BONNES FETES A TOUS

Hello my friends, Long time....I wish you all a Merry Chritsmas and a Happy New Year. I will be away. I have already been a week in Dakar and now I am leaving in few hours to Cameroon for two weeks. I hope that all is fine for you. Take care Bisous fatou xxx

On my way to the Wild Wild West

Dear Friends,

Long time.

Here attached pictures of the lovely elements of Banbatt (Bangladeshi Battalion) who drove me to Yamoussoukro last week end. I went to visit friends in the West of Côte d'Ivoire and they gave me a lift. I was travelling at the back of the jeep! Very funny. They were very nice people.

Apart from that everything is fine here, I have just renewed my contrat for another 6 months! C'est reparti pour un tour comme on dit! We'll see what will be next.

I will move out from my flat at the end of the month, so I am looking for another place to live at the moment. I am planning to share a house with a friend of mine, Nadia, who just have been redeployed to Abidjan. I spent my saturday visiting houses, did not find anything interesting. As you know I am really picky so I guess it will take some time before finding our dream house.

Hope all is fine for you. Unfortunately I won't be able to come back for Christmas but hope sometime in 2008.

Take care.

Je vous embrasse

fatou xxx

Les stars du bowling

Juste un petit coucou

Salut les amis, Just to let you know that I am still alive and everything is fine. Do not have much to tell you for the time being, nothing really interesting is happening. I will let you know as soon as I got any news or stories....

I hope everything is fine for you as well.

Take care my friends

Lots of hugs

fatou xxx

PS: Tu vois Emilie j'ai suivi tes conseils, merci ;)

Funky Suze a Assinie-Mafia

Spectacle de danse avec Funky Suze

Funky Suze in Yamoussoukro

Toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin...

Hello my dear friends,

How are you? I am fine back in Abidjan since 2 weeks. I have spent almost a month on holidays, was great. I went to the south of France (Salvergues, Beziers, La Mausse, Carcasonnes, Minerves...) and Spain (Figuerres, cities on the Costa Brava and Barcelona). It was really fun, we had wonderful weather. It was a mix of cultural visits, farniente and parties: just what I needed. Then I went back to Paris for a week where I went to doctors yek! I am fine no hyper tension anymore, still have to be carefully and take it easy! I met my friends as well as for coffees, lunches, drinks, dinners...

Now I am in Abidjan and my mum is here with me which is nice. We went to Bassam, visited the Basilica in Yamoussoukro it is Amazing! spent the last WE in Assinie, visited the crocodiles farms and swam in the ocean. I brought her to hairdresser, beauty-salon, she took djembe lessons every afternoons, did some shopping as well of course!

At work it is quite as it is still summer holidays.

I was glad to had the opportunity to spend some precious time with you guys.

Take care

Je vous embrasse tous bien fort.

fatou xxx

PS: ma ptite Laurette je pense bien a toi et a ton ptit coeur aussi, Dobrina j'espere etre la pour l'accouchement, bon courage au nouveau Duc des Lombards.

Vives les vacances

Desole les amis de ne plus vous donner de nouvelles mais je suis en vacances....Promis des mon retour je continue les updates sur la CI.

Bisous a tous and enjoy your holidays

fatou xxx

Attentat contre le Premier Ministre Ivorien, M. Guillaume Soro le 29 juin

"Le premier ministre ivoirien, Guillaume Soro, est sorti indemne d'une attaque contre son avion, vendredi 29 juin, alors qu'il venait d'arriver à l'aéroport de Bouaké, au centre de la Côte d'Ivoire. Au moins quatre personnes de sa délégation sont mortes lors de l'attaque, a-t-on appris de sources proches du premier ministre, le chef rebelle désormais associé au président Laurent Gbagbo dans le gouvernement de transition. Le calme est désormais revenu. Cet attentat porte un coup au climat de réconciliation fragile installé dans le pays depuis la signature de l'accord de paix du 4 mars. Le fait est que l'attentat manqué contre Guillaume Soro intervient à un moment clé de la réunification du pays, coupé en deux depuis la tentative de coup d'Etat de septembre 2002. Si le premier ministre était en déplacement à Bouaké vendredi, c'était pour officialiser le redéploiement de l'administration judiciaire dans le fief des anciens rebelles. Une quinzaine de juges devaient être installés. Or, ce sont ces magistrats qui ont en charge les "audiences foraines", un processus laborieux destiné à actualiser les listes électorales avant les élections générales de 2008." Le Monde 30 juin 2007

Hyper-tension episode 2

Hello,

Thanks to all for your lovely messages. Yesterday I met with the cardiologist, a real Bitch, sorry to say so. She was something like 1 hour and a half late thats fine because most of the time doctors are late, when I entered her office she was on the phone ordering her cooker the menu he had to prepare for dinner during 15 mins!!!! Ok fine then she was calling people to talk about whatever bullshit while I was waiting in front of her. Finally she noticed me and took my tension. It was 14 still a bit high. No wonder, I was stressed the whole day. I was stressed because I am still not quite sure I will be allowed to take some holidays, another story! She started to told me that I would have to take a treatment all my life because it can be dangerous blah blah... and prescribed me medecines and some anxiolitic to calm me down!!!!! She gave me an appointment to do the heart scan on friday but I won't go. She stressed me even more. Now I have insomnia which NEVER EVER happened to me, I used to sleep as a marmot. Anyway I called my GP (doctor) in Paris who treat me since I am 10 and he told me that it is fine as long as I am between 13 and 14, to relax myself and he will see me in July (hopefully I will be able to take some leave). He told me that it is probably the stress because he did not recall any hyper-tension in my medical record. He was very nice and told me not to worry too much for the time being. Back in paris I will have to do the heart scan and some more medical checks....Mission life I am telling you not easy to cope with on everyday basis. I am very glad that I have a nice group of friends who are always there, merci la famille Abidjannaise.

Bisous a tous.

fatou xxx

Hyper-tension

Hiya,

I spend 3 days in hospital (again!) but this time it was not for food poisoning but for high blood pressure. I did not feel well for the last weeks and was very tired so I went twice to see the doctor last monday and tuesday. She was worried because my tension was quite high for my age, I had 14. She gave me a treatment and adviced me to do some blood testing in order to diagnose what I was suffering from. On tuesday afternoon I left work and went home as I felt very dizzy and weak. I slept the whole day, wednesday I was still feeling sick so my nice friends (Special big up to Molly and Sory, Thanks buddies ;)) brought me to hospital. When I arrived there, the doctor took my tension and could not believe that it could be so high so he asked other doctors to take it, tried several times on my two arms. My tension was up to 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Straight away they did an electrocardiogram to check my heart and decided to hospitalise me for three days. They did a series of blood testings, chest x-ray ect.... I am FINE just got anemia. I was so down I slept none stop for almost 4 entire days! When I left hospital on friday my tension had already decreased to 12,8. I stayed the whole WE home sleeping, watching DVDs and had 3 days sick leave. I was on intravenous drip (IV) (sous perfusion) and on the last night at hospital, I do not know how, but the IV's tube broke and my blood burst out everywhere. I suddenly woke up and saw the bed full of blood, press the emergency button and the nurse came to save me lol!. Later I though what would have happened if I had not woke up???? Better not thinking of it!

Tomorrow I have to do a heart scan just to be sure that everything is fine.

I think I was just extremely tired and stressed but now I am feeling well. I will take it easy! Soon I will be on holidays for almost a month. Hope to see some of you in Paris.

Je vous embrasse bien fort

fatou xxx

International Day of the African Child 16 June 2007

Sports Nautiques à Abidjan!

Rainy Season

Mes amis,

How are you? First of all I wanted to congratulate my friend Juliette who is now registered as Madame Juliette F épouse Nicolas! C'est vraiment super, suis contente pour toi bella, dommage que je n'étais pas parmi vous.....snif snif ;(

Everything is fine here, the rainy season has started, such a shitty weather...so depressing! It is raining all day and night long with thunder and lightning. Many areas are floaded, houses destroyed, trees and electrical pillars fell down. As it was not enough, mosquitos are extremelly active! meaning that my arms and legs are covered by mosquito bites , very itchy. I have to be careful not to catch malaria actually as I am not taking any kind of preventive treatment ;( The only positive thing is that consequently the temperature went down. You won't believe me but today I am freezing, I even borrow the shawl of my colleague! Tomorrow I'll bring a cardigan or a jumper. Maybe I am exagerating a bit but seriously it is a bit cold compare to what it used to be.

Did I tell you before that I am taking capoiera lessons twice a week and african dance once a week?. I love it, I got already my first belt in capoiera. It is a very interesting sport as it is a mix betwen dance and martial art with some music performing and singing . Tonight I am invited to a Crêpe/Galette party, that's my favourite meal, yay! Merci Seb! I still do not know what I will do on the WE, it will be improvisation as usual. I got a report to finish so I will be mostly stuck at home boo!

Aiss cream la bombasse enjoy NYC! My ladybird j'espère que tu as plus la pêche, Selectom I am crossing my fingers for you ;) Maman alias Funky Suze bon rétablissement, Nono enjoy your free time, Emilie merci pour les ptits comments qui font tjrs zizir!

Je vous embrasse tous bien fort.

fatouxxx

PS: I got my camera back yay!

A road trip to Ghana sur fond sonore des Red Hot Chili Peppers et Eels.

Honey bunnies,

I spent 4 days in Ghana with friends during the long WE as monday was a bank holiday (Whit Monday, l'Ascension).

Sat 26: We left Abidjan around 11.30 am took the road to Assinie (beach area). We stoped in a field where they were making wine out of palm trees. It was very interesting. Then we arrived at the Ghanean boarder around 4 pm. We reached Axim around 7.30 pm. If you look at the map and follow the Atlantic coast from Abidjan to Cape Coast you can see our voyage. We slept in the Axim Beach Hotel, beautiful hotel where the rooms are little bungalows on a cliff above the sea, FANSTATIC view. We slept quite early as we were all dead from the travel.

Sun 27: Woke up around 9 am and went to visit the Axim fort where the Portuguese and Dutch were doing slave trades in the 15th Century (I dont really remember when did it start and when did it finish). It was very interesting and a bit disturbing at the same time to see how slaves were treated and under which conditions they were living, A SHAME! The Fort was next to the Ocean in order to bring slaves on a little island through a hidden underground tunnel before being sent to the USA. The slaves had to pass through the gate of NO RETURN! You can imagine what it meant. Our guide explained us very well the whole story around slave trade in Axim. We continued our journey to Cape Coast. We have been driving almost the whole day passing trough Sekondi-Takoradi and finally arrived in Cape Coast around 9pm. We stayed in the Hans Cottage Botel, a hotel where some parts are build on stilts (pilotis) above a lake full of crocodiles! Really amazing.

Mon 28: Woke up around 8pm, fed the crocodiles with chicken skin and legs after having called them with a specific whistling. I will do it next time I will meet you! We then left to the jungle. We visited the Kakum national park where we crossed the forest on suspended rope bridges called the Canopy Walkway. The Kakum Canopy Walkway, Africa's first and only rainforest walkway, is composed of 350 meters of suspended bridges and six tree platforms that reach the height of 30 meters above the forest floor. "From the treetops, visitors experience a unique and spectacular view of the rainforest ecosystem and have the opportunity to see flora and fauna, which could never be viewed from the ground. Hundreds of species of butterflies and birds can be viewed from the Walkway early in the morning and if visitors are lucky, they may catch a glimpse of the Spot-nose, Campbell's and Columbus monkeys." I was a bit scared as the bridges were swinging a lot. We then went to visit another Fort in Cape Coast, much bigger than the one in Axim. It was the same principle slaves stayed around 3 months in the fort before being sent by boat to the USA to work in cotton, coffee and sugar cane plantations. We drove back to Elmina and stayed at the Coconut Grove Bridge House next to the harbour. Very nice fishy smell to make you happy in the morning lol!

Tues 29: Departure time at 8 am to be sure to pass the Abidjan corridor before its closing. Some roads to enter Abidjan are closed at a certain time of the night (some time after 10pm) because of the recent war/political crisis. We reached Abdijan around 7 pm, thanks God!

It was very refreshing to be out of Abidjan I had a great fun. Road trips are always nice as you can better appreciate the landscape, talk to the population ect. Everything went very well except that we killed a vulture by accident (vautour) on the road! Shame on us! ;(

Special thanks to Mr. l'ambassadeur de la Pic alias Excellence de la Pic! la petit (e) Kya qui a bien tenu le choc malgré tout, c'etait chaud! Mr.Dramane qui a payé agouti ainsi que chaussures pour son femme et son filles à Ghana! Merci aussi au "petit soeur de F..., il est journaliste, aux Rastas brothers of N..., Erico, Allo c'est G-Marco...."ca nous aura bien fait rien. A votre avis voiture c'est fille ou garçon????!!!!!!!

fatouxxx

Ps: Soon the pict will follow.

Pictures: Mission in Man

Mission in Man

Dear friends,

I have spent three days in Man ( located in the West part of Côte d'Ivoire)from 21 May to 23 May to investigate on a specific case. I went with three other colleagues among whom a Jordanian military. It was a very interesting experience as I had the impression to be a policeman, we did interviews of people involved in the case. We even recorded the interviews, took pictures ect....I really loved it. Everybody was very cooperative which rendered the work very pleasant. The Bangladeshi Battalion 3 welcomed us like kings, cheers!

The trip to get there was a bit tiring, we first took the flight to Daloa then changed and took the helicopter. It is a huge military helicopter with a capacity of around 10 people. It was so noisy that we had to wear headphones. The nice part is that we were flying quite low so we could see the whole landscape which gave an interesting perspective.

Man is a nice region with mountains (not like the Alps but kind of very high hills), you will see the pictures. We visited a bit the region going to Danané, Zealé, Zouhan-Hounien and the city centre of Man. We walked through the rope bridge (pont de Liane) in Man to see the beautiful water falls. It is very nice to be out of Abidjan city from time to time, to be in a quiet unpolluted place.... loin du farot Abidjannais;)

Bisous

fatouxxx

ONUCI football dream team!

What happened in the previous weeks...

Long time! I know, I am still alive and everything is fine.

Workwise it is fine, still the same, busy between reports, meetings, missions ect...

My social life has been quite busy thanks to my lovely group of friends that I call " la colo";) I have named it (actually Selecta Tom named it) as such as I feel like we are in a summer camp always go out in big groups ect... funny lol!

I went to nice concerts of Senegalese artists: Youssou N'Dour last week and Ismael Lo on saturday. Both were different but very nice, in terms of "performance scenique" I prefered Youssou because it is more lively and his musicians and dancers are amazing. I prefered the songs of Ismael Lo, I could feel more emotion even if I do not understand a word of Wolof but still...Abidjan is great for that because there is always nice concerts.

I went couple of times in a club called "Parker place" located in Zone 4 where they have live reggae on WE. So cool, bonne vibes!

I also spent a WE in Assinie, beach area, in the house of friends of a friend. It is fantastic to wake up on a sunday morning with the sound of the waves...Paradis.

I attended a football tournament starting at 6am!!! to support the ONUCI dream team (picture above). They did not win but it was fun. I was in charge of taking care of their bags, taking pictures of them and bringing them water GREAT JOB!!!!!! next time they will ask me to do massages, no way lol! On top of it I received the ball in the head, what a nice day!

A friend of mine who is taking flight lessons invited me to fly with him. It was AMAZING because the aircraft is small and we were not very high so we could see the all Abidjan from the air. I really loved it was sooooo beautiful, we were flying above the beach and the city centre of Abidjan. I saw my home, my work and other different spots where I am used to go from the air which gave another angle of view.

Thursday evening i have seen the movie " Blood Diamonds" I know it is an old movie for you. I loved it very nice landscape and the story good even if it is a bit too much "Hollywood". After the moovie I was dying to travel backpacking all over the world lol! I know what you are going to think, I am too diva for that! Seriously I would like to do it.

I hope you are all fine. Sorry if I stay several weeks without giving news...send me your news I always love to read you guys, I always answer even if it can take several weeks sometimes. Still do not have a camera which is very annoying cannot really post pictures, will have to ask friends to send some and share it with you.

Je vous embrasse bien fort.

fatou xoxo

PS: Bon retablissement maman, Aiss cream attention avec tes AX faudra pas les faire tomber dans une cascade comme a Kribi lol! Nono de DH, Emilie de Blx qu'est ce que vous devenez?Juliette qqs semaines avant le jour-j ca va pas trop stressee? Selecta Tom derniere ligne droite tiens bon pour la semaine, LS how is Beirut?

Escapade 2 dans la Baie de Somme

Escapade au Parc Floral

De retour apres 3 semaines de farniente....

Hiya everydody,

Hope you are all fine. I am pretty well, I have just spend 3 weeks on holidays. I went in France (Normandie, on the Channel coast and of course in Paris city) as well as in the South of Tunisia (Zarzis) to do a thalassatherapy with massages, hammam ect every single day. You can imagine how relax I am now. I had such a great time everything was just perfect. Thanks again to Funky Suze and Tom Selecta for those lovely holidays. Unfortunately, I have broken my camera again so I wont be able to share pictures with you for the time being. I have sent the camera to a repair shop hopefully it wont take too long. You will see the pict asap do not worry ;) Sorry for those I have missed in Paris, hopefully we'll meet again very soon.

Apart from that, as you might know, Mr. Guillaume Soro is Prime Minister now. The situation seems quiet and the peace negociations are on the right way...

Now I have to get used to Abidajn again, it is always weird to come back. I am suferring with the heat at the moment it is 35 degrees! lol

Bisous a tous

fatou xxx

Plus que quelques heures avant le decollage...

Amigos, .....Hey oui me revoila de retour parmi vous pour quelques semaines. On se verra a Paris ou ailleurs.... Bisous fatou xxx