My crown ~ Ma couronne

After a deep treatment last night.
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Après un traitement profond hier soir.

Duty call ~ Appel au service

Happy Sunday and happy labor day! (French system, every May 1st).

I salute all the hard working people in all fields. Tomorrow is another big step into a new chapter of my career. I am ready for my challenges, which at one point only seemed like a dream! God is amazingly awesome.

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Bon Dimanche et bonne fête de travail!

Je salue tous les grands bosseurs dans toutes les filières. Demain est un autre grand pas dans un nouveau chapitre de ma carrière. Je suis prête pour mes défis, qui a un moment, n’etaient qu’un rêve! Dieu est incroyablement impressionnant <3.

My first published video!

Blessed morning everyone!

I wanted to share a short video of my recent adventure but it’s not directly uploading on WP. I believe it has to do with my account plan. If anyone thinks otherwise, please let me know :-).

I found an alternative way. I created a youtube channel and here’s the link to the video. Enjoy!

 

 

International Women’s Day!

 

Happy Belated Women’s day!

I present to you my dress for yesterday. Fabric sent from my country Chad and dress disigned by me. The white parts are of a separate fabric so it’s a combination of two. I have become a big fan of mixed fabrics :)…thank God I already drew my wedding dress a long time ago, before this phase lol.

Well, I celebrated my day with a boat ride to 3 different ports and a walk downtown. This is not the “real” beach, this is downtown & the water runs right in the middle. It’s fascinating. I wanted to upload a video from the tour but my laptop is not cooperating. Maybe I’ll sneak it in another post next time! It was a good day. I hope yours was too.

Blessings

 

I didn’t want to carry so many things so I left my camera at home. This is a phone photo. I think the dress is pretty visible and compensates my blurry face 🙂

Almost a Doctor ~ Presqu’un médecin

My petite white coat waiting to go places 🙂

I can stare at this all day lol

(Veuillez trouver la version française plus bas)

 

Hello everyone, my personalized white coat is here!

Please pardon me while I dry my eyes and cool down from the heat of joy…

Sigh…it’s been a long road my friends! Moving on to yet another new chapter of my life. No I’m not a doctor yet and they actually made a mistake with the print. All the students at this stage have to get their white coats personalized with their identifiers. The tailor who made my coat already calls me Doctor so when I placed my order, he somehow added the title without realizing it. Honest mistake. We had a good laugh as to how God is revealing my future to me (lol) & to him, I am already a doctor. After blessing my day, he’s making me a new pocket and I asked him to use broidery for the new print. I will have it in time for classes & my internship. Hospital rookie, reporting soon for duty!

To tie all of this together, my father made an addition to my little library. He gave me this featured National Medical Boards practice book. It has questions/answers, illustrations and concise lectures. My dad was a professor before becoming an economist at the African Development Bank (ADB), so he’s big on books which to me make absolutely perfect gifts. It’s not bad to get a head start in the race. I test myself on my free time & really enjoying my moments with this book. It’s opening up my world little by little and that’s exactly the speed I need for now.

Thank you Daddy! We’ll soon enjoy the confusion of which Dr Massissou they’re asking for lol

 

Excellent weekend to all and may your dreams come true. Muah ❤

 

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Coucou à tous, ma blouse personnalisée est là!

Veuillez m’excusez pendant que je sèche mes yeux et refroidir cette chaleur de joie…

(Soupir)…ça été un long chemin mes amis! Je passe à un autre nouveau chapitre de ma vie. Non, je ne suis pas encore Docteur et ils ont effectivement fait une erreur au niveau de l’impression. Voyez, tous les étudiants à ce stade doivent avoir leurs blouses personnalisées avec leurs identificateurs. Le tailleur qui a cousu la mienne m’appelle déjà Docteur, alors quand j’ai placé ma commande, il a ajouté le titre sans s’en rendre compte. Erreur involontaire. Nous avons beau rigolé à ce sujet, comme quoi Dieu est en train de me révéler mon avenir (lol) et selon lui, je suis déjà médecin. Après avoir béni ma journée, il me fera une nouvelle poche et je lui ai demandé d’utiliser la broderie pour la nouvelle écriture. Je vais la récupérer à temps pour les cours et mon stage. Débutante de l’hôpital, bientôt face à mon devoir!

Pour lier tout cela ensemble, mon père a fait un ajout à ma petite bibliothèque. Il m’a donné ce livre d’exercices intitulé National Medical Boards. Le livre contient des questions / réponses, illustrations et résumés des cours. Mon père était un professeur avant de devenir un économiste à la Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD), alors il est un accro des livres qui, à mon avis font des cadeaux parfaits. Il n’est pas mal de prendre de l’avance dans la course. Je me teste déjà pendant mon temps libre et j’aime vraiment mes moments avec ce livre. Il m’ouvre le monde petit à petit et c’est exactement la vitesse qu’il me faut pour l’instant.

Excellent weekend à tous et que vos rêves se réalisent. Muah < 3

Friends for keeps

 

Oh silly doctors!

Before this month is out, I want to honor a friend who means so much to me. I call him my guardian angel and you may soon agree :).

They say our paths cross for a reason and everyone we meet has a purpose in our lives. This is one of those stories and I want to tell it in its delightful entity so grab a comfortable seat for I am known for my long stories.

For those who prefer shorter versions : Picture it, Abidjan, February 2^nd 2015, campus orientation, met a random stranger, now we’re best friends. The end? No, that’s not Doctor-like of me to omit details, for it is my duty to report to best of my knowledge, all information pertaining to clarification on topics of discussion in which I am charged to narrate. Those who didn’t know me must know today that I like long phrases lol.

Well, it was a fairly sunny day on February 2^nd, 2015 that I sat in a backseat of a taxi heading for the new students orientation scheduled at 7:30am. I had just moved from Michigan and was slowly settling in Ivory Coast. I knew no one here at the time so I lived behind locked doors, holding on to strings of a failing long distance relationship. I’d rather sleep all day than dare to make new friends. I was the perfect anti-social zombie, walking on egg shells with restricted oxygen supply. I was slowly dying in my own hands.

Anyways, at the orientation, I was sitting in the middle row listening attentively to the speaker who kept encouraging us to start bragging to our entourage about our privileged world as we now entered the one of doctors. His speech gave me chills in its entire duration. Just as he finished and the applause ruled the room, someone moved up a seat and greeted me in a gentle manner. He pursued with the introduction and informed me that he was one of the tutors who helps students with difficulties understanding the courses. He presented to me a sign-up sheet that he was passing around. He had already passed the level I was entering & seemed very resourceful. With my guards way up, I resisted then quickly thought hey this is a new school system, only God knows what i’m up against. After all I’ve been studying in English for the last 5 years and now I have to switch back to French. Damn it, I signed it.

One week after intense course, I attended the first tutoring session. He was absent. Towards the end of the session, I called my parents and asked them to come pick me up as we concluded earlier that morning. They too, were not familiar with the city of Abidjan so we were all looking for driving instructions on both ends. No, that western GPS device doesn’t work here. We have maps that outline the cities and neighborhoods but not so detailed. Anywho, my parents asked me to pass the phone to someone local who could direct them to the tutoring location which was off campus. Just as I turned around to search for a guide, there he was. He had just arrived and saved the day. At this point, I just recognized his face and could not recall his name. It was a pass because he did not remember mine either lol.

A visionary, a true inspiraton.

 

The following Sunday, my family went to our neighborhood church and guess who was already in the front seat? Yup lol. He was joyful and dancing up front with the crowd of cheerful hearts. I learned later that day that he was a member of that church for a little over a year and he was to be baptized in a couple of months. So, there are at least 10 churches in this community, yet he’s a one-year-old member of my new church? He crossed at least 10 churches to attend the one I have chosen? And I have blindly done the same? What’s even that probability? I don’t care…it just seemed pleasantly weird. The additional surprise that he was in the same School Clubs finished the puzzle. I began to wonder why he already belonged everywhere I blindly went. I began to sense his energy as if he was spiritually guarding me. One day I just called him my guardian angel and he strongly responded as if he knew it and was reporting for duty!

The morning of his baptism at the beach was perfect and we ended up spending the rest of the day there with family, friends & good food. Since then, our friendship gained strength.

He is the perfect combination of serious and silly. Smart enough to graduate on top of his class but silly enough to talk to my hair.

You will never catch him without something to read in his hands!

 

After a year of knowing him, I always see him with a happy face. His happiness is so contagious and I’m glad it quickly rubbed on me at the time I needed it the most. I have always made friends easily but none is as genuine as this one. I have made some wonderful friends too but considering our differences, I gotta give the best friend award to him!

 

His billion dollar smile

I have come to a new land with 3 suitcases, a breaking heart and an uncertain plan; but a true friendship helped me push through. For all he has been to me, I hope I have given back what he deserves from a friend. This future cardiologist will certainly heal so many people.

 

A well-suited future Cadiologist

Sometimes friendship is worth more than a relationship and it can be all you need to get through your day. I feel truly blessed.

PS: I was only able to use my phone photos because he currently has no time for a photoshoot. He literally sleeps at the hospital. God bless you Doctor Tanou!

 

My best wishes! ~ Mes meilleurs vœux!

Not always about hair

On this date of October 2^nd, one year ago, I voluntarily left the United States of America for a better life. No don’t raise your eyebrows yet, keep on reading.

Grand Bassam beach

I usually write about my hair journey but today is such an important date that I felt like briefly sharing. Perhaps, someday I’ll have a separate blog for my public journal :p.

So we grow up with childhood friends, we relocate for college, we move on from broken relationships, we discover ourselves on this continuous quest for happiness; and through the changes of life, we act with hope for a better future.

Looking at the number of times I traveled, the world is my bedroom and for the past 13 years I have lived in the U.S. on and off. The U.S. became home to me in some sense but somehow it never felt like home. Today, one year ago, I decided to leave everything behind and start a new life somewhere fresher, somewhere better. Of course no one could comprehend such decision. Many called me nuts for leaving the “land of opportunity”, the “country of freedom”. How could it be that while many people can only dream to enter, I wish to exit? How could I just pick up and leave after so long?

Well, everyone has a vision and I simply couldn’t see it in the US. I had a great chance to remain but after serious evaluation, I knew my destiny wasn’t there and what I wanted to accomplish would be compromised had I not left.

I packed everything and left with my vision. A journey with family, medical school, new perspectives, new friends, new opportunities, new challenges, new story, in the beautiful country of Ivory Coast! As normal, I had my challenges at the beginning trying to adapt but now I kick butt with directions, their Cuisine, dialects etc. The main language is French – which is my first language too so that is settled from day one.

Now things are colorful and I am happier than I have ever been in my adult life. I live in the most privileged neighborhood in the city, less than 30 minutes from the touristic beach, I meet a lot of interesting international people everyday, I eat all natural foods, I get my hair done for less money lol. I don’t want to say it too soon but this could be my final destination.

Will I go back to the US again? Sure I will. I have been receiving generous invitations to revisit and I will soon have some visits here as well. I just had to break the incessantly stressful life that seemed to have tied my hands while in the US. Maybe after I am done building my castle, I could move back again for a while.

The homework room – after class.

I mostly thank God for his grace and mercy. He guided my steps to this land and never failed me once since then. Everything that happened in between was to be, and rather strengthened me. He has already cleared the road and nothing will stop me. This is a fraction of my story and only the beginning. Next year, I will be mostly on-call at the hospital so I am thinking of opening a rubric for that life on his blog. Walk you through the joy and stress of my happy life. Thank you for reading my off-topic articles.

God bless you, always!

House sweet home

PS. These photos were taken with my phone so please forgive the quality 🙂