That's not entirely true, since I'm leaving in less than 3 days but I haven't even started packing and tomorrow I'll the at the AfricaCodeCamp all day. But I do have a 3-month work visa in my possession since yesterday, so that qualifies as being ready, right? It's just been about two weeks since I came back to San Francisco from Johannesburg after two 16 and 4,5 hour flights, and now another double session of endless hours watching bad movies and eating bad airplane food awaits me. I think that's why I've been avoiding to even think about packing and moving.
I'm moving to Côte d'Ivoire only for a few months, with light luggage. I still don't know where I'll be based, though most probably not in Abidjan, or what exactly I'll be doing there. But I do know it's going to be an electoral support job (the much-delayed Presidential elections are scheduled for November 29th) and that it'll definetely be more exciting than continuing to witness the recession in the US in all its shining glory.
In case you're also thinking about moving to Côte d'Ivoire (I don't blame you, I hear a lot of good things about it), I have to warn you that if you apply for a visa from US and don't speak French, you're going to have a lot of fun. The website of their embassy in the US is only available in French, and their visa application forms are written only in French with only a message in English below the header saying "To be legibly filled out IN FRENCH". Also, the documents needed for the visa application or the prices are not listed on that website. It simply states (in French, of course) that in order to find out, you should call them since the conditions vary from country to country. And oh boy, do they vary.
A couple of weeks ago I called them to get all the information, and I was told that the cost for a 3-month visa was $250 and that I had to submit a bunch of documents with my application, such as a copy of my yellow fever vaccination, a formal letter of invitation from my employer and a plane ticket reservation. A couple of minutes after I hung up I realized that I hadn't told them that my passport is actually Spanish and not US, and in that case I might need some additional documents. When I called again I got the same guy, who all of a sudden became much friendlier than the first time and told me "oh, you're Spanish! in that case you only have to pay $25". I couldn't help laughing.
So the visa ended up being a lot cheaper than the cost of mailing the application to Washington DC, which was $29 each way with Fedex, but knowing how much I had saved (for once) for being Spanish I didn't mind too much.
Now that I have the visa I should finally start packing, but instead I'm reading blogs and everything I find about Côte d'Ivoire in general and about the elections in particular. Fortunately I have a couple of friends there that I'm really looking forward to meeting again, so I'm not worried about the shock of arriving to a new place. I'm just way too excited about my first trip to West Africa.
