found my new house!

so we've spent the last almost two weeks just kind of hanging around boghe and the regional house while trying to find housing for me and the other new volunteer. But during Ramadan things move even slower then usual so it has been a long process finding open rooms in houses through word of mouth and then setting up times to see the rooms. but today we saw more rooms and decided who would be living where. i am very very happy with my new family/room/house! pictures will come soon (once i move in) but until then ill describe it a little. there is a big gated in family compound with a few houses with all the rooms opening up to the courtyard. my room is on the end of a building and is a little secluded because it is located off a storage-ish room that is off the courtyard (so ppl walking by cant look straight into my room). i have an overhead light, electrical outlet, window (secure with bars across it). plus in my family's salon there is a tv with satilitte and they have a fridge! My new host mom is the 'it' women in our community, involved in every single awareness/community development project, very well educated, and comes from a well known family. she has had volunteers living with her for the past few years and they all recommended her. we signed the contracts last night and i move in on saturday!!

as far as work goes, ive kind of been at a standstill because my GMC (girls mentoring center) cant open until the schools open after ramadan. the center is located on the middle/high school grounds and the girls apply to become members of the center at school as well. so ive just spent the last few weeks cleaning (one window doesnt shut all the way so theres a very thick layer of sand on everything), reorganizing, and brainstorming what type of classes i want to have at the center. in training, other PCVs gave examples of what they do at their respective centers but i have the freedom to choose to do whatever classes i think the community would benefit from most at my center. right now im thinking about computer lessions, english lessions, health lessions (ie. nuitrition, womens health, HIV/AIDS), life skills lessions (ie. money management, public speaking, self esteem), physical activites, supplementary classes (ie. french math, science, arabic) and other general lessions. most of the lessions will be done by me and sometimes with the help of other volunteers in the boghe region although in order to make the center as sustainable as possible i am going to try and get local mauritanians/faculty involved (obviously for some of the lessions to work i would need local support ie. arabic). all classes are held in french (ahh!) bc it seems to be the best equalizer amoung the different ethnic groups in my town (moors traditional speak dialects of arabic and africans speak pulaar, wolof or sonicke) but all schools are taught in french.