People and Places of Africa

At the start of our 3 hour drive from Abidjan up to Yamoussoukro, we stopped at a gas station and the market there was so much like our 7-11 we had to take a picture. This is not like anything we've seen in Ghana....maybe Cote d'Ivoire is a little more upscale. Certainly the big city of Abidjan had nice wide roads, a good highway system and lots of high-rise buildings. The Pullman hotel we stayed in was very nice.
Yamoussoukro is a smaller town by far, but it is the center of the government. This area of Cote d'Ivoire is also a stronghold for the Catholic church. This basillica was built 10 years ago by the President of the country at the time. It is bigger than St. Pauls. I'm told it is absolutely gorgeous inside, but we didn't have time to stop
I thought I'd give you a flavor of shopping in Africa. We stopped along side the road so that President Ayekoue could get plantains from a fruit-stand.
Here is one of hundreds of little shops that line the streets. Kind of a Target if you will.
Above - us with Stake President Ettien and his wife. We've been doing a lot of emailing back and forth with him about the production and it was fun to meet him. He is very warm and we really enjoyed his company. He had us bear our testimonies in sacrament meeting this day.


Yet another typical outdoor market with all sorts of things to buy....Walmart???
Here we have Home Depot's lumber department.
When you're out and about on the roadways in Africa and are stopped at a stop light, there always seems to be someone who comes up and starts washing your windshield, for which you are expected to dash them (tip). If you don't want them to do it, you have to beat them to it by turning on your windshield wipers. Usually 20 cents is a good dash.
I tried to get a picture of this plumbing isle of Home Depot. They're a little blurry, but you can get everything plumbing, including the kitchen sink at this one stop.

And here is Norwood furniture store. It's amazing how many of these outdoor shops there are. The furniture is often very bright colors - lime green, orange, pink, turquoise. And when it rains....oh well....it gets wet!

Prior to our trip to the Ivory Coast, I took my choir to this incredible recording studio. I took several pictures. It is considered a world class studio and the finest of its kind in Africa.
About half a million dollars of equipment in this room alone. a 104 channel mixing board.
This is the guest lounge
Here is my choir getting ready to record 5 songs. They were pretty excited to be in such a place.
This company does the big concerts for pop and gospel artists all over Ghana. Think ASU stadium with a huge stage, lights, and hundreds of speakers. That is them. They will be doing our sound for the Accra "A Mighty Change" in August.

Very interesting experiences for sure!!