The peace corps volunteers in the east came to Lomie this past weekend. It was the kind of american invasion I can support. There were 8 volunteers who came. Carey, who I've written about, and 7 other, much younger, volunteers. We tried to make burgers, but the only woman with a meat grinder in town hates Charly (my boss), so no go. We ended up grilling strips of beef on my new grill (which really consists of some wires). It was good. The little american oasis here was, well, kind of anti-climatic. The volunteers were, to a person, very nice, very young, and more than a bit vague. I don't know how to describe it otherwise. I mean, I'm sure some of that comes from getting older, but I know myself well enough to know that I was never that vague. At thier age, I was running Mob productions, and running around like a bat out of hell. They seemed kind of shell shocked. All of them had been here for more than 9 months...so it wasn't about being new. It was more about... well, the fantasy of Africa meets the reality. Most of thier observations were pretty much at the very local level, and most of thier jobs are of a much smaller scope than mine. The most important thing that I learned is that the Peace Corps is more like high school than anything else. They have dorm rules in Yaounde, a curfew, and all sorts of supervision. I would go balistic.
On Sunday we made pancakes for dinner. That was a treat. All in all, great fun, and totally american conversations were had... including obligatory star wars references.