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Guédyo was the village where Rocheline was born. It's also known as Ottawa - the explanation being (as far as I could understand it) that the village was founded by two separate groups of families (one from Soubré district, the other from Gagnoa), hence marriages are allowed between theses two groups who then become brothers-in-law, which in Bété is 'Ottowi', and so they changed this to Ottawa so that it would have the same name as the Canadian town. The Canadian ambassador had supposedly visited the village, filmed it, etc.

Welcome To Ottawa - Population 300

Ajcairns
2005-11-04 20:53:21

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made with bricks or concrete.

To take a piss, you just go beside a tree. For a crap you have to go to the 'toilets' which are basically just a wooden (or mud) cabin with a hole in the ground (a bit smelly and disgusting really, with flies buzzing around, cockroaches, etc.). For a wash there are other wooden cabins, typically joined on to the toilets - you take in a bucket of warm water, and a smaller bowl for dousing yourself with. It's a bit basic, but I soon got used to it.

I did have one rather unpleasant bathroom experience, though - one day the toilet was particularly smelly, and so Rocheline's stepmother Genviève went and sprayed some disinfectant into it. I went soon after for a crap, then a shower. I was doing my business when I saw things moving in the hole down below - one of them crawled out - they were huge 3 inch long cockroaches! I hastily finished up, but by this time there were two or three cockroaches crawling around. I attempted to kill them by hitting them with a bit of wood - this is quite difficult, since the things appeared virtually indestructible. I ended up having to grind them to a pulp or decapitate them before they stopped crawling around.

I then made my way into the bathroom section - which was directly next to the toilet. In fact, two people standing up in each one could see each other, since the wall only goes up to about shoulder high (this is to allow light and fresh air in). I undressed and starting getting washed, but I noticed three or four of these huge cockroaches crawling over the wall towards me. Needless to say I had to try and kill these too, but it turns out that these things could actually fly too (they also had large pincers which looked as though they could give you a nasty pinch) - so there I am naked, trying to kill these beasts flying and crawling around all over the place, and then the lizards outside start crawling up the walls and through the doorway ...