Visits

Every night here I go with Diane and we go visit people at their houses. It is a huge thing in Ivorian culture to make visits to people at their houses to greet them and talk. It is my absolute favorite thing to do here. We don't even call people to tell them we are coming over. We just drive or walk over and knock on the gate. Ever person comes out all excited and brings you a chair and offers you a drink or food. Then we just sit outside and talk. We usually go and visit people from about 5:30pm-9 or 10 at night! It's really great!

So far I have been to so many people's houses. The first night I was here, I ate dinner at Michael's house. Michael is one of the African doctors at the hospital. I got to eat dinner with his wife and 2 little girls Rose and Grace. They were so cute! I don't know why I was worried about what I was going to eat here because the food is SO good! And people love to feed me! Later that night Diane and I went to visit Dahiri and his family. He is a nurse who works at the hospital. When we got there Basson (another nurse at the hospital) was there too! The two of them are so funny! They were cracking jokes back and forth all night! They both speak english pretty well so we got to talk quite a bit. They both love to practice their english any chance they get!

Then second night I was here I ate dinner at Dahiri's house. His wife cooked us rice with this sauce that is made out of some seed and then put a sardine on top of it all. I didn't think I would like the sardine but when you mixed it in it wasn't too bad! She gave me SO much rice! I couldn't even finish it all! We sat and talked in the courtyard with Dahiri and his family for about an 2 hours. Then we went over to Basson's house and talked with his family for a little bit. I got to meet his wife and their 2 kids.

My favorite house to visit though is Tanti's house! Tanti is Diane's closest African friend. I love going over to her house because she has a daughter Naomi who is 18, a son who is I think 16 and a 21 year old niece who is living with them named Catherine. I love getting to hang out and talk with them. They don't speak a lot of english so we do a lot of guessing and hand motions but when we can't understand each other we just laugh! It's really fun! Catherine loves to braid and twist my hair! They also taught me how to dance to this song (i hope this link works)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUIlOudlHI