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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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de Palmes (the village or factory where they extract palm oil from the palm tree grains), and taking us to some local football matches.
Rocheline's father, Mathieu, was welcoming and civil, although we didn't really converse much. He has three wives (including Rocheline's mother who left him a year ago, but she came to Guédyo from her natal village after a few days). Rocheline's mother and Genviève didn't speak to the other wife, although they did get along with and speak to each other. Mathieu also wasn't on speaking terms with his own mother (who lived in the house just behind his). I got the impression that he was a rather hard, dour and unforgiving man - he was proud to have me (a white guy, one of the few who had ever come and stayed in the village!) sleep in his house, but was jealous if I went to sit beside and speak to his mother. Anyway I didn't get mixed up in any of the family squabbles.

Martine (one of Rocheline's cousins) went to fetch Rocheline's mother, Agnes, who arrived a couple of days after we did. She arrived one night in the pouring rain (in fact the only time it rained while we were there). She hugged Rocheline and me, and was so happy to see us that she literally danced with joy. I was able to say only a few phrases in Bété, and she could hardly speak any French, but we did communicate a little (with Rocheline translating) and I believe we did build up a rapport.

We stayed in Guédyo for about 10 days or so, which meant that I got to know some of the real characters of the place. André and François were two of Mathieu's brothers, but had more of a warm, laid back temperament, and sense of humour. They came across as real salt of the earth country bumpkin types. With their ripped t-shirts and ancient baseball caps that were all bent, frayed and dusty. The day after we arrived, we gave a bottle of whisky to Mathieu - he opened it almost immediately and shared ...