It's Friday Evening, and so it's music time. Tonight with Tiken Jah Fakoly's Ça va faire mal (It's going to hurt), which it's not my most favorite song by him, but it has a very nice music video shot in 2005 during the African Reggae Festival in Mali.
In case you don't know, Tiken Jah Fakoly is a very popular reggae singer from Côte d'Ivoire (but who's living in exile in Mali since 2003 due to death threats). His big popularity is due to the political character of most of his songs. For example, in 1993 after Houphouët-Boigny's passing away, he wrote about the electoral situation and one of his albums is titled Françafrique which includes songs such as Le pays va mal (The country is not doing well) or Y'en a marre (We're fed up).
A jewelry workshop in Abengourou, where you can get things like custom-made cross pendants or wedding bands with huge initials carved on them.
During my first week in Abengourou I took a quick trip to the Ghanaian border at Niablé, which is only about 20km away, with some colleagues who needed to do some shopping. Apparently import taxes in Ghana are lower than in Côte d'Ivoire, so many products in Abengourou's stores arrive via Ghana. To cross the border for the day no visa is required, so it's quite popular to go shopping there. The first town right after crossing the border is Osseikro (or Osseikadiokro), which is basically a little market on a road with a few houses around it. Most stores seem to sell the same products, the most popular being bicycles, kente cloths and all sorts of crappy Chinese-made household stuff such as kitchen implements.
However, I found one interesting store in this repetitive border market (it's not big, so I looked at every single shop): a Ghanaian sandalmaker. Actually, the whole market is Ghanaian (although everybody spoke French), but this was the only store selling handmade stuff. Apparently these types of sandals are called ahenemaa and are traditionally reserved for Akan chiefs. Maybe that would explain why nobody was paying any attention to the shop, which also served as a sandal-making workshop as you can see below.
So I haven't blogged during the last week (although I've been taking many photos) because I've been busy settling in to Abengourou, the capital of the Moyen-Comoé region located about 200km north east of Abidjan. I arrived last Monday to replace a colleague who left yesterday and these first few days have been pretty hectic. I've helping her pack up her house (which I'm taking over), doing the office handover and getting to know the new colleagues (and nearly getting poisoned by a fumigation team that showed up without warning), shopping at the market and at the Ghanaian border (about 20km away) for pillows, bedsheets and a bunch of other random house things I needed, being introduced to every single expat in the area (all ten of them), making an appointment to meet the local king, and trying to get used to being one of two white people in the city.
The sizable Lebanese community meets every evening at the sports club to play a daily volleyball match, and of course they've been trying to convince me to join me, but I feel more inclined to tennis - if I had brought my tennis racket, that is. Who would have thought there were tennis courts in Abengourou? Actually, there's even a pool and an Alliance Française branch with a well-assorted library and outdoor restaurant. Oh, but my favorite attraction so far has been the Obama maquis, which is a popular local type of outdoor bar with local food.
As you can see, life is very hard in Abengourou. I even have decently fast internet at home!
My new home, surrounded by mango trees.
Bongeziwe Mabandla playing live on SABC 2 (South Africa TV) on some weekend morning show. Impressive.
It's really a shame that the Abidjan lagoon (named Ebrie), is now extremely polluted and in some parts of the city it stinks like a dumpster. But at night, when you can't see the fowl color of the water and the trash littering its banks, it's really quite a lovely view to enjoy sit on a terrace next to it sipping a beer. Like I did a couple of nights this week, from the two spots you can see below.
After trying some alloco on my first day here, this weekend I had quite a full and satisfying experience with more advanced Ivorian cuisine. Here are a few photos of the couple of meals that sent me directly to heaven:
Attieké is a very important staple in Ivorian cuisine, if not the most important one. It's a couscous made of cassava root.
It seems that an Ivorian meal cannot be complete without some fish, and they cook it in all forms. But grilled is of course a favorite, and they really know how to grill it.
This dish is apparently common for breakfast, but I ate for lunch. It's a mix of fish, tomato sauce and eggs.
I think tchep is originally a Senegalese dish, but which is very popular here as well. It's basically fish with a mix of rice, beans, vegetables and sauces.
Snails are apparently very common here and everybody loves them. They are bigger than Spanish or French ones (I heard some of them can weight 400 gr), and they are eaten in skewers or with all sorts of sauces. Apparently they even have their own festival around the 15th of August happening in Ahoué, near Abidjan.
Yesterday, my first Saturday in Abidjan, was a very full day. Among other things, I randomly attended the wedding of a couple named Jean-Marie and Jeanne at a church in the Cocody neighborhood. Although it started much later than expected, it ended being a lot of fun. Besides the musicians and singers, one of the highlights was when the pastor said something like "the groom is the sales representative for such and such company, he's a good catch - congratulations!".
Here are a few photos I took:
By the way, I was told that the white and grey fabrics worn by the singers are typical of the Baoulé.
I think fried plantains are eaten all over Africa, and they are always a safe bet when not feeling very adventurous in a new place - I don't think they've ever let me down. So simple, and yet so delicious.
So I was naturally very excited to try alloco, Côte d'Ivoire's own take at fried plantains. Some people told me they put ginger in them, some others chili powder, but in any case they are hot and delicious. And the ones I had today were accompanied by a tasty chili-peanut sauce that I couldn't stop eating even after my tongue had become numb. They are addictive too!
They are usually fried in palm oil and are quite greasy, so it's probably not something you should eat every day but still highly recommended! And they literally have it everywhere, as they are one of the most beloved dishes of Ivorian cuisine. There's even a place in the Cocody neighborhood called the allocodrome which is of course next on my to-do list.
