Sofitel Abidjan

This morning Paul came to the hotel with Diaby again at 9:30. I checked out, loaded my luggage into the trunk and we drove out to La Mé. The detours around the road work on the outskirts of town w**e even slow** than they had been. People that lived in the neighborhood had built all sorts of makeshift barri**s and obstacles on the road itself, which obliged all the vehicles to drive v**y slowly and caused constant traffic snarls. I think that was ...

... should each be next served I told Diaby to put in an extra 10 dollars worth more than what I'd planned, just to be on the safe side, to make sure we could get all the way back to Abidjan. When we made it to the pump, Diaby proved he had a commanding presence and a loud voice. We were served very quickly. In the end we had waited 50 minutes in line for our diesel. On the down the road we went, this time toward Yamoussoukro the capital city. Originally ...

... settled down for a Bible Study. I spoke about the nature of the Gospel message, and took questions for half an hour afterwards. Before leaving we had a light meal: spaghetti in a spicy African sauce with some pieces of beef, and French baguette. It was quite tasty. Taking our leave, we drove a short way to drop off Michel Tia and another interested member who lives nearby and to visit Paul's papeterie boutique where he hopes to earn enough ...

... I never tire of looking down at that colorful, sublime expanse of sand. It's so huge it's probably best viewed from high above. We arrived on time about 7:00 pm, shortly after nightfall. The Abidjan airport is very modern and everything still works well: air conditioning, lights, luggage carousels etc. I cleared immigration quickly and my suitcase was one of the first ones out. After clearing customs one last agent asked for my passport before I ...

... matches our own forests in size and even has the wounds of clear cutting to make me feel at home. Rubber trees, coconut, pineapple and so much fruit bearing trees lined the roads that I thought of BC and the Okanagan Valley a couple of times. Of course, different types of snakes live here and though I thought I saw one, I wasn't allowed to go take a closer look. Not a big deal, really and to be honest, I was more concerned about the mosquitoes than the snakes ...

... the certificates back from the nurses at the end of the programme and deliver them to their schools at a later date once they had been resorted. As for the computer a couple re-boots later we were (sort of) up and running and I was able to open our picture slide show. Two hours later all the nurses had graduated and the speeches were finished. We took some publicity pics with the nurses and the Dept Commissioner and everyone was happily chowing on snacks and drinking minerals. I had ...

... and other dishes, which obviously represented a real effort for them. We ate with them at the back of the Church hall and shared out the French bread and Camembert we had brought. They seemed to enjoy it, even though Camembert can be a bit of an acquired taste... Following lunch we had a walk around La Mé so that Bernard, Daniel and Cindy could see the village, some of which dates from the 20s or 30s when the French established it during ...

... coup de téléphone, nous sommes dans le bureau où Valery (c'est notre correspondant) nous indique attendre du colonel de la douane le tampon du carnet de passage en douane. Mais, sa Mercédes n'étant pas là, il est sorti! JP entame alors une course contre la montre et contre les pesanteurs aussi administratives qu'africaines. Celà prendra 3 heures, allant d'un commandant à un colonel, rencontrant des capitaines, voire même des caporaux ou ...

Just after I posted my blog last night, the phone rang. Someone, I was told, had noticed what a handsome fellow I was as I walked through the hotel lobby, and wanted to be my very good friend, was I interested. I said "non merci" and hung up. A minute later the phone rang again. "Persistent" I thought, but it was a wrong number this time. Before going to bed, I did reach home on the phone and had them call back so I could give my family some news ...

... of 'brackage' or roadside robbery. For the fainter hearted it might be useful to know that Man is formely the site of a French military base, and a UN military is still based there. In any case, Man's sights make the journey and any possible quibbles about security worth it. Located in an area called 18 mountains, it lives up to its name, and the town housed inbetween a beautiful wooded hillside (much of which is sadly being torn down due to ...