Things are certainly picking up here. I think the rain has stopped until next spring, kids are back in school, and work is getting rolling!
Before talking about more work related stuff, I have a cultural anecdote to share with you all! A few weeks ago, Camille informed me that the new 'youth center' had opened. It's sort of a large cement event hall, sort of like an american legion, where meetings and social events are held. Camille told me that every market day for the past two weeks there had been a dance competiton at the youth center after the market closed up. We decided to go to the last one.
It was very exciting to see how many people turned up. 3 or 4 teams of two guys competed, doing choreohraphy they each wrote together with some break dancing thrown in. The judges were professors that Camille and I knew, which was cool and funny. The dancing was very good. In between sets, and while the judges were deliberating they would play music and anyone could go up there. One of my teenage neighbors jumped up there and he was really good! A fun time was had by all.
A lot of my time not spent at dance competitons has been taken up with the radio show Camille and I are writing. I write out some basic english lessons and we record them in advance together at the radio station. We recently got to listen to the first episode played on the air! We joked around about how we can now say we have sung (the abc's) on the radio. All in all we felt like it went really well, and we were surprised by how many people told us they listened to it. It's been good fun work.
Last week I, and most other volunteers who started the same time I did, went to a training in Grand Popo. If the studious reader thinks the name Grand Popo sounds oddly familiar, it's because that's where I vacationed for Christmas last year. Needless to say, I and many others were excited to get to go back, and for work related reasons no less. As it happened, the training was really great. People were focused and motivated and the material was well organized. The venue was beautiful and all the tasty, healthy food was a big shot in the arm for me. It was wonderful to catch up with other volunteers and hear about their work. And the ocean was absolutely marvelous. You can't beat sitting in the sand looking at the waves and the stars after a long day of sessions. It was heavenly.
So I got to tell you all about a whole week of activity in a broad sweeping paragraph, now I'd like to take the opportunity to tell you specifics of my day today, because i think it's noteworthy in it's goodness and typicalness:
I woke up early and set right out so that I would get to the radio station on time. I got to stop and eat beans for breakfast. This was exciting because i like the bean lady and her food, but it's usually gone by lunch time when I'm looking for beans.
When I got to the radio station I realized we were going to have some major technical difficulties. My laptop charger doesn't seem to be working (I am working on replacing it now). Realizing that put me in a bad mood. Besides all the creature comforts, we needed my laptop to record the radio show. Camille and i decided to do as much as we could. We actually got the whole show recorded and saved but not exported before it shut down.
We decided to get drinks and lunch at the buvette that has cold drinks and we actually got to eat with two professors while we were there. Then we went over to the secondary school and I did some lesson planning for Environment Club, and announced it in all the classes. That made for some weird deja vu with last year, but my French is at least a little better now.
Even though I knew I wouldn't have much time, I went home for a bit. When it was time to leave for Environment club I was so tired and didn't want to go. Still, I did, and on my way I bumped into the woman from my latrine commitee. (She's the one I wanted to be friends with, and she told my couterpart Baron that she couldn't understand anything I said. He said give it a week.) Well, we are friends now, and when she saw me she said 'You just don't get tired, do you?' That put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the walk to the secondary school!
When I got to the secondary school I still felt nervous and thought I would be just as happy to bump the first environment club meeting back a week. However, we did have the meeting, and it went really well. I am co-leading with a different teacher this year and he was not only charasmatic and engaging with the kids but also much more collaborative with me (though my improved confidence and french level probably encourages collaboration too). We picked a club president (a girl!) and two 'responsables' or secretaries. People were attentive and interested. This year we are diving in with a 6 week curriculum, so I hope that will stear us well.
After that I came home and made some stir fry. I even shared some with the kids, though too many vegetables are always weird for them, at least if they are not made into a sauce. When they all said good night I was ready to crash!
Tomorrow will probably be a day in the house with laundry and planning. I can't even say how glad i am to be getting busier.
I also can't even say how glad I am to be able to share all of this with you. Thanks for reading, thanks for sharig this journey with me.
Much love,
Lauren
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