Took a trip to the REAL hood today

 Would anyone like to buy a cow or a horse? Poor animals looked so underfed :(

It's the picture show!

I just want to start off by saying, sorry it has been so long since I last posted! All I have been doing is working for the most part and it has been budgeting and project management...nothing particularly interesting to come home and blog about. But, I have lots of new pics to share!

I took a ride around the city with some coworkers yesterday. We rode down to Zone 4 (the entertainment area of the city) to get food and hang out. These are views of different parts of the city as we drove.

Traffic is absolutely, God-awfully terrible around here. I don't know if that is a word, but it is so true!!

On our way back, it was dark so I was able to get a picture of the Ivoirian "Times Square." It really doesn't compare, but, hey, it's Africa!

Just a few other randoms....

These little guys are all over the hotel I live in. I would pick one up, but they are so fast. Oh, and they do pushups.

Yes, a $6.20 can of tuna...smh I guess it doesn't compare to the $9.65 container of Mentos gum. I almost grabbed it and then I saw the damn price (no pic).

Again, sorry it has taken so long to post! I should be able to post some more interesting stuff this weekend. I am going to ride down to the Triechville Market with a group from the Embassy. That is where they sell a lot of arts and crafts as well as foods that are way cheaper than the grocery stores. Afterwards, a big group of the Americans from the Embassy are getting together and having a St. Patrick's day party and roasting a pig (and they will all be getting wasted, of course). Sunday, wish me luck, I am going to go get my haircut by the ONLY PERSON in this ENTIRE city, who knows how to cut white people's hair.

Until next time!

A Long Awaited Catch Up Post!

I realize I said I was going to do this posting daily, but honestly, I have come to find that some of my days just aren't as interesting as others and therefore require no posting. This week was one of those weeks. It has been very much a, go to work at 7:00am get back to my room at 6:00pm and repeat.

Well I finally got to move yesterday into my new place. It is much bigger than a small hotel room, that is for sure. The only thing I am seriously upset about moving is that my shower head really sucks now. Other than that, I now have a full size refrigerator, a kitchen, dining room, living room and when you climb the stairs, I have a large bedroom with a balcony and my bathroom. It is actually really nice, only I am having the severe fear when I turn every corner wondering if this is the day I am going to come across a giant spider. Luckily, that day has not yet come and I am hoping and praying it never does actually come.

Today has by far been the most...interesting day, if that is what you can really call it. First, I learned that my phone downstairs rings like someone in New York is ringing your buzzer. It is a really load and annoying buzz sound. It sounded so much like someone was buzzing though that I actually unlocked the front door and opened it and had time to get a little weirded out before I realized that it was the phone. On my way to work, I saw two little children bathing in the sewer canal along the side of the road. So in the US there are sewer drains that collect rain water and whatever else. Well here, there are small canals that are dug into the side of street that collect rain water and direct it to wherever it is that it goes. I will take a picture tomorrow and post it. Well today, two young kids were standing inside that canal, bathing themselves in storm water that honestly probably did no good in cleaning their bodies since it had been carrying all the dirt from further up the canal. I was just shocked to see naked people, children at that, standing on the side of the road with all that traffic going by...cultural differences, that's for sure!

As we got a little further up the road, a boy was walking along the side of the street with a firm grasp around the tail of a dog that he was carrying upside down. Obviously no dog would willingly be carried around like that...if it were alive. Poor puppy looked like a German Shepherd or something like that and no more than a year old and it was dead. It made me sad because I miss my puppies so much and here they are just killed or wander the streets with no home.

Well today is usually a half day since we work 9 hour days the rest of the week, but I had the honor of working until 5:00 and I get to work all weekend until the budget is ready to submit to DC. Unfortunately, there is so much more to do and it is so tedious and involved that I am exhausted by the early afternoon. But after today was over, I went with the country coordinator for the office that I work in and we went over to someone's house who was throwing a wine and cheese party for Americans who work at the embassy. It was pretty decent! When we got there, there was all types of foods to snack on and people to converse with. The Deputy Chief of the Mission (aka, second in line to the Ambassador) was there and very relaxed. She seems pretty nice. I guess I will get to know her more at my meeting with her and the Ambassador next Wednesday! People started to leave around 6:15, but then a whole new group of people showed up, including the Ambassador. I met his wife and we talked for a little while. It is just funny because the Ambassador grew up in Eugene which, if you aren't from Oregon, that is about an hour from where I grew up at. We also both graduated from the University of Oregon so I think I am already in his good graces since I am a Duck fan!

Well I ended up leave at about 7:30 and just got back to my apartment not too long ago. About to go to sleep before long so I can get up and take my clothes over to someone's house to wash them tomorrow and then go to work. Hopefully we can get this budget done somewhat quickly so we don't have to work until 10:00pm on Monday!!!

I will post pictures of my apartment tomorrow probably. I am just too lazy to get out of this bed right now and the A/C feels so good! Good night everyone!

Days 6 and 7 - Long Week Ahead!

I decided to go ahead and combine Sunday (since I really didn't do anything) and today so that way I would actually have something to say!

Well, Saturday night was interesting. I got to Skype with my mom, sister, grandparents and niece and nephew for awhile which was nice. Then, somewhere around 11:00p I started hearing banging on drums. I was just hoping a praying a riot wasn't about to start outside my hotel. Then, after about ten minutes it turned into blasting Shakira "Hips Don't Lie." Yes, I was relieved. Unfortunately, the Ivoirian party goers proceeded to blast music until 3 am. I felt like I was in NYC all over again (only in that aspect...what I would do to be back in America!). Eventually I managed to fall asleep, but it was an interesting night nonetheless.

Sunday was a pretty boring day. I didn't leave my room at all. To be honest, I had an offer to join some people at the Abidjan Club which is a resort type place out on the water where you can rent kayaks, lay in the sand, hike trails...all kinds of outdoorsy stuff. I turned it down just because there is no way I was going to be ready to go by 8:00am. I really do want to go next time if my coworkers go again. It looked awesome. Instead, I sat in my room and studied french vocabulary. I know, it sounds boring. But I feel like I made some real progress and this is necessary stuff if I am going to survive here! I ended up covering roughly 400 words plus how to tell time and all my numbers again. A lot of it was a breeze and came back very quickly. Other words were brand new but I was happy to learn.

Today we started the long, long week. This is the final one week countdown to our budget proposal being provided to State Dept HQ in Washington so everyone is panicked. The document we submit is roughly 180-200 pages long and encompasses every aspect of the AIDS relief program. It was the final day for our partners to submit their information to us for their requests as well as narratives as to what they want to do with the money. Tomorrow I get to edit and transfer all of the data into properly formatted documents and upload them into the system. It doesn't sound so hard, but these are multimillion dollar projects and activities and the information has to be precise and detailed in order to get approved. It is going to be very intense. I was also told to expect to work potentially for eight hours this weekend to get everything finished up in time. All in all, this is already a great experience. I am learning quite a bit and getting to see a lot of things I never would have had the opportunity to see before. The only bad thing is, I was notified today that danger pay for Cote d'Ivoire is no more. The State Dept had authorized a 15% danger pay differential for Abidjan due to previous uprisings against the government that had taken place in 2011. They re-evaluated that special pay and decided it is no longer dangerous here. I am trying to understand since the streets are basically a prison with all the homes and buildings have walls and barbed wire and guards around them. I imagine it would not be that way if things were safe, mais, c'est la vie!

Sorry I don't have any pictures for you all today. I really should have done something more interesting this weekend (i.e., on Sunday). I just thought it was a good chance to get some studying in.

Until next time!

Day 5 - The Beginning of the First Weekend

I was very relieve that it was Saturday today because I finally got a chance to catch up on sleep I had missed out on over the last nearly five days. And sleep in I did! I was supposed to go running with a group of people from work at 8:00 but I did not even wake up until about 10! This should shock anyone who is familiar with my sleep patterns. I simply do not sleep past 7:30 or 8 at the very latest. So I got dressed quickly and went downstairs since I was told that breakfast was included in my stay here so I figured I should take whatever opportunity I can to get free food since everything is so expensive here (more on that later). I went to the front desk and asked, or at least tried to ask, where breakfast was located (I spoke to her in my "struggle French"). I got a funny smile, a short laugh and then she pointed me to someone else. Apparently they understood what I meant since I knew petit dejeuner which means breakfast. Everything else I said may have been just gibberish. I sat down at a table and I knew they were asking me whether I wanted coffee or tea or hot chocolate and I am sitting there thinking, it is too damn hot in this place to be drinking something hot! I told her I wanted water instead. She said something else in French which I was completely lost and had no choice but to say "je ne comprend pas" or I don't understand. She went and got someone who spoke slightly more English than her, but not much. Finally, someone who works at the Spanish Embassy came into the restaurant and translated everything for me. The two ladies laughed and he told me they were confused because it appeared I only wanted water for breakfast. I politely laughed along with them at myself and told him I was asking if they had a menu. They did not, so they brought me a croissant and some fresh pineapple and papaya. Here is the pic:

The food wasn't too bad! I particularly am not a fan of any of the fruit they put on the tray, but I bit the bullet and ate the pineapple and found out I actually do like pineapple but only if it is fresh, not that canned crap. Papaya, though, tasted like a rotting corpse. I envision someone took a picture of my facial reaction when I took a bite and looked frantically for somewhere to spit it out.

I then went back upstairs and spoke with a coworker who asked if I was interested in going to the grocery store. I really needed to go so I could get some bottled water (no more boiling for this guy!). We left around 12:00 to head to the store and I was particularly scared for how it may look and what the food would be like, but I was shocked that it basically resembled and American grocery store!

It was very clean and not nearly as packed as Walmart in Hagerstown, that is for sure! I picked up a few items: some oranges and bananas (I wanted things with thick enough peels that I wouldn't get diseased eating them), some yogurt, sliced bread (yes they have it here!), bottled water and some sandwich bags. As you can see, stuff is very expensive!

 A quick breakdown of the currency conversion is warranted. So, $1 generally translates to just under 500 XOF (or West African francs). So these 5 items (they say 9 because I got two oranges and 3 bananas) cost me roughly $13. I am currently working on surviving on less than $10 a day which is not an easy task. But I suppose now I can make lunches to take to work and save money from buying at the cafeteria, so that is good! But now that you all know how the currency works, check out the price of this and try and tell me it is not expensive to live here:

Yes, that is $40 for some damn dried mushrooms! $40!!!! Had to take a picture because I was shocked.

After the store we went back to my coworkers house and they invited me to stay for lunch and they made some chicken fajitas and salad which was very good. I feel like I am eating things and forcing myself to like them, because I am eating things that when I would eat them at home I had already convinced myself I don't like them (like bell peppers and tomatoes for example). I am finding I like a lot of things if I just eat them with an open mind. I just hope I don't become so open minded that I eat a cat because apparently they like to eat cars here.

I have now been in my room for roughly five hours. I got to speak to Tai and see Jock and Jaida and then I took a nap and now I am waiting for another couple hours to go by before I can Skype with my family in Oregon! I had to make them realize that they are eight hours behind me now so scheduling is a very difficult thing to do compared to the three hour difference when I am in Maryland. Regardless, I look forward to speaking to them a little later. Hope you all are enjoying so far and I aim to keep providing you all with a more in depth look at the way life is here!

Day 4 - Half Day Fridays!!

So apparently a new policy at the embassy is that we work 7:30-5:00 Monday through Thursday and then on Friday it is a half day, only working 7:30-12:30. This I am happy with. I, unfortunately, still worked until about 2:00 before I hooked up with the driver to take me home. Someone else also needed picked up and driven home as well so by the time I got back to my hotel it was almost 3:00. I got an invite from some coworkers to head over to an art gallery tonight and I took them up on it as I would rather check the place out rather than sit in my room every waking hour I am away from work. It was a decent show, but I was entirely uninformed that this would be a highly attended event with people like, oh, the Ambassador as well as the Ivoirian Ambassador to the United Nations...I would have dressed more appropriately otherwise!

Here are some pics from the event:

Afterwards we went to a little American restaurant that is ran by a couple who apparently lived in Atlanta for a little while. The food was decent, though I didn't take any pictures because there was a huge group of us at the table and I didn't want to appear weird. Oh, and lo and behold, the US Ambassador was there with his wife eating dinner with the Ivoirian Ambassador to the UN. We could tell before we even walked in because his giant black Cadillac with American flags was sitting right outside the restaurant. There was no parking in the "parking lot" so we did what everyone else does and parked on the sidewalk (apparently that is legal). Apparently drinking and driving is also legal, but you aren't supposed to drink and drive fast. This is the actual law and it is plastered on billboards around the city. Makes me feel so much more comfortable being on the roads with these already crazy drivers!

Well, I am going for a run tomorrow morning with a group that call themselves the "Runners Club" and then I may have to work tomorrow so I am off to sleep! Until tomorrow...

Day 3 - The Busy Day I Would Rather Forget About

So today was insanely busy. I don't know what else to say about it. It takes forever to get to work to begin with because traffic is terrible. But the day started off really well! So let's start with the good news before I get to the grim.

I made it to work about 7:45 this morning and had to run down to the health unit for my check in. Everything is in order (basically) so that is a good thing. I then had to run back to my office where I found out I was 5 minutes late for my meeting with the ambassador (what a meeting to be late to!) but I think it was all good since when I got there he told me he was also a University of Oregon grad and he grew up in Oregon...what a small world! He said we would meet up to talk again soon. I also started getting my first assignments which are extremely tedious, attention to detail, reviewing of budget type work. Either way, it made me happy to know I am going to get stuff to do here! That is about where the good stuff ends though...

At the meeting this morning with the nurse, I learned a lot of bad things that can happen while I am here and I am determined not to let any of them happen. First, I was told that it is almost guaranteed I am going to get sick and more than likely get diarrhea...great! Unfortunately, that is the least of my worries. I learned I will not be swimming in any lakes, lagoons or other forms of still water. People who do are at risk of contracting schistosomiasis. This is when a snail, who lives in the water, lays eggs that you either ingest through your nose or mouth and they attach to your intestinal tract. They then hatch and feast on what is in your intestines. Apparently, there is still worse than that. They have what is called a tumbu fly. This fly likes to find wet clothes and lay its larva on them. Then, when the clothes are put on, the eggs are activated by a person's warm skin and the maggots burrow into your skin. For about two weeks they feast on the muscle in your body before a huge boil forms. At this point the fly is ready to hatch and the boil bursts. Yea, this is some sci-fi BS going on around here. But the day got even worse...

The nurse warned us that we will see dead bodies around town because people drive so crazy. All she said is ignore them and definitely don't touch them. Well it is a good thing I don't plan on walking the streets, but regardless, I still saw a dead boy on the way home from work. He was probably no older that 13-14 and was laying on the side of the road. People walked by him or stepped over him like he was a dead animal. It was petrifying. I knew it had to happen frequently. There are very few stop lights anywhere in this city and no crosswalks. People line up along the barrier between the two sides of the highway and when there is a gap, they just run across. This morning I saw a man running with a child no older than two years old in his arms running across. I can see why life expectancy is so low in this part of the world. HIV/AIDS doesn't even explain the majority of the deaths! I guess this is just the sad reality of living in the third world. I am already happy I am going to be here "short term." There is no way I could do a two year term in a place like this.

Well I think that is enough crazy news for the day! Hope everyone else had a great one! I am currently trying to cool water down that I boiled. Yea, I have to boil water to drink it. For the next six months. Now I don't feel sorry for those people that have to do it for a week or two. Ugh...when does the "vacation" part of being in the tropics kick in?!?!

Here are a few more pics I took from the safety of the car...