Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire)

We spent almost a week in Cote d'Ivoire.  Almost everyone speaks French there so it was great that Jim has as much French as he does.  He struggled and his brain worked overtime, but he managed pretty well.  It certainly did help a lot. 

We traveled with our vision specialist from SLC.  First thing on our arrival,  a driver had been arranged for us, and we were driven to visit a small clinic.  They essentially have nothing but Bro. Hunsaker feels like we can help them.  His opinion is 'if we build it, they will come'.  So he will write up a project and give them a couple of items for their Optometry room.  They do have an optometrist and he had very meager supplies to work with.

The next day we headed to Soubre, place about 6 hours away.  Some said 4, some said 7, but it took us 6 hours.  We rented a vehicle and when you rent vehicles in Ivory Coast that includes a driver.  I guess too many vehicles got sold, instead of returned!   He was a good driver and did a good job of missing most of the many potholes.  It was a rough ride though.   We went directly to another very small hospital/clinic.  They had requested some medical equipment.  They virtually had nothing to speak off (6 beds with mattresses and some IV stands).  We will help them out with a few things.  Our Area Initiatives must be less than $25,000.  We even added a couple of stethoscopes and thermometers to the list as they only had one. 

 We stayed in a hotel that maybe could be classed as 1/2 star -- but that was the best they had there.  We ordered pizza from the menu at the hotel and got it after about 2 hours of waiting.  Sigh!  That's Africa!   We left early for our 6 hour ride back to Abidjan.   We did stop at one point and take pictures of a grove of Rubber trees, where they were collecting the sap from the trees into little pails.    We also stopped to look at a water well and while there Sis. Hunsaker and I saw a lady with a basket of fabric so we checked it out and each bought a piece or two.  It was a good deal.  Plus the fellows we were with who took us to see the clinics bought us each a piece as a gift.  Hmmm.....     they must really want these projects approved.  ;)

We arrived back in Abidjan and stayed in a beautiful hotel there.  Nice!   At 5 pm we met with 6 stake presidents and the Area Authority Seventy at a Stake Centre and did some training on the 'member food and small animal production' initiative.  There are 6 stakes in Abidjan and 2 missions in Cote d'Ivoire.  The training went well even with the language barrier.  Some knew English and could help translate back and forth but again, Jim did pretty good.

Sunday we attended a Sacrament Meeting in an open pavilion-type structure.  It was great.  The weather right now is quite pleasant -- not too hot, but not cold.

Dr. & Sis. Hunsaker left after Church to fly back to Accra and then connect to their SLC flight.   We stayed in Abidjan to look at another project request to help a Literacy group that are teaching adults, that have never learned, to read and write.  We were impressed with what they are doing and will write up the project and give them some books, exercise books and supplies. 

We also met with an assistant to a  Government official about the needs in Cote d'Ivoire that they are focusing on.  He wasn't a lot of help and next time we need to arrange with at least a month's notice to meet the right person.  O well.

We met again with the fellows from the Clinics and had a nice chat with them.  They brought us more gifts; an African outfit for Jim (pants and matching shirt) and brought me a dress that I like.  I need to lose 10 lbs. though to wear it.  O yeah, and Jim's outfit comes with a little hat too!  hehe

The Mission President for the newly formed 2nd mission there came and picked us up at the Hotel and took us to the mission office.  We had a satellite phone for him and Jim helped him get it set up and make his call to SLC.  Each mission has a satellite phone for emergency purposes and Jim is in charge of making sure they all make their test calls to SLC twice a year.  They report to Jim when the call has been successfully made.

We headed back to Accra on Wednesday and have been busy catching up at the office and starting to write up the projects.  Nothing has been done in Cote d'Ivoire so we hope to be able to help them out there.  We don't have a humanitarian couple there.   

It is a beautiful country.  It is rainy season so everything was green and lush.  Thick forests/jungles.  They have rubber tree plantations and cocoa plantations.  Lots of gardens and maize growing right now.  The people are wonderful, just like everywhere else here. 

I am sending some photos of the countryside, potholes, bigger potholes, and biggest potholes.  Hehe!    But, just to show that there are some good roads I included a photo of a freeway in Cote d'Ivoire that runs from Abidjan up to the border of Burkina Faso.  It was great and we got to drive on it for a couple of hours as we traveled to Soubre.  The other four hours were not so nice.