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Published: January 5th 2006
The good news is that I found the town library. I borrowed a great little book of poems that I am just loving. The better news is that CLAC, the library, is in my neighborhood, on my way home. The best news is that the director of CLAC let me borrow Scrabble to play with the girls in the girls’ club. I can not decide if that “best news” is that I get to play Scrabble or that the girls’ club is so much fun. In any case, I have even more books to read.
CLAC stands for Centre de la Lecture et l’Animation Culturelle, or Center for Reading and Cultural Animations. If I can remember the Carbondale Public Library well enough, I think CLAC is about the same size. There are reference books, novels for adults and children, and Asterix and other cartoon books. Along with Scrabble, there is Monopoly and Boggle, and now UNO too. I had a really good score in Scrabble today, and would have won if we had had time to finish.
Today was the first day for the girls’ club. The former volunteer had organized the club, so I am picking up where she left off. We talked about what we might want to do, which includes cooking, playing Scrabble, or Frisbee, or UNO, or whatever we want to do. And talking of course. Lots of talking. Maybe it would be called “gabbing,” but I am sure we will actually talk about important things too.
The longer I live here the busier I get. At least, the more ideas I have to work with. Today I rode my bike to Lokossa to meet the Directeur de l’Environnement, l’Habitat, et l’Urbanisme, no translation needed. Other than the awkwardness of being expected to present myself in a language in which my vocabulary bank is not very big, the meeting went well. A radio show was mentioned, which would be very exciting for me. As I was reflecting on the day’s discussion this evening, I realized a couple of things. I’ll see how well I can explain myself.
First of all, my priority is to live here. To have friends, to learn how to cook well, to read, to write, but most importantly, to make Athieme my home, to be familiar with the people, the ideas, the customs; really nothing different than what anyone has in any community. Okay, so, in acknowledgement that my priority is not really a challenge, I realize that as a part of the working community, I should not be surprised when people ask me what I do.
“Uhh, I am a volunteer with the Peace Corps.”
“Okay, but what do you do?”
“Uhh, I work with the environment. I want to plant a lot of trees.”
“Okay… So, you don’t have an action plan?”
“Uhh, not exactly. Not yet.”
I usually end up saying that the primary reason I am here is to learn about another culture and to have the experience in general. Which is all well and good, but is, frankly, cheesy. People seem to not ask, “So, you’re just here to eat our food and leave?”, before they do ask, “But what are you going to do?”
So, today, I think I pinpointed my goal, other than the oh-so-achievable-now-that-I-have-found-the-library first goal of living here. I have a “plan d’action,” quoi. I want to encourage environmental conservation in any and all possible ways. The goal is still vague, but reflects my life. I work in a garden with an ONG, with women’s groups, and I have told all my friends that I want to see birds and animals live, not captured either, and I am getting an Environmental Club going for all ages. I think I have quite a bit of the community covered. There are other projects that people have mentioned to me, such as a public park with flowers and nice benches, close to the river, and a competition between the neighborhoods for which neighborhood is the best kept, and also somehow getting the tractor fixed so that all the gathered trash can be taken far from the town itself, and separated into compost and other trash. And I am still in contact, lightly, with some apiculturalists near to Athieme. But in any case, I hope to leave more trees, less trash, and more people with the idea of environmental protection.
One other question has recently been resolved as well, that one about what am I going to do when I get back to the States? I am going to create AS.P.E.L. #2, and see how well grafted mango and teak trees grow in America. Maybe get a few women’s groups together. That, and offer a little culture by way of a coffee-flavored sweetened condensed milk/spicy spaghetti cafeteria in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
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Nicole
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Oh, Erika!!!
I think that your name for your job is marvelous! It makes it sound very important! I love coming to your blog and reading your many adventures!! I promise you should be getting your Christmas/Valentine's/Easter present by your birthday!