Life in the GPo

There have recently been requests from my loyal readership to offer a bit more insight into my daily life here in the GPo. At the risk of boring you all to tears, here goes.

Right now, I’m trying to start an English club and a book club, both projects I’m pretty excited about. Today, I met with the English teachers of the local high school to get them on board with the English club, which was my first real experience with a Beninese style meeting (think lots of protocol and hierarchy). Overall, it was a successful meeting, though we did spend about half an hour talking about ways that previous English clubs have failed. I think that was to help us avoid pitfalls but it did seem a bit fatalistic at times. All in all, I think the English club is going to be fun – I have visions of playing Hangman and Scrabble and Simon Says. I’m also going to try my damndest (sp?) to get my hands on some “Schoolhouse Rock” so if anyone has it and can burn me a copy of some choice episodes, let me know.

Right now I’m working my way through a Ziploc of brownies that the PC Country Director made. She’s visiting all the volunteers and she always brings baked goods on her visits (awesome!). On account of the ants, I have to eat the whole thing tonight (this is not difficult).

Hmmm…took a break to read the SELF magazine the CD left with me. Am realizing now how terrible Peace Corps is for the health. Lets see…fresh vegetables limited to tomatoes, onions, occasionally carrots and cabbage. Oh, and okra and eggplant. Yum. Abundantly available are yams, cassava, white rice, and other calorie-laden starches. One of the main dishes here is pate, or cornmeal paste. Oh, and everything is cooked in oil. Deepfrying is a favorite cooking technique. At least I’m eating local. I’m resolving here and now to try and eat salad at least once a week and to attempt Pilates or some other time of exercise a few times a week. Though I bike everywhere, Grand Popo is completely flat and I’m pretty sure I’m not getting much of a workout. As I am not known for my willpower, we shall see how long this lasts.

Finally, my official project here is to work on stuff with tourism with the Mayor’s office. I wish I could be more specific, but alas, I’m not sure the Mayor’s office has a more specific idea in mind. For the moment, I’ve been talking to just about everyone and trying to get a sense of what is happening in Grand Popo already and what people would like to see happen. So, a typical day usually involves going to the Mairie for an hour or two, then heading off to pick up a survey from one of the hotels (I’m surveying them on their needs and perceptions of the role of the Mayor’s office in tourism). In the afternoon I will meet with a guide maybe or go to greet some official I haven’t met yet. It’s a slow moving life. Right now, I’m working on figuring out what it will mean to me to be “successful” so I can start figuring out if I am working towards success.

I don’t know if that clarified anything for anyone but I’m going to try and post less about bugs and more about my life in the future. Bugs are easy because I usually have a very strong and visceral reaction that doesn’t require much processing. But for you, dear readers, I shall attempt to dig deep and give you something interesting to read.