It's been a week since the parliamentary elections. Quiet and unproblematic, unlike last year's presidential ones. The turn out says a lot: less than 40% versus over 80% last year. Naming, shaming and corruption allegations have already started, L'intelligent d'Abidjan paper says. But the people I've asked about the elections are simply happy it's quiet now and looking forward to some more of peaceful times.
I've never seen so many machine guns in a day. Every now and then you see a passing pick up with young soldiers. Or a havily armed group of bank guardians. Or local gendarmes. All of them have long, heavy machine guns (or maybe just ordinary machine guns, that just look more serious when in a mass). The military pick ups even have large machine guns fixed on the roof. But as one of the taxi driver said, the guns are scary, but if your documents are ok and you’re causing no trouble, there will be no problem. Not entirely reassured.
The presence of UN jeeps is not much reassuring either. You can see them mostly in front of restaurants, churches and – in large numbers – in Grand Bassam, the local seaside getaway place. Some of them seem to be project workers off duty indeed, but quite a few of these jeeps are driven by soldiers in full uniforms. I've talked to a group that was waiting for their colleague who was attending a marriage ceremony in the cathedral in Abidjan. Richard from Niger and two other: from Benin and Togo. Happy for quiet elections time.
My favourite moment. See the contintent in the horizon :) But I guess it was more romantic after weeks of sailing that after an hour or so of flight ;)
A lovely Saturday night with (from the left):- Emillio, French teacher at a local highschool
- Serge, growing amandier tropical. Not really a big business here, but after the tsunami washed away all the amandier plantations in Indonesia, some people try to grow it here now. Used for cosmetics etc.
- Antonio (taking the photo), researcher at the local museum of costume
- Ange, communications person and guide at the local museum. We started chatting after my quick visit there (the view from the former governor's palace is more interesting than the exhibition inside, although they have some interesting photos...). We've ended up going for a coffee later, then beer with his friends in the evening and some more beer and fish soup after. A brillant guy. I could basically let him write the book.
- Peter, cocoa farmer (sic!). Gave me a good grounding for the reseach, plus invitation to his village in central RCI!!
- a guy who came later and never introduced himself or said a word ;)
A really cool bunch. Reminds me a lot of the Warsaw pack of ziomy :)
The Pyramide. One of many impressive architectonic features of Abidjan. Run down as most of them. Still, in its best times, the skyline of the Platau in Abidjan could easily outcool Warsaw.
My new, lovely pagne. Interstingly enough, apparently a counterfeit of a good Beninian brand ;) Plus my tired feet, getting some rest on the beach, after the whole day of walking....
Nestle RCI headquarters on the right. To be examined ;)
I've already seen some 5 marriages.... This time, photos at the steps of the museum of costume, the old governor's palace. Lovely indeed.
Lagune around Grand Bassam. Beautiful.
Jesus, a giant bell and a container (a transport of christmas wafer? ;)) In front of the impressive Cathedral in Abidjan.
Hotel de France and a little quiosque front - had my breakfast ther the next day with discussions over a bowl of hypersweet coffee. Claude, who works at port (loading, among others, 50 kg bags of cocoa), his friend who came for a seminar on ethics in public service (yes!) and a local artist. Good times.
Just one of many amazing, old buildings in Grand Bassam. On the list of the UNESCO World Heritage.
The lagune of Abidjan. Far away, on the right you can get a glimpse of the skyline.
A fellow visitor said there's 50 000 people coming down from Abidjan to Grand Bassam every weekend. It definitely didn't seem so crowded, but surely the public beach was full of people and on Sunday afternoon an almost absurd line of cars formed, full of still very pale faces ;)
Maybe it's because the air smells like in Benin, but so far RCI is an absolute coupe de coeur. And it’s another reminder that though I have never not-loved any of the travels or countries and was absolutely fascinated by Mozambique, to me West Africa is just very special: feels richer and more alive in every aspect: food, music, politics, cinema. Everything. Can I please please please just move here???
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