tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-293764172024-03-07T01:17:31.921-05:00My life in West AfricaMy experiences in Côte d'Ivoire (Sept 2012 - July 2013),Senegal (Jan - May 2007), and Ghana (Aug - Dec 2006). Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-13790712641032612182017-12-13T10:14:00.001-05:002017-12-13T10:16:17.780-05:00Data collection woes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Man Prefecture</td></tr>
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I wanted to know if there was a comprehensive list of
organizations that had been registered in Man. Organizations must first
register their existence with the Prefecture, and when I went to ask about said
list, the administrator said oh yes, thousands of organizations are registered
here. Great, any way I can see a list? Oh no, there's no list, we just have all
of the files (shows me to the above cabinet). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prefecture de Bouaké: Known locally as the "White House" this was
the seat of the rebellion during the civil war. The post-2011 government did
not want to set-up shop here, so established the Prefecture in a different
location. In 2016, this new building was ransacked and destroyed by "young
protesters". The prefecture re-established itself in the White House at
the end of last year. </td></tr>
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<br />In Bouaké, we visited the Prefecture: "We used to have a full list. But when the Prefecture was ransacked last year, we lost everything. Hard copies of registration forms, our computers…everything." <br /></div>
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Compiling the data I need for my dissertation, thus, will require a little creativity since these two anecdotes are more or less representative of other situations I found throughout the country: a lack of data in electronic format, destroyed documents during the crises, staff turnover resulting in lost or unfinished lists of organizations. <br /><br />For Ivorian organizations, the loss of the lists is not the end of the world as they receive a receipt when they turn-in their paperwork at the Prefecture, and it is with this receipt that they are able to legally function - a lost file at the Prefecture does not mean they lose their right to work, thankfully. Nevertheless, a lack of a database with NGO registration information makes it difficult for a) the authorities to know who is working in the NGO sector in their department; b) the central state to know how many organizations work in a given sector; c) civil society organizations to know who else works in their domains; d) international donors and partners to know with whom to work; e) PhD researchers to collect comprehensive lists of organizations across the country 😕<br /><br />Alas, this is fieldwork! <br /><br /></div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-57306962558867172992017-11-21T11:59:00.002-05:002017-11-21T12:27:00.308-05:00Man: 18 Mountains, resiliency, and mysticism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In early November 2017, I went the farthest west I have been
in Côte d'Ivoire. Man, the capital of the Montagnes district (formerly 18
Montagnes) is nestled amidst the tallest peaks in the country and dense
rainforest. Its most western regions border Guinea and Liberia.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clockwise: The highest peak in Côte d'Ivoire, la dent de Man; the view from the cathedral of Man; sunset; view from Dioulabouga neighborhood, Man</td></tr>
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But this region, despite its beauty, was also the site of some of the worst violence the country witnessed during its two crises; it is even known as the "<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/c%C3%B4te-divoire/cote-d-ivoire-ivorians-scared-return-volatile-wild-west">Wild West</a>" because of the lawlessness and proliferation of various armed groups from Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. Still today it remains a volatile area as the location of current land disputes that resulted in seven deaths and displaced 5000 people in <a href="https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/10/25/land-clashes-test-cote-d-ivoire-s-fragile-security">October 2017</a>.<br />
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The organizations I spoke with here focused largely on health outcomes: the region has the highest HIV rate in the country, with Côte d'Ivoire having the <a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/ctedivoire">highest HIV prevalence rate in West Africa</a> and this has had a particular effect on <a href="https://www.unicef.org/cotedivoire/hiv_aids.html">orphaned and vulnerable children</a>; <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096300">gender-based violence </a>was rampant during and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/116/464/414/3067739">after the conflict</a>; female genital cutting is widely practiced and organizations work to help local leaders understand the negative health impacts of such practices (such as fistulas). After health, social cohesion and poverty reduction were the next most active sectors for NGOs: integrating former combatants proves difficult when victims do not understand why those who hurt them are receiving aid to integrate, while the victims receive nothing. Encouraging groups who fought each other to get along on public good projects proves futile when citizens do not trust their neighbors. Nevertheless, there is a commitment to overcoming the intercommunal violence and develop the region: folks recounted stories of their entrepreneurial endeavors: creating ecotourism sites and developing a rice farming consultancy firm and women banding together to form a co-op to increase local transformation of agricultural products. I admire the resiliency of a population who suffered so greatly in the past and hope that the positive growth seen in recent years will reach these groups.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11/7/2017: Interview with a local health organization</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11/8/2017: Interview with an organization that does programming related to orphans and vulnerable children </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11/8/2017: A women's co-op leader shows me the traditional press for removing liquid from cassava (they just recently purchased a more mechanized processing system)</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBmC81T7rLj3hPIq8xHuyrWzWBOZcKZXPsQA5INhzLuysX0ltvoy7WHdNG9UHSjxuVgrhBuEK2L-bZPa0ADZtK4wkfWQDLJFqGpSro7xz8HauQBZaMVAW7c1Pi2mp4t4mKFhoR/s1600/Man_nov2017+%252870%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11/8/2017: Attending an open air session hosted by magistrates and a local NGO on how to access the justice system.</td></tr>
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In addition to conducting interviews, I still was able to play tourist: visiting a sacred forest full of tiny monkeys, hiking to the beautiful waterfalls, watching the Elephants lose their World Cup qualifying match, partaking in local alcohol products.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtiNxvxYmz_z_pK3x-BbY3DA38BgRTqi8ub_qpj_L0SuvjVsH5S37xU4mIXCnFgxJdbhsgMnA7n0TKGevEnhZUC5y2RxIoIRWMf97XibD4rA-pBdqbxzWdtFjNCROqfJp3u4QB/s1600/blog+photos3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1600" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtiNxvxYmz_z_pK3x-BbY3DA38BgRTqi8ub_qpj_L0SuvjVsH5S37xU4mIXCnFgxJdbhsgMnA7n0TKGevEnhZUC5y2RxIoIRWMf97XibD4rA-pBdqbxzWdtFjNCROqfJp3u4QB/s640/blog+photos3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clockwise: Palm wine in a Wobé village east of Man; feeding the monkeys in the Gbêpleu sacred forest; the famous cascades of Man; rooting on the Elephants in a local bar with NGO folks</td></tr>
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I also attended the 7th annual Mask Festival. Traditional masks from across the region and elsewhere made their way to the three-day festival: there w<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aKzRvie9XU">ere some masks who were aggressive and frightened onlookers</a>, there were humorous masks that encouraged (for a fee) photo-taking, there were masks on stilts, and there was plenty of dancing and mask races. Attendance was high, with young people and old alike laughing and pointing, screaming and running (and then laughing), all trying to get a glimpse of the mystical beings. It was a compelling and intriguing cultural experience.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11/11/2017: Some of the masks we saw at the festival</td></tr>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-70212342517974277672017-10-11T08:54:00.001-04:002017-10-11T08:58:44.064-04:00A lot has changed, much remains the same<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am back (again) in Abidjan, but this time for <a href="http://justinedavis.org/research.html" target="_blank">dissertation </a>fieldwork! It has been five years since I first came to Côte
d'Ivoire, and the country has seen many changes in the interim. Here are a few
highlights.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Infrastructure and growth<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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New highways! Ground broken for a cross-Abidjan <a href="http://fr.africanews.com/2017/07/18/cote-d-ivoire-la-france-leve-14-milliard-d-euros-pour-la-construction-du-metro/" target="_blank">metro </a>system! <a href="http://koaci.com/cote-divoire-burger-king-ouvre-4eme-restaurant-avec-service-drive-108332.html" target="_blank">Burger King</a>!
I discussed new infrastructure projects when I was here in <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2015/05/plus-ca-change.html" target="_blank">2015</a>, but
even more have been completed since and more put on the docket. Between 2011-2015,
Côte d'Ivoire has experienced an economic <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/cotedivoire/publication/the-might-of-the-elephant-using-its-growth-to-create-better-jobs" target="_blank">growth rate</a> of 9%,
a huge feat for a post-conflict country. However, there are doubts about how
sustainable this rate can be: even this year, price drops on cocoa have
affected the growth forecast (and has led to widespread protest by cocoa farmers
in the <a href="http://www.jeuneafrique.com/404523/economie/cote-divoire-manifestation-de-producteurs-de-cacao-dispersee-police/" target="_blank">southwest</a>).
Further, the everyday citizen does not seem to have felt the effects of this
growth rate: <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/" target="_blank">Afrobarometer </a>round 7 (2017) results
indicate that the self-reported unemployment rate has increased from 73% to 76%. Ivorian friends say they have seen the roads being built, but for them this does not
translate to jobs and relief of economic insecurity for their families. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Insecurity</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In 2012, when I arrived for the Fulbright, every few weeks
or so there were attacks on police stations and barracks, with unknown
assailants taking weapons and sometimes resulting in causalities. Police and
military barricades were the norm as one traversed the city. In 2013, things
started to look better – the President got rid of all of the barricades and the
attacks became fewer and farther between. Fast forward to today: after two 2017
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/01/10/the-events-in-ivory-coast-last-week-were-a-textbook-case-of-mutiny/" target="_blank">mutinies </a>by former rebels now integrated into the army, security forces are much more on
alert. There were two <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/09/05/cote-d-ivoire-soupcons-de-complicite-dans-l-evasion-d-une-centaine-de-prisonniers_5181173_3212.html" target="_blank">prison breaks</a> in the past month. A few days before my arrival, a <a href="http://www.jeuneafrique.com/477444/politique/cote-divoire-un-commissariat-attaque-par-des-hommes-en-armes-dans-la-commune-dabobo-a-abidjan/" target="_blank">police depot</a> was attacked in Abobo, a commune of Abidjan. The government accuses pro-Gbagbo
individuals of fostering this insecurity. The mutineers are still rattling
their sabers (literally), attempting to take over the <a href="http://www.jeuneafrique.com/479799/politique/cote-divoire-nouvelles-manifestations-danciens-rebelles-demobilises-a-man-et-bouake/" target="_blank">mayor's residence</a> in Bouaké on October 2, demanding back payments to the tune of $33,000 each.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Further, on October 10<sup>th</sup>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-arms/aide-to-ivory-coast-parliament-speaker-arrested-over-arms-cache-idUSKBN1CE2GI" target="_blank">an aide of Guillaume Soro</a>, former rebel leader, current president of the National Assembly, was
arrested and accused of hiding weapons in his home that helped the mutiny. Abidjan friends and
colleagues expressed concern that this arrest would lead to violent
confrontations between Soro supporters and the government, but so far things
have been calm.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To top it off, security is also high due to recent terrorist
attacks in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso. In 2016, Côte d'Ivoire was the
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/15/6-things-you-need-to-know-about-cote-divoire-in-the-wake-of-sundays-attack/?utm_term=.6b18dbdcb19e" target="_blank">site of an AQIM attack</a>,
only months after similar attacks in Mali and Burkina. Metal detectors and bag
checks are the norm at shopping centers and hotels, with particular attention
paid to locations frequented by foreigners. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In short, despite the economic growth and the semblance of stability,
there are still many issues preventing the restoration of rule of law in the
country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Justice</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Former president Gbagbo is still at the ICC facing charges
of crimes against humanity. His trial started on January 28, 2016, a little
under five years after his arrest. In late September, General Mangou, who
served under Gbagbo during the crisis, dealt a striking blow to the defense's
case: indeed, Gbagbo had established a parallel command structure, based on
personal ties and dependent on relationships with Blé Goudé (also on trial at
the ICC) and Gbagbo's wife, Simone (charged but acquitted of crimes against
humanity), with the goal of <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2017/10/10/proces-gbagbo-a-la-cpi-le-general-mangou-effleure-l-idee-d-un-commandement-parallele_5198901_3212.html" target="_blank">"maintaining control of power at any cost." </a> Gbagbo supporters do not seem fazed by this revelation: calling Mangou a liar,
a traitor, and a double agent because he swore his allegiance to the Ouattara
camp the day after Gbagbo was captured in 2011.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Political competition<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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A once promising coalition, the RHDP (which joined together
the PDCI and the RDR) is crumbling. The RHDP is effectively why Ouattara was
elected in 2010; former president Bédié of the PDCI threw in his hat for
Ouattara in the second round of voting, pushing Ouattara's vote share over the
needed 50%. And yet, the coalition was always on shaky ground: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-20322103" target="_blank">2012 legislation to change the head of household laws</a> in the country to be more inclusive was
met with strong opposition from the PDCI camp, despite RDR's support – this led
to a shake-up in the cabinet where Ouattara effectively ousted disloyal PDCI
folks. In the 2016 legislative elections, former PDCI candidates who had run
and even been elected under the RHDP banner were not renominated, choosing
instead to run as independents (and sometimes winning) against hand-selected,
loyal RHDP candidates. There is also discontent regarding the successor to
Ouattara in the 2020 presidential elections: those RDR loyalists want an RDR
face to represent the party, while PDCI folks feel that their commitment to the
coalition should be rewarded with their own candidate, and it is now their time
to shine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The opposition remains fragmented, with the FPI (Gbagbo's
party) only holding three seats in the national assembly. Time will tell
whether this party will disappear as <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1119203" target="_blank">many former ruling parties </a>so often do in Africa.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-16729336515005781402015-07-14T07:02:00.000-04:002015-07-14T07:02:25.223-04:00Survey: Perceptions of NGOs and the electoral process in Côte d’Ivoire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the major components of my research project is carrying out a public opinion survey about the electoral process, perceptions of NGOs and democracy in general. Due to budget restraints, I decided to limit the survey to Abidjan only, but with a representative sample coming from the 13 communes. The team has finished the interviews and are now working on data entry. Here’s how it went down:<br />
<br />
First, I had to find a survey firm to carry-out this work. I selected the <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/">Afrobarometer</a> implementing partner, <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/our-network/national-partners/centre-de-recherche-et-de-formation-sur-le-d%C3%A9veloppement-int%C3%A9gr%C3%A9">the Centre for Research and Training on Integrated Development (CREFDI).</a> I chose them because they came with high accolades from other researchers, but also because they are very familiar with Afrobarometer’s sampling and interviewing protocols as they have been working with Afrobarometer for two rounds (<a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/countries/c%C3%B4te-divoire-0">2013 and 2014, rounds 5 and 6</a>). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOHBrEhyphenhyphenSMSAX575EuOlivCBIIQmYDjGv1GqfSk4lRr6-FVvSBTAUu2SiD5v6XKsfF8cjvgsQ-dTd5MeXfJ-AnklkkRhVpXNJjffciw52IJp7dT06Fb1luiVnB7dUVCc1hgKO/s1600/CREFDI+3+june+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOHBrEhyphenhyphenSMSAX575EuOlivCBIIQmYDjGv1GqfSk4lRr6-FVvSBTAUu2SiD5v6XKsfF8cjvgsQ-dTd5MeXfJ-AnklkkRhVpXNJjffciw52IJp7dT06Fb1luiVnB7dUVCc1hgKO/s320/CREFDI+3+june+%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CREFDI staff, 4 June 2015</td></tr>
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Second, I developed the survey (well, over the course of the year during my classes, specifically a survey design course) and with input from COSOPCI. I then had six Ivorian university students pilot the survey online, to help with the response suggestions and survey flow (special shout out to my husband as well who corrected my French).<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BwuhBZR38Pp8imWo47DUmCOAnNIY11GljwP3NIz7AI7vG0qFTs5hvc1Jdl-UAm7Ql1XWHmQF3756O6vSmW-2k9uiUSj1As4OqJwq6m-SSQ5F-cf_k5zF9M3CYetzsE6mEZJf/s1600/Survey+piloting+27+june.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1BwuhBZR38Pp8imWo47DUmCOAnNIY11GljwP3NIz7AI7vG0qFTs5hvc1Jdl-UAm7Ql1XWHmQF3756O6vSmW-2k9uiUSj1As4OqJwq6m-SSQ5F-cf_k5zF9M3CYetzsE6mEZJf/s320/Survey+piloting+27+june.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Piloting the survey, 27 June 2015</td></tr>
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Then it was onto training the enumerators. I worked with a great team of eight enumerators, two supervisors, two data entry folks, and of course the director of CREFDI. On training day we went through the survey question by question, responding to any problems or comprehension issues, and distributing the 520 questionnaires to the teams. The questionnaires were printed, because, although ideal, tablets or phone surveys were outside of my budget.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3WRFvOI1pyMwGv-UQzD43gAnmgd8V7Yvr2n7g2_cax8BUhd1UQG61vXcG7qE1EQtvKys_mBQQOtdGdaE8jbsX3f9GamW3HVqdwCWoXVDTNy3cQXtc78zUt-XFKbGVYOiNmvRj/s1600/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3WRFvOI1pyMwGv-UQzD43gAnmgd8V7Yvr2n7g2_cax8BUhd1UQG61vXcG7qE1EQtvKys_mBQQOtdGdaE8jbsX3f9GamW3HVqdwCWoXVDTNy3cQXtc78zUt-XFKbGVYOiNmvRj/s320/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25281%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Enumerator training 3 July 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYY0pRl4CugsgYNBAbF3vMXE3nkz2VRaMV1uFe4bXJ5maFJgOLXg_jHZknHCNr2ZF8mGrF2ogSmTmnlGnRxKULJOxDkAGELMh0B35NB76l38GnpMOb6cgGhNWa1mEQhr9cq3L/s1600/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25285%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYY0pRl4CugsgYNBAbF3vMXE3nkz2VRaMV1uFe4bXJ5maFJgOLXg_jHZknHCNr2ZF8mGrF2ogSmTmnlGnRxKULJOxDkAGELMh0B35NB76l38GnpMOb6cgGhNWa1mEQhr9cq3L/s320/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25285%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and the team 3 July 2015</td></tr>
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The questionnaire was administered between July 5 and July 12. Each team of four was overseen by a supervisor, and divided up the 65 enumeration area between the two teams (at random). An enumeration area, ZD here, are determined geographically by the Statistics Institute (INS) in charge of carrying out the census. The ZD are comprised of 1,000 to 1,200 individuals on average. <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/survey_manuals/ab_r6_survey_manual_en.pdf">Following Afrobarometer protocol</a>, 8 respondents would be interviewed per ZD, thus, I needed 65 ZD for this study in order to reach a 520 respondent sample. The distribution of the ZD was determined after the 13 communes of Abidjan were stratified based on population; thus Yopougon, the largest commune, was allotted 15 ZD, while Treichville and Plateau, the two smallest, were allotted one ZD each. The ZD were then selected at random by CREFDI. Each team, then, would complete 40 respondent interviews per day, meaning five ZD per day, 10 interviews per enumerator per day. Because the ZD were chosen at random within each commune, sometimes the teams would start in the north part of the commune and then have to take a <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2012/10/on-dit-quoi-one-cale-in-abidjan.html">Gbaka or Woro-Woro</a> to get to the other side of the commune, especially in the two largest communes of Yopougon and Abobo. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGTr7HDTKYXHPm4BcNOxe9-ybp95z6-uPuJ4QK9zBE3kZVIAC6pr0RtULBDCwXNT2glnnxo-rA5ljYpbvvCr02jJT3iYqAUay3tuYQx8Q8fxfD-9QIry-dcX9lD0Hjdww8rRC/s1600/5498070_544c450bb6_m.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqGTr7HDTKYXHPm4BcNOxe9-ybp95z6-uPuJ4QK9zBE3kZVIAC6pr0RtULBDCwXNT2glnnxo-rA5ljYpbvvCr02jJT3iYqAUay3tuYQx8Q8fxfD-9QIry-dcX9lD0Hjdww8rRC/s320/5498070_544c450bb6_m.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Abidjan, Communes not included on this map: Anyama, Bingerville, and Songon. <a href="http://data6.blog.de/media/070/5498070_544c450bb6_m.jpeg">http://data6.blog.de/media/070/5498070_544c450bb6_m.jpeg</a></td></tr>
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I went out with each team for a day to see how things were going and to observe any difficulties they encountered. To determine which household to interview, the team followed the <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/surveys-and-methods/sampling-principles">Afrobarometer sampling protocol</a>: they would meet at a randomly selected intersection, one interviewer would walk East, another West, another North, and another South. They would select the fifth household that they encountered. If there was someone home (which was more often the case than not), they would give a brief recruitment speech explaining the purpose of their visit, show their CREFDI badge to demonstrate their credibility, and ask to make a list of the members of the household in order to randomly select the person to be interviewed. They alternated by household whether they would target a woman or a man for the interview (all respondents had to be over the age of 18). From the list they would have the member of the household draw a number, and that person was the person selected to be interviewed; if they were not home or if they refused, the enumerator was to leave the household and continue counting. If they agreed to participate, they had to give verbal consent, and the survey could commence.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI7abeCCjugKkREIBrlU7X1HhaRe2befRcVcatyiAhVE7dnpnejJ4MOGKfAIQySRsRC9AVUBPfF_QEN4vumNGv0N03SwoMcFmXxzB0RALxpZ8MW9XOb01ej7IMZARKrlERvQq/s1600/DSC05067%255BConflict%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicI7abeCCjugKkREIBrlU7X1HhaRe2befRcVcatyiAhVE7dnpnejJ4MOGKfAIQySRsRC9AVUBPfF_QEN4vumNGv0N03SwoMcFmXxzB0RALxpZ8MW9XOb01ej7IMZARKrlERvQq/s320/DSC05067%255BConflict%255D.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interview in Yopougon, 7 July 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOE1-_qd0PEY4MGBZU7cJMZ5lx1FsRpBjzihJDH6VHUm329ziciHX9R3C_0kFi3kMcmAymW9qFImd5478NQAoHIQ4McfC8tYWUc_0L9uSm6fWBbSWMvTJ_T2EBhumfxKcos31/s1600/DSC05068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWOE1-_qd0PEY4MGBZU7cJMZ5lx1FsRpBjzihJDH6VHUm329ziciHX9R3C_0kFi3kMcmAymW9qFImd5478NQAoHIQ4McfC8tYWUc_0L9uSm6fWBbSWMvTJ_T2EBhumfxKcos31/s320/DSC05068.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Interview in Koumassi, 7 July 2015</td></tr>
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From witnessing this process, I learned a few things: <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>A lot of people live in households in Abidjan; sometimes the people who lived there were uncertain about the number of people who were residing in a home. </li>
<li>People do not particularly like divulging their age. It was the first question (because if they were not an adult, they could not complete the interview), and the enumerators were good at convincing people to give their age (“it’s so we can make sure you are of voting age”). People thought that asking age was not anonymous, which I still don’t completely understand. </li>
<li>Most people like to talk, and one of the downsides of public opinion surveys with mostly closed questions is that their thoughts are not necessarily recorded. One respondent in Koumassi said he would not participate in the elections because he was afraid. The enumerator coded this response on the survey and continued onto the next question, but the man asked “wait, don’t you want to know why I am afraid?” and then told us stories of what had happened to him and his family in 2010-2011. </li>
<li>On the other hand, there are some people who do not want to talk. Women in particular were reticent and often responded with I don’t know to many of the questions. </li>
</ul>
At lunch with the first team, they asked me if in the U.S. there was a tradition about inviting someone into your home. I said no, not really, I mean I guess you could offer them something to drink? The enumerators were surprised: “if you don’t offer someone water and ask about the ‘<i>nouvelles</i>’ (news), it is clear to the visitor that they are not welcome.” They said that outside of Abidjan the welcoming experience varies, with some ethnic groups offering all you can drink liquor or Kola nut to guests in addition to water. At each interview, we were welcomed in, even before the household member agreed to participate, offered water and offered a seat.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8gIpm2TBaVE5HWr5YZabzDmJvptyV-FOMlyLpevvtSI1cKMwVpdWuWNLpk-e7E_sf4nEEIDVQ3rZxvmL_V43dSCc5TDymZ8QjC5PgNZ83wUj1NJYs70hUDNXSPwB9t_3dyCl/s1600/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8gIpm2TBaVE5HWr5YZabzDmJvptyV-FOMlyLpevvtSI1cKMwVpdWuWNLpk-e7E_sf4nEEIDVQ3rZxvmL_V43dSCc5TDymZ8QjC5PgNZ83wUj1NJYs70hUDNXSPwB9t_3dyCl/s320/Crefedi_Formation+3+July+%25287%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing welcoming protocol over peanut sauce lunch, 3 July 2015</td></tr>
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The data entry team is now busy at work inputting the responses from the 520 interviewees. I expect to be able to analyze the data, at least preliminary data, this weekend; I will hopefully give a dissemination presentation of the descriptive statistics to COSOPCI and CREFDI before my departure; two more weeks, so a lot of work to do!</div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-22388063502541174622015-07-11T03:59:00.000-04:002015-07-11T03:59:33.894-04:00How does one educate potential voters to go register?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
As mentioned in a previous <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-i-am-in-cote-divoire-encore.html" target="_blank">post</a>, the Electoral Commission (CEI) gave funding to 10 civil society coalitions to conduct sensitization campaigns on the voter registration process. But how was this carried out? I went out for two days with a team in Abidjan, in the commune of Adjamé, and two days with two different teams in Divo (more specifics on this <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2015/06/divo-tale-of-two-neighborhoods.html">here</a>). I have also interviewed 7 of the 10 of organizations working throughout the country to get a good grasp on the work they carried out as well as the obstacles they faced.<br /><br /><b>1. Wait for the money (…)</b><br />The CEI did not disburse the funds for the sensitization campaigns for two weeks; normally sensitization should happen before the registration process begins, but alas, this was not the case. In the second week of June, the CEI finally gave enough money to cover 10 sensitization agents, at 10,000 CFA (~$17) per day per person for a period of 10 days. However, COSOPCI (and other coalitions) found that 10 agents was not enough to cover the neighborhoods they had been assigned, so they increased the number of agents to 20 (or even 30!) and decreased the daily allotment. The Abidjan agents complained that for the Presidential elections of 2010 and the legislative elections 2011, they were paid much more: one agent told me they received 15,000 CFA (~$25), while another argued that the pay depended on which NGO coalition you worked for, as some gave more than others despite the fact that they were supposed to have the same budgets.<br /><br /><b>2. Training </b><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhalUjQ0Hceh22XbJPrRen1zmCGPkkK5Rn6ElkrQMTAXzkN_fPu3cuDy7GvZFCoMSNcF3V7lii8KtWO2HNtpJ-YbzNPErH169L1tuTtrobBZ4jOaWCKgBVHZmsP4gWbBkIL_qHn/s1600/DSC04890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhalUjQ0Hceh22XbJPrRen1zmCGPkkK5Rn6ElkrQMTAXzkN_fPu3cuDy7GvZFCoMSNcF3V7lii8KtWO2HNtpJ-YbzNPErH169L1tuTtrobBZ4jOaWCKgBVHZmsP4gWbBkIL_qHn/s320/DSC04890.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">COSOPCI training, 11 June 2015</td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In Abidjan, COSOPCI sent out emails to all of its members to recruit sensitization agents; eight NGOs responded by sending candidates. A total of 19 individuals participated in the training and the subsequent sensitization process, eight of which were women. At this training session, questions were answered about the sensitization process (“what time do we start? Do we have to work on Sunday? How can we take pictures for the report if we don’t have cameras?”), while the director leading the training put emphasis on visibility (putting up as many posters as possible) and coordinating efforts with local leaders (religious, community, women’s associations, youth associations, etc.). </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUUqUSGGxBtjsukM-y_hMb5Dl90Rpsbbi5tu_aUu-ew2wyRUwQcx2v95lB6uUQZmTyf3BjlVQ1SJVoqZQLsnGHlkQqptbsf5-OltT14G2ZkyZ3jiVvVNfTepLnErdPo3EMfP4/s1600/DSC04906.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUUqUSGGxBtjsukM-y_hMb5Dl90Rpsbbi5tu_aUu-ew2wyRUwQcx2v95lB6uUQZmTyf3BjlVQ1SJVoqZQLsnGHlkQqptbsf5-OltT14G2ZkyZ3jiVvVNfTepLnErdPo3EMfP4/s320/DSC04906.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">COSOPCI agents, 11 June 2015</td></tr>
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COSOPCI was assigned to cover Adjamé (population: 372,978; 68% Ouattara in the 2010 elections) and Attecoubé (population: 260,911; 53% Gbagbo); only two of the 19 agents had actually lived in these communes, while most were vaguely familiar with the neighborhoods. Eleven agents volunteered for Adjamé, while the remaining eight were assigned to Attecoubé (at the beginning, only four volunteered for Attecoubé, but the director coaxed/forced the others onto the Attecoubé list; the reason being that Adjamé is closer to where most people live and people are more familiar with Adjamé). One agent expressed her worry that they would show up in a neighborhood where they were not known, and did not know anyone there, and ask to be put in touch with local leaders. She said that people would find this bizarre, saying how can you come here where you are a stranger and sensitize us when you are not even prepared? The director responded that upon their arrival in a neighborhood, it was important to go first to the authorities where they would be welcomed and pointed in the right direction. Later the same woman, half joking, asked whether COSOPCI would be distributing boots for the folks working in Adjamé as the rainy season would make the routes quite muddy.<br />
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<b>3. Visit the authorities</b><br />After receiving their t-shirts and poster kits, the Adjamé team met up on Monday morning at the Adjamé town hall. There we waited around for two hours to get a document signed which authorized the sensitizers to work in the area. Additionally, we requested a list of local associations with whom we could coordinate our activities; instead it was a list of individuals, most of whom were “party cadres,” but who in the end knew the neighborhoods well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoxPrd6GG5coVNBLqm1s420YFdGr6X31n0DxHrhgGFzWABbraV7VNMl70a2PatTAYLv2GbLdnqBrQW04mMdt_H9hKPBpqcFGqeDzllVUFpNVk9HpiQPx56P9yUpm77wMOtu61/s1600/DSC04914.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikoxPrd6GG5coVNBLqm1s420YFdGr6X31n0DxHrhgGFzWABbraV7VNMl70a2PatTAYLv2GbLdnqBrQW04mMdt_H9hKPBpqcFGqeDzllVUFpNVk9HpiQPx56P9yUpm77wMOtu61/s320/DSC04914.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Town hall of Adjamé 15 June 2015</td></tr>
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We also went to the CEI offices, but they were closed on Mondays; over the course of the 10 day sensitization period, the team leader went three times to the CEI to get their approval, but two of the three times there was no-one in the offices (despite the fact that they were supposed to be open from early in the AM until at least 6pm) and the third time they did not have the stamp to approve the paperwork… so they were technically never accredited by the CEI to do the work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlMl2kh5YSQGDKDedx99Zo8Y37RvBtjT5DYcvA2q3_97peQUdLmzRX49NDZ6tr3EcMJyFTaUxZdmFitg7soubUWIX_1NIVnVfOH3LA1z4xVYJ6upNdV9FRoMMbeqOZWRBxI1j/s1600/DSC04933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSlMl2kh5YSQGDKDedx99Zo8Y37RvBtjT5DYcvA2q3_97peQUdLmzRX49NDZ6tr3EcMJyFTaUxZdmFitg7soubUWIX_1NIVnVfOH3LA1z4xVYJ6upNdV9FRoMMbeqOZWRBxI1j/s320/DSC04933.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The very closed CEI offices 15 June 2015</td></tr>
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<b>4. Posters</b><br />
<br />First we divided up into teams of two, male-female when possible and two different organizations if possible as well. Adjamé was thus divided into five neighborhoods that the teams were to cover. Next, we started walking around and putting up posters throughout the neighborhood, starting on the main route and working our way north – our neighborhood was concentrated around the Marie Therese Houphouet-Boigny hospital. The agents complained that they had to spend 1,000 CFA (~$2) to buy poster glue out of their budgets and had to print sign-up sheets on their own dime as well. We asked before putting up the posters, and most people said yes because they figured it was the government carrying out the effort (more on this later); we put posters at popular spots, the bakery, pharmacies and private clinic, near bus stops, markets, grocery stores, public maternity wards. Of course, we risked having the posters torn down; one of our posters near the hospital was torn down, those working in Attecoubé bemoaned the fact that several of theirs were removed, while in Cocody, the National Agency for Urban Hygiene told agents that they were not allowed to put up the government issued posters. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYJ5qT-pweh2P3AXH2sgLY74XeNe34WCjz2zJmkNzzeJ8hvffo_ndL4YhXPlQBhetdh8HjG6Zzt15RFK85iF5sAPWiA8cOkYeyfi8r7aVySVx318SK2E24bONoejUkATLYjdR/s1600/DSC04945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYJ5qT-pweh2P3AXH2sgLY74XeNe34WCjz2zJmkNzzeJ8hvffo_ndL4YhXPlQBhetdh8HjG6Zzt15RFK85iF5sAPWiA8cOkYeyfi8r7aVySVx318SK2E24bONoejUkATLYjdR/s320/DSC04945.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Putting up posters 15 June 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9NRECeZNJzh3V5ivZclou7utZ-oNyzZKvlaJ15A1DvXyiXAYmk-f_EVhccttKe6LM0nvNccu6wKbK_DMemI72PuOSQSUAkMXkLZY7msBZOXDP1cGZoahwj_vajLi5SRFY1q_/s1600/DSC04968.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9NRECeZNJzh3V5ivZclou7utZ-oNyzZKvlaJ15A1DvXyiXAYmk-f_EVhccttKe6LM0nvNccu6wKbK_DMemI72PuOSQSUAkMXkLZY7msBZOXDP1cGZoahwj_vajLi5SRFY1q_/s320/DSC04968.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Working through the rain, the Red Cross was a voter registration center in Adjamé 16 June 2015</td></tr>
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<b>5. Canvassing – Who are you?</b><br />
<br />In Adjamé, the teams focused, the first two days, on local businesses and markets. We spoke to salespeople in electronics and hardware shops, ladies working in the grocery store, women selling pineapples in the market. One of the agents introduced themselves as an agent of the CEI; this worked for getting poster approval, but with groups that were skeptical of the current government, they were not impressed to be talked to by this “politician”. To avoid problems, her partner stepped in and explained that they were not politicians but members of civil society; they were not “doing politics” but instead encouraging all sides to register to vote. Similarly, another team was refused entry to an Evangelical church for the same reason, but later allowed access when they explained they were not politicians either. One of the Attecoubé teams “barely got away” from a potentially problematic situation in the fish market, where they were thought to be representing a political candidate. In Divo, agents were chased away from certain villages. However, the Adjamé team concluded that things this year were much easier than in 2011, when the wounds of the 2010-2011 crisis were still fresh, and the opposition had already declared a boycott. Then, one agent told me, he was attacked with fish by ladies in the market for trying to talk to them about registering to vote; these were FPI partisans and wanted nothing to do with the process.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-oxUiDeIffzPDpRcKriLZ5ahaYfcde8j2LjoRAj8vW7BV1zavD9QD3jrbSNm7DAqFeG0jySLg3JTkJxh0JC1esnCabg5pFh2MdLqOY6egZvh6pVEkrIE3CRb2a9KC61Xhi6u/s1600/DSC04961.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-oxUiDeIffzPDpRcKriLZ5ahaYfcde8j2LjoRAj8vW7BV1zavD9QD3jrbSNm7DAqFeG0jySLg3JTkJxh0JC1esnCabg5pFh2MdLqOY6egZvh6pVEkrIE3CRb2a9KC61Xhi6u/s320/DSC04961.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At a hardware shop, 15 June 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wkV3W4YT0ETE0kot8BZ9MFYHArMi_7AWuf2fofKe5hMGSrWNN9WqAiOIStF0SDUkzNwcas622pXte1ik2vK6xZCpNUPL6k-PruM8CH7yzy02uUZJ54am67lf96vUfRi6k1el/s1600/DSC04978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wkV3W4YT0ETE0kot8BZ9MFYHArMi_7AWuf2fofKe5hMGSrWNN9WqAiOIStF0SDUkzNwcas622pXte1ik2vK6xZCpNUPL6k-PruM8CH7yzy02uUZJ54am67lf96vUfRi6k1el/s320/DSC04978.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ladies in the market, 16 June 2015</td></tr>
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In Divo, we concentrated on households. People welcomed us into their homes, even those who were uninterested or against the elections, offering us water and a seat and asking for the news of the day.<br />
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<b>6. Avoid “Palabre” </b><br />A shopkeeper saw us coming, read our shirts, and said “Voter list? We don’t want ‘palabre’ here!” Palabre in Ivorian French means “fight” or “trouble.” The agents told me, as members of civil society, it was their job to remain neutral in their proceedings. However, sometimes one had to commiserate with the population in order to get them to listen and understand; other times, it’s better to not engage in any sort of political conversation, to tell people how to register and to move on. An agent who did not hesitate to let me know he supported the opposition, said sometimes he had to level with folks, letting them know his affiliation, that he understood where they were coming from, but that it was his job to sensitize the population about the benefits of voting. Sometimes it backfired, as he was called a hypocrite, a sell-out or accused of only doing this work for the money, but sometimes it worked. A group of young men engaged us, asking ironically what is democracy when they send your candidate to jail, and I could see one of the agent was visibly uncomfortable. Afterwards, she chastised her partner for engaging with those guys, and told him next time to just give them the information and move on, because you never know where it might lead. An agent who worked in Yopougon, a known Gbagbo stronghold, recounted that they were told to not go to certain specific neighborhoods, because they would be “attacked and hit like they did to the census agents last year.” She told me they had no choice but to heed the warning, and avoided certain areas for fear of violence.<br /><br /><b>7. The information provided</b><br />I discussed <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2015/06/impediments-to-voter-registration-in.html">here</a> the issues of papers, arguing that the CEI did not do a wonderful job of conveying which papers were required to register, and there were generally problems for people who had been waiting months to receive their ID cards. Additionally, it was important to drive home the point that even if you did not feel ‘concerné’/implicated by these presidential elections, it was still crucial to go register because it was the last chance for the next five years; meaning you would not be able to vote in the presidential, legislative, or municipal elections. The agents also encouraged the folks sensitized to spread the word in their families, particularly those who had recently moved or turned 18. Agents did not help people register directly, but were the only providers of information on where the local registration centers were, since the CEI was not conveying this information in a general manner. Finally, the agents tried to keep track, for their reports, of how many people they reached, by asking people to sign a register with their full name, occupation, and cell phone number as well as signature. When I first learned of this, I was certain people would not comply; that’s not very anonymous, I thought, and it is true that many refused to put their name down. Even one individual in Divo feared that we would send his friend’s name to the President who would do who knows what with the list and come find him. The agents tried to convey the purpose was just to have a record, but many shook their heads and refused. But most complied after being told the goal, while those who were illiterate signed their names with an X.<br /><br />In short, every day the agents were out from 8 or 9am until well into the afternoon, on foot, conveying the information for less than $2 an hour. They did not deal with physical violence, but did have to deal with difficult areas. The two teams with which I worked were very committed to spreading the correct information to the populations, and bemoaned the fact that the CEI was not facilitating the process for them or for the population. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvqNMy7Bf7sif6QowwSI3SUDho4rQsyFI2uOdzwj8SEip0Qd6BIZFTfJVrUJkHHUM2VQRuRXkkcTyKAf53amiwubkfdw9Dh4l1gym5f9iNOzVaw4Ir_V06IOBwChfRDvhyphenhyphen67y/s1600/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKvqNMy7Bf7sif6QowwSI3SUDho4rQsyFI2uOdzwj8SEip0Qd6BIZFTfJVrUJkHHUM2VQRuRXkkcTyKAf53amiwubkfdw9Dh4l1gym5f9iNOzVaw4Ir_V06IOBwChfRDvhyphenhyphen67y/s320/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25287%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The team in Divo, 20 June 2015</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikwwusflt4ELlBqEyNDww269cJxEEivVAorj5Nh65fr9OqxY6fvnW9a8S44bQf0kRCowOlhHttBdsmqRf0gY41E9wEGsIuy0zss3nYxkHr6gmn8fsPdW_LjQ-YL04UVho06_K/s1600/DSC04981.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikwwusflt4ELlBqEyNDww269cJxEEivVAorj5Nh65fr9OqxY6fvnW9a8S44bQf0kRCowOlhHttBdsmqRf0gY41E9wEGsIuy0zss3nYxkHr6gmn8fsPdW_LjQ-YL04UVho06_K/s320/DSC04981.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Adjamé team, 16 June 2015</td></tr>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-79907051954707162032015-06-30T14:41:00.001-04:002015-07-02T03:23:28.341-04:00Impediments to voter registration in Côte d’Ivoire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Starting June 1, the Electoral Commission (CEI) has launched a major campaign to revise the 2010/2011 voter registration list. Basically the goals are threefold: to make sure that those who have moved or prefer to vote in a different locality (and voted previously) are in fact on the list at the right polling station; to remove those voters who have died from the lists or who have married and changed their names; and to enroll those who were previously not on the lists (those who are over the age of 18, those who failed to register previously, newly naturalized citizens, etc.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbidpZaQV87Ow5GJuVYZfcHYjN4gZiZlTNVjfOtDDyF781Z66iN1Tx8RWEI6VhJEJAaucZR5-8V1H0gEa0wCE5dJMyuOcpQRO-sjs6MuRL4MxHC6ilLqbopgy3QItfwXZzDHd/s1600/CEI+registration+FAQ+2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbidpZaQV87Ow5GJuVYZfcHYjN4gZiZlTNVjfOtDDyF781Z66iN1Tx8RWEI6VhJEJAaucZR5-8V1H0gEa0wCE5dJMyuOcpQRO-sjs6MuRL4MxHC6ilLqbopgy3QItfwXZzDHd/s320/CEI+registration+FAQ+2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A FAQ to be distributed during the sensitization campaigns</td></tr>
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<b>Papers</b><br />
In order to register, one needs to bring one of two identification documents, either one’s certificate of nationality, or one’s national ID card. The catch is, the certificate of nationality issued before 2015 is no longer valid, as <a href="http://www.gouv.ci/actualite_1.php?recordID=5234">there were a lot of problems with fraud</a> and so the new certificates are “<i>sécurisé</i>” and cost 3,300 FCFA (~$6) to obtain from the Ministry of Justice; many people do not have the newest certificate. What about national ID cards? Well, if you have it, you are set and can easily register to vote. If you never had one or you lost yours, you’ll have to request a new one from the Organization of National Identification for 5,000 FCFA (~$10); but to do this you need the NEW certificate of nationality, and you will have to leave the original with the ONI office, to obtain a receipt of payment until you receive your ID card. So, let’s say I lost my ID card last month, and I went to the ONI to get a new one. They take my original certificate of nationality, and hand me a receipt for the ID card, telling me I won’t have the ID card for another two months. Time to register to vote rolls around; I now no longer have the original certificate of nationality nor an ID card, and the CEI does not accept the receipt for the ID card as valid identification to register to vote. So I can’t vote, unless I spend the time and money to re-obtain a copy of the certificate of nationality, which probably takes just as long to obtain as an ID card.<br />
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This was the most common complaint about the process that I have encountered working with the sensitization agents; despite the fact that many people said they wouldn’t register or were uninterested in the process, many who were interested felt discouraged because their papers were not in order. And since the campaign was only for a period of one month, it severely limited who was able to register now. In particular, it disproportionately affects young people, as they are the least likely to have the papers needed. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pv643pXWjLadDoKvgbbBjhZCdtoFWhw3xorvR_o1UYeDVconO-FrlbJyMJj92KZLjVplREO-snzOhqUpgRR_o-J9ioXhyeKczZfTWerwlfAJxg6G1SGgmTFryWGzjLU_ZY1X/s1600/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8pv643pXWjLadDoKvgbbBjhZCdtoFWhw3xorvR_o1UYeDVconO-FrlbJyMJj92KZLjVplREO-snzOhqUpgRR_o-J9ioXhyeKczZfTWerwlfAJxg6G1SGgmTFryWGzjLU_ZY1X/s320/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25287%2529.JPG" width="185" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">photo: a young man who was able to register to vote with the old certificate of nationality; Divo June 2015</span></span></td></tr>
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<b>CEI itself</b><br />
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The CEI centers are understaffed and those who are there often left earlier, according to both of the teams I worked with. CEI agents defended themselves saying that oftentimes nobody showed up to register anyway, so why should they stay open? Additionally, the CEI has failed to let the population know where the centers are where they could register, so that was left to the sensitization agents; meaning if you were not reached by these agents in the neighborhood, you may not ever know where it is you were supposed to register.<br />
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There was also confusion as to who was supposed to go to the centers; on posters and even on my t-shirt it says “I will verify that my name is on the voter list.” However, many people went to the centers to do just that, only to be turned away and told that the centers were only for those who needed to newly register. About halfway through the month, the CEI changed their tune, but at that point many were already discouraged and did not desire to return. On top of that, we had one elderly woman approach us, saying she had tried to check her name on the list, but was told to go to a web site to see if her name was there; this supposed website of course does not exist, but also this woman had no idea how to use internet, and had purposely made the trip from afar to verify her name. <br />
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The CEI is underfunded, especially in comparison to 2010. International donors do not see much at stake in these elections, and <a href="http://news.abidjan.net/h/556081.html">those who have chosen to support it can only do so much</a>. The population notices the difference, pointing out the fact that media campaigns on the process were much more widespread in the past, while this year it has been sparse at best.<br />
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Finally, the CEI has so far failed in its efforts – they were expecting 3 million new registrants, <a href="http://fr.starafrica.com/sport/cote-divoire-la-cei-propose-une-prorogation-du-delai-de-revision-de-la-liste-electorale.html" target="_blank">but have received around 400,000</a>. Today was supposed to be the last day, officially, for registration, but they have extended the process by two weeks (until July 12). However, since the main obstacles seem to be about paperwork, extending by two weeks may not help the problem. The other question is whether they will extend the sensitization process as well. <br />
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<b>Apathy and Acquiescence </b><br />
Not really a direct impediment, per se, but people have lost faith in the democratic process associated with elections after the crisis in 2010. With an impressive 80% turnout rate (53% of the voting age population, <a href="http://www.idea.int/db/fieldview.cfm?field=227&region=-1" target="_blank">which is the same as the US</a>), people expected those elections to bring the violence and war to an end; unfortunately, the elections did just the opposite. People are therefore fearful and distrusting of the electoral process. <br />
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Furthermore, many people do not see the CEI as legitimate. The <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20110101-lire-entretien-complet-le-president-commission-electorale-independante-cei-youssouf/">current CEI president, Bakayoko, was the CEI president in 2010 and it was he that declared Ouattara the winner</a>; many believe that he should not be the current president because he has this partisan perception. <a href="http://www.rfi.fr/afrique/20140906-cote-ivoire-bakayoko-reelu-douleur-tete-cei/">The opposition has been calling for this to be changed since he was re-elected, by members of the [not perceived as neutral] commission.</a> <br />
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Finally, there is the question as to whether <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2074401.stm">Ouattara himself is legitimate</a>, again bringing up the issue of nationality since both his parents are not believed to be Ivorian. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MeHzmxNPou7Iax90QSBa527hQBJY_Z_FDgCdhSL0DVyJj53H9L8loXg56Xf1z00H-3ATQN820DkV9S7og73S5JnrCLaJO3wBeP6e8DJNXPfCZVyX1ufXkkWhQaWmujDyXpMP/s1600/heated+discussion.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3MeHzmxNPou7Iax90QSBa527hQBJY_Z_FDgCdhSL0DVyJj53H9L8loXg56Xf1z00H-3ATQN820DkV9S7og73S5JnrCLaJO3wBeP6e8DJNXPfCZVyX1ufXkkWhQaWmujDyXpMP/s320/heated+discussion.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">photo: a heated discussion with those who did not want to register because “their candidate” is not participating in the elections; Adjamé, June 2015</span></span></td></tr>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-82800633895035476572015-06-22T05:58:00.000-04:002015-06-22T06:00:53.923-04:00Divo: A tale of two neighborhoods<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In a family compound, a woman turns a large roasting kettle full of peanuts while another sits on a low bench tossing peanuts in a basket to remove the casings. Several children dart about, climbing on large plastic bags full to the brim with peanuts. Here, the women tell us that they have registered to vote, that they heard about it on the radio.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8gGJ87K4LKxf8x0L4WMJ0IqE5zR6mjNPXhFZ_cFR_yXYhlYL_IYvBrGYL3OrlLghBaK9ZAgXVg7vyIk-FJxSLwU7CDL7vZaKFmTBooZmDKnxg4jmCiiTWhP680_k1SZ6UP2m/s1600/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25288%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8gGJ87K4LKxf8x0L4WMJ0IqE5zR6mjNPXhFZ_cFR_yXYhlYL_IYvBrGYL3OrlLghBaK9ZAgXVg7vyIk-FJxSLwU7CDL7vZaKFmTBooZmDKnxg4jmCiiTWhP680_k1SZ6UP2m/s320/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25288%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Dioula family eager to have their photo taken (Divo, June 2015)</td></tr>
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Young men in the street approached us to inquire about the meaning of our t-shirts and to get more information on how to vote; once they learned they nodded and said they would go right then to the CEI center to register. A few streets down, we are directed to the Imam’s house, who graciously welcomes us, takes all of the posters and documents and promises to include the information in his Friday sermon.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Q7QWxRXNlexGowoOKIcQVPVNKimMuTmaboMfONpa3EzcRimHVCRgVAxDr-ILkflRfUaL5_3eoqQwUMYQpvhkMAYLHNwySZ-htNplU5pTAkjxOisHBSCn1egupF1nkIgCs89x/s1600/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25289%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Q7QWxRXNlexGowoOKIcQVPVNKimMuTmaboMfONpa3EzcRimHVCRgVAxDr-ILkflRfUaL5_3eoqQwUMYQpvhkMAYLHNwySZ-htNplU5pTAkjxOisHBSCn1egupF1nkIgCs89x/s320/Divo+Day+1+19+june+%25289%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Imam of Divo, third from the left (Divo, June 2015)</td></tr>
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On the other side of town, we step under an overhang filled with young men. Flies lazily circle plastic cups of palm wine sitting on benches; the looks on the men’s faces are not particularly welcoming. “We voted in 2010, and they took up guns and put our president in jail. Why would we vote this year?” enquires a young man who was more willing to open up when he thought I was from Sierra Leone and not from the CEI. The men in the overhang listened, not very attentively, to the speech given by the electoral education agents, but refused to note their names on the list to demonstrate to the NGO that they had been spoken to by the agent. We continue to a group of women making and selling <i>attieke</i>. One laughs when the topic of elections eventually comes up: “Who do I vote for?” The agent responded, “for your candidate.” She snorted and said “and if my candidate is not here? If he is in jail?” <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5gwxiaGsKLipzlbBeR8zCBveJp5Eds9eoVMwUY_FpSKQ8_kXLttxVC4nFoACmDwweNs6NT5ON3iZYYqkafSghP2R7E2KErN7x5WXZCkxMJetGaoC-AqzwTI3JfS585reQkhh/s1600/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25281%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_5gwxiaGsKLipzlbBeR8zCBveJp5Eds9eoVMwUY_FpSKQ8_kXLttxVC4nFoACmDwweNs6NT5ON3iZYYqkafSghP2R7E2KErN7x5WXZCkxMJetGaoC-AqzwTI3JfS585reQkhh/s320/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25281%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the few men drinking palm wine who allowed a photo to be taken (Divo, June 2015)</td></tr>
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These are two neighborhoods in<a href="https://goo.gl/maps/yxtQn" target="_blank"> Divo, Western Côte d’Ivoire</a>. The first is called Dioulabouga, includes the mosque, and is inhabited by mostly Dioula-speaking Muslims. Of the 74 individuals we spoke with, almost 20 were tailors/dressmakers, several were taxi or bus drivers while others worked with electronics. Of the 23 women, only two had stated employment outside of the home, though I imagine those women roasting peanuts and making <i>attieke </i>were not only making it for themselves. The second neighborhood, Libraville, is near the Catholic high school and has several churches nearby. This is the heart of the Dida group; concentrated around Divo, they share their dialect with the Bété, the ethnic group which former president Gbagbo belongs to. Here, the occupation makeup was different as well: Of 41, 12 were planters or farmers, while there were more government workers and professors here than in Dioulabouga.<span style="font-size: x-small;">*</span><br />
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The electoral education agents told me that with the Dioula or Baoulé populations, there is no problem; they listen, they accept the information with no protests. The Dida, they said, that’s where the problem lies. In particular, young men turn and walk briskly in the opposite direction when they see the agents, or if the agents do talk to them, they shake their heads, suck their teeth and protest that there’s no point in voting, there’s not going to be any real elections. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxuVU28wNJbg3toBCyVn4vc2nvc62sQOUkSzpWel95rCR-uoblxyMqA0wRRWC_GsOqET9vrSbGEgR5b2bHXsMXcW5BUZ_2sAcSylxJYDMjqNhQAt_DEmLB_ngnvB552OtAM8a/s1600/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25284%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsxuVU28wNJbg3toBCyVn4vc2nvc62sQOUkSzpWel95rCR-uoblxyMqA0wRRWC_GsOqET9vrSbGEgR5b2bHXsMXcW5BUZ_2sAcSylxJYDMjqNhQAt_DEmLB_ngnvB552OtAM8a/s320/Divo+Day+2+20+june+%25284%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Retired government workers and current teachers, vocal about the political situation (Divo, June 2015)</td></tr>
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This group of retired teachers and government workers implored me to write down everything they said and to convey this information and their photo to Obama; to ask him to <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/ivory-coast-opposition-suspends-electoral-commission-role-181324032.html" target="_blank">change the president of the CEI</a> and to stop supporting <a href="http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2011/04/20110413160951nehpets0.2638666.html#axzz3dmdDRG8g" target="_blank">the President he</a> (along with former <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2063613,00.html" target="_blank">French President Sarkozy</a>) "imposed" on this country. Under Houphouet-Boigny, under Bédié, even under coup leader Gueï, they ate well, they recounted, but now old, retired men are hungry and can’t afford to pay their rent. “We can’t find food to eat, and you’re talking to us about elections,” they lament. <br />
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One could chalk up this attitude to poor losers since their preferred candidate lost in the last elections, but that would be misguided; the feelings of being wronged are real. One electoral education agent told me that they were chased from a village on the way to Gagnoa (towards the heart of Gbagbo country) where people told them that their families were killed, or arrested in the aftermath of the last elections. A dry cleaning shop owner told me that he had left Bouaké on foot with only the clothes on his back at the start of the rebellion in 2002; these individuals feel that justice was not served against those who had perpetrated massacres, human rights abuses, looting or outright fear during the 10 year civil conflict or during the election crisis. <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/blog/dangers-victor%E2%80%99s-justice-c%C3%B4te-d%E2%80%99ivoire#.VYfSzfntmko" target="_blank">Victor’s justice</a> is a common phrase as people wonder <a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/19/what-will-icc-s-legacy-be-c-te-d-ivoire" target="_blank">why Gbagbo is in the ICC while those who carried out treasonous acts during the rebellion are not</a>; in fact, <a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/ivoryCoastNews/idAFL5E8EC7FB20120312" target="_blank">leaders of the rebellion hold key government positions</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14072458" target="_blank">former rebels patrol the streets as new soldiers</a>. <br />
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The concern is how these feelings will manifest themselves in the months to come. Two men said that they were rebels or would become rebels. Others said they wanted to see Ouattara removed, forcefully, from power. On the other hand, not all of the vehement opposition supporters alluded to violence, but instead to using the ballot box as a weapon: one man, when we were speaking with some of his female family members making <i>attieke</i>, said that they would all register, sure, but they would not vote on Election Day, to show that there is no candidate or real competition.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">* This was of course not a representative sample of the population, as I was only able to cover parts of the neighborhoods over the course of a day. However, it is still interesting to see the differences, even within this convenience sample. </span></div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-29863056025553383272015-06-09T06:43:00.004-04:002015-06-09T06:44:20.860-04:00When it rains, it pours: Rainy Season 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Having grown up in the southeast United States, I am no stranger to summer flash thunderstorms. And in fact, moving to California, where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yNibj8LW-Q">90s R&B told us it never rains in the southern regions</a>, and the <a href="http://imgur.com/gallery/IgoUq">drought is a frightening reality</a>, I honestly missed storms and rainfall. </div>
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But I do not remember storms like this when I was here in 2012-2013. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCByJspQWhM0j2ZacM_wsJQ9T_LGiynbdMjHR43lzP8hm4szqG61Ej-2Sei50vHzkEGD5DSNesN-A_vMiby0gu_ra5Dvr2p6iTJOOiTfCUrgq35Lql2lP5_RcZhEGnbGANtr7H/s1600/DSC04826.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCByJspQWhM0j2ZacM_wsJQ9T_LGiynbdMjHR43lzP8hm4szqG61Ej-2Sei50vHzkEGD5DSNesN-A_vMiby0gu_ra5Dvr2p6iTJOOiTfCUrgq35Lql2lP5_RcZhEGnbGANtr7H/s320/DSC04826.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from my room during a storm</td></tr>
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Thunder and lightning are not a requirement in these Abidjan storms; instead, the bloated dark grey clouds unleash gallons and gallons of rain all over the city, turning paths into rivers and clobbering makeshift homes. The resulting clatter is impressive and lasts for hours. Children still play in the rain, but adults seek shelter wherever they can, or women wear plastic bags to cover their hair. Abidjan has faced precarious rainy season problems in the past, <a href="http://news.abidjan.net/h/502038.html">with major flooding throughout the city</a>. But our neighbor, Ghana, has seen much worse this year: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33049190">An explosion at a gas station</a> resulted in hundreds of deaths, partially because people were seeking shelter from the rains under the awnings of the station, and the rescue effort was impeded by flooding. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz3ziMQDHpK7zHEWSucwoFscktChWrasK16mRlJDyEu-oqo5ix2m_SooIzcg0X8b8ac8vakNUBJuQWG0C0l191NzjKNQ2e7qUf2qKVwyZgFzoGyX82Eqj9uumobkCfxcNol87/s1600/DSC04886.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRz3ziMQDHpK7zHEWSucwoFscktChWrasK16mRlJDyEu-oqo5ix2m_SooIzcg0X8b8ac8vakNUBJuQWG0C0l191NzjKNQ2e7qUf2qKVwyZgFzoGyX82Eqj9uumobkCfxcNol87/s320/DSC04886.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nearby shantytown in the rain</td></tr>
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The upside is the lower temperatures post-storm and overcast skies preventing the sun from baking the earth. Soon the storms will dwindle and the warmth will return. But for now, I will try not to forget the “Hajj 2013” umbrella a colleague lent me and hope that things will calm down before I travel into the interior of the country where the likelihood of washed out roads is much higher. </div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-54719812980161564062015-06-04T11:21:00.001-04:002015-06-19T14:57:27.713-04:00Why I am in Côte d’Ivoire (encore)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As I mentioned in a previous <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2015/05/back-to-abidjan.html">post</a>, I am in Côte d’Ivoire to examine perceptions and attitudes towards election preparation in the run-up to the 2015 presidential elections. In particular, I will be focusing on the process of registering voters and the accompanying electoral education campaigns, as well as participating in the monitoring of the process to make sure that there are no discrepancies or attempts to prevent individuals from exercising their right to vote.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">The <a href="http://www.ceici.org/elections/ci/index.php">Electoral Commission (CEI) </a>has accredited 10 NGO coalitions to accompany them in their efforts to register voters and revise the electoral list this month. Here’s a map of where the organizations will be working:</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2RrD5TxYBLuMlSxo0dui3bOzj_ec69WKkURutEQn7Rp2Rj5YNMiEEIP6xo6IDMESJnJARhhQECGzLcq-zWv1fP1sEkOuFKJo1khVqbbeoJXt0ja1lYG-3WtY6cpzLX61wQ56/s1600/CEI+repartition+des+coalitions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2RrD5TxYBLuMlSxo0dui3bOzj_ec69WKkURutEQn7Rp2Rj5YNMiEEIP6xo6IDMESJnJARhhQECGzLcq-zWv1fP1sEkOuFKJo1khVqbbeoJXt0ja1lYG-3WtY6cpzLX61wQ56/s400/CEI+repartition+des+coalitions.png" width="307" /></a></div>
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Additionally, <a href="https://www.ndi.org/cote-divoire-ready-serious-election-reform">National Democratic Institute (NDI)</a> has funded a platform of NGOs to monitor the registration process, and the organization I am working with, COSOPCI, will be doing this as well.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.ifes.org/">International Foundation for Electoral Systems</a> (IFES) is working closely with the CEI to make sure that this whole process runs smoothly; I attended a three day seminar in Dabou on voter education that included the abovementioned organizations and a few others + the CEI and IFES, where they validated a voter education manual, in order to make sure that all of the organizations working with the CEI are on the same page as far as messaging and programming is concerned. For example, IFES encouraged the NGOs to use “traditional media” like theater, in order to effectively reach populations that are not literate and as a means to engage youth in the process.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxDKRKh61CL4eYc-tJEe7F0_YF9WHLuvemvlWGY_wsIvOxVz7SixbdF4p-nXrz_U0Xc5CR-Ak-OIKCM-tgJM1kgzlk9IuTbzc18rz4gyqOlGcy5GLMPityE-UKh5lJhMwdfzr/s1600/DSC04841.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxDKRKh61CL4eYc-tJEe7F0_YF9WHLuvemvlWGY_wsIvOxVz7SixbdF4p-nXrz_U0Xc5CR-Ak-OIKCM-tgJM1kgzlk9IuTbzc18rz4gyqOlGcy5GLMPityE-UKh5lJhMwdfzr/s320/DSC04841.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Watching an example of theater for education, Dabou 27-29 May</td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMPabipONid39G8jMmpCvsIm4bs3TJJQbXD7bh_i5MIavA-vNQSheWoAhRYJ7cJGLYu09S3ye31cnrggdTGjpuKnyO4GgXVwIqgr0VqH-f0bGwjVo0TDQGhqnEvWHPQpz_inPT/s1600/IMG_0008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMPabipONid39G8jMmpCvsIm4bs3TJJQbXD7bh_i5MIavA-vNQSheWoAhRYJ7cJGLYu09S3ye31cnrggdTGjpuKnyO4GgXVwIqgr0VqH-f0bGwjVo0TDQGhqnEvWHPQpz_inPT/s320/IMG_0008.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of us concentrating on the session on using ICT for voter education, Dabou 27-29 May</td></tr>
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COSOPCI will be working in former President Gbagbo strongholds (Gagnoa 74% and Divo 56% for Gbagbo in 2010 second round), and believe that their work will be particularly difficult in these zones because they will be dealing with populations who may not be supportive of the electoral process or desire to participate in the elections. In other words, they will have to be particularly convincing in order to encourage these folks to come out to the campaigns and register to vote; they may also face hostile populations who do not trust an organization that comes from Abidjan and who may assume that the NGO is representing the government. Finally, to be affiliated with the CEI may hurt COSOPCI’s prospects, as many do not see the <a href="http://www.connectionivoirienne.net/110634/cote-divoire-les-pro-affi-accusent-le-regime-de-preparer-une-fraude-electorale-sur-la-carte-didentite">CEI as legitimate</a>.<br />
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My role in working with COSOPCI will be the following:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Provide feedback and insights on the voter education materials and strategies to be employed</li>
<li>Evaluate the effectiveness of the campaigns via an original survey developed in conjunction with COSOPCI</li>
<li>Interview local populations and gauge how they perceive the process and their general sentiments about the elections as well as their perceptions and attitudes towards NGOs and the CEI</li>
<li>Provide capacity support to COSOPCI (i.e. making maps and documents, etc.)</li>
</ul>
In addition to working on a day-to-day basis with COSOPCI, I have also been conducting interviews with other NGO coalitions and with the CEI. I managed to convince a gendarme protecting the CEI to take this photo of me:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpgDx1TTzIDSL_RdEJFM57o0ElOYMGBexVMVrnG0M9AndEXPwKICM5aEPQ-deG125I3yhyphenhyphenvNQnwjmZNpgQwD257xNaRwD4yNRhlQn1KcKmmYS0TVTy1xTecw0V2FEcqIx-4B3/s1600/DSC04875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMpgDx1TTzIDSL_RdEJFM57o0ElOYMGBexVMVrnG0M9AndEXPwKICM5aEPQ-deG125I3yhyphenhyphenvNQnwjmZNpgQwD257xNaRwD4yNRhlQn1KcKmmYS0TVTy1xTecw0V2FEcqIx-4B3/s320/DSC04875.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Things are starting out slowly because the CEI today distributed the funds for the campaigns (and the posters and t-shirts), so I think things will pick up soon, as they hope to register/revise the voter rolls by the end of June 2015. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCurfdSFBRz7A7QMJFvCEswTrYgliOmtCZIbtGY41vnhoYdu-E8Gzu_r9X87eXvHiKlqWPmKQ19N1X4KKsLbzJPSjfmk5X63Kg-tSieQTT0jPPBF_vEWN2SmtLy2BxOlDaVeg3/s1600/Images_misc+3-4+June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCurfdSFBRz7A7QMJFvCEswTrYgliOmtCZIbtGY41vnhoYdu-E8Gzu_r9X87eXvHiKlqWPmKQ19N1X4KKsLbzJPSjfmk5X63Kg-tSieQTT0jPPBF_vEWN2SmtLy2BxOlDaVeg3/s320/Images_misc+3-4+June.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-21556713912863423882015-05-27T08:46:00.000-04:002015-05-27T09:10:59.462-04:00Plus ça change…<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s changed in Abidjan since
I left in 2013?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Landscape</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the first things I noticed
upon my arrival in Abidjan was how much cleaner it was. Shortly after my departure in
2013, the government <a href="http://www.enca.com/africa/ivory-coast-plastic-ban-mixed-blessing">forbade </a>the use of plastic bags. As I mentioned in this
<a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2006/10/ghana-its-very-nice.html">post </a>on Ghana, similarly in Abidjan everything went into (sometimes two!) black
plastic bags, whether you were buying bananas, fried chicken, or groceries. Though
not all plastic bags were deemed <a href="http://news.abidjan.net/h/479583.html">unauthorized</a>,
and though not every city is <a href="http://news.abidjan.net/h/519833.html">in
compliance</a> with the law, the results in Abidjan seem to be pretty clear to
me: the grass on the side of the road is less littered with garbage and the
open sewers swell less with black plastic. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last rainy season, several
neighborhoods experienced severe flooding, but in particular shantytowns in
Cocody were especially hit: <a href="http://oeildafrique.com/cote-divoire-les-autorites-rasent-les-quartiers-precaires-abidjan/">39
died</a> in the shantytown known as “Gobelet.” Those who have been to Abidjan
before 2014 have seen this shantytown if they have ever made the trip between
Riviera and II plateau as you probably crossed through Gobelet on your way to rue des jardins.
It certainly is a precarious zone to build a neighborhood as it is crisscrossed
by a creek and the valley does not look stable enough to hold homes. So, in
July 2014, these folks were evicted (offered around $300 to skedaddle) and the
shantytown completely demolished. It now looks like this:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xrenPSo8XA7hbS_jLl76rIKb3EWK1dtEXS9z7JrA4LaqqZORG3Gnp49SIOv3NA8Px90_8sPVnghDamyr0ymterJXWcKRM4v3wJyfSZ2inCkeXfHZcqN2iNnyvc59OCcQDq9Z/s1600/464034912.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0xrenPSo8XA7hbS_jLl76rIKb3EWK1dtEXS9z7JrA4LaqqZORG3Gnp49SIOv3NA8Px90_8sPVnghDamyr0ymterJXWcKRM4v3wJyfSZ2inCkeXfHZcqN2iNnyvc59OCcQDq9Z/s400/464034912.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-goblet-district-of-the-cocody-area-in-abidjan-news-photo/464034912">http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-goblet-district-of-the-cocody-area-in-abidjan-news-photo/464034912</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Infrastructure</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3eme pont, 3eme pont ! Alright, I
was super excited to see and drive across the third bridge, named
affectionately for former President Henri Konan Bédié (see photo below: perhaps to appease him so
he would not run against current President Ouattara in October?), and whose
construction made traffic a nightmare on both sides of the lagoon when I was
here last. It lives up to expectation, I’d say: a futuristic traffic
interchange precedes it in Marcory, then you have a long stretch of highway
with signs that look as if they are lifted directly from the French autoroute.
The bridge itself is long and straight, several lanes but rarely crowded
because of the 500 FCFA ($1) toll one must pay when crossing both ways. The
toll stations are the same as one would find in Europe, and they even have
exact change! The bridge pops out on the other side near the infamous Golf
Hotel (this is where <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12068131">Ouattara
camped out during the election crisis</a>; and where I saw <a href="http://www.linfodrome.com/people-evenements/21168-concert-live-a-l-heden-golf-stromae-c-etait-for-mi-dable">Stromae</a>
last weekend in concert). It makes a more direct route between the airport and
my neighborhood, as well as direct access to several embassies. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBG40-Z81lQjChjG8aopSZW75DkkjYwIIS1jVtCOW5Kaw2OqQyiZDSdp7CFekPfxPPo5v4Z0GmfS9auRX351lS4TDMRvTji-SxEe78gM9pEdLO6MDd7gnDdu_a9T4Qo_Hd2u0/s1600/Sans+titre+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBG40-Z81lQjChjG8aopSZW75DkkjYwIIS1jVtCOW5Kaw2OqQyiZDSdp7CFekPfxPPo5v4Z0GmfS9auRX351lS4TDMRvTji-SxEe78gM9pEdLO6MDd7gnDdu_a9T4Qo_Hd2u0/s400/Sans+titre+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other infrastructural feat to
occur since my departure is the Riviera 2 rond-point. This is connected to the
bridge, and during my stay in Abidjan, the traffic caused by the construction
was particularly horrendous. Well, they have finished the work and made quite a
nice traffic circle; the problem is that it did nothing to improve traffic
conditions… it perhaps made it even worse as cars can no longer speed through
this area now regulated by traffic lights (and the occasional police officer –
yesterday I saw a lady cop giving a Gbaka driver a piece of her mind for
running the light!)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkqyw2yOfpFsYuDQWHlSsl72btv6myNYu7lnx8jA6lwcs-kiNKvSp3Qcst9A3oealJu4DtkGHIWacGIwTqwbZ1xb6JqWD60bZ2LcAvtJpxSpT6lWoThP5GdvLazZhEEqWAR7Q-/s1600/15503476656_db448372b1_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkqyw2yOfpFsYuDQWHlSsl72btv6myNYu7lnx8jA6lwcs-kiNKvSp3Qcst9A3oealJu4DtkGHIWacGIwTqwbZ1xb6JqWD60bZ2LcAvtJpxSpT6lWoThP5GdvLazZhEEqWAR7Q-/s320/15503476656_db448372b1_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
These changes may be seen as positive for the president as he attempts to build up political support for the elections in October (well, maybe not evicting the shantytown dwellers). However, not everyone is impressed with Ouattara's "concrete" achievements: <a href="http://lider-ci.org/">LIDER</a>, an opposition political party, posted this on their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LIDER.CI/photos/a.229712563754961.58038.183187561740795/898609146865296/?type=1&pnref=story">facebook page</a> (rough translation below):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"In saying that Ivorians want something "concrete," Ouattara must have been thinking about the English word, "concrete," which would explain why he has exclusively focused his presidency on constructing things out of concrete. What's <i>concrete </i>for Ivorians is the high price of electricity, power cuts, the state of disrepair in the hospitals and clinics, the piling up of heavy arms by the rebels, pharmacies lacking medicines, a bridge that charges too much and is not profitable, high taxes, partial justice, increases in the cost of living, corruption and a partisan electoral commission...We are Ivorian and the only thing we expect <i>concretely </i>from Mr. Ouattara is that he puts into place democratic conditions and transparent and credible elections."</blockquote>
These are just my initial thoughts as I close
out the first week of my return to Abidjan. More insights to come!<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-21153109553423416652015-05-18T18:39:00.000-04:002015-05-18T18:40:32.994-04:00Back to Abidjan!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here we go again! I'll be in Côte d'Ivoire from May 20, 2015 until July 27, 2015. This time I'll be carrying out a research project on election preparation and voter education programs in the run-up to the October presidential elections. These elections will be the first since the 2011 post-election crisis, <a href="http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/110/440/481.short">when the country fell into months of violent conflict after both incumbent and opposition candidates declared themselves winners</a>, leaving over 3,000 dead.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'll be based in Abidjan, but hoping to travel with the <a href="http://www.cosopci-ci.org/">Civil Society Coalition for Peace and Democratic Development in Côte d’Ivoire (COSOPCI) </a>as they put on voter education campaigns and register voters throughout the country. We'll be developing and conducting a survey in Abidjan about the elections and on citizens' perceptions of democracy promotion. This research is supported by grants from the <a href="http://www.bu.edu/wara/fellowship/pre-doctoral-fellowships/">West Africa Research Association</a> and the <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers/human-rights-center/student-fellowships/current-fellows/">Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley</a>.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I am excited to return in a different capacity (as a researcher and as a PhD student) and to see how much has changed (or not!) in Abidjan. </div>
</div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-21217263728077231042013-06-18T19:35:00.000-04:002015-05-16T15:59:45.891-04:00Au revoir, Abidjan....<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
I will soon be leaving Abidjan.... time really flew! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Here are some things I will definitely miss....</h3>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Alloco:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
these fried delicacies will greatly be missed. However, I bet my heart/arteries
will be grateful.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Coconuts
on the street:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> Manna from heaven, and they will cut it open for you to
drink right there. 100 centimes. Life doesn’t get any better.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZm6GjOp0tJzXHusfQeNnHI__zyWoEqOpkEf5XRJVpfveLv2vlSPbEyFzO0kN4bEwKKLPnL0MgajMmt9Gv0vb24nNRmaxGIskWwdCKHYh_6kIyeVEXlLIZGJciAy1ssV-fg67q/s1600/Coconuts.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZm6GjOp0tJzXHusfQeNnHI__zyWoEqOpkEf5XRJVpfveLv2vlSPbEyFzO0kN4bEwKKLPnL0MgajMmt9Gv0vb24nNRmaxGIskWwdCKHYh_6kIyeVEXlLIZGJciAy1ssV-fg67q/s320/Coconuts.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Coffee
ladies:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> three wonderful Baoulé ladies serve coffee and sandwiches on my
floor at work. Every morning, they laugh at my accent and bring me coffee with
a little milk. Sometimes I get an avocado sandwich from them for lunch.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Ivorian
mannerisms while speaking:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> “Yako,” “mmhmm”, “on est là,” “ce qui est sûr…” and
various hand gestures that go with them.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Jacqueville:
</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Paradise. Though a bit of a pain to get to, it was my favorite spot in Cote
d’Ivoire due to its beauty and quiet.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJs_Jee2dFtI5sco578rmgoWISeMLLpqFoyKRWomV1ksna2cUM6BUu0Z2LaJJxABTt3w-HFukRs0yOF1wW5zsiwZ856maBMlCal9WflqzaF2oR5vp2RWAs5FqglwBHPkterNj1/s1600/Jacqueville.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJs_Jee2dFtI5sco578rmgoWISeMLLpqFoyKRWomV1ksna2cUM6BUu0Z2LaJJxABTt3w-HFukRs0yOF1wW5zsiwZ856maBMlCal9WflqzaF2oR5vp2RWAs5FqglwBHPkterNj1/s320/Jacqueville.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Maquis:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
poisson braisé, poulet picqué, alloco, attieke, and good music to boot. In
particular, Chez Helene, Chez Ambroise, and BBQ Inn.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgDTPSj8hHMy22YYsvbqJPRA1G3szu4TSxKRCKEakjslIdIiP5LHy1SnByZMqiVkWhrjOzgWQvZRYoqJWynVt8pv5Uwad3KR_FN283saf03bqW_jDyoP9sveq2b-J-3aHmYQz/s1600/Maquis+food.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGgDTPSj8hHMy22YYsvbqJPRA1G3szu4TSxKRCKEakjslIdIiP5LHy1SnByZMqiVkWhrjOzgWQvZRYoqJWynVt8pv5Uwad3KR_FN283saf03bqW_jDyoP9sveq2b-J-3aHmYQz/s320/Maquis+food.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">My
colleagues and our missions: </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I enjoyed traveling to schools in other
cities, and my colleagues were great partners for the trips.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqxwAPUdkL036wwphoeIPO81AEdV2OGNsSbKx7DMYxZDFGRIqKDIPz5Ix_n8QZ1mo80TPog1udY0M9od71b5rWGsqOkN-SMWC-n_FE5IFxJtHSVRQ9d1DSskFLbkf5pTD7d2t/s1600/colleagues.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqxwAPUdkL036wwphoeIPO81AEdV2OGNsSbKx7DMYxZDFGRIqKDIPz5Ix_n8QZ1mo80TPog1udY0M9od71b5rWGsqOkN-SMWC-n_FE5IFxJtHSVRQ9d1DSskFLbkf5pTD7d2t/s320/colleagues.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
</div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The Chargeurs</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">: the guys who get us the car in the morning for work. Some of them confessed their love, while others just preferred to practice their English.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Shocking
taxi drivers with my accent.</b></div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Pagne:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> Bright colors on men and women alike, in interesting styles. Oumar, our tailor, could make anything we drew for him, as long as we gave him a lot of time (sometimes sitting with him for hours while he finished stuff)</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3y6fNOFyuPfc7JjSRwXJ-0vurckv7uJJvnQnTK1XFAHj0IiajGdnkmai7M3mLONJw4Epc3Xb4EvJ0DwuYoTQp8-o2X6LsHy5cCXLwbv9E-5PBzqEy9APm4f58YwXR94zi6eLf/s1600/pagnes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3y6fNOFyuPfc7JjSRwXJ-0vurckv7uJJvnQnTK1XFAHj0IiajGdnkmai7M3mLONJw4Epc3Xb4EvJ0DwuYoTQp8-o2X6LsHy5cCXLwbv9E-5PBzqEy9APm4f58YwXR94zi6eLf/s320/pagnes.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<div style="text-indent: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The hair
salon ladies:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> $7 for a mani/pedi. They are right across the street so I
definitely used their services. They loved to ask us to bring them back a
“friend” from the USA.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> The Hash</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">: Both the classic and the Abidjan
Hash, this was the once a week chance to leave the city and walk around with
good company. I laid the Classic Hash twice, which merited me a very
inappropriate Hash name. Fun times.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3y6fNOFyuPfc7JjSRwXJ-0vurckv7uJJvnQnTK1XFAHj0IiajGdnkmai7M3mLONJw4Epc3Xb4EvJ0DwuYoTQp8-o2X6LsHy5cCXLwbv9E-5PBzqEy9APm4f58YwXR94zi6eLf/s1600/pagnes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><br /></a>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTrGmrpgYwuDOcWP_LohtVL1D975Xwc-Qb94wfZ0ULJfddmICJunF5QX6KYk8vhrRk36fEC14uwKtg00OaUY4svNW5SbQen57NXP7lGJU_unKLhsJEH9IH3ejuSNSpjvAdw4H/s1600/Classic+Hash%252C+Abidjan+Zoo%252C+16+June.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioTrGmrpgYwuDOcWP_LohtVL1D975Xwc-Qb94wfZ0ULJfddmICJunF5QX6KYk8vhrRk36fEC14uwKtg00OaUY4svNW5SbQen57NXP7lGJU_unKLhsJEH9IH3ejuSNSpjvAdw4H/s320/Classic+Hash%2C+Abidjan+Zoo%2C+16+June.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Classic Hash, Abidjan Zoo, 16 June</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDHM3yxiPiX6bRSKAL-Gmjy34g_ArkI64tIyPkgLsXcMhb0S-oGhIGkOtj35ijqlTBbFdpjXM4bjLCQfAhQyqZd86DnvDeu0S9q4MhZVZsTpBcCuWLqkce7ynrZ32EYCAx_Y3/s320/Abidjan+Hash%2C+November+10.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abidjan Hash, November 10</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDHM3yxiPiX6bRSKAL-Gmjy34g_ArkI64tIyPkgLsXcMhb0S-oGhIGkOtj35ijqlTBbFdpjXM4bjLCQfAhQyqZd86DnvDeu0S9q4MhZVZsTpBcCuWLqkce7ynrZ32EYCAx_Y3/s1600/Abidjan+Hash%252C+November+10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Wearing
sandals every day</b></div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">New
surprises/challenges every day: </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">walk out the door. You do not know what the
day holds… it could consist of making a taxi driver giggle with your sad
attempts at Nouchi or arguing with fruit sellers about the price of a mango. It
could end with the road being blocked from a land slide during the rainy season
or a 2 hour traffic jam caused by incompetent military trying to regulate the
patterns. You might learn the merits of polygamy from a colleague during a
conference or have to explain to other colleagues how to put page numbers into
a document. You could eat bush meat in a sticky okra stew or French fries and Lebanese
salad. You just never know, and that’s what’s the best about it.</span><br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Won’t be missed</h3>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Apprentis</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">:
the kids that yell at you when you are crossing the street: They want you to go
on their Gbaka. But I just want to cross the street.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Embouteillage</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">:
Sitting in hour-long traffic in the heat with pollution coming in the windows….
No thank you.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwYjWmKaabDhEMe9jrla8r88wh9ibthUAtIOGsHhZ4hoRU69vgIcUO0HkJbvo2tS6GhpLu2MeypyBHtAHFOT3uuVTp-0wGVNHeD1Jn4WYFp0FI74zVZIrD098t8xgkMVRLyxO/s1600/traffic.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIwYjWmKaabDhEMe9jrla8r88wh9ibthUAtIOGsHhZ4hoRU69vgIcUO0HkJbvo2tS6GhpLu2MeypyBHtAHFOT3uuVTp-0wGVNHeD1Jn4WYFp0FI74zVZIrD098t8xgkMVRLyxO/s320/traffic.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
</div>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Internet and
power outages:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> With the rainy season came lots of power outages. And our
internet was always up and down.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBm3edgG3ZnUFnr3hVstcEoW3ogsTqc5Qk2KOrpx2l2jl-OZKTDU1dTXqqy1FDYY1Pi2MGqqhdH7LXW4t0VxXoBxyJLO65OSEvrS9SpIyUZN5kDROrfv2VuN_4PnPqx6bXkL5/s1600/Delestron-008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBm3edgG3ZnUFnr3hVstcEoW3ogsTqc5Qk2KOrpx2l2jl-OZKTDU1dTXqqy1FDYY1Pi2MGqqhdH7LXW4t0VxXoBxyJLO65OSEvrS9SpIyUZN5kDROrfv2VuN_4PnPqx6bXkL5/s320/Delestron-008.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/22/delestron-cartoon-superhero-blackout-ivory-coast">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/22/delestron-cartoon-superhero-blackout-ivory-coast</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Negotiating:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
Every price is negotiable. Though this has positive benefits for the pocket, it
can get exhausting, especially if the vendor is giving you a hard time because
of where you come from.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-indent: -24px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqah1byZtNFj9e0rioxZQfOuU7EM2EJ9DOjkFBQPfOwusEJGFelFp23r9w-IWrqM_Fw6ohsUQ15_RkoavRuXWTC-WRGnKKLiu0oCGwOl73TVxfwe2mFzM8R4_7kiW_tL1EKIW/s1600/taxi+negotiating.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqah1byZtNFj9e0rioxZQfOuU7EM2EJ9DOjkFBQPfOwusEJGFelFp23r9w-IWrqM_Fw6ohsUQ15_RkoavRuXWTC-WRGnKKLiu0oCGwOl73TVxfwe2mFzM8R4_7kiW_tL1EKIW/s320/taxi+negotiating.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">NesCafe</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">:
I can’t wait to have some real coffee. The good kind.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Nobody
having change:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> See<a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2012/10/abidjan-city-of-people-with-no-change.html"> this post.</a></span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Open
sewers and men using them to relieve themselves:</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> Nuff said.</span><br />
<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Work
drama: </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">bureaucracy and politics, lack of funds, and the like… I sometimes
found myself in the middle of “palabres” between colleagues. </span></div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-88640565848230739862013-04-19T13:43:00.000-04:002015-05-16T16:31:12.809-04:00Pomp and circumstance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Ivoirian culture, and what I am seeing in the office
culture specifically, is the importance of greeting people. Every morning, I go
around the 5<sup>th</sup> and 6<sup>th</sup> floors to greet the Director of
the DPFC and his various Deputy Directors. I then also greet my colleagues
working on EDHC. What’s most interesting about the greeting process is that
it’s in fact not at all rude to interrupt a meeting (unless it’s a very important
one) to greet someone. This took me aback at first, when people would just come
into my office during a meeting to just say hello. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every visit we make to a school involves a formal meet and
greet with the director of the school. We sit in their overly air conditioned
office, and the director, after offering us some water, asks for the news (les
nouvelles). Depending on whether the director is a man or a woman, they will
ask for the youngest person of the same sex to give the news. They will then
ask one of their colleagues to summarize the news to them. In other words,
everyone has a mouthpiece that speaks for them. Once the news is summarized,
the director of the school welcomes everyone and we can proceed with the
purpose of our visit. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every meeting and conference has an opening ceremony, where
some high-up person will give a little speech thanking everyone (and then they sometimes
leave right after, not actually participating in the conference). Then a MC is
selected that runs the meeting and who is charged with taking down names during
the question-answer section. Then there is a closing ceremony where the high-up
person returns or sends a representative to give a closing speech. Titles, as I
can gather, are very important. And making sure you thank all the right people
in your speech is equally so. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
More often than not the time allocated to the people of
importance and their long speeches exceeds the purpose of the actual ceremony:
case in point, I went to the MENET’s day of Excellence awards ceremony where
the five speakers took over two hours to do their speeches, whereas the award
giving process (to the best school, best teacher, best administrator, best
student, etc) took about an hour. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This past month saw two fun ceremonies: the MENET’s
Excellence awards and the MENET’s National Women’s Day celebration. Both had
comedians, singers, actors that broke up the long speeches. They honored
various personnel within the ministry as well as students and teachers. The
Excellence awards took place in the fancy Hotel Ivoire and the Women’s day was
in the grand Palais de la Culture. Here
are some pictures to enjoy.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqR515qc7ND4oEj-wuq39FCz0_XOsB4-ObTaaMA4pJoWZVdKzc1l9nnSwtB5eSAE9p4e-x8Iq48Fpo-ND7n7wVah-nNB-8rclgaHDSa62BGnPqA_7RTwoOl5yPo1iPkaSMpwC/s1600/DSC01862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUqR515qc7ND4oEj-wuq39FCz0_XOsB4-ObTaaMA4pJoWZVdKzc1l9nnSwtB5eSAE9p4e-x8Iq48Fpo-ND7n7wVah-nNB-8rclgaHDSa62BGnPqA_7RTwoOl5yPo1iPkaSMpwC/s320/DSC01862.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hotel Ivoire</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicnMH3h78EJchlvZQ3Z1HkdJe4WviqYPTovRycK6OWrAiZawT9NqbM-Skp0SQ2wycCZM_bZO6FoQKOwqM-leV1JT-EQ_DhjX_N024eeQQ-sLZgWyAMzuIm-C3SP05cxdjFfuwa/s1600/DSC01863.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicnMH3h78EJchlvZQ3Z1HkdJe4WviqYPTovRycK6OWrAiZawT9NqbM-Skp0SQ2wycCZM_bZO6FoQKOwqM-leV1JT-EQ_DhjX_N024eeQQ-sLZgWyAMzuIm-C3SP05cxdjFfuwa/s320/DSC01863.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madame le ministre giving her welcoming speech</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkaxAQc6ZChnAh5fIfZfK7Ttzr01KoSv246ap8N4PzVJ18LPzJe-qQizINWlRFRpVxftDosff5jP3Dl5hoTXRuejVViMlKGfyClRk8cowvAHEMuaeblx3HwHtGTK-7zNgL4xJ/s1600/DSC01875.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkaxAQc6ZChnAh5fIfZfK7Ttzr01KoSv246ap8N4PzVJ18LPzJe-qQizINWlRFRpVxftDosff5jP3Dl5hoTXRuejVViMlKGfyClRk8cowvAHEMuaeblx3HwHtGTK-7zNgL4xJ/s320/DSC01875.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the awardees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prime Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Palais de la culture</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madame le Ministre and the Prime Minister's wife releasing doves</td></tr>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-26351509922025064322013-04-07T10:54:00.000-04:002015-05-16T15:59:45.907-04:00Megalomania in Côte d’Ivoire: La basilique de Yamoussoukro deserves its own blog post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxswoQzBlpzOCCNCzn6Ff83o_KFp3i_Ma8BFeBBHeYjk3uEBbaWq0RNFzG3OJMzgPQSuOiy_KBVoj1gmf1Xs-2cyGtCnAYoULazdOEmS6jrE8M4f_MuYvoGNUD-5MogSgkkQfw/s1600/P1020975.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxswoQzBlpzOCCNCzn6Ff83o_KFp3i_Ma8BFeBBHeYjk3uEBbaWq0RNFzG3OJMzgPQSuOiy_KBVoj1gmf1Xs-2cyGtCnAYoULazdOEmS6jrE8M4f_MuYvoGNUD-5MogSgkkQfw/s320/P1020975.JPG" width="320" /></a>I recently visited the largest Christian edifice in the
world, which is interestingly located right here in Côte d’Ivoire.</div>
<br />
<br />
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Taking only three years to be completed (1985-1989), the Basilica of Our
Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro was commissioned by then President, the country’s
founding father, Houphouet-Boigny. As mentioned earlier, Yamoussoukro was his
birthplace, so it is naturally the perfect site for a building that exceeds the
size of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome by 95,847 square feet. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When there, one cannot help but wonder the purpose of such a
building; though it can hold 18,000 worshipers, it is rare indeed that this is
ever the case, as few people actually visit the basilica. Not to mention the
more pressing question on priorities: in the late 1980s, early 1990s when it
was constructed, Côte d’Ivoire’s economy was in a downward spiral thanks in
part to Houphouet-Boigny’s mismanaged cocoa policies. To spend all that money
to build such a monument when people are falling further into poverty seems a
little misguided, to say the least. But we’re not talking about the sanest character
in the world, I suppose (the man put his face next to Jesus’ in one of the stained
glass windows….)</div>
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</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="http://unevingtaine.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/yamoussoukro-vitral.jpg?w=655" class="decoded" src="http://unevingtaine.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/yamoussoukro-vitral.jpg?w=655" height="320" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="223" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See anyone familiar? <a href="http://unevingtaine.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/yamoussoukro-vitral.jpg?w=655">http://unevingtaine.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/yamoussoukro-vitral.jpg?w=655</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVUBhtwj0ALNg3ijHqAG5PgLvB3oquiZQHa7oQgclojY3dNOp9lmH0wTHai7s4P-5KOhHWeSD9x2oR59koCrC24IxjGwbhqVvtZ6X5GtjBpd153C-LmhOzjUYiiiRTFbG9g2x/s1600/P1030018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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In his book, <u>Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in
Dangerous Places</u>, renowned economist Paul Collier makes an interesting
argument, somewhat in favor of the basilica: </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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“…societies throughout history have used monumental
buildings to construct a shared identity…the creation of a sense of shared
identity is very much what leaders should be doing in these societies.”</div>
</blockquote>
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But he finishes by saying, “whether a cathedral in the
president’s home village was the ideal symbol in a society divided by religion
and ethnicity might, however, be questioned.” Especially considering that there
is strong belief that the basilica was built in part with funding from foreign aid
agencies. Not to mention that if this was in fact the reason Houphouet-Boigny
built it – for social cohesion – we can say it was an epic fail: Yamoussoukro
remains a city with no purpose and the country experienced its first coup d’état
just 9 years after the basilica was completed. </div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiw2j52PIjVPVgcQDAiIh5ACo56fjO0tgaaF4ZSX3NXQS0W4R-1j4ig4k4uXtFjRzVUu6b7JZLFHCW4ekJ32Rek5PeXuAOH44yLhSC4rFBwKn2vReR5ITBj4RlLI8d2o1tAoB/s1600/P1030070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfiw2j52PIjVPVgcQDAiIh5ACo56fjO0tgaaF4ZSX3NXQS0W4R-1j4ig4k4uXtFjRzVUu6b7JZLFHCW4ekJ32Rek5PeXuAOH44yLhSC4rFBwKn2vReR5ITBj4RlLI8d2o1tAoB/s320/P1030070.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the incomplete hospital</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The building was consecrated by Pope Jean Paul II in 1990.
He said, however, that a hospital had to be constructed before he would come.
Ironically, it took just three years to build the basilica, but the “promised”
hospital has yet to be finished (23 odd years later?) In a <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21556985">June 16, 2012 article in the
Economist</a>, construction workers at the site said that they expected it to
be finished by the end of the year. Obviously this is not the case. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When there, the marble reflects the sunlight to such an
extent, you can’t look directly at the large expansive courtyard in the front
of the basilica. Inside, 70 foot high stained glass windows depict Christ amidst
palm trees. Elevators
built inside the giant pillars take you up to the upper levels, where you get
an astonishing view down the 23 stories. The dome itself weighs over <span class="nowrap">98 000 tons. Oh and if you happen to be one of the few
worshipers that come to the basilica, you can rest assured that you won’t overheat;
each individual seat has a built-in air conditioning. </span></div>
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<span class="nowrap"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVUBhtwj0ALNg3ijHqAG5PgLvB3oquiZQHa7oQgclojY3dNOp9lmH0wTHai7s4P-5KOhHWeSD9x2oR59koCrC24IxjGwbhqVvtZ6X5GtjBpd153C-LmhOzjUYiiiRTFbG9g2x/s1600/P1030018.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipVUBhtwj0ALNg3ijHqAG5PgLvB3oquiZQHa7oQgclojY3dNOp9lmH0wTHai7s4P-5KOhHWeSD9x2oR59koCrC24IxjGwbhqVvtZ6X5GtjBpd153C-LmhOzjUYiiiRTFbG9g2x/s320/P1030018.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span class="nowrap">Over the top doesn’t even begin to
describe the immensity and the insanity that is the basilica. Enjoy <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/113058549971786565762/albums/5864113538144080353?authkey=COeiguWM7K2f0AE">this photo album</a> and try not to ask too many questions about the necessity of such an
edifice… just revel in this perfect example of megalomania. </span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-77933332190221477402013-03-17T13:46:00.002-04:002015-05-16T16:31:12.803-04:00Adventures from the North<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Woot0KYqW-OjkzkSCVuQ5FIUO8hBMWGGfa7cXw_oMRpP8VMKHqS17gQf0yTaK8vsB_6AboxrjA33ydJBUqPJ-_fVmX-diz-shBUO0giQB_FvbNsGzcvGoqZVMsQTFJFcWMQl/s1600/North+trip.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Woot0KYqW-OjkzkSCVuQ5FIUO8hBMWGGfa7cXw_oMRpP8VMKHqS17gQf0yTaK8vsB_6AboxrjA33ydJBUqPJ-_fVmX-diz-shBUO0giQB_FvbNsGzcvGoqZVMsQTFJFcWMQl/s320/North+trip.jpg" width="311" /></a></div>
I referenced <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2013/01/coming-soon-adventures-from-north.html">here </a>the inequalities that existed between the North and South in relation to education, so I was excited to spend five days in this region of Côte d'Ivoire. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u>The cities</u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Boundiali</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwE7avrkPHZ3lI6100LOJ9ZCW3xm9bG7DPN5yh-n-Y8fZBjst1YD8x1u3DbZQOg8BhQGz7lcWIdGPPQcnAuahiysVnzyyP-WcNwKWsp27zBRsb7XHmj6vtBfyUtFnv08LF1V2x/s1600/DSC01831.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwE7avrkPHZ3lI6100LOJ9ZCW3xm9bG7DPN5yh-n-Y8fZBjst1YD8x1u3DbZQOg8BhQGz7lcWIdGPPQcnAuahiysVnzyyP-WcNwKWsp27zBRsb7XHmj6vtBfyUtFnv08LF1V2x/s320/DSC01831.JPG" width="320" /></a> Our first stop was 731 km from Abidjan. A quiet, not very
crowded city er, more like a village, Boundiali was welcoming. There were very
few cars in the city; everyone rode motorcycles or bicycles. The roads weren’t
paved, just dusty, red passageways. We stayed at a hotel called le Dala, which
was inaugurated by Houphouet-Boigny in the 1970s. It seemed like the hotel hadn’t
been repaired or upgraded since then either… upon arrival, the porter told me
there was TV in my room, but neglected to mention that there was no running
water (in all of Boundiali, apparently!). <br />
<br />
<i>Gbon</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Jx-OuLTzPxpDFvO4oNly2YT7cwh9UWr5cn7-DfWpA7QPECZgCORfPfsN3Fqa16KccU4foGFDR4kd7m5DvYU3unMa6HPFyY2Uk6Ku5IGAGVpV0FzqJs5skvJf5kHeOm5o_jT/s1600/DSC01760.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU_Jx-OuLTzPxpDFvO4oNly2YT7cwh9UWr5cn7-DfWpA7QPECZgCORfPfsN3Fqa16KccU4foGFDR4kd7m5DvYU3unMa6HPFyY2Uk6Ku5IGAGVpV0FzqJs5skvJf5kHeOm5o_jT/s320/DSC01760.JPG" width="320" /></a>At first, I wasn’t certain why we were visiting this town, 30
some km from Boundiali. But I later found out that it is the Minister of
Education’s native village and they wanted us to see it. We only spent the
morning and part of the afternoon here, but like Boundiali, nobody drove cars
and everything was coated in a red dust.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhza9DzxECwWyMwPT9OTdK-Zpfvm2pA7Q7FrUb8FtAm9IVz7HXIXtkIVj0K-oGwb1Wc9cqOTCU0bBcZZ10zyVCpI8dP3ssy9_eFFRy-PX0zYhnyvDEAIlOprXLM8lt5J0zJEMvf/s1600/DSC01856.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhza9DzxECwWyMwPT9OTdK-Zpfvm2pA7Q7FrUb8FtAm9IVz7HXIXtkIVj0K-oGwb1Wc9cqOTCU0bBcZZ10zyVCpI8dP3ssy9_eFFRy-PX0zYhnyvDEAIlOprXLM8lt5J0zJEMvf/s320/DSC01856.JPG" width="320" /></a><i>Korhogo</i></div>
Two hours from Boundiali, we found ourselves in Korhogo.
Like the other two cities, no taxis, so we had to take moto-taxis to get
around. The President has a residence here, because his home village, Kong isn’t
so far away. We didn’t have much time to explore Korhogo, but it seemed like an
interesting city, if one could get over the outrageous temperature of 47
degrees Celsius. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><u>The schools</u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0HilNcTp-y9-_ydBerdtvu3NdH-SanzOl6t7wOgPuAMvYTTkr8AkHJs8iWr9EKkdDwGCjolKq4KmvKdZrifU-KkV9Rt1T9SnhAL9Hx6UU83TLxeEvOs5Krm1ly6wLGFcshlE/s1600/DSC01821.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit0HilNcTp-y9-_ydBerdtvu3NdH-SanzOl6t7wOgPuAMvYTTkr8AkHJs8iWr9EKkdDwGCjolKq4KmvKdZrifU-KkV9Rt1T9SnhAL9Hx6UU83TLxeEvOs5Krm1ly6wLGFcshlE/s320/DSC01821.JPG" width="240" /></a>I visited the north with two colleagues: the National
Coordinator for EDHC (CND) and the CND for primary schools/CAFOP. It was
pleasant to travel with both of these gentlemen, as they were equally
enthusiastic about EDHC and went over and beyond the expected workload by
holding open sessions for teachers with complaints and questions in addition to
the class visits.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In total, we visited six schools: Two elementary schools,
three high schools, and one CAFOP (teacher training college). Each visited (with
one exception, see below) consisted of us attending an EDHC lesson with other
EDHC teachers from the school present, followed by a session of feedback and
capacity building for the teachers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETPxsjJdt-wftsqx4o96rmtY87GD-a5wZUlVI0wZyFNlXw-YIHB64Uugs154g6pKlZ9ii0HPBrKno8gmDuagUFXA45mhj3uAvZvMIvB6Lq46fw8lhjlgX7cJtl93v1fuSYPBV/s1600/DSC01773.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETPxsjJdt-wftsqx4o96rmtY87GD-a5wZUlVI0wZyFNlXw-YIHB64Uugs154g6pKlZ9ii0HPBrKno8gmDuagUFXA45mhj3uAvZvMIvB6Lq46fw8lhjlgX7cJtl93v1fuSYPBV/s320/DSC01773.JPG" width="320" /></a>We quickly noticed a trend: most, if not all, of the
teachers had yet to receive the new curriculum, available since September. However,
we did have one principal admit that he had received the programs on a USB key,
but hadn’t distributed them to the teachers. Or administrators said they had
the program, but didn’t want to waste precious resources printing it for the
others. This complaint, that the DPFC/MEN are not directly providing materials
to teachers, was probably the most frequent. Even though they had the resource
at their fingertips, many complained that they should have been given their own
hard copy, instead of having to print it or copy it. When asked, well if you
aren’t teaching from the curriculum, what are you teaching from? Teachers
responded that they used the old ECM textbook, which doesn’t present a huge
problem, per se, because the content is similar, but it frustrated my
colleagues who have been pushing for the APC teaching methodology. </div>
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As mentioned in <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2013/02/escaping-abidjan.html">my post about Yamoussoukro and Bouaké</a>, the
biggest teaching strategy problems we saw were at the middle school level. Once
again, dictation prevailed as a teaching method, despite the importance of
participation in human rights and citizenship learning. In a lesson on
entrepreneurship for 9<sup>th</sup> graders (many of whom are old enough to
start their own business!), the teacher dictated the steps necessary to
starting a business, including (but not defining) conducting a market study and
a feasibility study. Students copied down what the professor said, but when I
asked them pointedly how they thought this particular lesson would apply to
their daily lives, many said it wouldn’t/didn’t concern them. Without directly
engaging the students, they treat EDHC just as another boring lesson, which of
course won’t facilitate behavior change, the main goal of EDHC teaching. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4XJHjSZEH7WLvvYty8YxS1CpMiTUCIgwutzmNkYj97nN5nYEIXa22U9PT8ciBnFaEdNlmPaU9vAmFPljEr4MyOQstN74Wix4xnFuWZcih9-DP7a_zV8sLiY2IytdhUc5BaZc/s1600/DSC01788.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4XJHjSZEH7WLvvYty8YxS1CpMiTUCIgwutzmNkYj97nN5nYEIXa22U9PT8ciBnFaEdNlmPaU9vAmFPljEr4MyOQstN74Wix4xnFuWZcih9-DP7a_zV8sLiY2IytdhUc5BaZc/s320/DSC01788.JPG" width="320" /></a>My colleagues were frustrated, and reiterated the importance
of using interactive teaching methods, such as group work, brainstorming, field
trips, class projects, etc. Some of the teachers reacted positively, while
others crossed their arms and rolled their eyes. I told them that I understood
that they were sometimes obligated against their desires to teach EDHC and
perhaps weren’t motivated to come up with interesting teaching methods. I
suggested that they work with the other EDHC teachers to come up with lesson
plans, thus alleviating the burden of planning for EDHC on top of their other
work. I hope they will take this to heart…</div>
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<br /></div>
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There were two events that surprised me during this trip. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First, we had a bit of a conflict with one of the EDHC
teachers in Gbon. As we were visiting two schools in the city, we arrived a bit
late for the open class in the Gbon middle school. Instead of waiting for us,
which the principal told the teacher to do, the EDHC teacher released his
students AND told all of the other EDHC teachers they could go home because “we
were not coming.” Thus, when we came, there was literally no-one there. We were
shocked. We hadn’t made the trip from Abidjan for our good health; we came to
provide support to these teachers, who were constantly complaining that the MEN
was neglecting them, and instead of waiting 10 minutes, they chose to leave.
When the teacher in question was called upon, he shrugged his shoulders. The
principal called all the teachers back, many of whom sat with their arms
crossed during our session, complaining that the DPFC didn’t provide them with
the proper materials to teach the lessons. We pointed out that as teachers, it’s
part of their job to seek out interesting materials to be used creatively, and
that we provided everything they needed as far as methodology and curriculum
are concerned… what more did they need? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVM9IjU-RQ6YpvwmIY0kXhwidbBuNlT_7yPLNhdviItMSWy8XPI0O3Fuh2bPpCQ9dPykW4CZOkbnv40MNmqXtTr_lb6pn9ThBjdqD4lNGGLjoijtzoXmaFXti49hpcphUL0-G1/s1600/DSC01839.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVM9IjU-RQ6YpvwmIY0kXhwidbBuNlT_7yPLNhdviItMSWy8XPI0O3Fuh2bPpCQ9dPykW4CZOkbnv40MNmqXtTr_lb6pn9ThBjdqD4lNGGLjoijtzoXmaFXti49hpcphUL0-G1/s320/DSC01839.JPG" width="320" /></a>The second event was a positive one. At the Houphouet-Boigny
high school in Korhogo, I gave my surveys to a class of 9<sup>th</sup> graders,
but for the first time since I have been conducting it, the teacher was not
present. I think this allowed the students to feel more comfortable. When I told
them they could ask me five questions after they finished, I expected mundane,
teenage questions, such as “Where in the US are you from? Are you married? Have
you met Beyoncé?” Instead, the students floored me with their extremely thought
provoking questions directly related to EDHC: Do people who conduct awareness
raising campaigns actually practice what they preach? We talk a lot about
reconciliation, but then why is there still war in the world? How do I convince
my neighbors that respecting vulnerable persons (handicapped people was the
example) is the right thing to do? Why do we talk so much about human rights,
but when the genocide in Rwanda went down, why did no one intervene? And finally,
why do western countries talk about legalizing gay marriage?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSj0coGt9l-ueH69M3ozwchdToGkbj5nG5suOvac0cWn5YL7nnvJ39HBQE2Qha68ZeZhdkb9_j7qkp8TLzNLLxepK7741O6M_5v8KMnSKwYw839wIluF3In_QZ6Mx0mUSs92rK/s1600/DSC01835.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSj0coGt9l-ueH69M3ozwchdToGkbj5nG5suOvac0cWn5YL7nnvJ39HBQE2Qha68ZeZhdkb9_j7qkp8TLzNLLxepK7741O6M_5v8KMnSKwYw839wIluF3In_QZ6Mx0mUSs92rK/s320/DSC01835.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I can’t say whether it was the doing of their EDHC professor
or just their own interests, but these kids were obviously really reflecting on
these issues. I tried to respond as best I could, but I found the whole
situation refreshing… maybe, despite our worries for the teaching methods
employed, EDHC was taking root in the students’ minds? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<u>The adventure</u></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To arrive up north, we took “cars” or large 60+ person
buses. I had a window seat, which wasn’t so bad as a cool breeze kept me
somewhat comfortable. Considering that the drive from Abidjan to Boundiali took
12 hours, meant that my bum was a little sore from the metal/barely-covered
seats. Under my feet were several guinea fowl in a box and they were more than
loud and obnoxious. Not to mention they kept touching me, and I found myself
wondering, when was the last case of bird flu again? On the way to Boundiali,
we were “protected” by a Dozo (traditional hunter) who was sitting just behind
the driver. Every time we drove through a checkpoint, he slowly lifted his
hand, and we were allowed to pass. Dozos are believed to have magical powers
because of their secret rituals in the sacred forests, and they played a pivotal
role in the conflict. I am thankful he kept us safe on that ride though,
especially when we would hit nasty bumps. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTC9PyYRLx0TMDfrRq6crC4hnk5HrlzB2EjwPQC9M4EBPmrkJElO461o3D9jQj8vFeFAF8Usdp5kYp4alHd8u5RJ4URzX7fvjhlLro6WTm8TF8Wq4Gd5IhaujVR40wO1SeP_aj/s1600/DSC01809.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTC9PyYRLx0TMDfrRq6crC4hnk5HrlzB2EjwPQC9M4EBPmrkJElO461o3D9jQj8vFeFAF8Usdp5kYp4alHd8u5RJ4URzX7fvjhlLro6WTm8TF8Wq4Gd5IhaujVR40wO1SeP_aj/s320/DSC01809.JPG" width="320" /></a>The road between Katiola and Korhogo was horrible. Huge pot
holes made it so that we had to literally drive on the side of the road, often
times tilted at seemingly unsafe angles. We saw some trucks that had flipped
and I was appreciative when our driver took the bumps slowly. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On both the buses there were individuals who got on at a
certain stop to sell us their cure-all medicines. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They would ask the passengers if someone amongst them had
malaria, and would give one “volunteer” a little of the medicine. They would,
of course, immediately feel better. My colleague seated next to me grumbled
about how we wanted peace and quiet on our ride home, so I figured many of the
others on the bus wouldn’t buy this stunt either. Surprisingly, though, many
people listened intently to his diatribe about how the medicine could, if you
took three bottles, cure you of paralysis, unblock fallopian tubes and
facilitate pregnancy, and cure you of fatigue. Several bottles were purchased
at a “special” low-rate just for us on this particular bus. Right.</div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-22814921354088314552013-02-24T15:30:00.003-05:002015-05-16T16:31:12.772-04:00Open letter to International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) whose official languages are English AND French, working in Francophone countries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dear INGOs,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I am writing on behalf
of any and all individuals that live in Francophone countries that collaborate
with you through funding initiatives, programs, conferences, etc. and to
express my personal aggravation regarding the use of English in your key
documents and materials as well as communications with your Francophone
collaborators on the ground.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It has come to my
attention several times over the course of the past five months of living in a
Francophone country that an overwhelming amount of literature you provide to
Francophone individuals is unfortunately only available in English. Here is but
one example of the frustrations that are borne of this type of oversight:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At a conference hosted by several INGOs geared
towards <a href="http://ecowas.int/">ECOWAS </a>Members’ Ministries of Education, a majority of the
presentations were conducted in English and the material provided (documents,
manuals, pamphlets etc) was in English. For your information, of the fifteen
ECOWAS countries, eight are Francophone, two are Lusophone (one of which
participates in the French monetary union and whose citizens speak French) and
five are English-speaking. At the end of the conference, the participants were
expected to use the materials provided to come up with a Plan of Action to be
monitored by the INGOs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a native English speaker, my colleagues
brought the materials to me to be translated into French. Discouraged, they
asked me, “How can we come up with a legitimate Plan of Action if we can’t even
read the materials?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 2013, I find it
appalling that this should be the case. As many INGOs work in countries where
English is not the national language, it’s disappointing and discouraging that
efforts are not made to provide participants and “collaborators” with the tools
they need in their working language to implement the projects that you suggest/encourage
that they put into place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Furthermore,
many of the INGOs that work here claim that French is one of their official
working languages. This becomes hard to believe when documents are not
then translated into this "official" language. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Lucky for the Ivoirian
Ministry of Education, I am here to provide capacity support, including
translating the documents that you fail to provide them in French. But, this is completely
unsustainable. Furthermore, what are they expected to do with this material,
which in most cases is highly technical? Use Google Translate? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What message are you
trying to send to the people you are supposed to be collaborating with? As a
colleague said to me, clearly deflated: “it’s as if they [INGOs] don’t even
care about us.” When I attempted to overcome this problem with the INGOs in the
example above via email, I was met with a dismissive attitude. I was told that
the presenters were <i>used to</i> presenting in English and felt more comfortable doing
so. And that my colleagues should have gotten the basic <i>gist </i>of the presentations
during the conference, despite it being in a different language. This attitude,
coupled with the fact that the participants (reminder: majority of which were Francophone) repeatedly asked for translated
documents and were given the run-around, further reinforces the statement made
above by my colleague. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">If the purpose of
coming and leading conferences or providing materials to individuals in
developing nations is to build their capacity and put them on the path to development,
it is absolutely unacceptable to not provide them with documentation, PowerPoint
presentations, and what have you, in their own language. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I recognize the
financial burden that translation may place on organizations. But I do strongly
believe that there is no way this cost outweighs the benefits of providing
important translated content to people working to make change in their
countries. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I hope that this
letter is well received by all whom are concerned and that by voicing this
frustration, some changes will be made in the ways that INGOs communicate with
their Francophone counterparts. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sincerely,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Justine Davis</span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-45885078929534771802013-02-14T05:27:00.000-05:002015-05-16T16:30:16.623-04:00Being black in Africa <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have
often been asked the question, “what’s it like being a black American in Côte d’Ivoire?”
so I figured I would address this here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Sometimes
it’s like this: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In a taxi
on the way to a Saturday morning yoga class with two (white) American friends,
the driver kept referring to me as his “sister” to back him up in a discussion
about how Ivoirian women prefer girl children. Exasperated on my behalf, my
friend said, “She’s not your ‘sister.’ She’s from America like us!” The taxi
driver expressed shock and then excitement; he turned around and asked if he
could shake my hand. “I’ve never met a Black American before! I see them on TV,
but never before in real life!” He proceeded to chuckle and shake his head in
astonishment the whole rest of the trip.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Or it’s
more often like this:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Taxi
driver:</b> “is she [referring to me, even though I am in the car] American like
you?”</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote>
<b>Friend:</b> “Yes.
But, you can ask her yourself”</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote>
<b>Taxi driver
turns to me:</b> “but really where are you from? Everybody knows where they come
from… your ancestors are from which African country?”</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote>
<b>Me, incensed:</b>
“Do I really need to explain the whole slave trade to you right now? They didn’t
ask the Africans they took off the boat which country they were from and write
it down. The slave traders didn’t care (I might have used more colorful French
here, I was in a bad mood)”</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote>
<b>Taxi
driver: </b>“I guess that makes sense…Well
I heard Michael Jackson traced his heritage back to Guinea. So you could be
from there too.” (Guess which country the taxi driver was from… go figure)</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I get it. I
represent an anomaly for many here, because when they meet Americans, eight
times out of ten (or higher) they are white (i.e. aid workers, embassy folks,
etc). From first glance, I don’t particularly stand out – I have been told that
I have Bété (Ivoirian ethnic group west-central part of the country, Gbagbo’s
ethnic group) legs – though my accent to a good ear has English tones. When a
taxi driver discovers this and I am alone, I lie and say I am from Ghana. Why? Because
I don’t want to deal with people asking me to help them get a visa to the US
(i.e. help us, my sister. We are both black you should help us, etc). Only once
has this plan backfired when the taxi driver knew Ghana a little too well (Oh,
what village are you from? What language do you speak? etc). If I am with some
of my lighter skin (read, white) friends, I become even more noticeable because
I am speaking English. I once had a dude chase us down the street because he
was sooo interested in talking to the Black woman who spoke English. Saw the
same dude less than an hour later when I was alone; he didn’t take special
notice of me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I guess it
is frustrating because I don’t want to be the exotic token. It’s true that I
can answer, after being asked four times in the same conversation, really where
are you from, my grandmother is from Cape Verde (though also born in America), which I do
sometimes. They nod their heads and say ok, that makes sense (because me being
from America doesn’t make sense…); But I am only a quarter Cape Verdean, don’t
speak the language and minimally identify as such. I don’t want to diminish the
rest of my history that is directly tied to the slave trade and American
history, and yet I find myself sometimes having to do this. It’s equally
frustrating when they say, “but no he or she [referring to a white colleague]
is a <u>real</u> American.” My people have been in the US for longer than every
one of my white Fulbright colleagues here, who are descendents from European immigrants
that arrived in the late 1800s, early 1900s. From what my grandfather has
researched, the Davis side can be traced back to at least the 1790s! Argh!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On the
other hand, it certainly has its advantages. The people I work with love to
show me off as “Obama’s cousin” (though, they know good and well Obama and I
have little to no chance of being related considering his background). I have
embraced my “Bété”-ness, even adopting a Bété name: Ouzua (which now some
colleagues only refer to me as). I blend in when I walk down the street… maybe
they see me as different from Ivorian women, but for all they know I could be
from some other West African country… in other words, I don’t usually get
harassed for money or to make “new” friends any more than an Ivoirian would,
compared to my white colleagues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But the “discrimination”
(maybe too strong of a word) doesn’t just apply to West Africans ignoring me or
being intrigued by me. In Ghana, I have a memory of sitting in the cafeteria
alone eating lunch one day. Some UCLA study abroad students (some of whom I had
actually met earlier) came in. They saw another white study abroad student, and
immediately went to sit with him. I sat there, appalled. I wanted to stand up
and shout “hey, I am American too!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In short, living in and travelling around West Africa has made me think about my identity as a black,
African-American, woman. I would like to learn more about other
African-Americans’ experiences here, and maybe one day I will write a book. In
the meantime, I try not to get too annoyed when asked where I come from. I try
to feel out whether the taxi driver (because nine times out of ten, they are
the most interested) is going to ask me for a) more money, b) a visa, or c) if
I know Beyoncé; or if he is just going to have a nice chat with me about how
cool my country is. That’s when I decide to claim my American-ness or pretend
to be from someplace else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-11980595369961301852013-02-04T17:13:00.001-05:002015-05-16T15:59:45.882-04:00Yako! For the Elephants<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtIFXzNHlkUfV8_oWOkz5Z8Y7P7raqwNpGY-dV0htm-9YOxypFU8vdzTiiYpsE21rsrxE43aApQ03m6UWuC0Sc5Kzx3Niccaht6I8EnRWjpuBM11tGNGUsBiEbvGWD8P-f099Q/s1600/DSC01694.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtIFXzNHlkUfV8_oWOkz5Z8Y7P7raqwNpGY-dV0htm-9YOxypFU8vdzTiiYpsE21rsrxE43aApQ03m6UWuC0Sc5Kzx3Niccaht6I8EnRWjpuBM11tGNGUsBiEbvGWD8P-f099Q/s320/DSC01694.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Currently, Africa is caught up in the fervor that is the CAN, Africa Cup of Nations. Starting with 16 teams, it's now down to the play-offs, and unfortunately, Côte d'Ivoire was unable to make it out of the quarter finals.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Yako!</b></span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">~That's what we say here to show sympathy or when something bad has happened (apparently comes from the Baoulé). You're sick? Yako! You slipped and fell? Yako! We even saw a very ironic insurance company of that name, advertising that before you reach the point when everyone is telling you Yako, you ought to buy a life insurance policy!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">We were ready to support the Elephants all the way; last year they made it to the finals and lost just by one penalty kick to Zambia. We figured with <a href="http://thenationonlineng.net/new/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/drogba.jpg">Didier Drogba</a> on the team, there was no way we would lose. We beat Togo, we beat Tunisia (3-0)! Tied Algeria... and then lost to Nigeria (2-1). we supported them as best as we could, wearing bright orange jerseys, drinking the local beer, and cheering hard... but it just wasn't enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Sorry... now I am rooting for Mali, considering they could use the moral boost during their current crisis....</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-mDlFgfDzaY3mH0ug6lJRoqOT7LI66XXCS9-oj7l4ddq5ViUjPlHGm552SVQEufjpS_dRDaxL3Hw8fon6zzXkpB9McYql9CEFDQP-_8F4mFFUexTkClgURJIZl-vNZRTf1I8/s1600/DSC01678.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-mDlFgfDzaY3mH0ug6lJRoqOT7LI66XXCS9-oj7l4ddq5ViUjPlHGm552SVQEufjpS_dRDaxL3Hw8fon6zzXkpB9McYql9CEFDQP-_8F4mFFUexTkClgURJIZl-vNZRTf1I8/s320/DSC01678.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-3361937756509230212013-02-02T07:58:00.001-05:002015-05-16T16:31:12.778-04:00Escaping Abidjan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs0qpHTrYU6dcOfkI09CO5_d6530HNB3SDR9T7RZ2Zv0QIop00S6FUgGDPSyq8fXPqmxYmnvpBnUUmMU7HGtt8LgwlNpffJUstdhRYDn52s4mcvYpQUKyMMMRqorbD4h5Aw89/s1600/DSC01654.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgs0qpHTrYU6dcOfkI09CO5_d6530HNB3SDR9T7RZ2Zv0QIop00S6FUgGDPSyq8fXPqmxYmnvpBnUUmMU7HGtt8LgwlNpffJUstdhRYDn52s4mcvYpQUKyMMMRqorbD4h5Aw89/s400/DSC01654.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With some students in Yamoussoukro</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sometimes you don’t realize that you tired of a place until
you leave it. I was able to get away from the pollution, traffic, and
overcrowded Abidjan for a few days to go to Yamoussoukro and Bouaké for school
visits and inspections from 20– 23 January. We did not get to go all the way to
the North (as described in the previous post) because Thursday was a national
holiday, Mawlid (Mohammad’s birthday), and we needed to be back in Abidjan. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>The cities</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Yamoussoukro</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Technically the political capital of the country, the
landscape of the city brings to mind some dusty highway in Arizona. Large,
expansive boulevards cross the city, but there is very minimal traffic compared
to the economic capital Abidjan. The founding father of the country,
Houphouet-Boigny had big aspirations for his home village: he built a giant
presidential estate complete with lakes filled with Caymans (<a href="http://news.abidjan.net/h/441689.html">who eat people</a>!) and the most
impressive feat, a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocMXAedEw6p-N5srGHuTCzC5POnbeXjzibeCrihq5V940nIZNF6y7LBZK9Ajt0CqThzSwLTWwZ2xmZ3qmg9EqOXYJ2aX5-LEB730JcA2o1VS43slUSU3JQZB_Kk5CNmpltzVr/s1600/Yamoussoukro_Basilique.jpg">basilica</a>
that is larger than Saint Peter’s in Rome (In fact, it is the largest Christian
building in the world!) But, unfortunately for him, the city hasn’t taken on
its role as the political capital and remains sparsely populated. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0zhDvzhKi6SnONpukzYUCUpfuM2Hojp-JD4zDhXhIii7DW_nOmNp7VPPK_bYDseFcFPk8idCE_ys4i2EsHIpfuH6mAW92R8MM3djp2UsXIuLt7rV6HDkTSCNZiIBj9f2n19xX/s1600/DSC01624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0zhDvzhKi6SnONpukzYUCUpfuM2Hojp-JD4zDhXhIii7DW_nOmNp7VPPK_bYDseFcFPk8idCE_ys4i2EsHIpfuH6mAW92R8MM3djp2UsXIuLt7rV6HDkTSCNZiIBj9f2n19xX/s320/DSC01624.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Bouaké</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second largest city in Côte d’Ivoire, Bouaké gets its
claim to fame by being the former capital of the rebel held north from
2002-2009. This becomes very evident as one arrives from Yamoussoukro, as you
pass a giant UN base just before arriving in the city (“little Pakistan” greets
you just off to your left before the city). Bouaké suffered substantially
during the conflict, with little to no infrastructural assistance from the
capital, rebel lootings occurring frequently, and access to food being
difficult for the population. From what I could see, however, Bouaké seemed to
be making a comeback. Motorcycle taxis zoomed around town and there have been
substantial government efforts to re-open the university. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>The schools</b></div>
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I traveled with the General Inspector for the EDHC (human
rights education) curriculum. Our intention was to do some organized school
visits as well as some surprise inspections, and participate in question and
answers sessions with professors on the new curriculum and new teaching
methods. </div>
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In Ya’kro, we visited three establishments: a primary
school/preschool, a middle school, and the teacher training college (CAFOP). In
Bouaké, we visited several classes at a middle school. </div>
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The most refreshing and promising was the primary school
levels. The teachers used creative teaching methods to introduce the EDHC
topics (preschool – the colors of the Ivoirian flag; primary school – the importance
of keeping your social space clean), such as group work, interaction between
students and teachers, several different types of props, etc. In my experience
thus far, this tends to be the case: since the primary level teachers are all
trained to teach several different subjects, incorporating EDHC (previously
ECM) into their curriculum is a piece of cake. Furthermore, it would appear
that considering the age levels they work with, these teachers also have no
restraints in using creative techniques to teach the content. </div>
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At the middle school level, however, things are not the
same. As mentioned in a previous post, the teachers at this level are normally
trained in a specific discipline and teach EDHC because they are asked to fill
their extra hours (though there are teachers who volunteer to teach the
curriculum, we have met very few). That means that these teachers, who have a
upper level degree to teach their discipline (the elementary school teachers
only do the equivalent of technical training+ internship to teach, a few years
less than the middle/high school teachers), have to not only plan the courses
for their discipline but also for EDHC, of which many have not received proper
training, and let’s be honest, may or may not care one lick about. So as can be
imagined, the classes lack creative teaching techniques, tend to be dictated to
the students, and the content is often treated as theoretical concepts and not
applicable to the students’ lives. When approached, the teachers themselves
claim that they haven’t received training, which the response from the DPFC is,
we’ll work on that, but we have provided you with the materials. To which the
teachers respond, we don’t know how to use these materials/you don’t provide
enough for us to work with. It’s as if, sometimes, they want the whole lesson
to be laid out directly for them, instead of coming up with their own ideas.
For me, coming from the US system, but being familiar with the French system,
it is rather disappointing. EDHC has so much potential to be a “fun” class, and
the teachers can use a variety of interesting techniques to get the students
excited and to recognize the importance of it as a subject, and they are not
doing this, unfortunately.</div>
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In Bouaké, we surprised the school for an inspection. And man,
were they surprised. We asked to see the teacher schedule for EDHC so that we
could pick a class to visit. We were told there were several classes being
taught at the same hour, so we picked one and proceeded to go to it. What we
instead found was that not only was the schedule the school had seriously out
of date/plain wrong, but we discovered that several classes had never even had
EDHC since the beginning of the year. Even more interestingly, the member of
the administration that toured us around the school told me that “European
children don’t need discipline. Our students here have had a lot of problems
since the crisis, and they need a smack in the head every now and then. So it’s
not fair that your [Western, presumably] organizations tell us not to hit
students, because that’s what they need.” (he of course said this to me after
he went into a classroom to discipline a student, a class that didn’t have a
teacher in it, which was often the case at this particular school. With 4,800
students, I noticed that a lot of the classrooms were without a teacher/adult
and the students were just in there, doing who knows what.)</div>
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The teachers we finally did see still called EDHC, ECM despite
the change since 2009. The walls of the classrooms were covered in graffiti. In
the class where I administered some surveys (9<sup>th</sup> graders), there
were 19 year old students. Since middle school is not free, there is no age
limit for students; instead, all students are obligated to complete the 9<sup>th</sup>
grade, at any age. It was definitely a change from the schools in Ya’kro and
those in Abidjan as well. </div>
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In short, I think it is really important to for me, and
moreover for the DPFC, to get outside of the main cities to see about the other
schools. The Inspector was very upset with the fact that there were students at
the school who had never received EDHC classes and had a good talking to to the
principal of the school. Hopefully, things will get changed, but who really
knows. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>The adventure</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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On the way to Yamoussoukro, we rode in a nice truck with A/C
that belonged to the primary school inspector of Yamoussoukro (his family lives
in Abidjan, so he often is there for the weekends). But as we were driving, the
car started overheating and then just all together stopped working. We were out
in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road, nothing but silence and stars
and tall grasses around us. Luckily, a car passing by stopped and offered to
pull us, yes with a rope, to the next village where there was another inspector
that could help us out. Welcome to Africa <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">:-)</span></div>
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For sleeping, in Ya’kro we stayed at the CAFOP in rooms that
weren’t super fancy but were super free. Then in Bouaké we stayed in these
rooms that were run by some Catholic priests who also had lots of animals
running the yard and beautiful gardens.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifKQMo1MEgZ2gvVmBrHeDZHQUAkYFCQ3S2QW0laX6cHOv0Lj-1RxkTTruChQgh8rvUQp0AJZzXWiinNvPj4mBwcp1mHXUHwDBA_sGPmI0f0UcTKWujrHxYZ0U8pfL8coVZV3F8/s1600/DSC01663.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifKQMo1MEgZ2gvVmBrHeDZHQUAkYFCQ3S2QW0laX6cHOv0Lj-1RxkTTruChQgh8rvUQp0AJZzXWiinNvPj4mBwcp1mHXUHwDBA_sGPmI0f0UcTKWujrHxYZ0U8pfL8coVZV3F8/s320/DSC01663.JPG" width="320" /></a> <br />
<br />
For food, we were often treated (since
I was, after all, with the general inspector) by the local delegation, so we
ate very well. Since we crammed so much into each day, we were literally
running around from 7am until 11pm, which was both exhilarating (things had
been rather slow previously) and exhausting (considering everything was also
conducted in French). Probably one of the highlights was when we arrived in Bouaké and the city was empty because everyone was watching the CAN (Africa cup) game against Togo.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFN0rTlNha8r5XllKS9bYz4LwWIxS0fQtS_hqy672yio4M8iW2QxTK688XYgVHwrTuQ-aTuAs6IX0MJOD7msFxpZrr41Qxte9gTmWP3zJ1yRX5zYAKfqCCBQAoOQV6HfYxUOpK/s1600/DSC01666.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFN0rTlNha8r5XllKS9bYz4LwWIxS0fQtS_hqy672yio4M8iW2QxTK688XYgVHwrTuQ-aTuAs6IX0MJOD7msFxpZrr41Qxte9gTmWP3zJ1yRX5zYAKfqCCBQAoOQV6HfYxUOpK/s320/DSC01666.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
I really had a nice time and look forward to other trips
further north and to the east bientôt!</div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-34125840915660190482013-01-14T08:55:00.002-05:002015-05-16T16:31:12.784-04:00Coming soon: Adventures from the North<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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Soon I will be traveling to the North of the country to
visit schools and evaluate teachers on the Human Rights curriculum. I will
hopefully be attending some trainings, talking with students, and seeing how
things are done up North. <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As
you may know, the North was cut off from the rest of the country during the
civil conflict, with many fleeing south or being displaced. </span>In
2004, as many as 700,000 children were estimated to not be attending
school. <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The number of teachers
decreased substantially in the region, so non-governmental organizations often
had to step-in to take over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br />
The </span><a href="http://www.education-inequalities.org/countries/cote-d-ivoire#?dimension=all&group=all&year=2005"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Education for All initiative of the
Global Monitoring Report</span></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> demonstrates that there are serious inequalities between Northern
students and their Southern counterparts: Students from the North are more
likely to only have completed less than two years of schooling or to never have
even gone to school. </span>Between the ages of 15 and 19, the report estimates
that those dwelling in the North are the most deprived groups, and more likely
to be out of school compared to the South or those living in Abidjan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In a report
on <a href="http://www.usip.org/files/resources/SR235Sany_final_lowres-1.pdf">Conflict
and Education for the U.S. Peace Institute</a> from 2010, the author asserts “The
longer the government waits to rebuild the northern education system, the more
the civilians and communities suffer. </span>This in effect denies them their
rights, limits their livelihood options, and frustrates entire generations of
learners, further complicating reconciliation efforts.”</div>
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Therefore, my trip to the North has a few objectives: check
out the EDHC teaching efforts for those farthest away from the capital, but
also strengthen the relationship between the Ministry of Education and those
who may have felt neglected by the government previously, while providing the
Ministry itself with vital information about the performances of these schools.</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-13590082623101211632013-01-07T05:55:00.001-05:002015-05-16T16:27:53.991-04:00 Happy 2013! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
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As many of
you may know, the year started off with a <a href="http://zeenews.india.com/news/world/ivory-coast-stampede-61-trampled-to-death-in-abidjan_820194.html">tragedy </a>here in Abidjan; sixty people
lost their lives in a stampede on New Year’s Eve in the stadium where they were
celebrating the New Year by watching the annual fireworks show in the capital. Many
of the individuals who lost their lives were children under the age of 15.
President Ouattara called for three days of mourning, while investigations are
underway to determine the cause of the incident.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfBaiUuaHYOQbWwhbCFZApjhNHojBL2xm1_KEjptEUJFt_LN9tjuyA3XoRv19Jl8_Lv9Mws6rLC9Kt1PHEENR_UQ713ve5VQk5dInJdXLr1_ExU8GMZCnM6IwJLNzr3ANumyBl/s1600/735791_398629390216737_1783177435_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfBaiUuaHYOQbWwhbCFZApjhNHojBL2xm1_KEjptEUJFt_LN9tjuyA3XoRv19Jl8_Lv9Mws6rLC9Kt1PHEENR_UQ713ve5VQk5dInJdXLr1_ExU8GMZCnM6IwJLNzr3ANumyBl/s320/735791_398629390216737_1783177435_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From: <a href="http://www.facebook.com/SaharaDreaming">www.facebook.com/SaharaDreaming</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The city is
currently covered by a brownish gray haze brought on by the Harmattan winds
from the north. Because the sun is essentially blocked, the temperature is a
pleasant 25 degrees here in the capital, even a little “chilly” in the evening.
At night the streets are lit by holiday decorations, especially orange, green
and white lights lining the bridge crossing into Plateau and all the way to the
airport. The University is also decorated in Christmas décor, even though the
holidays are over. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I apologize
for the brevity of this post and the lack of posting for the past month.
Between various conferences and school visits, plus the holidays, I haven’t had
a lot of time to write. I will do my best to get better at posting more often!</span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-69093354780911172772012-11-14T16:17:00.000-05:002015-05-16T16:31:12.797-04:00What ARE you doing in Côte d’Ivoire?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have been in Abidjan
for two months now, and so I think it’s fine time to explain what it is exactly
I am doing during my Fulbright fellowship with the Ivoirian Ministry of
National Education. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Système éducatif Ivoirien</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">First, here’s some
brief background info regarding the education system in Côte d’Ivoire.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The structure of the
system is based on the French model (basically école primaire = K-5, collège = 6<sup>th</sup>-9<sup>th</sup>, Lycée terminates
with the Bac at the end). School is free until high school, after that it’s
6 000 CFA per year ($12). Unlike France, there are no school buses or
school cafeterias. Some of the problems facing the school system here include:
lack of paid professors, no materials in classrooms, too many students per
class, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In villages, there is
sometimes only an elementary school, so students have to commute to larger
villages to attend middle school. Many times, they stay with family or a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tuteur</i> during the week so that they can
be closer to the school. One of the projects that the DPFC is working on is the
construction of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">collèges à la proximité</i>,
where elementary school teachers would be trained to teach at the middle school
level as well, to prevent students, particularly girls, from having to travel
to school. There was an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies
associated with the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">tuteur</i> system, so
they are trying to alleviate this problem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">School is also taught
in French, the national language, although there are moves to integrate local
languages into the schools, particularly in rural areas where students’ parents
might not even speak French (see blog post about this <a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-gave-guy-car-and-got-box-of-quail.html">here</a>). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My work</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As I mentioned
previously, I am working in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Direction
de la Pédagogie et la Formation Continue </i>(DPFC), which is responsible for
producing the national education curriculum and training teachers from the
primary to secondary levels. The staff is all former teachers and they work
hard and long hours. Especially now, as the Ministry of Education has just
launched a new curriculum that is slowly being introduced in schools. The
content has not changed, but the way that the material is taught has, thus
teachers are going to need new training and new curricula. They have decided to
move from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pédagogie par objectifs</i>
(PPO – Pedagogy by objectives) to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Approche
par compétences </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(APC <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– the skills
approach, which is more in line with the Anglophone model of teaching; student
ability- centered). The reasoning behind this is to bring the Ivoirian
education system more in line with other Francophone countries in Africa, who
have already made this change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Of course, there has
been a lot of pushback regarding the shift, as teachers argue that a) there
isn’t much of a difference between the two strategies, and b) they won’t ever
be trained in the strategy (due to budget constraints, timing, etc), so what’s
the point in changing. The DPFC, thus, has to go defend the change and has put
a lot of people on the ground to train trainers to get the word out there on
the new approach. I have attended some of these meetings/trainings and have heard
some of the complaints, but also have seen that people seem to be pretty
receptive (and they don’t have much of a choice, they will be evaluated based
on the new program at the end of the year, not the old one!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Another important
change to the curriculum this year is the shift from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Education civique et moral</i>e (CM, Civic and Moral education) to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Education de droits de l’homme et citoyenneté</i>
(EDHC, Human rights and citizenship education). The change actually started in
2009, with emphasis placed more on human<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>rights than had been previously, but the program wasn’t elaborated/published
until this year. Since the program is new, there is a lot of buzz around it:
what makes it different from CM? Is it necessary? What should the content be? How
do we teach it? Who teaches it? How will teachers be trained? Are they (both
trainers and teachers) doing a good job? Are they teaching it using the APC? Does
it correspond with international and regional norms?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>So here’s where I come
in.</b> I get to participate in the training of professors on EDHC, evaluating
their performances/approach, and critiquing the actual content of the new
program. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I have already read
through the curriculum, attended some training seminars, and now have visited
two schools to sit in on lessons. I expect to continue to do this, with some
exciting opportunities coming up that include: attending a training seminar by
ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) on their newly confirmed
Peace Education Manual, seminars and trainings hosted by UNESCO, and visiting
schools all over Abidjan and the interior of the country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbQJYqFn42jn70YFngN0a-GGKkYBOmcwP0pU5n3DK7KmVg41FB_E7ymti2j75JnjpbvhL6qAOwYYFUaofqDNyxu21mQPSarO5hCf6IkwehjZuybyzlU4sR4hlcyteAFSytD4P/s1600/DSC01368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqbQJYqFn42jn70YFngN0a-GGKkYBOmcwP0pU5n3DK7KmVg41FB_E7ymti2j75JnjpbvhL6qAOwYYFUaofqDNyxu21mQPSarO5hCf6IkwehjZuybyzlU4sR4hlcyteAFSytD4P/s320/DSC01368.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">EDHC en bref</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In August, the
government signed into law the creation of EDHC as a subject in schools.
Currently, there are no teachers who are specifically dedicated to EDHC;
instead, professors of all disciplines may teach the curriculum. It depends on
how many hours a teacher has within their own discipline (if they don’t have
enough hours, they supplement them with EDHC courses) and sometimes teachers
volunteer to teach EDHC on their own. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This presents a major dilemma:
those teaching EDHC have no training related to the curriculum. This is going
to change since EDHC is now an official subject and will be taught in teacher
colleges for future professors, but for now, anyone could be teaching the
material: a math teacher, a history teacher, a German teacher. Even those in
charge of the program with whom I work, though they are excited and committed
about teaching EDHC, are not formally trained in human rights education. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The content of EDHC
can be broken down into three main components: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt;">
<u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Human rights education and civic education</span></u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: varies from learning the various
international instruments on human rights (international convention on rights
of the child, for example) to making sure you vote and pay your taxes to
learning the lyrics to the national anthem.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt;">
<u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Taking care of the environment</span></u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the importance of clean water,
not polluting, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt;">
<u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Health</span></u><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: the fight
against HIV/AIDS, puberty, , don’t do drugs, teenage pregnancy, etc. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 35.4pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">To help with the
problem regarding lack of training, the DPFC issued a guide to go along with
the curriculum sent to teachers, which includes specific information necessary
to teach on the topics above (for example, for the lesson on instruments and
mechanisms to protect vulnerable populations from violence, the guide has a
list of all the international conventions related to vulnerable populations,
definitions etc). However, with no textbooks produced on the subject as of yet,
plus constant revisions still ongoing, I can understand why some teachers may find
it hard to convey what it is they are expected to regarding the curriculum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Now that you know a
little more about it, I will start to write more posts on some of the
observations I have made during classroom visits and the experiences I have in
trainings. It is an exciting time as the curriculum is more or less brand
spanking new, plus it has already been heralded as extremely important part of
the national curriculum by both the Minister of Education and the National
Assembly. It’s a great opportunity to see it being put into action. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-87375482378567232662012-11-03T05:29:00.000-04:002015-05-16T16:27:54.000-04:00Les fêtes en Côte d'Ivoire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaCRexPWMroJS-Jc7u69Wji5FBEvix4UH0OXqC10xLvcPB6JLiHXvDQyrG9r9HhN3a-q_KRBSGgZ3c2S_6M4K6Qy35BfKZSxoAsmLpB4yI4olDDgRxHXX7MBLMiHsT-aPzr17/s1600/DSC01293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
<br />
The end of October brought us two holidays: Tabaski and Toussaint, which gave us two days off work and a chance to get some real cultural experiences while here.<br />
<br />
<b>Tabaski: October 26</b><br />
<br />
Tabaski, the name of Eid al Adha in Francophone African countries, is one of the most important Muslim celebrations. Muslims are estimated to make up at least 40% of the population in Côte d'Ivoire, so the day is off from work. And a good thing too! Tabaski celebrates the sacrifice that Abraham made, when God asked him to sacrifice his only son. Since Abraham was willing to do it, God spared him and allowed him to sacrifice a sheep instead. Hence, Tabaski is the "sheep ceremony." Sheep were in high demand this year, and because many of the sheep come from the Sahelian countries (such as Mali, currently plagued by a rebellion and political crisis) the costs were exorbitant as the fête approached (upwards of 700,000 franc CFA = $1,400!!) You are supposed to slaughter the sheep after morning prayers, and then eat it all that day. That means inviting people over to help you finish it and sharing it with those who cannot afford to buy their own. <br />
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We were invited to a Tabaski celebration at a colleague of mine (see post about<a href="http://jsteendavis.blogspot.com/2012/09/i-gave-guy-car-and-got-box-of-quail.html"> my arrival here</a>, I mentioned her invitation). She was very welcoming, and served up heaping plates of fonio, a grain from the north, and sheep stew. It was delicious.<br />
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After eating, my colleague and her friend who had stopped by showed us how to do a dance that was associated with a song released shortly after Ouattara's win. It was the Ouattara Cucu dance!<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Abissa – October 28-November 4</b></div>
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The following week, we had the day off to celebrate
Toussaint, or All Saints Day, A Catholic celebration. Instead of heading to the
<i>église</i>, we went to the beach! Direction: Grand Bassam to see part of the Abissa
celebration.</div>
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Abissa is a yearly festival by the N’Zima people that lasts
the entire last week of October. The N’Zima are part of the Ashanti ethnic
group (yes, from Ghana, consider that it was at one time a huge empire that
stretched across West Africa!) and living in the coastal areas near Grand
Bassam, the old colonial administrative capital of Côte d’Ivoire. The city
itself is quite beautiful; run down colonial mansions and buildings, remnants
of the French colonial order. Grand Bassam is about an hour from Abidjan, so we
headed that way with some Save the Children friends, ate lunch on the beach,
and then headed to the Abissa festival around 3.</div>
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According to this <a href="http://www.rezoivoire.net/cotedivoire/gd_bassam_culture.php">site</a>, “During
this festival, social barriers are lifted and ‘anything goes.’” This was so
very true; there were tons of men dressed up like women! (the whole get-up: big
butts, boobs, wigs and dresses!) Women wore jewelry fashioned out of household
items: match boxes, condoms, kola nuts, cigarette boxes… </div>
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Abissa is also the moment to publically denounce any
transgressions one has committed, to confess to any wrongdoing (even the chiefs
participate) and to bring about social harmony. </div>
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Check out some of the videos and pictures I took here: <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/113058549971786565762/albums/5806509560027854673?authkey=COyi-ueVmuiWaw">Abissa </a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/113058549971786565762/Abissa?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOyi-ueVmuiWaw&feat=embedwebsite" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Abissa</a></td></tr>
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We didn’t stay long for the ceremony, but the music was enthralling, the dancing was
impressive, and the cross-dressing men were just hilarious. </div>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-23380526430624533582012-10-25T05:00:00.002-04:002015-05-16T15:59:45.901-04:00The Versatility of Plantains<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US">And it is the long-awaited post about food here in Abidjan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">I am certain that Ivoirians do not have potassium deficiencies as much as they eat plantains here. You can have them in a variety of ways:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Alloco </i>– chopped up and fried in oil. Best served hot. Often a side dish, but can be eaten with boiled eggs for a “light” lunch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><i>Claclo </i>– mashed up into balls and then fried in oil. Similar to alloco, but a different texture.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"></span><i>Foutou </i>– pounded and boiled. Served with a hearty sauce, such as sauce graine (made from Palm oil tree seeds)</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Chips – sliced thinly and fried. There are two varieties, the sweeter and darker ones, and the saltier and yellow ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Roasted – women squatting above a grill fanning whole plantains. The best ones are the ones with the black charred outsides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Plantains aren’t the only side dish here; you can also have regular white rice, <i>riz</i></span><i> gras</i> (essentially the rice used in the Senegalese dish <i>ceebu jen</i>, slathered in oil), couscous, yams (boiled or fried), and of course, the most popular, attiéké (ground and dried cassava).</div>
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<span lang="EN-US">For meat, you have your options: <i>poulet</i> (chicken) or <i>poisson</i> (fish) <i>braisé</i> which is slowly roasted, and delicious. Fried or smoked fish, tilapia and carp being the most popular. Beef and sheep you can find on occasion and sometimes there is oxtail on the menu (never tried).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Finally, your sauces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce feuilles</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – leafy green sauce, often spicy and made with dried fish (not my fave). </span>Served with chicken or fish and rice.</div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce tomate</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – spicy tomato sauce can be served with rice, attiéké, couscous, and the meat of your choosing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce legume</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – often chopped up green beans, tomatoes, onions, spicy and served over poisson braise. This is my favorite.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce arachide</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – peanut sauce, the savory kind. Sometimes has vegetables in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce aubergine</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – mashed up eggplant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-US">Sauce claire</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> – also has eggplant and tomato, but is often very spicy. Never tried.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Food can get spicy here. For the most part, the <i>piment</i> is served on the side, so if you are a spice- phobe, you won’t have to worry. However, our neighborhood chicken guy, Moussa, likes to put the spices directly on the chicken, which is delicious, but you might need to order a Flag or Castel (local beers) to cool down your mouth.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFjdhGzUSHFyJN3UeOy8jnPJfo3GBRM6x7-U07bB6apdmMkOYXDOPJ9SGnPMZWNv0QbrPftu9u0OttaYdQZgeJKHmOJglIb29DoUCfEPq0ktz4TghTf0Y_R-KQSnFbNwHyOtfs/s1600/428987_818081660813_1857967677_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFjdhGzUSHFyJN3UeOy8jnPJfo3GBRM6x7-U07bB6apdmMkOYXDOPJ9SGnPMZWNv0QbrPftu9u0OttaYdQZgeJKHmOJglIb29DoUCfEPq0ktz4TghTf0Y_R-KQSnFbNwHyOtfs/s320/428987_818081660813_1857967677_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So far, the best <i>poisson brais</i>é I have had in Abidjan. <i>Attiéké </i>in the background, <i>piment </i>in green</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSkupeIK7FAm1nq7FnpuA4b9gDYctC8ks9anzh2KRBg1H9Tbl_EuQQ5kNh0rnArDI6HNTzSreFK2Ag8BN5QXPgrW0PIjOGsRqO3kz3nfguNtaI-YL5iuciWte_3m2toyuurbZ/s1600/DSC01081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhSkupeIK7FAm1nq7FnpuA4b9gDYctC8ks9anzh2KRBg1H9Tbl_EuQQ5kNh0rnArDI6HNTzSreFK2Ag8BN5QXPgrW0PIjOGsRqO3kz3nfguNtaI-YL5iuciWte_3m2toyuurbZ/s320/DSC01081.JPG" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poisson braisé, attiéké, alloco</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4PUgatGq6Fd2MYDoJOIh9_Fy8oYp1dTF42mSRSu5X_V_z6Xf2igRuyOCVzxEQfESpxWOeJPXOOZDzPOmqLzWy_4Qr0XUr5p3tm69EMgD3u3WN7Imycl6YamOrMjXbC6Azm2a/s1600/419472_818086900313_1158741203_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC4PUgatGq6Fd2MYDoJOIh9_Fy8oYp1dTF42mSRSu5X_V_z6Xf2igRuyOCVzxEQfESpxWOeJPXOOZDzPOmqLzWy_4Qr0XUr5p3tm69EMgD3u3WN7Imycl6YamOrMjXbC6Azm2a/s320/419472_818086900313_1158741203_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">foutou and sauce graine</td></tr>
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Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29376417.post-69093686583481974192012-10-17T17:31:00.001-04:002015-05-16T16:27:53.996-04:00« On dit quoi ? On’ê calé» in Abidjan!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">After
celebrating my one-monthiversary here, I thought it was high time to introduce
you all to Abidjan and all its loveliness. The title is in <a href="http://www.nouchi.com/">Nouchi</a>, the slang here (a mix of French and
African languages) in Abidjan, and is a popular greeting and response.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Neighborhoods</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFaSl1pjy5upFMvA8PDurad_br_B-Yd3XMgq0bR93vSNQOwCJFDNOwc7vbtZVV2gdAsYPtNkcb2SmvlBLVFdxH6QTwOEJ9N4ffP4W36wR6VVk8rSWdoX1WdXEifJX9emC0PC9/s1600/DSC01078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFaSl1pjy5upFMvA8PDurad_br_B-Yd3XMgq0bR93vSNQOwCJFDNOwc7vbtZVV2gdAsYPtNkcb2SmvlBLVFdxH6QTwOEJ9N4ffP4W36wR6VVk8rSWdoX1WdXEifJX9emC0PC9/s320/DSC01078.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Zone 4</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> – decidedly the most “hoppin” part
of Abidjan, this neighborhood is the host of tons of restaurants of all
different cuisines, bars, and clubs. During the crisis, many ex-pats opted to
move to this area, to be closer to the airport, and one can certainly see their
influence: sushi shops, pizza restaurants, all you can eat Chinese. But don’t
think it’s only us “Westerners” hanging out here; you will find lots of
Ivoirians in the ice cream parlors, on dates and chillin with friends. There’s
something for everyone here. The downside to a Friday night in Zone 4: the
route from our side of the lagoon has got more than a few police blockades. If
you go in a taxi, expect to be stopped several times and asked for your
identification. The number of road blocks increases as the night progresses.
Solution? Ride with someone with either embassy plates or a UN vehicule, as
they don’t get stopped. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> Cocody </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– this is where we live (Riviera
3). The Embassy is located in Riviera Golf. We have quickly come to pride our
little neighborhood, making friends with our neighboring chicken chef
extraordinaire (Moussa) and his alloco making colleague. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfYTYLZXnmHusfqDTGGeJrJirUzHRZp6KIN-VkD9QqCiO3SQ-VdpaxmumDvx1-gWjynMWJIyNNgr0fWfY-72kBMXOIRlleeb-GPUExMSkMmL0iKFC_MSah9gT7xkiDrAEtY9f/s1600/DSC01280.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizfYTYLZXnmHusfqDTGGeJrJirUzHRZp6KIN-VkD9QqCiO3SQ-VdpaxmumDvx1-gWjynMWJIyNNgr0fWfY-72kBMXOIRlleeb-GPUExMSkMmL0iKFC_MSah9gT7xkiDrAEtY9f/s200/DSC01280.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have a few grocery
stores within walking distance, including the newly opened shopping center, Cap
Nord, with a Casino grocery store and a MediaStore books and electronics shop.
Riviera Palmeraie, just next door, has a few good restaurants, and a little
shop that sells ice cream and has a bouncy ball area for kids. Apparently there’s
a good Italian restaurant here too. The newly refurbished university is right
down the road along with the Gendarme and Police schools, and construction for
the third bridge is under way to connect our neighborhoods to the south side of
Abidjan. Who knows when that’ll be finished, and it has made some interestingly
frustrating traffic detours which taxi drivers try to use to their advantage to
get higher prices from us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Deux
Plateau </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– Is the
next best thing after Zone 4, and is a lot closer and more convenient for us to
reach. There are clothing shops, electronics shops, and plenty of restaurants
to keep us happy. There is also the big shopping center, Sococe, with a movie
theater and several shops. We also have a membership at the pool, which, when
it’s not filled with kids learning to swim or adults being yelled at to learn
how to swim, is relaxing and nice to visit. We also went to a lovely wedding
reception, right across the street from the pool. This area is rather classy,
though it does have a slum right round the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Plateau
</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– this is where I
work. It’s where most of the business magic happens, with the administrative
buildings, major banks, airline offices, and other businesses located here. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s more or less dead after work hours,
though there are restaurants (conveniently located near hotels, and rather
expensive).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/487256_818084604913_600968274_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/487256_818084604913_600968274_n.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The entrance to the market</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adjame </i>– The largest market in Abidjan is here, with its sprawling
lanes and hectic movement. If you need anything you can probably find it here.
Within walking distance from my job, but I try not to venture in without an
Ivoirian guide.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Treichville, Marcory,
Koumassi</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>–
If you recall from <a href="http://justineinfrance.blogspot.com/2012/03/politics-complicates-everything.html">my posts in March</a>, this was my old stomping ground. Now I
haven’t ventured over there as often, as it’s a bit far. However, Treichville
has a large market that includes little Senegal.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.chaplum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/aya-de-yopougon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chaplum.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/aya-de-yopougon.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Abobo, Youpogon </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– According to a police officer,
these parts of the city are like the Bronx. We have been highly discouraged to
visit them as Americans, and the same police officer said that everyone there
has guns. I think this is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is important to note
that these neighborhoods were Ouattara (Abobo) and Gbagbo (Youpogon) strongholds during the election crisis,
and that arms did proliferate in this area during that time. On top of that,
there have been several recent armed attacks here (against police/military, not
civilians). But we also can’t forget that regular, law-abiding people reside here,
and they are the majority, including several of my colleagues. What’s worse,
Youpogon used to be the “hoppin” part of Abidjan’s nightlife, with several
clubs/maquis representing the infamous “Coupé Décalé” music scene. </span>If you are interested in learning more about Youpogon and its glory years and learning a little bit of Noochi while you’re at it, check out the<u> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aya_of_Yop_City">Aya de Youpogon</a></u> graphic novel series. I have just finished book 2, and am quite enjoying them.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Transportation <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/483446_818086765583_1984842291_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/483446_818086765583_1984842291_n.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Taxi </i>– metered taxis, though the price is always negotiable. These
are orange, and will take you wherever you want to go, though they will
complain if your route puts them in traffic (which, is just about every route,
this city has a serious traffic management problem). Prices tend to not go
below 500 fcfa and don’t exceed 3 000 fcfa, unless you are coming home
from the airport at 5am and get a little (a lot) jipped (15,000 CFA – grrrr)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://eburnietoday.mondoblog.org/files/2011/10/taxi_abidjan.jpg" height="150" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://eburnietoday.mondoblog.org/2011/10/24/l%E2%80%99univers-des-taxis-d%E2%80%99abidjan/">http://eburnietoday.mondoblog.org/2011/10/24/l%E2%80%99univers-des-taxis-d%E2%80%99abidjan/</a></td></tr>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wora
Wora </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– these are
shared taxis. Each neighborhood has its own color. The upside is the price
(never exceeding 500 cfa). The downsides are that they don’t take you directly
where you want to go, but instead to a common stop or drop you along the way to
the stop. Also, you share the taxi with other people, so that if there are not
4 people already in the car, the driver is honking constantly at pedestrians to
get more clients to fill it up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.acturoutes.info/images/actu/29-11-2010-08-12gbaka2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.acturoutes.info/images/actu/29-11-2010-08-12gbaka2.jpg" height="144" width="200" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gbaka
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– the Ivoirian equivalent to Ghana’s tro-tros.
100-200 fcfa in the city. Once again, these only go to designated stops, but
instead of honking at pedestrians to get in, the guy hanging out the side is
shouting, sometimes appearing to coerce people to get in his gbaka (trying to
cross the street from the grocery store to our house, the guys working for the
gbakas all assume that we need transport and won’t cease to yell at you where
they are going and get you onto their gbaka, even though you’re actually not
going anywhere). You can fit a lot of people into a Gbaka.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.avenue225.com/wp-content/mediasavenue/2010/10/sotra6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.avenue225.com/wp-content/mediasavenue/2010/10/sotra6.jpg" height="141" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Buses
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">– old buses from India and Paris, these are
always packed in the mornings. I haven’t ever taken one, because I don’t
actually know where they go and drop off/pick-up. Perhaps this requires some
exploration.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHPy5mAu4DmHNXmccFVVUKq2d3MWr5d-D8XVZelvRDg8rfguyUwbVx2raeI0Q3Im9Vq80UE2K0mu_Dec4f0471KSUx9auncrB2BNtX9XDA-VGygg9ZL4UYjkgr2jn0XprZ_zWX/s1600/DSC01073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHPy5mAu4DmHNXmccFVVUKq2d3MWr5d-D8XVZelvRDg8rfguyUwbVx2raeI0Q3Im9Vq80UE2K0mu_Dec4f0471KSUx9auncrB2BNtX9XDA-VGygg9ZL4UYjkgr2jn0XprZ_zWX/s200/DSC01073.JPG" width="200" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And finally, the weather</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">When we
first arrived, we expected a lot more rain (check the<a href="http://www.weather.com/weather/right-now/Abidjan+Cote+D%27+Ivoire+IVXX0001"> weather channel</a> and it
will tell you it is constantly raining here, which is not). However, it has
rained, and at first it was mostly in the early morning. As of late, however,
it has been torrential downfall around the exact moment I get out of a taxi to
go to work, oh joy. The Ivoirians call this “la petite saison de pluie." it’s
rather unpredictable, but it keeps the temperatures low (in the 80s, and
breezy!) I am certainly not complaining about the temperature, though it’s
supposed to just keep slowly increasing to extreme heat in March/April. We’ll
see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Justinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00614818100546269971noreply@blogger.com0