One of my all-time favorite street foods is the brochettes (meat sticks) sold in Ivory Coast. For about $1 you get half a baguette loaded with meat, onions, and super secret seasoning. MMM..mmm…
Allez-Retour
A favorite fried treat in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. “Allez-Retour” literally means “Go-Return”. The food is simply seasoned tuna that is placed in the center of a doughy ball and fried in oil. It tastes so good that you buy it and GO on your way only to RETURN and buy more. Delicious. This young lady […]
Nouveau Washington (Bimbau)
Abidjan has grown so much over the last 15 years. On the northeast side of the city is a new neighborhood called “Nouveau Washington” (seems the name came from a US NGO that gave money to build homes there). This neighborhood is right on the edge of where the city meets nature.
The Problem of Trash
Since daily, or even weekly, trash pickup is basically non-existant in Abidjan, every few months the city sends in bulldozers and diggers to clean up massive mounds of trash. Trash that was meant to fit in a single container but has over flowed into a massive temporary landfill. That’s what happens in a city of […]
Grass Cutter (aka the Human Lawn Mower)
On the hospital compound the grass is cut using human lawn mowers! The hospital maintenance department has a staff of men who cut the grass with cutlasses (machetes) and they are pretty impressive to watch. Often they cut together in unison, creating a steady whish/whack/whish/whack rhythm. Sometimes a patient of the hospital can’t afford to […]
The Baguette Bakery
I got to go into the back room of a bakery in Abidjan to see how they make the baguettes. I had know idea that their “secret” ingredient is ice! Apparently since it is so hot, that slows down the yeast process.
Church Music in Abidjan
I’ve been in Abidjan, Ivory Coast the past two Sundays and was able to attend services in two different neighborhoods in this massive city of over 6 million people. The service yesterday was particularly exciting because they were welcoming a group from a Baptist church in Arkansas that will be partnering with them in church […]
The Street Vendors
These guys don’t sell stuff on the side of the road, they sell stuff IN the road. And these are really, really busy roads. In some places (like Accra, Ghana), I’ve heard the men are independent salesmen. They hit up a warehouse in the early morning and buy a bunch of whatever they think they […]
Video Clip: Clinic Day
Here’s a glimpse into the crowded chaos of clinic day at BMC in Nalerigu, Ghana. On the day I shot this, it was already almost 6pm and these were all the patients yet to be seen by three doctors and three medical assistants. They ended up having to turn away over 100 people because of […]