Meet the Yéo Family (Part Trois)

The picture fun continues...but first a quick update on what's happening in my life lately. I spent 5 days last week in Ferké (a town about 45 minutes north) at the hospital helping my friend Heidi recover from an appendectomy. She's doing great now, although it'll be a month before she'll completely recover. I've also been continuing my work with Ezekiel the social worker at the dispensary and had the opportunity to actually visit some HIV patients in their homes with him last Friday. This upcoming weekend marks 2 months since moving in with my family. Our team will be reconvening in Bouaké for a week of seminars and debriefing.

Suzanne and Mikail. Suzanne is the daughter of Nontonwa and Sarah. Mikail's (biological) family lives out in a village. They are in the same level of school and spend most of their time together. And yes while the rest of us suffer the heat in our clothes, they spend nearly all of their time at home like this.

Minga. The youngest child of my host-parents. He is usually studying in Abidjan but because of the situation there, he recently came back home, for the time being at least.

Nontonwa (with Suzanne and Mikail). Nephew of Sidiki, husband of Sarah, father of Fidele, Emma, and Suzanne and papa-adoptif to the rest of the kiddos at the house.

Outside view of Sidiki's store.

Pierre. The oldest of my host parents kids, he runs the store his father started.

Meet the Yéo Family (Part Deux)

Alrighty round 2 of meeting my host family and seeing where I live. Since I still haven't gotten everyone up it looks like there's going to have to be a round 3. Enjoy!!!

Mattieu and Daniel. They're both in their early 20s and some of the 'adopted' children at the house, meaning they are not biologically the children of my parents, but their treated basically as if they were. They haven't finished high school yet (thanks to the political situation the last 9 years) and spend every day except Sunday working at the family store.

This is Amos. He's about 11 years old, and is also one of the 'adopted' kids. I love his smile and sometimes catch him singing and dancing when he thinks no one is watching.

Annie and Sephora, washing the dishes, one of their usual chores. They also are
'adopted.' I had the chance to meet Annies actual mother at the women's conference. If Annie lived with her parents in a village she wouldn't be able to get the type of education she's getting living in Korhogo with my host-family.

View of the courtyard on laundry day. We have 3 mango trees which I've already taken advantage of.

Marie. The second youngest child of my host parents. She's 21 but hasn't finished high school either, because of the political situation she doesn't go to school at the moment, she spends most of her time cooking and cleaning the house.

Another view of the courtyard. The small building on the right is where I sleep, along with all of the other single ladies of the household.

Here is the 'grand-papa' of the household. Sidiki, my host dad. Since he is retired, you can find him in this position quite often.

Meet the Yéo Family (Part Un)

The last few weeks I have had a few technology troubles that have kept me from keeping in touch as much as I’d like. Other more exciting things have happened as well.
I officially passed the one month mark of living with my host family. The entire JourneyCorps team had a one month debrief for 3 days on campus in Bouaké. It was great to have the whole team together, as well as do some seemingly simple yet extremely liberating things, such as wear shorts, speak in English, play soccer, have a second helping of pizza. I also have started helping out at the nearby dispensary as a sort of assistant to the social worker who works with the HIV patients.

Since it has almost been 6 weeks with my family now, I thought you might like to meet a few of them and maybe see a little of where I’m living. Keep in mind that there are 18 people who live here including me, of course there’s usually a visitor staying with us as well. So I haven’t actually gotten pictures of everyone yet. Here’s what I do have

Sara. She is married to Nontonwa, the nephew of my host parents. She has three kids, but also takes care of the other children at the house. For work, she sells different things in a petit marché down the street.

This is Emmanuel, though everyone calls him Emma for short. The political situation as left him without school lately and so he has been a great friend to me. He is the son of Notonwa and Sara and the grand nephew of my host parents.

This is where our meals are prepared. It's amazing what the women can whip up here.

This is Prince or more often 'le chien'. They are much more fond of the cat, but they keep him around because he's a good guard for the house.

Madeline, she's 18. I honestly don't know the specifics of the relation except that she is family. She has spent most of her life in the village of Lamekkaha and so speaks barely any french at all. She spends most of her day preparing meals, but on Mondays and Tuesdays we go to Senoufo class together, where we both learn to read and write.


Maman Tamirigue. Her name means la terre or la pouciere, meaning dirt, earth, or dust. It is customary for parents give a child a name like this when many of their previous children have died. Between her older sister and Tamirigue there were 5 children that passed away, and so her name is Dirt. To me though, she is Maman.