The Marine Ball

On November 20th, the Marine guards at the Embassy hosted the annual Marine Birthday Ball. This is an important Embassy event especially at smaller posts. Emily's friend Rachael (who is also our neighbor) invited her to help decorate the Embassy atrium. The event was lots of work, but was lots of fun too. (More than once, Em had flashbacks of wedding planning.) We think the results were pretty impressive. Just check out the photos…

The decorated atrium

Oscar, Jay, and Emily at the Marine Birthday Ball

Emily's hairdo: Yes, it is mostly fake hair. She let the stylist do whatever she wanted to. Yes, it was quite heavy.

Arrival of HHE and James is 3! Hooray!

Thankfully, we received our household effects (HHE) shipment early in the month. For James, rediscovering his old toys was even better than Christmas. He was exceedingly happy and walked around with a contented smile on his face for at least 2 days. After all of recent changes in his life, James was probably just relieved to have familiar things around him. His parents were almost as happy. We were glad to receive our belongings safe and sound (especially our mattress topper and kitchen items.) Prior to our move, one of our State Department friends told us that (for 3rd- world countries) it is a good idea to “arrive heavy and leave light”. After living here for a couple of months, we realize why he made that statement. Being without most of our stuff for 3 ½ months and seeing how few belongings the Ivoirians have has made us acutely aware that we could easily do without most of our physical possessions.

We have spent a good portion of the month arranging things around the house. The office and master bedroom still need some attention, but we’re getting close. Because of the climate here in West Africa, it is impossible to store anything outside (unless it’s plastic). Everything made of metal rusts and everything made of paper or fabric molds. So we have to store nearly everything indoors, including tools and garage items. We are fortunate that our house has a lot of built-in storage. After all that box maneuvering, we’re guessing we could kick anyone’s tail at TETRIS.




James turned 3 on November 8th. Since our shipment had just arrived, we had a small birthday celebration amongst the boxes and invited our neighbors. James wanted a Thomas cake again this year, so Emily came up with a new idea and Jay executed it with impressive results. James loved his Thomas “happy birthday cake”… It had buffers and everything!




Simon cut three upper incisors this month and the fourth should emerge soon. He enjoys eating so this is good news for him. He already weighs 22 pounds and is getting very strong. For a couple of months now, diaper changes have been a wrestling match and removing the remote control from his clutches has become nearly impossible. On the plus side, Simon’s hulk-like strength also translates into really great hugs.

Election Day

October was a busy month for us. We spent most of our free time settling-in and learning our way around Abidjan. We received our air shipment early in the month and are so glad to have a few of our own things (sharp knives-hooray!). Some friends from the Embassy have shown us the best places to shop for food and household items, and we have done a little site-seeing. Primarily, this month was full of preparations (at home and at work) for Cote d’Ivoire’s Election Day (today).

As we are composing this entry, Emily and the kids are waiting-out Election Day at home. Jay is away for 5 days visiting Man (a city in western Cote d’Ivoire) where he is acting as an election monitor. The presidential elections have been postponed six times, so this is the first vote in Cote d’Ivoire in 10 years. The last one resulted in a coup d’état (1999) followed by a civil war (2002). UN peacekeepers and EU election officials are around in pretty good numbers and with so many eyes on Cote d’Ivoire, the opposing sides are eager to make a good impression. Everyone seems optimistic that things will go over peacefully. So far, so good.



Jay volunteered to help with the elections and those making the monitoring assignments probably figured he would be well-suited to handle a challenging area because of his language skills and knowledge of Cote d’Ivoire. At first, Em wasn’t thrilled to hear of Jay’s assignment. Man is many miles away and is in an area that is considered at “high risk” for civil unrest. Then, during a meeting, the Ambassador reminded us that “this is the reason the State Department is here"... to encourage responsible governance and political stability in Cote d’Ivoire. Afterward, Emily felt chastened and adjusted her attitude a bit.

If anything does happen, it will probably happen when the election results are announced... by then Jay will be back in Abidjan. Even so, please keep us and Cote d'Ivoire in your prayers. We aren’t in any rush to be evacuated and the last thing this country needs is more civil unrest.

Halloween 2010

Even though the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan has been very focused on preparations for the election, the community liaison officer managed to scrape together a little Halloween party for the kids. They walked around to the different offices and knocked on the doors for trick or treating. I think the adults had almost as much fun as the kids did.

James insisted that he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. We ordered the costume online shortly after we moved here and it arrived a couple of weeks ahead of time. When James saw the costume, he absolutely refused to put it on. His parents coaxed and cajoled for days, but he remained adamant.

Thanks to peer pressure and promises of candy, James finally agreed to wear the costume for the Halloween festivities. Then, he refused to take it off at bedtime and has insisted on wearing it every day since the party... Aren’t 2-year-olds great?!

Simon’s costume didn’t arrive in time, so we had to enlist the help of our neighborhood tailor. Emily printed out a photo from online and gave it to Ibrahim. It took him less than 12 hours to get the fabric and make the costume (without a pattern)...Emily was totally impressed. Simon is crawling full time now and getting into everything, so we decided a monkey costume would be fitting...

We hope all of you had a great Halloween too!

Enjoy our home video entitled: "When Baby Monkeys Attack!"