Invited to a court in Court D'lvoire.

Bon soir. This is Ken.

Bon soir means “Good evening” in French.

It’s used as “Hello” in here Cote d’lvoire.

It took 14 hours by bus to Abidjan, the largest city in Cote d’lvoire.

Led by a Japanese Natsuno who lives there, we went to a village apart from Abidjan.

The size of the village might be less than what we call “a town.”

Why did normal tourists like us find out a way to get to the community, which is an hour’s driving from the centre of Abidjan?

Actually, it was achieved by a wonderful encounter with people.

Through the internet, we met a Japanese woman Natsuno (the left one in the photo) who is giving information about Cote d’lvoire on her blog.

When planning to travel Cote d’lvoire, we contacted her.

Natsuno and Awa chan (the right) have known each other since their college days.

Awa chan is a Niger Parisian. She speaks Japanese a little because she’s studied abroad in Japan a few years ago. Now she’s in Cote d’lvoire for her current job.

Awa chan happened to know Shaka (the middle) at a book shop in Paris. The Abidjan native Shaka has lived in Paris.

Wow, lots of coincidence led us to here!

The villagers treated us very kindly, including Shaka.

I was really really happy.

I captured our visiting on a film. Have a look at it.

Some more photos posted for those who can’t see the movie.

This is an authentic Jungle Cruise!

Disney Land? They’re not even in this league!

We’re really surprised by the inexperienced adventure.

This is the main stadium of the village.

Football Unites the World!

Backfliping! He scored!!

As you can see in the movie above, the normal children backfliped so easily.

I just wondered, “How could African people become so talented physically?”

What a lovely scene.

They’re playing a game.

Personally, I like the above photo the best.

They must have a lot in their minds such as distress or worrying caused by the destitute condition. But I couldn’t sense it from this peaceful photo.

On the contrary, I bumped into a reality when I visited the house of the village head.

They were in the middle of trial.

We were told to join them.

The situation was that the village head was about to make a judgment to a villager who’s in behind in his rent. There were also lawyers, audiences and juries at the place.

I don’t know why we’re invited.

It looks informal.

But they told me that this trial is a part of the government-administered procedure.

This is the first trial and the ultimate judge is made on next Thursday.

At last, we were introduced to the crowd.

A memorial photo for WHAT?

By the way, the people in Cote d’lvoire like photos.

This was quite a valuable experience for us!






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