trip to Abidjan

San Pedro International airport

When we got back to San Pedro, we found that the UN were leaving. Should we be reassured or yet more scared???

Some light reading to pass the time

travel in style

eating a banana in the waiting room upon our return to San Pedro

the Sophia Airlines plane (this is NOT the plane David had to repair on the previous trip to Abidjan!)

Find what's wrong

The first to post what's wrong with this add in a comment, will be rewarded upon our return

How to talk in Côte d'Ivoire

The French Ivorians speak is a lot harder to understand than the French they spoke in Cameroon. Who ever thought that was possible?
First of all, most people speak with a serious lisp. And then there are the funny ways of expressing themselves!
A little anecdote:
I was questioning Maryam about the beautician she found me. The girl is living in the ‘cite cadres’, so I asked if she was married to one of the ‘cadres’.Maryams answer was: ‘Elle a fait un enfant pour le fils de madame xx.’

puppy love

Our little daughter already has an admirer. He’s the son of our neighbor and is called Jetty. Apparently, he’s always whining to his mom to come and see Aini, and so every once in a while, their cook takes him over. Every time he comes along, Aini is really excited and cries out to him. She’s starting to walk a little, and when the boy comes, she runs and hardly holds my hand to get there!
The problem is that the little boy is scared of me… so when I’m here, he doesn’t want to stay. Probably, he has never seen a white woman before, or very few, since all of them were evacuated here before the war, and that was before he was born (I was the first to arrive at the plantation ever since the war).
The first time she stood alone was at the beach. I was going for a walk, and suddenly, I heard her cry out to me. I turned around, and there she was, standing on her own, waving at me with her two hands. She’s doing that more and more often lately, so I think she’ll be walking soon. This weekend, she already took two steps by herself.

Burning down the house

About a week ago, I took control of our gardening projects and started terrorizing our gardener. It all started because I wanted to put some plants in my house. I went to a spot where they sell plants. I went back there with Francoise, who is a big plant-lover, and ended up buying a lot of stuff to plant in the garden, as well as some interior plants. Then off course, the plants needed planting!
So I took my gardener by the hand (he had been working for us for over two months, and I think he needed some structuring, because he was always running around in all directions, not doing a great deal!) and took him for a stroll in the garden, all the while pointing at where he had to plant my acquisitions.
I ended up pointing out all the work he had been neglecting: trimming hedges and bougainvillea’s, cleaning up fallen branches and logs of wood… The poor guy didn’t know what hit him.
During that walk, I also pointed out a heap of litter laying behind our house and told him that couldn’t stay that way, because it doesn’t look good and so he had to get rid of it… burn it or something.
Last week, he took action and burnt it where it lay… three meters from the house! As it was quite a big pile of rubble, we were very afraid the house might catch fire. So the gardener had to stand next to the fire and hose down the edges, since it was to big of a plot to put out. Still, in the morning I noticed it was still simmering.
And even though David had a serious talk with him about the danger of lighting a fire so close to the house, a few days later, he had lit it again, because everything hadn’t burnt.
This proves again that you have to be very careful about what you say and always think two steps ahead.

family pictures

whose toys?

Jade Leatherspank!

garden pics

the 'arrivage' from our garden

Pictures leftovers

These are some pics Thierry took.

Aini in her private natural seawater pool..

like royalty!!

I love this picture...

No comment

shopping aftermath

Aini wasn't bothered one bit that we carried her around all of San Pedro!

These I took entering San Pedro, to give you an idea of the city.

I did find the cutest little present for Leïla and managed to pick something up for Tess, too!

I also bought a lot of plants and am terrorizing my gardener ever since. I've got big plans for the garden (my mom would be very proud of me) and am already sad because I won't see it mature.

I've done it!

I've reached a record number of posts since I first started writing this blog. And it's only May!!! Sometimes New Years resolutions are good for something.
Furthermore, I am really happy that my complaints have woken up some of my readers, it's much more fun to write if you know you are being read and appreciated (and by whom!).

Tomorrow we'll be out for some more San Pedro shopping. I'll be taking my camera, hoping to shoot some dried frogs... This time, we're looking to buy plants and we want to do the 'grand marché'. It's little Leïla's birthday and I want to get her something nice, maybe pick something up for my sister in law... we see. Full report later on!

This weekend's pictures

the end of the Dodo river

We did some serious 4 wheel drive to get to the Dodo river, as you can see.

Marcel, Thierry, Françoise and David

Aini's private natural pool at the beach where the SOGB paillote used to be

I think my brother would be the happiest person on earth with just his surfboard and a tent on this beach (as long as we come to bring him food every once in a while)

Shopping in San Pedro

Aini's new clothes; bought in San Pedro Since she managed to get her clothes dirty after half an hour in San Pedro, she got a new outfit from Françoise!
This is Kady, the girl who sells me my fruit and veg

something to read

It’s been a while since I have really written anything. There’s a simple explanation for that: I simply have been too busy. Seems odd, I know, but ever since the third expat woman (Francoise) has arrived, I’ve been horseback riding every day for about two hours. We go to San Pedro together once a week to do the shopping, and I often spend the afternoon on the internet. The rest of the time I pass editing our photo albums. Since our weekends are quite packed, I have a lot of pictures every time, so that creates a lot of ‘work’.
Furthermore, I got quite frustrated, because I have been blogging a lot lately, and I never get any comments. I do know a lot of people seem to read this, but when you don’t get any feedback whatsoever, you start questioning what’s the use anyway. So please, if you are reading this, try to make an effort of leaving a comment every now and then.
Every weekend, we go out, and discover more beautiful beaches each time. We take our picnic, have a meal, go swimming, walk… We really spend some wonderful moments.
This weekend, we went to the beach where there used to be a cabana from SOGB, but now, it’s in ruins. We also took a look at the place where the Dodo river spills into the ocean. I think we’re going to come back with some camping equipment after our holiday, because we would like to spend the weekend at the beach.
We did some serious 4 wheel drive on the beach to get to the Dodo, and on the way back, I got in the back of the pickup with Francoise, which was splendid. People pay good money for safaris, but they won’t experience something like that.
The beauty here in Cote d’ivoire, is that when you go to a ‘plage sauvage’, most frequently, you are really alone here. Exept for some lost local passing by, there’s nothing but miles and miles of deserted beach.
Quite funny though! We go out of our way to live in a country as less civilized as possible, and then we search for the most deserted beach in the weekend.

the magical flying boterkoek

some more videos part 2

some more videos