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...