Civil War approaching?

It’s hard to believe that I’m in a country that’s almost at a civil war stage, everything here is so normal.  Music plays 24/7, people are happy & still very welcoming but the discussion around me is always about politics.  It seems that many people in CI will accept Ouattara as President for the good of the economy & to have the country working again.  It's hard seeing so many people affected by this conflict.  However the hard core ‘patriots’ have other ideas and will keep going till the end to ensure Gbagbo is in power, they’re predominantly in Abidjan & the south of CI.  I try to work most days on the computer looking for work, chasing contracts and go to bed to then wake in horror when an avocado falls on the tin roof fearing the worst!

We are now 4 adults & 6 kids under one roof in two rooms ... my hosts refuse to let me move, I have their room with the only air-con in the house, I’m completely spoilt! A few days ago a friend of theirs arrived with her baby boy on her back.  She’d come from Port Bouet, the district of Abidjan next to the port and airport.  She’d seen mercenaries killing people, two young men in particular that she saw dead in the street.  She has calmed down a lot since arriving when she was very tense but constantly calls her husband in the morning to ensure he’s still alive.  It seems that there are a lot of refugees that have headed this way to be with friends & family.

Things in Abidjan aren’t good; E who will be the future centre manager, returned from here after 6 days of hard work on the computer with both of us typing up documents for the mayor & other officials here.  He got a direct bus that took 5hrs instead of a usual maximum of 3hrs but at least it was only 2,200CFA, they’d loaded up with bags of charcoal which is a VERY rare commodity now in Abidjan.  Each bag here costs 1,000CFA, 3 weeks ago I heard a bag in Abidjan cost 16,000CFA – god knows what the price is now.  They were stopped on their way into Abidjan demanding 1,000CFA per bag by customs, I’m not sure how many they had but there was a big argument and the bags were left at Adjouffou on the edge of Abidjan whilst the driver probably went off to find money to pay for it.  

E is in Abobo, one of the worst areas for the mercenary led killings, nothing moves there apparently, no taxis ... nothing, it’s become a ghost town.  People are scared to go out , doors are locked & the only means of communication is by mobile phone.  The fear of genocide is increasing on both sides, there’s a mass grave in Abidjan apparently, heavily guarded by Gbagbo military ... whether they’ll take photos & say it was the other side that was killed or their own men, who knows .. But most of the other districts in Abidjan functional perfectly normally .. the fear is not so desperate, possibly because both Abobo & Adjame were the areas where the ‘death squads’ killed many early on in the last crisis.

Prior to coming into CI, I was in touch with Amnesty International, I'm now sending them reports of what I hear locally from people, talking to them face to face & getting the facts.  I don't care who's responsible for the killings, I'm not politically minded, but to kill civilians is a crime in my book.

It’s the end of December & the mayor still hasn’t returned I realise he’s been caught up in the political situation & ‘Three Wise Men’ from Benin, Cap Verde & Sierra Leone that came to mediate with Gbagbo.  I desperately need to see him to get confirmation of the project ... I’m determined more than ever that we get this project set up & running.  There’s a crisis happening here right now & if it's not resolved it could get worse .. people are suffering and they’ll be more kids on the streets than before.  Personally I see CI going the same way as Zimbabwe; why the UN don’t do more I don’t know. 

We’ve had three consecutive days of storms, that all started around 4pm the second day was the worst, rain pelted down half the night, makes the road between here & Aboisso very difficult, in some parts the road has gone & got a lot worse since last year.  In it’s place are massive puddles with lots of mud, which wasn’t great yesterday as it came into the footwell of my 7 seater & I arrived in Aboisso with very muddy feet.  At least I managed to hold my balance in Aboisso when I almost went over in a muddy patch!   I’d headed down to Aboisso again, this time alone.  Absolutely no problems at all, except for taxi guys desperately trying to sell me a seat in the taxis that head to Noe & the border.  

I was there to meet a Canadian friend's friend who’s been helping us both with the project.  He’s from the north & found that the situation in Abidjan was too much to handle.  As far as I know he escaped Bouake during the height of the last crisis.  Anyway, I met up with him in Aboisso & introduced him my friends there who found him a hotel for the night before he was due to leave CI for 'quieter' climes.  I rang Accra & had a bed organised for him there before he heads to Lome, Togo where he has a promise of work from a friend.  I heard from him when he reached Ghana he got stuck at the border trying to get transport to Accra .. apparently he’s the only Ivorian heading that way which is good news as there are reports of around 17,000 refugees from the west already in Liberia & another 200 in Guinea.

I haven’t really done much; I went with my hosts & friends to his club the other side of town, had a bit of a problem with the town gendarmes who’d returned from a ‘mission’ and wanted to enter in uniform with their kalashnikovs .. eventually they realised that it wasn’t such a good idea and left but caused a bit of a chaos trying to get them to exit the place before everyone calmed down again.  Strange really when in ‘normal’ times they wouldn’t even consider entering armed but in the situation we’re in they feel they have the right to dance ‘armed’!!  

 I’ve made few trips to Aboisso; each time I forget to go to the pharmacy there as the one here doesn’t have my malaria tablets, got 2 weeks worth left, not completely desperate yet.  My swimming idea went very wrong when I heard that there are now crocs around, so I am hoping that the Mayor will be with us tonight for New Years Eve as promised so that I can get down to the beach & swim in the ocean.  

In the meantime, I keep receiving messages on Facebook from people who are genuinely concerned by my situation but unaware of my surroundings.  I'm finding it the most stressful thing to deal with at the moment ... Positive wishes are welcomed but being told that I might need rescuing by EU troops is a bit of an overstatement ... spectators should remain just that unless they want to help with the project!

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!!!

Christmas week

Due to the drama of last week, there isn’t any fuel between here & Abidjan.  The last reserves of diesel are being put into tanks outside the maquis I’m typing this from. People are concerned, no fuel means no supplies, the word around town is ‘famine’ but I hope it won’t come to that. We shall see ...

All well here as before.  It was busy over Christmas, chickens being chased for meals with family arriving from Abidjan and beyond.  For me it was a bit hectic.  The guy in charge of child protection & trafficking at the Conseil Regionale was in Abidjan last week & didn’t get back to Aboisso, the nearest town till Friday.  So finally a meeting was set up for 10am Friday.   E who will be the centre manager & I got a 7 seater down to Aboisso (20km away) to meet our contact and had an productive hour with him, he then took us to see a center built by the govt. a few years ago in Aboisso.

I could have cried, it had never been used; E & I were gutted, the centre was near ‘perfect’ as it was an ideal size although needed some serious renovation due to vandalism but the brick structure & rooves were still intact.  Two villas of 4 bedrooms each with a communal area between them with the ability to house 32 children.  However the negatives were really building up, the area it was in was not ideal, hotbed of Aboisso’s political activity, on a hill in the middle of a growing shantytown and it only had a small plot of land, not even a hectare – someone had started building on the lower part of the land too, none of it was fenced.  If only we could have picked it up & transported it to our future land.  We left our contact & his colleague at an internet cafe to get our document for the mayor printed & bound then drowned our sorrows for half an hour in a maquis.

I went shopping for Christmas presents for my hosts & family; they’ve been so good to me .. supermarket shopping on Christmas Eve in Aboisso is not to be recommended.   The ‘supermarket’ was similar to the one in Bassam, small, crammed full of goods & customers.  I bought my things and asked to have them wrapped, another seriously bad idea, she took well over an hour to wrap 5 presents, I wasn’t allowed to help, I left E in charge of it all to go outside & calm down (where I realised that the air-con in the shop was working despite it feeling horribly hot)

The mayor was due back for Christmas, but didn't return which left me stranded.  I neeed to see him to give him the document & get a confirmation of land donation (& photo’s of the land), it’s annoying as I’d love to head down to the beach to see everyone there & have a swim.  I’m thinking of going off & finding somewhere to swim nearby. I’ve seen photo’s of it but  not sure exactly where along it is & how much snake infested bush I’ll need to go through to get to it – I’ll see how ‘desperate’ I get ... seen a fair few snakes this week!!

Christmas eve evening we stayed in a friend's maquis in town, compared to the previous night when we were in his nightclub the other side of town as there was electricity there whilst town had been plunged into the dark due to a failure somewhere.  I rang a friend who is/was Gbagbo’s transport representative to wish a Happy Christmas.  I was a little worried having talked and read the news on the internet that Goodluck Jonathan (Nigerian Pres) has offered Gbagbo a refuge. She was leaving CI at 6am in the morning on a flight for Abuja & demanded to know where I was; to keep anonimity (despite the friendship) I said 'Aboisso' and the answer was ‘you’ll be fine’.  11 years ago on Christmas Eve there was a coup d’etat here, my brain was in overdrive wondering if something was going to happen again, history almost repeating itself?

We await tomorrow and what the week will bring, but everyone here is generally of the opinion that Gbagbo needs to leave to allow the country to pick up where it left off economically.  If he does go the ‘patriots’ will protest, burn tyres etc for a few days but I very much doubt it will develop any further.  Ghana has threatened to attack CI if any of it’s UN soldiers with UNOCI are ‘harmed’ and most of W.Africa is ready to send forces in to remove Gbagbo.   

The town is still united in it’s anti-war stance as it was during the previous crisis, there have been a few ‘arguments’ over the last few days; gendarmerie refusing to pay tax leaving town this morning loaded up with charcoal, two women fighting over the same man & one of them bit the other and the third one was a minor heated discussion between the taxi drivers!  One thing that makes me laugh, neighbours asking each other in the morning 'How is your President?' ... such a mad & sad situation!

My main worry at the moment are the mozzies who have had a good Christmas from me .. yes, I am taking my Lariam equivalent!!!  But obviously my health insurance is totally invalid, so I cannot afford any accidents!

E left this morning for Abidjan, hope he returned safely & I’m just back from a reception, a lady here went off on a pilgrimage to Fatima (Portugal), Santiago de Compostela & Lourdes ... A deluge of photos on a big screen at her home, over 70 of us there, including the European doctor and endless religious music played full blast; the food wasn’t bad & I had my first glass of wine in a few weeks.  The bottle said it was ‘European’ but it was worth drinking (won’t touch Val Pierre – ‘Ivorian wine’ – actually the dregs from France bottled here!),  I’m glad to be back under my cocoa tree without any religion nearby typing this up!!!

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 ...

On the move

Waking up having heard shooting from the maquis I was in the night before, I decided that it wasnt worth hanging around.  At 8.45 I got a  call from a friend further east who asked what I was up to; I said I was heading that way later on in the day.  My friend and I went to a maquis at 11.40am, as the previous night it was all too calm in town, walking 500m we passed very few people in the street, heard no music but continued on.  By 12pm her husband called asking where we had gone, unhappy we’d not stayed in the house.  It wasn’t till later we found out 2 had been killed in town, her husband was annoyed we’d left and gone out but we didn’t realise the situation, naive maybe!

I rang another friend, a muslim, from the maquis to tell him I was back, he wanted to come over but was surrounded by military in his compound.  A little later he turned up telling us people had thrown stones at the mosque.  We discussed a few things and I decided my idea from earlier on was the best decision to make.  I asked my friend if she wanted to come with me, white and female, we were both in the same boat.  I also offered to take her step-daughter to relative safety but we were concerned if we’d be able to get through the military blockades with a child without papers.

I left, my friend following me.  Her husband wasn’t happy as we left demanding to know how we’d get transport.  We were on the side of the international road leading out of Cote d’Ivoire flagging any traffic that passed that was rare, probably 3 vehicles per minute probably 10% of the normal traffic.  After a few minutes my friend said she had to return to get a swimsuit ... 10 minutes later their maid arrived asking to return with her bag, they’d been arguments at home, she was staying.  Her husband accused her of abandoning the family & that I was a part of this abandonment.  I was also made aware that I was alone and I couldn’t return to the house.  I’d been put out on the street, I’m afraid it’s something I’ll never forgive in this situation as he knew the situation he was putting me & his wife in.

For over an hour I was flagging down vehicles with a young boy from the house who shortly went inside when he saw the military coming past towing large guns behind their wagons.  No one would stop, maybe they thought I was heading for the border, maybe they thought it was too much of a risk to take a white woman.  I really don’t know.  However I ended up calling a friend who has a taxi to come and get me as an hour and a half in the blazing sun was too much to take.  My friend had returned to my spot prior to the taxi arriving as her husband had stormed out, we discussed things and promised to keep in touch despite her problems at home.

Finally I was inside a car, we crossed the bridge without the problems of the previous day and after a kilometre or so found a taxi going further east.  I swapped taxis and continued my journey for an hour or so calling a friend in the town I was heading for who promised to meet me at my destination of Aboisso.  I got there and went straight to the maquis and got a big welcome from old acquaintances amazed I was back and told to sit & join them for a drink.  It felt good to be with more friends who were stunned by what had just happened to me, unhappy at an Ivoirian's behaviour.  Almost an hour later my friend pulled in and then I found he was with another friend I’d met 2 years previously, big welcomes, hugs & kisses all round.  I was glad to be back with people I had confidence in, I felt safe again, I knew where I stood.

They continued drinking for a while and finally we got into the car, only to move 200m to a nightclub at 5pm!!  More beer was served and I was told it had to be finished.  Around 7pm we rolled into town, stopped to order some grilled chicken to eat later and as we got into town there was a welcome party waiting for me. 

The Mayor, his wife, various friends and children all wanted to say hello to me.  I sat with the mayor for an hour or so whilst more & more people came up to greet me, I was near tears with the greeting I recieved from them all with the situation the country’s in, it was incredible that I had such a reception.  The Mayor invited me for lunch the following day (Sunday).    I was told that I was part of town now, that this is my home in CI ...

The difference in atmosphere between here and where I’d come from was amazing, people wandered around the streets, music was playing, it was all very normal.  I went out with my friend having said hello to his wife & children, saw my room we then reclaimed our chicken and partied the night away until the curfew at midnight when the sole gendarme of the town drove us home.

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.

Continuer en paix RCI ...

The time has come ...

The second round of elections were voted upon yesterday.  Today the first results came out.  Yet again France cancelled all their votes but the rest have left Outtara (ADO) leading at 59.97% and Gbagbo at 40.03%, however judging from the first round, this doesn't mean much.  The real results (in my mind) will come with Bedie's strongholds voting one way or another ...

Interestingly, with the curfew in force in Cote d'Ivoire, tweeters have been tweeting about the Barcelona-Madrid football match, something that really doesn't interest me!  However it's funny that with the curfew in force and obviously being stringently observed; this is the next best form of entertainment online.  I suppose in a country of football mad enthusiasts, it has to be expected!

Hopefully in the next day or so a President will be announced & that the whole country will accept it ...

Continuer en paix, la plus belle pays d'Afrique!

Interested in keeping up to date with the CI elections?

Check out twitter handles: #civ2010 #peacevote
Log onto: www.wonzomai.com

Continuer en paix!

The first round of the Ivorian elections are now over.  After a few long nights watching & waiting for CEI to give out the results, the closely fought contest was finally over.  Read a lot of interesting comments from some talented Ivorian twitters.  Toussine, accepting me as 'an Ivorienne in reverse' my usual response to my nationality in regards to our flags!

No clear winner, it's going to a second round, but in retrospect it's no bad thing.  Having a clear winner after over a decade without an election might cause distrust and anger.

The incumbent Laurent Gbagbo leads with a margin of about 6% over AlassaneOuattara (ADO) who is predominant in the north of the country. 

However, percentages, power sharing, gaining ground etc is of no interest to me.  What was so thrilling was that the country remained calm, showed true Ivorian reserve & brotherhood, which was all too apparent on Twitter too!

I got a phone call on Wednesday morning from friends in Abengourou; their 9 year old daughter was eager to talk to me, first question 'Tatie, have you voted?' (in French!) she made me laugh.  The downside was, she asked me to bring her a computer for Christmas; I will have to teach her the value of money when I catch up with them next!!!

Even the youngsters have realised how important this is.  Possibly because at home she would be watching TV.  I was thrilled to see some positive marketing by the government, just prior to the RTI 6pm news which I got online.  A variety of 'adverts' came on.  Normal, everyday Ivorians, Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure and others were telling the nation to vote & accept the decision in a peaceful manner. 

Long may it continue .. Cote d'Ivoire will be back in a position to proudly move forward economically.  En Liberte ...

Unlike in France today where Sarko was kow-towing to the Chinese leader!

Les Patrons- Liberte

Tent hooks or tenterhooks???

Yesterday we sent 12 boxes on a long journey to Cote d'Ivoire, inside we have 4 tents ... minus a few hooks which I'll have to take with me when I go.


Today, right now in fact, the Presidential result is expected, I've been sitting here all day on tenterhooks checking for updates, constantly hearing the latest from friends & twitters.  The best laugh I've had all day is to hear a play on words with the French word for current as the electricity company CIE seems to have turned off the power, but the current theme of the day is for CEI the electoral commission to announce a winner!!!

I just want to hear that everyone accepts the final vote after 10 years without voting.  That things remain calm.  That friends are safe & sound, won't be witnessing any further violence.  That Cote d'Ivoire gets back on it's feet with the grace it once had as a country.

As Tiken Jah Fakoly starts his song 'Ma Cote d'Ivoire' ...

la côte d' ivoire mon beau pays - Cote d'Ivoire my beautiful country
pays d'hospitalité - country of hospitality
pays de fraternité - country of brotherhood

and finishes ...

Ma Côte d' Ivoire - My Cote d'Ivoire
je ne veux plus te voir en larmes - I don't want anymore tears
ma Côte d' Ivoire - My Cote d'Ivoire
je ne veux plus te voir prendre les armes - I don't want to see you take your weapons


Says it all really ........

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 ...

A request ..

I'm under a lot of pressure to make sure that C.R.E.E.R will work.  We're all determined to make it work.  I've been talking to everyone and anyone that will listen to me!

We have a lot in place due to the generosity of the Mayor of the town we're going to be in with the land donation.  I've also had a long chat with a lovely lady in Canada who is very interested as she already has her own charity there that deals with trafficked children, trying to repatriate them but others who 'can't' go home may come to us.  She will be meeting our contacts in Cote d'Ivoire in the near future we hope to examine how we can work together.

I am hoping that people reading this blog may be able to offer a) advice b) support c) a word of mouth community to enable us to make this move forward, as I said, in the long term this should be self-sustainable, starting it up is going to be a difficult exercise so there are a few ideas namely:

1. Financial donations
2. Contacts you may have in the commercial world who would might like to be involved in giving material gifts (tools, materials, shipping containers of goods etc) or financial contributions
3. Sponsoring one of the children that will be with us for the longer term, keeping in regular contact and getting updates from them.
4. Donating items of use including clothes, shoes etc, although this might be difficult for us to get them to Cote d'Ivoire - I already have a mountain of clothes that I will be taking with me on each trip as I used to do for EMSF.
5. Doing fundraising on our behalf, when the website is up & running we intend to have a PayPal account.  So this could be evening charity auctions, fun runs, accomplishing a long bicycle ride or marathon run.
6. Just TALKING, if you're at university or at a school we're keen to hear from you & will send you fliers (to be made up soon on PDF) etc to get more interest. 

For French companies (and possibly across the EU, I need to examine this) there is a taxable deduction for companies who give either financial or material aid from their company, it's at 65% in France.

I've just added Amazon links to this blog.  I will receive some money from any clicks on there.  If you're thinking about Christmas presents already & want to buy from Amazon, please use my links & the money will go to C.R.E.E.R

Thanks!

c.r.e.e.r.rci AT gmail.com
C.R.E.E.R group page on Facebook

C.R.E.E.R

C.R.E.E.R was formed last night.

Finally after years of wanting to do something to assist children, I've formed a French charity with a wonderful team of people who are all committed to the cause; Centre de Reinsertion et Education des Enfants de la Rue; Cote d'Ivoire.

It's going to be a lot of hard work. Prior to forming C.R.E.E.R I had some great news that 5ha of land would be donated to us; we'll be under an hour from both the Ghana border and the coast in a very quiet & un-touristed area of Cote d'Ivoire.

The idea is to run it as a farm with workshops. We will initially take in street kids between the ages of 12-15 and train them in various trades so that when they're ready to leave, they will have a trade to help them find employment; we're looking at carpentry, metalwork, sewing etc for both boys & girls. Many of them will have been affected by the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, have been the victims of trafficking or encountered some personal catastrophe to be living in the streets.

Controversially we will be opening the doors to volunteers. I've previously said that I'm anti-volunteering organisations, but as a French charity we are non-profit making. All the funds will go to Cote d'Ivoire with very little held in France, solely to pay website fees, banks transfer fees and charges of that nature.

Our plan is to ask volunteers for a one-off sum to reserve their place, they can stay as long as they like. It's not going to be anywhere near 1,000 euros a month as others charge. They can go & assist with a number of projects initially clearing of the land & construction of the centre; accomodation will be offered locally.

Accomodation will eventually be provided on site in very basic dwellings with a small sum being asked of the volunteers for their stay. The reservation fee will pay the salaries of the small team that will run C.R.E.E.R, buy materials & offset any other costs they may have. Other funding should come from the produce on the land, vegetables, eggs, meat etc plus the products that the children will be able to create with their new skills.

To my mind it's a 'HAND UP and not a HAND OUT' project. In 5 years I'd like to see this being self-sustainable. If there's 'extra' money available in the longer term then we plan to build a second centre elsewhere in Cote d'Ivoire with the same principles.

I'm just back from a business trip to South Africa & Botswana, it's been 27years since I was last in South Africa, went as a child; very pleased to see the changes there. However my heart is still firmly in W.Africa, there just wasn't that vibe down there that I was expecting!!! Whilst there I visited a few projects in my spare time which gave me a lot of ideas about what could be done in Cote d'Ivoire with the children & made a few very useful contacts.

At the moment, this is a word of mouth project. If you know anyone who would like to help us, either by coming & assisting with the project or by fund-raising at home, we'd be very grateful to hear from you. I hope in the near future we'll have a website up & running with constant updates on the progress of the centre.

Post a comment on here with your e-mail address if you like (it's not published unless you ask me to do so) or e-mail us at: c.r.e.e.r.rci AT gmail.com

World Cup 2010

I have to mention that there are three guys heading southbound to Jo'burg from Lisbon who have been looking for stories.

The three of them are journalists and covering stories on most things to do with football as well as life in general in the countries they are going through. I'm intensely jealous of them, I would love to do this one day! But believing in karma, hopefully that with the few contacts I'm giving them I will do this eventually!

Their blogs are unfortunately (for me) in Portuguese but they do have excellent English. Anyone reading this who is in W.Africa from Abidjan to Jo'burg and points in between, please either leave me a message or contact them if you can offer assistance!

http://roadtoworldcup.wordpress.com
http://www.roadtoworldcup.com.pt

I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a football fan by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a great project!

Rain, Lady Snakes & Accidents

I was laughing when I heard that most of Europe was under the white stuff. My neighbour sent me pictures of my car under a ton of the stuff, the guys in the office were amazed by it but I wasn't looking forward to returning to that!!! However we had had strange weather patterns in Cote d'Ivoire also, there was a fair bit more rain than there should be during this season!!!

I wasn't looking forward to returning because to be quite honest I didn't feel like I'd been on holiday. I'd not even travelled but that might be due to a) waking up thinking of the accident in Burkina daily and b) having too many friends here who demand that I spend a day or so with them!!!

As for the accident, Francis the gendarme from Bobo was in touch with me a lot. He was great the night of the accident and is now following the incident up. The three Togolais are in prison sadly we also saw the news that the Togo football team were ambushed in Cabinda, northern Angola where the coach was killed on the way to the CAN, African football Cup. Francis is head of the child protection unit for the gendarmerie in Bobo and wants me to set up something in Bobo to help the street kids there (there's only one of me I can't manage every project - but he seems to think I can!).

So, I was in Abidjan for 10days now except for a weekend back at my US/Ivorian friends in Bassam. I went to see the children at the centre and we set up a world map I had bought them with all their friends and sponsors names on it! Saturday night I went out with the same crowd and the centre manager joined us chatting about the children. Suddenly a girl started running and screaming; just behind my chair in the sand was a long thin snake!!! The guys jumped around with sticks killing it whilst others were saying not to kill it; its a lady snake and only comes out when there are a lot of ladies around - yeah right, pull the other one!!! Anyway I sat tight in my chair not too worried about it laughing at them all!!!

On the Sunday I left Bassam to return to Abidjan via Marcelline's new 'home'; she's the girl that was found on the beach 5 january 2009 after 3 years there aged 12/13 when she was found; we have a really close relationship now. She had forgotten her towel and sponge so I offered to go via Koumassi where some 'sisters' are looking after her and quite a few other girls who had been found on the street. It was very impressive, large modern buildings and the children are all schooled on site. I was also keen to go as the centre manager wanted me to talk to her about her behaviour last week when she threatened one of the sisters with a machete!!! We had a long chat about it whilst it poured with rain, she understood I wasn't happy with her behaviour and seemed to take it all on board. She escorted me to the gate with an umbrella, when I asked what she had to do for the future she said 'Pray for you Maman' which was funny but not the answer I was hoping to hear!

I came out of the 'village' where she's studying to find a woro-woro (shared taxi), it was now down to a drizzle. I found that the ladies coming out of church at the village had managed to get any available woro-woro's and I was looking up and down the road as the heavens opened again with lots of lightning! 'Suddenly a taxi came and I decided to splash out and pay the 2.70euro for the 45min ride back to my 'home from home' rather than get 2 woro-woro's for 75c! Initially the driver wasnt happy with my price so as usual I told him to go and I'd find another. The rain got harder and the taxi reversed back up the street and I was told to hop in for the price I had given!

We met several accidents in the streets of Koumassi and managed to get onto the autoroute that would take me across Abidjan. Once on the other side of the lagoon the rain got harder again and how my driver managed to see anything I dont know, we went through one large puddle after another then finally we hit a big one at speed. The driver lost control and we went sideways into a 4x4 as the engine packed up. So I found myself in lane 3 of a 4 lane autoroute in knee deep water with a vehicle that wasnt going anywhere, luckily neither the driver or I had a scratch! Suddenly I heard someone calling to me and a guy in another 4x4 was offering me a lift, typical Ivorians always hospitable, he was going in completely the opposite direction but was prepared to take me home sopping wet in his lovely clean car!!!

I'd made friends with my neighbour in the compound, the Libyan diplomat I was invited round one afternoon to meet his friend, another diplomat from the Embassy!!! Spent an interesting 30m chatting to the pair of them, neighbour in his underpants telling me how much he loves Abidjan & vodka whilst the maid was cleaning and looking for a mouse - all quite bizarre!!

Two New Years!

I left Ayame for Assouinde beaches again much to everyone's disgust in Ayame! They wanted me to spend New Years with them but I'd promised the gang in Assouinde that I'd return, plus I spent New Years in Ayame last year!

So New Years was a fairly quiet affair till the early hours. Stupidly Mino a Lebanese/Spanish friend and I got put to work by Arsene to sell tickets to his party on the beach in front of his hotel .. So the two of us celebrated on our own at a little table prior to the entrance until 3am getting the staff to bring us drinks whilst we sold tickets to juvenile Lebanese kids. These kids were completely drunk and tearing up and down through the coconut trees on quads and their parents vehicles, one Mercedes and a 4x4 met with coconut trees on separate incidents that night and were written off!!!

Mino was sharing a room at Jardin D'Eden, Arsene's hotel, with another couple and the DJ who didn't turn up till after midnight. I was heading back to my pailotte (beach shack) to sleep to then discover that a whole family had managed to get in and were squatting in it! I ended up on a beach lounger on the shore watching the remains of the fires along the shore that light up the coast of the Cote d'Ivoire from Ghana to Liberia. We had three such bonfires in front of the hotel & my beach shack - I watched the sun come up over the Atlantic, a lovely start to the New Year. Then went for a dip before claiming my beach shack again for an hours sleep only to be disturbed by the guardian waking me wanting to do some work on it!!!

I headed back to Ayame on 2nd January for the second party, the Mayor's wife is from a village 8km away and has a successful maquis (bar) there. Originally I didnt know exactly which village it was in and Marcel was offering me a lift there on the back of a scooter at 10pm. From my past experience of night time driving being on the back of a scooter without a helmet didnt exactly go down well with me ... So I scoured Ayame (population of 14,000- 60% unemployment) for a vehicle, I eventually discovered Marcel's older brother had returned from his taxi duties with a minibus so begged him to drive me there.

On arrival I discovered that I'd been put next to the mayor as the token 'blanche' on his table next to a few others who I'd met at the Christmas reception and a few had come from Abidjan!. The mayor made me dance which of course went down too well and I had trouble getting back to my table being held hostage on the dance floor for 15mins or so!!! I fell asleep very shortly afterwards in a comfortable white plastic chair till Philippe drove me back to Ayame with his wife!

I left the next day with Philippe and his wife for Abidjan and got back to my friends house where the maids aunt, who works next door, tutted about my arrival as the house hadn't been cleaned since I'd left. She soon had her niece show up who I gave a ton of dirty laundry to do as well!!! Debra had malaria over Xmas/new year apparently - Im not so sure, after lots of exchanges about her lovely new hair do!!!

So I spent some time working, using my friends office in Angre, being looked after by the guys there and his business partner's wife who is their administrator. Interestingly I found that my neighbour in the compound is a Libyan diplomat and having postponed twice I went for dinner with him, I was shocked by the with all the wine & beer he'd bought!

Two days later I was invited by my BBC friend and his wife to eat at her wonderful new restaurant in Abobo. We were joined by the new Reuters guy who had only been here a fortnight having just spent the last two years in Baghdad thinks its complete paradise in comparison! We had a long interesting discussion on W.African politics and the role France plays here ... or stirs might be more to the point!

Essentially my days in Abidjan were spent working and catching up with friends in the evenings. I was very fortunate to have a base there this time and got to know Abijdan a little better.

Four Christmas' & the christening of Adjoba

I spent a few days in Abidjan with my friend who has a business there, I needed time to come to terms with what had happened on the trip down, although I was dying to get to the orphanage to see the kids.

Spent a Sunday afternoon at his company's staff Christmas party, very funny with one of the guys saying prayers - which consisted of a plea for increased sales and a better profit margin whilst his business partner was quietly puffing on a cigar. It was like something out of a comedy sketch!! We had a great meal of goat, egg salads + rice etc

Unfortunately the next day I fell sick. I got serious stomach cramps every 30mins or so. My friend had given me the keys to his house in Abidjan to stay there whilst he went to see family in Europe. With the cramps getting stronger I decided to get a few taxis to Bassam to stay with my US/Ivorian friends where he tried to insist I see the doctor - but living on vimto, water and pots of charcoal pills I made a good recovery!

Being back in Bassam was great, saw the kids who were in the middle of lunch when I turned up, they do have table manners and arent allowed to leave the table till they've all finished but by sticking my head around the corner of a wall to see them eating I caused mayhem to their lunch as they all scrabbled to get out of their places and knocked me over for a hug!!

I went to their Christmas party two days later and finally managed to speak to the Colonel of the 4eme parachute regiment from France to arrange transport of stuff to Cote d'Ivoire. However he didn't promise anything but at least I know how to go about it now and have his support!

It was strange, so many people saw me in the street and came up to me and said hello and welcome back to Bassam. Even some Rasta guy who came out of a shop to try to get me to buy his tour on the lagoon finally caught up with me, saw my face and apologised saying 'welcome back' instead. One morning I was on the side of the road when a taxi came past with the passenger yelling 'Abidjan' at me - normal occurence but having signalled 'no' to them, it stopped 100m from me. Out of the drivers seat popped Eme a driver I use from the beach (50km further on), came running over to greet me and ask how the trip from Burkina was whilst his passengers were all waiting to continue onto Abidjan!!! Yet again people are so open and welcoming!

I left Bassam for the beach. Found some idiot taxi driver who refused to take me the last 3km, so I asked around for someone else but they were all asking ridiculous prices so I sat on the side of the road with my phone and rang Eme who was 2hrs away on another Abidjan trip. Somehow word spread and a little white C15 van pulled up in front of me with a young guy that I sort of recognised. It was Adama who had been sent to get me, driving back into the village past little Ama's mothers stall I got a big shout of 'welcome back'.

Arsene and his brother Mark are Burkinabe that Ive known for a few years, Adama is their cousin. Ive been sending them clients for their two hotels and when I turned up Arsene told me that I had a room for free and wasnt staying in 'my' beach shack this time - I spent Christmas day with them all. Arsene and a friend of his who has businesses in Abidjan sat me down at the table at 9am on Christmas morning and I asked for a coffee - I got a Jack Daniels!!! After lots of complaining I got my morning coffee and then helped them finish a few bottles of red wine prior to 1pm! I spent the day between the maquis and beach then decided to have a bit of a rest when I heard lots of screaming ...

It turned out a girl had been on the back of the only jet ski on the beach and came off, she was wearing a life jacket luckily. She had been bobbing about near the jet ski whilst the guy riding it was trying to get it re-started; suddenly the rip tide got her and dragged her out to sea - the speed at which she apparently went out was alarming. Being Ivorian she couldnt swim like many there, but she somehow got herself back to shore and out of the rip - she was very very lucky!!!

I left the beach on 26th to go to Ayame and meet a baby who was born at the end of April and named after me! She wasn't there!! However the Mayor of Ayame had called me Christmas night and I'd promised to return. I took a new friend with me for the day, she had flown in from Abuja with her husband and friend on their first visit to Cote d'Ivoire. Unfortunately I'd not thought to remind her about her passport so we had problems with the gendarmes on the way up there who were after money, a wife and a cigarette in that order. I gave them a cigarette and then called the Mayor of Ayame for help!!!


On arrival I got a massive welcome and returned to Lucas' motel. The Mayor told me to be at his house at 5pm; he had organised a Christmas reception for me, cocktails; meal and then back to the village for more partying with all the crowd I had met last year. The Mayor of Ayame re-named me 'Adjoba' , my Agni (Akan, southern CI language) name which everyone there used, took a while to get used to it!!! It means I was born on a Wednesday having googled it, I was born on a Thursday!!


I was stunned by his generosity and worked on a plan with him and the elders to eradicate Ayame of plastic bags which drive me mad. Ive got a few people working on figures to find out the cost of material and thread, to make their own cotton bags and create a little cottage industry here that will be self-funding. The Mayor will make Ayame a 'sachette free-zone' so that everyone will have to use the cotton bags and the plan is to spread this throughout the Sud-Comoe region via him

Hypocrite

I finally got to Abidjan, I turned up at 1am in a bedraggled taxi from Adjame with Brice who'd travelled with me since Ouaga; an Ivorian studying environmental engineering in Ouagadougou.

I had almost 48hrs in Ouaga, enough time to get my visa put into my passport for a fraction of the cost of an Ivorian visa in Europe, have a lovely lunch with old Burkinabe friends and their 4 kids.

The bus left Ouaga at 11pm, as usual it was perfectly on time with 4 gendarmes on board armed with kalashnikovs in case of bandits on the road; we were the lead bus of 4 TCV vehicles.

Burkinabe transport still amazes me - it is so well organised compared to the rest of W.Africa, large, clean, air conditioned, comfortable new TCV bus headed out on the road to Bobo Dialausso to arrive at 4am where I would have a wait of 3hrs before catching the connecting bus to Bouake, CI. What ensued was unimaginable ...

I fell asleep, at 12.10 in the morning the brakes were jammed on, what had been a great ride and a lovely sleep was broken. A few of the guys got off with the gendarmes and came back to say there was an accident. We all started getting off for a leg stretch when things became clearer and there was a bus 2 vehicles in front of us that had gone head first into a truck; possibly due to the age of the bus and the pot hole a few meters beforehand. Whilst on the side of the road a tall Burkinabe guy came up to me and asked me to help; turns out he is one of the heads of the gendarmerie from Bobo called Francis - passenger on the bus behind mine. I explained I wasnt medically qualified but I'd go and do what I could.

Arriving on the scene we found most of the passengers sitting on the side of the road in shock but no injuries to speak of apart from one or two scratches. The truck driver had died and the bus driver was being freed by a few guys from my bus along with a girl sitting behind him. Someone had called the ambulance which was on its way from Ouaga along with the firemen to cut the wreckage. The bus driver had a fractured leg and I said it needed a splint and straightening, it was an open fracture and even in the early hours it was warm but I couldnt do anything for him. The girl had a broken foot I think and dirty cuts to the base of her foot, I offered to go and get my bandages and disinfectant etc and try to clean her up; she was about 14. The traffic was going through the field to one side of the road as the accident had completely blocked the road.

I walked back to my bus with Francis and asked around for my bus driver so that I could access my pack and medical stuff, couldnt find him, just the other driver of the bus behind us who had bought me a coffee just prior to leaving Ouaga. Suddenly the gendarmes starting screaming at us all to get back on the buses, at the same time someone said 'they're firing' and I ran down the slope into the bush in the pitch dark with Francis not far behind me. The noise did sound as if bullets were being fired but then it changed and got louder and nearer but I couldn't see anything until this 10 wheeled truck pulled up narrowly missing the front of our bus.

What transpired was that the truck, Togolais, with 3 guys clandestine goods (TVs and DVDs) on board had driven at full speed right through the accident, so the noise was of the metal being hit by the truck. Someone ran up screaming at us saying 'theyve all been killed' - they had driven over all the passengers from the first accident. I'm not going to go into details, but you can imagine what had happened. It turned out later via Francis the gendarme who has been in constant touch, that 7 died, there were a few walking wounded, a few stretchered and one or two very lucky ones who miraculously survived two accidents in one night without a scratch!

We left the scene via an alternative route to Bobo having buried the dead with the gendarmes + pompiers helping out once they had freed the 2 men found in the back of the original truck - I have to say they were very professional in their job and thanked the gendarmes several times - we had all been through a lot and they were excellent and caring!


It's part of the reason I've not been able to write this blog for so long, it's taken a long time to get this out of my head. Dealing with the situation afterwards was far harder than being there on the scene, something I never want to go through again or wish others to experience.

So we continued on, changing buses at Bobo for Bouake there were about 10 of us who had come from Ouaga; we stuck together as a strong group, they really looked after me. We had arrived in Bobo 2.5hrs late which is unusual for Burkinabe transport but they had held our bus back.



We got to the Ivorian border around 1pm and the rebels were there, very much in charge and I had fun and games again. Firstly they wanted 200CFA from each passenger, I went back into 'dont speak French mode' and they gave up with me, took my passport off and I went over to the medical formalities for Yellow Fever, one of the rebels came and got me and told me to go to another hut to get my passport. This guy stamped my passport and demanded 1000CFA, I said in English; no - I paid for the visa yesterday you arent getting any more out of me, he held my passport back and purposely put it out of my reach - I demanded it back and got my phone out saying I was going to ring the Embassy (likely chance getting the number for the nearest one in Abuja, Nigeria whilst in the bush near Ouangolodougou - remembering a text when an Irish friend had arrived there after his stint in Bouake's prison as a spy!!!)


So he gave me my passport and I said; 'ok I go now', he yelled at me '1000CFA now', I couldnt go, I then noticed the hand he had been using to stamp passports now had a gun in it, handgun that looked a little old but 'useful' to frighten some blanche tourist. I told him that he still wasnt going to get the 1000CFA and he could put the gun away again which annoyed him that he hadn't frightened me. Finally 2 Burkinabe diplomats turned up heading to Abidjan and tried to help me with my non-existant French and got me off the hook. 200m away from the hut I spoke to them in French and they doubled up laughing at me that I'd managed to fool the rebels and get away with it!!!

We got to Bouake around 5.30pm and Brice and I got the same minibus to Abidjan, 'Operation Christmas' was in full swing there, checkpoints all over. Money wanted and harrassment by the customs guys to the point of which one in Yamoussoukro told me CI was still at war - I had a real go at him saying that he's killing any chance of tourism for the country.


We finally pulled into Abidjan around 12.30am after losing my temper with the military at a roadblock outside Youpougon who had decided the curfew had started at 11.45pm. The driver came back to the minibus and said it was fruitless trying to get through without giving over something, we'd have to wait till 6am After the journey Brice & I had had, I wasn't standing for it and possibly the horror of seeing a filthy dirty blanche lose her temper the barrage was opened without any money changing hands. Worse still a kilometre up the road I saw a baboon chained to a street lamp, not sure which had me more angry!

The driver dropped us all in Adjame, the worst district of Abidjan. Brice was a saint and told me that he'd find a taxi and make sure I got to my friend's place in one piece. Not having visited my friend's new place, I had our taxi going around in circles, around prostitutes and my phone battery was getting weaker whilst trying to find the address. Finally we arrived at 1am and my friend dragged me out to Alpha Blondy's 'Cafe de Versailles' bar till 3am trying to calm my nerves after a 25hr trip from hell

So, moral of the story is that I will continue to say, dont travel at night and I will respect my own rules - life is precious and I was very lucky!! I admit to being a complete hypocrite!

First leg ...

I got into Ouagadoudou at 3am in the morning; after a whirlwind few days in Tripoli!

My Libyan host gave me an excellent driver who spoke very little English but did remarkably well and taught me bits of arabic - mainly involved swearing at drivers and had me laughing a lot about the antics of crazy Libyan drivers - you'd have to know Tripoli to understand!!!

Libya was incredible; mainly due to a very good friend of mine - who introduced me to another friend who is Libyan. He totally looked after me, saying a million 'shukrans' wasnt quite enough.
Tripoli was great, although I was constantly worried about not being 'dressed' covered up as much as possible but must remember to buy blouses that can touch my knees!!! The town is so different to what I expected but I dont know exactly what I expected, but did enjoy it. The place is booming, construction going on all over, top western brands moving into flash showrooms, new cars and fast food joints selling 'fried viagra' !!! Its aiming to be the Dubai of the med!

So I got into Ouaga; the airport is a disaster ... so little infrastructure. Got a bit of a shock last night when arriving at the check-in counter, they had bumped me off as it was full and the flight was going to Bamako before Ouaga ... but managed to get myself back on it at the last minute & raced through immigration to be last at the gate.

We landed an hour late at 3am which wasnt bad. I found a friendly honest taxi driver, fought off a few phonecard touts + bounced down the dimly lit city streets into the 'village' of Ouaga or thats how it felt; weirdly enough I was missing Tripoli and wanting to be back there! I think I woke most of the auberge that Danika, Maddy and I stayed in 2years ago whilst trying to wake the guardien to let me in and see if they had a room, did the usual trick of no booking prior to arriving but it all worked out fine. Sadly the auberge has gone downhill a little, chairs broken, plaster peeling off but still has the same charm and very quiet in the centre of town with a few French staying there.

My first morning in Ouaga I was up and at 'Service des Passeports' on the Bobo road out of Ouaga for the Burkina Immigration authorities having a VTE visa (5 countries) so that I could enter Cote d'Ivoire on it. I immediately got another taxi across town to purchase a bus ticket (breaking all my own rules) for 11pm the following night to Bouake in CI arriving around 4pm day after, so an overnight journey which is usually a no-no for me but needs must + the ticket selling lady let me choose a place, crossing my fingers we wouldn't meet with an elephant at Boromo in the middle of the night!

So, for the second day running I was waiting to get my passport back; I'd applied two days previously for my Burkina visa in Tripoli and got it back 4pm the day of departing Tripoli after a bit of a battle with embassy staff.

Life goes on ...

We didn't make it to Abidjan, that wasn't due to the offers of help we received from the plea I put on here, a complete stranger in Canada offered his air miles, unfortunately it didn't fit due to a variety of airline changes going on the weekend we needed to be there. So I didn't get to spend my birthday there or get to the conference.

However, I have to congratulate Air Ivoire for also trying to assist us. Again this also went wrong which I'm not going to go into but the crux of it is that we attracted attention which is surely great for the future of Women in African Aviation? Thank you Air Ivoire & a senior secretary who knows she tried to get us to the Yamoussoukro conference!

So, I'm still in Europe, still spending far too long in front of two screens trying to get myself back to Africa. I am overwhelmed with work right now, both in Europe & in Africa. Trying to manage a company in Europe, a start-up in Africa and then the orphanage & Women in African Aviation as charitable organisations is enough for anyone!

I'm hoping to drive down to Cote d'Ivoire mid-december with all the goods on board a donated vehicle, yet again I have my begging bowl out for a free passage for the minibus across the stretch of the mediterranean sea to Morocco. I hope to hear soon as to how that will work out. But it's a long way down (sorry Charlie Boorman et al) to get there. Whilst I'm thinking of it, would Charlie Boorman like to join us & I'll take Claudio's job & mount the camera on the roof???

I might be leaving for W.Africa again shortly, as usual it's going to be last minute. To meet a few decision makers & hopefully get pen to paper so that the new company can take shape & I can spend more time there, in a commercial as well as a charitable sense.

Fingers crossed!

Anyone got a seat please?

A serious request. I'm hoping to be in Yamoussoukro in two weeks to attend the anniversary of the 'Yamoussoukro Decision' - liberalization of airspace in Africa.

Added to which there is a 'gender' theme to the conference, I got a call about this from Dakar a few days ago to give my version of what the issue actually entails for the conference.

I can't say right now but there are a number of high level African women going to the conference. As a member of WAFRIC (wafric.org); myself & the President, a Kenyan, currently living in Europe are determined to go & make ourselves known. To stand up for women across Africa wanting to move into a 'mans world' - a world of aviation.

There are currently an estimated 6% of airline pilots of the 'fairer sex'. This figure diminishes when you look at the statistics in relation to air traffic controllers, technicians etc. A few weeks ago I was in Addis Ababa presenting at AFCAC's Brain Drain Conference. I brought up the subject of Eddy, an 8yr old in the centre in Cote d'Ivoire. He wants to be my pilot in the future, how can he be if he & the many others don't have the opportunity to get a scholarship. He doesn't have parents to fund his pilot training.

If anyone in aviation is reading this in the very near future. There are two women committed to getting more women and youngsters into aviation in Africa. Please help us out, we need to be in Abidjan by 24th October! Thanks!

From West to East

Africa that is ...

I've just got back from a business trip to Ethiopia. It was short, too short; I barely saw the capital Addis Ababa.

It's been 6 years since I was last in East Africa. It was strange to be back, it made me realise why I love West Africa, having loved the east for so long, exploring the west over the last couple of years I feel more 'at home' there now.

The Ethiopians are lovely, very quiet, very happy but sooo quiet. I kept looking for 'noise' and got fumes instead with the endless Lada taxis on the streets. Only one taxi driver had a radio, a flash one that he told me that a client from US bought him. He loved his radio and played it for the whole journey back to the hotel.

Maybe they're quiet due to the amount of khat they all chew. The amount of bodies, lying all over the place, on roundabouts, along walls, on the edge of streets was incredible; all under the influence of khat. It's in such high demand in the Horn of Africa & Ethiopia is a massive exporter. Apparently there's a weekly flight to Djibouti which is always on time & full of khat for the population. The last taxi I got to the airport from a great little restaurant 'Asqual', my driver was high on something, I presume khat; I was happy that it was only a kilometre away.

So this quietness had me flummoxed, I kept expecting to hear some zouglou screaming out of a maquis somewhere. Especially as one of the girls working in the hotel I stayed in for the first night had 'Abidjan Farot' as her ringtone which she was surprised came from W.Africa until I explained it to her over my breakfast!

No music, no crazy streets of taxis ... just people going about their daily life with the effects of khat very evident.

I'd love to go back one day. It looks to be a beautiful country but I think I've been converted to the West African way of life ...

BBC3 Kids with Machetes

I was thrilled to learn that the BBC were doing a documentary about the Cote d'Ivoire.

Watching the first episode last night, I winced, I tried to block out the narration, I tried to pretend that in fact I was watching a children's TV show, all this at 9pm UK time.

If the BBC insist on calling country 'Ivory Coast' that's fine, but please, realise there's an article before it, 'the Ivory Coast'. The presenter herself (who got sick with malaria - did she take any prolaxysis?) was unbelievably naive with a dreadful grasp of the English language. Speaking to locals using very familiar English language made it all the more painful to watch.

The story was about kids in the cocoa plantations near San Pedro working with machetes. It could have been brilliantly portrayed especially at that time of night. Instead we were subjected to watch a program fit for 10 year olds who love Blue Peter, it didn't get to the root of the problem in any way, shape or form.

BBC, please don't disappoint in future. I would be embarrassed to show this to my friends in the Cote d'Ivoire! It's a shame the BBC crew over there weren't able to control some of the content. I feel it would have been far better if they had been able to as they understand the situation.

End of rant ...

An update ...

Things have moved on ...

First of all, TAP haven't sorted out my claim yet ... but I won't rant on this time! Just remember that when you're next booking your flight somewhere!

The children all had excellent results at the end of the summer term. They're all healthy & happy. I owe an enormous thank you to N.Tse an old friend from Hong Kong who generously sent them a large sum of money which managed to pay the water bill amongst other necessities. I am currently awaiting an e-mail for confirmation of a donated 9-seater minibus, fingers crossed it happens; I will be driving it down later this year loaded with other donations given to me. I had a shock the other day returning home. Found a note with 40euros inside, for the children, spend it wisely! So kind!

In Ayame, my friends have had a third daughter and named her after me! They're waiting for me to return for her christening and she becomes my fifth godchild! In Abengourou, Leopold who desperately needed a job, seems to have secured a role with my European friend's company which I'm thrilled about! In Jacqueville, 'la blanche' has found the man of her dreams & is moving to be near Bassam, which will make it easy to visit her! I'm very happy for her! During the summer I met an Ivorian guy in a restaurant in Montpellier; he works for Studio 225 and gave me a lot of Gohou DVDs to see what I think. He's also agreed to arranged for some of the children to visit the studios in Abidjan; amazing what can be achieved from afar.

I, meantime, await my return ... sooner rather than later I hope; just depends on work!