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!