La Vie Quotidienne

My place of residence: a guest house/conference center

So some people have asked me what exactly I am doing here in CI and what life is like.  Honestly, it’s not super exciting in the day-to-day, as is the case in most jobs.  I should have posted this earlier during my time here when things were a little calmer, but this is generally how things go.  Later, I'll probably write about my weekends.

6:30 : alarm goes off so that I can go for a walk/run…mostly I just go back to sleep and save the exercise until later.

7/7:20AM: actually wake up, make PB and Banana oatmeal with MTV or an African music channel while getting ready.

8/8:05: Walk to work

8:20/30: Arrive at work, great, waste time on email/fb/etc/eventually get to work.  My work space changes based on which staff members are in the office or away on holiday or work travel, hence two different desk pictures below.

11:30:  Benoit collects lunch orders and then goes to pick up what people want.

12:45-1:20 PM: eat lunch, which is picked up from a nearby lunch stand.  Usually consists of fish or chicken with sauce and atthieke, rice, futu, or something else like fried plantains and hardboiled eggs, yam fries, or pork with bread.  Sauces available include eggplant sauce, leaf sauce, maffe (peanut butter), tomato/veggie, or other.  90% of the time it’s pretty delicious.  There’s always A LOT of spice but I can handle the spice more than more than a handful of my coworkers…(Dad, be proud!).

1:20 PM: take a walk in the neighborhood around the office.  This has become one of my main sources of exercise

2PM: back in the office, back at work.  The afternoon mostly FLIES by

5:50PM: head home

6:20PM: do back stretches, shower

7PM: dinner, usually yogurt+banana, cereal, other leftovers, etc, while reading articles I neglected to read during the day

7:30PM: do evening work for myself or my other project while watching the news, Disney Channel, French MTV, dubbed over TV shows, etc.  Also, do laundry and allow it to dry in bedroom.

10PM: get ready for bed

10:30PM: bed, read, sleep.

My old room+bathroom: 

My new room, living room, bathroom, and kitchen: