18th February 2012

Cote d’Ivoire

The early impressions of this country were mixed.  First we had passed through two customs posts and got all our paperwork stamped.  So as we drove on two white Toyota 4 wheel drives pulled onto the road in front of us and gave us quite a scare as they drove directly towards us with guns bristling out of them. I suddenly saw their blue helmets and realised that they were in fact Bangladeshi Army peace keepers who had forgotten to drive on the right hand side of the road.

 They changed their course and all was well, but it was just in time for us to see another thing that would become a familiar sight, that is a roadblock with a kind of crude iron trolley with large spikes sticking out of it. It is placed across the road in order to ‘discourage’ any driver who tries to drive on without permission.  This particular roadblock was another customs post. It became clear that they had received a call saying that we had failed to stop at their headquarters office.  We were escorted back down the road about 5 km with a customs officer on a moped in front. As we passed through the market of the town we saw the UN patrol again. It seems that far from keeping the peace they had popped out to the market for a spot of shopping.

When we got to the customs HQ we were told to wait to see the ‘Chef’ he explained very politely that we should have come to see him before driving on. That seems to be the sole purpose of this detour and does beg the question; just how many customs posts can the country have? We were soon to find out.

We arrived in the city of Man quite late as it was getting dark. This is rarely a good thing to arrive in a place when the light is bad and you don’t know where to go. We were tired after a pretty gruelling drive. (Don’t all these reports start with ‘it has been a difficult drive’) Anyway, we had a recommendation for a place to park in a hotel. It turned out to be quite difficult to find, in a road that had been ravaged by civil war. The hotel itself was quite run down and it was hard to get them to understand that we really wanted to stay in the van and maybe have use of a shower and toilet. Instead we ended up taking a room. It was a bit expensive and not very good. As it turns out hotels will become a feature of our time here.

We needed to clean the van again as we were once more dust laden, and we also wanted to  rest up a bit as we were rather tired and worn out by the unrelenting bad roads. Strangely the people at the hotel suggested that we try another hotel up the hill. So off we went. The hotel ‘Les Cascades’ was a fairly posh looking place at the top of a hill. We explained our needs and were asked to wait for the manager to return. When he came back, he was so kind and helpful.(Ping thinks he felt sorry for us). He was happy to let us park up in a corner and do our own thing. He went further and let us used a staff room for shower and toilet, telling us there would be no charge. 

This man, Denis Djeneao was really quite a star, he was kind helpful and did not seem to think that we constituted an eyesore in this upmarket place that is frequented by the great and the good of the UN and all the NGOs. I could go on but suffice to say ‘Thank you Denis you really helped us out and we truly appreciate it’.

The situation has much improved, but at one time these were more common than taxis

After staying a couple of days in Man we set off again. We drove further south down to the coast  The countryside had turned to a rich green but on the way we saw just what damage has been done to the rainforest and the wildlife within. It is truly shocking there are miles and miles of land which was once covered with rainforest  but all the trees have been cut down  leaving large area that have become little more than grassland with stumps of trees that could have been several hundred years old, even in the preserve of the National park which was home to the most sophisticated primates, chimpanzees that have learnt to use tools and to develop skills to gather food.  Now there are less than 800 surviving. It is a crying shame.

Of course Ivory Coast has had its fair share of troubles and the scars of civil strife and war are around but there is nevertheless an air of optimism among Ivorians.

The Bascilica rises from the jungle. Astounding beauty, even if extravagant

On the way toward Abidjan we made a trip to Yamasoukro, which is the capitol of Ivory Coast even though all the infrastructure and the mechanisms that operate the state are in Abidjan. It is the resting place of the founding President who though a true dictator built the country from independence. 

As a mark of gratitude to God for blessing his country he built the most astounding basilica which is of similar dimension to that of the Vatican. To say that no expense was spared would be a serious understatement.  As you drive towards the city of Yamasoukro it rises out of the jungle and is truly magnificent, when you visit and look closer it does not disappoint. It is huge and really beautiful. 

We visited with two groups of UN peacekeepers, about 10 from thePakistan Army and a further 15 or so from Bangladesh.  I commented lightly, that this must be the first time that the two armies had been together socially since they were at war some 40 years ago. We spent a really lovely afternoon with them, but was shocked to be reminded by one of the Bengalis that the war between their 2 countries, although 40 year ago, is still very much in their memories. This made it an even more poignant meeting which I will not forget.

I will keep in touch with one of the Pakistani officers. Quite a day!

Our new friends from Pakistan and Bangladesh On our first trip we actually visited the home towns of both groups. Multan and Jaflong. So many good connections.

By the way the Basilica is officially not Ivorian soil but is part of the Vatican. The Pope handed his resignation papers in the next day! I hope there was no connection. 

 To give an idea of the sheer magnitude , the two dots at the bottom of the door, centre, are people!

We have had to come to Abidjan which is a sprawling city to visit the Ghana Embassy to get visas.  On the phone they made it sound easy but when we made our application it was rejected as we didn’t have an ‘invitation’. This means that we were having to contact all our Ghanaian friends to see if we can get this  invitation without causing too much delay. The time would not be too much of a problem except that it was really not possible to camp in the van in Abidjan, hotels are pretty costly, but hey ho we had to wait.

Abidjan the bustling metrolopis

Hotels.

Hotels have become a bit of an issue for us in the Ivory Coast. As we have traveled across the country we original hoped that we could get a camping arrangement at most hotels. However what has turned out is that is has become difficult to explain what we need and then equally difficult to get agreement. So we have had a few really quite nice rooms that are a bit over our budget though it does sometimes make a pleasant change. Once in Abidjan it has become a rather different story. Camping is out of the question and the city is notorious for expensive hotels.

   A ceramic version of the Alamo. You can just imagine the balcony being mounted by Mexican soldiers!

Because of the delay at the Ghanaian Embassy we were rather committed. We found a room at a very reasonable rate, in a quite new hotel and has fantastic hot showers and air conditioning that really works, even a good wifi set up. It is run by a delightful woman and infectiously pleasant staff, but................

There is a bit of a downside though.  It was fairly clear that they are new to the game and the hotel seemed to be made entirely out concrete and ceramic tiles. The construction was a bit reminiscent of ‘The Alamo made of Lego’. It had heavily fortified gates and a gallery with rampart that appear to serve no useful purpose.  There was a huge courtyard secured by the gates so we should have our van nice and secure, not so, the van did not fit under the ramparts so it had to stay outside.  Everything was made of tiles and concrete. The walls, the reception desk, floors, the whole bathroom, bedroom including the wardrobe and the bed was tiled.

Everything was,

   made of tiles and concrete 

If you were expecting me to say that ‘the bed was surprisingly comfortable', you were wrong! It was excruciatingly uncomfortable, with a foam slab cut to size to fit snuggly into what may have been a filled in swimming pool with square pillows that sit on a tiled ledge at the top the mattress. There was a wall around the mattress about 4” thick that you scrape your shins on every time you get up or get in, which made nocturnal trips to the toilet a moderately painful  experience.  

There is advice around that says that as one gets older it can get more difficult but I don’t think that bleeding shins is what was meant. We found that it was easier to bring our own soap,bog paper, towels and actually we had our folding chair from the van as there was only one chair and it was impossible to sit on the bed.

Having said all of this we were quite happy here, it suited us well and it was about 100 meters from the Ghana Embassy.  I wanted to stress that the owner and staff were delightful.

Health.

Ping in her last dispatch spoke a bit about the need to maintain our health and in particular to avoid accidents and injury.  I completely agree that this is vitally important.

However I have not entirely been pulling my weight on this score.

When we were in the Zebrabar all those weeks ago, I was sitting at the bar in the evening  when my friend arrived unexpectedly on his motorbike. As it was dark, I didn’t want him to miss us so I ran over to greet him. As I ran, I failed to see the log rail that was just out of sight in the dark. I fell over it and apart from the overwhelming self pity I experienced as no one actually saw me fall and so it took a while to get any help, I was pretty sure I had broken a rib. I still don’t know though the pain continues.

While in The Gambia I was walking in the dark and was distracted by something. I turned but continued walking and fell over a high kerb landing in a flower bed in the pitch dark. I banked my shin and hurt my back which of course was nothing compared to the self pity I experienced as yet again, no one saw me go down so I was left flailing around in the pitch dark among spiky plants and, no doubt, dangerous African creepy crawlies.

Then while at the Auberge in Conakry, I missed the last step of the bloody stairs. This time I was not all alone I managed to time it just as a group of new guests arrived!  Oh the humiliation!  Oh yes you have already guessed haven’t you they were members of an aid charity and were all doctors. There was a brief flurry of competition over who would be best placed to help me and so the Consultant Gynaecologist came to my aid and bandaged up a rather badly sprained ankle. 

          My ankle still hurts but my fibroids are much better.  

Thank you Michel, you were very kind. Martine, the paediatrician gave me a sticker for being good and Muriel, the midwife stood by just in case.

What has all this got to do with the tiled concrete hotel I hear you ask. 

Well, I now have a fairly impressive collections of aches and pains and swollen bits that are resolutely not going away. The concrete bed is, frankly not the ideal place to rest up one's aching bones. The final straw came when we had collected our visas, thanks to the kind intervention of the very understanding first secretary and were leaving the next morning, there was a knock at the door.  Ping answered it.  They had given us extra rectangle of foam rubber, pillows, just to make the bed bearable but as all the rooms were occupied in the rest of the hotel, they needed them back as they didn’t have enough.  Ping was so stunned that she handed them over without a word.

The next morning we set off for Ghana which will be for another day.

By the way some people have suggested Ping does not have much to do with producing this blog.  Not so.  She does all the tiresome cutting and pasting and submitting to the blog site it is all rather wearisome,  she never complains, well not that much.

Cheers - Noel and Ping

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