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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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woooh, ..." at all the others in the class who hadn't made it (especially humiliating for bigger kids, I suppose, to be jeered at by younger, brighter ones).

A few of the children were wearing school uniforms - white and pink checked dresses for the girls, and khaki shorts and shirts for the boys, but (since uniform wasn't compulsory for the ceremony) most of them were dressed in the clothes they wore about the village - some in clean, well fitting shorts and t-shirts, others in over-sized t-shirts, ripped and dirty shirts, a few wearing what I suppose you could only describe as rags. It was quite funny to see each child running proudly forward to pick up his mark-book, then sometimes jumping into arms of a smiling parent nearby to be congratulated and kissed, before going to wait with the other successful kids.

Football matches were quite a big event in Guédyo and also in the neighbouring villages when one of the teams played away. There were three teams (as far as I know) in Guédyo - a young boys' team (under 18), a men's team, and a women's. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the women's team play. I was able to see the other two teams playing in one match each.

The young boys' match was in Guédyo, on a pitch to the north west of the village, behind the school and the hospital. The pitch was basically a flattish area of dry grass, with make-shift goal posts at either end - the cross bar hung between two Y shaped posts and it went flying off during the match one time, when someone hit it with the ball. The match was okay - Guédyo won 4-3.There were sidelines marked (by indents with no grass), but as the game progressed the supporters had the habit of moving gradually inwards to see the action better, only moving back when the ball came close to the line, or when the linesman tried to whip people back into place with a stick. It cost 100 FCFA to watch the match, and you could buy things like peanuts, ...