Well I’d like to start off by apologizing for just disappearing. It’s what some here call “Peace Corps Dark”. But, since my arrival at post, I’ve been a little preoccupied with just getting myself into a normal routine. Though my house is finally setup, I still think it could use a little work as it kind of has….how do I put this…a “jail cell” feel to it. At first it’s a little unnerving, but I must say that the whole sense of my experience so far has just been learning to humble myself and deal within my means; being okay with settling for something that isn’t as great (materially) as I’d hope it could be. Swear in was neat. There were some imortant people there whom I cant remember, but I will let the pictures do the talking when I get the uploaded. But with that, I’ll just start off with a brief summary of what I’ve done since I got here.

The Sunday I showed up was pretty shocking for me. I had to go back to the other volunteer’s house, which was filthy, at best, to retrieve some of his stuff. I later explained to one of the other volunteers that it reminded me of a post-apocalyptic video game I played as a kid called “Fallout Boy”, where you had to go around rummaging through the ruins of abandoned buildings to find things that, if repaired, would be quite useful. Well that’s pretty much what happened. I got 3 book cases, an armoire, a kitchen table, 4 chairs, two little end tables, and then another large table, which proved to be quite useful after I got rid of the mound of mouse poop and dead cockroaches that had accumulated over the last two years (the last volunteer didn’t cook). Needless to say, I’m a little surprised that I don’t have the plague now, but after refinishing the big table and washing EVERYTHING that I got from his place in bleach, I think that I’m well on my way to not having diarrhea for another 2 years.

That night I headed to church with my neighbor, Charles, who plays in the choir there. I told him that after I get settled in, I’d love to start playing in it as well (or at least sing, but I have a guitar now). The mass was completely in French, and actually tolerably short. Maybe that’s because the power went out and a giant storm was rolling through, but either way, I couldn’t understand the priest. Kind of a mumbler. After the mass, Charles and I walked back to our neighborhood while I stubbed my toe on probably about 10 camouflaged rocks along the way. Once we got off the main road, it was more like walking on the bank of a river than a path. I guess rain washed paths will do that to you. Falling a sleep that night was pretty terrifying. I was fortunate to find out that I’m not the only one living in my house; I have a colony of ants that continually burrow through cement, a family of pet mice, spiders and then the always popular cockroach. Thankfully, the last volunteer left me a few mouse traps and they have thus far caught 4. Apparently the reason I have so many pets is because nobody has lived here for 6 months, so they have had time to grow. I remember on my post visit seeing the tallies on the wall of how many mice had been killed there. He got up to 33 and then stopped counting, so thank God that I’m not at that house anymore! So after waking up a few times during the night to the sound of tiny feet scurrying across the floor, I finally got some solid sleep and woke up the next morning ready to kill. Needless to say, that was probably the worst night I’ve had since I’ve been in the Peace Corps.

Setting up the house was a gradual process. It was kind of difficult deciding where to put stuff because after the carpenter came, a lot of things were going to change. My self diagnosed ADD definitely showed up here as every task was interrupted by another task, which was interrupted by a mouse, which was interrupted by a cockroach, which was interrupted by someone coming to visit. After all was said and done, I think it took me about 7 days to get everything put away where I wanted it. When the carpenter came, my main goal for him was to make a hole in my table for a sink, which would just be a basin with a hole cut out of the bottom connected to a poorly fashioned hole in the wall that is not the lowest point in the kitchen area. How anyone washed dishes here before without taking a bath is beyond me!

As for food, I have been getting off to a slow start. Preparing beans here is a lot more difficult than the canned “Bush’s Baked Beans” I used to have for supper every night last year. I’ve turned into somewhat of a vegetarian after seeing how much effort goes into killing and cleaning a chicken. Quite honestly, it’s just not worth the hassle. Still, it’s better than eating everything fried or pat in snot sauce. I do miss good meat though, a lot. I’m sure as soon as my slap chop shows up here, I’ll be a cooking machine!

So you might be wondering, “Rich, it’s nice that you’ve moved in and are comfortable now, but when are you going to start doing something with your life?” That’s a fair question; one that I’ve asked myself as well. Well fear not, because the Artisan’s Association is in the process of trying to convince me why you, my fellow Americans, should help foot the bill to build them a sweet new meeting hall. At first, their plan was hurled because, in their opinion, the place they had wasn’t big enough to house all of the artisans. True as that may be, the plan for the building quickly changed into a training center for orphans and children after I told them that Americans would be more keen to donate their money to people who are really in need (i.e. orphans, single mothers, children, homeless people). Basically, because the last volunteer had helped to construct a handball court for kids and Americans had paid for about 65% of it, they assumed that the same would happen for them simply because the Peace Corps works with them. So, to humor them, at the second meeting, I brought a blank feasibility study with me to leave with them so that they could start to get some concrete ideas. The last question that I wrote was, “why do you believe that your project is more important to the community than other potential projects that could be funded”. That to me is the most important question, and I gave them that feasibility study because I wanted them to realize that if they took my time and resources to build this building, they would potentially be stealing from orphans, sick children, single mothers. If they don’t have a problem with this, well then I guess I’m just going to have to be blunt with them and say I don’t think that it will work, but at least this is helping them to get their ideas together while showing them that I am not just a black check with “USA” signed at the bottom. When it comes down to it, they just don’t need this building to be better artisans, they just want it so that when other artisans come to visit, they can think, “wow, these guys are ballers”. And I guess that brings me to my next lesson that I’ve learned time and again about relativism and capitalism: if some guy has a nicer thing (even if it isn’t that nice from a worldly prospective) someone else is going to want it or something better, or they won’t be satisfied. Oh ya, and nobody will ever really be satisfied as a result. It’s just human nature.
Sorry for the rant. Anyways, to wrap it up, these first 2-3 months won’t have too much intensive work, rather, I’ll just be finding out what the bigger needs are of the village as well as getting acquainted with local artisans and women’s groups so as to be able to facilitate effective formations. In addition, I’ll be trying to find what sort of secondary projects I can do, like the handball court, so I can involve folks at home too.

Don’t forget “Dieu te Regardes” J . Take it easy!