Leaving Bouake is easier than arriving, in part because we have a pass from Colonel Bakayoko that is supposed to grant us unimpeded passage through the territory held by Force Nouvelle. But, despite this laissez pass?, we are still hassled for money at a few checkpoints. This prompts protests from Yoda, who shows them the pass. In the end, we don't pay anything. At one of the checkpoints where we aren't asked for money, I get out and talk to the soldiers manning the barricade. The guy in charge of this checkpoint is 35, which makes him much older than most of the rebels. He says he was a carpenter in a town in the south before the war. He says he was born in another southern city as were his parents, but he is from an ethnic group that originated in Guinea and he says he joined the rebellion because he "didn't want my children to grow up in a country where they are treated as foreigners." It is a moving sentiment and one that I have heard from other rebels. It is also part of the reason I think the rebels probably would have won the war had it been allowed to continue. They are simply better motivated than the FANCI troops.
We drive out through the Zone of Confidence. I want to try to stop and talk to some villagers who live in the middle of the zone. I am curious which side they support and how they feel about the war and the French intervention. But Fanny falls asleep in the back seat and there is some miscommunication with Yoda, so we speed along without stopping. As it is, I don't see many villagers outside to talk to. Once through the zone, however, I do make Yoda stop so that we can talk to some boys in one village who are using the traditional looms to weave cloth. It is amazing how quickly they can move the shuttle carrying the thread through the loom. They say they buy the yarn in Yamoussoukro and try to make clothing out of it, which they then sell in local markets. Their work is beautiful, with vibrant blues and reds. The boys say they support the government in the war (I didn't expect them to say anything different - no one living in the south would admit to having sympathy for the rebellion and no one in the north would admit to supporting the government. If anyone found out chances are good that they would be killed.) They say some men from the village are serving in the army, but that the village has mostly been untouched by the war. I take some photos and move on.
At the checkpoint on the outskirts of Yamoussoukro we run into problems. An old, fat FANCI soldier notices that the license number listed on our FANCI-issued laissez pass? doesn't match our vehicle's license plate. Why no one noticed this before I have no idea. Why Yoda didn't notice this and have it corrected is a bigger concern. Yoda begins arguing with the FANCI troops at the checkpoint. Fanny suggests that maybe they want money and maybe they do but I'm not about to pay it. Yoda is trying to explain that they let us travel into the rebel zone without any problems and that we've cleared every FANCI checkpoint until now. The FANCI soldiers here don't seem to care. They want our license plate to match our pass. Yoda calls the captain back in Abidjan who issued us the pass. He gets on the phone with the soldiers at the checkpoint and apparently tries to plead our case, but that doesn't work either. We are told to drive immediately to the local military base - which is located next to Houphouet-Boigny's former presidential mansion - to get a new pass. This is going to be a very long delay indeed. I hope we don't get stuck here in Yamoussoukro another day. I am eager to get on to Man so that we can do reporting there and then get back to Abidjan.
The military base in Yamoussoukro is kind of sleepy. We meet another graying, chubby soldier - a sergeant I think - having a drink with his family on the porch outside his office. (On Ivorian military bases, soldiers live with their families on base.) At first he doesn't seem to want to lift a finger to help us. He tells us that it isn't so easy to have a laissez pass? issued up here. We should go back to Abidjan, he says. But we aren't about to do this. There is another call to the captain in Abidjan who gets on the phone with the sergeant. This seems to get the sergeant to change his mind. He bellows something out and suddenly two young privates appear on the porch. They escort us into some over air-conditioned office where they ask all our details - even though all of this information is written on the first lasses pass? -- and we have to present our Ids. They say they will try to issue us another pass but it may take awhile because they need to find Colonel Mangon, the commander of the base, to sign it. This is not good news. I had been trying to get in touch with Colonel Mangon last time I was in Yamoussoukro and he didn't seem very responsive. After half an hour - during which time the soldiers act as if they have never seen a computer before despite the fact that they use the thing every day - one of the privates prints out the pass and heads off on his motor scooter to try to find Colonel Mangon. We sit and wait. And wait. And wait. The sun is starting to go down.
The only benefit of all this waiting is that it gives me an opportunity to assess the condition of the FANCI soldiers. Now I'm no military expert, and I didn't exactly wander around the whole base (in fact, I stayed planted on the stairs outside the sergeant's office), but the following was abundantly apparent: while the rebels seemed lean and mean - if under-equipped and sometimes high - the FANCI troops seem, well, old and fat. (To be fair I did see some trucks go by with younger troops who seemed physically fit.) Recently Gbagbo and FANCI have engaged in some tough talk, implying that they may be forced to end the ceasefire and go back on the offensive if the rebels don't agree to rejoin the power-sharing government soon. But, judging from the look of this base, FANCI isn't an army in high state of military readiness. There is no sense of urgency to anything being done on the base. When I share this thought with Fanny he laughs and says that FANCI troops are rumored to desert their posts in droves in the face of rebel attacks, often slipping away in civilian clothes. I don't doubt this. The rebels aren't exactly known for taking prisoners.
The young private on the scooter returns as night falls. He tells us that Colonel Magnon is not here so he had to get someone else - a captain - to sign the laissez pass?. Fanny tells me that he thinks the private is lying about Colonel Magnon. He thinks Col. Magnon is here but trying to avoid us because he doesn't want to grant me an interview. This is probably the case. In any event I am too tired to care.
We head back to the Hotel President. I was going to ask that we not stay here again - it's too pricey -- but I am exhausted so I decide to go along with Yoda's decision. This time we are given rooms in the tower. The rooms look a little less '70s than the ones we had the first time here, which is too bad. It's also too bad that the airconditioning hardly functions. After freshening up a bit, I go out to eat at a maquis on Yamoussoukro's main drag with Yoda and Fanny. Both of them are joking about finding me a companion for the evening. "My friend, you will not sleep alone tonight, this I know," Fanny says. Well, in fact, he is wrong. Whenever he points out women at dinner (which by the way is grilled whole fish with onions and tomatoes and the ubiquitous attieke) I simply shrug my shoulders or pretend not to be listening. Yoda on the other hand calls someone. Not his regular girl in Yamoussoukro it turns out, but the young woman we had met on Sunday when we were touring the basilica (she was on her way to Mass.) Much to my bewilderment, she agrees to meet him later that evening. (So much for good Catholic girls.) After dinner, we go back to the hotel. I lay down on my bed and am asleep almost immediately. I wake up at 3 a.m., sweating and still in my clothes. As I head into the bathroom to wash up I spot a cockroach skittering across the counter top. I pause to make sure my luggage is sealed (I don't want any stowaways) although it occurs to me that the roach may have actually come from my bags in the first place.