Today was essentially a travel day. I woke early as usual and enjoyed the breakfast. The papaya, served in the best way, with a wedge of lime was excellent. The fresh lime juice sets off the flavor of the pink fruit in a delightful manner.

I worked a few hours until Guy and Pierre arrived at 10:15 to take me to the airport. They dropped me at the departure level and we said our goodbyes until next time. Before being allowed to enter the terminal, passengers had to go through a complete security check down to removing our shoes and so on. Then we were allowed to proceed to the check in counters. The procedures went smoothly and quickly, check in, emigration, and another complete security check.

My flight was to take off at 12:45, so I bought a small sandwich in the café and went to wait by my gate. There were flight leaving for many places with exotic names in west Africa: Banjuls in the Gambia, Dakar in Senegal, Ouagadougou (try pronouncing that one a few times – it's fun! but usually shortened by locals to "waga") in Burkina Faso, Bissau in Guinea Bissau (not to be confused with Equatorial Guinea, Cotonou in Bénin, and so on.

The flight to Abidjan boarded late, but on the positive side of the ledger was not very full. I had a row to myself for the one hour flight. I took a few photos during takeoff and landing. I thought as we flew over Ghana, which was the largest segment of the flight, that I was flying over Jim Franks and Tom Clark who are presently working in that country. Tom writes a travel blog as well, so if you haven’t checked in on that trip, you might consider it.

Most of West Africa looks the same from the air, regardless of the country, but Abidjan with its impressive collection of lagoons is different and recognizable. The lagoons, mostly one very large lagoon, 60 miles long, vary in their brackishness, depending on how far one is from the ocean or from rivers flowing into them. It’s quite polluted as well right near Abidjan, but there are settlements all along the banks, many people make a living from the water.

Few passengers deplaned in Abidjan, most were continuing on to Bissau. Upon landing we actually used a jet-bridge instead of a bus to enter the terminal. I showed my Yellow Fever card at the health desk and moved quickly through the immigration formalities, especially since I was the first in the queue. My suitcase arrived fairly quickly; I put my luggage through the massive scanner, and was out on the sidewalk in minutes. I negotiated a taxi, the first in line – a real rolling wreck, to the hotel, and off we sputtered doing the herky-jerky. The old Toyota was missing all sorts of parts: the handle to the window on my side was gone, so there was no way to raise or lower it. Most of the buttons and nobs on the dashboard were missing, and everything was coated in an impressive layer of disintegrating plastic and grime. I’m pretty certain I built up some immunity to something as we drove to the hotel.

The hotel was booked at an Internet price and prepaid, so check-in was a snap. I was settling into my room by 4:00 pm.

Paul Tia came by about 5:30 so we could plan the next few days. We first caught up on news, how our families are doing. He asked about the Harpers and the Hongerloots, people he has met during previous visits. I gave news of the office and our upcoming projects.

We decided that tomorrow we will visit the little group in La Mé, stopping to visit Michel on the way back to Abidjan. Tuesday we will begin a trip to Man, up country to work with the congregational leaders there. That will be all day Wednesday. Thursday we will return to Abidjan where, if all goes as planned I will catch the 11:00 pm flight to Paris on my way to Montreal. That will be an interesting change of temperatures. It’s about 90° F during the day in Abidjan, the highs in Montreal these days are a little under 20° F.

After Paul left to begin making arrangements, I had a walk around the garden and pool, and then at 6:30 had dinner in the little restaurant. I will go to bed early tonight and hope for a good night’s rest.