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.

Lesson Learned: Blame the Coconut

When abroad, I like to share lessons learned with friends via text messages, but since I don’t have anyone to text here, I thought I would share on this forum.

After the Vacances Santé trip to the coconut plantation, we received several coconuts as cadeaux for coming to visit.  I received 4 and shared the first one with the German girl right away.  The second one I opened and very cleverly took advantage of a plastic container and my fridge in hopes for making it last.

Lesson learned: Though delicious, coconut water ferments VERY quickly, as in, after a day or so, even sealed from air in the fridge.  Mine was in an unsealed glass, 3-4 days in the fridge…ie BAD things happened.  It tasted fine, but it ended with the first round of Cipro I’ve taken since getting VERY sick at Tabaski 2009  Cipro+ORS in the early morning saved me from an unfortunate series of events at the Vacances Santé Closing Ceremony all day Saturday.  

(Internet picture)

Also, fresh coconut meat does not last more than a day or two, even sealed, and will then smell like yeast or something else and have a thick coat of slime that will turn your stomach before you can even dream of eating it after getting sick on the juice.  I gave my 3^rd coconut from the Vacances Santé trip away to a coworker after church this morning and will eat the final one FAST as soon as I can stomach the idea of it (in the next few days).  Fortunately I’ve kept the unopened coconuts in the fridge (well, the cleaning lady put them in the fridge, I had no idea!) but should probably eat it fast anyways.  

Lesson learned, yikes!

Une Petite Annonce

Since I am supposed to fly out on Friday...

I just wanted to officially put it out there that my new scheduled date of departure from Cote d'Ivoire is now Saturday, October 6, arriving at Dulles on October 7, around 1PM.  Anyone want to pick me up around 2:30PM (giving time to go through customs and security) to either go meet Peach or head back to Baltimore?  Much obliged and more later!