Thursday, September 30, 2010

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!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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