I arrived here on the last commercial flight from Accra last Thursday. My initial plan was to join the rebels with other journalists. But when I first arrived, I was told not to try leaving the airport. It turned out it was changing hands between Gbagbos forces and the U.N. forces. There was quite a bit of fighting outside. I noticed there were four U.N. armored personnel carriers sitting out front. I grabbed my camera to run outside when I saw a couple of other foreigners talking with them. I jumped in and they took me back to their battalion. Ive been with them since.

I have no idea how other people got out of the airport after that. Even now, the airport road is a little dangerous. Back then, it was really dangerous.

I felt comfortable coming here because Ive been covering Ivory Coast since the elections. I was familiar with the layout of Abidjan. I realized I was actually in a unique position, so I decided to stick it out.

Today, for the first time since Ive been here, we got a chance to take a patrol to the U.N. headquarters. Its on the other side of town, where most of the hotels are, as well as the presidential palace. Its incredibly unstable. But today it seemed fairly calm. More people were sitting outside, or going to the market to try to get some food. Everybody was greeting the U.N. convoy with smiles, with thumbs up, with cheers and it was actually quite nice. When people see the U.N. convoy coming, a lot of them raise their hands to show that theyre not carrying weapons. Young men will raise their shirts; people will hold their hands out the window.

Unfortunately, we ran into trouble on the way back. In Abidjan, there are snipers in some of the buildings that have been abandoned. As we were driving, one of the peacekeepers heard there were some people in the building. I heard gunfire and dropped down inside the tank. Thats the problem right now every few days there will be fighting and there will be a couple of days of quiet. Things are a bit calm now, but the U.N. is a very big target. So are foreigners.

Im incredibly thankful for the U.N. peacekeepers, because without them I would not be able to work. They have always been very hospitable. Theyve shared their food; theyve shared their water. The commanding officer has given up his sleeping quarters for a group of displaced people from the Lebanese community. There was an evacuation, so there are fewer people living here now, but at one point I think there were probably about 20.