Pen and Pitcher...

Ivory Coast
18th May, 2013
2:56 am

I have heard a lot about the golden night at the street of Plateau in Abidjan but never went this way.... I have also heard about the craziest stuff that goes through the night... Since it was my first lonely night without my friends and project mates,  I wanted to do something different (no attempt to crash and burn myself). I felt going solo would be worth trying to go to a bar. I did this my first night out as the work pressure from all direction was strong enough to do some weird thing. I thought if I had friends around, I would have done the usual thing and stayed in a comfortable group...

So i entered a English cum french bar [.], saw a rainbow of people, colors and sounds, all holding glasses filled with golds, blacks and browns..... A busty flow of conversation, laughing, rising and falling as you pass through the groups.... “Have you tried this one?!”... “What do you want next?” ...Around a corner drinkers are stretched all along, looking up and down, all around, a constant passing back and forth of glasses, money and beer... Another corner and the smell of food strikes. Another corner and it opens into a line of bars and a huge seating area, so big you can barely see the other end, a rock star stage in between...(a drunk performer between frnz)...

People everywhere drink their beers, they talk about their day, their week, the weekends ahead; they gossip, talk about the news, cinema, sport; they talk about what they drank earlier, what they’ve got now, what they’ll order next; they say this is good, this isn’t, this is great, this is incredible, this is insane, this is…

All around are the interested eyes of friends in conversation; the glazed-eyes of seven hours of being there; the eager eyes of the newly arrived; And then it starts. 4 hours later, the grip loosens, the excitement fails the hand. Girls almost seems easier than standing around totally alone and they were coming easily, giving a look as if we met before..:)... Then later, nearer the end, it happens more, a constant flow of crash and cheer breaks conversations for a moment to join in - a second to drop everything and shout with the crowd.

“Nice” friends... “Good” friends and “just” friends...

Nothing is sure... Nothing is pure...Nothing is forever..

And now think of myself... what a wonderful world!!

The cheer is not for the broken glass, it’s for the full ones about to be emptied and then refilled - it’s for us. I’ll drop my glass to that.