Côte d'Ivoire
I went on two immersion trips to CI: in Apr 2025 and Mar 2024. Here's some photos and observations. A cool track to set the mood:
The weather is quite brutal unless you're from Arizona or Qatar or something.
That's 91F with a "feels like" of 104F for my friends from the US.
Most indoors spaces have air conditioning on full blast, literally as low as it will go. Most rooms have the same type and size aircon device. This has a funny side-effect: smaller rooms are way cooler than larger ones. Spaces without air conditioning, like open markets or restaurant terraces, have plentiful fans blowing every which way.
Many smaller streets have extremely bumpy sand roads, with rundown buildings and random piles of stones or trash on the sides:
This is in stark contrast with bridges, highways, churches, and other quite new and well-built infra, often bankrolled by China:
The most interesting and valuable part of our trips is "going to market", talking to the customers. The markets we visit are colorful and chaotic. You got all kinds of produce, shoes and plastic crap:
Meat sellers look more brutal with their cardboard soaked in fat and blood:
Here's how the chickens get delivered. The chicken poop smell is horrible. And the dummies don't even try to make a run for it when left unattended :(
I don't know what it is, but I find merchants sitting in the middle of their merch really pelasing to look at:
Best shoes are flip-flops. And whenever you're not walking, you sit barefoot for better ventilation. Here's a fish store boss and a shoe salesman demonstrating these principles:
The biggest market in West Africa is the Adjamé Dabananni Market. It spans multiple blocks, with several multi-story buildings. Alleyways are deep enough that there's no cell reception.
Food can be rough. Most dishes are a very dry or close to burned meat or fish, with a high-carb side-dish of rice, attieke or best-case sweet potatoes. Many dishes are also spicy as fuck. Don't touch the green sauce. There's not enough protein and close to zero veggies. Here's an office meal and a restaurant meal.
Salvation comes in the form of recommendations from foreigners, like the US civil-military relations reps that stayed in our hotel. Here's Marrouche, an ok lebanese place, and the ultra-sleek Pikado bakery:
I don't know how to end this. I'll just say that visiting West Africa is a surreal and super useful experience. If you're from the US or the EU, and you're serving WA users, you absolutely have to to visit.