Traci’s Tracks <e-mail edition>
Issue #7, January 19, 1999

Dear Friends and Family,

This newsletter is a few days later in coming than I intended. Our email has been down for a week. We are getting these nice new phone lines installed at the school. There is only one major problem. You can call in from the States on them. We receive our email from a call from the States, so we have been without for about a week. Today, we switched back to the old lines. Hopefully the problem will be remedied soon. It will be nice to go from 2 phone lines that work occasionally to 25 phone lines that should be a bit more reliable. Of course, this is still Africa.

We have completed almost two weeks of school so far. There has been a lot happen in that time. The trimester has started off fast and furious but that's the way the second trimester always is. The only thing that makes is seem long and slow is the heat. It hasn't been too bad since I returned, but with each day the weather gets drier and the temperature creeps closer to 100. So far, we have only made it as high as 99.

Some of our students had a little trouble getting to school this trimester. Grace (4th grade) and Gloria (Middle School) were with their parents in Sierra Leone over Christmas break. Their parents are missionaries there. They were all scheduled to fly to Cote d'Ivoire on Thursday. On Tuesday, they received a call from the Korean Ambassador of Cote d'Ivoire (They are Korean.) that they needed to get out of the country because something was going to happen. They tried to get a flight out of the country on Wednesday but were unable to do so. They ended up having to take a canoe out into the ocean to a boat. They then took a boat for a ways and then took a canoe back to land in Guinea. This is the second time the family has been evacuated out of Sierra Leone. The parents are back in Guinea now waiting to see what they should do next.

Some of our students from Guinea also had trouble getting in to Cote d'Ivoire. Most of the students flew so that had no problem, but a couple of families were going to drive their kids in. They were unable to get across the border. All of the border crossings were closed because of elections that were being held. They had to return home and fly to Abidjan.

Often we take traveling and safety for granted, but there are still countries around where our kids' parents work that are not safe environments. We have several parents in Liberia where conditions are not stable at this time. The students don't go into Liberia with the parents. The parents stay here over breaks. Pray for the safety of the parents and for the kids as they are aware of the risk their parents are at.

Weekend before last I had to go up country for a Field Council Meeting in Bondokou. It was my first time to drive myself up country. At least I was following Mike Cousinea so I could find my way. Well, except for when he lost me on the dirt road and it split three directions. I wasn't sure which way to go but took a guess and it was right. I stuck a lot closer to him on the way back. I was going to make sure I didn't have to guess at any forks in the road. It was a good weekend of getting to see some of the missionaries that I don't get to see very often.

Last week was an exciting week. It was African Culture Week, so a lot of special activities were planned. Each day different artisans were in the courtyard showing how to make their crafts. There were also tables set up so they could sell their stuff. The kids really enjoy the opportunity to barter and buy things. On Thursday, we took the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades on a field trip. We went to Katiola to a pottery school. The kids were able to see the different ways the pottery is made and all of the processes it goes through. The kids were quite impressed when the man was working on the wheel. There were lots of Ooohs and Aaaahs. The Africans enjoyed watching the expressions from our kids. We had a picnic lunch and on the way back, stopped by and got ice cream. The kids didn't know anything about the ice cream so they were very surprised. We also spent the week making a batik. This was a learning experience for both students and teachers and was enjoyed by both.

Friday was a big day. There was a ceremony in the morning. Several dignitaries from town were there. A group of students were dressed up in traditional African wear. There were African musicians there also. The favorite of all was the food. African ladies were fixing a variety of what we call "street food." Alloco (fried plantain), gblofotos (doughnut holes), meat sticks (small shish-ka-bobs), fried igname (like fried potatoes), and a variety of peanuts, dried bananas, and cashews. It was all very good.

Please continue to pray for the health and safety of our students. We thought one of the students might have had measles, but it looks as if it something else now. The nurses aren't sure what it is, but some other students have come down with the same symptoms. It only seems to last about 4 days or so though.

Pray that we will be able to get out container out of port and up country. The school has a container with supplies shipped out twice a year. The most recent one has been in Abidjan since November. We have been unable to get it. There are a lot of much needed things in it. Some of the stuff was needed back in August but it didn't make it in the summer container. Please pray the officials will release it soon and won't charge us a hefty sum of money. It is possible that could have to pay storage fees for the entire time it has been in Abidjan.

Hope this makes it out to you soon. I would like to hear from some of you. Especially since email has been down and I haven't been hearing anything.

In Christ,
Traci