Getting back to normal life ...

Waking up at 4.30am wasn’t ideal, I was woken by what I thought was shooting, loud bangs of metal ... I couldn't hear my hosts moving, nor the children; I lay in bed wondering what was going on outside then I finally dozed off again.  Getting up I realised to my stupidity, the 'shooting' was the avocadoes falling on the roof of the house!!!

I met my ‘little brother’ who has cerebral palsy, he came with me for breakfast then I took him to the barbers as his hair was getting too long & told the barber to do whatever he felt was right.  Attito turned up 30minutes later with a shaved head looking very proud of himself whilst we all told him he was the most handsome man in the town!

E who will head up C.R.E.E.R arrived at midday finally, another big welcoming hug.  My host was a saint, he had ridden his motorbike 12km to the nearest town to pick E up, who’d spent 2 days trying to get out of Abidjan.  It was his first time to come to this town where he will be living in the future, he was amazed to discover that he had a friend here from his university days.  We sat and talked for a while then showed him around town, to find he had another university friend living here, so he was in good company and really likes the environment here.  I was concerned about bringing him here, he’s Baoule by ethnicity, whilst the region is Agni; Baoule’s are accepted by the Agni, there are a few here already but even so during such a difficult period I didn’t want to cause a problem.  However he made a new Agni friend immediately who then offered to give him a bed for his stay here.

We talked at length about how to re-approach the mayor, then brought in my host who works at the Mairie & is very diplomatic.  He had to go up to the Mayor’s house and rang him in advance to ask if E & I could go up too.  We spent an hour or so discussing the situation and telling a girl who ‘hates the whites’ how the situation had got to this stage and that it wasn’t the fault of the whites; more that laws had been created in the past and not been adhered to during the election process.  As a lawyer he’s well versed in it and was impressive in the way he explained it all.   

During this conversation we then got word from Abidjan that Bedie (the 3rd candidate during the 1st round of elections) was going to make an announcement that this time, unlike the previous two elections when he accepted defeat he kept quiet.  But this time he was going to speak to the nation to resolve the situation.  Ouattara is President and that Gbagbo must accept defeat.  We are all now awaiting what will happen next, will the rest of the country accept this?  Certainly in this neck of the woods which is strongly pro-Bedie, they will I feel.

We left his house to be invited to dinner by his elder brother, gorgeous meal, lots of conversation & serious ‘heat’ to the point that we all finished quickly to get outside & feel a little breeze prior to retiring for the night; it was stifling hot!

First normal day ...

I woke up with a little bit of a sore head.  I could hear the rest of the family moving around in the house.  Got up to go & find breakfast, my normal sugared milk coffee and omelette.  Sat in my friend’s maquis whilst more people came past to welcome me back.  I showed them all the recyclable products I’d bought in Ghana with the intention of creating the same here as a partnership.  They were stunned at what was going on in the neighbouring country and the general concensus was that the same could be carried out here.  

I rang my friend to find out her husband had now said that due to my invitation to her to come with me, I had destabilized the family and that if I returned he’d kill me and it would be his wife’s fault & my blood would be on her hands.  As a 'patriot' if Cote d'Ivoire blows up then his family would go with it he told my friend who called in the hope of talking sense.  A bit of an overreaction I felt.

Lunch at the mayors was wonderful, I arrived with presents, the single malt whiskey went down very well. Talk was around the political situation, I then found messages on Facebook, which bizarrely can be accessed for free from the MTN network;  from friends telling me to get out of the country immediately.  With the situation as calm as it was, I wasn’t too worried, the Mayor said I’d be fine, that Gbagbo had given orders not to touch the hair of any French persons head (did that extend to the non-French too?!).  However the Nigerian Embassy were in the process of telling their nationals to evacuate, which had me wondering if I had lost the plot!

I also had an escape route organised via a village a few kilometres away a few friends promised to drive me to, from there apparently there are trucks that go over the border, although there aren’t any actual immigration formalities.  It would mean asking the gendarme here to stamp me out of the country & finding police in Ghana to accept me entering the country illegally.

We returned to the centre of town to talk further under the cocoa tree, a few ‘patriots’ turned up and got into a heated discussion which I kept well out of but they kept saying to me that I wasn’t to worry, I was still safe here.  However the main worry was the French army whether they would come here as they did during the crisis; I hoped not, it would cause a situation I really don’t want to become involved in.  I rang a journalist friend in Abidjan to alarmingly hear that his family had had death threats, they were in the process of moving ...

Entering Cote d'Ivoire ...

Left Takoradi at 11am today, got a tro-tro directly to the border, my stomach had a mind of it’s own and had been doing somersaults since early morning.  For once I spent less time arguing with tro-tro drivers over luggage money having thrown an early fit over the extra stuff I was taking which was for Ivoirians, some guy got a mouthful from me & backed down immediately.  Stomach giving me a lot of grief having to visit Takoradi tro-tro station's public conveniences just due to nerves; in my head I was determined I was going to return to Cote d’Ivoire.

We finally got to the border around 1.20pm, I asked the tro-tro driver not to drop me at the tro-tro station but up near the immigration post for Ghana, he was obliging & saved me having to lug my luggage through Elubo’s chaos to get to immigration.  Exited Ghana without a problem, got to the road to get a taxi the 800m or so up to Noe (CI) border.  After a bit of a fuss, got one for 1GhC then he said I could sit & wait for the other 4/5 passengers he needed to fill it.  Offered him another 0.20GhC to get going immediately, we started off up the hill & a white pick-up went tearing past us.  I immediately realised it was my Czech friend Tomas’ business pick-up,yelled at my driver to catch it up & we overtook it with me calling to Achille, in fact it was Marcel.  He indicated to my driver to pull over, he jumped out & I got a great hug from him.  He hauled  my luggage into the back of it & we finished the last 400m together as Achille, Tomas’ business partner whizzed past in the Tata which I’d seen parked at the Ghanaian immigration post but not paid it much attention, not believing they would be at the border.  More hugs & kisses all round as I saw the final vehicle of their convoy, a truck full of their goods arrived, which got put straight into the customs shed.

I got to the vaccination centre to show my yellow fever certificate, I’d thought all was well but they noticed my meningitus was out of date.  Wanted me to be vaccinated there & then, I refused due to the fact my own syringes & needles were  now in the back of Achille’s car about to clear customs with him whilst I was on foot with just a small bag, didn't want to draw attention to the medicines I was bringing in.  I was only a month or so out of date so it really wasn’t that desperate, after a bit of pleading in English only, I was allowed to leave.  Immigration were fine, friendly & had a laugh with me and I wandered out into the street without so much as a glace from customs at my daypack.

Achille drove as fast as he could westwards.   We went through about 6 military blockades, all friendly nothing too sinister, the most thorough being at N’Kizro just before Samo.  Then we got to the edge of the lagoon at Bassam, I expected to see a roadblock there between the two bridges as there had been in the past.  There was a roadblock but governed by about 30 men aged around 20, turned out to be Ouattara supporters, one was sat on the a bench he’d placed in the only position you could pass as the rest of the width of the road had tyres & others bits on it.  Kept making eating motions whilst about 3 descended on the car demanding money saying the guy on the bench was a Betie (pro-Gbagbo normally), Achille asked them why he needed to negotiate and after a 30 second or so negotiation we were allowed to pass.  At the other end of the second bridge there was a little gang of 50 or so all ranting at the occupants of a minibus.  We passed without further problems & Achille dropped me at my friends.

I’ve been here only a few hours.  So much isn’t going on, but the undercurrent is there, no taxis, prices hiked up due to no deliveries, Red Cross passing us at a bar where we were initially the only ones.  I heard shots but took no notice; we have come back to the house early than normal.  The TV is turned on, it’s national TV, RTI – Gbagbo controlled & very interesting what was coming across, to my mind some of it was true, some of it might be considered half truths but a very firm messageis coming across, Sarkozy,the UN, African Union etc cannot control what happens in this country and he’s here to stay.  Rumours are abound, Ouattara is at Licorne, the French army HQ, 21 died yesterday  ‘Abbatoir Thursday’.  Diplomats refused their immunity & shoulder held rockets were shown on TV apparently the UNOCI were responsible for getting weapons to the ‘Forces Nouvelles’ aka  ‘old rebels’ who are pro-Ouattara; amongst messages from the armed forces & justice ministers, my mind is swirling amazed at the propaganda.  

I'm in my room as the obvious brainwashing is just too much to take and to see my friends lapping up every word worries me, there are two sides to every story.  I don’t know what to think, I have my own theory on the future here if this situation continues, I’m not going to write it here but I just hope this ends peacefully without anymore bloodshed.  The economy can’t take this much longer they’ll loose what has been built up over the last few years.

The time has come 10 years on ...

It's just after midnight here, in Abidjan it's just past 10pm.

Tomorrow morning Cote d'Ivoire will go to the polls, for the first time in 10years.  I hope that the calm that has reigned for the last few years and during the election campaigning will remain.

Tomorrow is also auspicious for me, I will be sending 12 boxes of goods to Cote d'Ivoire via a friend of mine who has kindly given me space in his container.  The boxes are full of clothes, shoes, sheets & towels plus anything else that I've had donated or raided my cupboards for, to enable C.R.E.E.R to get started.

Whatever happens from tomorrow will happen.  I hope that the country will remain peaceful and that it'll all pass off without any major incidents.  I have too many friends there that I know want the country to continue to grow & hopefully return to being the economic powerhouse it once was in the 1980's.

I trust that whatever happens, we will be able to get C.R.E.E.R established, encourage children to get the best out of their lives and off the streets; there will be many voting tomorrow who may have held arms during the crisis as children.  This cannot be repeated!!!

My thoughts are with you all in Cote d'Ivoire ...

Heading into the wild north ...

Arriving in Binouan was like arriving in the wild west; its in the centre of cocoa, coffee, banana and rubber plantations. There hasnt been anyone white through this way since before the war - from Ayame onwards the amounts of gasps I heard and 'ohhh, une blanche' was hysterical.

My new-found friends in Ayame called a friend in Binouan to look after me. I was in the front of the minibus with a guy who knew my Binouan contact so he set me up at a new hotel in Binouan behind the pharmacy; then I went off for food + drink after a hot, dusty 3hr ride from Ayame! I was soon at my new contacts place, 2km the other end of the village. He had sent a boy on a motorbike to get me; a great guy, Nigerian by origin who was born in Cote d'Ivoire speaks French and Yoruba but finds English difficult! His youngest was 15months and was very sick that night with stomach cramps and fever. Yet again, Ivorian hospitality came in abundance, a Flag was put in front of me on arrival and then his wife cooked for me; they refused to let me pay for anything including the refreshments!!! I have a lot of making up to do on my return!

The next morning I walked the length of Binouan with my 2 packs .. had coffee with the family whilst waiting for transport. The transport never arrived. I then found my pack being strapped onto the back of a motorbike by my friend. Some 16yr old driver he'd found was going to take me through the bush to pick up transport further north. Hesitantly I hopped on behind him to do a 15km journey through the bush to Attiekro to pick up transport there. I warned him before we set off not to go too madly but he didnt listen so about 1km out of Binouan he got his ear twisted ... we were friends by the end of the 40min journey!!!

At Attiekro I sat in the sun for an hour or so waiting for transport, got on a 22seat minibus which after an hour decided to stop! We were to change, but the village where we stopped had another 22 odd people already waiting to go to Abengourou, I could see it was going to be a fight to get on! At Attiekro, I'd met Francois a student, who tried to organise the front seat for me, but that wasnt going to work. So when the minibus turned up, Francois + friends ran onto it and grabbed seats followed by another 35 or so all trying to get on. The big guy in charge argued with Francois until he saw me asking the driver for the front seat and told me to take the place Francois had got me, but with 35 odd trying to get on board I had to climb onto the fuel tank and go in via the windowless windows!!! Once seated we were 6 across each row unlike 4 across in the other ones I've been in here due to the sheer volume of passengers! Lots of arguments yelling etc going on ... but then the driver told me to get out again (via window of course!) and get in the front!!!

So I got to Abengourou, it was lovely; fresher than further south, my friend from Binouan rang a friend of his who worked for the former French company, Unifoods. He met me in Abengourou and I was installed at his house with his wife and 4kids who bent over backwards to make me welcome!!!

Leopold is a classic example of what has happened to people since the crisis started in 1999. He & his wife were at school together, went to university together. She became a teacher & luckily has kept her job. Leopold meanwhile has been unemployed since 2004; their eldest daughter of 14 is at school in Grand Bassam and he wants to send her to the UK to train as a doctor. The house isn't finished, he started doing it up whilst he had a job. The company he worked for was French, the managers all fled the Cote d'Ivoire during the crisis and left the company floundering; it's now been bought by the Lebanese who have tightened their belts and not offered Leopold his job back. He's desperate for something to do other than being a house husband.

The following morning their daughter, gave me a doughnut at around 7am for breakfast but then I discovered we were off to church, Pentecostal church and I had to dance (I don't do Sunday mornings, church or dancing in or on either, but I tried to smile!!!). I left a few hours later to get transport to the capital Yamoussoukro, famished!