May 26, 2019 Happy Mother's Day Côte d'Ivoire

This has been a great week.  Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning we had a combined Zone Conference with the missionaries from the Man Zone. Tom played beautiful hymns on a strange keyboard before the meeting started. It brought the spirit into the building. It’s always wonderful to see “old” missionaries who’ve transferred out, and sad to see the missionaries who are in their last transfer before going home.  A “transfer” is a six week period of assignment, at the end of which some missionaries are transferred.  In French, the word is “mutation”.  We always hope that we don’t have a lot of mutants who will leave.  We did a few fun games during Zone Conference, one of which was the trust exercise where all get in a circle and carefully let themselves down onto the person’s knees behind them, using their hands on the shoulders of the person in front to balance.  Once everyone is seated, you can lift the hands to show that you don’t need them to balance anymore.  Like this:

With two elders at Zone Conference

We have a new district leader in Issia from the Congo who is a great teacher.  He and his companion go with us to Saioua and Godoua to teach one day each week and occasionally join us on Sunday.  They go with the branch mission leader while we team with the group leader in Godoua to visit members and less-actives, usually.  This past week we met with a group of eight adults and one youth who are all members but don’t attend because they live in Niakia, about 10 km, roughly 6 miles, from the branch.  Niakia was the village where the church was first launched in the Saioua area. A few members returned to this home village from Abidjan during the civil troubles about 10 years ago.  They began sharing the gospel with friends and family and soon had enough members for a branch.  When the mission president came from Abidjan to organize the branch, he decided that it had to be located in Saioua, which is a larger town by far - but that left these members without a place to meet.  For most, it is too expensive to get a taxi to go that far, and is too far to walk.  The few who stayed active had a bicycle or other means to get there.  We are excited about the possibility of a new group starting in Niakia and so are they.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Village kids reacting to their reflection in the side of our truck.

We must always be careful about judging people when we only see them in one context. I have been upset about a branch leader who cannot seem to conduct a meeting without  being helped several times by other leaders. This week we visited him and his wife in their home and for this part of Africa, I was really impressed. They had several banana trees within their property boundaries, electricity which powered a fan, indoor lights [the first I have seen in a village] and a TV. Their living room had 2 couches and two chairs and also a large window. He told us about paying for two years for the chairs people sat on at church. Their children have all left home so he has nephews living with them and he is paying for their expenses. One of them passed away two weeks ago [28 yrs old with renal failure]. He is paying all the medical bills and funeral expenses. I am so grateful that I relearned this lesson and never said a word about his weakness.

We have changed our schedule slightly.  We go to bed at 9pm and get up at 5am.  Walking earlier and welcoming the sunrise is a wonderful way to start the day. One also avoids the hundreds of students starting school before 8am and it is about 15 degrees cooler. In the month of May I have walked 84 miles. This is a personal best.

This week I cooked dry kidney beans for the first time, added some crushed chilis and bonnet peppers, homemade tomato juice, hamburger that just arrived at our store [not good] and topped it with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and onion.  It was good except for the hamburger. We also had french toast with grated nutmeg, and cinnamon mixed into the eggs and served with maple syrup.  What a treat. Tom’s homemade pasta is still my favorite. We are not starving any more but look forward to a greater variety of food when we get home.

I said the closing prayer in French today in Relief Society. I prayed that the women would have great courage and listen to the Holy Spirit.  Today is Mother's Day in Côte d'Ivoire.  The branch president held a special service after the meeting and called each woman up individually.  He kissed them three times on the cheek, then presented them with a fabric flower and a can of soda, while the other women cheered.  Then we loaded up his car and our truck with members to go visit women who had missed the meeting.   We found two at home, missed two others, and met the village chief in one village where the sister wasn't home.  It was a great activity.

                                        Some Mother's Day outfits!

May 19, 2019

We had some interesting visitors this week.  We must tell you some history first.  When Erin our only daughter was graduating with her degree in French,  one of her professors said to her, “What are you doing next year?”  Erin responded “I am not sure”.  The professor said “You should immediately apply for the Masters program.   The deadline is next week and you must write the GRE before your application can be accepted."  Erin was a little stunned but  wrote the test and was accepted into the program shortly thereafter.  This was all thanks to Madam Thompson who became her mentor and took her to Senegal  [in the first group who went there] where she studied with a female African author.  Erin was a TA in French and her cubicle was down the hall from the office of a tall handsome senior who was doing research in the Translation Research Group, and who was also in her ward at language housing.  Amazingly, not only did she get a masters in French with her emphasis in West African Literature but also found her husband Michael.  They each speak French and Spanish.

Fast forward 20 years and Madam Thompson and her husband are called to serve as YSA specialists for the West Africa Area. Elder and Sr. Thompson have been touring Cote D’Ivoire and training Stakes and Districts how to minister to those between 18 - 25.  When they heard we were serving in Daloa, they asked if they could stay overnight with us.  We were of course delighted to host someone who was so influential in the life of our daughter.  We made them our specialty of homemade pasta with homemade organic sauce and banana cake for dessert and had a lovely evening discussing this world we live in, missionary work, and old times.  It is amazing who you run into in West Africa.

Elders and Srs. Spackman and Thompson

 This week was challenging because of others’ schedules which didn’t match up well with ours.  We did visit and help teach a group of young people on Wednesday in Saioua.  Most of them had been recently baptized but there were some non-member friends there as well.  We were working with a new (to the area) missionary from the Congo and he was outstanding.  Our schedules are already much better organized for the coming week.  In our Sunday meetings in the Saioua branch the majority of those in attendance were under 18 years of age.  That is consistent with the demographics of the country. 

Today Sr. Spackman helped in Primary with two activities.  Not one of the children had ever heard of the song “The wise man built his house upon the rock” (or in French, “Le sage et le fou”).  They learned the words and the actions.  They also played the clapping game with the gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).  They were a captive audience for 30 minutes.  The children here are used to hearing something read from a book.  There are no pictures to look at or color, no activities to be involved in, because the little branch does not yet have a computer, a copy machine, paper, crayons, scissors, pencils, etc.  There is also no piano or keyboard, or tape recording, because there is no electricity (or water) in the building.  The rented chairs are carried from the Sacrament Meeting pavilion to the classroom areas.  Efforts are underway to obtain our own building but it has been this way for awhile…

Woman pounding cassava

Woman at the market making coleslaw

Girls playing hopscotch under a tree

Kids playing in the sand

May 12, 2019 Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women in our lives and in the world!  What a difference you have made and are making!

We had an adventuresome trip this week to San-Pédro to visit Elder and Sister Tanner.   They are working with the missionaries and the several branches there in the district.  You are correct in thinking that it is not a very French name for a city.  It was named by Portuguese explorers about 500 years ago after the saint’s day when it was found by them. 

San-Pédro is about a 5 hour drive south of Daloa, where we live.  It was a sleepy fishing village until 50 years ago when it was built up to be a major shipping port.  Although it is only 2/3 the size of Daloa, it has an airport, tourism, real restaurants, and lovely beaches - all of which we lack.  It also has a much larger supermarché with better selection, wide streets, fewer ramshackle buildings, and less trash in the streets and gutters.

One of our favorite activities with the Tanners was visiting a family that they are teaching.  There are 8 children in the family and they live in a humble dwelling with close neighbors.  Their daughter was 11 when she was the first to join the Church, 3 years ago.  The parents and the rest of the family are very interested in joining but the parents aren’t yet married (a very common finding here) so the missionaries aren’t actively teaching them.  Two neighbor families wanted to join in with the missionary lessons and they are now members.

The Tanners helped the couple set a goal to be married.  That means that they need to save up 25,000 CFA, which is about $43 US, for the government registration fees.  That doesn’t sound like much but about 45% of the population live below the poverty line of $1.90 per day income.  On their previous visit the Tanners had given them a home built “piggy” bank for the family - a plastic jar with an opening to deposit but the top just swivels so it’s quite difficult to make a withdrawal.  The idea is to deposit loose change over time and save the needed amount.  On our visit the Tanners had small packages of cookies that they showed the family at the end of the home evening lesson and they gave the kids the choice - cookies or a deposit of 500 CFA in the bank.  They enthusiastically chose the deposit.  It was very impressive to see the lessons being learned: the importance of marriage, family, and the gospel, and the importance of delayed gratification to reach a goal.  Teaching and changing lives for the better is slow work but that’s how the world will be improved, one family at a time. 

We returned home in time for a baptismal service in Issia yesterday for 11 youth from Saioua, all of whom are the only members in their families.  They have a good seminary teacher and will need strong youth leaders to help them grow.  Hopefully they will also help and support each other.

A beautiful resort up the coast

Fishermen mending their nets

May 5, 2019

Monday, I changed my walking route.  As I turned to come back east, I knew I was in trouble. The sky had blackened and you could feel the moisture in the air.  I made it a couple of blocks before the first drops pelted me.  I ducked under a cardboard roof and was shortly joined by a young woman and a little girl, then a little boy.  The water was running down the road.  We all just looked at each other.  A motor cyclist sped in right beside us.  It was pretty crowded until the rider got off and unlocked  the door to a stall.  He went in and then invited us to join him. 

We saw a table, a work bench, a stool and an open tool box.  It was his cycle repair shop. There was no electricity but there was a foot square window [no glass] where we all watched the rain and listened to the thunder.  We sat there for what seemed an endless 20 minutes.  I tried to phone Tom - no service - then to make small talk because that is all I can do in French. Found out the girl was 16 so I told her about Ethan.  The little girl was 10 so I told her about Tommy.  The boy was 8 so I told him about Simon.  I didn’t ask the man how old he was.  He just smiled.  Eventually the rain quit but before everyone went their ways I asked if I could take a “photo”.  As I came along the hill to our house Tom was  out in the truck looking for me.  I was not soaked and was safe.

Have you ever seen a front end loader at a gas station?

        A two year old sweeping the dirt in front of her house.

                                         A lady sorting charcoal for cooking.

                     Coat of arms for Côte D’Ivoire [for Ivy who likes elephants]

 

Fish mongers

 

 

 Little boy at church with his Dad’s briefcase.

We tried soursop this week.  It has a white mushy flesh with black seeds like watermelon seeds.  You do not eat them.  It is kind of slimy, and really messy but the flavor is great.  We also made mango chicken this week which was divine.

Last Sunday Tom taught about 15 young men in priesthood meeting in Saioua.  His focus was the conference talk of Carl B Cook in the priesthood session and went from there.  Yesterday we had our own version of the story in that talk.  We drove to Issia to a baptism of 6 young men —all from the same neighborhood, all the only members in their families, all between 14-16.  They were acting pretty typically until they put on the white clothes and then there was silence and spirit.  Each was baptized by the ward mission leader, an outstanding 25 yr. old single man who cannot afford the cost of a passport so cannot serve a mission else where.  It was a humbling experience for us and one that we hope has a profound effect on each of them.  Are you aware that the average age of a person in Africa is 19?