Readjusting

I have been back in Baltimore 3 weeks and back at work 2.5 weeks, and yet I'm still feeling so.far.behind.

I shouldn't complain as these things that are keeping me from catching up are mostly good things, like a weekend in DC for a college reunion and wedding, social and church events with friends, being busy with new (actually important) tasks at work, and getting back into my Baltimore routine.  I was positively giddy to enjoy my first weekend in Baltimore, with a visit to my neighborhood Farmers' Market and a trip to a nearby corn maze with my church group.  Godson.  Zumba.  Bible study. Game nights and other meet-ups with friends.  Theology on Tap. Volunteering. Cooking with fresh fruits and veggies.  Fall weather, whatever that actually means.  The Presidential Election (to a point).

However there are certain realities starting to hit me.  Namely, my Master's paper, which I'm insanely far behind on--think negative progress in the last few months.  Then there's that School of Nursing teaching course that I'm supposed to be following along with, though I couldn't actually audit it.  And I'm also trying to decide what public health course to take this term (Food Production and the Environment or Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS), based in large part on my work load.  My work is all coming to a head at the same time, with some intense deliverables on my different projects, plus my desire to generally enjoy life and have a bit of a social life.

Anyways, a lot of people have asked how it feels to be back, how it was to be in Cote d'Ivoire, and other relatively vague questions that my years of international work and travel have habituated me to answering with generalities like "great," "awesome," "I loved it," and "It was soooo hard to leave!"

As you read in my last post, it was easier for me to leave Cote d'Ivoire than most of my other international locations.  After some mixed feelings about being there and the work done, I found it difficult to completely honestly respond to coworkers (and organization leadership) who asked about my time.  I chose to focus on the positives with the interesting research, and ignore the lack-of-new-skills-internship part.  At the same time, when they asked about getting out into the city and larger country, I was honest about the political situation being a bit of a bummer although I did see awesome live music my last two weekends.  And then I lighten the situation by emphasizing that the CI military/police/gendarmes preferred seeing my Hopkins ID over a copy of my passport when questioned at checkpoints.  Random and entertaining and the Hopkins ego causes everyone to ask if it's because of the name "Hopkins."  No, pretty sure it's because it's in English and laminated instead of black and white and most of them probably don't know Hopkins quite that well.  Or maybe I'm underestimating the Hopkins branding?

But in general when someone asks about CI and about being back in Baltimore, I say that "It was cool to be over there and I'm glad I did it, but I'm also excited to get back to my 'regular life' in Baltimore."  "Regular life," meaning home, work, church, grocery stores and gym, and friends*, and all of that is currently based in Baltimore which is pretty awesome.

And regular life includes spending time with my godson, Connor Anthony, isn't he adorable?

And now with Hurricane Sandy ripping through the East Coast, I am enjoying a hurrication and all that it entails, including trying to be as productive as possible (and procrastinating at the same time) while we still have electricity and a fridge/freezer full of perishables.

*Ok, my close friends are really all over the place including Baltimore, DC area/NoVa, Seattle, Illinois, Texas, and many, many other places, states, and countries.

A la Prochaine, Cote d'Ivoire!

I fly out of Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday night, but I’ll still be posting about my time here in the weeks to come (Inchallah) to talk a little about the work I did, as well as more reflections on the country and my practicum.

I can’t remember ever looking forward to leaving a country and so I feel a little guilty even posting this.  My excitement about returning to Baltimore isn’t because I don’t like Abidjan or am really excited to get back to my office in Baltimore, au contraire.  I really like Abidjan and Cote d’Ivoire and if it were another time, or if I knew a few people outside of my office mates, I’m sure I would be very reluctant to leave.  There’s definitely a side of me that is sad, mainly because I do not know when I’ll be back, and I have a few awesome coworkers who have really been there.  However, after three months of loneliness and some cabin fever, the prospect of social events this fall and opportunities to travel a bit in the next few months are calling my name.  Not to mention the Farmers’ Market and my new godson who I can’t wait to hold in my arms.

Cote d’Ivoire is very different from Senegal in many, many ways, but also, being a francophone country in West Africa, it did not feel as foreign to me as maybe it should have.  Is that why I got restless?  I recognized the currency, the transportation system, and the chaos.  I only needed someone to point me in the right direction for the market, some interesting sights, and recommend some neighborhood street food stands and I felt like I could conquer the city.  However, the REALITY OF COTE D’IVOIRE took over and unfortunately that reality includes the past 12+ years of conflict and civil and political unrest.  Not wanting to freak myself out before coming here, I told myself that the situation was much improved, only to arrive and face August, the month where the fighting returned to Abidjan and the US Embassy temporarily suggested all “non essential” travel to Cote d’Ivoire be suspended (nothing about those of us already in town).  This understandably freaked out my coworkers, who remember all too well the war and the post-electoral crisis.  Heck, the doors in our lunch room still have bullet holes in them from the crisis, so while ABJ had a very quick face-lift post-crisis, it’s not far from the minds of its residents.

It’s this familiarity and yet different situation that threw me for a bit of a trip.  Me, Khady Diouf the Senegalese village RPCV, suddenly thrust into the cosmopolitan Abidjan, but without a network of contacts apart from the 15 CCP-CI staff members who work at the office.  And understandably, 3 months is not actually long enough to get super connected (starting from scratch) and integrated with the greater country.  That takes more time, or a host family, or someone whose main concern is helping you figure things out (this will be the topic of a post very soon).

It also means that I have an “interesting” list of impressions from my time here.  As much as I would rather have a list of “Cote d’Ivoire in Numbers” as I did with Senegal, a list of “Things I loved” and “Things I didn’t love so much” seems most honest and I will try to be respectful about it. [It was originally titled Like/Dislike list but that seemed mean.]

Things I loved:

o   The food: atthieke, alloco/plantains (fried or grilled), grilled chicken sold on the street corner (yes…and no, it didn’t make me sick), leaf sauce, peanut sauce, eggplant sauce with futu, everything was soooo good!  (ok, maybe not the escargots, but at least I tried them).

o   Grilled plantains.  Yes, they are so good that they need to be mentioned twice and I’ve been doing what I can to make sure I have them often in the last few weeks.

o   Zumba class, though it didn’t start until my last month here.  My first class, the instructor asked me to join her “Zumba Show” team because she could tell I’ve done it before and am decent.  A few weeks later she told another student that I was her “best student though it’s only her 3^rd time here.”  Yay dance parties and sweating BUCKETS!  This class really helped my psychologically my last month in town.

o   French, though I’m not in love with the accent and it took longer than I wish to admit to get used to it, is always a fun thing for me.  True, I make mistakes even after all of this time, but I still really love the language.

o   French-dubbed movies and TV shows (and realizing that I’m the age of the early seasons of Friends…yikes!), which are a great way to enjoy the language.

o   French MTV and African MTV-like channels that play nonstop music videos.  Ok, my iPod Nano broke IMMEDIATELY after I arrived, so this is how music enters my life.  Also, MUSIC, especially Adzonto and some of the other songs.

o   Beautiful fabric, though I only made it to the market once to buy anything.  And awesome fashions, especially at church, that fuse African fabrics with traditional+Western styles all at once.  Loved it!

o   TREES!!!!!!!!!  This country is soooo amazingly green (in part because I was here during the rainy season, which is much longer than up in the Sahel).  I recognize a few from Senegal, but there is such a diversity here!

o   Though I am an intern here, I feel like a part of the regular team and generally don’t feel the same exclusion from certain things (like not having a key to the bathroom or being on the main listserve) that I feel in Baltimore.

Merci Benoit!

o   A coworker who was often willing to alter his weekend plans to accompany me to church on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings, and then take me on walks to nearby areas I otherwise would have never discovered/known about.

o   That my office covered the plane change fees, paid all of my rent (in ABJ, not B’more), and gave me a small stipend for my last month in town, plus per diem for my 2 work trips. I'm still waiting on a reimbursement from my other project for my canceled Senegal trip.

o   That, while I had trouble getting to know people in town, at least the guards on my street were kind enough to chat with me.

o   Coworkers’ and others’ generosity and akwaba (welcoming), even if it’s not quite the same as the Senegalese teranga (hospitality), which could guarantee me a meal and bed in almost any house I could choose to walk into in Senegal.  That level of trust is still missing after the conflict here, but people have been kind treating me to meals, drinks, or little gifts.

o   Not feeling like I was overtly being taken advantage of or cheated, the way I frequently felt in new markets or parts of Senegal and why I always insisted on knowing the real price ahead of time.  Here people “adjust” the prices based on my skin color on occasion, but then a coworker can quickly get the right price out of them.

Things I didn’t love so much:

o   The difficulty finding people to spend time with outside of work: the loneliness.

o   The empty promises/offers of going out at night or around town from coworkers.

o   Lack of ability to go anywhere or do much, in or out of the city, as a result of the past and continuing conflict situation.

o   WAY more expensive than Senegal and Mali, though the same currency.

o   The fact that the actual work I did didn’t involve using new skills and that in general I’m feeling “burned” by my employer (US end) and frustrated with my practicum.

o   The lack of market time.  In Thies (Senegal 2011), I went to the market on a weekly basis, just to see what there was and stock up whenever I needed something.  The large markets here are far away and thus difficult to get to or learn your way around.  And my coworkers refused to tell me where they were, lest I be tempted to go there on my own.

o   Not sleeping well for the past 3 months, but I think the mefloquine is to blame (future post).

o   The fact that 3 months is not enough time to get to know a place and become a part of the community there, which is something I strive for (that’s the PC part of me, as well as my RA days), but I also knew I didn’t want to and couldn’t spend 6 months abroad (plus not enough funding).

It’s definitely bittersweet and my office has been kind enough to plan a “cocktail” for me the morning of my last day, which was totally unexpected and I am extremely grateful for.  I’m ready to leave and excited to be back in the States (weird, I don’t usually say that), but it will still be difficult to leave.  One of our colleagues is getting married this weekend and I will be going to the wedding with my bags in the car and heading directly to the airport.

A bientot!


Note: the "Cocktail" was a very sweet and kind farewell, complete with a HUGE spread of food and a gift.  Thanks to all of my coworkers for your kindness these past 3 months!

La Vie Quotidienne

My place of residence: a guest house/conference center

So some people have asked me what exactly I am doing here in CI and what life is like.  Honestly, it’s not super exciting in the day-to-day, as is the case in most jobs.  I should have posted this earlier during my time here when things were a little calmer, but this is generally how things go.  Later, I'll probably write about my weekends.

6:30 : alarm goes off so that I can go for a walk/run…mostly I just go back to sleep and save the exercise until later.

7/7:20AM: actually wake up, make PB and Banana oatmeal with MTV or an African music channel while getting ready.

8/8:05: Walk to work

8:20/30: Arrive at work, great, waste time on email/fb/etc/eventually get to work.  My work space changes based on which staff members are in the office or away on holiday or work travel, hence two different desk pictures below.

11:30:  Benoit collects lunch orders and then goes to pick up what people want.

12:45-1:20 PM: eat lunch, which is picked up from a nearby lunch stand.  Usually consists of fish or chicken with sauce and atthieke, rice, futu, or something else like fried plantains and hardboiled eggs, yam fries, or pork with bread.  Sauces available include eggplant sauce, leaf sauce, maffe (peanut butter), tomato/veggie, or other.  90% of the time it’s pretty delicious.  There’s always A LOT of spice but I can handle the spice more than more than a handful of my coworkers…(Dad, be proud!).

1:20 PM: take a walk in the neighborhood around the office.  This has become one of my main sources of exercise

2PM: back in the office, back at work.  The afternoon mostly FLIES by

5:50PM: head home

6:20PM: do back stretches, shower

7PM: dinner, usually yogurt+banana, cereal, other leftovers, etc, while reading articles I neglected to read during the day

7:30PM: do evening work for myself or my other project while watching the news, Disney Channel, French MTV, dubbed over TV shows, etc.  Also, do laundry and allow it to dry in bedroom.

10PM: get ready for bed

10:30PM: bed, read, sleep.

My old room+bathroom: 

My new room, living room, bathroom, and kitchen:

A Traumatic Zoo Experience: The Toll of War

Last weekend I visited a zoo that might be one of the worst in the world that can still be considered functioning.  This was not the failing but charming family zoo from We Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon.  It was, however, overrun with children’s birthday parties and large families, taking advantage of the opportunity to do something in the city.

I had heard bad things about the zoo in Dakar, but fortunately never went.  I had heard terrible things about the national zoo here in Abidjan, about the animals being killed in the war and it basically being one of the most depressing places ever.  Even with this warning, I was still surprised and saddened with what I saw.

Crocs

The zoo costs 300cfe, or about $.75 to get in.  There’s an extra fee for fancy cameras, but otherwise that’s it.  The zoo had a handful of snakes, chimps and other primates, 50+ crocodiles (apparently one of the largest croc breading programs in the world or something?), a few gazelles, a hippo, an elephant, and some small rodent-like things called biches, which are actually miniature deer.  Feeding time consisted of people directly feeding the animals, a zookeeper tossing a few handfuls of green bananas to the herbivores, and some baby chicks hanging out in the cage of a sleeping snake.  There was a cage of chickens occupying a old cage that used to belong to some exotic birds, with an old sign saying that the exotic birds were supported by a German bird NGO.

This hippo apparently shares a pond with a turtle, but none of us could see it through the muck.

Abandonned building and habitat

The zoo, like other parts of the country I’ve seen, was occupied by the ghosts of the war.  What once may have been a famous and thriving zoo (at it’s time), is now fighting to keep the animals alive, visitors coming, and the surrounding jungle at bay.  There were a lot of empty cages, abandoned buildings, and vast empty spaces that you dare not walk into for fear of real, non-zoo snakes.

A month or so ago, I had read that a British zoologist (?) had recently spent some time in Abidjan earlier this year ,working with the zoo to improve things.  Sadly, there’s a lot left.  Most of the animals were visibly agitated, pacing back and forth, making uncomfortable sounds, and just not behaving “normally” for animals in captivity.  Many also looked sick, with ulcers coming from various parts of their body, puss from their eyes, diarrhea, terrible hemorrhoids, and more.  I feel bad even posting this, but it also gives a look at what the war has done.

Cages were small, crowded, and lots of cages were empty and/or in disrepair.  Water was disgustingly dirty. There was an older, British man leading a group of Africans (francophone and Anglophone) who seemed to know what was going on and where there should (or shouldn’t ) be animals, and he may or may not have been the zoologist that I had read about.

Fortunately, the visiting zookeeper is trying to help, but the entire zoo needs a complete overhaul.  Not that I’m an expert or anything, but basically the zoo needs to be temporarily shut down and completely taken over by a NGO or private donor who can completely revamp it, transfer it back to local staff, and then set a slightly higher price (perhaps 500cfe or 1,000cfe, i.e $1 - $2 a person?).  It’s currently in such a sorry state that no one would ever want to pay a higher price, but it can’t properly take care of the animals at $0.75/ a visitor.  Perhaps my advocating for outside assistance (the giving of gifts, Santa Clause syndrome?) is in conflict with my last post, but after the renovations and working with the staff to make the zoo sustainable and more humane for the animals, the NGO would leave and hopefully not have to come back.  Maybe other zoos or NGOs have thought of doing just this, but the political situation in the country is not yet stable enough to give anyone enough confidence to invest so much money that isn’t for democracy building or health?

Update: I just Googled Abidjan National Zoo and found this blog for the Friends of Abidjan Zoo, but the most recent update is from early 2007, after the civil war but before the post-electoral crisis of recent years. And here's a poor English translation of an animal protection organization in CI: http://www.panimale.org/index2.en.php?p=zoologique_en.  

Also, here's a quick YouTube video about the zoo that was just posted yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QSMmTGa4dk  Warning: it's in French, but shows some of the (better) images of the animals and explains that they rely on grocery stores to provide fruits and veggies for the animals, but also explains how many animals were killed in the war and post-electoral crisis.  [Title: Le zoo d'Abidjan survit malgre les crises, or The Zoo in Abidjan survives inspite of the crises.] I'm not sure where the cheetah/leopard was when I was there, but we definitely didn't see it though its cage is apparently right next to the hyennas. 

More pictures from my zoo trip can be found here:  ABIDJANZOO

The Life of a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer

I wanted to link to another RPCV friend's blog because I feel that she perfectly describes the awkward and difficult life of being trapped between multiple worlds, moving on with your life, while still remaining connected to the pulse of life in the village and everyone you love there.

Please enjoy.

Thank you for sharing, Jessie.

Publicity Stunts in the Name of Malaria Prevention

Last weekend I participated in an awkward publicity stunt for lack of a better word.  I feel awkward even publishing this as so many coworkers, partners, and others worked so hard to make it happen, but it also highlights certain strong feelings I have about development, aid, celebrity, and the like.

Back story, my organization (in B’more) has a sub-organization, we’ll call ABC, that partners with public and private organizations and A LOT of professional soccer players in Africa to raise awareness and do advocacy about malaria.  They are the “official cause” of the Africa Cup of Nations and FIFA (?) and do great work spreading the word about malaria and how to prevent deaths from malaria.  A few months back, the manager for an unnamed Cote d’Ivoire soccer/football player approached ABC.  This player had been gathering a bit of a bad reputation and publicity as a player and ladies’ man, and a bunch of other things, including that he basically doesn’t care about where he’s from.  They wanted to improve his reputation and thought that by doing something with malaria in his home neighborhood, he might look more like a humanitarian and less like a player.

While a coworker from the US who works with ABC was in town, we went to visit SOS Children’s Village Abobo, a beautiful children’s home (kind of like an orphanage but I don’t think that they do formal adoptions).  An appointment was made with the director, but the reason for the meeting was not explained.  During the meeting, my coworker proposed a net distribution ceremony with the player for ABC, something short but with plenty of media agents present to put a positive spin on his reputation.  Perhaps a tiny reception after, but something in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 minutes.  She collected information on how many kids there are and a little bit of history on the Village.  In the discussions, ABC wasn’t sure where the nets were coming from, but that they were probably being purchased or donated by another organization.  Oh humanitarian aid can be so complicated…

The most important part: Did anyone ask if the kids needed nets?  Nope. 

We took a tour of the beautiful grounds, including visiting one of the homes where the kids live, 10 kids to one “maman,” who is in charge of cooking and caring for the kids, sometimes with a little bit of help.  These Mamans are true heros who do the work for the love of the children.  The kids range in age from 4 week twins to high school students and even college/university students who still receive support from the institution on varying levels.

Upon entering the house, we saw the rooms and noted that EVERY SINGLE BED HAD A NET.  Brand new looking even. 

From the day we visited, I had been asking another coworker to find out how old the nets are and where they came from but she kept forgetting or the Director never replied.  I found out prior to the ceremony that the Village buys new nets for the kids every year because they destroy them with holes (“kids will be kids”).  Long lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) normally last 3 years or so before they need to be replaced because the insecticide in the net weakens, so this is problematic.  One of my projects, a malaria project that focuses on LLINs trains people on how to repair these types of nets so that they can last 3 years.  Connection!

The day of the ceremony, everything was orchestrated, and of course on Africa Time, with the arrival of a bajillion news crews with the celebrity player an hour late.  My coworkers and the staff at SOS did a great job putting everything together and it was an amazingly well run and efficient ceremony, better than many I've been to.  Some children had prepared poems, some older boys demonstrated how to tuck in a net, and some older girls were the official "hostesses" (think Oscar ladies).  The only thing that was perhaps not perfectly orchestrated (though maybe behind the scenes?), was that the CEO of a big school supply company here (Librairie de France) offered to cover 50% of the school supplies for the kids this year and give a super reduced price for the rest, and thereby strong-arming the soccer player to cover the rest.  As he said during his brief and awkward speech (maybe he’s shy?), “I don’t have much of a choice…I’ll cover the rest of the school supplies.”

The Welcoming Committee: A lucky girl was
chosen to represent the children of SOS, being
dressed in traditional clothing and body paint.

After the ceremony, which was all "symbolic," as so many things are in the world, I was talking with the director and some of the Mamans about a training session on repairing LLINs.  They all agreed that they need to learn how to repair nets, but then one Maman told me “you know, if you ever do this again, it would be better to get nets for the windows and doors than new mosquito nets…” Amen sister, if only someone had asked you.

Dude has some pretty baller
shoes: studded Chucks

This seems to be an all-too-common problem with development, needing to make one person/country/organization look good and using the “receivers” as objects.  The JHSPH Masters’ Practicum experience is designed to help us get greater work experience in our desired field.  Well, I know that I do not want to be exclusively involved with publicity gimmicks, even for a good cause.  I’m not knocking people who do that stuff, as it is necessary in order to boost public awareness of the "cause," but it just felt ridiculous to me to be doing this for a celebrity to up his reputation.  Some of it also comes from mine, and I think most RPCVs’, aversion to anything that even closely resembles “Santa Clause Syndrome,” or coming into an area or community and just giving something randomly, without concern for the needs or abilities of the receiver.  Though in this case the giver was officially the soccer player and my only capacity was as photographer, I still felt awkward as across much of the developing world, a white person is still associated with donations and aid.

The bright side?  At least the kids had fun and got to meet a soccer celebrity, from a distance.  And the little reception?  The kids got juice and “all of the important people” got fancy food and drink.  Weird.  Truth be told, I’m not sure if the organization or the village was in charge of the reception, and it all followed typical “protocol” for ceremonies in West Africa, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised?

For more pictures, and some (sideways) videos of the event, click here.

Checking In on an Old Project

As you all probably have noticed, I can be a sporadic blog post-er.  I start numerous entries but life, classes, or whatever result in never hitting the orange "publish" button.  My time as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer last year was the same and in the end, I posted very few entries, and even fewer about my actual work.

Well, in case you were curious about what I did in Senegal last year, besides hang around Thies, act in a movie (that has been making the rounds of films fests!) and visit my village, you should check out my friend Lisa's blog.  Lisa took over with Plan Senegal where I left off, mainly in training NGO staff on our curriculum, starting the program, and even more important, UPDATING and IMPROVING the curriculum based on the FEEDBACK of instructors and participants.  She has gotten into all sorts of monitoring and evaluation to track participant and instructor progress and has really knocked this project out of the park, all while being super busy with tons of other activities.  You go girl!

This entry is a nice follow-up to the work that I started, and how it was improved. http://lisadidwhat.blogspot.com/2012/09/guys-love-girls-with-life-skills-and.html?spref=fb

I can't wait to get my hands on a new copy of the manual and see how things have changed based on the realities in the field.  Great job, Lisa!  (She finishes up her service in April, wow how time flies!)

*Lisa is another Midwest girl, from Valpo but residing in Chicago pre-PC.