Weekend at the beach

The beach, with handicraft vendors,
in the evening sun

Sorry I'm late with this week's post.  I went to the beach at Grand Bassam for the weekend, on a trip organized by the UN Volunteer office in celebration of International Volunteer Day.  One of the Abidjan UNV had arranged for us to go with some orphans from a private orphanage that she has been working with called EMSF (Enfance Meurtrie Sans Frontieres), and they were super-excited about it, which rubbed off on all the rest of us. 

We spent the morning doing group activities at the orphanage.  There was yoga, arts and crafts, and an HIV awareness program for the dozen or so kids who are 14 or older.  Then it was off to a hotel by the water for lunch, beach cleanup, and general mayhem.

Some of the older kids in their new HIV awareness tshirts

All three of us who had come from Daloa and several from Abidjan stayed the night at the beach hotel and had a nice, leisurely morning at the beach.  It's a cute town, once the French colonial capital, and the roads are lined with countless handicraft stalls that would have been a lot of fun to explore.  Unfortunately, though only 430 km (270 miles) from Daloa, thanks to the road condition it took us about 7 hours to get back on Sunday, and we didn't get moving early enough to see much of the town.  It's less than an hour from Abidjan, so I should be able to go back.  I don't think I'll drive from Daloa again though!

There's a dangerous undertow at the beach so no swimming,
but plenty of fun in the surf