March 26th, 2023 Day 82 of 128

Abidjan, Ivory Coast (CoteD’Ivoire)

Hello from the Ivory Coast. I awoke to smell of smoke again this morning. Something about the ports throughout the African coast that, that is the over whelming smell I awake too. We were up this morning doing all our precautionary preparation before stepping off the ship. We remove all our jewelry, make sure we are wearing inconspicuous clothing, limit the amount of valuables we take with us and make sure we have plenty of drinking water because it is extremely hot and humid. Megan has also been wearing a baseball cap lately so she can hide her face when they start taking our photos, which happened today in spades especially for her. We grabbed our breakfast from the Lido this morning, filled our water bottle and then headed to meet our excursion group at the main stage by 8:45am. Today we drove through Abidjan and visited several of their 10 providences. 8 of which share a border with what we would call a river, they call a lagoon. We saw poverty at a level we have now seen several times throughout Africa. But despite people having so little, we always see smiling faces, and today everyone was dressed in their Sunday best as many people go to church and still give thanks for what they have. It is a reminder of how blessed we are. Our first stop was at a boys orphanage in Bingerville. There are 188 boys housed here currently between the ages of 5 and 23. They live in dorm style rooms. The location where the orphanage is, used to be the Governors Home before the capitol was moved in 1972. The building still stands and has been modified to accommodate the orphanage. Even the former prison building was renovated and now houses the mess hall where the students eat. A group of the boys performed a welcome dance for us and really seemed to enjoy themselves. Megan had MANY photos taken of her today. These young boys were super excited to see a young white girl amount the group and followed her around taking her photo the whole time we were there. The orphanage was presented a check from us as I assume part of our excursion costs went back to the day to day operations of the orphanage. I wanted to bring them all home with me and love on them and take care of them. It makes me sad to think of their life situation that has brought them to live here. They have either lost both of their parents, have only one parent who is unable to care for them, or have parent (s) who are incarcerated. Children ages 0-4years are in a different facility and come to live here at age 5. At age 23 they are old enough to go off to university and can no longer live here anymore. After we left the Orphanage we actually drove right next door to Bingerville Botanical Gardens. We were given a guided tour by the Botanical garden director and you could see the pride he has in taking care of these gardens. They actually used to be the private gardens to the Governor, who’s house is now the orphanage next door. We got to see many different local plants and trees. The highlights of the gardens was the blooming flowers, a Fromager Tree that we got to walk through, a bamboo covered walk way, cashew tress, Cacao trees and a second walk way filled with 100+ year old mango tress which still produce fruit the this day. Although I have no idea how you would harvest the fruit that high up. We walked quite a bit at the botanical gardens and it was extremely hot. I drank three bottles of water while we were there and it still didn’t feel like enough. After we left the botanical gardens and happily got back into our air-conditioned bus, we drove to Le Jardin D’Eden restaurant for a lovely lunch. We took all necessary precautions there, not eating any uncooked fruits or vegetables, and enjoyed our lunch very much. We even went back for seconds of cooked chicken and fish. I had a nice cold Guiness and a Castle beer (the beer we had on our safari) and more water and Megan tried a tropical soda. On the way back to the ship we drove through the downtown area of Abidjan and saw the local vendors selling their wares. There are a lot of colorful photos I took today and I hope you enjoy looking through them. I was fascinated by the way they carry large parcels on their heads and make it look so easy. Some of our driving highlights from today was St. Paul’s Cathedral, the U.S. embassy, a ton of fruit bats, the soccer stadium, and the Banque d’Abidjan. When we retuned to the ship we decide a cool shower was in order and we both needed to rehydrate. We both wound up with headaches and some gatorade was exactly what the doctor ordered. We stayed in for the rest of the evening. I ordered tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich from room service and Megan, who wasn’t hungry until my food arrived, wound up ordering the same for herself as well. It was a relaxing evening and we watched a fabulous movie about the life of Helen Reddy called I Am Woman, after her number one hit from the 1970’s. She was a woman’s activist and gave women a voice and the anthem to the women’s movement. It was a great watch. I love these educational biopics they have available for us to watch. I feel like I am learning and being entertained at the same time, guilt free movie watching, LOL!! I am hoping for a long nights sleep and to wake up feeling back to myself again. Tomorrow is a sea day and we have our daily routines ready to go. Enjoy your evening, morning or whatever time it is where you are. Hugs!