My first week

Here are some excerpts from the journal I'm keeping, to catch you up on my first week:

9:21 pm, 9 June 2009
On my way to Abidjan I spent the day in Dakar. It was a warm welcome. John and Cece (John's dad and step mom) met me at the airport, and navigated me through the maze of people. It was still very early, pre-dawn. We went straight to their house, which is near the lighthouse (Dakar is the most eastern point of continental Africa) and this crazy statue being built which John described as the Senegalese’s Statue of Liberty. Their place is very nice, we had tea and coffee on a rooftop screened in deck in the early morning. Then I napped on and off for a few hours, as the family came and went. Around noon, Cece, John and I met up for lunch with a health contact John made for me, who hopefully I'll be able to work with after Cote D'Ivoire. Post lunch, I had a few minutes to check email and then headed back to the airport. I can’t imagine what I would have done without John and Cece; I’m very grateful.

But now I am in Abidjan, the largest city in Cote D'Ivoire. When landing, I could not see much from the plane. It looked empty, completely dark. But apparently the airport is far from Abidjan because this is the biggest, most developed African city I have ever been in (which doesn't say much because I've only been to Benin and now Senegal). The airport is quite modern; they even have the walkway that meets the plane (which they did not in Benin or Senegal). There were a lot of foreigners at the airport but not a lot of the pushy taxi drivers or porters. I was met at the airport by a driver. The roads here are pretty decent (they might be better than Baltimore’s). We drove through some of the city, including a downtown area with a bunch of tall buildings and big neon signs for Pepsi and Maggi Spices. I was really surprised, it is so different than what I've seen before.

So I arrived at the guest house around 9 pm, which is basically a 3 bedroom apartment in a small apartment building. Each room has a bathroom and air conditioning; its simple but nice.

10:41 pm, 10 June 2009
Last night there was a HUGE storm, waking me up at around 4 am. Was the loudest thunder I’ve ever heard and endless stream of lightening. Unfortunately my window was not closed properly and I had a mini flood in my room. I could not get the windows shut; when I closed one the other opened. Super frustrating. Eventually the rain relented and I got the window closed enough. Upon wakening, I was ready for my first shower here... no running water. Apparently this was due to the storm, but it being my first day however, I wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or just an idiot or what.

My first day was busy. Met everyone, received lots of information, and got a cell phone. My French is not as terrible as I’d thought and everyone seems to be pleased with it. Fairly young organization, lots of 30 year olds. My boss is nice and seems to really know what she is doing.

9:34 pm, 13 June 2009
End of my first week. I am getting more comfortable. I have been working on a survey that was implemented in April, cleaning and getting ready to do the analysis. It’s a short knowledge and behavior survey, about 900 households. It will be a good survey for my first real analysis! The two main health projects I will be working on are a CIDA (Canadian aid agency) grant to do community case management of malaria, diarrhea, and (hopefully) pneumonia and then an EU project that concerns early childhood and maternal care. My boss has been meeting with doctors here to convince them of the acceptability of having community health workers treat and manage pneumonia. There is a lot of resistance.


7:24 pm, 13 June 2009
Today I experienced my first “hache”. One of the coordinators invited me to go the French hache, or HHH, short for something I can't remember. Basically a group of expatriates and nationals meet up, ours started at 4pm. You pay a few dollars and the organizers have mapped out a course for you to run/walk; it was a 14 km run or 2 km walk. There are designated “hares” to follow. At the half point, there is water. At the French hache, there is also soda and beer. There is a short break for everyone, then back to the start. At the end, there is often a sort of ceremony: newcomers are hazed a bit, people are made to drink beer for various reasons. There are also haches organized by other groups; so there is an English hache, an American hache, etc. Sometimes there are more formal "classic haches", and t-shirts are made and food is served. And these are not particular to Cote D’Ivoire. Apparently they happen everywhere! HAS ANYONE ELSE HEARD OF THIS? This hache was hilly. I am proud to have run a good portion of the 14 km. Not bad for my first week here.

Tonight we are going for sushi! I am continually surprised by how developed this city is. It is so different from Benin and even Senegal. There are tons of little supermarkets with all sorts of French and Middle Eastern packaged foods (and Red Bull even). Then there is Sococe, this big shopping center. It has a nice supermarket inside (with a produce section) and then a bunch of other stores, like a pharmacy, a book store, a food court. Sococe even has good French cheese and smoked salmon (for $15…). I hope it doesn’t sound condescending that I am surprised these things are here. I am basing this on my knowledge of other West African countries.

9:21 pm, 14 June 2009
Today is Sunday, lazy Sunday. I slept in again. Watched the French news channel. I watch about a half hour each day, which I think is useful for improving my French. There are only 3 channels at the guest house (apparently there are more but someone forgot to pay the bill). It rained this afternoon so I watched a movie. I’ve watched 3 movies so far. It’s good for curbing home sickness and loneliness. After the rain died down I motivated to go to Sococe, the big shopping center. I took a taxi there, a little nerve racking as they drive fast and there are no seat belts in the back seat! At Sococe I stopped into the book store and found a book a friend had suggested, “Allah n’est pas oblige” by Ahmadou Kourouma, a well known Ivoirien writer. It is about child soldiers. Then I picked up some basics at the grocery store. I sort of thought before that working in Africa, one would be able to save a lot of money because it is so cheap here, but that is not the case! To live and eat as you do in America is expensive. I ran into some coworkers at the supermarket and they gave me a ride home. Everyone has been super nice and friendly.

This evening I worked a little on my survey. I made couscous with lemon, tomatoes, and goat cheese. I've been playing chess on my computer and today I won on level 2. I guess I need to up it to level 3. My plan is to improve so I can compete with John...