Fond memories of Abengourou

· 3 min read · côte-d'ivoire ngo food friends

Having stayed with Chloe at her CREER NGO, I had a fantastic time and learnt lots about them and their exciting plans for a new building.

Francine, an Ivorian lady, works at the centre and keeps the place ticking over by helping the resident children. Francine cooks for them and she very kindly showed me an Anglo-Ivorian dish called Eggy Yam. For UK readers: think Eggy Bread but with yam.

Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d
Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d
Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d
Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d
Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d
Francine teaching me how to make eggy yam. Abengourou, Cote d

Abengourou taxis were a whole new experience for me. The taxis are generally old and some (majority!) are unkept. Ironically, they have small cars as taxis, such as the Peugeot 205! They are powered by gas and the fuel tank is in the boot. Some of the taxis reeked of gas as they had just filled up, which was really unnerving at times. Here's a taxi with spare gas bottles in the boot.

Taxi with spare gas fuel bottles in boot. Abengourou, Cote d

We enjoyed a few beers around the local bars in town, which are called Maquis. Acheke is an Ivorian dish consisting of ground Cassava. Super tasty and healthy too. It's the white dish in this photo. After cleaning your hands (!), the best way to eat is rolling small balls in the palms of your hands.

Enjoying chicken and acheke with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d

Chloe took me to one of her favourite Maquis that was well sheltered from the sun by the palm trees.

Lovely place to enjoy a beer with palm trees providing shade from the sun with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d

I'm up for trying new things and when bush meat was on the menu, I jumped at the chance. The bush meat was Agouti, which is some form of rodent. Very tasty and difficult to describe the flavour. After eating, I saw two delivered to the restaurant. I searched online after eating it to discover there are concerns about Agouti being a carrier or Ebola. Côte d'Ivoire is Ebola free. Here's a photo of the skull!

Just finished eating bush meat (Agouti) with @chloe_kira.creer. Super tasty, but will only eat once. Cote d

Another Cassava dish is foutou banane. This is plantain in a very stick slump that is tasty and very filling. See white dish in photo.

Eating foutou banane and meat dish with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d

Feeling whoozy after beers. Most strange.

Feeling *whoozy* after some beers with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d
Feeling *whoozy* after some beers with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d

Chloe had another visitor arrive whilst I was there. A Filipino Australian lady called Leela who lives in Ghana and runs Leela's Love Foundation. This was the first time someone said I looked like Ned Kelly!. She also helped pull water from the well!

Drawing water from well with Leela (middle) and Francine (right) with @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d

Chloe is a very thoughtful person who passed on advice about malaria that is different to what I received in the UK but invaluable because of the local knowledge and experience. She very kindly gifted some spare general medicines useful for travel.

Saying goodbye was tough as they had been so kind and hospitable to me during my stay. Lots of fond memories! I wish everyone at CREER all the very best for the future!

Packing up to leave @chloe_kira.creer. Abengourou, Cote d
Leaving after a fantastic stay with @chloe_kira.creer in Abengourou, Cote d

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