christmas eve eve eve party in Boghe

Its been crazy here recently because Boghe is on the way to the capital so a bunch of people whose sites are way far east (the capital is on the west coast), used it as a resting place. So our party that was just going to be a little region party turned into something a little bigger...

All of my regionmates put gifts in each other stockings and we decorated the house and listened to Christmas music… kind of like being at home right? Hahah… my favorite of the decorations was the let it snow window decal which is so ironic in so many ways. 1. glass windows don’t exist in this country and 2. we are surrounded by endless amounts of sand, no where close to the idea of a white Christmas. Thanks mom for that haha…

Its really nice because from Dec 24-26 all PC Mauritania volunteers are booked hotels rooms in the capital by the staff so that we can celebrate the holiday together and then we have a big get together at the country director’s house- complete with amazing American food. I cant wait to finally go to Nouakchott! Real hotel rooms, American television, pizza, toilets, grocery stores, and endless other goodies. Then im off to pk7 to visit my host family from training for a few days, then to St. Louis, Senegal to celebrate New Years and finally back to Nouakchott for some 1st year volunteer training… its going to be a nice long and much needed vacation!

work update

so i guess a few of you have been wondering why i dont blog about work, so i thought id write a little work update... work is going well, but like in america, work is work. It can be stressful and frustrating, especially with the language/cultural barrier. For example, after i finally got the center up and running, i had to cancel classes for 10 days because of the fete. And now with Christmas, New Years, and then a week long PC conference in Nouakchott, i am going to have to close the center for another 3 weeks. The goal of the centers are to been self sustainable so its a long term goal of mine to find maurtianians who are interested in helping me teach/manage the center. But for now the center will have to be closed while Im gone.

Its been really hard to put together a schedule because the most girls have night classes almost every school night and even when i plan sessions around their free time that can get confusing because their schedules change so often... very frustrating.

So far Ive had successful computer classes, a week of AIDS sessions (for worlds AIDS day last week), bball club, and a little session on how to use a dictionary (might sound unnecessary, but really is). Hopefully when I come back from break i can have some academic review sessions by local professors and have a session on succesful local women.

Tabaski

Today was the Muslim fete Eid al-Adha, otherwise known as Tabaski here in Mauritania. It is also known as the festival of meat, so you can imagine how much I look forward to this day haha… I started out the festival last night spending some time with my family and watching Arabic Food Network (mostly American/English food shows with Arabic subtitles). After about two hours of watching cooking shows I made a comment to my host mom about how none of the shows had any side dishes or veggie plates, it was strictly meat dishes. She was like duh, it’s the fete of meat tomorrow haha… I don’t know how I didn’t put two and two together.

This morning started off with everyone in the family working on our meal preparation early and me hanging around being skittish knowing that the ram tied to the tree in our courtyard was going to be killed soon. It is called the festival of meat because it is the celebration of the day that Abraham (Ibrahim) was going to sacrifice his son Isaac (Ishmael) and then God replaced Isaac with a ram to reward Abraham for his obedience. So sure enough sometime in the late morning I saw the ram untied from the tree by some men I didn’t know and made my way back to my room for a good hour so I would miss the gross part… my family had a little laugh but completely understood that I would much rather be in my room reading a book then in the yard with them killing a ram. Then the family gathered in our salon while they finished up food prep… it actually smelled really good and the soccer being played on the tv was kind of reminiscent of watching football on holidays back home. For lunch we had meat with onions in gravy and french fries (all in one bowl) with bread to dip in it. My host mom made me my own personal bowl with just the onions, gravy and fries… it was sooo good (normally Mauritanians eat family style to the extreme- one big bowl for everyone, usually around 10-15 people, with your hands).

After lunch we all dressed up in our tabaski finest and I wore my very first female boubou. Enjoy the pictures, I hope they make you laugh as much as I laughed at myself. My host mom had made it very clear that for the biggest fete of the year no normal complet would do (the wax print, short sleeve, tight fitting, matching top/bottom outfits I normally wear). A boubou was very necessary for this fete. So she had some people bring over hand dyed (and pretty expensive) fabrics and I choose one for her to make the boubou for me. When I came out of my room in my outfit the kids in my family had a field day… I finally looked like a Mauritanian woman (the complets are for girls before they have kids and at my age I should probably be wearing a boubou by their standards).

Here are some pics of my huge, traditional female boubou that my host mom made. it is a big dress/sheet thing with a match wrap skirt underneath.

The rest of the fete was much like the past fete (to celebrate the end of Ramadan about 2 months ago). The other Americans came over to my house to visit my host mom then we went to greet and eat with other friends of past or current PCVs. It was a long exhausting day but went pretty well. Also, there are only 2 fetes really celebrated in Mauritania each year so im done with them for a while, phew!

The picture on the left is all the Boghe PCVs (my sitemates) and my host mom in our salon and the picture on the right is me and my little host sister, Yiy (age 4).

The picture on the left is some Mauritanians in their Tabaski finest and the picture on the right are two little boys who were sooo cute in their traditional chaftans and pants.

Winter Wonderland

Winter has finally come to Mauritania! While it has been chilly a little bit in the early mornings for the past few weeks it is nothing compared to the temperature now. I know that a lot of it has to due with the fact that I’ve been living in 100 degree heat for so long, but it feels like its freezing here! Even during the hottest points of the day there is still a little chill in the air and anytime near sunset you have to put a sweatshirt on. Every night before the cold front came in I slept with a fan on me and now I’ve been sleeping in long sleeve shirts, pants, socks, and a thick wool blanket! Im curious how cold it actually is because at night it seems close to freezing.

We took some time to enjoy the cold and really kick our Christmas decorations into full gear. Heres a pic of the stockings me and Stephanie sewed (and Julie Ann wrote our names on with her amazing cursive glitter glue abilities). One for each of the 12 volunteers in my region... more crafting/Christmas decorations and pictures to come!

In light of the new weather changes, I have some very exciting things to add to my wish list (if you have been sweating non-stop for the last 6 months you would understand while it’s so exciting for me haha).
- Hot chocolate and apple cider packets
- chai tea

- warm clothes (stuff i already had in my closet but didnt pack to bring with me, not necessarily new stuff)

New Puppy!

So last Sunday night I was coming over to the regional house and a bunch of little kids were sitting around our door and then starting running toward me yelling “petit chien! Deux milles ouguiya!” (little dog, 8 dollars). Toubabs are known as the only freaks in Mauritania who keep animals as pets haha… I called out some of the other girls who were at the house and we talked it over (while falling in love with this scared to death dog and surrounded by kids in the street) but unfortunately we already have one dog and way too small of a house. So we told the kids sorry, we can’t take it, even though it killed to know that those kids were probably going to drown the dog or just leave it in the streets somewhere. We all went back in the courtyard and were hanging out outside when there was a yelp from the far corner of the yard and we realized that the kids had thrown the dog into our yard! He was so scared and shacking, but no broken bones thank god. We spent the next few hours trying what to do and calling people to see if anyone wanted it because there was know way to let this dog stay over night and not get attached to it. Luckily Ryan said that he wanted it so we have been spending all this week with this adorable puppy (named Nittany, Jo Pa just didn’t sound right haha). Him and Bailey (our other dog) are so cute together and I had to put up some pics of them.

On other more sad note, word must have gotten around that the Americans were adopting puppies because the next night another puppy got brought to the house and two others the night after that. Then the next day I got approached by a bunch of kids on my walk home who had a puppy they wanted to give me. Its so sad because animals are so mistreated here but theres no way that we could try and save them all. When Tiffany leaves in August she is planning taking Bailey back to America with her so hopefully I will be getting my own new puppy when I move into the house… inshallah!

Refugee Relocation

Here they are called "the 1989 events", when thousands of black african mauritanians were forced across the Senegal River by the arab mauritanians (and vice versa with the arab senegalese). They were forced to flee without their possessions and their property was taken in their absence. Its a very complicated situation (i suggest going on wikipedia and reading about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Events_in_Mauritania) and the effects of which are still being felt, especially in the south of Mauritania. For nearly 20 years black mauritanians have been living in UN refugee camps in senegal and recently the UN has begun to bring them back to Mauritania. Since Boghe is one of the largest border towns with Senegal, they have been using it to bring in the refugees and creating new villages for the refugees to live in. Below are some pics of their efforts this week...

These are classic "maurtanian style tents" set up in on of the open areas near the center of Boghe for the refugees to wait in between their river crossing and placement in their new homes.

The refugees being loaded into UN issue white canoes (very different from the traditional wooden ones ive been in!) with orange life vests (also a new concept for me!) on the other side of the Senegal River on a Senegalese island seperating the two countries.

On the far right is the UN canoes leaving Senegal and on the left is the UN tracks waiting to load the refugees and bring them to the Boghe town center.

Close up of UN trucks along the Senegal River.

On a side note, my host family in pk7 were returned refugees as well, who came back during an earlier attemp to return the refugees in 1997. The village was called pk7 (literal translation milemarker 7) because it was created at the whim of the UN in an effort to return the refugees (since their properties and previous homes/villages had been taken in their absence).

Baila's gift

The other weekend me and my other pk 7 sitemates finally got a chance to visit our teacher Baila and give him our little thank you gift for helping us learn pulaar during stage. Since we spent signifigant more time playing cards then learning pulaar we thought giving him a decks of cards with a photo of all of us at class would be a great momento (Ryans mom made the cards on snapfish and sent them to us, thanks!). And we were right, he loved the cards so much... his exact words were "i will guard this for my whole life with my diploma."

below is a pic of our teacher and us playing cars after we gave them to him... look hard to see our picture on the back of the cards...

Thanksgiving!

As difficult as it was to spend my first Thanksgiving away from my family (and my first in 4 years away from eddie), I had a really great Thanksgiving here in Mauritania with all the other PCVs. About 25 of us got together and tried our best to transport all of American traditions here.
That started with a party Thursday night with Mariah Carey being played at midnight (because the Christmas season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving haha). Friday we went to the market early (10 am our time, 5 am your time) for some black Friday shopping (thinking of dad of course getting up at the crack of dawn). Unfortunately, the concept of sales doesn’t really translate here hahaha… below are some pics of use in the market getting frustrated when some of the shopkeepers tried to rip us off… normal black Friday shopping frustration, Mauritanian style.

Then we spent the rest of the day cooking a huge Thanksgiving feast (because the teachers had school on Thursday we had our big dinner on Friday instead) and was it a feast… I am still amazed at some of the great things we can make out of what is available in Mauritania (although some of it was boxed food sent from America too help us out). We had Mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta salad, okra casserole, squash, stuffing, duck, barbeque chicken (brought to you by Ryan), sautéed veggies/beef, cornbread, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake. It was absolutely amazing… and all done with two burners, a toaster oven, and an open pit grill.

The rest of the night was sooo much fun… the Thanksgiving themed hats were a huge hit (thanks mom!) and after a little nap following the outrageous amount of food I ate, I was ready for round 2 of the party. All and all, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend what could have been a really difficult day. It was so nice to talk to everyone back home, I could just imagine you all sitting around at Grandmas and Papas passing around the phone (sorry about the little delay, I’m so used to it I kind of forgot how obnoxious it could be!) I’ll be spending the rest of the day today starting to make some Christmas decorations for the regional house and bringing the spirit of the season to Africa!

Club de Basket

Today was the first day of basketball club and it went sooo well.. the girls really had a great time!! Apparently the University of Texas Womens Basketball program donated about 70 basketballs to my center last year but they were still in their boxes so when i started cleaning the center a few months ago i found them and decided that i def wanted to have physical activities part of the center. There is a basketball court at the lycee (built by peace corps years ago) right by my center.

Considering that most of these girls have never played a sport in their lives they really enjoyed themselves. Mark and Ryan helped me out and we ran a few drills and then jsut they them shoot around for about an hour and a half and we finally had to pull the balls away from them- they didnt want to stop playing!

"les actualites"

So as another new craft project for my center im making a bulliten board of current events (or les actualites in french) for my center titles Mauritanie et la Monde (Mauritania and the world). so many people here have no idea of current events, geography and other culture in general (minus Barack Obama haha) so i am trying to collect newspaper/magazine clippings (preferably with pictures) that would interest the girls. For example, I have an article on a girls' basketball club in the arab section of Jeruselam (thanks Vicki!). I want to try and make a connection with the rest of the world and Boghe.

So if you see anything that might be good I would really appreciate you sending them to me! Thanks!

first few days

So the first few days of my center went better then expected. The girls were all so excited and eager to be a part of the center... i tried my best to make them let down their guard and realize that the center was a place were there is no one there judging them on their thoughts or dreams. For one of the activities i gave them all journals and told them that these journals were like diaries for no one to read but themselves and the first journal entry was what do you want to do after you finish high school. It took about 10 minutes of me giving examples of what they could write for the girls to finally get it... they have never been encouraged to shoot for the stars, talk about what they dream of doing with their lives. I hope that it got them thinking a little bit about what they want in life and what they have to do to get there.

Another thing i did was the write out your name and use an adjective to describe each letter... describing what an adjective was was a little harder then i thought it would be but the girls caught on and were thrilled that they were supposed to decorate the papers with whatever they wanted using the craft supplies i had. Creativity is another thing that was kind of dropped to the wayside out of necessity and it felt great to watch the girls get so excited about coloring and drawing and decorating the room with their artwork (we put them all on the walls).

Now Im trying to create somewhat of a schedule for the center, which is harder then it sounds because a lot of the girls have classes until 6pm and the sun starts to go down around 630... ive spent hours starring at an excell sheet i made trying to come up with an answer that doesnt exist. well i mean it does, but i was just hoping to have classes after school and not on the weekends but it seems like that wont be an option now.

first day of basketball class in on saturday!! ankle length skirts, mulafas, and all!

Work update

Things at my gmc (girls mentoring center) have finally started to pick up these past few weeks as the school year finally begins to get under way here. Unlike america, even when the government says school will start on a certain day, it doesnt. Directors dont come and teachers arent given schedules till a few weeks later and after about a week of class actually starting kids start to show up regularly. Kind of frustrating when im so eager to get my center up and running but i am dependant on school being in session to do so. But the past few weeks i have been trying to get the word out about the center from talking to teachers, putting up posters, talking to girls around the school and going into classes.

To apply to be a member girls had to write an essay on "what is the importance of girl's education" and be between a 2eme-5eme grade level (about the equivalent of 7th-10th grade). I got a lot of responses and was very happy to see that i was able to pick out my ideal number of girls for the center. I have 26 girls, split pretty evenly throughout the 4 grade levels. Tomorrow I am going to post the list of new members and then sunday will be the first day of the center! (we have an islamic sunday-thursday work week). Im planning on having two days of getting to know you activities and then, inshallah, will have a little open house on thursday for the girls, their parents, school directors, and other important women/people in the community. The center will be open probably about 4 days after school for a few hours and will also meet one morning a weekend for basketball club (exact times and days are dependent of the girls availability).

Eddies coming to visit!!

Its official, Eddie just bought his plane ticket to come visit me in February!! I am so happy right now i cant take the huge grin off my face!

All of PC Mauritania goes down to Dakar for Presidents day weekend to participate in WAIST, a big softball tournament with expats in west africa (including all the PC west africa countries). Its the weekend that PCVs here in mauritania look forward to most because its a huge party/vacation in the most metropolitan city in west africa. Dakar also has the cheapest flights into west africa so eddie is going to fly in the day after the tournament ends, feb. 18th, and i will already be there to meet him! We are going to spend two weeks traveling through senegal along to coast north and south of Dakar. unfortunately, mauritania is just too far away and it is not worth the time, effort, or money to travel all the way to show eddie my site. also, mauritania requires a visa (while senegal doesnt) so we're just going to stick to traveling in senegal.

we have only started to plan out exact places that we want to go/things we want to see, but right now it includes Dakar, Ile de Goree (known for its role in the slave trade), Ile de n'Gor, Saint Louis (old captial of colonial french west africa), Le Parc National de la Langue de Barbarie, camel rides and camping in the desert, and Toubab Dialao. Im trying to make sure eddie gets to see a lot of traditional africa along with the more touristy things.

Im so happy that i will get to see eddie in only a few months! I am also starting to look for flights to come home this summer after my school gets out, so probably sometime mid-july.

Obama in Africa

While it sucks not to be home for such a monumental election like the one today, there is no better place to be then in africa. All this past week I have been stopped by strangers on the street asking “tu as voté?” and I love to see their reaction when I give a little fist pump and say “yes I did! Barack Obama!”. Today I wore my new Obama/Biden shirt around and was practically cheered wherever I went (shout our to carrie dietrich for the shirt!). Africans absolutely love Barack and I love that so many people here are interested in American politics. My host family has been watching the french news coverage of the election and they always go above and beyond to make sure i understand everytime the anchors mention the election. its funny because people here hardly seemed to notice a coup even took place and rarely will take sides on their national politics but are so interested and informed about my national politics.

Also, ryan (one of our brousse volunteers) got the debates mailed to him so a bunch of us watched those this past weekend which really made the election feel real. Its hard to imagine when you fill out a write in ballot in the middle of the African desert that there actually is an election going on sometimes. we had a blast watching all the hilarious things that we had read about sarah palins preformance in the vp debate too hahhaha...

tonight me and the other 1st year volunteer in boghe are crashing at the regional house along with 2 other brousse volunteers to follow the election throughout the night online. things are looking good... crossing my fingers that ohio finally pulls through!!!

Halloween party!

This past weekend Boghe had the big Halloween party for PCVs in Mauritania and it was soooo much fun! We had about 50 people here for a full blown American costume party and it turned out so well! I was kind of nervous because that is a lot of people to have in town (think no kitchen to make food in, no real bathrooms, and a tiny house). We talked to the restaurant guy next to us and he promised to be open all the time for those 3 days (normally they are just open for a few hours at night) and we borrowed a bunch of matelas and lessos (sitting mattresses and floor mats) from my GMC. We also had some of the more crafty guys in our region rig up a string of colored light bulbs across from the regional house to the tree in our yard and back. We also have a homemade ping pong table that we won in a tournament against the region next to us during Halloween last year set up in the yard. It was like a garden party but in the African desert with cheap gin. We had a little preparty on Thursday then Friday was the big costume party. Below is a picture of whole group in front of our regional house and another of us all hanging out under the tree in our courtyard!

Me and my friend Julie Ann planned matching outfits, I was Sarah Palin and she was John McCain (she had shaved her head on swear in day haha). It turned out sooo much better then I thought it would and everyone totally loved it. All of the costumes were really funny and creative especially considering that we had to make everything or find it somewhere in the African thrift stores. Here are some more pics from the night!

all my sitemates from pk7 reunited!

it was still around 85 at sunset so the sweatshirt had to come off! i tried my best to stay in character...

seasons changing...

so things arent exactly cold yet, but you can def. feel a little bit of change in the air... finally the cold season is beginning to come! dont get me wrong, it is still hot as hell during the day (im sure somewhere in the high 90s) but ive started to use a sheet at night (which is a great change from july when i would wake up in a pool of sweat hahah). this morning when i woke up and was walking around my compound, i had the sudden feeling that i was walking around in america on a crisp, sunny, autumn morning. there is this great time between 730 and 930 in the morning when the sky is bright blue, its breezy and there is a slight chill in the air... it has really helped me get over this little bit of homesickness. there is something about the changing seasons that has everyone here a little homesick. i think maybe its finally hitting me that this isnt a summer trip anymore. summer is over back home, its getting cold and the trees are changing, but im still here. but its all good, im happy to be finally working and loving living in the regional capital where other PCVs are always visiting so there is never a boring moment. in a few weeks the cold season will really be here and i cannot wait! it will be so great to finally have a break from the heat (until it comes back in even more force in april/may-supposedly the hottest part of the year that i have yet to experience, oh no).

school finally started!

School finally actually started last Sunday so my work here can finally begin. Ive spent the last few days talking to my local GMC mentors and getting their suggestions on how I should go about selecting the girls and structuring my center. Ive decided to have an essay contest with the topic being “what is the importance of girl’s education?” and on Monday I am going to go to the school to meet with the directors and introduce myself to the teachers and (hopefully!) encourage them to talk a little bit about the center at the beginning of their classes. Ive also made flyers that I am going to put up around the lycee (high school) and college (middle school) campuses. Ive decided to take girls in the 2eme-5eme grade levels (which equal about 7th grade-10th grade). First I was thinking about focusing on the older girls but my mentor suggested focusing the girls who are at that vulnerable age and could really use the encouragement to continue their studies. Ive also been brainstorming classes that I want to have/topics that I want to cover but all of that can change depending on the girls interests and seeing what they know/don’t know already. Hopefully things go smoothly and I will be having my open house and opening the center in a few weeks!

On a side note, I included pics of some of the kids with their new UNICEF backpacks… they are so cute! All the school age kids in Mauritania get a new backpack full of school supplies from the UN. I took the pics kind of stalkerish in the market the other day ...

Election day

Today was election day in Boghe and i voted!! Our country director realized how the majority of our absentee ballots would never get here in time, let alone be returned, and so he set up for a peace corps car to go around to all the regional capitals over the next few days with write in ballots that he will send in a diplomat pouch to washington... im so excited that my vote will be there in time!!! i wrote out clear and bold so there would be no mistake- Barack Obama.

on a side note, school did not start today, even though it was supposed to. most school directors havent showed up and the teachers havent arrived. the peace corps english teacher here in boghe showed up for work and they didnt even have a schedule for her let alone a class to teach on the first day. so things arnt looking too great for me to start my center on time. i cant do applications until the girls are at school so until then im still just hanging around, trying not to be too bored and be semi productive. pretty impossible....

Sarandougou

ke Tuesday and Wednesday I visited Ryan in sarandougou, a little village about 10 k outside of Boghe. I was his first visitor so the whole village was so excited to see another toubab (foreigner). It was hilarious because after a few hours of the hassle of trying to get there (walking to the market, finding a bus, waiting for it to fill up, then picking up/dropping off dozens of people) we finally arrived at the village and walked right into a huge wedding celebration in his family's compound. On one side of the compound there was about 60 men sitting under the trees and dressed in their finest and then on the other side of the compound was hundreds of women and children under another set of trees. The next few hours were filled with greeting the entire village and 3 different lunches. The picture on the left is of Ryan’s house and the picture on the right is his family (mending the fishing nets), both in the courtyard.

The next day we took a trip around the village with Howa, Ryan’s host sister and our self appointed tour guide. A little tour around the village turned into the longest morning/afternoon ever. We went to the market, the college where Ryan will be teaching English, met with the director, and then spent hours going to people's houses and greeting them. In the afternoon we walked to the Senegal River, about a 20 minute walk from his house. Below are pictures from the river and some of the local fisherman…

this is my life

so i woke up in the middle of the night to something scurrying around my head at the top of my head. by the time i pulled out my flashlight it was gone but i knew i wasnt crazy because it left little mouse like droppings behind on my sheets. i think great, i have a mouse playing on my face and in my hair while i sleep. so i tucked my mosquito net under my mattress like i should have done a while ago and went back to bed. i woke up this morning and was looking under my cot for the mouse with my flashlight and sure enough, found more droppings but no mouse. when i lifted up the floor mat to look for the mouse i found a scorpion. about 3 inches long. pretty big. and scary. and i chased it around the room till i killed it with a book. that was my morning. this is my life.

Eid Fete

i survived ramadan and the fete that accompanies the end of it. i woke up this morning and the whole fam were hard at work slaughtering a goat right outside my window. ew... they skinned it then hung it up in the tree in my courtyard and started hacking at it with a machete. good excuse to hide out in my room in front of a fan and read a book. then i went out when the food was ready and they had a big mat out under the tree in the shade and a big plate of meat for them and baby plate of french fries, grilled onions and bread for me. not too shabby. this holiday is known to be an entire day slaughtering goats and eating meat so i was very happy to see that they had thought of me.

then we sat around in the salon for the most awkward thing in the world, greetings. i sat on the couch while round after round pf people came in and uttered greetings under their breathe without making eye contact while my host family did the same. after about 2 minutes of nonstop mutterings the guests took their leave. its so random but is very important to mauritanians... its hard for me to understand because the greetings include sayings that translate to "how are you", "how are you with the heat", "are you feeling well", etc. but the responses are just as automated and no one really wants a thought out response. all of the responses translate to something to do with "im fine thanks to allah" said a few different ways. sometimes when we do greetings after a long day i want to be like "no, im not fine with the heat! im exhusted and tired because ive spent the last 24 hours squating over a hole in the ground!" Then some of the other volunteers came over to greet my family and we left together to greet some of the other families that volunteers were friends with complete with more awkward greetings and meat plates.

im just so happy that ramadan is over. no more sneaking drinks of water in the market or feeling bad about buying food for lunch. no more hungry, thirsty, grouchy people everywhere. things can finally start getting normal and i can start being productive. school starts sunday oct. 12 and im really excited (and kind of nervous) to finally start working! still have 10 days to lay around though...

a photo tour of boghe

the picture on left is the only paved road that goes right through town that our regional house is located on. the door on the right leads to our courtyard (notice the donkey cart on the street). the picture on the right is inside of our courtyard at the regional house looking from our porch to the street (which is behind the stonewall). our dog bailey is in the picture, our hammock, kiddie pool, dried up well, and behind the laundry drying is our new vegetable garden!

these are pictures from the market where i go basically everyday, kind of out of boredom because it is ramadan and also because you have to buy your food on a daily basis

Barack Obama

So last night Barack Obama had a press conference that was apparently broadcast internationally because my whole family froze and watched extremely attentively. it was live (with pretty horrible french translations- its hard to translate to live speeches) and had to do with the economy and the upcoming debate (i didnt even know there was one!) THey absolutly love him here, both because he has african origins and also because he might be the one to finally get george bush out of office (they, like most people from around the world, HATE him).

My host mom was out of town (and host dad has been MIA since i moved in) but my 3 older host brothers and host sister were full of great questions about american politics. They wondered how americans felt about George Bush, the oil situation, who i was voting for and who i thought most americans would vote for in the upcoming election. when i was first told where i would be spending my peace corps service i never thought i would be having conversations like this and i am realizing more and more each day how lucky i am to have such a great site placement and host family.

my host sister goes to university in Nouakchott (she is home visiting for the end of ramadan), where she studies biology (with a focus on global warming and conservation) and my other host sister goes to university in america. unlike many other mauritanian families, my family sits together and eats together and is not segregated by sex. my host brothers love to talk to me about politics and i love that they recognize that women have smart, thoughtful opinions to share just like men.

Breaking Fast

During Ramadan, all Muslims (the entire population of mauritania) fast from sunrise to sunset which effectively shuts down the country, delays schools start, and makes for some very grouchy store keepers when you go to buy supplies to make lunch. So a big part of this month in the tradition of breaking fast after the evening prayer is called around 7ish. I have hung out with my family for bits and parts of their breaking fast but last night i decided to dedicate my whole night to sitting with them in the courtyard under the stars to really experience the entire event.

First, as soon as you can hear the pray call from over the loudspeakers of the mosque (they can be heard from any point in town), the family starts to chug liquids and eat some bread and dates (imagine how thirsty you would be after 12 hours in over 100 degree weather with nothing to drink). my family has a freezer so all of our drinks have ice chunks in them (quite a delicacy). there is ice cold water, bissap (a kool-aid type drink made from natural flowers here), hot sugary tea, and milk (clarification- powered milk=disgusting). I feel bad because they were throwing drinks at me until i couldnt drink another sip but i wasnt even that thirsty because im not fasting (and they know that). But the hospitality here is so strong that they wanted to make sure i had the absolute most amount that they had to offer. After that, they walk over to their pray mats a few feet away and all pray in unison (with the oldest son leading). i wrote in my journal by the food haha...

Next, about an hour after breaking fast, the first meal is served. Normally families eat banafe (something like a potato/beef stew) for this meal. It is sooo good and tastes like something grandma winland would make in southern ohio. like hearty american comfort food, except they eat family style around one large bowl on the ground with the hands, just a little different then ohio. my host family was really great about my dietary restrictions and gave me my own little bowl of just stewed potatoes in the gravy and i sat around the circle like everyone else except just eating out of my own bowl (probably the most low-key, least fuss/awkward vegetarian meal to date, finally!). After that meal i was stuffed and felt like i was about to burst but no, theres still the main course.

before the main course is served the tv was brought out to the doorway of the family room and everyone just relaxed and watched the news (unfortunately it was al jazeera in arabic so i couldnt understand it) and started to take naps on the floor mats and pillows that were set up in the courtyard (there is always huge mats laid down outside so youre never actually sitting on the sand). by this time it was about 930 and i was exhausted but was still trying to hold out for the last meal. then the evening call to pray went over the mosque loudspeakers and the whole family started praying again and then afterwards went back to napping. at about 11 i called it quits... but at least i tried to stay up for it all! i was just so full and tired (and i knew i would be eating the whole next day like normal) so i couldnt make myself try and stay awake. the whole family got a good laugh at me this morning and called me out on slipping away to my room and going to bed before the final, big meal.

Finally settled in

Yesterday I took my last trip of stuff from the regional house to my new room. It kind of feels like moving into a college dorm room all over again, except this time the walls are made out of mud and my roof is thatched. Even with that being said, I have a really nice set up in my new room. My host family gave me the chairs (I picked out the colors so they would match… trying to make things homey even in Africa!), desk and cot. All of those 3 things are pretty unheard of in bedrooms of volunteers (furniture in general doesn't really exist).

A little tour of my new compound/room….













This is from outside the gate looking into the family courtyard. My room is the open door on the far left (behind the blanket hanging on the line).

















Once you go into the main door there is a little storage room (with working fridge and freezer!) and my door is on the left. Its nice because you cant see straight into my room from the courtyard so random people walking by don't gawk at me. Now pictures from inside my room! I tried to do a little 360 photo thing… right on your left when you enter my room is my desk (with toiletries, water filter, electronics, books, and other knick knacks) and fan.













As you go toward the left I have some pictures up and right now below them is a pile of all my clothes (im getting a shelf made right now to be able to fold my clothes and set them on). Im also a dork and put a map of Ohio on the wall next to the pictures (its hard to see in the photo). Then I have a window (with curtains I made myself!) my bed (on a cot!) with my mosquito net, shoes lined up underneath, and a little makeshift end table. Lastly is my little sitting corner with paintings, photos, and buckets of amazing American food underneath). And that's my room!














Last night I ate dinner at the regional house then went back to my house to hang out with the new fam afterwards. Since it is Ramadan, people basically sleep all day and stay up all night so there was a ton of people just hanging around in my courtyard. They had the tv from the family room put in the doorway so it faced out to the courtyard and everyone was laying around on mats and pillows watching a French news channel… after PK7 and no electricity I feel like I'm living the life. I love my new family and I am excited to finally be settled into my new home in Boghe!