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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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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.

Amenities in the village are pretty basic. There is no running water - all the water is obtained from six pumps located at various places in the village. This is used for drinking, washing, cooking, etc. Electric street-lighting has recently been installed, and supposedly a telephone installation is arriving soon. People will have the possibility to have electricity and telephones in their houses, although only a couple of the more well off people in the village will be able to afford it. In fact, a couple of people already have electricity in their houses - generated from petrol-powered turbines. One of them is the village nurse, who has a fridge, TV, and electric lighting in his house. He lets kids come into his house to watch the TV in the evening. The other person who has electricity, installs his TV outside in the evening, and anytime you pass by you can see ten or so adults sitting in chairs watching it, and a few kids crouched down on the ground.

At night, most people use paraffin lamps and torches to see by (and to eat by). People spend most of their time outside, only really going into their houses to sleep at night. The houses are generally made from a bamboo structure (lashed together with vines), covered with mud which dries and hardens, and a roof of tarpaulin covered with branches (although some people have corrugated metal roofs). There are two or three more well off people who have houses ...