Technical difficulties

I spilled water on my computer this week and it's dead, dead, dead. I keep checking, in case, but clearly I'm just in denial. Working my way through the stages of electronics grief...

Here's a picture of the early morning sun through the harmattan haze, over an evangelical church here in Daloa. The sign translates as "miraculously Jesus heals all sick". Sadly for me, Jesus has better things to do than heal my computer. I would have put that in the caption but I had to upload the picture via Flickr because Google, who hosts blogger.com, won't talk to Apple's iPad photo gallery, and I had to paste it in as HTML because the link wasn't recognized either, and I have no idea how to add a caption in HTML.  As a result, now I'm just REALLY ANNOYED!

Anger - that's stage 2 of grief, right? Well, at least there's progress.

I hope things are going equally well for all of you, that your biggest complaint is as relatively insignificant as being reduced to blog from your iPad. And if you, too, are mourning an item of hardware: please accept my heartfelt condolences!

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CAN 2015 update: Things nearly degenerated at work on Tuesday when the lounge/restaurant was closed due to a kitchen fire (unrelated) and we couldn't watch Côte d'Ivoire's opening match against Guinea. Fortunately there's a tv in the medical center waiting room - disaster averted. Now, after two of three pool-stage matches, Côte d'Ivoire's group D is in a dead heat, with each of the 4 games played so far ending in a 1-1 tie. Will les éléphants make it to the quarter finals? Tune in next week to find out...

Ebola update: We're winning! Ebola is in retreat! Fewest new cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since August 2014, per the WHO Situation Report - let's not claim victory yet though, like we did in Iraq. Go Medical Workers! Keep up the good work!

CAN 2015

Game of "petit poteaux" (small goal) around
the corner every evening, no matter how dusty

Happy 2015, everyone!

Forget Ebola, Boko Haram, Charlie Hebdo demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, the Islamic State, even the harmattan winds blowing thick white clouds of dust down from the Sahara across the subcontinent: it's time for CAN, la Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, or the Africa Cup of Nations.  Football (soccer) is a big deal here, so this should be an entertaining month, especially if Cote d'Ivoire does well.

Ivoirians are a bit fatalistic about their team, kind of like the English.  They have had some great players in the past decade, like Didier Drogba (Chelsea) and Yaya Touré (Man City), but they never managed to pull together for the big tournaments.  The last time they won the CAN was in 1992, and they have lost the final on penalties twice since 2000.

I went to the market yesterday during the second half of the opening match (hosts Equatorial Guinea tied Congo 1-1) and every stall that had a tv or radio was tuned in to the game, with a little crowd of people gathered to watch/listen.  Meanwhile in the evenings, in every vacant lot or open space the future young national team hopefuls are out practicing.

Cote d'Ivoire's first match is on Tuesday, against Guinea. Allez les éléphants!