10 Things I Learned from the Ivorian People

1. Greet and shake everyone's hand
2. Its okay to go topless.
- Most women do not go topless, but I did see a few of the older women walking around without a shirt on.  This is one lesson I will not be taking to heart. 
3. Generosity and hospitality are a way of life. 
- Visitors are always welcome.  Guests are always given the best.  My family would always give me the best piece of meat or an egg even if the others did not get something.  My host mother would randomly bring home peanuts or something for me.
4. It's not a meal without rice.
- Rice and sauce is one of the main things that the Ivorians eat for meals.  Some people do not even consider it a meal without rice. 
5.   Names have meaning. 
- Many of the tribal names are given to people for their significance or meaning.  They may mean things like he or she was born on a Monday or even that they never met their father.  My family gave me the Senoufo name of Fonnidjanwa, which means daughter of a forger or blacksmith.  They gave me this name because their family are forgers.
6.  Getting your clothes made for you and picking out the designs is really fun.
- It is just really neat getting to pick out the pattern you want then getting measured and picking out how you want it to look.  It makes your clothes more fun and meaningful.  They also fit a lot better. 
7. It is okay to dance at church (and most big events)...and kind of fun too!
8. Ministry (and even a church) can begin right next door. 
- The family that I lived with had small Bible study meetings with a group of people in their neighborhood.  It was so neat to walk through the town with them to another family's courtyard.  We all sat under the stars and worshipped God.  They prayed for everyone and then read and talked about a Bible passage.  The Christian community and amount of Bible study meetings had grown so large they were building a church just a few feet down the road from my family's house.
9.  Everybody goes to the market when it is market day.
- Market day was every six days.  It was incredibly crowded on that day because everyone came whether you needed something or not.
10.  Prayer is powerful and important.
- One easy way to minister to the people at the clinic was to offer to pray for them.  Whether a person was a Christian or not they really appreciated you praying for them.  The Christians of the neighborhood got together to pray for each other's requests.  When my Ivorian sister had a huge test her friend came over to the house and prayed with her before the exam.  I think we value prayer here too, but I was impressed by how they came together to pray for situations. 
*The people of Cote d'Ivoire were so nice.  Although things may be a little different there, they are some wonderful people.  I thank God for them and for allowing me to see their culture and faith first-hand. 

A Typical Day Living with My Ivorian Family

In the morning, I would wake up, take a bucket bath, eat leftover rice and sauce for breakfast, and rice with my Ivorian dad into work on his motorcycle.  Then in the afternoon we would ride back home after work.  I mostly hung out with my Ivorian sister, Bintou, who was near my age.  We would pull up water from the well to fill a few buckets to use for cleaning and washing.  We would wash the dishes outside.  I was usually not allowed to do the hard ones because I did not do it well enough.  A good washing requires the use of some dirt to help scrub off the grime.  Then my sister would get a fire going and start dinner.  Usually she would mash up tomatoes and peppers or whatever was needed for a certain kind of sauce with a large wooden mortar and pestle.  These would go in a pot, and she would add water and seasonings.  In the mean time we might sweep the dirt courtyard and take the trash to a corner outside the walls of their courtyard.  We had to wash the rice and pick out the stones.  Then I would take another bucket bath because you have to take two every day.  Afterwards I would sit and talk with my sisters and brothers while we waited for dinner.  We ate around 8 PM, and my sister would put the rice in dishes for people.  My brothers and cousins all ate out of the same big bowl.  They all eat with their hands, but gave me a fork.  I tried to use my hands sometimes, but they usually laughed at me so I just stuck with the fork.  After dinner we might watch television together.  They particularly enjoyed WWE wrestling or Indian soap operas.  Frequently people would stop by the house and visit in the evenings.  On the weekends we would wash our laundry, rest, maybe visit people, and go to church on Sunday.

September 2011 - Living in Korhogo

After work on the 6^th, the missionary took me and my bag to my new house.  I was really nervous since I really did not know their customs, and I definitely did not know the language well enough.  My Ivorian family was so nice.  Living at the house with my parents were their four kids and occasionally two of their nephews.  They live in a quartier or suburb of Korhogo.  They have a house and outdoor are or courtyard enclosed by a cement wall.  The house is one-level with four small bedrooms, a living room, food closet, and a shower room.  Thankfully we had electricity so that was nice.  Sadly they did not have a fan or air conditioning.  I was sweating all the time, but I made it through.  The shower room is a room with a tiled floor and drain – not an actual shower, but the room where I took my bucket baths.  My family would heat up water and give me a bucket and cup to use to bathe with.  There were no refrigerators or ovens.  The “kitchen” was actually outside.  The courtyard has a cooking area, a well, a garden, a chicken coop and goat enclosure, an outhouse, and outdoor shower.  The toilet was a walled area made of cement with a hole in the middle.  The cooking area had an awning and a store room by it for pots and other cooking essentials.  They used fires to cook all their food.  There was a freestanding thing that used charcoal and could hold a small pot.  They also would put two big stones about half a foot apart so that a pot could rest on top, and they would make a fire between the two with wood.  This is how they would cook their meals every day.  I shared a bedroom with my sister.  She is one year younger than me, and she does most all of the cooking and cleaning.  My dad worked in the lab at the clinic.  My mom sells charcoal at a local market.  They have a few older children, but they were away in bigger cities finishing school.  I had two younger brothers.  One is eighteen and the other one is eleven years old.  Then I had another little sister who is about four years old.  They had two cousins around ten to thirteen that stay at the house.  I talked more with the children.  They spoke a little bit of English, and I only spoke a very little bit of French.  It took time, but we would converse using really simple French.  We would use hand motions and my French-English dictionary a lot.  I learned so much from them, and I loved getting to know them.

05 September 2011

Today I actually felt like a real nurse.  I give injections and watch IV medications, but those are usually just in-and-out patients.  The nurse practitioner that I have been staying with assigned me two patients to take care of on my own today.  They both had NG tubes in, and they were both severely malnourished.  They are both pretty unresponsive as well.  They do not use NG tubes a lot here; so many of the workers do not know how to use them.  One is a young boy named Elise, and the other patient is an elderly woman.  I did not have to do too much for them except give feedings, rehydration fluids, and medications.  I went ahead and did a full exam like I would in the hospital though just for practice.  It was so nice getting to work with the patients one-on-one.  It was also amazing to me how helpful the families were.  Any time I had to do something they would hold things for me or prepare the feedings.  It was so sweet and different to rely on them for help rather than having another medical professional.  Hopefully these two patients will get better soon.  I am so thankful for the work I have been able to do here in Cote d’Ivoire!                   

A Great Weekend!

Today, September 3, I met my family.  I met the family I will be staying with for the next few weeks.  The father works at the clinic, so I will ride with him to work everyday.  They live in an outer area of Korhogo.  Him and his wife were not at the house when we stopped by to visit, but many of his children were there.  Five of his children were at the house.  I believe he has six or seven total.  The oldest two are girls that are near my age.  I will be sharing a bed with them.  They showed me around their house and courtyard.  The main toilet is outside along with the cooking area and a well.  Thankfully, I have electricity in my house and will be able to take my bucket bath in an indoor room.  I am so excited to live with my family.  I move in Wednesday to stay for most of September.  Pray that my French increases while I am there and can understand them and get to know my family. 

After I saw the house, we went to the weaver’s village.  It was so interesting to see it all, especially because it is specifically done in the Korhogo area.  A nearby village grows and harvests the cotton.  This village spun it into thread and weaved it.  The women can spin the cotton into thread and can do some of the sewing and embroidering.  The men are the only ones who do the weaving though.  One man showed us around everything, and he showed us the looms where they weave it together and how they create patterns.  It was so awesome!  Then we looked around at all the things they made.  They have clothes, tablecloths and napkins, bedspreads, and purses.  It was quite hilarious because all of the men would come up and show us everything.  Not only did they weave, but they also created beautiful beaded jewelry.  They made each bead from clay, heated the beads, and then someone hand-painted a design on each bead.  It was all so beautiful!  It was a great day, and I am so excited for the next few weeks with my family.  I have appreciated all your prayers, and I ask that you continue to pray for me as I move in with my family. 

24 August 2011

This week I have been working with someone in consultation.  His job is somewhat similar to a nurse practitioner.  He listens and examines the patients then follows protocols on writing the needed prescriptions.  It is very interesting, and I enjoy trying to figure out what is going on.  It has also helped me learn a lot of French medical terms.  We have seen different respiratory infections, anemia, malaria, typhoid, amoebas, and much more.  Many of the children come in with severe anemia due to the malaria.  There are different types of malaria and ranges of severity.  There was a little girl today who had a severe type of anemia that affects the brain. 

We were done with the consultations today, so I went over to the injection room to see if there was something I could do.  I saw Doté, whom I work with in consultation, in the injection room next to the little girl we had seen only 30 minutes before with malaria.  I came up and realized he was pushing on her chest trying to revive her.  I was so shocked and saddened.  I had seen many with this type of malaria treated, but this little girl was gone.  There was nothing else to do.  It was the first time I had ever seen a patient or anyone for that matter die right in front of me.   Doté then wrapped a cloth around the little girl.  The family was not in the room, but a few minutes later I saw the mom come in crying with another girl in her arms that needed a shot.  I wish I could have said something to her, but I did not know how or what, so I just prayed for her and her family.  The woman that works in the injection room kept saying “jumelé.”  I had to look it up, but I realized she was saying the girls were twins.  Hearing this and seeing the mother crying made me so sad.  I feel like having twins in your family for some reason makes you interested in twins everywhere.  I do not know God’s plan, but I just prayed that through this situation that they might come to know Him. 

There are many times I am not certain why things happen or why I was meant to see them.  I just know that God has a reason for everything.  Death is a part of life.  If nothing else this experience reminds me that I have a limited time here on earth.  I want every moment to be glorifying God.  That means that daily I have to die to myself, so that I can live with Christ (Romans 6:8) and have a fruitful life (John 12:24).             

15 August 2011

Today I helped work at a build site.  One of the missionaries here is getting a girl’s school built.  It is going to be a four-year program and girls can come live in dorms at the school.  It is a few minutes away from the clinic.  The missionary has lived here in Cote d’Ivoire for most of here life.  She used to be a nurse and work at the clinic.  She now helps teach literacy classes for some of the women in Korhogo.  This girl’s school has been her project for the past few years.  Today they were pouring the cement in to form one of the floors of the dorm building.  It got started a little late because they did not have enough people.  We came around 10 AM or so, and they were just getting started with pouring the cement.  It seemed like a full family affair.  Most of the men, young boys, and young women were on the top of the building helping filling in the floor.  Men below would get cement from the machine, put it in a bucket, pass the bucket to men hanging onto a ladder, and pass the buckets all the way up to the people on the top.  Then on the top there was just lines of people, and we would take the bucket and pass it on to the person next to us.  It would go down the assembly line till the end where it was poured into the daul (I have no idea how to spell this word that is just what they called it and how that word sounded to me).  Then someone would help smooth it out once it was full.  Then there were a bunch of women down in the courtyard hired to cook lunch for everyone.  Then all the little kids were below hanging out.  I was up on the top floor passing buckets in the assembly line.  It was quite funny at times.  I had cement everywhere, and at one point someone flung a bucket and cement went all over my face and head.  Christie and I stayed and worked there for a few hours.  It was nice to get to hang with all the people and help out, but after those few hours I was exhausted.  Thankfully, we were able to eat a late lunch and then go back.  Apparently when you do this the whole entire floor has to be done at once.  The missionaries and some of the men were working till 2 AM to get it finished.  It was a long workday for them, but they got it all finished.  God worked the weather out perfectly because the area has to be wet every day after it is done.  It rained every day after that except for the day we worked, so it was perfect.  The school still has a ways to go till it is finished, but I cannot wait to hear when it is finished.  It will be such a great ministry and opportunity for the girls here.  Please pray that God will provide the rest of the funds that are needed, so it can all be finished soon.