Ezechiel's visit to Abidjan

Laurel had been feeling guilty because she hadn't been spending as much time with me as she would have liked. She is planning on an upcoming furlough, then has tentative plans for retirement, so has much on her mind these days, trying to finish up several different projects before she leaves in April.  She did, however, find the time to take me to the huge Hyper-U supermarket with its small clothing and home goods department included, my favorite section being the pâtisserie. And we also had lunch together at Enjera, a lovely Ethiopian restaurant nearby.

The Hyper-U Abidjan is a busy place

Gâteaux from the pâtisserie

We shared a vegetarian platter

Other excitement around here included my first rain--a nice afternoon downpour which left some large puddles here and there, but did not otherwise interfere with my afternoon walk. There was also a plumbing problem, hence no water at lunchtime, but apparently it was only related to this building.

Rain as seen from the library's window

 I also stopped by Pain-Bro for dinner and bought myself a carry-out "Petit Bro" with everything. It was 1/2 a loaf of French bread, with sliced beef, cabbage and carrot slaw, French-fries and mayo. Actually not bad for about $2.

While I was waiting, the order was being filled for a delivery guy for Glovo (there is an app for this you can download). I see a lot of these guys on motorbikes  with the yellow delivery cubes strapped to their backs, particularly in front of grocery stores and restaurants. The server had me wait at the plastic table while she finished his order. She called me "maman" (mother) which. I suppose, is better than "mamie" (granny), which I hear from time to time.

The delivery cube for the driver, his motorbike is nearby

And now, finally, Ezéchiel has joined me.  I have shown him the tiny SIL Library here in Abidjan, and had Laurel [Miller], the woman ultimately responsible for the library here, give him a briefing on it's history.  

The following day he, Stéphane [our driver] and I visited the library at the Université d'Abidjan whose main campus is nearby.  There are some 55,000 students at the university, however, and it suffered much during the "crisis" of 2011 when the library was basically trashed.  It has never fully recovered. We also visited the separate applied linguistics library where we spoke at length with the librarian in charge of the collection, the charming Mme Ahou Zoungrana. The latter has received money for computers and other equipment, but desperately needs shelving and space for the collection. She, her staff and the collection are uncomfortably housed in cramped, inadequate quarters, with insufficient shelving and room to expand.

Those unfamiliar with the relatively recent problems of conflict and civil war in the Côte d' Ivoire need to understand that the country had a leader who remained in power for 33 years of relative peace, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who left the country ill-prepared for democracy in 1993.  Increased immigration in the years that followed, due to the relative prosperity of the country, resulted in demographic change, and the existing underlying frustrations between the various ethnic groups and ways of life, resulted in increased ethnic violence. There were beginnings of a civil war in 2002, and in 2011, a post-election dispute apparently brought things to a head.  If interested, you can read more about the conflict here.

Université d'Abidjan

Entrance to the main library

Pam, Ezéchiel and Stéphane are given a brief tour of the building by a librarian

Outside the Applied Lingustics Library

Ezéchiel checks out the collection

These items date from the crisis of 2011

Ezéchiel finds a thesis of interest

Air-conditioned study room to the left and brand new computer equipment to the right

Here Ezéchiel and I pose with Mme Zoungrana

It would be a short visit, though.  On Saturday I had planned another attempt at visiting the Musée des Civilisations with him, but was feeling a  bit under the weather, so instead Ezéchiel visited a small publishing house that published theological and related writings by himself.  The next day we would be off early to Bamako where I was to introduce him to the SIL library there.  I would be traveling with a small suitcase containing boxes of archival materials of language studies done in five languages that SIL had previously worked in belonging to the Mali library. I would inventory them during my brief stay there.

Suitcase with items for Mali's archives