Me and eddies african vacation!

I only have a few minutes on the computer but i just wanted to post and say that me and eddie are having a great time!!! I will post a big blog full of pics and all of our adventures as soon as i get back to site.... until then, bon voyage!

My family's coming!!!

I am completely in shock over the recent news that my mom, dad and both my brothers will be coming to visit me in November for Thanksgiving!!!!! Given how expensive tickets are and that they are buying my plane ticket home this summer, I never even dreamed that they would all be able to come at all but a recent huge deal in South African Airlines (a 75th anniversary promotion) allowed my whole family to fly to Dakar at a pretty reasonable price. I cant even put my excitement into words...

Because of all of their school schedules (mom and dad being high school teachers, danny a high school student, and cory at ND), they can only stay for a little over a week but hopefully will be able to make it all the way up to Boghe for an african Thanksgiving…

In other exciting news, Im leaving for Dakar next Tuesday for WAIST (a softball tournament for expats and pcvs in west Africa). Its like the biggest week of the year for Mauritanian PCVs so im really excited for that and then right after WAIST ends Eddie is landing in Dakar for a two week Senegalese vaca. I feel like im on cloud nine….

Work update

So Ive been pretty busy throwing myself into my work these past few weeks after Christmas and our PC training in Nouakchott. During training there was a lot of time for all the new girls education volunteers to get together and share projects ideas and things that have worked well in their center so ive been excited to start some new projects. I started a penpal program with a French class at my high school back home which the girls got really into. Also, I have tried to start getting more of the professors on campus involved in teaching academic subjects, which has had its share of frustrations. its taken a ton of effort to try and convince teachers to give up their time to tutor the girls (although in exchange they get a weekly computer lesson with the IT PCV in Boghe, a highly sought after thing here). Once I get the teachers to agree to teaching I still have to depend on them showing up to teach, which is easier said then done. Lets just say ive had my fair share of disappointments recently.

Also, my host mom (a high school teacher by trade, the only female one in Boghé) has started to give the girls Arabic classes which she believes, after 20+ years working in the education system here is much needed. The way that high schools are set up is that 5 of the classes are taught in Arabic, 4 in French. Sadly, the Pulaar girls in the south of Mauritania (black Africans) shy away from learning Arabic to the point where they can hardly read the alphabet, even as high school students. She says it can be related back to the events of 1989 and the friction between the two races in Mauritania, moors (of Arab descent) and blacks (of African descent). Thus moors in this country primarily speak Hassinya (a form of Arabic) while the blacks speak French and their own tribal languages. This poses a serious disadvantage for them when it comes to passing their classes and the BAC (which is necessary to pass to go to college). Hopefully with her encouragement the girls will take more of an interest in Arabic and do better in their classes that are taught in Arabic.

So that’s a little wrap up of some of the work ive been doing recently. Ive been really busy managing all the things in the center and have been holding classes about 5-7 times a week. I def never realized how much managing was involved in the center on top of teaching. I never would have been given this type of responsibility and work opportunities in an entry level job in America!

Here are some pics of me at the center teaching the girls how to use a dictionary and another of my sitemate mark teaching them computers ... and my adorable host brother who always come in my room asking for dumgals (pulaar for candy)