Work begins! sorta...

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The work camp has finally commenced. Not what I was expecting, but I shall reserve final judgment. First the group is made up almost entirely of Togolese guys, with one German girl, Larissa, who has a nice demeanour. Five more Europeans are supposed to show up soon, we’ll see. All the cute French girls are in the other “chantier” in town, including Debora (the hot French girl who showed up on the 19th in Lome). I spent the weekend hanging out with that group (one guy Alex from Paris is the only other western guy) but they are all into culture stuff. This brings me to my biggest problem here --- I didn’t sign up to sing and dance! Give me a shovel and otherwise let me read Joyce and listen to BBC World in peace. They pretty much forced me to get out of “bed” a reed mat on a concrete floor in a hut for “Animation” the other night. At least they were apologetic and it wasn’t too painful, so long as I can just sit there. I may even clap along at times.

A cool point is that this is a REAL African village with a chief (or 12?) and is therefore quite different from my other African experiences. The village’s Welcoming Ceremony for us was quite interesting although perhaps I … INTERRUPTED BY A KID … I think I may starve! God I hope those other volunteers are hot chicks! I think I should have started this volunteer stint at the beginning of the trip because I find it hard to be enthralled by cultural things. In fact I am very eager for Grad School in the fall, although after this I still have some vacationing left --- The Beach!

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