Abidjan II
It is 31st December and I am in Abidjan. Somewhere about Cocody, 8ēme tranche Angré. I am spending roughly $6 a night for a cubicle that I am sharing with Salifu. Well $6 because Salifu is paying the other half.
Why am I here and not home? I came to experience Abidjan. And for the past four days we’ve done this on our foot. We’ve walked, exploring the length and breadth of the city. In my experience you don’t know a place until your feet has kissed its ground. I read somewhere once: “ on foot everything stays connected … and I have walked this route so often that every part of it springs associations on me.”
This is the second city we are visiting together. We have individually visited other cities in the past for work, for school, but recently we decided to set out to visit as many African cities as we can with the idea of understanding the disparities and similarities. This is one of the reasons why we also walk the city.
We strongly believe without our foot to the ground we can barely understand this city. This place, its space and its existence cannot be impressed upon us. We must! Interact with as many elements of the city as possible.
Walking also allowed for lots of conversations, there was a continuum of context, as we traversed the streets, thoughts were availed through endless sights, familiar and unfamiliar.
Salifu navigated our walking with Google maps. We walked for four hours straight to visit one of the sites that Google had suggested we go and see.
We made some cool short videos to share our experience:
