Abidjan Report- February 2011

Jay is due to return for a visit in mid-March. Hooray! This month, he kept busy standing in for vacationing coworkers including his boss. At one point, he was doing the work of 7 people. Needless to say, it made for a lot of extra time spent in the office. Kind of a crummy situation, but it’s not much worse than returning to an empty house.

An interesting thing happened to Jay this month. He and a few representatives from the US Embassy had to meet with Ivorian officials at Abidjan’s port. Apparently, there was some concern regarding a U.S. shipment bound for Burkina Faso (the land-locked nation just north of Cote d’Ivoire). The shipment contained a Military Peacekeeping Training Package which included air rifles, paintball guns, slings, grenades, paper targets, a chainsaw, herbicide, genuine Red-Rider BB guns, and some other stuff.


Well, when Ivoirian Customs x-rayed the container, they got REALLY excited because the officials were convinced that the U.S. was shipping arms to Burkina Faso (sworn enemies of the Gbagbo regime). So Jay and the other representatives from the Embassy sat around for hours waiting while 15 customs people, 30 gendarme and navy officers, and a bunch of workers emptied the container. They removed the “arms” from their boxes, took pictures, and tried to figure out what the stuff did. All of them were stumped by the wrist sling.

Anyway, the top brass immediately recognized that the stuff was benign and left quickly but the other reps took the time to “confiscate” (aka “steal”) the guns, pellets, targets, and safety glasses. (Good thing about the safety glasses because they might shoot their eyes out.) The most dangerous item in the shipment was the chainsaw, but they left it behind. Probably because they had no idea what it was. Thank goodness none of the guns showed up in the paper or on the news.

The situation in Cote d'Ivoire has gotten a lot worse lately. With political and trade sanctions in full effect, products are seriously getting scarce. The Squatter (Gbagbo), since he is not the internationally-recognized president, cannot cash a check anywhere in town. He ran out of money to pay government workers and his troops, so he announced that a few international banks in Abidjan would be "nationalized" and then sent armed men to them to "withdraw" all of the money from their vaults. Subsequently, all of the other international banks decided to pull out of Abidjan, severely limiting cash flow for the average citizen.

Cocoa-growers demonstration

Bank-closed

Militants have been terrorizing people in pro-Ouattara (the elected president) neighborhoods to the point that the residents were effectively forced from their homes. Ivoirian refugees inside and outside of Cote d'Ivoire number in the tens of thousands. It's a very sad situation and we hope the African Union will decide to take any action necessary to remove Gbagbo.

Refugees from the Abobo neighborhood waiting for food

As the days pass and the stalemate worsens, we are slowly becoming convinced that our family won't be going back to Abidjan. By the time the politicians and diplomats sort the situation out, it is possible that our 6 month re-entry window will be past. This has been a very sad realization for us, since we really liked living in Abidjan and if we cannot return, we will miss the people we met there.

February- a short but busy month

Simon wearing his dinner. Gotta love guacamole.

After reviewing the month’s activities, Emily realized that she and the boys were sick the first half of February: coughs, colds, teething (Simon), a bout of croup and a trip to the ER for oral steroids (James). Ugh! Also, during this time, James wavered in his resolve to “use the potty like a big boy” and the potty-training battle began in earnest. So, the first part of the month wasn’t all that memorable, at least not in a good way.

Simon packing for the trip to Mike and Sarah's house.

Fortunately, the rest of the month was vastly more interesting. Mike and Sarah invited Emily to tag along with Mom and Dad on their trip, so they all flew out to Michigan together. With Hayden’s baptism, the move into the new house, and all of the kids’ activities, it was a really busy time for Mike’s family. So, the second half of the February flew by quickly for everyone. This was a fortunate thing for Em and the boys, since they have been anxiously awaiting Jay’s arrival (which is now only a couple of weeks away).

James and Simon have loved spending time with their cousins. After just a few days, Simon was reaching to be held and squealing with excitement when the kids returned from school. (Much to his mother’s dismay, shrieking has become one of Simon’s favorite pastimes.) Also, Simon started walking full-time just days before we arrived in Michigan which means that he gets into trouble quicker. It has been great having cousins around to help keep tabs on him. James and Anders have had good days and not-so-good days but overall, James is grateful to have a consistent playmate. Anders has taught James a lot about robots, TRIOs, and drawing and he is a great potty training coach.

James and Anders cleaning...using WAY too much soap.

This month, Emily spent her time entertaining and refereeing the little ones. She helped Sarah to organize and decorate the new house and watched American Idol for the first time in years, which was fun. She also worked on her annual PNP certification and James’ potty training, which wasn’t as much fun.

Without a doubt, potty training is Emily’s least favorite part of parenting so far. Argh! After weeks of every coercion and positive incentive Em could think of, James continued to have accidents. He would go days with only 1 or 2 accidents and then relapse and have several in one day. Reluctantly, Emily decided to employ the Peterson family stand-by: the “cold shower method”. It only took a few days for James to respond, but Em thinks he achieved a record. Has anyone else given a kid more than 4 cold showers in a day?