Integration

How can it be that a month has come and gone like the clouds on a gusty afternoon? I don’t know, exactly. Time is that way. A bit hard to understand and impossible to hold down. The way time flows here in Cote d’Ivoire is different from the flow it takes on in the States. There’s less rushing and panting; less stiffness. Mornings start early, often before sunrise. Night falls around the same time every evening, and dinner is eaten after the sun goes down at 19:00 o’clock – or 7:00 PM. Our schedule on campus is less African than it is western. The reason for this is that we have seminars and classes that must happen every day. And, with 20 or so people involved, we need to stick to the clock or else nothing would happen.

[Quick summary of our schedule, Monday-Friday]

• 8 am – Bible study and/or worship as a team
• 9 am – French class with Timothee
• 10 am – Seminar (topics examples: cultural adjustment, common illnesses & treatments, history of Cote d’Ivoire)
• 12 pm – Lunch
• 1 pm – Rest
• 2:30 pm – French practice
• 4:30 pm – Free time – Sleep, journal, run, card games, soccer, snack, errands in town
• 7 pm –Dinner
• 8 pm – Team sharing
• 10 pm – Sleep! 

We’re well into our integration period of the year here in Cote d’Ivoire. It’ll probably go  through Thanksgiving time. So, come early December, when Christmas songs, snowflakes, and hot cocoa are prevalent around my Wisconsin home, it is likely that I will be moving into a new home here, gearing up for the hottest time of the year.

[A few highlights from “integration” so far] 

• This past week we heard from an Ivorian nurse. We had “in depth” discussions about diarrhea, parasites, snake bites, cholera, hygiene, and malaria-carrying female mosquitos, among other funny/scary/important topics related to our bodies.
• Trekking through muddy, red clay & dense, tall grass with the Landcruisers on an afternoon journey to a hidden rock quarry. Never before has riding on top of a massive vehicle been more thrilling than the Titan coaster at Six Flags. We spent the evening around a bonfire out on the quarry. The moon was full. We ate spicey beef/onion sandwhiches cooked over the fire (thanks to Rod!), learned about Baobab trees (a symbol of Africa), and shared stories and laughter.
• “Je vais au ville” – Going to the city: watching, listening, smelling, & tasting life here. Babies wrapped snuggly around their mother’s back with a colorful panye. Grilled bananas sold street-side, wrapped in recycled newspaper, exchanged for 50 francs (10 cents). Six laughing children standing in a line, holding hands as they wait to cross a busy street. Well-aware that they don’t have the right-of-way, they wait for several minutes before shuffling to the middle of the street, then again to the other side.