This weekend was my first time living in a home with an Ivorian family! Granted, it was just for the weekend so it was short and we were very much treated like guests so things were pretty easy and not like real life as an Ivorian. Anyways, Kelly and I stayed with the Flavien family, who were amazing. You could just tell they genuinely wanted to make sure we were as comfortable as possible.



I’m not really sure what to say, it was almost uneventful, but in a very good way. We didn’t… Continue

So after three weeks of going to the classroom to learn French and a little bit of going into town, we decided to have some more hands-on French lessons. So we stepped outside the gate of Ecole Baptiste and walked just a little ways down the road to a rice field. The thing about planting rice is, it’s hard work but it’s not super tiring physically. But mentally, I was exhausted. Normally, I’d love any chance to spend some time playing in the mud. However, once I was in the rice paddy, I…

Continue

People keep asking me: “So how’s Africa?” And that’s a bit of a hard question to answer. So here’s a list of some things about the culture and what it’s like to live here so far.



-People assume that Africans are dirty. That’s definitely not true for the Ivorians. They bath twice a day and always wash their hands. They have way better hygiene than I do.



-You always greet people, and shake the hand of every person in the room. That’s been a little hard getting used to, when…

Continue

So much has been going on in the last two weeks but I’m not sure how to convey just how much it has been. Nothing huge has been happening but I’ve been doing so much observing and learning so it feels like so much more has been going on!



So my second week here was orientation week. Most mornings we would spend just talking about and learning how to live here, where things are at in the dorm, what’s easy to cook here, how to stay healthy, etc.

We went into town and tried to get… Continue

Just the beginning of my journey has already been quite the adventure. So much has been packed into less than a week, but not in a bad way. You’d think with no TV and internet life would be so boring, but that definitely isn’t the case here especially with so many other people around. I’ve been learning so many new things and seeing so many new sights in so short a time, yet it hasn’t been overwhelming. There has been a lot to take in but I haven’t  for a second felt the slightest bit like…

Continue