Lunar eclipse

hahahha so ... mauritanians dont enjoy watching lunar eclipses. We (me and my american sitemates) were pretty excited two days ago when we saw in our calendars that there was going to be a full moon because en brousse, the middle of freaking nowhere, full moons light light up the entire sky and village (that doesnt have electricity). but much to our surprise there was a lunar eclipse instead. turns out mauritanians are verrrryyyyyy superstitous about eclipes. the men went to the mosque and prayed while the women muttered prayers to allah under their breathe while they were making dinner. they believe that allah is punishing them and so they must pray to allah to get the moon back. interesting.... even though some of the people in our village are very educated it seems to be a superstition that still hangs on. we tried to describe to them how the earth is just passing inbetween the sun and the moon and it is our shadow that is temporarily covering the moon, but you can imagine how that would be difficult to describe in pulaar (not to mention hard to believe).

good news is that allah accepted their prayers and the moon was given back.