typically consist of several compounds . Each compound is made up of groups of homes that house members of an extended family . Village houses have mud walls and thatched or metal roofs .
Sharp contrasts exist in housing , health , employment , and education between middle- and upper-income households and poor households in the cities . For example , wealthy and middle-class people live in modern apartment buildings or in spacious villas . The urban poor inhabit densely settled districts that receive few government services .
About half the people of Côte d ’ Ivoire 15 years of age and older can read and write . The University of Cocody in Abidjan is the nationʹs largest institution of higher learning .
The land of Côte dʹIvoire rises gradually from the Atlantic Ocean . The eastern part of the coast is flat and sandy . The western part of the coast has small , rocky cliffs . Beyond the coastal strip is a tropical forest , of which much has been cleared to make farmland . In the north , the forest changes to savanna . The forest-covered Guinea highlands rise over 1,500 meters in west-central Côte d ’ Ivoire .
The coastal region is hot and humid . Temperatures there vary from 24 to 28 ° C ( 75-82 ° F ), in the central forest region from 14 to 39 ° C ( 57- 102 ° F ), and in the northern savanna , the temperature rises to 49 ° C ( 120 ° F ).
Cocoa makes up a third of the national income of Côte d ’ Ivoire . Cash cropping for big foreign corporations has replaced the local farming of the past . This means that the population is dependent on earning money from international markets to be able to buy food they used to grow themselves .
Where barter and locally produced food and goods once made life simple and stable , the need for paper money has helped to make Côte d ’ Ivoire poorer .
The national labor laws of the country set the minimum age at 18 for ‘ hazardous work ;’ at 16 for ‘ light underground work ;’ and 12 for ‘ light agricultural work .’ Legally , children must attend school until they are sixteen years old . However , the harsh conditions on cocoa farms can
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