A Week in Abidjan

During the first school break (October 28 - November 6), I traveled to Grand Bassam and then spent a week in Abidjan, CI’s largest city 3 hours south of Yakro.

I stayed with Mallory, an ETA in Abidjan, and her two roommates at their apartment in Riviera Golf. We arrived Sunday evening from Grand Bassam, hungry and tired, but happy to be back in Abidjan. We decided to order some Lebanese food using the food delivery app, Glovo, which was so nice to have after being in Yamoussoukro and not having easy access to food like that.

Monday and Tuesday, Mallory and I took a break, hung out, and did some shopping. While you can get most essentials in Yakro, there are certain things that are available only in Abidjan, so I had a long list of different homegoods and food that I wanted to get during the break. Mallory and I went to one of the big malls, Cap Sud, where I bought a pair of shoes, some new clothes, and a few kitchenware items. We also wanted to buy an air mattress, so we went to a big store, China Mall, which unfortunately did not carry them. Even though we didn’t have too much to do or buy, everything in Abidjan takes a tremendous amount of time, so our whole day on Monday was filled with shopping. Because of the terrible (and I mean truly terrible) traffic in Abidjan, it took us about an hour and a half to get home, even though the actual distance between the mall and the apartment is only about 15 minutes worth. Tuesday we went to the other big home store, Orca, to look again for an air mattress, which we unfortunately did not find. I was able to get my other home good items, and we ended up ordering the air mattress from an online delivery service called Jumia.

Being in Abidjan and around Mallory and her roommates is a really nice change of pace because I am able to enjoy certain comforts that simply aren’t available in Yakro. We had many good meals, including Lebanese, sushi, a proper cappuccino, and avocado toast. While it is difficult to move around in Abidjan - you have to take a Yango (Ivorian version of Uber) or taxi everywhere - I was able to find certain snacks and items like scented candles, a lamp, and resistance bands that I have been wanting.

As someone from New York City, it is also really nice to be back in a large city that always seems to be bustling with activity. I even had a chance to meet some of Mallory’s friends who are also expats from Europe, Lebanon, and the US.

Abidjan is a really large city, made up of a lot of smaller neighborhoods, each with its own distinction. Mallory’s apartment is in Riviera Golf in Cocody, a neighborhood where a lot of expats live and where certain embassies, including the US embassy, are located. On Thursday, Mallory and I met up with Dominique and John to do some sightseeing in a neighborhood called Plateau. Plateau is home to many international businesses and banks, and thus has a lot of very large buildings and a heavy expat presence.

We visited the Museum of Civilizations, which was really interesting, but quite small. For as deep and as rich a history that CI and West Africa have, there are very few museums and artifacts still here. Most historical artifacts have been taken and exported to Europe and the Americas to go to other museums. While I think it’s great that other countries want to share African history, it’s really disappointing and upsetting to know that so much has been taken out of the country instead of shared in spaces here.

At the museum, we ran into some friends, French university students who are also living in Yamoussoukro, in the same house as Emily, and are working at the university. So after the museum, we all we walked over to St. Paul’s Cathedral which is a large Catholic church in Plateau.

St Pauls Cathedral

Its exterior design is really unique for a church--it looks kind of industrial--but the inside is filled with mosaic windows and pictures. We had a tour that took much longer than we intended, like everything in CI does.

When we finished seeing the church, we were exhausted and all needed some food, so we ordered Yangos and went to eat at Bushman's cafe, a popular expat restaurant/hotel/art gallery in Cocody. We all got burgers - they were delicious, but did make a few of us sick later - and then Mallory and I headed home. We had a chill movie night, ordered sushi in and watched He’s Just not that into You.

I unfortunately did not feel well, I must’ve eaten something, so for the rest of the night and the next day, I took it very easy and had to stay close by a bathroom. That is something that inevitably comes with living here--you can get sick from anything and it’s hard to predict or pinpoint. I take a lot of precautions like only eating fruits and vegetables that I clean and cook, not eating too much meat, eating at restaurants that have been recommended by other expats, only drinking bottled water etc. But, even with all those precautions, sometimes you get sick anyway.

Saturday, Mallory and I participated in the 2nd annual National Ivory Spelling Bee as jurors. Darlene, the English Language Fellow in Grand Bassam, helped organize this event for local Abidjan schools. While it was wonderful to see so much excitement and participation from the schools and students, I cannot emphasize enough how disorganized the event was. We started nearly 2 hours late, no one knew how the rounds and scoring were supposed to go, and it was very difficult for the students to understand our American accents as we read the words because they are used to Ivorian or British speakers. I ended up leaving the Bee half way through to go to the doctor and get a panel of tests for digestive infections and malaria (spoiler alert, I had a digestive infection). I felt ok, but I wanted to go to the doctor in Abidjan as they tend to have more experience with expats than doctors in Yamoussoukro do. I went to Polyclinique Farah, a hospital with an emergency room in Zone 4. The emergency room was filled with expats, and the doctor I saw made sure to do more extensive testing.

*For expats, I would recommend finding a doctor, clinic, or hospital that has experience with Westerners and expats because our bodies often react very differently to local infections*

After the hospital, I went to have dinner with some of the other Fulbrighters on our last night. John, Dominique and I woke up early Sunday morning to drive back to Yakro and beat the heavy traffic. My week in Abidjan was so fun -- despite the stomach issues -- and was a much needed change of pace from Yakro. Abidjan is such a huge city and there is so much to do, and I’m sure I will come back again to visit with Mallory and explore even more.

*Resources in this post:

• Glovo - A food delivery app in the Abidjan area

• Yango - A rideshare/taxi app in the Abidjan area

• Jumia - An online delivery service available in major cities across CI

• Polyclinique Farah - A hospital with an ER in Marcory, Abidjan

Cami at Mallory's Apartment

The view of Abidjan from Mallory's Apartment