Who knows of a female pilot in Africa?

I do!

There are many, but as not as many as there could be.

A few years ago it was estimated that there were 6% of females in professional aviation; I believe & hope that this figure has risen over the last decade.

However many children in Africa have no idea; they look above them and believe that the 'driver' is a white male.

Slowly wafric.org is changing this concept.  Women Aviators in Africa has aviation professionals from Africa & beyond who want to make this idea a thing of the past.  In late September 2011, WAFRIC will be in Ghana, the first time to step foot in W.Africa.  Proud to be there, to manage their 3rd annual conference from afar, they will hopefully enlighten others & encourage those in aviation to open up the notions of other young ladies to join the profession.

It has to be said that www.waasps.com is doing just that, a small airfield north of Accra teaching young & predominantly female pilots to fly.  This has to be commended, a small airfield with a boss that has a passion that I thought I had, but he's overshadowed me!  Not just that, but this airfield is teaching Ghana's first disabled pilot (I really hate that word - disabled).  The lady in question has been in hospital for a few weeks now getting surgery, she can only get better I hope!

WAFRIC had another lady from Nigeria, for a few years she was disheartened.  Her father was certainly not going to allow his daughter to follow a profession that really wasn't for a lady!  Bit by bit with help from outside sources, his mind was changed & he agreed to pay for her training in South Africa.  Unfortunately she's still in Nigeria due to visa complications despite that her training was paid.  We endeavour to get her flying & eventually a commercial pilot!

There is a massive need now for 'wannabe' pilots to be trained, the flying generation is getting older on a worldwide scale.  Recruitment drives will be stronger shortly, taking newly qualified pilots on & encouraging them to obtain their ratings as the older generation retire.

WAFRIC hopes to see the un-abled-bodied-person in the skies during the conference in late September ... there is so much to do across Africa, not just for women but for the ladies that are undergoing life-changing operations!!!

Join us, or if it's not possible,we're always in need of funds to get the students to experience flight!!!

Confused ...

It's not just me; it's 'friends' on twitter too ...

Friends don't understand the French involvement in W.Africa, in the past during independance and the current situation.  Living here & travelling regulary gives me an insight into how the politics & economics of the region works.  I was personally shocked by a pre-independance map I had the privilege to see, no countries were marked, just a great expanse of French territory with Nigeria & Ghana outlined in pink.

So, France seems to be very much involved in current economic affairs in Cote d'Ivoire as well as being dual spear-heads on the assault against Ghaddafi.  Russia & China vetoed out of both UN sanctions ... Russia had already signed via Gazprom (?national energy company) with Gbagbo; did they also come to an agreement with Libya?  My head is spinning!


That's the first part of my confusion ...


The second involves a young boy aged 15 now; he's at school, 'college' in Cote d'Ivoire who came online to talk to me after knowing me for 5yrs+.  When I quizzed him about being in a cyber cafe rather than at college, he told me that his teacher died yesterday.

Later I chatted to the director of the children's centre he lives in to find that the FRCI had killed his teacher.  I am confused.  I thought Cote d'Ivoire was calm now without any problems and certainly not government forces killing people.  Maybe I don't have the whole story, but it's worrying ..

France is now firmly re-implanted in Cote d'Ivoire.  I'm sure Sarkozy would like to be elsewhere in Africa particularly W.Africa.  The French left as the English did but the difference being that they left taking a lot of infrastructure & blue prints with them upon independence.  It's left W.Africa needy for French assistance.  This might explain why there is an influx of W.African French in France as a tweeter reminded me.  The fact that the infrastructure was torn out didn't leave much for those who wanted to re-build the country.

I hope that the same will not be said in the near future in Cote d'Ivoire if it all goes wrong; however the First Lady is French ... time will tell.  Having spoken to French special forces posted there during the crisis, I do wonder!

Yako mes amis

L'avenir or the future

Gbagbo was caught, IB was shot and this week Ble Goude is coming out of his shadows - could make for a great movie ...

Personally, I'm concerned, I will admit to being a French resident but am worried about the future French involvement.  I can see Cote d'Ivoire being a semi-colony of France which wasn't the objective during independence.  Last weekend I was talking to a French soldier who was in Bouake from December until April, with a few others ready to make a strike, they left before Gbagbo was captured or the strikes were made across Abidjan.

French Special Forces aren't to be messed with, this one left with his colleagues before it all got nasty.  We were in touch whilst I was there, hence I knew movements & my personal safety whilst I was in situ.  The messages I got whilst on the ground were difficult to deal with; I couldn't disclose the situation earlier due to the situation of their mission.  I felt sometimes like I was on a knife edge knowing too much possibly, but wanting the best.

I was there when things weren't that bad when you compare with what happened in March & April.  Predominantly I was there for C.R.E.E.R, to have a meeting with the Mayor which took a month to arrange, at the same time I needed to go to Burkina Faso for work.  I never got there, I'm now in a difficult situation; C.R.E.E.R isn't as it should be especially for our partners in Canada & I'm without work - which in France without a salaried position isn't funny.  It means that I must continue to search for work, I don't get any social help & am close to shutting down my business ..

So where to go from here?  I don't know .. we're now submitting papers without any assistance & hoping for the best; I believe it will work out, C.R.E.E.R will be an entity shortly in Cote d'Ivoire:   We have to be soon, I'm right behind that but any assistance is a bonus!

C.R.E.E.R needs setting up soon, our future director saw kids of 10 or 11 on the streets armed with guns.  The Mayor said that he needs time to get his political career sorted; it's now 10 months since our first meeting with him (prior to the crisis) to get this going.  I realise & know that this is not a political issue but surely the future of Ivoirian children are an issue???

Someone prove me wrong please!

Yako mes amis; surtout a Yop et a ailleurs!!!

Is this the start???

Of something new?

A new government without enemies?

A new country heading to re-grow it's economy?

A different life for the children?

I don't know.

But it feels like Ivoirians are 'free', I wish that it's all true, but it's early days yet

With the death of 'IB' yesterday, maybe this growth will happen, the children will see some sort of stability, maybe we can get C.R.E.E.R fundraising motoring - who knows?!

Sisters, brothers, YAKO - we're not the same but we have to unite in this new world that is Cote d'Ivoire; I'm not Ivoirian but to see the country stabilize & grow would make me very proud!

Tomorrow is 'the royal wedding' which makes me mad that the world press will be there but yet so few made it to report on the conflict with the exception of AlJazeera & BBC ... all those that did make it to Cote d'Ivoire during the conflict should be proud to have shown the reality.

I heard today that the genocide was very real, people found cast in concrete whilst they were alive ... it's all shocking but I hope that they will live very long lives to pay for this!

A final word in French from an Ivoirian friend involved in C.R.E.E.R

Ouf enfin la guerre est finie en CI, et le travail pour la cohésion sociale est aussi en train de se faire. La paix est de retour en côte d'ivoire , on peut l'affirmer sans faux fuyant . D'ici quelques temps on ne parlera plus de conflit , le pays pourra donc se lancer dans sa phase de développement économique. Mais les nombreuses victimes de ces conflits ont été les enfants qui n'ont pratiquement plus de repères parce qu'ils ont plus de parents et sont donc exposés à tous les vices de la vie . C.R.E.E.R veut offrir à ces enfants un nouvel espoir à un avenir meilleur en leur apprenant un métier à partir d'une formation et aussi assurer la prise en charge psycho-éducative de ces enfants . 

Yako mes amis!

Nearing normality ...?

Unfortunately there still seems to be a lot of chaos in Cote d'Ivoire.

Children returned to school yesterday, many still confused, lost & upset by the situation. Banks are due to open today; which might give many adults the impetus to re-start their lives. Fuel is slowly being distributed around Abidjan; hopefully deliveries will go further afield soon.

However, 'IB' the head of the 'Invisible Commandos' was killed in the Abobo district of Abidjan today. 'IB' - Ibrahim Coulibaly was the head of the small guerilla group that assisted Ouattara's forces to oust Gbagbo's patriots. However it seems that IB was on his own mission, continuing to fight with his militia. He was given the chance to turn in weapons to Ouattara's government or have them taken by force; along with 6 of his men and 2 FRCI soldiers, he was killed in battle yesterday.

A fellow Tweeter @senambeheton explains IB's political background & recent politics: http://senambeheton.posterous.com/in-new-ivory-coast-old-rivalries-threaten-ret

However, seeing AlJazeera shots of disturbed schoolchildren yesterday in a relatively 'quiet' area of Abidjan. I can't imagine what the children of Abobo are thinking. The trauma that they have gone through during this conflict is beyond anyone's imagination having been living through this nightmare in one of the hardest hit districts.

Yet, somewhere out there are the children that have really suffered; the children that have been living on the streets. What must have they seen? witnessed? succumbed to? How many were coerced into carrying weapons?

Time will tell if this latest drama of the crisis is finally the end of a long five months ...

Eggs ...

Having been in the UK last week, I was shocked to see the price of Easter eggs, mounted high, on supermarket aisle corners with flashy signs all over.

Looking for a present for an ex-student who was looking after my car, I was tempted to buy a 'Cadburys Creme Egg' Easter egg, together with it's own china mug. Priced at £3.00 it was set to sell.

I couldn't face it. The packaging and mug alone were worth more than the cost of the chocolate; where did the chocolate come from? Examining the box, together with it's small package of 'Mini Creme Eggs' I couldn't find an origin of the cocoa. The thought of it was too much, trying to find the 40,000€ for the materials to build C.R.E.E.R in Cote d'Ivoire, even £3 seemed too much without a hint as to the origin of the chocolate!

That's it; 40,000€ - considering it will house 30 children for many years in a centre destined for trafficked children it's a ridiculously small sum. Our vision of creating a centre on 5ha of land, enough to farm & be semi-self-sufficient. Paltry in comparison to many centres I know of who have spent thousands on their buildings in rent.

My ex-student ended up with some magazines on aviation; he's thrilled. I'm happy too reflecting on what I'm trying to achieve & what I could have bought; the cost it would be for some child possibly working in the cocoa farms of Cote d'Ivoire somewhere ...

Re - building, heal, stablise, unification ... ???

I heard a comment earlier on Al Jazeera talking about the Tamil war in Sri Lanka which went along the lines of 'without reunification there's no healing process, without a healing process, there's no economy for the country'

The same could be said of Cote d'Ivoire, the divide between north & south; pro-Gbagbo & pro-Ouattara. So much healing has to be done; again!

A poster for the elections that I wanted to photograph whilst there but with the political situation it would have been 'difficult' said: "I'm 8 years old, I want to grow up with peace" It's true so many children were born during the last crisis & don't really know the country at peace.

So what can be done?

A lot, I feel!

In February I was contacted by the journalist James North to assist him in the country. He did an amazing job showing the cocoa situation in Cote d'Ivoire. The multinationals of Callebaut, ADM & Cargill are happily buying up supplies but giving very little back to the farmer on the ground


http://www.thenation.com/article/159707/roots-cote-divoire-crisis

Remembering a taxi journey to Aboisso in January, two cocoa farmers were beside me in my taxi lamenting over the cost of a chocolate bar in Cote d'Ivoire & how much cocoa they need to sell to be able to buy one! Many can't afford to purchase the end product of their raw material.

Along with my own worries of how to get enough funds for C.R.E.E.R's construction, hearing that now more than ever, there are children in desperate need. These large cocoa organisations along with the Mayfair, London hedge fund company Aramjaro are more than able to fund projects in areas of Cote d'Ivoire that are in need.

Easter starts tomorrow, I for one won't be eating any chocolate unless I know where it's come from ... I would love to be able to eat Ivoirian chocolate one day knowing the source of it & the labour used; whilst knowing that C.R.E.E.R is sheltering the cocoa-farm destined trafficked kids and giving them vocational skills for an independant adult life.

Is this the beginning of the end?

I haven't been able to post for a few weeks, it's been a terrible time that might have calmed down now, but time will tell ...

The violence that has occurred in Cote d'Ivoire over the last month has been horrific; a few 'memorable' nights of shelling in Abidjan when many lives were lost.

As far as I know my friends are fine.  I had one contact me via social networking asking for assistance, a female member of the family had been shot & needed surgery.  The same friend lost two cousins, RIP to them & all the others ...

The orphanage I used to support, EMSF in Bassam were out of touch with their directors.  Luckily I got to hear of their plight, again through #civsocial on twitter, they received food from the Mayor of Bassam amongst others having not eaten for a few days.  For a NGO to leave children stranded in these circumstances is beyond belief.  Their President in France hasn't really given a straight explanation as to why this occured or why their staff haven't been paid for 18months and therefore didn't have the funds to assist.

For the moment, peace almost reigns in Cote d'Ivoire following the capture of Laurent Gbagbo & his wife Simone.  Today via journalist friends I heard of shooting of Abobo, Cocody and in Yopougon which seems to be the worst hit.  This should quieten down over the next few days, hopefully arms will be confiscated & the UN might do their job.

My worry now is the whereabouts of Ble Goude, the leader of the 'Jeune Patriots', a henchman for Gbagbo who has had UN sanction imposed against him since 2006 & unable to leave the country.  The rumour is that he has got to Ghana.  Good luck Ghana, I wouldn't like him in my country!


Focussing now on C.R.E.E.R, getting the centre built by the end of the year, the NGO is now on Twitter CREER_RCI for anyone who wants to join us online.  The need to get it up & built for the children that are now roaming the streets of Abidjan amongst other cities is URGENT!!!  I've been getting stories of more & more children who are in danger.  Many of their 'patrons' will have fled the violence leaving the trafficked kids behind, left to fend for themselves.

Anyone who can assist with funding would be very much appreciated; we've been fundraising but it's more urgent now than ever!!!

Looting in all shapes & forms

Photo courtesy of twitpic


I've been delayed in blogging  for a variety of reasons ; hoping that the end of this violence is near.

With the banks shut, ports closed & the economy at a standstill people are forced to fend for themselves. It's ended in looting ...

Melting Pot

I've mentioned before I condemn any violence.  I have friends in Cote d'Ivoire who are strong Gbagbo supporters, others who are behind Ouattara and many who were with Bedie but have gone towards Ouattara.  Never mind their political allegiances, many of them are in danger, without money & unable to escape the violence in Abidjan ... Their blood is cheap, not even the media wants to expose the situation to assist.

So I find it difficult when I'm chatting online or by phone to Cote d'Ivoire trying to assist them, when the question of politics comes up.  I had one such encounter this afternoon.  A friend was telling me that the press reviews were depressing & I agreed.  'So much of it is anti-Gbagbo and people don't know the real truth when it's Ouattara's mercenaries doing the killing' - I thought for a moment and was surprised by this comment from someone who usually sticks in the middle & wants peace for Cote d'Ivoire.


I shot back; 'well never mind the press, the videos must be true surely?'  It all went very quiet ...

My friend knew that I was referring to the horrific video with a Pro-Gbagbo military vehicle in it, where people were being thrown onto a bonfire, still alive.  I've heard of many accounts of pro-Gbagbo attacks, I am also aware that Ouattara's 'Forces Nouvelles' - renamed this week as the 'Republican Army' aren't choirboys either.  But it has to be said that the photographic & video evidence shows much more pro-Gbagbo violence.  I was shocked to hear a Gbagbo aide talk on AlJazeera about a week ago in a debate saying that the 7 women killed & video of it was a fake.  He has the full video which apparently shows these women getting up afterwards & walking away.  Well if that's true why isn't it all over the internet or on YouTube???

Show the world the truth on both sides ... but stop the violence!

This conflict is creating many problems between people, friends & even family.  Those who are 'with' one of the Presidents and those who aren't but supporting the other one.  I'm loyal to my friends & treat them all with the same respect no matter their creed, colour, religion or political views but fear that I will lose friends who cannot see both sides of the situation.  Rumours are abound, another friend told me that Ouattara had made a bad choice of bringing in 2,000 Burkinabe UN troops.  I asked around about this and it seems to be completely unfounded ...

It's gone past the 'election debate' which votes should be counted, which were fraudulent; dependant on the camp you belong to.  The problem is now the violence, escaping Abidjan and towns in the west and sheer survival.  The 'Ivoriete' problem seems to have returned with a vengence; but look at any country in the world, we're all a cosmopolitan melting pot!

Ta voiture est allemande.
Ta vodka est russe.
Ta pizza est italienne.
Ton kebab est turc.
Ta démocratie est grecque.

Ton cacao est Ivoirien. 

......Ton café est brésilien.
Tes films sont américains.
Ton thé est tamoul.
Ta chemise est indienne.
Ton essence vient Libye.
Tes appareils électroniques sont Chinois.
Tes chiffres arabes, tes lettres latines...
Et tu te plains que ton prochain est un immigrant?

 Yako mes amis!

THIS VIDEO IS GRAPHIC AS DESCRIBED IN BLOG POSTS - VIOLENCE BEING CARRIED OUT - PLEASE BE AWARE OF VIOLENT SCENES

A Week from Hell

The situation in Cote d'ivoire at the end of this week is dire.

Deteriorating conditions with Abidjan slowly becoming a ghost town in the midst of heavy artillery firing, automatic weapon gunfire and shelling with people fleeing for their lives.

The 'official' figures of this increasing terror according to Ouattara's RHDP:
Dead (832)
Injured (1808)
Disappeared (100)
Arrested (876) but I believe these figures are lower than the reality.  52 people have died in just over a week, 7 of those being women and 5 children.

What does it take to get the international community to take action to end this conflict? 
Where are ECOWAS, AU, UN, EU & other western nations?
Where is Cote d'Ivoire's No Fly Zone?

For anyone interested, the UN mission UNOCI figures:  http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unoci/facts.shtml

Refugees are fleeing east, many trying to find shelter in towns and villages in the Sud-Comoe & N'zi-Comoe regions, those that have cash continue onto Ghana, Togo & Benin.  Towns & villages are brimming with refugees, some lacking shelter to house the thousands leaving the economic capital of Abidjan.  Others are heading north to Bouake and further afield.  At the moment it seems that the UN agencies such as WFP and UNHCR have 'forgotten' this exodus, concentrating on the 100,000+ that have fled westwards to Liberia.  Where I stayed in December & January have refugees coming in taxiloads and on foot, daily ... yesterday the count was at 750+ in a town of 18,000; they told me that they need assistance ... certainly camps will need to be built & health should be high on the priority list.  I'm ready to return but need international aid to get supplies there.

The scenes from Aboisso's 'gare routier' one I know extremely well, are incredible, always the crossroads to Ghana or towns in the region it now has thousands passing through or looking for somewhere to stay, others sleeping in the open  having paid well over the usual odds to just get that far.

http://observers.france24.com/fr/content/20110324-cote-divoire-deplaces-est-pays-violences-postelectorales-gbagbo-ouattara


A friend in Kinshasa asked me about the genocide posting, how could it be genocide? 

Immigrants who once supported this economy from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Guinea have been targeted.  Victims of horrific violence, from being beaten with bricks to 'necklacing' having a tyre placed over them and then being set alight.  Certain districts of Abidjan and towns in the west are being targeted for the 'terrorists' as the immigrants are now being labelled.  Many of those areas have Ivoirians from the north.  However this is not a religious war, I know many Ouattara supporters, who are Christian as well as Muslim, I also know of Muslims who are pro-Gbagbo ... a reader of an article 'Joelle' makes the same comment: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/9d5djm.  BBC's Mark Doyle who reported from Rwanda during the early days of the genocide there was shocked by the scenes & what he saw, tweeting that this reminded him of Rwanda ... #doylebytes on twitter

Monday saw the recruitment of youngsters by Ble Goude, Gbagbo's 'Youth Minister' with the promise of cash in their pockets, they filed into a stadium to chant “We will kill them now” and “The rebels will die”, with a reply of “Do you want a Kalashnikov?”- These youngsters are being offered the chance of an early death, it seems to be a mass suicide is going to take place with little training or knowledge of what they are undertaking.

It seems that international support for Gbagbo is waining, Angola's Dos Santos has seemingly refused to give more cash to keep the coffers full, to pay his military, civil servants and other supporters.  I heard that the youngsters who were joining his forces on Monday were being asked for 25,000CFA to enrol, more funds to try to meet his end of month payments to keep the support growing.


I remember in September/October buying 'Jeune Afrique' a French African magazine similar to the 'Economist' .. the cover was a photo of Gbagbo with the headlines 'J'y suis, J'y reste'.  I was on skype to my journalist friend 'ourmaninafrica' who was on a story in Korhogo in the north of Cote d'Ivoire at the time.  I asked him if he had seen this edition, I had read the several pages it extended to and felt that if Gbagbo didn't win (having not held elections for 5 years) then the future would be difficult and possibly return to further violence.  At that stage I was hoping he would win, but fairly & squarely and not going to this level of violence to make his point.

In my car I have a CD I bought in Aboisso just prior to leaving in January 'Y'a Rien en Face' a pro-Gbagbo mix of zouglou.  It often brings me near to tears, hearing the lyrics and remembering the fervent love of some of the tracks by many Ivoirians.  The lyrics themselves spell it all out, even before the elections took place that this would be the future if Gbagbo wasn't in power. 


At the end of this week there's NO:

Radio RFI BBC,
TV France24 & TV5
SMS/Text messages
The Press are being attacked
Electricity in the north of the country



Yako mes amis ...

Genocide In The Forgotten Paradise

Many people wouldn't know where Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is on a map of Africa; it's a little paradise that has turned into a war zone.  A place full of hospitable people, sandy beaches, great food with mercenaries, kalashikovs & some dangerous politicians determined to wipe out half the population.

Last night was terrible.  The constant fighting in Abidjan I was hearing about on Twitter and friends telling me of their plans or their situation.  I don't care who is in power, the violence needs to be stopped by a responsible force before the whole region is inflicted by the Double Presidential Virus.

In the space of 2-3hours I was at my wits end trying to find a way to assist friends, friends of friends, orphanages & towns in the south east of the country ... I'm still fighting what looks to be a losing battle.  The aid is going west, to Liberia & the displaced refugees there.  They need it, I don't doubt that.

The world has forgotten Cote d'Ivoire.  It's just 'another conflict', the BBC & AlJazeera are trying to do their best with reports but CNN etc don't seem to care despite Anderson Cooper initially offering media support.  Libya is more important due to oil, Japan has had a terrible time of it & the states in the Middle East are all trying to mount their own revolutions - strangely it's also all oil related ... What does Cote d'Ivoire have to do to get centre stage in the media?  The fact that chocolate prices will rise which was the only selfish theme keeping the country in the news has been forgotten.

So genocide doesn't count?  It will be another Rwanda that when all these other world news items fade out, the world will pick up on & then feel sorry.  It'll be too late, just like Rwanda!  The UN are there, but behave like camera touting tourists, there to protect the population but in fact just counting the bodies that lie dead in the streets of Abidjan.

What can you do?  Anyone reading this with ideas, please put them forward in the 'comments' below ... I am ready to return with a NGO if I can find one who will let me assist in the situation but need help particularly in assisting the SE of the country.

Shelter - refugee camps for internally displaced in this area, a town mayor has told me of 420+ refugees in his town, more to count & more arriving daily.  They don't have room for these families, they need temporary shelter and will need medicines etc if these numbers continue to grow as the risk of disease will be high.  Childrens orphanages; children who need food & will probably need to move out to the countryside from the densely populated areas if this continues

Does anyone care?  Or will everyone wake up when the genocide has taken place???

Yako mes amis ...

Disclaimer & Understanding

If you scroll down this page to 17th December 2010 and work upwards you will see my account of Cote d'Ivoire post-election.  It's taken me a while to post this as I am worried about the current conflict.

I've kept people's names anonymous whilst the crisis is still going on, the place I spent most of my time in also remains anonymous; these views are my own with the facts as I found & heard them.

The people of a town & certain friends I can never repay for what they did for me, how they helped me ...

Please hope & pray for the future of Cote d'Ivoire that the conflict ends soon ...

On my way out ...

My hosts nephew got a very deep cut to his foot whilst I was at the coast, aged 10, he's pretty robust but it worried me more & more.  I kept cleaning it but it was deep & needed stitching, eventually I persuaded him to talk to his aunt & uncle to get him to the hospital.  One of the barmen from the maquis came off his motorbike, yet again the medical bag came out.  My friend from Abengourou I'd not seen for 2 years turned up having heard I was there, his wife & family were still at home.  However, he introduced me to a gendarme who also approached me to ask what I could do for him & his cut leg.  My host's maquis became a little clinic for cuts & wounds!!!

Eventually I got a meeting with the Mayor and the project was agreed; I was thrilled, made up for the stress of the last few weeks, waiting & waiting.  The following day I had to leave, time was getting tight, I had a lot to do before leaving Cote d'Ivoire.  But we walked about 4km one way to see the land, which was wonderful.  Some guy who runs a small stall was stunned to see me racing in & grabbing as many plastic sachets of water I could get my hands on for the three of us that had walked there.  We were all very thirsty, hot, dusty & tired!!!

I finally left.  It was horrible leaving, the nephew had tears streaming down his face asking why I had to go .. the girls were the same.  I couldn't say goodbye to my host's wife properly, I was in full flow, crying ... we returned to the maquis to say goodbye to a few others, I selfishly couldn't face saying goodbye to everyone.  A taxi pulled up who'd kept a spare seat for me and asked if I had to go ... Really really difficult time, I didn't want to go, but one of those things, I had to ...

I went as far as Aboisso the first night.  I stayed with my friend from Abengourou who also has a girlfriend in Aboisso ... had a lovely meal together & fell to bed exhausted from the day.  I rose at 5.30am to get the early bus to Abidjan in intrepidation as to whether I was taking on too big a risk.  E was ready to meet me in Abidjan and we had a meeting for C.R.E.E.R in Marcory with a friend of Alpha Blondy's.  Getting off the bus was fine, it all seemed normal, then I started seeing vehicles with guns, a lot more than I'd seen previously; two UN gun-mounted vehicles went haring past me at some lights.  I was glad when I got to the meeting & we were in relative safety inside.  The meeting went well and E & I made our way to Koumassi Remblais, a district of Abidjan that's seen more violence than many this side of the lagoon.  I got to see Marcelline, the reason I'm setting up C.R.E.E.R, she was amazed that I'd made it to see her.  Told me about the 'bad' days when there was fighting outside the gates, tyres & wood being burnt, helicopters circling overhead.  It was wonderful to see she was alright despite all the violence she's witnessed.

We left & headed back to the road out of Abidjan, I was lucky to have E with me, as usual people looked at me strangely being white in CI & on the street, not in a vehicle like the expats.  We both felt some of it was hostile but nothing happened & we managed to get transport quickly out of town again.

I eventually got back to Aboisso after a bit of a scare on the road.  In the middle of a rubber plantation where the road goes through there was a truck on the side of the road.  The driver had seen it, we'd all seen it, just as we approached it at speed we heard a whistle & 5 men in fatigues racing out of the rubber plantation.  It was the military; by the time the driver braked we were 300m down the road.  He got out of the vehicle with his papers in hand, it was the first time I'd seen a whole taxi load of people very, very frightened .. which rubbed off on me a little wondering why they'd almost ambushed us.  The driver came back a bit puzzled as to why they'd stopped us like that, we continued in silence. 

Arriving in Aboissso where my luggage was waiting for me at my friend's maquis, I was offered a quick drink to say goodbye; little did I realise that she'd called my friends who'd driven down to say goodbye again!  I got a minibus finally to Noe & the border to get to Ghana.  Difficult journey, I was torn, didn't want to leave, wanted to help & stay in the country, so much needs doing, so much help ... yet again I had tears in my eyes as I walked through immigration ...

2011 - Year of Peace?

All as normal here, although there have been some changes which are a little worrying.

New Years Eve was a normal day till I got a call late in the afternoon, my second death threat but I wasn’t too worried.  The caller was convinced that I was in my Czech friend Tomas’ house in Abidjan like last year.  I’m still trying to work out who has given my number to someone and doesnt know I’m not in Abidjan.  My close friends in CI know exactly where I am, but quite a few people I know I’ve told I’m in Aboisso, the nearest large town.  I’m fine for the moment, but keeping my ear to the ground, there are informants all over including here, kidnappings & deaths that aren’t yet reported.  Friends here have been great but warned me to continue to keep a low profile.  It makes it difficult, I’m’grounded’ and incredibly bored still waiting for the Mayor to give me the green light for the project.

New Year’s started at the Mayor’s house, a big reception, meal & a bit of dancing then his daughter who has become a good friend gave a ‘post-election’ speech.  His chauffeur drove me down to my host’s nightclub the other side of town.  We all had a good night, I now have a reputation for falling asleep there … I fell asleep at 4am, at 5am I was woken to be taken home. 

To my horror, a friend had gone home in his Toyota estate that I drive around, there was no transport except the back of someone else’s motorbike with my host driving it.  I’m paranoid about accidents now, my insurance is completely invalid due to the state of the country … everyone has left, even the Nigerian’s have gone, the Burkinabe’s are evacuating their Embassy this weekend.  I sat on the back of the bike for the 5km, yelling occasionally to go slowly before I arrived home.  It’s now a big joke that I won’t go near a motorbike!!!

I waited patiently for a meeting with the Mayor, then he left early on Monday for Abidjan as the Education Minister suddenly decided that school started on Monday rather than on Thursday.  I was devastated  it meant staying on, I had so many other things that needed doing.  I got a call from friends on the coast demanding to know when I was going to see them. 

Tuesday morning I got a 7 seater (takes 8 passagers) taxi to Aboisso where Attito (my cerebral palsy ‘brother’) managed to find me having gone to see his parents but had no idea I was heading away. I then got 3 other taxis down to beach.  Friends who have 2 hôtels there gave me a room for free, no clients around, even New Years they finished before midnight.  Everyone is fed up with the lack of economic activity, it’s so sad to see friends really suffering due to the chaos that’s going on with the Presidency.

I promised my hosts that I’d return for Thursday night when the Mayor was expected back.  Leaving the coast was a problem, absolutely no transport around.  I was also waiting for Paul, a Ghanaian fisherman who had promised some fresh ‘bar’ that I could take back with me.  Paul finally turned up at 1pm, I’d seen 2 vehicles since 8am and knew that I probably wouldn’t see anymore.  I walked with my pack and a plastic bag of 5kg of fish that I hoped wouldn’t go off during the trip; it was 3km back up to the canal area to find a taxi, in the heat & dust it was tortuous! 

The taxi from Samo to Aboisso I had to make it very clear that I’m not French, that led to a lady asking me to stop before Aboisso to eat at her house, I had to decline, but normally I would have followed her … she was really keen that I stopped at her village & I don’t believe there was any malice about it.  I made it back to Aboisso & went straight to maquis whose owner has become a good friend.  Chatted to her for a bit with a few drinks before heading back up to base, a bad move, I’d not eaten all day; I was offered another drink here before heading to the house where I crashed out immédiately !!!!!!!

The Mayor is now back, I was promised a meeting at 8am this morning,  yet again he cancelled at the last minute … I think due to stress that I found myself sleepwalking last night trying to get out of my bedroom … convinced that there was a light the other side of the door; it woke my hosts up - finally I came to & managed to open the door.  I’ve never knowingly sleptwalked before and it’s really shocked me.

Amnesty Int’l are in constant touch with me, I’ve had quite a few mails and am awaiting a call, the atrocities that are going on here are terrible.  A friend was talking to me last night about it all and that it’s getting worse not better.  I was offered an armed escort to Abidjan at the weekend by a few friendly gendarmes in a private car. I’m desperate to see Marcelline, the girl that was found on the beach 2yrs ago, a trafficking victim.  She’s in a centre in Koumassi the airport side of Abidjan's lagoon.  The other girls have left & she’s there alone, I can’t make contact with her by phone, I can’t get her out as she dosent have any papers so was looking for a safe way to get there.  I was offered the escort but it didn’t work out in the end as I wasn't keen going to Abidjan in an armed vehicle - gendarmes with kalashikovs.  I’m still keen to get into Abidjan to see her & am looking for an alternative way.  Most of the gendarmes & the military aren’t happy with the situation 63% voted for Ouattara but it’s the generals that are holding the keys to removing Gbagbo.

I don't care who voted for what, I just want the violence to stop ...

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 ...