Monday 20^th October 2008.

It’s Monday early evening and we’ve had a day off from travelling and teaching and the like. Yesterday, William preached at Khorogo in the morning and then we travelled from Khorogo to Yamousoukrou which took about 5 hours, including a blow out. Well, the tyre gently fizzed and the car came to a halt. On leaving Khorogo I was able to take this photograph of a recently opened war memorial to the unknown soldier. It’s a reminder that a war that was very rarely reported in the western media, has had an enormous effect on the lives in this country. They talk about it as “the war”, just as we talk about the first or second world war. Elections maybe in January/February.

We are staying at the house of a university lecturer and his family until tomorrow when we move on to Sassandra, another 500kms south of Yamousoukro.

This morning we went to pastor Kone’s house to photograph some books that had been sent out for pastors out here. This took the most of the morning. It was excellent to see all these books, yet how much better would it be to come back and find that there were none to photograph. Excellent quality literature waiting to get into the hands of Christians.

So this afternoon it was to be our turn to be tourists. We visited the Basilica. A huge Roman Catholic Cathedral, with a dome a fraction smaller than St Peter’s in Rome, with marbled floors imported from Italy, stained glass windows made in Bordeaux (!), and an architect from Lebonon. The Basilica was constructed

between 1986-9, at the request of the then president Houmphue Bougnie. And it is huge. A tour guide showed us round, and I was struck by a mix of both and awe and disgust. This is a magnificent building, an amazing achievement. Yet why? What’s the point, when the majority of the country wear well worn clothes, and scrape a living?

There is a stained glass window of Jesus entering Jerusalem, bowing down to him are the architect, and Houmphue Bougnie! A nice little touch.

             The architect                              Humphoue Boignie

So we called for a taxi and left the greatness of this misplaced marble elephant, resplendent in it’s designer’s glory, shimmering like “a diamond in a coal bucket”, and we headed for an afternoon of French grammar in the reception area of the Hotel President. Tomorrow it’s back to reality, and down to meet up with old friends in Sassandra, and the work continues.