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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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round and offer various things like bananas, coconuts, little sachets containing 30 ml of gin or brandy. We bought these and other things from him (although rejected some offers like catapults). We also arranged with him to go and collect things in the brousse for a small price like 10 sweet coconuts for 500 FCFA, or a few bunches of bananas for 200 FCFA.

He would sometimes get a bit grouchy if we complained that the coconuts weren't sweet enough, or if we didn't have any change and offered him a cup of coffee and some bread instead. Then he would come out with crazy things like "I'm going to call the Commandos!" He would always call me 'Monsieur' and was quite a persistent salesman. People would tease him and laugh at him all the time. I was a bit wary of him at first - a crazy guy with a machete in his hand half the time - but everyone else seemed to think he was harmless, and so did I once I got used to him (even looking forward to when he would pass by).

All in all we had a good time in the village, although towards the end I got a bit bored (we were there for 10 days after all, and I spent a lot of time just loafing around, chatting or reading a book). People there were, in general, contented with their lives, despite all the hard manual work and lack of money for clothes, etc. They were very solidaire and it seemed no-one would ever go starving (not even Cuadjo). You could basically go and say hi to anyone in the village, and they would welcome you into their courtyard and give you a seat to sit down on, and a piece of corn on the cob, or any other food that they happened to be eating. Most people had rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, and rice for dinner (with various sauces). The couple of times that we had pasta especially for me, some people didn't want to try it (one guy suggested that it was more likely to make me sick than the rice). Rice is what they are used to and it's what they like to eat.

Some young men asked me to get them a female correspondent in France when I returned, so some of them do dream of foreign lands (and lasses). I would recommend anyone to go and spend a week or so in an African village, just to experience life there - to rid yourself of the stereotypes presented by television and films, and to see what it's really like.