June 2021 – Page 4 – Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission

Visiting our Friends, Nourou Sidibe and his Family

This afternoon Pres and Sis Bendixsen arrived in Bamako for a weekend visit to this corner of the mission. We had a wonderful afternoon with them visiting several of our good members here. Our first stop was at Nourou’s home. We loved being with his beautiful wife and daughters.

Nourou is one of the early members of the church here. He is kind and good and a careful provider for his beautiful family.

Fr. Biggo accompanied us on these member visits, representing our Branch Presidency.

Around the corner from their home, we vistied Nourou’s business. Nourou has a successful laundry service.

Nourou takes care of many customers with pick up and delivery services. His business has grown these last 2 years. The missionaries are now meeting with Nourou’s wife, Kariadiatou. She’s attending the university, studying accounting. We love this family and wish them well.

A Fabulous 36 cent Shoe Shine Job

These young entrepreneurs circulate in our neighborhood looking for customers. They eye our shoes every time we pass by, hoping to be hired to clean and shine them. Today John consented. His shoes were filthy from the dust and dirt that settles on everything here.

Two of the boys made a deal with each other–they would each take one shoe and they’d share the profit. Their charge: 200 cfa, or about 18 cents each.

These two boys each carried their own back pack with their shoe shining supplies. I loved watching them go to work. The first boy pulled a pair of old flip flops out of his pack for John to stand on while they took his shoes.

He had a cut off bottle with a couple of inches of soapy water in it and a small brush and he went to work taking off the first layer of dirt.

Then he dried off the shoe with a rag before applying some black shoe polish from an almost-empty tin.

Then he buffed each shoe well with a brush.

You can tell by how well they worked that these boys have shined a lot of shoes in their young lives.

I loved watching these young boys work together. They were earnest and professional and thrilled for the payment. And John was so happy to have clean shoes. I hope these boys will always be successful in their business endeavors!

District Meeting in Bamako

Meet Elder Kamenan, our new Bamako missionary! We’re excited to have him here and to get to know him better. Elder Kamenan is from Cote d’Ivoire.

We had a very nice meeting this morning. Elder Koffi is our new District Leader, and a very good one. We love serving with these Elders.

This lady came by the church this morning with the bill for the trash pick up at the church. Bills here are usually delivered and paid in person with cash.

Women Dyeing Fabric

These women are bending over pots on fires, stirring and dyeing big pieces of fabric. I’ve watched them when we drive by, and today we were stuck in traffic right next to them so I was able to take a few pics. What they do is fascinating to me. Be sure to zoom in close and look at the details of their hot laborious work.

Back to Bamako!

We returned home to Bamako today!! We love our Bamako home and are excited to be back.

Here’s a sure sign we are home:

This was the taxi driver we bartered for at the airport. We thought his BYU shirt was a good omen. When we asked him if he knew what BYU Volleyball was, he had no idea. I wonder how that shirt found it’s way to Mali.

It’s nice to be back in our neighborhood here, greeted by these friends!

Koumassi Stake Conference in Cocody

Happy Sabbath! Today we decided to walk to the Cocody Stake Center and attend church here. When we arrived, we saw the road lined with large busses–about 10 of them. And there were cars in the parking lot. It must be stake conference, we thought. Sure enough, when we entered the building, we saw Pres and Sis Lewis from the West Mission up on the stand. This was the Koumassi Stake Conference with the newly formed Koumassi Stake.

We were so happy we were here today. It was an excellent meeting and the talks were really good. Both Pres and Sis Lewis spoke and talked about preparing ourselves to enter the temple being built here when it’s completed. They spoke with love and care and encouragement.

Elder and Sis Eddington were seated right behind us. It was nice to see them too.

Some of the busses that brought the members from the wards in the Koumassi Stake to our Cocody Stake Center. Koumassi is in the Abidjan area, about 20 minutes from here. The church is growing and filling this area. It’s so exciting.

Dropping Elders in Affrey and Akoupe

Our road trip continued through Akoupe to Affrey, about an hour more. In Affrey, we dropped off more Elders and picked up one to return with us back to Akoupe with our last new Elder.

Here are a few quick pics of the Elders’ apartment in Affrey.

And here’s our new companionship back in Akoupe. By now it was dark and and huge rainstorm rolled in. The going was slow as we made our way home to Abidjan, about 3 hours away.

This is probably the last time John and I will be in this part of Cote d’Ivoire. For us, it was a farewell trip to this beautiful country and to these amazing missionaries. In a couple of days we will return to Bamako for the rest of our mission. I felt sad and a bit melancholy as we drove home, though the pouring rain, with the African jungles around us and the frogs and crickets serenading us. I will miss this place.

Taking Sisters to Adzope

Our next stop was at the Sister’s apartment in Adzope. We dropped off 2 Sisters here to join their companions. Their apartment was so nice and clean. It was fun to see a list on their bulletin board of all the Sisters who have lived here the last few years.

Taking Missionaries to Adzope

Our transport trip north with the missionaries took us through the lush green bush of Africa. We drove through fields of bananas, cocoa groves, cassava fields, bamboo, and farm after farm. It was a beautiful day for a road trip with blue skies and huge clouds that dropped rain on us every now and again.

Roadside fruit stands selling citrus, mangoes, avocados and bananas.

A lady selling huge snails.

I love this message: there will always be bumps in our lives and there will always be the love of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We arrived in Adzope before dark and dropped off several Elders there. After a quick walk through their apartment/home, we moved on to our next stop.

Driving Through Abobo

This afternoon we drove through Abobo on our way to Adzope , Akoupe and Affrey up north, delivering missionaries. Abobo is one of the most crowded and congested areas in our mission. The streets are full of people and vendors and motorcycles and transport vans and cars and huge trucks. The traffic creeps along. Here are a few pics I took from my window as we inched our way through town.

Mangoes in wheelbarrows for sale: