August 2020 – Page 2 – Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission

The Yao Apartment

We had a full day of interviews today in the Grand Bassam Zone. Our first stop was in Yao where Elder Muyuwa and Matubakana are serving.

Here’s a look at their apartment and living quarters.

I think kitchens are the most interesting places. This is where the action happens. The missionaries generally shop for food and eat together. Most take turns cooking the food. We have many cultures here and many variations on an African cooking theme.

Most meals include attieke, rice of foofoo with fish or chicken. Sauces are made with onion, tomato and peppers seasoned with maggi cubes and salt.

Elder Muyuwa started preparing a meal for us, hoping we’d have time to stay and eat with them. Unfortunately, we had to keep moving to our next appointments.

Here are the bedrooms and study areas:

The Angre Apartment

These adorable Sisters greeted us this afternoon at the entrance to their new apartment in Angre. They’ve just moved here in the last week or so, a nice change from where they were staying.

These Sisters are Sr. Ahoulou, Sr. Guei, Sr. Kalanja and Sr. Djadou (Aya) who has recently come to town for some medical help.

Sr Guei is learning English, preparing to serve in London.

We had some fun with Sis Guei’s hair. She let me wear it! The funny thing was that not everyone who saw it, noticed the difference!

Sis Bendixsen wanted to try on the new look too!

We love these Sisters. We had so much fun visiting with them today.

The Dokui Sisters’ Apartment

Here is the apartment where our Dokui Sisters live up on top of their world. I smiled at the parking area signage.

The landlady lives below and has a sewing business.

Here are our 3 fearless Soeurs serving in Dokui: Sr Tshisekedi, Sr Kabongo and Sr Toyobo.

A room with a view:

The kitchen: and bedrooms:

Sis Bendixsen updating the medications:

When we have apartments with unreliable water, the mission provides drinking water. In some of the apartments that are upstairs, the water pressure isn’t always that great and during the hours of greatest usage, there really isn’t much water available. These Sisters are good at making do.

The Abobote Apartment

Here is our missionary apartment in Abobote. What a fun, happening place! This apartment is on a wide busy street 63 steps above a warehouse of activity where a line of large trucks were unloading wares below us.

Here are some of the views from the balcony of this apartment:

The row of trucks below us were unloading supplies into the warehouse: rice, pasta, spaghetti and disposable diapers.

Here’s a look at this apartment. You’ll see that most of our apartments have the same furniture (tables, chairs, sofas). There is a particular list of what is provided in each apartment. Things on that list also include things like a refrigerator, a cooking stove and gas, an ironing board, study desks, beds with mosquito nets, and medical supplies.

Missionaries serving in Abobote right now are Elder Jean-Louis, Elder Ikpeti and Elder Odediran, a happy tri-pan.

Here’s a look at the rest of their very clean apartment:

Sis Bendixsen updated their medical supplies:

The balcony view and breezes were fabulous.

What a great place to be a missionary!

The Angre Star 9 Apartment

Our next stop was in Angre where 6 of our Elders share an apartment. Part of the reason I’m photographing these apartments is for the many missionaries who once lived here and forgot to take pictures. I hope some day, if you are one of those missionaries, you will find these pictures and remember the happy times you spent here in these places.

I love this. Technology and practicality: a solar light and a washboard.

We drove behind this load of cassava on our way out of town. Nicely packed.

A Walk in Angre

Sis Bendixsen and I spent about an hour wandering in Alepe while Pres Bendixsen visited with the Elders. It was a peaceful hour and we enjoyed our wanderings very much. Here are a few of the things we saw.

These are called l’abergine, a cousin to our eggplant.

This is palm fruit will be made into palm oil:

This is the palm oil:

This tree had fruit hanging in it. They called it arachide, which is the same thing they call peanuts.

This women were unbraiding her hair.

Road improvements:

This little girl skinned her knee. Her mother was fixing a poultice of leaves to put on it to ease the pain.

Sister and her doll looked watched.

We walked along a main road where the little motorcycle taxis transported people back and forth. Everything along the road was covered in dust.

Here’s a cooking area for a neighbor’s home:

We all sleep much more peacefully when there are mosquito nets on our windows!

What a lovely visit we had today to Angre. These are my favorite kinds of days.

The Alepe Apartment

Today we went on the road, continuing the interviews. Pres Bendixsen is trying to get around to every area and every missionary before our next zone conferences. Today we traveled to Alepe where Elder Wanani and Elder Aka are serving. Right now, Alepe is about 1.5 hours north of here, out in the beautiful tropical countryside.

There are 4 branches of the church in Alepe. Here is the place where our Alepe missionaries live.

Sis Bendixsen is updating the medical supplies in each apartment.

More Interesting Things in Our Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is so interesting. I am inspired by everyday people doing everyday things in difficult circumstances. It moves something deep in my heart.

Here is a woman hanging laundry out to dry.

There goes a toilet. Is this the true meaning of “port-a-potty?”

Here is a medical vendor selling remedies and cures for what ails you.

A Baptism in Cocody

A Really Fun Neighborhood Wander

Today we had a very fun wander through our neighborhood. All of the people, places and things you see here are within about a 5 minute walk of our apartment. I love this neighborhood and we are learning to know our neighbors.

The mother above was stringing beads while her children kept her company in their little shop.

This lady sells popcorn and peanuts.

The difference between these bags of fried plantain chips is that the darker ones were fried from riper (more sweet) fruit.

A lady stopped to buy some. The small bags are less than 20 cents. The largest bags are less than a dollar.
Hot drink vendor. The men pushing these carts sell instant coffee, tea, hot chocolate and other quick drinks in plastic cups. They have all sorts of things to add to the drinks like sugar or lemon or lime juice.

This man is boiling chicken and lamb in a pot before grilling it. He seasons it with ground hot pepper. It smelled delicious! Nice chopping block.

Here are some decorations for little girls’ hair braids and some spices for cooking.

Peanuts = arachide

Stop here to buy handbags.

Undies for sale.

Here’s a food vendor selling meals to kids after school. They can buy kabobs of meat or hard boiled eggs. They season the eggs with ground hot pepper powder.