Heart of the Matter

Abidjan Again

Well, it?s Sunday afternoon and I am finally back safely in Abidjan after being gone for almost nine full days. It was a long and tiring trip and I am glad to be back, even though to a large extent the story I want to cover is taking place outside of this commercial hub. Still, having traveled around much of central Cote d?Ivoire, I now know how much better Abidjan is from other places in the country.

As you all know from my lack of postings, for most of the time I was gone I was either not able to find a working cyber caf? or couldn?t use one for long enough to post. I have seen a ton of things on my journey and I will try to include most of them in posts soon (if for no other reason that I am already afraid I will forget much of what I have seen if I don?t write it down.)

After getting arriving at residence ? it was great to see it after over a week ? I fired Fanny. He seemed very upset. I think he hadn?t seen this coming. I think he almost cried. I felt guilty since I don?t think he?s a bad guy and he had done an adequate, although not great, job these past few weeks. And, with my poor French, I had come to depend on him. He kept asking if he had done something to make me angry. I said no ? although that?s not exactly true, since there were several times in the past week when I thought he had a really bad attitude (he didn?t seem at all enthusiastic about the job) and his lack of initiative troubling. I also found his reluctance approaching people on the street to ask them questions ? an essential skill for a journalist ? a problem. I didn?t tell him this. Instead, I told him that as I started doing more reporting on business and economic subjects I needed someone whose English was better. He asked if it was a matter of money. I said I thought he charged a lot for the level of service he provided, but that it was primarily a matter of his English. He offered to renegotiate but I refused. He asked me to give him one more chance but I told him I didn?t want to do that, I?d made up my mind. He asked if he should immediately leave Abidjan and go home to his village near Seguela, where he digs diamonds to try to make money. I said that was up to him. He asked if I would still be willing to help him come to the U.S. This is the part where I felt really guilty because he said that he really wanted to continue his studies and that he had no future in Cote d?Ivoire. He said there were no opportunities in the country for someone from a poor family. He said he only wanted to come on holidays. But I know he wants to come and work and I am not about to help him become an illegal immigrant. I said I would research what he would need to do to get various kinds of visas and then report back to him. I said that if he came to the US I would try to help him out if I could do so. Then I asked him to leave.

Emma came over for dinner last night. I cooked pasta, nothing fancy. Emma said it was the first time in her entire life a man had ever cooked a meal for her, which got us talking about gender roles here. Apparently women?s lib hasn?t exactly arrived in Cote d?Ivoire. Even though many women work, they are still expected to do all the cooking, cleaning and child rearing. In the villages, Emma says that women typically do all the real work. They get up early to make their husbands breakfast. They go and fetch water from the well. Then, while their husbands head off to farms by bicycle, the women are obliged to walk to the farm, often with a toddler in tow and an infant strapped to their backs. Meanwhile they balance incredible loads on their heads. They work with their husbands on the farm and then when they come back they are expected to cook dinner and clean. It sounds like a very hard life. I asked why more educated women and those living in cities hadn?t revolted against such inequality. Emma looked at me sort of strangely and asked how it was possible for women to do anything about this ? it?s part of the culture, she said. I told her that it used to be the same way in the US but that over the past 40 years gender roles have been transformed, in large measure by women fighting for equality. She said this wouldn?t happen in Africa, at least not any time soon.

Well, I promise posts on my past week of travel soon. I did an initial post -- that covers my trip through last Tuesday. It is called "Lasers in the Jungle" and I back dated it so you should find it below.