Where does the time go!

I don’t know if I’ve updated you since I started school but I am working 20 hours a week at school; 18 of which are math and 2 of which are for English.  Quite a few of my friends have left the village due to high school and university starting.  Boubacar, the principal’s son, left which was quite sad for me because I really enjoyed his company as well as our French and English exchange lessons.  He’s called me since he left to tell me his English teacher is impressed with his level in English and often times says the phrases Boubacar uses are words he doesn’t even know.  Also many of my students that left I have stayed in touch with, every so often they call me or vise versa to check in on each other.  I really miss them.

I especially had a really tough day at school with my tenth graders the other day.  I gave back their exams, which they as a whole had not done well on, and they were angry.  I couldn’t get them to settle down, they were disrespectful, so I finally said I was done and walked out of the classroom.  I went to see the principal and did everything in my power not to cry in front of him or my students.  I told him what happened and how the students applauded when I left the classroom.  He was mortified.  There was only one student left waiting who also reinforced my story. 

I walked home crying the whole way and thought about how appetizing a flight to the US seemed at that very moment.  After cooling down, I had two English lessons that night; I was not in the mood after the days activities, but I pulled myself together.  After the lessons I broke down and told the boys what happened, and told them it was days like this that makes me question why I am here.  I told him that it was so hard because I didn’t have my family or friends here to talk to and that if the kids didn’t want to learn, why was I here?  And also what I could be doing if I was back in the states.  Mamoudou looked at me and said, “I thought we are your friends?  When you have a problem you talk to your friends and together we can figure out a solution.”  I felt so terrible and selfish because even though I have family and friends in the states, I also have family and friends here. 

The next day at school was interesting to say in the least.  The principal and all the other teachers and myself went into the tenth grade class and the principal made all the students apologize one by one.  I was probably just as mortified as my students.  But ever since then, they have been amazing.  I also found out later that the principal had made an announcement to the whole school that I was going home if they didn’t behave better and that some of my seventh grade students had started to cry.

On another note, thankfully this year I have two volunteers close to me, one only 15 kilometers away and the other 35 k.  So we have been biking back and forth.  But my guy friends here in my village also have friends in the other volunteers’ villages, so we’ve been riding together.  It’s been quite fun, we are like a pack of bikers Guinean and American, buts its hysterical because we race, (or maybe its just my competitive nature) but we start off so fast that halfway through we are all so tried we can hardly make it to our destination. 

The Fete de Tabaskii            (Fete = Party) In French

The day before the party, I had just finished teaching and was sitting with some friends in the center of the village when the principal came by and said that Ne Ne Kudy was here.  (That was the woman I spent all summer with)  So I raced to his house to see her, but she was out.  The principal gave me a package he said was from Boubacar.  I opened it up and there was the nicest note I had ever received, pretty much him telling me how he had been so discouraged after not passing his Bac, the entrance exam to University, but after working with me this summer and improving his English he felt like he had a new motivation to succeed and decided he was going to do it this year.  He also sent me a pair of sandals for the party, cheese, food, drinks it was so thoughtful.  After I found Ne Ne Kudy, the principals two sons, and the wife of one of his sons was there.  We partied the next day for the fete.  I got up early with them and helped them cook, watched them slit the throat of the goat, then danced.  So much fun, then that night I had three girl friends coming to visit me and stay the night, so the boys I do English with had decided that we would have our own party.  So myself, and two of the boys cooked up a big meal for 10 of us, then we celebrated into the night together.

The next week a German NGO that had built a library in the village was going to be inaugurated on Monday, which meant no school.  The village had a big ceremony, which included the governor, the Germans, the German Ambassador and everyone from the surrounding villages.  The library was beautiful but has since remained closed.  I am trying to find out who has the key so that I can open it in the afternoons after school.

 

Ne Ne Kudy stayed for a few days after the fete and explicitly stated that I was required to hang out with her, so Sunday through Wednesday, I taught at school but then pretty much lived at the principals house.  We talked into the night just us girls, my mom here in Guniea, ne ne Kudy, and the wife of the principal’s son.  I was pretty tuckered the rest of the week, but had promised another volunteer that we would bike to the regional capital together.  So right after school on Thursday, in the prime hours of heat, I biked an hour to her site, than we continued on to the regional capital.  It took us 4 and ½ hours, but we made it and were able to hang out with the other volunteers there and celebrated Halloween.  Thankfully on Sunday we were able to catch a ride home back to site, but once again I was tired for the start of my week of school.

School that week went well; I started 2 English classes that thankfully have filled every seat in the classroom.  The kids love it.  I’ve still been doing afternoon/evening classes with the boys, but had agreed to go with them to find a famous tree in a tiny village a ways from us.  So on Friday afternoon all four of us took off and made it to the bridge the Chinese are in the process of building, had to leave our bikes, and be pulled across the river on a raft.  After we continued on 5k by foot to find this tree, but the whole time the boys were arguing about the route to take, which path it was, which doesn’t help that there’s about a million.  It reminded me of traveling with my parents when my mom is navigating and my dads driving and we go over the highway rather than finding an on ramp.  Just kidding I love you both! 

Pulling ourselves across on a raft

The famous tree

The boys and I infront of the tree

The Bridge being built. Mamoudou and Yaya

 

Anyways, we finally found the tree, met with the Imam of the village, the boys prayed and then we took a bunch of pictures.  It was getting late, so we started heading back only to find that there was a massive truck coming, so we ran 2 k to the bridge trying to beat the truck.  After we met all the Chinese workers, then crossed the rushing river on a wooden made ladder.  There where we had left our bikes, we took off as the sun was setting, the boys make fun on me because almost every night after out English lesson when the sun is setting, I look out and tell them how beautiful it is.  They laugh and say when you’ve seen that everyday growing up, it’s just not that amazing.  But to me, its one part of the day that I cherish because I know my mom is looking the other way seeing the same thing.!

On Monday, I gave my first health class with Momoudou and Yaya the boys I teach English to.  The topic was AIDS/HIV.  We went though what the disease was, how you can get the disease, prevention, etc and at the end I gave a demonstration on how to put a condom on a banana.  I don’t think I have ever heard my classe so quite.  Truly I was so impressed with my 9^th and 10^th graders because they were so mature, all 80 of them.

At the end of the week my host brother I lived with in Dubreka for the first 3 months I was in Guinea, came to visit.  He arrived on Friday at 11pm and ended staying till Wednesday.  It was so much fun and so nice to have someone to stay up with and talk to.  On Saturday he went to the market with me, and everyone was asking me if he was my husband, which I explained over and over again that no he was not, that he was my brother.  They looked at our skin and then looked confused.  I cooked for him on the weekends and after school during the week.  I could tell he thought I didn’t know how to cook because he kept looking over and monitoring me cooking, so finally I told him that if he looked over one more time he would regret it.  He laughed and when we ate it together later he was truly surprised, and apologized for doubting me. 

My Host Brother

 

We explored my village; he met my friends, went to the market to watch the soccer games at night, and came to school with me.  One night though, we came home from taking a walk at dusk to find my entire pathway to my house was covered in marching ants, which are the ones that bite and make you dance if they get in your pants.  So we had to sprint down the pathway with his pants and my skirt hiked up to avoid getting the ants all over us.  My neighbors were laughing as we came sprinting up the path and me yelling.  Then another night, I was walking back to the table when I stepped on something squishy, which ended up being a scorpion.  I of course screamed and Aboubacar came over and killed it, then we both examined it.  I refused to move while he examined the rest of the house.  As much as I didn’t want him to go, it was a relief not to have to worry about what I was going to cook in between school and English lessons, or if I needed to go pull more water from the well and carry it home.  It made me realize; I don’t know how the women here do it, they are so incredible tough!  At the same point, I did come home from school and Aboubacar, my brother, had swept the house, washed the dished and cleaned my dirty sandals in an attempt to make it so I didn’t have so much work to do.  Other times he forced me to go to bed while he stayed up because he knew I had to work in the morning.  It didn’t help that he was up at 5am in the morning for Morning Prayer.  Normally I can hear the call to prayer at 5am but can go back to sleep but with him here moving around it just wasn’t the same.

Picture of the sunset from my house

 

Then after he left on Wednesday I worked until Friday and on Saturday afternoon I biked 15k to the missionaries to help prepare and cook Thanksgiving dinner.  It was delicious, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, chicken, home made gravy, biscuits, and salad.  I ate so much!  After eating, one of the teachers for the missionaries kids and I decided to go on a hike.  Maybe not the smartest idea right after eating but we hiked up this mountain not far from us.  Due to it being the end of the rainy season, everything is over grown so we were pretty much bush whacking through the woods until finally we arrived at the top of the mountain.  We watched the thunderstorms in the distance, looked at the mountain ranges and of course for me, the SKY.  Absolutely beautiful.   We hiked down in the dusk light, arrived back after dark, showered, ate apple and pumpkin pie, watched a movie and went to bed.  Quite memorable.

The other day I was in class with my tenth graders, I was in the middle of teaching when the principal came into class and told me that the brother of the student who was rude to him was at the school and would like to serve him his punishment.  I asked what that was, and the principal said that even though beating is not allowed at school the students brother would like to do that.  I walked back into the class completely disheveled, fumbling with my words, etc and all my students started asking me what was wrong.  I was unsure what to say, so I tried to keep going, but then the principal and the student and his brother were standing at the door way, so I left huffing and puffing.  Then while I was standing outside the classroom, I became angry with myself for not standing up for the student.  Then next thing I know, one of my students came up to me, I asked how many times they hit him and if he was okay, and my student said they didn’t do it because of me.  I was shocked.  My students had told the teachers that they didn’t want it to happen because I was not okay with it.  Needless to say I think the student was okay with it, but the others… not so much.  After, I was explained that African students are impolite and that it’s not like in the States where the students are respectful.  I questioned where and which state or school they were in, because I was unaware that existed.  So I explained to all… that American students are no angles, and I told a story of when I was impolite and what the punishment was.  They asked me if it worked just getting talked to.  I said yes that I also had to do community service, so I decided that instead of beating the student, he would help clean a large portion of the soccer field we were trying to get ready for the tournament I was started. 

Some of my 10th graders

My 10th graders who are just hysterical

9th Graders

10th Graders

7th Graders

8th Graders

The Finale when we were are celebrating

One of my best friends in the village

 

That afternoon, my students arrived with their machetes, and we cleared the field by hand, and I made sure to watch to make sure that student worked.  The tournament was two weeks long where I had the grades competing against one another.  I also gave a prize to the once and second place teams in an effort to eliminate fighting.  I made it clear that if anyone fights, the price is off for the whole team.  The final was between the tenth and ninth grade, which was really hard for me to support a team because both grades are my students.  The students couldn’t understand why I couldn’t pick a team, when I said I was for both teams.

Now all that rests is my Christmas trip to meet my mom in Paris were we will then be flying to South Africa for whatever adventures my mom had planned, back to Paris for 4 days and home to Guinea for the New Years.  I miss you all and hope all is well.

The Waterfront in Cape Town

Out to dinner at the Waterfront in Cape Town

Seal Island Excursion

MOM without Life Jacket on Boat Trip

Trip out to Seal Island

West Coast View

South African Wine Tasting

Malay District

Table Mountain on our way out to Robben Island

Animals - Wilderbeast?

Zebra

Ostrich

Baboon

Also, we have been approved for funding for our Women’s Magazine called, Aisha thank you to all who contributed, I will let your know when we begin the printing process!! Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Years!  Below are some pictures for the Magazine!

Primary School kids on their way to school with wood on their heads for their teachers

My students at the soccer match

Women walking to the market with their goods to sell

One on my favortire pictures.  A women walking to the
market with produce to sell

Transporting their produce to sell

 

Au Village

Things have been going well since getting back from vacation.  I have been sleeping in, cooking with my neighbors, giving English lessons, and saying goodbye to some of my students.  It’s quite bittersweet for me, its exciting to get ready to start the new school year, but sad because I most likely will not see these students again. 

One of my students who passed the brevet

My first week back at site there was a large soccer tournament put on by the students who had come home from Conakry back to the village for the summer.  After hanging out for the day, it was fun to have something to look forward to each night and watch the soccer games, but the only hard part was trying to pick the team I wanted to support because my students were scattered around all the competing teams.  At the first game that I went to I walked over with the principals son and was standing on the sidelines when one of my favorite students looked over at me a huge smile on his face and smiled.  I waved and a think my smile was probably twice the size.  Throughout the game students would come over and say hi, see how summer was going, I’d ask them where they were going to be going for school and it was so nice to feel like I was finally home. 

The Teams

Opposing Team

I must note before hand that when I arrived home from vacation my house was a disaster, bat poop EVERYWHERE and mice droppings in the strangest places.  So I finally decided in my second week home, that I would do… kill the bat and mice.  As I was relaxing reading a book, I looked over and saw the bat had inched his way down the wall, so I thought this is my chance, I Grabbed my shovel and bang… missed him, then again, bang I got him but he dropped to the floor and I wasn’t sure if he was dead so I let out a huge scream.  Like normal, my neighbors yell over to me, to see what I could possibly be screaming about, and I told them a bat, they just laugh and tell me it’s not a big deal.  After putting rubber gloves on and carrying the bat by its foot and throwing him over the fence, I walked back to my house content with my work.  Next thing I know I walk into another room in my house and I see this mother and baby mouse.  I grab my shovel again… go to kill the mouse and just get his tail, I scream.  Then he runs into my charcoal bag, so I start hitting the charcoal bag with my shovel, screaming all the while.  I heard my Neighbors yell as I pulled the charcoal bag out of my house and start searching for the mouse in the bag.  I found him finally and again wearing my rubber gloves held him by his foot and threw him over the wall.  Quite a day full of adventure.  I think for the next two weeks I would hear my neighbors telling the story of me screaming in the house.  Needless to say: mission accomplished and no more poop or noise in the middle of the night.

Oumou, my neighbor

As the tournament continued on, my neighbor, Oumou decided that we should play a soccer game, so she told me which day and said to be ready.  We headed to the field together and there was no one there.  I thought to myself great, but 30 minutes later about 6 other girls show up.  We start passing the ball, but then a few guys see we are all there getting ready to play, and next thing I know there is a REF calling us to center field to tell us this is a game for fun and he expected all of us to play fair.  I’m looking around trying not to laugh because half of us are wearing sandals, and our passes were not coming nearly close to our targets.  We begin our game and I hear « Madame, tu est fatiguée ? » (Mrs. Are you tired)  We play for 30 minutes then half-time.  We all look over to the sideline and there is a huge crowd, some of my guy students are coming over to give us pep talks and talk about strategies.  The game ended, I scored one goal, and the girl I was playing with scored 2 more.  VICTORY!  It was so much fun to play with the girls even if one of my students the whole time was yelling.. « Madame attack her » After that game, I talked with some of my students who had passed the brevet and asked if we could play one last soccer game all together; boys and girls mixed together on teams.  The boys just looked at me amused and said that boys and girls were not the same strength and that it would not work.  I smiled back and said it would.  So we decided on a night.  At 3 :00pm one of my students shows up at my house to see if I’m ready.  The game is not till 5 :00pm.  I say that I am, I get changed and we walk to the field.  At 5: 30pm my students are there, we start passing the ball and next thing I know there are captains picking teams, a Ref in place, sideline Reefs, and a crowd all standing around.  We decided on 30 minute half’s, start playing (mixed teams boys and girls playing together) we are laughing as people miss kicking the ball, people are slipping in mud because it had rained earlier, boys are trying to be nice and not take the ball from us every chance they get and trying to pretend they are not getting upset when we loose the ball.  I think 2 or 3 different times my favorite student and I collided and the crowd went hysterical laughing and giving us a hard time.  But at the end of the game, I thanked all my students and took a picture.

My favorite students!!

Later than week, my neighbors had been working in their fields a few kilometers away so I finally asked if I could go with them on Friday.  They said yes, so at 8 :00am I am ready to go and there’s no motion next door.  The call me over at 9 :00am make me eat breakfast for a second time cause I had already eaten at my house, then at 9: 30am we take off for Metta, a small tiny village.  Walking there I am in awe, its so green, beautiful trees, no people, just nature.  We get there say hi to everyone and next thing I know they are building a small tepee for me so that I don’t sit in the sun.  After telling them it’s not necessary, the corn stalks were laid up against the sticks and my stool was put inside and I was placed down and told to get to work.  We worked till 2 :00pm then went and ate lunch, where I was again forced to lay down on the mat and close my eyes.  I was not tired but if I didn’t, I didn’t know if Madame Kiadiatou would grab a stick and hit me.  Lol So after pretending to sleep for 15 minutes I got back up and said I felt much better and worked till about 5: 30pm.  We walked home, went swimming in a Small river to clean off, and then crossed a wooden tree bridge which I thought for sure I was going to miss step and fall.  Overall a fun day and nice to be put to work.

This whole week, I have been receiving large amounts of food.  I don’t know if they think I am a vacuum, but one day I received a pot of rice and sauce.  I said thank you, then an hour later another pot of rice and sauce from a different neighbor.  I thought I can’t eat all this, and then another neighbor brought a pot of rice and sauce over.  I thought what am I going to do, I can’t throw this out they will know, so I called some of my students and told them to come over.  Thankfully they were more than happy to help me, but that weekend I decided I would buy tiny pots so that the rice would be limited.  Also the principal’s son is constantly bringing me fruit or meals and making sure I am eating.  He’s so nice. 

Boubacar

That Sunday I was suppose to catch a car to heading to the regional capital, but all the cars were full because students are heading back to town to get ready for school, so it looked as though I would be staying put.  I was quite relieved.  It meant I had another week with my students, and the kids I had been teaching English to were very happy when I said English would be on for this week.  Again there was a soccer tournament that week that I went to and watched the final on Saturday.  There I had made my students small little gifts, not much, just a note telling them how proud of them I was and all their hard work, that I was going to miss them, and more importantly good luck and thanked them for their patience and gave them phone credit and said to call me throughout the year.  I told them to open it at home, but like normal I saw some of them opening it right there and they smiled.  But it was true, I really was so thankful for their patience with my French and teaching ability and truly so PROUD of them.  I hope they all become what they would like to be. 

Then at the game, one of my students asked if I would come and dance at the party that night.  I said maybe, and found of later that one of my students made Oumou my neighbor promise she would bring me.  So at 8pm I told Oumou she had to come and check my outfit. ; It passed the test.  Then at 10pm we went to her house so she could change, but on our way over I stepped in a line of marching ants, which really makes you dance.  At the corner of my fence it didn’t help that the principals daughter was hiding around the corner waiting to scare us.  So as I am dancing behind trying to follow Oumou in the dark and killing the ants biting me, the principals daughter jumps around the corner, I almost have heart failure, I now have my shirt off trying to have them kill the ants biting me, their laughing thinking this is funny… needless to say it ended with my stripping down at Oumous house trying to kill them all.  After we headed to the party, it was raining a little bit, we arrived and immediately some girl grabs my hands and tells me to start dancing.  So I do, get Oumou and Fatoumata the principal’s daughter and start dancing.  At 12pm my students start showing up, and they are just in shock that I am wearing normal clothes and dancing.  Their faces were priceless.  It was so fun to just let loose and relax.  Of course not everything could go smoothly, there was a few people who must have drank to much, because next thing I know there’s a brawl, the drunk guy has pulled the electrical cords from the sound system and he is now being whipped with them… my students are protecting me or more of less laughing watching my facial expression and asking if I’m scared.  But after he was kicked out and re-entered 4 times each time causing a brawl and pause in the music we all continued dancing.  It was so interesting to me, because there were some students whom I remember from class being super sky but here they were dancing like crazy and really well.  I don’t think I saw one person whom couldn’t dance besides me there.  Lol So much fun, I made it till about 2: 30am then realized Oumou was tired and thought it would be a good time for me to head home.

The Ants go marching 1 by 1

I continued my English lessons, 5 different kids showing up at my house, students coming to say goodbye and hanging out for the afternoon, laughing at me as I grabbed the yoga ball for a chair cause I had ran out of seats with all the people there.  They were baffled by the ball, the singing card my mom had sent me and whatever other gadgets they were able to get their hands on.  Then Wednesday I caught the Peace Corps car that was installing new volunteers (one volunteer 19k from me and another 35k) at their sites and headed to the regional capital with numerous requests from various people in the village to remember to bring them back a gift.  Life’s good!

One of my favorite students (Ibrahima)

My Family

Kadiatou

Fatoumata x 2

The Ivory Coast

I made it home safe and sound from The Ivory Coast... My odyssey started with waking up and getting to the center of my village at 7:00am, waiting for a car to fill up and by 9:00am I was so impatient I spoke with another kids my age who said we could leave right now… him, the taxi driver and myself and fill up the car on the way.  So I did that.  9am we started our venture to the capital, and at 9:15 we had broken down two villages over... once it was fixed we took off again, found more passengers therefore now 7 people shoved in a 5 person car.  We started up the mountain at 10:00am and broke down again after dragging the bottom of the car over a rock in the road.  Finally by noon we had made it to paved road and where on the right track.  At 4:30pm, we pull over on the side of the road and determine that we had room for 4 huge goats in this car.  So four goats later, shoved in the back of the hatchback car, 7 people, and baggage on top we arrive into the capital in the dark, where I am forced to find another taxi to bring me to the Peace Corps compound.  Success!

Pictures of the goats in the trunk

Our plane departed at 7:15am on the 15th of August... we woke up at 4am, got a cab to the airport and got there by 4:30am where we had to wait till boarding time.  We got on the plane, were comfortable, had a nice take off and then were brought breakfast... a croissant, small baguette, real butter and jam, a coffee and orange juice.  It was sort of like taking off and flying to heaven.  We arrived in Abidjan at 9am, and got off the plane to an amazing simple airport; clean, had a few restaurants and shops and AUTOMATIC DOORS!  We had a driver pick us up, got into a nice small compact car, all the same color, with the interior still intact, and started once you turned the key, contrary to Guinea, where you have to either push the car backwards and then put it into gear to start the car or rub the wires to start the car.  We headed out of the airport, where there were lines on the road, stop lights and signs, and cars on the road that would pass inspection.  We arrived at our house, (the sister of my friends Principal said she would house us in Abidjan) there was a massive gate where you had to ring a door bell to get in.  She had glass windows, running water, electricity, grass, and cooks.  We were asked to sit in the back yard at a table where a bell was placed...we were served a beautiful salad, rice and sauce with meat, and crepes!  We did not ring the bell, I could never do that, but it was such a drastic change I didn't know what to do with myself.  We brought our bags up stairs and all laid on one bed, until they told us we would each have our own room, with our own bathroom.  Needless to say, this woman had an amazing house, incredible chef, and an indescribable amount of generosity.  The owner of the house was flying in that night after us, and she arrived that night where we all dined together. 

The next day we explored Abidjan, where a skyline was visible, major highways ran smoothly with traffic, people were dressed in business clothing, major clothes stores were open, ATMS, a ton of restaurants, TRASH CANS, no one pointed out we were white, and people were open and social.  We went to an office of tourism, and talked with them to see where and what we should be exploring.  What we didn't know at the time was, we were the only tourists or so it felt exploring this beautiful country.  All the national parks were closed, and the west coast was off limits due to the conflicts between Liberia and The Ivory Coast.  We ate at amazing restaurants and then were asked by Fausey (the women we were staying with) if we would say until the end of Ramadan for the party.  We spent the day in between venturing about Abidjan, more like wondering to local markets with artifacts, paintings, fabrics, visiting the cathedral, and enjoying the luxuries of a functioning and motivated society.

SALAD

The Cathedral

The day of the party we woke up and asked what we could do.  We were asked to make potato salad, which we did, then helped prepare the rest of the food with some of the cooks.  It was being catered, there were tents set up in the back yard, as well as a DJ.  We cut the veggies and such then went out and socialized with the guest.  We were forced to dance and try every dish made, because even here, we were her guests and she wanted to make sure we had gotten enough to eat and were satisfied.  We had met some women our age who said they wanted to take us out in Abidjan to the clubs that night.  Of course we do not own clubbing clothes, because that does not exist in the village where I live, so they women dressed us up in jeans, leggings, and crazy 90's style stripped shirts.  We went out and enjoyed the incredible music, flashing lights, dancing and having a good time enjoying the night life Abidjan is known for.  We arrived home about 2:30am, and then woke up at 6:00am to head to the taxi stand and wait for a taxi to fill up and head to Sassandra, towards the west from Abidjan on the coast.

The taxi filled up and we were off by 10:00am.  We were pretty tired from our late night, early morning, and slight headaches, and started towards our destination.  What we did not know at the time was that there had been an attack 50k from Abidjan as well as we had seen numerous UN peace keepers dressed in uniforms.  We realized that maybe things were a little more serious than we had expected.  We were stopped 20 times because there were military check points to verify who was traveling and why along the way.  So we were asked to get out of the taxi and show our identification and explain what we were doing in the country.  We finally arrived at Sassandra, found a hotel and spent the afternoon walking about the fishing village.  Our hotel was a beautiful three story building, with and ocean view.  There was an amazing cook who made fabulous spaghetti and seafood dishes!  It’s funny because we had been checked into our hotel for maybe an hour and when we walked down the stairs there was a man waiting for us saying he was a tour guide.  So we agreed to do a tour the next day.  We headed with him out to his boat which left a beach covered in trash, and latrines lining the coast line.  We made sure not to step into the water and climbed aboard.  We ended up going into the lagoon and seeing hippos playing in the water.  They were enormous creatures who only popped their heads up and made interesting grunting noises.  We were not able to get too close because they are known to be very dangerous when they feel threatened!  After that we headed home and went to a beach, where we were the only ones.  Before in the Ivory Coast, there had been many French people who came and developed hotels or tourist friendly sites, but after the political complications many of these building were burned or destroyed.  So we would see these amazing beaches and then abandoned buildings.  A little bit of an uneasy feeling.

Look at the Waves

Our Hotel View

The next morning we woke up, went and had breakfast, and while we were eating our tour guide from the other day called and said that a commander of the military wanted to meet us.  So we are enjoying our baguette with jam and coffee when 7 military soldiers surround the gazebo we are sitting at with massive AK-47's and the commander walks down and asks if he can sit with us.  Our tour guide must have misled him because both he and us could not figure out why were meeting.  We all introduced ourselves... his name was Paul Pot.  If you’re unsure of this reference please google "Pol Pot dictator, Cambodia", not much more to explain.  So after our encounter with the military, he was annoyed that he was called to meet with us if there was nothing wrong, and we were scarred from simply being surrounding with these massive weapons.  We decided then on, we needed to be more careful.  We got dressed and went with locals to the cocoa and rubber plantations, met with the farmers who explained the whole process for exportation.  No chocolate is made in the Ivory Coast, they just do the harvesting and send the actually cocoa seed which is then pounded in Europe and sent to the various factories.

That afternoon we took a cab to an isolated beach where we happened to stumble upon a beach full of 25 to 30 white men playing in the water.  We figured we must be going crazy, so we walked over and they felt the same way.  One of the boys/men said to us, "We thought you girls were an illusion, we haven't seen white girls in forever" So we ended up hanging out with them for a while.  They were all being guarded by 3 military officers with massive AK-47s and were here as dentists and doctors from all over the world.  The officers even came over and asked, "What are you doing here?"  I explained we were on vacation, and they could not believe we came by ourselves, by taxi, they thought we were French, until we explained that no we were American, but lived in Guinea.   PS The Ivory Coast speaks French.  We returned home to the hotel that night where we prepared for our next location.

At 4:00am we woke up, had the hotel receptionist walk us to the taxi station because it was still dark out, in the middle of the town, and bought a ticket to get back to Abidjan.  We started our journey at 5am and were stopped 3 minutes later for a military checkpoint.  Of course I was sitting in the back on the taxi van, car sick, sweating, I have the plastic bag out on my lap, I’m dry heaving, and asking everyone to open the windows… haha but we were stopped 15 times on the way to Abidjan.  The first three checkpoints were a little bit scary because there are "local military men" they dress in a type of tribal fabric, with matching what looks like ski hats, and as well as huge guns.  But they just checked to see who was in the car.  We found out on the way back that there had been an attack in a town we had to pass.  As we drove by we saw the United Nations vehicles around a large area that must have been burned or destroyed.  We determined from then on out we would head east rather than west.  We then made it to Abidjan and went directly to Grand Bassam. 

African Tree

Sassandra beach

Plantation

Cocoa Plantation

Grand Bassam is known for its incredible beach, which is un-swimmable, because the current is so strong and the wave gigantic there’s no way you wouldn't get crushed.  We checked in at a hotel that had a swimming pool, alcohol, and amazing food.  I think our time there consisted of tanning, eating ice cream and exploring the local art.  We realized that everyone spoke French, including the little kids.  In Guinea, not many people can speak French; it's normally which ever local language they were taught.  But in The Ivory Coast, we saw parents speaking to their kids in French, fathers playing with their kids in the swimming pool, moms wrapping their kids in towels when they were cold and ready to get out of the pool.  It was something to bizarre to see, because once again in guinea, you don't see affection from fathers especially toward their kids or the family communicating in French.  We asked some of the locals about this, and they said the reason so many people speak French is because there are over 60 local languages therefore not everyone speaks your local language making French incredibly important to learn.  When our time was up we headed for our next destination, Aissine!

We arrived in this tiny coastal finishing village where we found a small elaborate hotel.  We met with the owner and explained that we were looking for a room, there were three people, etc.  He was an Italian man, who moved to the Ivory Coast 15 years ago before the crisis happened.  He explained before the Ivory Coast was flourishing with tourism, local and foreign.  We explained that we were Peace Corps Volunteers traveling on vacation.  He said we could have ocean view rooms, and breakfast included.  So we stayed but were running tight on cash and needed to find and ATM so we walked to the center of town, maybe two miles away.  We got to the center and found an ATM, but it was out of service.  So we sat waiting, till the Bank guard said to give him our number and he would call us when it was ready.  (If you did not gather, that means there’s electricity all the way out in this little village)  We were explained that in Abidjan everyone has to pay a tax on the electricity and the money from the tax is then used to develop electricity in rural villages each year.  Incredible!  So we made it back and at our first dinner I of course had to try something Italian. I got Spaghetti with real parmesan, the owner and another male guest came and sat with us and let us ask as many questions as we could have about The Ivory Coast and they in exchange they asked us many questions about Guinea and why it was so far behind.  We also all spilt a bottle of Champagne and were given chocolate mousse. AMAZING!  We enjoyed the beach and got along really well with the boys whom were around our age that worked at the hotel.  They asked if they could take us out that night so we said yes and headed out around 8pm with them.  We went to one club, which had lights and a dancing pole... but the best part was... the boys must have told the DJ to play something American because next thing we know we were listening to the whole CD of Celine Dion.  Haha which was nice, but the titanic song is not quite club appropriate.  Then after we went to another club, where the locals were having a dance off and we were learning all the dances they all already knew.  After the boys asked us if we were tired and walked us home to make sure we got home safely. 

Our Amazing Breakfast

Fishing Boats

Our taxi got stuck in the sand so the little kids had to help push

The next morning we woke up and had our breakfast which included, cappuccino, eggs, bread, jam and butter as well as orange juice and one of the boys said he was taking us to the local market.  So we got dressed and he took us to the side of a lagoon.  We looked at him, and he explained we would be taking the pirogue.  Sort of like a canoe, but larger.  We climbed in, with 11 other people and all tried not to move.  The water was just below the edge of the pirogue and if anyone made a quick movement the whole thing would move and you would feel like you were going to tip over.  Once we got to the other side safely, I finally started to breathe again, but the boy, named Aimee, said he wanted to buy each of us a shirt.  He made us pick them out, but in return we bought him a pair of jeans for all he had done for us.  The next day we exchanged numbers and took pictures and told them to visit us if they got the chance.  They were so hospital, so caring, and just really gentlemen with no expectations which is a change from our everyday lives in Guinea. 

We arrived back in Abidjan, arrived at Fousey's amazing house, were the house staff greeted us and said we had been gone to long and that it was about time we got home.  Lunch was made for us, again an amazing meal, then we went out to an ice cream shop and club which a French man owned and made us margaritas and Bloody Marys!  An incredible way to end the trip!  We flew home where I turned on my phone to check my messages, and I had friends from my village telling me to hurry up and get home because they were waiting to play their championship game as well as resume English lessons.  It was the perfect trip, even though at times nerve racking, I had amazing travel partners, overwhelmingly hospitable Ivoirians, and got to see what a developed city in West Africa looks like and what Guinea could be like.