Month: November 2020

Today, on this Monday morning, it was finally OUR turn to go inside the COVID testing place.  We’ve taken dozens and dozens of missionaries and visitors here, but we’ve always just waited outside.  Today we and the Bendixsens had our turn to be tested.  We all fly to Bamako on Thursday.  We will stay there and the Bendixsens will return to Abidjan after a short visit to meet our Malian friends.

Here is how the testing happens.  First you prepare your documents online and pay the fee (50,000 cfa or about $86).  You bring the receipt and a copy of your passport to one of the several testing locations.  Today we went to the one in Marcory.  Here we are checking in before getting in the waiting line.

Depending on the time of day and how many are in line, this wait can take hours or lots of minutes.

I found this poster interesting–measures of prevention:  wash your hands with soap, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, avoid close contact with anyone with a cold or cough, and cook meat and eggs well before eating.

After our outside wait, we were taken into the big air-conditioned shed to wait again inside.

I also liked this poster:  “You are a very important person to me and I want to see you again after COVID-19.”

When it was our turn, we were taken to two different cubicles where they checked our paperwork and explained how they’d send the results by text to our phones within 72 hours.

There were 2 people administering the tests this morning.  It looks like they have the capacity here to process 10 times as many people if needed.

The helper opened a sealed test pack and pulled out a long swab on a bendy stick.  This was inserted about 3-4″ into one nostril.  It was a tickly sort of uncomfortable that made your eyes want to water a bit.  It felt like they were going into places you never new existed!

The testing building had several rooms with beds (for workers or patients).

Sometimes it just gets too hot to keep a wig on!

And then we were finished!  To celebrate, we decided to go to our favorite bakery in the area.  John often treated the missionaries to a treat here after having their COVID tests.

These signs were by our parking spot:

Then to the bakery for some treats!

There are hand washing stations like this one outside of most establishments.

Other vendors in the area:

Because we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Cap Sud so the Bendixsens could do a little grocery shopping.  We will miss this place and all the things we can buy here.

Christmas decorations in the Cap Sud shopping mall–it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We had an excellent church meeting this morning.  The 3 women who spoke were excellent, sharing their feelings on respecting the gift of paying a tithe, overcoming trials and how parents can work together as a team to bless their families.

At the end of the meeting, Bishop Sery Kone spoke and cheered everyone on.  These are hard times for many right now.  There are some, he said, who go all day without food and some who don’t know what the next day will bring.  He told us about how when he was a young orphan boy,  he worked in the cocoa fields and lived with a professor.  Food in that home was limited.  Rice was mixed with attieke to make it stretch.  The family was always fed first, leaving nothing but green sauce for him.  During this time, there was a lady who gave him food.  He said, “she saved my life.”

Then he told us about an orphanage in Grand Bassam that is in desperate need of renovation.  For our ward Christmas service project, our ward is going to go help repair and renovate this orphanage.   He asked members to come with their hands and hearts to help.

He told us because that lady shared with him, he is alive today and so is his young son (who had made his way up to the stand to sit by his dad).   He said, “I am here today because someone helped an orphan.”  Then he gently and emotionally said,  “who knows– an orphan you help today may be your bishop someday.”

I am grateful for the times we’ve been able to visit this, our home ward here.  I always come away uplifted.

Happy Thanksgiving!!  We had a real treat celebrating today with the Lewises and the Bendixsens.  Sis Lewis brought a frozen turkey breast back when they returned from the States a couple of weeks ago.   Today we had a feast.  Our menu included the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, and homemade orange rolls!

We had enough leftovers for everyone to take a plate home.

After our feast, we enjoyed a few minutes of BYU Football Highlights and we started watching The Best Two Years.  It was relaxing and peaceful here with these good friends.

For dessert we had a lemon chiffon pie, a banana cream pie with chocolate in it and apple crisp.  YUM.

Pres Bendixsen thought he might wear some of the pie home!