Here are a few more typical sights in a typical Ivorian village.
Clothes on the line:
Bamboo and thatch and an empty coop:
An empty vendor’s table:
Fish for dinner:
Electricity??
The bathroom:
Gone to the fields:
A fallen palm:
A carpet of pink:
Traditional construction:
Perfection:
The next compound we came to had some action going on–lots of pounding. We were invited in and we met these kind men who showed us what they were doing. The old room for receiving friends and guests caved in. It was made of mudbrick and thatch. Today a new room was going up.
I enjoyed looking at their tools. There are no power tools here, just a couple of hammers and a box of long nails.
Two boards are joined by adding a third on top.
Imagine living in a place like this where you make the places you live in and you grow the food you eat. It’s a simple earthy life. But it’s hard work. I often think they win the prize. Our new friend showed us around his compound (the women were probably away working in the fields). He had a couple of coconut palms, the tall and the short varieties.
He was growing some pineapple. You can see the new suckers growing here. If you twist them off and stick them in the ground, they will start a new plant that will produce in a couple of years.
Did you know that the pineapple starts as a spectacular flower?
He also had sugarcane growing and he quickly cut two pieces with his machete for us to take with us.
This compound was full of growing things. It was like a garden. You can see the cassava on the left. This man had no idea who we were, but he welcomed us into his home and his space and he shared with us. I hope he has a really good day.
There is a tree just inside the church compound that reminds me of the Tree of Life. It was full of beautiful yellow and orange fruit today, ripening in the warm sun. This fruit is called Carambola or Star fruit. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambola This fruit comes from Asia and it is delicious. To me it tastes a lot like a loquat.
So tasty! The children love to pick and eat these!
There is another fruit tree in the compound bearing fruit now. This one is called Corossol or Soursop. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop They told me this fruit can be used to help treat cancer here.
Eveque (Bishop) Mel and I had an hour or more to wait during the leadership meeting, so we left the compound and went for a wander through the nearby farms and into the village.
Directly across the road from the meeting place is this small cocoa grove. Many of the cocoa pods have been harvested since my last visit here several weeks ago. The cocoa pods hang on the trunks low to the ground. Here’s how it looked today:
This is the road the church is on. We headed east to see where it led us. This area is full of farming and good soil with plenty of water. It rains a lot here and it’s very humid. To step outside is to be instantly wet. The sun is hot. Today it was in the mid 90s, and my weather app said “feels like 100.” Humidity was in the high 70s.
These are large banana trees–you can see the stocks of a large variety of banana growing towards the top. There are many varieties of bananas here–from small finger-sized to these large ones. There are also plantain growing here, the large cooking bananas.
Here is a cassava patch. Cassava is a root crop you will see later in this post.
This young man happened by with his load. When we asked what he was carrying, he showed us.
It was a sack of wood clippings. He was going to spread them around his banana trees.
We passed by a small grove of rubber trees where the sap was being harvested in these small buckets.
You can see the cuts made in the tree bark and the sticky sap dripping down to the buckets:
Next we came to a beautiful palm grove. It was surrounded by a wall and when we entered the grove, we felt like we’d walked into a garden of Eden.
It was peaceful, quiet and a bit cooler in the shade of these huge palms. Palm fruit is grown throughout western Africa. The bright red fruit grows in bunches at the tops of the palm trees and these bunches are harvested. We only saw a couple of bunches on the ground–the harvest here is over. Palm fruit is used to make palm oil and palm wine. The women like the oil, the men like the wine! And I? Well, I like a path through a peaceful palm grove.
Here’s an old bunch that’s falling apart:
The palm trunks were decorated with beautiful ferns.
These tropical plants are glorious!
Here’s another rather ragged-looking bunch and what a good bunch looks like:
Next we passed by a small chicken farm.
We met a woman there who was shelling something that looked like green beans. She called it Pinaira. She said the part inside is dried then put on sick plants.
Next we met this young man on his way to his farm with his machete. Machetes are the go-to tool here. They are used for cutting grass, trimming, harvesting, and just about everything.
Then we turned up this path to go into the village. This looks like the village garbage dump. Anything of use has been taken from here and used in some way. Plastics are a problem throughout Africa. Plastic does not go away.
We met this cute gal working in her kitchen. She was making gumbo (okra) soup.
Plastics are also a good thing here. These containers hold water and store food.
Here is the bathroom in her compound:
There were coconut palms overhead.
Village life:
This was an interesting coconut palm by the next compound. These, I’m told, are Ghanaian coconuts. The palms are short and easy to harvest. No climbing needed.
In the next post, I’ll show you what we found in the neighbor’s compound.
Today we traveled to Ahoutoue for the Saturday sessions of our District Conference here. In December John was invited by Pres Binene to be his second counselor. The Mission Presidency presides over all the missionaries and over all of the districts in the mission. There are 6 stakes in our mission and 6 districts. This is one of the districts John has been given stewardship over.
I have photographed this sacred place before, but could not help but to take more photos today. This is the first meeting place of the church in the Ivory Coast. This place feels peaceful and holy and historic to me. I love being here.
This was the home built by Brother and Sister Assard when they came from Germany to live in Ahoutoue. They brought with them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The first sacrament meetings were held in this room.
This old home is an interesting mix of Europe and Africa, the coming together of our cultures.
These rooms are still used on Sundays. Here is the primary room.
Outside in the beautiful compound, preparations were being made for District Conference. This afternoon the leaders met with Elder Guei in a special leadership meeting. Following that, we had our general leadership meeting for all the organization presidencies. And then this evening, we had our general adult session.
This open bowery-type building is in the back yard of the home. The sides are all open with awnings. It feels like just the perfect place to worship in a setting like this.
Tents were set up for extra seating.
Pres Binene greets one of the local leaders:
While the first leadership meeting was held, I went for a wander through the village with Eveque Mel. You will enjoy seeing what we discovered there.
I Love Cemeteries. Here’s a look at a cemetery we drove by today in Ahoutoue. It’s a beautiful resting place.
A Coordinating Council is a geographic collection of church leaders. Our mission area makes up a coordinating council, which is presided over by an Area Seventy. This evening we attended their yearly dinner out. Elder Marcel Guei and Elder Z. Dominique Dekaye were here with us, both Area Seventies. (Elder Guei is in the center of the photo above and Elder Dekaye is to his right.) All of our 6 Stake Presidents and their wives, along with their counselors and wives came. Our Mission Presidency and wives were also invited to this fun gathering at a restaurant in Abidjan.
We were served salads, then had a nice dinner buffet featuring rice, attieke, fried fish, fried chicken, fried plantain, fried potatoes, and beef in a cream sauce.
Eveque Mel, our mission clerk:
There was a bit of fun dancing after dinner! African women can Dance!!
Today was the monthly MLC in Cocody. All of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders met for instruction and training. We had a great day together.
Elder Tenney has a new AP companion, Elder Wanani from the Congo.
Today we listened to the 2 APs, two missionaries and Sis Binene before lunch. We had our traditional rice or plantain with a drumstick for lunch. Pres Binene gave his discourse after lunch.
We loved seeing Elder Oulai and Elder Sulu, two of our Bamako Elders!
Group photo!
The temple continues to grow behind us. And our hearts continue to grow within us.
Here’s a look at where everyone is these days in the Abidjan East Mission.
This correction was made after the photos were taken:
Every Tuesday Pres Binene holds an office meeting with the Mission Presidency, the Mission Clerk (Eveque Mel), the Assistants. We attended today and enjoyed the discussions of how to make this mission even better.
After the meeting, Pres Binene took us outside to show us a surprise. He ordered a vehicle for us and it has arrived! We are excited. The next trick will be getting it to Bamako!
Sometimes when we’re far away in Bamako we think about things we don’t see or eat very often. For John, that’s chocolate. He LOVES chocolate. He claims that’s why he was a missionary in Switzerland long ago. There is a place near the mission home called Maison de Chocolat (house of chocolate). He could hardly wait to go there when we returned this week. So we did. The room was full of dipped chocolates and more sugar than we’ve seen in a long time. I was happy when he came out with only one chocolate chip cookie, (a fairly expensive chocolate chip cookie). The damage could have been worse.
We did go to Burger King at the Cap Sud shopping mall and we splurged and had Whoppers, fries and drinks. Oh my, that was heavenly.
For
Then we went to the supermarche to wander around and pick up a few things to live on this week. I filled the basket with fruits and vegetables while John went looking for chocolate and ice cream.
The single serving size of Haagen Dazs (about 1 cup) was almost $12.00! We will keep dreaming!
The best treat of the day for me was getting to see Elder Quinn Turley. His brother was one of our missionaries in the Washington Yakima Mission not that long ago. This new Elder Turley reported to the Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan West Mission today. He’ll be right next door! Besides our mission family connection, we are also related by blood. Theodore Turley, my 3rd Great-grandpa is also his direct line ancestor. We are 4th cousins!
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 