Pig skin is crunchy

I am really full right now. Just got done eating a bunch of pâte; a staple in the Togolese diet. I ate it with a sauce made from baobab leaves, which I’m told is a traditional Kabyie sauce. Pâte is supposed to be a traditional meal here, but I don’t feel comfortable calling it that because it is made from corn. And everyone knows corn came from the Americas. Yet I can’t imagine a Togo without corn and especially without its pâte. People would probably starve, seriously!
Are there other countries outside of the Americas with traditional meals made of corn too? It is crazy to think this grain has spread so far and wide that you have entire foreign(in corn’s perspective) cultures claiming it plays a key role in their societies. The good ol’ US of A is still the number one producer of corn, but second place goes to China. This is one global grain! Is there anywhere people don’t eat corn?
Ok, I’m not going to devote this whole post to corn. I just started a book called Shogun, not too far into it yet, so far all that has happened was people were lost at sea, people die of scurvy, people find land, more people die and there are samurais (plus some more details here and there). It’s been so good so far.
I’ve also been running a lot. There is a marathon next month in Ghana and I’ll be one of around 25 Togo PCVs running in it. Actually, not everyone is doing the full. There’s also the half marathon, but for some crazy reason I signed up for the full. Well, my training has been going on since April and I’m feeling pretty confident that I won’t past out from exhaustion on race day. I do a lot of running around Sotouboua. There are a few good routes that lead to the villages surrounding the town. They are easy, as in not too uneven, and the people out on there don’t really bother me that much. It use to be frustrating when I was running in town and people would being yelling ‘anasara’(le blanc) at me or the kids would be asking me for money. Why are people so much more chill in the small villages than they are in town?
At the beginning of the month I found myself streaking agar plates, something I haven’t done since I was a lab rat. I was at a science camp for girls and we were teaching the kids about microbiology. One volunteer got agar mix and plates sent over, and I had a few beakers and flasks sent over(thanks for all who helped with that!). Making agar plates was pretty fun and really interesting, considering we were using a charcoal stove to heat everything up and 2 giant basins as a makeshift autoclave. We had all the kids touch a plate and then wash their hands and touch another plate. I then spent some time streaking random things, like a basketball, toilet seat, door knobs, and river water. The next day the kids were really excited and only a little grossed out to see how dirty the world really is!
Ok, I think I’ve brought up enough random subjects for one post so I’ll stop it now. I’ll leave with talking bit more about the meal I just ate, it had pig in it. The meat part wasn’t too rough, but the skin was just crunchy.