The Problem: Despite many verbal agreements (lesson learned) and hours of discussing the librarian, my director suddenly decided that the school probably couldn't pay a librarian for next year. Training her would therefore be useless, and the project would essentially fall flat.
The Developments: I made it clear to the director that he needed to come up with a game plan ASAP, and meet with the parent association (which okays all financial decisions). On Wednesday, a Peace Corps administrator came by my post to see the project. My director was of course not there (even though I informed him and then reminded him daily for a week), so the PC lady (African, which makes her style of interaction with my school admin even more awesome) and I talked about the issue while we waited for him to come back. He came back, told her about the problem himself (big boy star for him), and then she laid into him.
It was all polite and Beninese-appropriate, but there's something just fascinating about watching a woman totally refuse to let my director bullshit his way through a conversation. Every time he would interrupt her to try to explain or make an excuse, she'd just raise her voice a little, ignore him, and keep on talking. I was supremely uncomfortable to be stuck between the two, but I have to admit, that part was fun. I consistently love watching our Peace Corps admin women interact with non-PC men.
Anyway, she basically ran him down until he promised to send her a signed copy of the librarian's contract for the next two years. She won. I won. The project continues.
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