Best Icebreaker: FOOD!

One of the most exciting things when traveling oversea is to try “Local foods.” Yes, we have thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip. (Maybe a bit too excessively….) We had quite a feast almost every night, including Chicken, Jumbo Escargot, Quail, African fried rice, Yam, Casava couscous–Atieke, lamb, Fish, delicious tropical fruits, and etc… When we were at our residence, an Ivorian woman cooked for us. Main dishes are mostly stew style, and they are served with rice, Atieke, and Yam. All the dishes were cooked from scratch, and tasted so great. Surprisingly, those dishes were quite resembled to Japanese home cooking. (of course, I was able to enjoy […]

Beauty of multi-generational interactions

We have visited Bernard’s brother’s home to see his family where his mother was visiting at that time. When we walked into the small courtyard in front of the house, his nieces, nephews, and neighbor’s kids welcomed us first. Then, we sat at the veranda with his brothers, cousins, and neighbors, and just chatted about everything.  While we were talking, his mother was busy cooking for us and the children were playing in the courtyard. It always amazes me that mothers’ behavior is quite universal; they always want to “feed their children.” My mother in Japan would do the same any time I go back home. When the meal was […]

Ibasho Team is back from the Ivory Coast

We had such a wonderful and productive trip to Ivory Coast. Thanks to our team member’s commitment and patient, we have accomplished so much with local community. Throughout this trip, we have met so many people and exchange our ideas to come up with the better approach to create a socially integrated community where elders in Ivory Coast are valued as vital assets for others. Of course, we faced various challenges to overcome but we were able to establish much stronger shared vision among all the people who will be involved in this project through this process. We were originally planning to organize the ground breaking ceremony on the site, […]

Ivory Coast Day 2

We had a productive meetings all day. What amazed me the most was people from the community clearly shared our vision and values for this project. I am feeling more confidence about making this dream a reality. So much to talk about our day, but I am a bit too tired to write my blog with French key board now. More later, Bon nuit….

We have arrived…

After the long flight, Ibasho team has safely arrived in Ivory Coast a very warm airport welcome. Two of Bernard’s brothers and many members of the community we are working with us met us in the very crowded airport. Father Raoul Mambo even made his way past immigration to smooth the way for us. We have already found them incredibly gracious hosts and they prepared a superbly delicious traditional meal (more on food later). We are heading to bed tire and excited about the days to come. Emi is excited to be back in the country and of course Bernard cannot stop smiling in his home country again. Ann, Cheryl, […]

Flying to the Ivory Coast

My colleague, Cheryl George has arrived to DC from Saskatoon, Canada, and we are flying out from DC tonight. Other Ibasho team members are also on the way to the Ivory Coast. We are completely immunized and malaria pills in our hands…. ready to the adventure. Great to have such passionate friends and colleagues who are willing to help this Ivory Coast project moving forward. I cannot wait to have them meet with wonderful and friendly people in Ivory Coast. We have a plenty of tasks that need to be completed, and figure out various issues that need attention in order to create “Ibasho” for villagers and elders during our […]