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.
