The longest stay

A few weeks from now, we'll be living in this house for a year and a month. Which will at the same time be our longest stay in the same house in six years. And we'll probably add a considerable amount of months to it.

I'm happy to have been here this long and for once to have been able to finish decorating the house. Ok, I'm not quite finished yet, I still have to get some small pieces of furniture and I think I'll have a table and chairs made for the little one. I wanted to upoad some pics from the house, but upon viewing them, I realized I had again changed a whole lot since I took them, so you're going to have to wait until I take some new ones.

Yet still I'm very eager to move on and discover new places. I like Cote d'Ivoire a lot, but it hasn't stolen my heart.

Any frequent movers among my readers? How do you experience that?

Marches end in violence

Whereas the country was really in an uplifting movement, people are now frustrated and in disagreement with what's going on. There was another discours by the prime minister this week, stating that there was a government had yet to be created and people should remain calm.
No more needed to be said to get people on the streets. Before, all were hopeful and the future looked bright... now, nobody knows what is going to happen and elections seem lightyears away.
We left Abidjan yesterday, to find yet another march in San Pedro. In Gagnoua this week a march had a bloody end, with several deaths after police used live ammo to disperse the demonstrators. You really start feeling the tention all around.

It's sad really, people were so hopeful, and ready to take the step towards a bright future. And more sick of the violence and the status quo.
It must have been a great country once. David met a French woman who had lived here before the war. She said she wept when she saw Cote d'Ivoire after all that time. She told him it was such a safe, modern, nice and beautiful country. You could decide to drive off to an animal park in the middle of the night, safety was not an issue. We are now far far away from that.

As far a sthe plantation is concerned, we're still very much spared from all this. The strike has ended peacefully and all is going back to usual.

Pics

Baptizing L* at La baie des Sirènes
This is taken at the new Italian pizzeria at Bereby. She ate my entire chocolate mousse! I ended up ordering another one.

Trying out the fingerpaint. Approved!

Trouble in paradise

I haven't been on here for a while, because it's been really busy. I see there's some new followers on there, please leave a comment... It's nice to get some feedback. It's kind of freaky to know so many people read my blog and not to know why or what they are thinking. I can assure you that when someone I vaguely know mentions he or she has been following my blog for an extended period of time, without my knowledge... It's a bit weird. So please just take a minute to leave a comment, tell me what you are thinking.

It has been hectic lately. Hubby had some security consultants over to draw up safety and evacuation plans. Ironically, during their stay (last friday) Gbagbo, Côte d'Ivoire's president had a discours on national television in which he dissolved the government and the electoral commission. He demanded a new government was assigned by monday, but we're now wednesday and there's still no change.

This of course means that the elections, which were planned for march (and had already been postponed previous to this, several times) will not take place. This combined with the recurrent failing of the power network is creating a rather tense atmosphere, but so far the situation remains stable.

Meanwhile at the plantation, we are experiencing a strike. So the women and children have been evacuated to San Pedro, as a preventative safety measure which actually means they're at the pool having a company paid holiday hehe). Hubby and I moved on to Abidjan from there. he's still occupied with the safety consultants.

We are in Abidjan until Saturday and hope that by then the situation on the plantation will be resolved.

I think I might take advantage of the premium internet here in Abidjan to get some pics up.

Greets

L

Trip to Abidjan aftermath

The trip to Abidjan was a bit shorter than we expected. We had been wanting to take the Sophia plane back in the afternoon, but they changed the schedule again and we ended up flying in the morning. So that kind of wrecked our entire shopping. Anyhow, we're already flying back there on Sunday.
We did get to visit V*, which was wonderful after all this time. She's now living in Aboisso. We also did some quick shopping on the road to Bassam, this is a two kilometer long strip of road, with back to back artisanat shops. And prices are quite ok. We're really discovering Abidjan, and it makes me want to visit more of Ivory Coast.

When waiting for the Sophia plane back to San Pedro, I went to the bathroom. Previously, the usual sort of text could be found on the bathroom door. Stating who had been there, who was in love with whom... Yet this time... All text had been replaced with hateful messages against Gbagbo and his regime. Messages enciting violence and hate. It was quite scary, really.

in Abidjan

Didn't get to blog in San Pedro yesterday, because the power had been down all night and throughout the day over there.
Today, we have Flown to Abidjan, with a kind of sour aftertaste, because we're leaving the dog alone at night for the first time (he'll get walked and played with around the clock during the day though).
Funny anecdote: when smallish one saw the little Sophia plane land, she asked if it was on her Mamie. And when she got on the plane with her daddy - I was getting the luggage - she panicked, thinking I wasn't coming. Sweet kid!
Our little trip to Abidjan started off on the wrong note, first the plane ride took 20 minutes more, so we feared there wouldn't be time to tick of all the boxes on our schedule. As David tried to go and get his drivers licence, they told him he was at the wrong office. (Mind you, he's been trying to get an Ivorian licence for a year now!) It was already lunchtime by then and the daughter was starving so we went to eat somewhere - it turned out to be a pretty crappy cafeteria style place.
We took a quick trip to Cocody after lunch to find the whole artisanat market had vanished... and been turned into a construction site. Luckily the jewellers were still there! :D
And the for the second try to get D's licence. A* had fallen asleep in the car so I decided to just wait in the car the time it took himto go in and do whatever... We ended up waiting for over an hour in the soaring heat. Half an hour in, A* woke up and objected to being confined. So we went out for a walk... that's when total mayhem started! She had found a leaky tap and wanted to play with it. I wasn't prepared to open it for her, so the next half hour she spend crying and screaming.
But then the fingerprinting went swiftly and we even got to go for icecream and some shopping to Cap Sud.

The Sophia airplane was fully booked again, and every time I'm in San Pedro there are more and more people around and in the hotels... It's very strange. Even when we go to La Baie des Sirenes now during the week, there's other people around. We were kind of getting used to the luxury of having everything to ourselves all the time. Oh and there's even a departure hall now in San Pedro airport. It's clean and has airco and - unbelievable - a clean restroom!

Tomorrow we'll be discovering new places as we're off to Aboisso, to see V* again (my neighbour in Cameroon) after what's been more than a year!

Meanwhile I'm thinking of starting a 'things to do in Ivory Coast'-blog.

Until next time,
keep warm!
L

elections... developments...

So I'm not quite sure if I had mentioned it, but the elections that were planned for the end of last year never took place... Nobody quite knows when the elections will happen. Prognosis would be march this year... But who knows?
Yet we are noticing quite some change around here. The hotel we visit often during the weekend (La Baie des Sirenes) is being renovated and this weekend the owner had arrived with a fleet of small aircrafts. There's a new restaurant in Bereby that's quite worthwile. (Maybe I'll finally get to post some pics when I go to San Pedro tomorrow)
San Pedro is evolving too. In the last couple of months, two new supermarkets opened and another is being installed. Sophia Airlines and the Sophia hotel were sold and are being completely revamped (Sophia airlines now even has hostesses and a check in counter, unimagineable). La Canelle was sold and is being renovated. And sadly, one of our favourite restaurants, La Langouste, is now closed.

Dazzled

Wow... I'm totally amazed. I hadn't been checking my stats for quite some time now, thinking I was just blogging for me, and the hubby pointed out that it might be worth my while. Seems like there's quite some traffic on here lately, even hit 86 visitors a couple days ago.
Now if you'd all be so kind to let me know you're there very once in a while, that would be very nice.
Thanks!
L