After deep reflection, I've decided my blog's gotta change; it's gotta grow, evolve, become something. It's gotta
do something;
be something meaningful.
My life as PCVL is great but slightly less adventurous. I mean, who really wants to hear about how I had to go to the water company to pay the workstation's water bill 3 days in a row because the first day the cashier was sleeping on the floor and didn't want to get up to deal with me and the second day was the day before a holiday and the water company wanted to close at 10:30 because here in Benin every working day before a holiday is a half-day (it was somehow irrelevant that I was there at 10 o' clock, by the way). Who cares if I have to deal with questions like: should I increase our laundry lady's-- who only comes when she's asked, by the way--salary by 1 mille fcfa ($2) more a month even though volunteers have to pay her to do their laundry, and she's always sick?
Who cares, right? Heck aside from utterly absurd and therefore absolutely hilarious the daily, mundane experiences of my life can be--those things are irrelevant...except the tons of seeds I planted, that is not irrelevant and when the sprouts all push, I will photo document as with my garden at my old post.
So I've decided: aside from posting pictures of the garden, and maybe speaking about some of these hilarious experiences, I'll post recipes with pictures!!
As PCVL, I bake a lot. Why, my first day here I spent all day making chocolate chip cookies. When I say all day, I mean 6 solid hours. Yeah, all day. On a daily basis, I make key lime pie, ice cream--which is fun because I can experiment with flavors here and volunteers who haven't eaten anything that awesome in a year aren't concerened with flavor, and I'm adding cinnamon buns to the stock.
Here in Benin, we call these goodies Chez Chose La and there's a price to pay if you want to enjoy them. Not some moral price, aside from gorging yourself with their awesomeness and then feeling fat and sad, but a real monetary price. We use these funds to buy cool things like Hookah and the tabacco for it and ultimately ingredients to continue Chez Chose La.
Here at the workstation, we have an orange tree, and avacado tree (not yet producing), a lemon tree, and a mango tree. So, we always get at least one of the ingredients from right outside the door.
Frequently from friends and family at home, I hear "I wish I could experience what you're going through." or "Gosh, this experience is just so amazing, I can't begin to comprehend." And, food is so, so important. I can tell you, regardless of that disclaimer, that every Peace Corps Volunter in the world, worships good food. To give you an idea, no volunteer in Benin ever buys just one pack of 4 cookies or one slice of key lime pie when they come to the Natitingou Workstation. It's impossible. It's practically a religious experience when we bite into these non-starchy, non-bland, non-msg loaded, packed full of sweet deliciousness goodies. Food is here, like religion, both the bane of human existence but also the way to heavenly sweet salvation.
And so, I felt compelled to share this experience with you. I'll post the recipes with pictures and you can choose to indulge or not to indulge.
Mainly this is for fun :)
Tomorrow's recipe: Lemonade :)
