Champions of Africa

Grand Mosque in Abidjan

It has been quite a nice few weeks since I last wrote. My parents came to visit on the 7th and stayed until the 16th. I had a fantastic time, playing tour guide and social coordinator and generally trying to impress them with all the things I think are cool or entertaining about life here.  They were very good-natured about it, I must say. Of course, it was my birthday, so I had a good bargaining chip.

We visited Abidjan, Yamoussoukro (the capital) and Man, and they had a couple of days in Daloa too, to see the camp where I work and my little house, and to have two relatively restful days while I worked.  We had dinner with my work team, who were delighted that my parents came to visit and all wanted a picture taken with them.

With a few of those who came to my work-team dinner

To celebrate Claire and Paul's arrival in Daloa on the 9th, the Éléphants of Côte d'Ivoire won CAN 2015 in a thrilling history-making penalty shoot out against the Black Stars of Ghana.  We watched it in a nice, breezy restaurant/bar called Karusel in the center of Daloa, with the teenage children of the owner and their friends adding a lot to the atmosphere. Several of them were literally on their knees praying in front of the big screen tv during the final moments of the game, not unlike the Ghanian players, but with more success.


Waiting for the bus to Abidjan

The game itself was pretty well matched but not all that exciting. The tension built though as they maintained a goalless draw through regular play and thirty minutes of overtime. It was, incidentally, a remake of the last Ivoirian victory in 1992, also against Ghana and which also went to penalties. The Ivoirian goalie, Boubakar Barry Copa, who plays for some German club I have never heard of, missed the first two penalties and we thought it was all over. The Ivoirians managed to equalize in the first five shots, and after that it was direct elimination. Player by player they went through the whole team until there was no one left but the goalies themselves. Razak, the Ghanian, went first and made a decent effort but Barry Copa was able to stop it and then score his own penalty, winning the game and the trophy for Côte d'Ivoire.  He gave a really sweet interview afterward as well, practically in tears as he thanked his mother who had been worrying because he wasn't getting that much game time.


We didn't stay around for the interviews because the town was going nuts. After some general random hugging we made our way out to the car and slowly, slowly back to the house through the streets teeming with all the young people that had poured out in spontaneous celebration. It's at times like these when you really get a sense of what it means that almost 60% of the country is under 25 years old.  There were literally throngs of youth, both boys and girls, running and bouncing and singing like I remember seeing in footage of the ANC in South Africa toward the end of the apartheid era. They were all really happy, though, and a little rowdy, but not too bad. Apparently after the semifinal three or four people were killed by cars or motorbikes because they weren't paying enough attention in the street, and that memory kept things a bit more subdued after the final.


Here's a vendor taking it easy in the market in Man

Since then the afterglow lingers one, and you still see lots of people wearing the orange jerseys, or keeping a flag on their car. Claire and Paul have since returned to France, where they're catching up on lost sleep. I am back at work, and already planning my next holiday, which will be in just under a month (hooray for R&R!). Target: Ghana. But I should be able to get a couple of blog posts in before then.


If it's cold and crappy where you are and you want some music to take you away, mentally at least, here's a YouTube video of Daloa's own late great Ernesto Djedje, showing off his dance moves on a tv show that must have been in the 70s, judging by his outfit (which alone is worth the view).

If you would like to share a bit in the CdI victory, there's a song that played all through the tournament by Fitini, also on YouTube, where the singers beg the Elephants to work hard over there. 





Éléphants victorious, photo from news.abidjan.net