Friday in La Mé

  La Mé, Cote D'Ivoire
Saturday, September 22, 2007

This morning I didn't feel 100% when I woke; a little queasy and weak.  This happens once in a while, some microbe picked up the day before.  I hoped it would pass during the morning, and finally it did, but I wasn't at tope form in the morning, which would help create an interesting situation. Paul came to the hotel a little later than yesterday, about 9:30. 
 
We drove first to "Carrefour" in Treichville to I could change some money at a better rate.  It's a run down section of town, mostly Muslim, and a center for money changers.  Seeing a westerner drive up, several men in long robes and fez type hats hustled up right away, offering to change money.  I picked one group out and went with them into a back room, where they motioned for me to sit on an old couch.  I said I had dollars.  The spokesman pullout out his cell phone and activated the calculator.  He offered me 465 CFA to the dollar.  I countered with 470, and he agreed.  I pulled out three new one hundred dollar bills.  They won't be accepted if the bills are the old version, excessively worn or marked in anyway.  He counted out the CFA, counted again in front of me and handed me the money.  I was a little distracted, due to my feeling a little queasy, and didn't follow the count as precisely as I would normally.  I pocketed the money and stepped back on the street, where Paul and I looked for Veïgène was nowhere to be seen.  A minute late he came running up, he'd used the restroom somewhere.  As we got in the car, the money changers I had just frequented surrounded the car and began talking quite animatedly through the partly open windows.  "Give back my money, you took too much of my money!" exclaimed the leader nearly shouting.  He had counted it twice in front of me, this had to be some sort of scam, I figured.  I wondered if the situation would deteriorate and get dangerous.  I told Paul to get in the car, we were leaving.  I said to the shouting man, "we counted it together twice and agreed; the deal is over."  They got more animated, standing in front and back of the car so that it couldn't move without pushing them.  He shoved the three hundred dollar bills in through the front side window.
 
The doors were locked and I pushed the windows up farther so they couldn't get a hand in near me, and decided to recount.  I pulled out the wad of bills and counted again.  It wasn't a scam after all; he really had given me an extra 50,000 CFA - over a hundred dollars. No wonder they were frantic!  I handed him the 50,000 through the window, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and smiled.
 
We drove back toward the bridges over the lagoon.  Two policemen with AK-47s flagged us over on the on ramp to the bridge.  It was a rather secluded area, which is the worst place to get pulled over.  The policeman asked right away to see my papers.  I handed over my passport.  He looked at it quickly and handed it back.  He made it clear he wanted some money.  He asked to Paul's ID.  It was in order.  He ordered the trunk (boot) open; it was empty.  When he saw that no money was forthcoming, he demanded to see my passport again.  He leafed through the pages.  "Il n'y a pas de titre de séjour!" he exclaimed ("you don't have an entry visa").  That's an old one, he was trying.  I smiled helpfully and found the stamp pointed it out and handed it back to him.  He looked disappointed.  "We need a little something from you" he said.  "But, sir, that wouldn't be legal" I replied with a smile.  He said "No it's OK we just need a coffee, there are three of us."  Paul explained, "This is my pastor, he has come to visit us."  "I will say a prayer for you" I told the policeman.  "Well yes" he said "but that comes later, we need the coffee now...."  I smiled and said again, "I'll pray for you, it will work you'll see."  He finally gave up, and waved us on.  As we drove off I said the promised prayer silently for the policeman: "Father, please help that man learn not to extort money and to be content with his wages."  We were stopped one more time on the way to La Mé, but this time it was a legitimate checkpoint and only the car registration and driver's license were verified.
 

street scene

At Abobo we stopped to buy some treats for the Feast of Tabernacles.  A congregation in Missouri had collected some money and we could use some of it here.  We bought tea, powdered milk, sugar, big bags of candy for the children, six liters of sangria, and other similar goodies.  We'd already sent them some help to buy a sheep, and some fish and rice and yams and oil to cook it.  These were just extra treats, dessert type things.  I also bought six cans of corned beef and 8 baguettes, all they had in the store.  This was for dinner after the Day of Atonement, they'll be really hungry and this will be appreciated.

a rough passage

 
When we arrived in La Mé we greeted everyone and Paul pulled out the things we had purchased.  There was spontaneous applause; I think the sugar got the greatest reaction.  That's a real luxury that people can rarely afford.
 
We had a half hour Bible Study about the Day of Atonement, and then I met individually with people who wanted to be baptized.  Two of the ladies didn't speak French, so Paul translated for them.  We still have some things we need to work on with them, so after the initial visits occurred, I called the whole group of eight people in and we had a group study to cover some things that weren't clearly understood.
 
I told Paul I would try to find a book, in Abidjan, that could be used to help the ladies learn to read in their language at least and I encouraged them to make the effort to learn.  I promised them a nice Bible each when they could show me they could read.  They seemed pleased.  I'll follow up on that next time I come through.
 
We had a break for lunch; Charlotte brought me a little bowl of green beans and little pieced of beef in a tomato sauce.  I thanked her again, and gave her a cheese sandwich which I had brought to thank her for her work, generosity.  I also handed around a Slim Jim to each of the adults.  I often carry those small beef sticks for times when I can't get safe food.  They were amazed that this "meat from America" would keep for so long without refrigeration.  It was quite an experience for them to eat something like that.  They said it was very good, and like the fact that it was spicy!
 
At 2:00 we had another Q&A Bible study for another hour.  We discussed at some length the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, a very important element of understanding.
 
Around 3:30 we started back for Abidjan.

coming back to Abidjan

I wanted to have a bite to eat and get everything squared away for tomorrow, which will be a very full and busy day, before the sun set, which is around 6:30, with very little variation all year round.