rebels with minnie mouse hats

This past week I visited our office in Man, in the western part of the country. It is a beautiful area: hilly and lush. I had all intentions of hiking and seeing the mountains a little closer (there are supposedly tons of wild orchids), but I was derailed by too many late nights of drinking whiskey with the staff ... I did see a family of monkeys on my runs though. Here's the view from the office steps:
This area is known for its production of cocoa and coffee. Côte d'Ivoire is one of the world's largest producers of cocoa but since all of it is exported and processed elsewhere, most of the chocolate here is imported. This is where chocolate comes from:

Coffee...

Anyway... western Côte d'Ivoire has seen a lot of strife. It is close to the border with Liberia, which experienced years of civil war. Liberians fleeing that conflict often came to CI (where they were generally not welcomed by suspicious locals) and the Ivorian government even sponsored and trained rebel fighters here to fight against Charles Taylor. So when CI had its crisis in 2002 rebel fighters, doing what they do best, poured into the area. One of the managers explained it best to me, rebels here are generally not tied to a cause or an idealogy. They are often young, uneducated, they just fight. Apparently, there are still a lot of rebels in Man. One night we visited a local rebel hang out, a really popular maquis where the DJ gave us shout outs every 5 minutes. This is where I saw a guy with the minnie mouse skull cap.

So the influx of rebel fighters brought the government forces and there was a lot of fighting. In the city of Man, the destruction is evident: bullet holes in the walls, skeletons of looted buildings waiting to be rehabbed. Staff here tell me there were villages completely emptied. One thing my organization has done is to create comités de paix, peace committees representing different factions of the villages. At a community meeting I attended, villagers took turns speaking their minds, give their préoccupations et doléances. Almost everyone mentioned how much they lost during the fighting here.
It baffles my mind a little too, because I know in terms of African civil conflicts, Côte d'Ivoire is one of the lucky countries. The fighting here was relatively short lived here, compared to places like DRC or Sierra Leone or Liberia. And yet the devastation is so blatant and the rebuilding so prolonged...

So while I was in Man, I was out in the field everyday (yeah!) and I learned a little about some of our other programs. A lot are youth focused, for example we train and support youth in micro-enterprises like opening their own coiffure:

or chicken house:

or café named the Far West Gang:

These are actually really cool, inspiring projects. Although they don't affect huge numbers of people, it is a big deal for the youth that are involved. For example, the young men who started the salon have, in less that year, already opened a women's salon next door and are doing petit commerce in their store front. Projects like this, that invest in the youth and help villages rebuild themselves, are always good. Multiple people, both staff and beneficiaries, commented to me how even just the presence of NGOs has helped this area: people feel more confident to return, there is help rebuilding institutions like schools and health centers. Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid.