My Burkina Journal: Off to Abidjan

Well I decided a short trip to Abidjan would be worthwhile, to get a sense of the SIL library there as Fina had commented on a recent visit that it seemed in fine shape. Ezechiél seemed to be making steady progress in his studies and had discussed briefly his intended topic for his Master's thesis, the importance of digitalizing the (SIL) library's holdings of local language publications published by SIL. He was unaware that a handful had already been scanned and added to the library's website, and that there were plans to put more in SIL's vast repository of documents online in SIL's REAP project, available in varying degree to SIL members and researchers. Although a wonderful idea in theory, I mentioned some of the actual issues and constraints of doing so, as all is not obvious to starry-eyed library school students.

I flew Air Burkina into Abidjan on Saturday evening, the national airline company that has a reputation for lateness. Pam Morris (known as "Pam the Younger" because there are two of us) took me to the airport. My flight left a whole hour later than the posted time. Fortunately I was able to text without issue from Burkina Faso to the Côte d'Ivoire using my Orange SIM card, and Laurel Miller was there to pick me up. Laurel works at SIL and has her master's in library science. Her administrative skills have her doing more than managing the small library, but she will be my primary contact here. Abidjan is a much more modern, developed city than Ouagadougou, and there was even a Burger King at the airport, which made for a handy meeting place. I had to fly through Bobo Dioulasso, but had no other issues, except wishing that it had been a dinner flight given the seemingly unnecessary flight delay of about an hour and a half extending through the dinner hour.

Arriving in Abidjan

One thing I immediately noticed upon arrival was the change in temperature, and most pronouncedly, the change in humidity. The temperature is somewhat lower and the humidity level, at least at this time of year, much, much higher. To date I have already experienced a couple of relatively heavy downpours, which is good, because it wrings some of that uncomfortable moisture out of the air.

The setting of the SIL branch here in Abidjan is a much more urban one, and to find an ATM, or visit the grocery store, I need to cross a major highway. There are stop lights, though, and the grocery store is the French Casino, which looks like it has been bought out by Franprix as the logo symbol is now the Franprix apple rather than the old Casino bull's eye logo. Or maybe it's Casino that owns Franprix because I think they own LeaderPrice and Monoprix as well. At any rate, although allegedly small, the store is large by Ouaga standards. I ogled the breads, breakfast pastries, and deli counter. I could buy butter as an individual serving size, milk in small pint-sized containers, a pre-cooked half a chicken with fries, or pre-cooked quiche, sandwiches, pre-cut veggies and more--it is a real boon for me not wishing to cook the few days I am here, but wanting an alternative to a restaurant.

views from my bedroom window

this is the highway that goes past the SIL Center

there are some nice buildings, but between them there are people selling whatever they can

Abidjan is huge, and the SIL center is located in the Riviera I section of the administrative district of Cocody in Abidjan. Zoning is mixed and areas of large, beautiful homes surrounded by walls revealing lush vegetation may share a street cluttered with stalls and small shops of vendors. Unlike Ouaga, the streets all seem to be paved, though, and there is a distinctly urban feel. Also the noticeable absence of motorbikes means that more and more of the residents are able to afford cars. For me it is weird lying in bed at night hearing the occasional cock crow, the sounds of a call to prayer by the muezzin in the nearby mosque, and the whizzing of traffic.

Here the taxi cabs are orange (they are green in Ouaga) There are also cabs that limit their transport to specific districts which are the distinctive color of that district (yellow, green, blue, etc.) so they are easily identifiable.

On Sunday I was invited by a German translation consultant at SIL, Cornelia Wuesthoff, to visit the local Baptist church she attended. She invited another visiting expat English couple, Tim and Maggie Gaved, along with another American woman, Sharon Nordley, who now lives northwest of Paris. Both the Gaveds and Sharon had spent time in Dakar at some point. I mentioned Angela Bednarczyk, from National Presbyterian Church to them and her work with deaf children at the Ecole Renaissance des Sourds, in Dakar, and was delighted that they had at least heard of it. Small world. Angela has been working in Dakar about as long as I have been working in Ouagadougou. For those of you who have been following my blogs, Angela visited me once early on in my time in Ouagadougou, and came again to Burkina Faso a couple of years ago to celebrate the completion of the New Testament into Kaansa in Obiré, along with the French/Kaansa dictionary. It had been the culmination of decades of work by Stuart and Cathie Showalter who had studied and analyzed that language.

The service went on for two hours (!) with much singing, some of it quite spontaneous, was very exuberant in nature, and included dancing in the aisles by its members. The rest of us clapped, tapped our feet and "danced" where we stood in place. The music caused buzzing in my ears, which were probably still stopped up from the flight the day before, but I found the preacher difficult to hear, even with a microphone as he seemed very soft-spoken. As first-time visitors we were requested to stand up and introduce ourselves to the congregation, and the custom was to have the visitors form a receiving line after the service and be greeted by everyone. The surprise of the day was when Thomas Blecke, originally from Germany, who spent some time in Ouagadougou doing linguistic work, showed up in the receiving line at this very church in Abidjan. I knew he was now doing research in the Côte d'Ivoire, that he specialized in the Mande languages and is on the editorial board for the journal Mandenkan. His wife, Bärbel, was a volunteer in the SIL Linguistics Library when I first visited Ouaga in 2012. That he showed up in Abidjan should not have been a complete surprise, but still ... small world again. And, all-in-all, a quite exhausting morning.