Abass first tried ice cream several years ago. A college friend decided to celebrate her birthday party at a new ice cream parlor, recently opened near the Cocody campus (Ivory Coast). At 22 years old, Abass experienced immense pleasure with the first spoonful he put in his mouth. He devoured the vanilla and strawberry glass that had been placed in front of him almost without breathing. He says that that experience made him reflect on the many things he had missed in life. For years, since he started high school, he had been focusing on his studies, working hard on the family farm so he could save the money to take to college.
He is the first member of his family – and of his town – to pursue university studies. Therefore, until that day when he tried ice cream for the first time, he thought that his sacrifice, hard work and selflessness were what was important. He didn’t want anything to deviate him from the route he had set. His life in Abidjan moved between college, the house he shared with other students and a small job as a waiter in a neighborhood bar that allowed him to earn some money to cover his expenses. I didn’t go out with friends. His life was reduced to study and work.
But that birthday party, which he attended almost out of commitment, stirred him inside. How many pleasures in life, how many experiences that other young people his age lived, were he missing? Was it worth so much sacrifice? For days, these and other questions ran through his head. To reflect better, he went to the ice cream parlor several times, and alone, with a certain feeling of guilt, he tried new flavors of ice cream until he decided that chocolate was his favorite.
Abass had a moment of rebellion. He started going out with his friends to bars. He tried the beer. The first drink tasted bitter, then he liked it. He went to trendy nightclubs. He spent Sundays on the beach of Grand-Bassam with some colleagues… He bought new clothes and left the second-hand ones in the closet, purchased at flea markets, with which he usually dressed. All of this had an impact on his savings, but that didn’t matter to him. Now he was enjoying life.
Later, he had to go pick the cocoa on the family farm. That would allow him to see the girl he liked at the time and bring her a gift with which he hoped to win her over forever. He went to the ice cream parlor. He bought a tub of chocolate. When he got home, he told his colleagues. They laughed. They explained that ice cream melts, they didn’t even have a refrigerator on the floor to store it. Plus, it was a ten hour bus ride to town. He would offer the young woman a hot soup.
Abass laughs remembering the story: “I’m still a village boy,” he says. “But a town boy who one day will be a professor at the university.”
