Spring Break Boghé!

This week is the break between trimesters in Mauritania and although even in America we have switched over to the politically correct time of “Spring Break”, Mauritanians call it “Pâcques”, meaning Easter in French. Yes, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania where only 3 Catholic Churches exist (to legally solely serve the purpose of foreigners). Besides the fact that the break isn’t even close to Easter, it never gets old when my girls ask what I’m doing for “Pâcques.” I try to correct them and say for my school vacation but they continue to go right on using it.

So for Pâcques break all schools are closed and thus both the girl’s education and English education sectors have a little break as well! So Julie Ann came in for the week and we decided to have our own college-reminiscing spring break celebrations (well for me I used Dayton to Daytona for inspiration haha)… complete with kiddie pool, all day long party, beach (do you count the desert?), beverages, DJ (aka ipod), ping pong, bathing suits and beach balls. It wasn’t exactly Daytona, but we try!

Then we took a road trip with Ryan to visit Matt in Kaedi for a few days… it was ncie just to relax, make a ton of amazing lemonade (theyre in season!), go fabric shopping (Kaedi is known for their fabrics), and play games (just like back when the 4 of us were in PK7 with none of the amenities we have now).

All in all it was a great break, time to get back to work!

On the right is me and Julie in the kiddie pool, which took FORVER to blow up and would periodically start losing air every so often. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing a pool feels in horrible heat! (gift idea for anyone who is interested, electric air pump). On the left is Julie with her beloved beach ball and our dog Bailey (yes, when she had to pack her entire life into 80lbs of luggage back in June she had the foresight to pack a beach ball).

The pic on the right is at the regional house where, despite the incredible heat, Bailey insists on laying all over me and making me miserable. On the left is a picture of my host family hanging around in our courtyard in the afternoon…