My friend in atlanta

As I like eating, I will never say no to an eating party. One day Noellia invited us to eat Spanish food: Paella. It tasted very good. Unfortunately Ella forgot to bring vodka lol.
So if you got the opportunity to eat Spanish food, don’t hesitate because it really tastes good.
Noellia is on the left side, me in the middle, and Ella on the right side.

The day my bag was stolen

One of the events which marked my life is the day my bag was stolen. It was the first time this kind of thing happened to me. What made this day even more unforgettable was the speed with which friends came to my rescue. No matter how terrifying this experience was, it helped me figure out how important friendship can be.

It was an ordinary day. I just woke up early and preparing myself for school. It was very cold outside and because of the heavy fog we couldn’t see more than one meter ahead. On my way to school, I noticed that somebody was following me, but I didn’t pay attention to it the first time. As this person continued to follow me, I started to walk more quickly but suddenly, the guy started chasing me. I panicked so much that I couldn’t move. Therefore, he caught me, took my bag, pushed me on the grass, and continued to run away. Since I had all my stuff in this bag (wallet, identity card, my house key…) I needed to go to the police station to make some lost declaration.

When I arrived at the police station, lots of people were waiting there. Consequently, I spent lot of time waiting to make my complaint. After a few hours they took my complaint. Because I had my ID with my address on it and also my keys in the bag, the policeman asked me to change my door locks to avoid being stolen. I was so frightened of being stolen and so desperate that I wanted to change my lock as quickly as possible before the thief got to my house. When I was told it was going to cost me 500 euros to change the lock, I got panicky again because I didn’t have the money. Just when I was thinking of how to raise the amount, my friends came to my aid with the money.

To conclude, no matter how sad and frightening this experience was, it helped me to figure out that I have some good friends whom will always be there for me and it helped me also to figure out the meaning and the importance of friendship.

Me, My self and I

Most of the time, people introduce themselves before writing another thing on their blog, but unfortunately I didn't do that, nevertheless in French we have some adage which say “it will never be late to do well”. so let do it now. My name is Larissa KIPRE and I come from Ivory Coast which is located in West Africa (if you want more information about my country you can see some picture or a little description of my country in my blog). I have been living in Atlanta for 4 month. Before that I had been living in France for ten years and in Quebec (Canada) for one year and half, so you can guess that I like travelling and discovering new country, new culture. I also like listening music, watching TV, going to the movie theater, reading…. I hope this few words about myself are going to make you more comfortable in reading my blog, so enjoy doing it and feel free to post some comment.

How war and peace have affected my life

The dictionary definition of peace doesn’t express the importance of this term. The dictionary defines peace as a state of tranquility or absence of war. Nevertheless, when you have already experienced war, you know that this definition is too simple to describe the importance of this term. In my opinion, peace is more than a simple definition or a political reality. I have read books about how war has affected people’s life, but you have to experience it to figure out it importance. Thus, my real life experience with war has impacted my life in several ways.

First of all, I’m able today to understand the importance of peace in a country. Indeed, because I have seen my country before, during, and after the war, I’m convinced that a country can’t prosper without peace. For me, having peace in a country is more important that being the most powerful country in the world. I remember the day the last agreement which brought peace in my country was signed. I had never seen such kind of happiness around the cities. Everybody was singing and dancing in the street. In the days after that, it was like life appeared in a country and all despair and sadness had disappeared leaving hope and joy in its place. For me, this kind of experience showed me the importance of peace in a country.

However, the most important effects of war had on my life is that now I’m more involved in bringing peace around the world. Indeed, at the beginning of the war in my country, some friends and I organized a collection of clothes, shoes and money in France to help the people who lost everything in this war. To do so, we organized some conferences about how war had destroyed people’s life. Today I’m still working in an organization which aims to talk about peace around the word. When I was in Canada, we organized a conference at my university to explain the causes and the effects of war in Africa and to make people understand the importance of peace, but the principal aim of our conference was to involve African students who wanted to return in their countries. We wanted them to be more concern about peace. We think that this kind of actions like the conference can be one method to avoid future war.

To conclude, even if war had some bad consequences in my life, for instance I lost lot of members of my family; it also helped me to understand the importance of peace and figure out that I want to be more concern of social things, for instance being involved in NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in my country like helping people who needs some help. However, in general, war is not a good thing and peace has to be a principal of everybody.

how to resolve a conflict

The resolution of an army crisis is not easy, and it takes several steps. We are going to take the example of the resolution of the Ivorian crisis. First of all, all parties involved in the fight went to Paris to sign the First agreement which is called “Marcoussis’s agreement.” Nevertheless, this agreement wasn’t accepted by Ivorians, because they thought that the rebels were given all the power, thus there were lot of demonstrations in the street against it. So, they went secondly in Accra, the capital of Ghana, to sign a complementary agreement which was supposed to fix up the first one as it was rejected. Unfortunately this new agreement wasn’t accepted once again by the Ivorians. The United Nations decided then to take care of the Ivorian problem because one of their roles is the prevention of conflicts and the promotion of peace, so they tried to write an agreement called “Resolution 1633,” which was supposed to end the war. This resolution was interpreted by Ivorians as powerful countries wanting to impose their view on the weaker countries, so it was completely rejected even by the parties involved in the fight. Finally, the Ivory Coast president decided to propose a way to resolve the fight. Indeed, he proposed that all parties had to be involved in the resolution. All assailants must be pardoned for their role in introducing war in Ivory Coast, and manufacturing must be developed in the northern part of the country since unemployment in this part was one reason for the different. Because all these solutions proposed by him were attractive to all parties, they were accepted by the opposition, and then the fight was ended and peace was brought to the country. To conclude, we have seen through the Ivorian example that the resolution of an army crisis is not easy, and it can take several steps, and lots of time too.

Some Pictures of my country

My beautifull country

In spite of the fact that there was war in my country, the Ivory Coastis still one of the most beautiful countries to visit in West Africa. First of all, there are lots of things you can visit there. Indeed, in the north of the country, there are lots of safari parks. In these parks, you can see wilds animals like elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinoceros, monkeys, and many others. Thus, you can feel like you are in a wild forest. In addition, you can go to our villages to have a taste of the Ivorian delicious food and diverse culture. In the west part, you have the biggest waterfall in Africa and the amazing bridge made of rode and vines, which is part of our traditional culture. Nevertheless, to cross this bridge you have to take your shoes off because it is a holy bridge. In the center of the Ivory Coast, you have the biggest basilica in the world, which looks like the Roma Basilica. One of the things I’m most proud of is our exotic beach in the south. Indeed, the water is so blue and so clear that sometimes you can see the stones. The sound of the waves is so peaceful that you can fall asleep on the beach. In sum, you will not regret your visit.