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

Housekeeping (and football)

This week started with the chemical cleaning of the wastewater treatment plant in Jordan (the Jordanian Formed Police Unit at Takrouna camp where I work in Daloa). I did no cleaning, but I did take pictures of my crew as they cleaned, and I climbed up a very dirty ladder to look inside the treatment unit. I'm on the front lines of sewage control here - or at least just behind them.

I was a bit more actively involved in the annual maintenance of the water treatment plant on Thursday and Friday in Seguela, a pleasant little city about 120 km (80ish miles) north of here, via what must be one of the worst roads in the world. It took us three hours to get there, but on the return trip I sacrificed the suspension and the backs of my two passengers to get home in 2.5. It's election year, so they're working on the roads. I learned on this trip what that entails: filling the potholes with more dirt. They use steamrollers to compact it, but it's still just more dirt. The construction crew have made it about a quarter of the way to Seguela. There are a lot of potholes on that road, it's going to take them a while.

Back in Daloa, my cleaning lady, Naomi (yes, I have a cleaning lady. Being a UN volunteer is very demanding - and surprisingly well paid), is off sick, so I had to clean my own house and wash my own clothes yesterday.  You'll be happy to know that I survived the experience, and that Naomi should be back on Friday.

Today at the market, everyone was gearing up for the last two quarter finals in CAN 2015. Lots of people were wearing orange, and there were plenty of flags and hats and such for sale. Côte d'Ivoire was up against Algeria, who did the best out of all the African teams in the last World Cup, and were favorites to win this tournament. I didn't give much for the Éléphants' chances, and I decided to buy some team socks, because I figured they would be hard to find afterward if the team lost and was knocked out of the tournament. The vendor at the sock stall was a young woman, and as she gave me my change she mentioned the game. I asked her if she thought they would win and she said yes.

It turns out she was right! Wilfried Bony of Manchester City put CdI in the lead in the first half, and then again in the second half after the Algerians equalized. Gervinho (of AS Roma) put the last nail in the coffin, in the third minute of extra time. It was quite a game, especially for Ivoirian fans! Bring on the semi-finals!

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!

***
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!

Weekend in Abidjan

World's whitest Santa in downtown Abidjan

I flew from Daloa to Abidjan on Friday afternoon. Lots of people are heading out these days, and three other women from the mission were leaving on the same Air Maroc flight to Casablanca at 2 am, so we all went out for pizza with a couple of others from the Abidjan office.  

We ate in Zone 4, the quarter where I'm staying, across the lagoon from the central business district.  It's close to the airport and has a lot of european residents.  Since the war many prefer not to have to cross the bridge to get to their flights.  Just in case.  As a result it feels about as far from Daloa as imaginable.  In many ways it feels like a French city, except you're more likely to see sheep walking down the street.

A shady handicraft-stall-lined lane at CAVA

On Saturday morning I went to CAVA, the Centre Artisanal de la Ville d'Abidjan.  I have heard about it since I got here, and it was definitely worth it.  It's a fantastic place with handicrafts from all over the country and beyond.  They have an incredible variety of wooden masks and carvings, not to mention painted textiles and much, much more.  The vendors are persistent and persuasive but not too pushy, and very happy to take time to explain the different pieces and how they fit into the culture.  It was all I could do not to come away with more than I could carry.  It helped that my suitcase was already pretty full.  And that I ran out of money.  Thankfully they only take cash!

Cathédrale St Paul d'Abidjan

Today I ventured across the bridge to visit St Paul's Cathedral, which was opened by Pope John Paul II in 1980.  I had seen glimpses of it from the bus to work during the two weeks I stayed in Abidjan on arrival in June, but this was the first time I saw it up close.  It's quite modern, and looks a bit like a musical instrument or a suspension bridge.  I think it's really cool.  Unfortunately it was closed for repairs so I couldn't go inside, but there was a choir practicing in a covered area outside and that was a beautiful experience in itself.  

It turned out that a Mass had just started in one of the other buildings, so I sat in for that - my first in Africa.  I'm sorry to say the singing was not as good as the choir outside.  I think I was the only white person there, although there was a woman and perhaps her daughter who could have been Indian. The sermon was about marriage.  The priest started out by emphasizing that Marriage is between Man and Woman which didn't particularly endear him to me.  It may have been his way of drawing in the rest of the audience though, as he went on to try to convince them to get married and stick to just one partner.  Neither of those is an easy sell around here, so I felt a bit more sympathy for him.  At the end of the Mass they blessed us all and prayed that for all of us who don't have children, this would be the year.  Priorities are clear, at least.  I wondered what the one nun in attendance thought of it.

Afterward I walked around the downtown area a bit, but everything is closed on Sunday so it was pretty quiet.  Now I'm all packed up and ready for my flight which leaves at 11:10 tonight.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Stations of the cross leading up to the cathedral

Christmas party West African style

Here they really get into their religious holidays.  Just as Ramadan was a big deal, Christmas seems to be shaping up that way too.  This week we had the Sector West HQ end of year party at camp, next to the restaurant called Welfare where I eat most workdays, on a little football field.  It's a really nice spot, with lots of shade trees and a very pleasant breeze.

That's the same dance face I make!

As well as a buffet, drinks and a few speeches, we were treated to a performance by a group of traditional Bété dancers.  Bété is the main ethnic group in the area around Daloa, and they were from a village not far from here, which happens to be the hometown of one of the plumbers in my team.  We tried to get him to dance too, but he didn't have the outfit with him.

This was my first live African traditional dance experience.  They were all men, four dancing and a few more on drums.  One of the dancers is actually Burkinabé (from Burkina Faso, our neighboring country to the northeast where they had a coup d'état a few weeks back).  The Bété and Burkinabé were on opposite sides of the recent civil war, so the fact that he has integrated into the local society well enough to join a Bété dance troop is kind of a big deal.

Normally after the Christmas party I would expect to do nothing at work for the rest of the year, but we're building a new camp in a northern town called Touba, so next week I'll spend a couple of days up there supervising the septic tank connection.  Since I head out for the holidays on Friday, it may end up being one of my busier weeks.

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