Yakro is an intentional city with gridlike streets surrounding several reservoir lakes, which are crossed by elegant bridges. There are deciduous trees evenly lining all of the paved, well-lit streets. The buildings are large, modern and marble. And then there is poverty; people living in shanties erected with black sheet plastic and 2x4s. Laundry drying on cement walls and dirty children playing in the puddles next to the road. Yamoussoukro is famous for its founder -- Houphouet Boigny, the first president of Cote d'Ivoire. He built his home city as an icon to others, and then moved the capital there. While all commerce remains in Abidjan, the move north is slowly taking place.
Robale, tried to check us into the hotel that the CAFOP had reserved for us as their "invitées". But the hotel had not been booked and the lobby was full of a delegation of angry village chiefs in velveteen gold-studded hats and bright-colored woven wraps who had supposedly reserved rooms there as well.
The following morning, we headed off to Hotel President for the ceremony to begin at 9. There was a "lunch" planned on campus. It was finally served, and delicious, at 5 pm. A sauce from every culture in the country was served from eggplant sauce to spicy peanut They have a sauce here made from small holly-berry type nuts called "nya-nya."
The next morning, we visited Yakro before attending Mass in the largest basilica in the world. Houphouet had this built in 1983, modeled after St. Peters cathedral, using $330,000,000 -- which represents half of the country's national deficit at the time. He was building a lot of things around then, with "his" money, though the bassilica is by far the most beautiful, anachronicistic and controversial. There is also his palatial home, the Foundation for the Research of Peace (which now belongs to UNESCO) and half a dozen other multistory, multi million dollar buildings. There is a "moat" in front of his family land in the center of the city where more than 600 caimans and crocodiles continue to live.
We were on the road again by 1 pm. About an hour from home the storms hit -- crashing around us again. Beautiful among all those empty streets, baobabs swaying on the horizon through the raindrops across the glass.