11.05.01
Hello gang. I'm in Abidjan for the weekend again. Last time I was here I ate too well... spent too much money, and was bloated from too much American food for a week! This time I am taking it a bit easier. But I do have some work to do... I'm trying to find a buyer for a bunch of bananas (pun not intended) for my women's farming co-op. I have no idea where to start... I'm thinking of just knocking on embassy doors until I get somewhere. Yuck. I don't like doing stuff like that.
Work is going OK. Like I said, the farming co-op has some work for me and I don't know where to start with it. The trash pickup project is up and down. If I insist that the project move forward, it moves forward. But if I just let the days pass without pitching a fit, nothing happens for days on end. I'm frustrated about that. I feel just like David Johns (who was the vice president of Information Systems when I worked there) saying, "We've got a schedule... now hit the dates on the schedule!!!" I will discuss it with the mayor soon if my mentor can't get the project moving.
Monday I went home in a huff about it, having spent the AM begging, bitching, and bribing the workers to pick up trash. At every turn they fought me... I finally had had it and told Kodja I was going home. To the US. I spent the afternoon at home in bed, alternately reading and sleeping and drinking wine, but I don't feel any better about it today (Tuesday). And when I got to work today, I could see nothing had been done all Monday afternoon on the project. It comes down to this for me... I can work on anything... I personally don't care if we pick up the trash around here. I'd much rather build a library or set up a girl's camp or something fun. If I have to pull teeth to get the trash picked up, I'd rather move on to something else. I think that's what I'll be telling the mayor tomorrow.
There's an All Volunteer conference starting Nov 18. It will be great fun to see the people I went through training with after not seeing most of them for nearly three months. The topic of the conference is AIDS. I've seen people planning the conference for months, and hope it's really good.
I read this in a magazine recently and thought of life here in the developing world... it's by Sy Safransky and was published in The Sun:
In the church of morning, I give thanks for a good cup of coffee, and for the chain of events that brings this coffee to my table. I'm grateful for the coffee plants, for the sun, for the rain. I'm grateful for the hands that picked the beans. But what about the businessman who profits handsomely from their sale? Am I grateful for a socially unjust system? I don't want my gratitude to be sentimental or politically naive.
As I've said before, I am making plenty of time to read while I'm here. I read Great Expectations last week... should have read it in 6th grade... probably read the Cliff Notes instead... sorry Mom and Mr. Shapiro. I'm also reading The Scarlet Letter right now. Between the two I read The Red Tent (thanks to Lynne Simpson for sending such a great read!). I recommend The Red Tent as not only a great book, but it also has a lot of parallels to life here. As the author (Anita Diamant) sets the scene in the villages, describing the characters, the setting, and the traditions, it is a great description of life in a village in Cote d'Ivoire. I was surprised at how little things had really changed , since the book is set in the times of Jacob and Joseph in the Old Testament.
I got up last Saturday and the kids came running to my door immediately. They wait until I crack open the kitchen window and that let's them know I'm up. Turns out there was a stream of ants marching past my back door, over the rocks, across the porch, etc... like perhaps 10 million of them! It was something out of Wild Kingdom. Tatiana, the 11 year old next door, had been waiting for my permission to begin a war against the ants. First, she asked for paper, set it on fire, and placed it on top of the marching ants. This killed the ones who were there, but they quickly called in reinforcements. Of course, I'm worried not only about her burning m y house down, but about the two pre-schoolers who have arrived to "help" her with the burning. Since the fire only worked for a short time, Tatiana asked for money to buy some gasoline. She came back with a liter of gas and dripped it slowly across the line of ants. After a couple hours, she bought more gasoline and killed the ants who dared to return to my property. After a day of fighting the ants, she had won the war. Me? I was tired just from watching it all, worrying about the health of the pre-schoolers, and the future of my house. I mean, how would I explain to the Peace Corps that my house had been burned down with my permission by an 11 year old?
So, that's it from here. Love! Kate