Abidjan--Observations

After nearly 24 hours of travel, Amy and I safely arrived in Abidjan. Much to our dismay, our bags decided to stay the night in Paris and will be joining us this evening (or so says Moustapha from Air France). Thankfully, I had heeded my mother's advice and had a change of clothes in my carry-on.

Here are some observations from the past 48 hours:

1. Amy may, in fact, be cursed with travel. We had problems at nearly every airport. We almost didn't get a seat on the Baltimore to New York flight. In New York, we had to go to a new terminal. And, the coup de grace, our bags decided that gallivanting in Paris was preferable to coming to Abidjan.

2. The Sahara is beautiful. When we flew over the Sahara, it looked like a red moon. It was absolutely incredible. At one point over Mali, the sun and clouds hit the sand in such a way that you could not tell where the sand ended and the sky began. It looked like an impressionist painting with zigzags of color going from Earth to sky. Incredible.

3. We are somewhat like celebrities. Granted, it's unusual to see white people in Cote d'Ivoire to begin with, but to see two white women traveling without at least one man is strange beyond belief. There have been several people that have come up to us just because we are such a curiosity and they want to know who we are and why we're here. It's understandable, because if we were an episode of Sesame Street's "Which one of these things doesn't belong in here" we would definitely be the right answer.

4. My French is decent, but not that great. Today at lunch, after we had already had several conversations the waiter asked me, "What are you, because you aren't French." Some win and some fail on that one.

5. I have already eaten some things that I swore I wouldn't eat. Example: I have now eaten two whole fish. Whole meaning with head and tail. I also had some sort of ginger milk drink. I'm not totally sure of what it was, but that won't be a repeat order.

6. Open air terraces with Wi-Fi are amazing. If you have to do work on a Sunday, that's the place to do it.

More later.