarche’s in search for food (all in French and Arabic) I’m learning language.  I am learning French five days a week 4 hours a day. The language program here is set up to teach you French just like a baby would start. So I have learned family, animals, colors, foods, numbers, clothing, house and kitchen stuff and a few other things.

For example my mentor will say “The chicken is on the bed” at that point I would find the chicken in the mix of toys and place it on the bed. She might say “The boy drinks the water” then I would take the boy doll and have him drink water.  I have been told I am doing great picking it up, I even passed a pop quiz in the home of a National Pastor this week.  

So far I have been introduced to an area of Abidjan. I attended services on Sunday. It was of course in French so the only bit I understood was what my teammates translated.  Even though the service was in a different language I enjoyed it and was shocked that it was only 2 1/2 hours long. I’ve been in services in Africa that have gone 4 hour regularly.  

Church in Abidjan

Later in the week I went back to that same area and joined in with the woman’s Soccer game.  We prayed, played, laughed, sang, dance to the beat of the drum, then played and prayed some more before heading home. It was a fun and I look forward to doing it again in the upcoming weeks.  I also really look forward to being able to say more than just a greeting and few broken words to these women.

I am thankful for God’s provision on getting me to where I am today, for the team He has placed around, their willingness to help me adjust to Africa and even for the cooler weather to acclimate in. The last two weeks have been full of new things. Drinking OJ from a plastic bag, getting a taxi all by myself, cooking multiple meals from scratch, learning over 150 words in a week, etc..  There is still much more first to come! 



Neighborhood Street After the Rain

 

In Kenya

After traveling over 36 hours I made it to Kenya. The last time I was in Kenya was 2004 it has been way to long! While here in Kenya I am getting to meet new friends and coworkers but I also am getting to see some old ones too! I got a day to break away from learning this week and explore. I got to go on Safari, pet a baby elephant, kiss a giraffe, enjoy a coffee at Java House, got dragged out of Kazuri beads before I went broke, and ate way too much at Carnivore. Enjoying Kenya but looking forward to arriving in my new home in West Africa.

 

Recent Highlights

My time in Vancouver is coming close to an end, in fact in less than a week I will be headed on a plane towards Africa.  I am excited and ready with anticipation of what the Lord has in store for me.  The last few weeks have been full of strengthening relationships and speaking truth and encouragement in to the lives of new friends. Oh and they absolutely have encouraged me along the way too.

 My top five Highlights over the last few weeks (not necessary in order) have been:

-          Biking Stanley Park right before Sunset with my awesome roomie.

-          Meeting a new sweet friend who has relocated to Vancouver from West Africa.

-          Hanging out all day with a dear friend picking up last minute essentials (ok really wants) for our next move.

-          Watching four awesome Kidos for the weekend as their parents celebrated their anniversary.

-          A trip to Whistler with the girls (except for hours lost watching Man of Steel that was So boring) Whistler hosted the biathlon, cross-country ski, Nordic combined and ski jump events for the 2010 Olympics.

 



 

Olympic Park at Whistler  

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria

In Canada we had a three day weekend as people and business took the time off to celebrate Victoria Day. Victoria Day is celebrated every year on the last Monday before May 25, in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday. It is thought to be the start to summer, like Memorial Day for us Americans.  So since it was a 3 day holiday our teachers added on another day and called it Family weekend. 

 Since my parents had already scheduled an Alaskan Cruise for this week my actually family weekend was going to be less than six hours in Victoria, British Columbia. However, me and one of the other single ladies who is now part of my new family went and had a great weekend.  We went and explored some new and favorite sights in Vancouver and then went over to Victoria. Victoria is a 25min plane ride or a 5hr journey by buses, train and Ferry. We on a budget took the 5 hour route there and back.

 

In Victoria we stayed in a cute hotel located within walking distance of everything it was great! We had yummy food everywhere we went. We walked down to the Ocean through an old historical neighborhood admiring the ornate homes. We walked the shore line where seals were playing and searching for food and watched the nautical traffic coming in and out of the harbor.

 

 Saturday night we got to have dinner with my family. I loved seeing my parents and my Aunt and Uncle. I was grateful to get to see them even if it was for only a few hours, we made them count and had a good time.

 Then on Sunday we had a nice breakfast at this cute little restaurant. I  had Apple Pancakes with salted caramel which were Amazing! Then  we dressed up in what looked like a suit for an astronaut and boarded a Zodiac boat to go whale watching.  Oh course we volunteered to sit in the front and we headed out full speed in search for Whales. We found them!!!

 

 

 

We got to see both Killer whales and 2 humpback whales along with Sea Lions and seals! It is pretty cool to watch the massive tale of a humpback whale come out of the water.  My pictures of the whales are not that great because I did not want to miss what was happening in front of me.

 

 

 So I had a great 4 day weekend and would highly recommend Victoria for a nice little Ocean get away. The one thing we did not do that could be fun was going to High Tea. We ran out of time Maybe next time.