Finally home

I'm finally home so I thought Id write a last entry since I'm not sure I'll be able to go back to Duekoue. I left Duekoue last Tuesday and got home an entire week later after having gone to Benin, then Spain, then Paris, then Chicago. When I got to Abidjan things seemed pretty calm, but then the sisters started saying I should try to leave earlier so I got a little nervous.

Then there was the standoff in front of the Golf Hotel where Outtara's government is staying, then the US embassy got hit by an RPG, and on Saturday the US government sent an email saying to leave while there are commercial flights available.

So Saturday was a pretty panicked day. The sisters took me to the airport to try to figure something out because my Air France flight had been changed to Sunday morning, but the travel agent in the US said that it was cancelled. We found a flight to Cotonou, Benin with Air Ivoire and then went back to the house to wait until the flight that evening. Back at the house however we learned that someone with Gbagbo's government would be holding a youth rally so they took me back to the airport so that they wouldnt have to be driving during the rally. I got to the airport for the second time at around 1pm to wait until my flight at 7ish. Luckily I met up with this lady who works with the sisters and an American with his Congolese wife. We all hung out all afternoon at a restaurant and it turned out to be a really good time.

My flight was delayed a few hours and we didnt end up leaving until around 1030, but by that time I had found an American girl who had been living in Abidjan and working for CDC. So we hung out and I was happy to be with someone since I would be arriving in Benin without a visa. We finally got to Benin at around 1230 and as we were filling out immigration cards this police man came up to us and said 'are you american? are you anne?' So the sisters in Cotonou had been alerted and the police man was there to help me figure out the visa situation. Unfortunately by 'figure out the visa situation' I mean 'charge us both 80 dollars for a 15 dollar visa'. Then he said that he would be keeping the passports overnight at the airport. That really freaked me out but the sister who picked me up seemed to be ok with it.

So I made plans with the other American to meet up the following day and the sister took me to their house. The next day we had almost the whole day since the flight wasnt until night. Lucky for me they were having a party for the teachers at their school so we spent the day eating and dancing. It was a great day to be in Cotonou.

That night we went back to the airport and tried to get the passports back. The policemen who were there that night found out that the guy from the night before had charged us 80 dollars and were not happy. The girl I was with wasnt supposed to be charged at all since shes employed by the government and he had way overcharged me. They were nice enough to give us the money back after giving us a long and sass-filled talk about how 'normally when people come here without a visa we send them back to where they came from'. I didn't ask if 'imminent civil war' was worthy of an exception.

So then I spent a solid amount of time at the airport in Benin since the flight left 5 hours late. At 330am we finally took off for Paris. Then we had to land in Barcelona because of the snow in Paris and stayed on the runway there for a few hours. Later we took off again and this time were able to land in Paris...at this point we were arriving about 8 hours late. Charles de Gaulle was a mad house, I couldn't find a United representative and whats worse is that I couldn't stop crying. I was seriously pathetic trying to describe my problem to a US air guy who said there was nothing he could do to help me. I had slept through the meal on the plane so I was hungry, tired, thirsty and just wanted to be home.

I was fumbling around with a pay phone when I saw a group of people who looked American so I asked them if they were American and after that everything got worked out. One of them had a phone that I was able to use, they offered me a beer and I then spent the next 12 hours hanging out with them in Charles de Gaulle and having a great time. In the meantime my brother and law worked his status magic and got me booked out the following day on a flight to Chicago...with all my new friends! The people at the airport gave us mats and blankets to sleep on and the next day we finally left Paris.

At this point it was Tuesday and I had left Abidjan on Saturday. I of course missed my connecting flight to North Carolina so had to spend some quality time in lines in Ohare figuring out a new flight. Finally on Tuesday night I was able to leave Chicago for Charlotte. So now I'm home. My luggage is still on its way, but I really couldn't care less. Im just happy to be home, away from Liberian mercenaries, and not stuck in an airport.

Hope you all have a merry Christmas! If there is some sort of miracle and things calm down, Ill keep blogging from Cote d'Ivoire. Or maybe I'll end up somewhere else. Or maybe I'll just stay home...at least until I'm in the mood again for some airport excitement.

Update

We arrived in Abidjan yesterday after an uneventful (and long) trip. I was really sad to leave Duekoue and the girls at the boarding school. We had a little party the night before I left and the girls sang a song they wrote. It was really nice, but then they asked me to dance and that was not so nice. When they dance they just have someone who drums and when they dance they actually look cool. Until then I had refused to take part in any dancing but since I was going to leave soon I thought I would entertain them. They laughed hard and I'm sure I looked dorky but oh well.
On Sunday I went to another village and it was a real adventure with the road. The truck got stuck multiple times and we had like 15 guys pushing it. Video to come soon! (for real this time since Ill be home on sunday) Then in the village children cried at the sight of me. I even wore my new outfit, but that was not enough. To them I was still some sort of ghost and the boss man of the village explained that they had never seen a white person. I felt like a zoo animal, but nonetheless everyone was really nice.
Now going to spend the next few days doing I don't know what here at the sisters house in Abidjan. They said it's not a good idea (as a whitie) to leave the house so I'll just be hanging out. Yesterday I went outside for maybe 5 minutes and my feet were black from the dust from the tires they burnt. Also the quartier where they live is basically a slum and it smells bad and it's hotter here than in Duekoue and there are more mosquitos and the mosque next door is so loud at 4am. Did I mention that Duekoue is paradise?
There is a lot more I want to say, but it would turn into a ridiculously long post if I wrote everything I want to say. I will in fact be putting up pictures and videos soon since I will be living it up with WIFI in the US.
Thanks for reading and see (some of you) soon!!

who's the president today?

We still have 2 presidents here so we’re just kind of waiting around,
but things are surprisingly normal. The dispensary is pretty busy
again and lots of people are at the market. That said there is still
no school. Since I’ve been here they’ve had 3 full weeks off and a few
other days here and there. Every few days theres a rumour that school
will start the following day, but that has yet to happen and almost
all the girls have gone home to their village.
In good news my new outfit is here. I look pretty stupid in it, but
the girls seemed to think it was funny so whatever. I tried it on for
the sisters and we took some pictures. Before we took the picture
though sr Vicky looks at my hair (it was up) and says ‘go brush your
hair. Whats this? Its not pretty.’ Always honest.
So not too much new here but I wanted to write real quick about my new
outfit (very important) and wanted to write about the dispensary a
little. There are a decent number of people who come in who have AIDS,
but the way they talk about it is interesting. It’s always ‘the doctor
told me I have dirty blood’ or sr Vicky says ‘you need to go get a
blood test to see if your blood is sick.’ I guess it’s just their way
of dealing with it, but on Wednesday this one lady won the prize for
being the most vague. She came in with spots all over her body- like
the kind of spots you see in a textbook when they talk about AIDS.
Anyway she says ‘Ive had these spots for a few months. It’s since I
went to Korhogo- the water there isn’t good.’ Right it’s the water. It
seemed like she had no idea, but when sr Vicky asked her if she had
had a blood test she said yes and that the doctor had given her
medicine and said she had dirty blood. So I guess she knew she had
AIDS, but didn’t seem to understand that it’s chronic and that she has
to continue with the medicine. She had come to the dispensary
wondering if we had some cream or something for her skin. So Sr Vicky
had to explain that no, a cream will not cure this illness of the
blood. Maybe it was just a front, but it really seemed like she knew
nothing at all about AIDS and that for her the most worrisome thing
was the spots on her skin.
So that’s it for now. Just wanted to give an outfit update (Im sure
you were curious) and tell you about this illness of the blood they
have around here.
Bye!

Greetings from Cote d’Ivoire, land of 2 presidents. So I guess since I last wrote, the results were overturned and Gbagbo the incumbent was declared the winner…by the constitutional counsel which he controls and after cancelling the votes from 7 out of 19 departments due to ‘fraud’. Such a crazy coincidence that those were the departments where the opposition got over 80 percent of the votes during the first election. So that was Friday and then yesterday he was sworn in. Shotgun wedding-esque. The swearing in ceremony was actually pretty funny because it was totally disorganized. Then he gave some ridiculous speech about following the law and about how no international organization can declare the winner. I guess Outtara had a swearing-in ceremony at around the same time, but I haven’t seen it since the only channel we get is the state-run one.

The girls who are still here just say ‘I don’t care who it is as long as there is peace’ or ‘I just want a president’. They are in luck because now there are 2! So that’s how some people feel. Then yesterday I got to hear what my buddy Willfred had to say. Willfred has some sort of bad family situation and so he always comes to talk to sister Yvette who he told me is his best friend. Anyway he said that the French news channel lied when they said Outtara won and that they didn’t even mention the violence in the north and blah blah blah. It was interesting because when we watch the Ivorian channel I always think ‘who in the world would believe this’ but I guess there are people who believe it and who think the French lied and just want to control cote d’ivoire. I asked Willfred what he thought about the fact that the rest of the world thinks Outtara won, but at that point the sisters told him to go home. They tolerate him in small doses and then pretty much chase him away.

I’m not sure whats on the news there, but Im guessing only the most dramatic pictures are  being shown.

Tires burning in Abijdan and people breaking stuff.  Here in Duekoue its calm and there’s even school

tomorrow! Actually I doubt that, but here things are peaceful and no one is burning tires or breaking stuff. So

we’ll see who will be the president tomorrow. First it was Outtara, then Gbagbo, and now both! Who

knows what will happen but I need to fly out of here on the 18^th so I hope they take that into consideration.

Thanks for reading!

Election reflection

We’re at the end of our week off and it has been an interesting week for sure. I’ve been honing my time-killing skills, making cookies and yesterday I watched some chickens get killed. Lots of new experiences.

Two weeks ago one of the girls made these cookies and they were so tasty so I wanted to see how they’re made. We went to the market to buy the ingredients, but since the market was only like half full, it took awhile. It was hard to find coconuts and then it was hard to find flour and the prices are all higher than normal. All thanks to the elections. The recipe calls for coconut flakes so of course we bought 3 coconuts and grated them. I prefer to buy the pre-made flakes in a bag, but shockingly that wasn’t available at the market. The recipe wasn’t very complicated but it was interesting to make them with the girls because the rolling pin was an old coke bottle and the cookie cutter was a glass jar. The cookies turned out ok but we ended up being kind of rushed at the end and in Sr Yvettes opinion they were ‘not good at all’. So we’ll try again another day.

Another food-related experience was yesterday I went with Sr Vicky to this farm where we usually buy eggs but this time we bought 5 chickens too. The guy tied them all together and we took them home. I guess they’re really into the whole free range/organic thing here. A little while later I was outside when I came across the gardener, Rudolph, who had just killed them. None of them ran around after having their heads cut off so it was a bit of a let down. After that the girls took the chickens and put them in big plastic buckets with warm water to pluck them. Just plucking chickens with my girlfriends, the usual. I took a whack at it and removed a few feathers, but once is probably enough for me. The girls asked, ‘don’t you do this where you live?’ As I explained how it’s a little different (ie frozen nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs) I imagined my friends and I hanging out, plucking chickens. It was kind of hard to imagine.

Election shenanigans are still going on and the deadline for the electoral commission to announce the results came and went. Then yesterday afternoon the commission announced that Outtara (not the current pres) won with 54 percent. We watched it on a French TV channel, but the Ivorian TV channel didn’t show the press conference. A little while later, while we were watching our favourite Telemundo soap opera, an announcement went across the bottom of the screen saying that only the constitutional counsel (controlled by the current pres) can announce the results because the electoral commission missed their deadline by 12 hours. Then they closed all the borders (sorry all you Liberians who were trying to vacation here) and cut all the international news channels. I guess they cut it in Abidjan first because we were still able to watch the French station even as they announced that they’ve been suspended from Cote d’Ivoire. Today though I guess it’s cut everywhere because we no longer have it.

The constitutional counsel has 7 days to announce the results. So another week on hold where no one does anything. It really ticks me off and it’s not even my country so I imagine people are pretty mad. The current president has been there for 10 years, but I guess that’s not enough for him. I guess for him the power is worth the huge lose of productivity and the sporadic violence. His whole campaign was about peace and his campaign symbol was even a hand giving the peace sign. Ugh.

So that’s it for here. Just waiting for the ‘results’ so things can get back to normal. Most importantly I hope the tailor has been able to finish my new outfit. Just kidding but really I hope things get back to normal.

Thanks for reading!

Election part deux and cooking

It’s been 2 months since I arrived and so on Saturday I decided to make hamburgers for the sisters. I also wanted to make burgers for the girls who are still here (most of them went home for the elections) but I found out that you can’t buy ground beef here. That just doesn’t exist here in Duekoue apparently and the meat that Sr Vicky had taken out of the freezer was meat that she had bought in Abidjan. Also the only cheese you can buy in Duekoué is Laughing Cow cheese but it’s not refrigerated and is therefore suspicious. So we went to the market and bought tomatoes, lettuce, mustard, ketchup (Heinz!) and potatoes to make fries.

Sr Vicky helped me make the burgers and as I was frying them in a pan she said ‘get your camera. You can show your mom you cooked and she’ll say it’s a miracle’. So it was a miraculous day and we had fried burgers on baguettes (no buns in this town) and I wore my Obama girl shirt. Since Sr Vicky told me that even if hamburger meat was available, the girls wouldn’t like it because they’re not used to it, I bought potatoes for the girls to fry. They love fried stuff and use an absurd amount of oil.

Election day was yesterday and I guess it went well. There was some demonstration in Abidjan that got nasty and in a village near here someone stole the urn with all the votes in it, but nothing too bad. There is a 10 pm curfew until Wednesday so I sadly will have to wait to hit up all the sweet clubs and bars in Duekoué. Supposedly they’ll have the results by Wednesday night. It’s funny compared to home where they report the votes as they come in and there is no wait. Here they put a piece of paper in a box like they’re voting for who will be homeroom representative. The election is between the current president (Gbagbo) who has been the president for the past 10 years or something and a guy (Outtara) who was at one time the prime minister. In the debate I liked Outtara better even though some people think he kind of started the rebellion in 2000 or 2002. He’s Muslim and his wife is blonde, French and Jewish. A dynamic duo! I don’t really know how interesting all this is for you so anyway…

Today at the dispensary there were maybe 8 people and we finished at around 10 compared to other Mondays where we finish at 2 or 2:30. So one of the girls and I went to the tailor to choose a style for my fabulous new outfit. There were all these photo albums of different styles so it was kind of overwhelming, but I ended up choosing something pretty simple so hopefully I won’t look too stupid. Having an outfit tailored uniquely for me, including the fabric, will be less than 20 dollars. Hello new wardrobe! Just kidding I think one outfit will suffice.

So that’s what’s new in Duekoué. Just waiting for the election results. Waiting and waiting…

fotou and cornrows

I was going to wait to write this until I wasnt quasi rushed at the internet cafe with a barely functioning mouse, but Im going to go ahead and give a quick update.

Wednesday we were at the dispensary when we heard all the girls coming back from school at 9am. Usually they get back at 11ish, but apparently there will be no school until there is a new president. So the girls were happy and started leaving to go home to their villages. I was not happy to be losing my soccer team.

Thursday I decided to go big and one of the girls, Tatiana, and I went to the market to buy the cloth to make me a fantastic outfit. There are so many people selling a thousand different patterns so it was a little overwhelming and Tatiana is hard to understand so that too was a little stressful. After a while though we found a nice pattern for a good price and headed back to the house. Not before buying an 'obama girl' shirt though. Everyone has that shirt here and since hes my president I thought it was a very necessary purchase for less than 2 dollars. Tommorow we are going to take the cloth to the tailors to decide on a style so that will be interesting.

That afternoon I was talking to the girls and said I wanted to learn how to make fotou. Not sure thats how you spell it but anyway its a paste made from plantains and manioc and they eat it with sauce. The girls have this area where they make their food and one of them was about to make fotou. To make it you use one of those big wooden sticks and pound the plantains in a huge wooden bowl type thing. Not the best description, but think stereotypical village woman. She had already cooked the plantains and so she put a few into the bowl and handed me the stick. Then I found out why the girls are crazy buff. It was so heavy! I did it maybe 5 times and my arms were tired. The girls just sit there and do it like its lifting a pencil. I really struggled and was glad that at home I can cook some frozen food and be done with it. Soon after that one of the girls wanted me to try what she was eating so I said sure and it was in my mouth before I realized it was the skin of I dont know what. Pig or cow Im not sure I kind of zoned out when I heard her say it was skin. Cant say I'd choose to eat it again since the texture was not great, but the sauce on it was good so the taste of skin wasnt too powerful. Not sure what 'the taste of skin' would be but anyway...

After that we were talking about my hair and I said I wanted it done in the same style as one of the girls. I was planning on waiting until the weekend or something, but one of the girls started braiding it and now I have cornrows and a headache. It looks pretty dumb and in any other context it would be unacceptable but I don't feel that ridiculous.

That night was the presidential debate! It was really interesting, but Im not going to describe it in detail right now because I need to go home before it gets dark. I'll have time to describe everything in detail next week since we probably won't have class all week. Quelle horreur.
Anyway hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving! I thought about trying to cook something for the sisters, but decided its best to wait until january and wait until I actually know how to do it.
Ill probably write again soon since there are only 6 girls left and I dont think the sisters will play soccer with me. Theyre not really your stereotypical nuns though so who knows. There might be a secret soccer star among them.
bye!

A 'normal' week

Last week was shockingly normal after the holiday on Tuesday and almost everyone came to class so that was nice. For the class with the people learning how to use computers we spent Thursday in a regular classroom so that went a lot better. Also at the beginning of class Sr Marguerite gave them this pep talk about how the UN mission here asked her for 2 people who knew computers well and who also knew English but she had no one to give them. She said the salary they offered and it was 3 times bigger than other jobs that the students might get after they finish. So they were all really focused that day. When I told Sr Marguerite how focused they were she said ‘well otherwise they spend all their time making fun of your accent and then come to me and imitate it’. Harsh.

Friday at the dispensary nothing too new except this one girl with this huge burn all over her shoulder/arm, but who had waited weeks to come in and so it was a mess. Her mom was with her and said ‘well I was taking care of my rice fields’. Oh ok I see. Then this tiny baby came in who was 5 days old but who hadn’t eaten anything since being born. He had his fists all clenched and Sr Vicky tried to feed him baby bird style (with a syringe, not with her mouth) but said his tongue and throat were all hard. The mom had had the baby at the house and Sr Vicky said that whoever cut the cord didn’t use a clean instrument and she thought the baby had tetanus and would die because there was nothing to do. Dang talk about a stupid death.

Friday evening we played soccer and usually I exert as little effort as possible but I had a lot of energy so I ran around a lot. Bad idea and I felt really sick later and on Saturday I didn’t feel well either. Sr Vicky said, ‘The girls are strong and can handle the heat. You need to go to bed at 8:30’. So it wasn’t the best weekend and now I have a new bed time.

That’s it for today. The elections (the sequel) are in a week so we’ll see how many days we have off school this time! Thanks for reading!

getting ma hair did and other events of the weeekend

I feel like a lot has happened since I last wrote but I guess ive been kind of busy. Tomorrow though is a muslim holiday so theres no school. That means that there was no school today…and there will be no school on Wednesday…and the sisters doubt that people will go to school on Thursday and Friday. So another week of school quasi in-session.

Thursday is one of the days where I do English class at the literacy center for the people learning how to use computers. Usually it’s in a normal classroom but on Thursday we were in a room where everyone was on a computer. We were comparing Word in French to Word in English and I was thinking we would just go through it real quick and they could make a list of vocab words. I completely took for granted knowing how to use a computer. Sr Marguerite is in charge of the literacy center and was explaining to the students what we were going to be doing. She had to explain how to open Word, make a new document, how to name it, how to minimize a window, how to close a window…all that. Then I wanted to go through and look at the words in French and English but I realized that if they typed the list, it would take about 8 hours because they’re just learning how to type. They didn’t know how to make a question mark or anything. Afterwards I realized that that was really clueless to think they would be able to do all that, but the age range is like 18-45 years old so I just figured everyone knew how to use Word.

The same thing happens at the boarding school with the VCR and DVD player. Sr Vicky starts the movie and then leaves. At the end when its finished none of the girls know how to stop it or turn the machine off. I feel really tech savvy as I rewind VHS tapes.

On Friday sr Vicky unleashed her idea that someone should braid my hair and add ‘mesh’ ie fake hair ie I should have a weave. No joke. I was like ‘ohh I don’t know about that. I think everyone would laugh’ but she says ‘no the opposite. They’ll like it because youre doing something that they do.’ Still the idea of buying hair at the market and then having someone tug at my scalp for hours was a little much. The next day though when she brought it up again and I was like ok whatever who cares about braiding it, but I draw the line there. So Saturday afternoon one of the girls braided my hair. She kind of like divided it into squares and then braided those pieces so there were a bunch of little braids. I looked like an idiot but she girls seemed to like it or think it was funny or both. Later I put the braided pieces into a bun and sr Yvette told me it looked like wedding hair. She then suggested a rather elaborate prank which involved finding a wedding gown, a ‘young monsieur’, and then taking pictures to send to my mom telling her I got married. That was more effort than I was willing to make for a prank but I loved that she suggested it.

On Sunday sr Vicky and I went with one of the priests to another village. It was tiny, but closer to Duekoue than the other one. After mass they wanted to give ‘the foreigners’ lunch so we ate…but only with the men of the village. The women brought the food to the men and literally genuflected as they put the food on the ground. Hell no. I hate to be judgy since it’s not my culture and I don’t really understand it but come on. At the end they gave us pineapples and a live chicken. Generous and the chicken was a quiet and agreeable passenger in the car on the way home.

On a somewhat related note, the other day some of the girls were asking me about my family and telling me they wanted to marry my brothers, and inviting me to their village where I would marry one of their brothers…the usual. So I was asking them how many siblings they have and of course they all have at least 5 but Djenebou won the prize for having 15 siblings. Then she explained that her dad has 4 wives. She said it in such an offhand way and the other girls seemed to think nothing of it so I made some generic comment like ‘its fun to have siblings’.

Well that’s all for now! Since theres no school today or tomorrow or maybe all week sr Vicky told me it’s a good time to do some extra English with the girls. Some of them like English and others really try to avoid it at all costs. Sr Vicky says the problem is ‘theyre lazy’ which always makes me laugh since the girls get up at 530 every morning, make all their own meals and do a lot of cleaning. If she thinks thats lazy I would hate to have her see me every Saturday during college where I slept until noon, never made my own food and cleaned rarely. But I keep that information to myself. So now its time to go find some lazy girls to study English. Thanks for reading!

Back to normal

This week everything is ‘back to normal’ after the elections and the second round actually isn’t until the 28^th. So we have some time before everyone goes home again and doesn’t leave the house for a week.

Since everyone was at home last week, Monday at the dispensary was nuts. We saw over 60 people and didn’t finish until 2:30. Halfway through I went into the house to drink some water and get my snack on, but sr Vicky didn’t stop once. I guess it’s kind of hard to say ‘come back on Wednesday’ to people who have walked super far to get there and their kid has a fever of 104. So it was a long day, but it was interesting and I really like being there. At around 2:15 sr marguerite came in to lay down the law and tell us to stop, but at that point there were only a few people left. She was hilarious and bossy. ‘No you need to stop. Even at the people at the hospital stop for lunch and then start again after’. To a dad whose son was falling asleep in his arms: ‘non mais pardon monsieur why have you not given him anything to eat?’ To someone who only had a big bill: ‘No next time you get change beforehand. It’s a waste of time’.

So other than Monday being a long day, nothing too notable has happened this week. English classes are going well even if the students continue to mock me even to my face. I guess I say ‘ok’ too much because on Tuesday every time I said it, one of the students would repeat it and everyone would laugh. Oh well. The ‘classes’ with the boarding school girls are funny because they are really into that ‘waving flag’ song from the world cup so we end every lesson by singing it. I’m glad I listened to that song on repeat or else I wouldn’t be able to teach them the words.

I’m going to go figure out what to do with the English class at the literacy center this afternoon. They are older and more attentive than the boarding school girls or the technical school kids so it’s a nice change. They also wait to make fun of me until after class at which point they tell sr marguerite just how funny it was when I said ‘Im not a sister’. I really don’t know why that was funnier than any other phrase that I butcher, but at the lesson after that, when someone called me ‘sister’ I didn’t bother to correct them. So this is sr anne signing off.

vacation week!

Not too much new to report here since we had off the entire week because of the election. Yes, it did take place on Sunday and yes it did happen peacefully. Still no one went to school or work for an entire week. The results were announced and its…a tie! No joke. There will be another election on the 22^nd so there will be at least another week where no one works. Its funny to think about how much work doesn’t get done because of elections! Funny isn’t really the right word, but you know what I mean.

We still did the dispensary on Wednesday and Friday but there weren’t a lot of people. Most of the boarders went home for the elections (necessary) but there are still maybe like 25 girls so we’ve done a bit of English and played some soccer. Ive never exerted so little energy and gotten so sweaty. We’ve also watched a few movies and yesterday was the best day ever because we watched The Sound of Music (la melodie de bonheur in French). All of the songs were translated so the lyrics were different alas I was not able to sing along to the entire thing. A real shame, but I enjoyed it anyway.

My French is coming along, but the boarders are still really hard to understand. The accent plus the fact that they don’t slow down when they talk to me can make things pretty difficult. Overall though it’s getting easier and I guess it’s good that there aren’t any other English speakers because like this I have to speak French. I can usually get my point across even if this sometimes requires the use of wild gestures. I’m basically a semi-professional mime.

This morning was cleaning day so I gave my bedroom/bathroom a serious scrubbing and then I went to the market with Sr Vicky to buy fruit. I found the market depressingly dirty the first few times I went, but I enjoy it now and it’s always quite the mix of things. Lots of fish, next to someone selling bras, next to someone selling gold jewellery, next to someone selling rice. Also, I’ve also never seen so many plastic bags. They put everything in little plastic bags- water, juice, spices, yogurt, pigs feet. You name it, they got it and they will be happy to give it to you in a bag that you will later toss onto the street because there are no trash cans. These little plastic bags can be kind of tricky because you bite a little hole in it and then squeeze it to eat/drink it. The first time I tried it, yogurt went all over the place and it was a mess. Then last weekend one of the boarders handed me a bag of water, half of which ended up on me and the other half on the ground. Probably for the best since I didn’t know where that water came from but really didn’t want to ask, ‘is this filtered?’. That would be like asking one of these fishmongers if they had anything sashimi grade.

That’s it for now. Im going to go play soccer and hopefully tonight when I go to take a shower the water will be on. Last night it had been cut and the timing was unfortunate since I had just played soccer and was looking to bathe in something other than my own sweat. Sorry I know you’re not reading this for an in-depth description of just how sweaty I get here so that’s it for now!

...after the elections

Since Ive been here there has been this massive build up to the presidential elections that happened on Sunday. Everything is talked about in relation to the elections. Some girls are waiting to come to school until after the elections and a bunch of other things ‘will start after the elections’. So Sunday was the big day and it happened peacefully. There was a voting station next door to us so there was a UN tank in front of our house all day. They are very serious about peace. I figured things would start back on Tuesday (Monday was all saints day so obviously no one worked) but things apparently won’t start up until next week even though the results should be announced today.

Yesterday I was supposed to have two English classes but at the first one there were only 2 students and the second one didn’t happen at all. Today at the dispensary there were around 10 people as opposed to the usual 30-40. At mass on Sunday there were maybe 50 people as opposed to the usual 200ish.There is no one in the streets and it’s like everything has just stopped while they wait for the results of the election to be announced. I find it really frustrating, but everyone else seems fine with it so I guess I should chill out or something. It’s just hard to understand how everything can stop.

So not too much is new here. I guess once the results are announced things will start up again..after maybe a few days of celebration and then maybe a few days of recovery…maybe then everyone will go to school and work. I hate to sound like a negative nancy and overall things are still good here. But still feel free to send me any entertaining or even any boring emails!! Thanks for reading!

1,000 hail marys

The week went by really fast and I teach 9 times a week now so that makes time fly. I teach twice a week at the technical school, twice a week at the literacy center (not to the illiterate people, but to the people learning how to use computers there), and 5 times a week with the boarding school girls. Those are a lot less structured and its kind of annoying because I have to like round them up and make them come to ‘class’. Its an extra hour that they have to be in school so I probably wouldn’t want to go either, but still its annoying.

Sometimes the girls look painfully bored until the end of the hour when they start asking me questions about my life and are suddenly enthralled. Its funny when they ask if Im married because when I say no they keep looking at me like they’re waiting for some explanation because 22? Single? Spinster. Might as well be a hoarder with 15 cats.

Thursday one of the priests came over and wanted me to make signs for a ceremony thing that happened last night. It was a vigil where they said 1,000 hail marys for peace but at the beginning they had girls carry in these signs that said ‘no to war’ ‘no to xenophobia’ etc. The priest asked me to make the signs not knowing that I have the handwriting of a 7 year old boy and that this type of project takes me hours. So Friday afternoon I spent several hours doing block letters that would most people could do in 10 minutes. I was running out of time so I had the boarding school girls color the ‘no’ red on the signs while I finished the others.

When I went to check on the signs the girls were doing they had colored the ‘no’ red, but then tried to color the other letters blue. The marker ran out and so one of the signs had half of one word blue and the other black. Then the red marker ran out when we were doing the last ‘no’. We ended up being able to finish that one and I thought that they looked fine.

Wrong. When the ceremony started each girl walked down the aisle with a sign and they were the worst signs ive ever seen. The spacing was terrible, some letters were thick and others were thin and somehow one of the ‘no’s was only half colored. The sign with the word that was half-blue was a disgrace and on another sign I misspelled ‘tribalism’. (Stupid mistake because everyone knows that in French ‘tribalism’ has an ‘e’ on the end) It was terrible. Luckily part of the ceremony was burning the signs. I was embarrassed, but the signs were ugly to the point of actually being hilarious. To me anyway, but maybe not to the priest who unknowingly assigned an art project to someone so inept.

After my art work was incinerated the hail marys started. I left after a few hours, but sr Yvette stayed the whole time and was there until 5am! Yikes. Sr Vicky goes ‘that’s not prayer. That’s torture’. Shes pretty hilarious.

So things are going well and time is going a lot faster and the language is getting easier. That said I am absurdly excited to come home for Christmas which is very soon! At that time I will be uploading more pictures than you could ever want to see.

Thanks for reading!

wild sunday

Sunday was one of the most bizarre/interesting/outrageous days Ive had since being here. First, mass was 3 hours long because every group (like choirs or prayer group type things I think) had to give a little talk about what they do and then the priest decided to give a homily that lasted maybe 45 minutes. Love me a crowded, poorly ventilated building but 3 hours was a tad long. There was some white lady standing in the back but she left after 2 hours (cant imagine why) so I didn’t get to talk to her. I guess I would have said, “hello. I noticed that you are white” or something like that.

After mass the boarding school girls wanted to take pictures because they had on their fancy clothes since it was the day of the ‘fete’ for peace. So I got my camera and they go nuts with pictures soo we took a lot. As we were finishing pictures two ladies with a baby came looking for sr Vicky who then told me to come with them to the dispensary. The baby was 3 pounds! I had never seen a baby that small. It had a lot of extra skin- it looked like it was wearing leggings made from skin or something. Sr Vicky told me to hold it so she could take a picture and told the ladies ‘its good luck’. Hmm yes the old ‘have the premature baby take a picture with a random foreigner’ good luck charm. Works every time. One of the ladies asked me my name and when I told her she said, “ok then she is Anne. She doesn’t have a name yet”. What the heck? The other lady said something about the name Grace but sr Vicky vetoed that. “grace? No, not grace. There are too many graces. Everyone here is named grace.” So voilà Anne Marie.

The reason they came to the dispensary was because the baby was born a week ago, but the 17 year old mom died. So it was the baby’s grandma and friend who brought the baby in to buy formula…and apparently to name it.

Then in the afternoon it was this fete for peace and there were big tents set up. All the boarding school girls were there but I was sitting at the table of hot shots with the nuns and priests and some fancy ladies and the mayor. Also there was some extremely spicy chicken.

Monday at the dispensary sr Vicky was really on top of her game in terms of tact and sensitivity. This woman brought in her niece who was 3 years old and weighed 13 pounds. The mom herself didn’t bring her because ‘she doesn’t know french’. So sr vicky really let this lady have it and literally said ‘it would be better if she went to heaven because no one wants her. Shes just going to suffer.’ Umm. Hopefully the 3 year old was also deaf. Its easy to think ‘wow that’s super mean’ but maybe if I had been here for as long as sr Vicky has I would be the same way. Id like to think that I wouldn’t be but who knows.

In the afternoon I was looking for some of the girls who were going to have an English lesson later that day when BAM white people! One of the older girls was walking them to the house. I should have played it cool and made them wonder who I was but no. “Bonsoir!! Je m’appelle anne!!” Really over excited. It was a man and a woman working for the European union to supervise the elections. She was from Portugal and I think he was French. They were wondering if some of their people could stay here at the house. Then at the end of the conversation the lady said ‘I find the level of security and sanitation here really good’. Good thing she wasn’t around last night when sr Vicky had to have a talk with the boarding school girls because someone pooped in the shower!

So things are going well and the teaching is getting easier even if everyone mercilessly makes fun of my accent. I tell myself that theyre making fun of it in the same way I laugh at people with strong accents- in a good way. Not sure that’s true but that’s what I prefer to think.

Im at the internet cafe because the power was out for awhile and when it came back on the world wide web wasnt working! I tried connecting a bunch of times just because i cant get enough of that melodious dial-up sound but I was denied and so here I am. A boarding school girl at my side of course.

The week went really fast and I think this is the first time in my life Ive looked forward to the weekdays and not so much the weekends. On the weekends I dont have much to do so I end up doing a fair amount of lurking...around the house...in the yard... you know just being a lurker.

I had my first english class that actually went well. It was the most basic english to the first year patisserie students and it went a lot better than the other 'more advanced' class. The first year students are more on the same level whereas the second year is just kind of a disaster. One kid doesnt read or write, another is 26 years old and I cant imagine what she thinks when I ask her to repeat 'january' 17 times. Then theres the girl who didnt know how to say '4' in english sitting next to the kid who seems to be good in english and is probably bored. The classes for the patisserie students are nice in that theyre at the technical school in a real classroom with walls as opposed to the gazebo things where I meet with the boarding school girls. Theres usually someone playing soccer or something right next to it.

Only slightly less disastrous than second year patisserie is the older boarding school girls. This one girl has had english for 5 years now and didnt know what 'almost' meant. I dont want to say its a lost cause but its a lost cause. That said some of them seem really interested and smart and I enjoy teaching english to them. Before coming here this girl who Ive talked to multiple times asked me to help her with her homework and we were doing it and then all of a sudden said 'anne you are so pretty.' it was strange so I was like 'oh. uh. thanks' and then shes like 'your purse is really pretty you should give it to me'. ohhhhh ok I get it. I told her shed have to wait until april.

This other girl asked me if I had a friend for her or something like that. As usual I only kind of knew what was going on and I was like 'ohh to write to?' so I dont know what shes looking for... pen pal? pen pal with benefits? Its hard to say.

Not too much new at the dispensary. The guy that sr vicky thought had aids came back on wednesday with a sealed envelope from the hospital and she opened it and he was HIV positive. It wasnt clear how much he knew since she kind of opened it in her lap and then put the letter back in the envelope. Then told him to go to the hospital to get the drugs for the 'sickness of the blood' and told him how important it was to eat and to not miss a dose and stuff like that but Im not sure he knew what he had. His friend was with him again- he only has one leg! What a duo.

Then on friday we had to go to the bigger town to buy medecine because everyone and their mom who came to the dispensary this week had a cough.

This post just got deleted and was then rediscovered so im going to go before microsoft encounters another problem
bye!

past few days

(insert empty promise about uploading pictures here)

This weekend was pretty uneventful but I did go to the internet café and did indeed fail at uploading pictures. First I had to wait a while to use a computer because apparently all 5 of the available ones were out of order. Then the speed of the upload was glacial and Sr Vicky had sent a boarding school girl to accompany me so she was sitting there staring at the screen with me. Then I became convinced I was about to have a stomach crisis and wouldnt be able to make it back to the house and the mental images were enough to make me give up and go home. So I guess I’ll just have to wait…UNTIL I COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!! (flight purchase pending…)

Sunday after mass I was walking back to the house and this group of girls was waiting for me and told me to sit down so they could mess with my hair. Sure knock yourself out. It was pretty funny but then this one girl took my arm and looked at it really closely and said ‘your skin is so pretty I want my skin to be light like yours’. That really bothered me so I tried to explain that ‘chez moi’ girls do things to make their skin darker- you know a kind of ‘we want what we cant have’ thing. Unfortunately I got kind of tripped up on the necessary vocab and I don’t think they had any idea what I was talking about.

Monday I didn’t cry at the dispensary so that was cool. I did however get a reminder of how clueless I am. This guy came in who weighed 41 kg (not trying to be obnoxious with the metric system here but I don’t know exactly what that is in pounds) and was so skinny and apparently had had diarrhea for a month! I was thinking ‘what a nasty case of malaria!’ and ‘that was really nice of his brother to come with him!’ and ‘if I was sick for that long I probably would have started a blog about it!’ Bloat d’ivoire? Ugh sorry. Anyway sr Vicky told him to go get a blood test at the hospital and while I was thinking about what kind of illness would last that long sr Vicky suggested that it was probably AIDS. That thought never crossed my mind and I figured he had malaria like everyone else.

Other story of note was this pregnant woman. She was 9 months pregnant and had walked alone all the way here from where she lives in ‘the bush’. Hard to say how far that is but when youre that pregnant I would imagine that any distance would seem too far. Why no had come with her was beyond my understanding. Sr Vicky did an exam and told her she had to have it today so the woman was going to walk all the way home and try to have it there with the help of god knows who. Sr Vicky told her that if she hadn’t had the baby by 5pm, she would then have to get all the way back to the hospital in duekoue to be induced. The woman reacted as if sr Vicky had just suggested she try a new shampoo. No sense of urgency. No need to rush. Her reaction was especially surprising considering the way sr Vicky described the situation. ‘you have to have it today. If you don’t the baby will be dead. Then you too. Youll both die and that wont be good. Look at this. (there was blood) This means your baby is suffering. You need to have it today’ etc etc. She is not one to mince words but despite that the woman got up and started to walk home calmly.

Sr Vicky also sometimes does this thing where she looks at what someone has named their baby and says ‘what? What is this? What kind of name is this? That’s not a name, no one knows that name. That’s not French. Do you see that here? (points to a calendar with names on it) No, that name is not here. You have to add one. When was she born?’ She then unceremoniously chooses a new name for the baby and adds it to the babys record. It is so bizarre to me that you would take your baby for a check up only to have the nurse tell you that the name you chose isn’t real and therefore you must choose another. I laugh every time it happens because its so strange and sr Vicky is so intense about it.

This afternoon after my English class at the technical school we were finishing lunch and one of the priests came over looking for food because apparently whoever cooks for them made only eggplant or something like that. So he started eating the rice we had and insisted we turn on the TV so that he could continue watching this heinously dramatic movie from the Philippines. So dramatic you would have thought it was a spoof. He knew all the characters and we all ended up watching it. The French was simple so I liked it and the high drama combined with the low budget was hilarious. He also brought the good news that theyre sending Americans to supervise the elections- and not just to the capital! He seemed to think some Americans would be coming here to duekoue- hello new best friends! We’ll see what actually happens but its fun to think about.

Well this was longer than I expected so thanks for reading!!!

Duped again

Hi! Things are still going pretty well here and nothing too eventful to report. Yesterday I went with Sr Vicky to a town called Daloa that’s about an hour from here and is bigger so we went to buy school supplies and medicine. The whole thing took a little over 6 hours and I found it kind of stressful because we were trying to fit so much stuff into the truck and nothing could go in the back since it was pouring. We went to 3 different groceries stores because at the first 2 they were out of stuff we needed. I was hurtin for a Costco.

Today was the dispensary and it was a little rough for me. It was going fine until this woman came in with this girl who was like 7 and said that both of the girls parents had died and her grandparents too and she had no siblings. The woman was her great aunt and had just started taking care of the girl. Sr Vicky gave the girl some medicine and told the great aunt where to enroll her in school but the woman came back a little later because the school was too expensive ($20 for the whole year). This was a little much for me and I started crying only to find out later that the story was a lie. How messed up is that! I was all sad and wanted to pay her tuition and everything. At lunch Sr Marguerite really laughed at me (in a nice way) and proceeded to tell me about 5 stories that were as tragic if not more tragic than the girl’s from this morning. All the stories were fake and it was just people trying to get the sisters to pay their kids tuition. It really sucks that people do that but if I were as poor as these people Im sure id be doing the same thing. Especially if there was some overly sympathetic and gullible American within earshot…

Then about an hour later this 16 year old married girl came in who was pregnant and after I took her blood pressure and sr Vicky did her exam, the girl started crying. At this point I didn’t know that the previous story was fake and I was still a little upset about it. So heres this 16 year old girl crying over her pregnancy and then I started crying. I think I hid it pretty well but I felt really ridiculous. She was probably wondering who in the world I was and why I was crying. Sr vickys commentary didn’t help. It went something like this: ‘You know Catharine? (a girl at the boarding school) Shes her same age. But she wont be playing soccer. No. Only babies. Just babies for her. How many wives does her husband have?’

At lunch after sr marguerite had finished making fun of me for crying about the first story she agreed that yes this second story was indeed very sad.

So that’s the dispensary update. Im doing some English stuff with the oldest girls at the boarding school so I should go get ready for that.

Thanks for reading!

village people and first day of class

First of all- picture update: apparently it takes 10 minutes to update 1 picture here at the house so im going to try to go to the internet café this weekend because I guess its faster there.

On Sunday I went with sr Vicky and one of the priests to a village for mass. It was about 30 minutes outside duekoue and made duekoue seem like new york city. Our arrival caused a real stir since there weren’t many other cars and then to top it off sr Vicky and I are white! Everyone come look!

Their church was a dirt floor, mud wall, palm frond roof type thing and mass was said with a megaphone in 4 languages. For the first few minutes it was just in French but then for the readings and for the homily they had 4 different people taking turns with the megaphone. At first I was thinking ‘this guys accent is so strong I cant understand anything’. Turns out it was a language from here and not just French with a major accent.

So after the mass which took approx. 10 years because it was said in 4 languages we took the obligatory ‘white person surrounded by lots of black kids in a village’ picture. Then we went to the house of the church secretary (I think that’s what he was). We sat outside but under a roof and they gave us lunch and cokes which was super nice. There was this rice with really tasty and spicy sauce but I had a hard time the meat since im not a big meat fan in the first place. By ‘had a hard time’ I mean I had to chew on each piece for around 5 minutes. Despite that it was very generous of them and they were really nice.

Monday is the busiest day at the dispensary so it was from 7:30-1:30 without a lull in patients. The number of people who have malaria is insane. When their fever is too high we give quinine shots and now sr Vicky has me fill the syringes which I had never done so that was interesting.

Back to malaria though…the other night this lady who works for CARE was over and she is in charge of a 5 year malaria project/study here. It was interesting hearing her talk about all, especially since I had just finished reading a book about malaria that really made it seem like it’s a hopeless cause unless the entire country becomes much more developed. Then today at lunch sr marguerite said ‘I don’t know understand why everyone makes such a big deal out of AIDS when there are so many people dying from malaria’. Seemed a little harsh to me but either way malaria does kill a lot of people.

I had my first official english class at the technical school today and I think it went well. Theyre students learning to be patisserie chefs (such a coincidence because I too am a real culinary genius) and theyre 14-26 years old.  There are only about 8 of them in the class which is nice and it is very basic stuff like how to pronounce the alphabet. I made them repeat everything so many times they probably wanted to slap me. Sr Vicky had told me that lots of repetition was necessary and it definitely was. They were pretty shy and probably thought I was really bizarre.

So things are going well here and Im about to go play soccer with the boarding school girls. We played on Saturday and it was funny because they scream a lot. Probably because I was kicking the ball in their face repeatedly. Just kidding but anyway thanks for reading and I really hope you can see pictures soon!

Out and About in Duekoue

This morning sr vicky and sr yvette had to go to a meeting so there was no clinic/dispensary. So i was kind of sitting at my desk thinking about the english classes and wondering if i could somehow make verbs interesting. As much as i was enjoying the homesick fest/pity party i was throwing for myself i decided to go out and walk around and take pictures.

I took some pictures around the house/school and then went out on the road and started walking toward the center of town. It was really intimidating and everyone was staring at me because i was the only white person. Also I was wearing my unicorn costume from halloween last year. No so I wasnt wearing a costume but still everyone was staring. I guess it would be like seeing an albino squirrell. You know they exist but you dont see them often so when you do its kind of neat/weird and staring for at least 2 minutes is very necessary.

I had been walking for a few minutes when this woman said 'ma soeur' (my sister) to me. Im still not sure if thats a regular greeting or if people think im a nun since i live with them. Then this woman said my name so i turned around and shook her hand and then she pointed to her friends baby and told me that they had tried to go the dispensary but it was locked. I explained that sr vicky was gone but the woman was like 'but look' and the babys eye was all big and swollen because something had gotten in the eye. There was nothing I could do so i just told her when sr vicky would be back. This conversation took place outside the hospital but i guess she couldnt afford to go there.

At this point i was feeling supremely out of place and stopped taking pictures. I decided to buy a phone so I went to a store i had seen that looked nice. Air conditioned! They had a phone but no sim card so i left the store and some guy about my age was like 'ill help you buy a phone'. He had heard there was an american in town. cha ching! i knew i was about to get horribly ripped off so i said 'ok great!' and proceeded to walk around town with this guy to buy a phone and sim card and credits for the phone. I knew it was much more expensive than it should have been but it was hot and i was flustered and compared to prices in the US it wasnt bad. So after awhile I had a phone and my new friend had been kind enough to program his number into my phone. So thoughtful.

So I walked home after saying no to a taxi he tried to call for me because 'the sun is big' as he said and i guess he thought i would get burned. I was about to go into the compound/mission whatever you want to call it and this older guy was like 'oh ca va?' and started asking me how everything was going. Unfortunately I had my phone in my hand so he says 'oh you have a number? we can exchange numbers!' I have so many new friends.

Although i was majorly swindled, everyone was very nice while they were doing it and being in a small town is nice because i never felt unsafe or anything. plus everyone knows there is a 'blanche' in town so no one will mess with me. My large stature helps too.

ok well thanks for reading this and sorry if there are a lot of spelling errors but the keyboard is different. bye!

quick story

Its been a few days and Ive just been getting used to things/wallowing in my homesickness. just kidding! (kind of)
Just a quick story about a car ride. There had been this girl here named Lucy who like did housework kind of stuff for the sisters and had gone to school here. so so nice. Once she was cooking and told me to turn off the stove but I didnt know how and when she came back the onions were burned but she was so nice about it. Anyway she had to go back to her village so they asked if I wanted to go. I love a good sunday car ride so of course I said oui.
We left at 4... ie we left at 4:45. A guy who is a friend of the sisters and works for the UN drove us in a UN land cruiser which I thought seemed a little over the top. Turned out to be very necessary. We drove for a while on a paved road and then started on a dirt road. We drove past villages like that you would see on TV with the barefoot kids with the big bellies. It was like watching one of those commercials minus the dramatic music and celebrity narrator.
So anyway that was interesting to see. The driver has worked for the UN for a long time so even though we had to zig zag across the road to avoid holes he felt comfortable going at what felt like 70mph. Im sure it was much slower but we were going fast enough to get that feeling in your stomach like when youre on a rollercoaster so obviously i was carsick.
We kept going and going on this road that kept getting narrower and with bigger holes. The holes were huge and filled with so much water that several times we went into the hole and the water/mud came all the way up and covered the windshield and we couldnt see. I guess it was funny because sr yvette and the driver were laughing.
This went on for like an hour until finally we got to a hole that was too deep and the car kind of got stuck and the wheels were spinning and stuff. At that point Lucy got out and there were some guys on the 'road' who said they would help her get to her village. She said that if we hadnt driven her she would have walked from the sisters house to her village which took us almost 2 hours by car.
It was getting dark and it started to rain so we turned the car around...which took awhile since the road was so narrow and filled with water. Finally we started heading back and I learned Lucys story.
Shes from Burkina Faso but a few years ago her mom was accused of sorcery (hogwarts trained? i wondered) and so lucy had to come live in this village with her uncle and can see her mom with her uncles permission. Sr yvette didnt know where her dad was. Lucy wants to become a nun and i hope that works out because she was so nice.
It was a rough ride but I was glad I went and got to see some villages.
Ill try to write more soon..thanks for reading this and thanks for the emails they are very much appreciated!

Hi everyone!
Sorry that there arent pictures yet..they will come soon!
The past few days ive just been getting oriented here in duekoue. im staying in the house with the sisters-sr vicky, yvette and marguerite and have my own room with a shower so its really nice.

Thursday night there was the biggest storm ive ever seen/heard/experienced. Tropic thunder, if you will. Im sure that kids were scared because i was fairly certain it was the apocalypse.
It was impressive but then we didnt have power for like 36 hours. LOL!

Friday was my first day at the dispensary and it was apparently a slow day. It was all kids except for i think two people and basically everyone had a fever, cough, diarrhea problems. malaria for all! Thats an oversimplification but you get my point.

Living with the sisters is really great and this would be much harder if i wasnt with them. We eat all our meals together and they think its funny when i dont understand their french. The only thing they find funnier than that is my english. Heres how it goes- they ask me to say something-for example barack obama. So i say it. then they laugh so hard...are in hysterics as they try to say it like me. They do this exaggerated i-sound-like-theres-something-in-my-mouth accent to try to sound like me and it actually is hilarious.

Sr Marguerite is always asking me if im scared. Was i scared of the thunder? was i scared that it was so dark at night? am i scared about the elections? i say 'ummm un peu?' i dont know maybe i should be more scared about...everything.

Today at mass there were maybe like 200 people and i had to stand up at the microphone and introduce myself. It went well i think and they clapped especially when i said ill be teaching english. It was at the end of mass like where they make announcements so the guy who came to the microphone after me made some comment about my french and everyone laughed. im sure i sound absurd to them so i would probably be laughing too. in fact i did laugh.. just trying to fit in you know.

Thanks for reading this... i feel a little weird using their computer for a long time so im going to go but will write again soon.
bye!

Hi!
Last nigt we got to the town where ill be staying called Duekoue. hmmm rural. The drive from the capital took a little over 6 hours but for most of the time the roads were nice- deluxe even. Everything is so so green so it was a pretty drive. The truck was so full so in the morning it was a bit of a production getting everything in. There were at least 7 people helping. By helping i mean offering their opinions about where everything should go.
Last night I pretty much just went to bed and then this morning Sr vicky showed me around the school/boarding school/dispensary. The dispensary is two rooms with a table/bed in each and the IV pole is a wooden pole with nails hammered into it. A little bit crazy and she sees like 30-40 people everyday and it seems like its just her who does it.
There are a lot of rooms at the boarding school and the 40 girls are coming tomorrow...ah. I have a hard time understanding the kids here so they think i dont know french. then again sometimes i think i dont know french.
Ill write more later or tomorrow or saturday because tomorrow is first day in dispensary but its lunch time now.
bye!

First day

Hi everyone!!
Thanks for reading this or pretending to read it and then telling me you read it and loved it. Both options are good.

I got to Abidjan last night at around 7pm after going through Brussels. The flight to Abidjan was only half full (or half empty for those haters out there) so I slept the whole time and managed to miss the meal and some immigration paper that I was supposed to fill out.

It took about an hour for my bag to come out on the conveyor belt so I was sure it had been stolen or liquidated by homeland security or worse. Finally both bags came out and I found Sr Vicky! She had driven to the airport so we got in thet car and went to the house in Abidjan- like 15 mins from the airport.

There was no electricity because they live in 'un quartier pauvre' but they had flashlight/lanterns so it was ok. I met the other sisters and then we ate. I know my family is very curious about the food so- we ate chicken with green beans and some spaghetti and sauce and a papaya. It was tasty.
There are 8 sisters living here in the capital and only 3 in duekoue! Not sure how that works since they have 40 girls who board there but ill find out tomorrow when we head to duekoue.

The house here is next door to a mosque so allah be praised i was awakened at 4am to the prayers. The sisters said it would be loud but it exceeded expectations. Luckily I was able to fall back asleep...and sleep until I was late for mass! Really nice start- running into the chapel 10 minutes late. It was ok though. The priest from Duekoue came here with sr Vicky so he did mass. Breakfast was bread and jam and laughing cow cheese- 'la vache qui ri' and of course since this country is the second lqrgest coffee producer in africa...we drank nescafe.

Then we went to the market to buy fish. Fish be huge!! not that stinky though. The drive to the market was interesting- the roads are insane..there are like 4 rows of cars when there should be 2...no lanes, people turning wherever and whenever they feel like it. At one point when we were suddenly face to face with a car sr vickys analysis was 'ah c'est l'afrique'

So yes it is africa and so she and i waited in the truck since we are white and theyd raise the price if they saw us. We did walk around a bit to see the huge fish and all the other random things people were selling. Ive seen at least 2 'Obama girl' shirts and its funny to see all the shirts clearly from the US. In terms of the fish it is nuts they just lay there on the street with flies all over them and people buy them. woof.

This fish buying extravagaza took about 3 hours and then we drove back to the house. Nice to know back seat driving is an international pasttime. The priest was in the truck and sr vicky was driving and he offered great advice like 'slow down there is a red light' and 'youre taking rue de marseille? good you should take rue de marseille'.

In terms of the french it really varies how much I can understand from person to person. There is a french sister here who was super clear, but then the spanish sister was hard and im getting used to sr vicky. We listened to the radio and i could understand that for the most part and i even feel like today is better than last night.

We are eating lunch soon so i should go but is you have any feedback just hollaaa- too much detail? not enough? juuuust right?
ok hope everyone is doing well!!
ill post pictures when i take them and have time to upload them