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Home: Welcome
welcome to my blog
Hi!! My name is Wassa Bagayoko and I am a 2021 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant to Côte d’Ivoire. For the next nine months, I’ll be teaching English in Abidjan. As I prepared for my grant, I felt there was an absence of information for travelers/expats to Côte d’Ivoire, so I decided to start this blog. I hope it can be helpful for future Fulbrighters, travelers to Côte d’Ivoire, or anyone interested in following my journey. If you're new, start below at the featured posts strip!
This blog will feature travel tips, fellowship reflections, photos, recommendations, and social commentary. Think of it as public journal. I encourage you to take what resonates and leave what doesn’t. I hope you enjoy. ❤️
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wassa123
Jul 15, 20223 min read
Final Post - Thank You, Fulbright
Jul 15, 2022 I’ve been struggling to write this post for a while. Coming back from Fulbright was somehow simultaneously hectic and...
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wassa123
Jul 14, 20222 min read
Teaching Chronicles - Small Moments
Kids are funny. Here are things they've done to make me laugh or think. I've also added things they seem to like and things they hate...
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wassa123
Jul 14, 20225 min read
Africa and Sustainability
I didn’t get to write as much about sustainability and climate change as I wanted to. Fairly early on, I gave up on doing research...
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wassa123
Jun 29, 20222 min read
The Five Most Important Things for a Fulbrighter in Côte d’Ivoire
Here are five things I wish I kept in mind during my Fulbright Your resources are often out of sight It's really easy to feel like there...
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wassa123
Jun 29, 20223 min read
Shopping and Abidjan
This is literally a general shopping guide for future Fulbrighters/CDI visitors! Food: Casino or Carrefour: the typical Western-style...
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wassa123
Jun 29, 20225 min read
Les Cascades de Man
From my very first week here, my students, colleagues, and friends would constantly tell me about one of Côte d’Ivoire’s greatest natural...
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wassa123
Jun 7, 20221 min read
Quotable Quotes Week 37 On: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
"Sometimes closure is not good for you" "Miss Wassa, you are the wife of Pop Smoke" "She may not be a witch, but she’s the messenger"...
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wassa123
May 26, 20225 min read
Final ETA Reflection
It’s been a little over a week since I taught my final class and left LCA... It’s bizarre to know I’m in my final two weeks and that I...
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wassa123
May 19, 20222 min read
Hear From Other Côte D'Ivoire ETAs!
I am not the only person in my cohort keeping a blog! Here are the links and descriptions for some of my friends here in Côte d'Ivoire...
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wassa123
May 1, 20228 min read
What it Means to Live and Not Die for a Movement
Looking in the mirror and not recognizing yourself is a deeply jarring experience. During a late-night study session in my senior year of...
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wassa123
May 1, 20225 min read
Returning to Myself: Senegal, Solo Trips, and Inner Child Work
For better or for worse, TikTok, Twitter, and other popular online platforms have decided that mental health buzzwords are the newest...
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wassa123
May 1, 20224 min read
Senegal - Rose, Bud, Thorn
Three weeks of unexpected vacation in April spelled one thing: ~travel~ Though I tried to intentionally plan an explore Abidjan...
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wassa123
Apr 28, 20221 min read
Quotable Quotes Weeks 32 - 34:Speaking Truth in the Face of Oppression is the Greatest Form of Jihad
Week 34: "Speaking truth in the face of oppression is the greatest form of Jihad" "If we are to take seriously that oppressive policing...
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wassa123
Apr 21, 20225 min read
House Hunting Part Two
In my original blog post, I mentioned that finding housing in Abidjan is not for the weak. Eight months in and I have to say that...
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wassa123
Apr 17, 20222 min read
The Grand Mosque of Plateaux - Explore Abidjan Challenge
This post is a part of a week-long Explore Abidjan challenge where my roommate and I aimed to go to all of the local places on our bucket...
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wassa123
Apr 17, 20222 min read
St. Paul’s Cathedral - Abidjan Explore Challenge
This post is a part of a week-long Explore Abidjan challenge where my roommate and I aimed to go to all of the local places on our bucket...
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wassa123
Apr 8, 20221 min read
Quotable Quotes Week 29 - 31: A Dream Can be a Distraction Just as Easily as it Can be a Goal
Week 31: "You’d be a good wife but you’re difficult" "Wait, you have a boyfriend? I wanted to marry you!!! Can your boyfriend fight??"...
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wassa123
Mar 22, 20221 min read
Quotable Quotes Weeks 26 - 28: Suffering is Overrated
clearly, I've been busy. here are some top quotes from the past month Week 28: "Suffering is overrated" “We can have hot girl syndrome...
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wassa123
Mar 8, 20222 min read
Happy International Women's Day - Celebrating 1949Books
It is such a rare and beautiful gift to stumble upon a place that represents your love and passion. An organization or community that...
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wassa123
Mar 5, 20222 min read
Minor Lessons Learned Three Months In:
sorry, this has been sitting in my drafts for months now Know your local pharmacy. This isn’t just for medical things; many taxi drivers...
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wassa123
Mar 5, 202210 min read
The Mid-Grant Doldrums - An Email Exchange with a Mentor
In addition to my journal and this blog, I’ve found my emails with mentors as helpful snapshots of my experience here. In this exchange,...
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wassa123
Feb 26, 20223 min read
A Day in My Life as a Fulbrighter, Six Months In
Typical Weekday: 6:10: alarm goes off. Snooze. 6:20: alarm goes off. Snooze..... Upstairs neighbor’s 6:30 alarm goes off. Get up, make...
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wassa123
Feb 26, 20223 min read
Language Acquisition and Friendship
Okay so language acquisition and friendship seem like lazy blog post pairings, but here, they’re deeply connected. I’m writing this in...
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wassa123
Feb 26, 20221 min read
Quotable Quotes Week 25: I'm Trying to Use My Life, not Give My Life
Backstreet Boys playing “Isn’t this from high school musical?” “All I want is a husband who cooks and sets up my gym weights for me. Is...
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