Cote D’Ivoire

Red Roofs of Yop City Part II: la Petite Réconciliation

by phil March 21, 2013 Cote D'Ivoire

The following is part 2 of a piece on Toits Rouges, a neighborhood in the Yopougon quartier of Abidjan. I have spent a lot of time in this neighborhood over the past several years. I hope this offers an accurate picture of that place. Click here to read part 1. Both doors to Mr. Konate’s [...]

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Red Roofs of Yop City

by phil February 20, 2013 Cote D'Ivoire

I’ve come to realize that the main reason I travel is to learn things and to form relationships. The best way to do that is to take your time, get comfortable, re-visit. The following is part 1 of a piece on Toits Rouges, a neighborhood in the Yopougon quartier of Abidjan. I have spent a [...]

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Our First Major Setback

by phil November 6, 2012 Biz

A picture of our phone bank earlier this year It has been a while since I talked about our Abidjan lunch delivery biz (last post on it is here). When I wrote the last update, we were going through 25kg of potatoes a day and delivering 100 plates of food every afternoon. In the past [...]

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Remembering Chéché Dramé

by phil September 15, 2012 Cote D'Ivoire

While waiting for a customs agent to come to an agreement with a man that had many jerry cans of palm oil on our minibus, we stood in the road and listened to Chéché Dramé on my girlfriend’s cellphone. Trucks and busses tore past, slaloming around potholes, teetering on their tires. Farmers and villagers rode [...]

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Photos from Abidjan in August

by phil August 30, 2012 Cote D'Ivoire

Outside of a trip to Bassam, I have been in Abidjan for most of August. The city — one of the more energetic and nocturnal places I’ve ever spent time in — has felt a bit deflated. Ramadan, cool August weather, a proliferation of police checkpoints and a series of somewhat mysterious night attacks on [...]

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25 Kg of Potatoes a Day

by phil August 15, 2012 Biz

6:30 AM – Starting the work day at the Toits Rouges Allocodrome We started this lunch delivery/catering business in January. We had no employees, just the three partners – me and my two former couchsurfing hosts, Faty and David – and Faty’s neighbor Didy. Our maisonette was unfinished and we didn’t yet have our space [...]

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