Boyage to Divo!

The beginning of our week we were blessed to visit a town about three hours away called Divo! Getting there was quite an adventure, though! We left by taxi, and were warned by Berènjè to keep our belongings close and follow them closely once we arrived to the bus station. I was in a taxi with Logan and Rita (th NYI treasurer of this district) when we hit traffic. A young man approached the taxi and began yelling things to the driver and Rita. He would kiss the windows trying to make us laugh, direct us through traffic, and then be back to yelling through the windows. Soon he had another friend with him. They obviously wanted money, and we had no where to go. Once traffic began moving, they jumped on the back and on top of the taxi and rode it to the bus station where we hit yet another jam and were joined by 2 more friends! Now there were four pretty big men surrounding our taxi, along with many other people and cars... I started to get a little nervous, especially when they banged on the windows or tried to open the car doors (don't worry, I locked mine right away!). Eventually Parfait emerged from the crowd and joined our taxi, and we also saw the pastor from the construction site and another man we recognized outside. We jumped out and were herded, more or less, to the "bus" we were taking. A bus is similar to a 12 or 15 passenger van with about 20 people and luggage packed in. Our friends followed us to the bus, and then one crossed the line. He touched my leg asking for money, and I sternly said "NO, NO!" and waved my hand in his face. Thank goodness "no" is universal! I turned back around to the bus and all of my teammates and hosts were laughing at me. What an experience. After about 40 minutes sitting in the bus, we gave them the equivalent of a dollar and they left us alone. What a hassle to get a dollar! Berènjè said, "They are only kidding... But don't smile."

We traveled for about 2.5 hours into the countryside to Divo, a town of about 10,000. We checked into our "hotel," which was much more like a motel in the United States. It had a bed and a small table with a tv, but couldn't have been any bigger than 9' x 15' total. On a positive note, we had air condition! On a negative note, the one towel was dirty, so Sarah and I used our shirts... All in the experience, I guess! We met with people from the local Nazarene church in a common outdoor room for dinner, which the women from the church carried on their heads. As we noticed Sunday, the women and children don't eat at the table, they prepare the food for men and guests, then eat leftover or simple food after the table is cleared. It's very humbling to be served so generously. After dinner (rice & fish), we took a walk for about an hour to see the area around our hotel. We saw many cows, goats, sheep, and even army ants, as well as a lot of their agriculture!

After dinner we went to the pastor's home to set up The Jesus Film. It wasn't until after we were entirely set up that the question was raised... Where do we get electricity? How differently minds work here! That issue took another 45 minutes or so to solve, but the boys figured it all out. In all, over 400 people watched the film, and 19 said they would like to receive Christ at the end! Here, they take the names of those who come forward, then visit them in the next days to personally talk to and disciple them, which I think is really neat. Because the film didn't finish until 11:30, there were no more taxis, so from 12-1 am we walked back to our hotel with our "convoy," as I call them. This is the group from whatever church we've visited that walks with us until we get a cab usually. On Monday night I was especially grateful for the 11 adults and several kids who walked with us, especially once we got to the dirt path where we used cell phones to light the way and had to cross paths with the army ants again! Some of our friends headed home during the walk, but at least 5 men came all the way and would have to return the entire distance. Again, the hospitality is amazing here.

We were woken at 9 on Tuesday morning by the pastor who was all ready to go! They got us a delicious breakfast of bread, orange juice concentrate (didn't figure that out until too late... we thought that's how it tasted in Africa!), and hot chocolate! Because they had to go get the food, it arrived around 11:30 and we finished "breakfast" at noon! The pastor planned on shuttling us back and forth to the church on his motorcycle, but somewhere we made a wrong turn... and he never found us. We ended up walking for another hour in the mid-day heat (and I mean HEAT) to the church! Cote d'Ivoire played their first World Cup game on Tuesday, and they explained that everything shuts down on these days! We ate our lunch around the television watching the game. This was another community meal of fish and rice, the kind where we eat with our hands! There was also a sauce of vegetables... Sarah and I had the non-spicy kind and it was hot!! We also had papaya and oranges, then they brought out fouton and more fish! Lots of food :)

After our meal, Sarah and I asked to use the restroom. We had to walk with three men about 7 minutes through town to a Jewish church where we asked to use the toilet. And Parfait had to buy us toilet paper... Awkward :) We spent time at the church in the afternoon, playing with the kids and taking pictures with about everyone in the congregation. Sarah says we're like Disney characters here! We set up the second film once it got dark - an African movie with a Jesus-like character. This time, Sarah and I made friends with many of the little girls... They surrounded us, petting our arms and legs, playing with our hair, and pressing buttons on our watches! We both ended up with a little girl on our lap for the film, too. This movie had almost 800 in attendance and 30 came forward at the end - so incredible. We were blessed to be a part of this different culture and their path to the cross. Fortunately, we caught a taxi after only an mile or so of walking Tuesday night.

On Wednesday we were back at the pastor's house for my favorite meal yet - breakfast! We had oats with condensed milk and bread. As much as I have been enjoying the culture here, I finally began to feel the strain (I've been anticipating this!). Logan helped me understand that every location is more and more out of my comfort zone. In El Paso, I wanted to be home. Once we got to Abidjan, I wanted to be in El Paso. This time in Divo, I was ready to come back to our guest house in Abidjan. This was the first time we've been submerged in their day-to-day living. We saw the front porch as a kitchen, the lack of water and power, and just a general feeling of oppression... It was definitely outside of my comfort zone. After a 2.5 hour wait at the bus station for the seats to all sell, we took a coach bus back home. We were very tired and ready to be back when we finally arrived at the guest house around seven. Sarah and I spent the evening doing laundry, taking showers, and writing in our journals. We are all very very thankful for a free day today to relax, connect with our friends and fa,ily, and get more groceries! The sun is out today, there's a nice breeze, and it is a beautiful day here half way around the world!!!

We sometimes feel disconnected from the world, and I know people from all of our friends and family are reading about our adventures... If you are following my blog, would you mind posting a comment with your name so we can all see who is reading? Thank you so much!!

Love, Paige