A Mauritanian Minute

My Last Post

2009-08-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

After a crazy 14 month adventure, my peace corps service was cut about a year short when Peace Corps Mauritania was evacuated on Monday August 10th, following a suicide bombing at the French embassy in Nouakchott. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8205532.stm

At the time of the bombing and evacuation, I was on vacation back in Ohio and due to a weird loophole in the system, got screwed out of many of the options available to my fellow volunteers. As of the moment of the evacuation, my paperwork was started without my authorization to end my peace corps service and I officially became a Retired Peace Corps Volunteer. While I was at home sobbing over the loss of my work, family, and friends in Mauritania and the lack of closure, my friends who had evacuated to Senegal together were able to share a final week together and decide whether or not they wanted to finish out their service in one of many francophone African countries (ie. Rwanda, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, and Guinea). For me, it was over.

It has been an extremely rough time knowing that they will be continuing on their adventures while I am thrown into the post-grad real world in America. Don't get me wrong, America is great, but I had planned to use the last year of my service as a time to decide what I wanted to do with my life. Suddenly I've been thrown back into a world of 14 year olds; I don't have a car and I have to live with and mooch off of my parents. But things are starting to look up, between the loads of PC paperwork and job searching I'm keeping really busy and hoping for the best. Thanks to all my amazing friends and family for being supportive through the rough times and always knowing how to make me smile on days when I thought I would never be able to make it. If I had the chance to do it all over again I would; I came home with no regrets. I made friends that will last a lifetime, became part of an African family that will forever be a part of me and hopefully touched the lives of my center girls the same way they touched my life.

Thanks again for everything!

Peace Corps RIM: June 21, 2008-August 10, 2009

4th of July "No Talent Talent Show"

2009-07-08T10:37:00.001-07:00

Although a little different then your classical American 4th of July, our little party weekend in Kaedi this year was amazzzinnggg…

Please check out Cortney wearing the wax print fabric we found in Bamako :)

We had a huge cookout/potluck of traditional American food. I have to admit, it was so amazing that me, an 8 year vegetarian, ate barbeque chicken and hotdogs. It just looked sooo good! Also in our boredom, we gave everything on the menu American names like “Boghé Barak-otato Salad”, “Yes We Coleslaw”, “Alexander Hamilton Hell raiser Hotdogs” and “Boston Tea Party Cream Pie” (and yes, there was an actual menu written out and posted haha).

And what do Peace Corps volunteers do when they’re bored? Throw a no talent talent show, normal right? We started the show off with the pledge of allegiance and the national anthem and had 2 hilarious MCs cracking original Mauritanian jokes through out the night. Some of me and my regionmates did a MJ tribute with a dance to “ABC” by the Jackson 5, other people wrote/sang songs while others did summersaults on the ground ahahha (a very legit talent Amanda, Elise and Cortney!).

Not to be outdone, the talent show was promptly followed by a dance party, sandstorm, and then in middle of the night, a monsoon like rainstorm while everyone was sleeping outside. You never forget you’re in Africa…

The hardest month of my service

2009-07-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

Where to even begin where the last month has taken us here in PC Mauritania. Let me start off with an apology for the fact that this blog post is all over the place. Trying to describe what has been happening in a mere few paragraphs is nearly impossible but I knew that many of you were concerned and confused about what was going on here so I tried my best…

As I left off in my last email, the new class of trainees had been postponed at the beginning of June, only a few weeks before training was supposed to start (and something that all of the volunteers here were all looking forward to helping with). A few weeks later the decision was made to completely cancel the training class, putting an end to any of our hopes that the COSing (close of service) volunteers will be replaced anytime in the next 6 months.

Following that announcement, in a completely unrelated event, an American was killed in our capital Nouakchott. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claim responsibility for killing the victim because of his "Christianizing activities" in a country where preaching anything but Islam is against the law. We have been assured that in spite of this tragic event there is no increased threat against Americans and I want to make it clear that I feel completely and absolutely safe.

Due to all of this, PC Washington has decided to offer any volunteers who wish to take it an “Interrupted Service” in which they go home now and have the choice of becoming an RPCV (returned PCV) or try to apply for another 2 year PC program. With the current extremely low moral due following all these events, it was not a huge surprise that many of the volunteers have decided to leave and take the benefits that come with IS (you get full COSing benefits as opposed to receiving none if you terminate your service early for any other reason).

Personally, I knew that by leaving I would be letting down way too many people including my center girls, my regionmates, all my PCV friends here, and the future prospects for the PC program here in Mauritania. Although it would have been a lot easier just to go, I don’t feel like my work here is done. In total we have lost about a 1/3 of the volunteers in my class plus the entire COSing class before us, going from about 120 volunteers a month ago to 40. Im in desperate need of this trip home to relax and reenergize myself for this next year of service… see you all in a few short weeks!

Mali Trip

2009-06-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

Im currently sitting in Nouakchott detoxing from my trip to Mali…. where do I even begin? This trip has truly tested me in the Peace Corps motto “Be Flexible” since basically every single plan I had made was thrown to the wayside by either crappy transportation issues, minor incidents of international terrorism or complications with the Mauritanian government. Its been a crazyyy few weeks…

So the first leg of our trip was to get from Boghé to Bamako, which was of course full of the usual ridiculousness that accompanies travel here in West Africa (aka lost reservations, 2 am border crossing, sleeping in a bus station). But once we got to Bamako it was completely worth it. Unlike cosmopolitan Dakar and sand dune filled Nouakchott, Bamako is a real African city. It is so green and tropical and has both western amenities (including a pool at our hotel!) and traditional African charm. I had a great time celebrating my birthday eve at a local bar full of PCVs from Mali and Mauritania (in town for the World Cup qualifying game and PC Mauritania/Mali Soccer game). And on a random side note, turns out it was the bartenders birthday as well so me and my friends enjoyed free bottles of champagne all night! The pictures below are me at a re-creation of the famous Djenne Mosque at the National Museum of Mali and me and Julie on my birthday eve.

After a few days in Bamako, me and Julie headed out to meet up with our friends who had already started hiking in the Dogon country. The bus ride from Bamako to Severe (jumping off point into the Dogon) was such a trip from hell that I decided it was better to forget it was my birthday because that just made me more angry, but even with the bus ride from hell it was completely worth it. The Dogon country is known for its beautiful rock formations and traditional Dogon culture that has withstood centuries of imperialism and globalization and is considered one of the top places to visit in all of Africa. The dozens of villages are only assessable by hiking up and down the rock facades and with an experienced Dogon guide. The views are amazing and the history and culture are unparallel to anything that Mauritania has to offer.

On the left is an aerial view of one of the Dogon villages where we hiked to and spent the night and on the right is a close up of some of the alleys throughout the village.

On the left is a traditional Dogon village and mosque with the ever present baobob tree in front and on the right is an engraved pole holding up the thatched roof of our campement.

Notice the houses built into the rock face on the left. These were originally built by the 'Tellem" people, a pygmy race in Mali. Due to the location of the homes, upon entering the territory the Dogon people believed that the Tellem could fly (although they soon discovered otherwise and forced them to leave). On the right is a house of "fetishes", things used for traditional medicine and rituals, like stuffed monkeys and skulls.

The goat skin is not Dogon specific but unfortunitly popular throughout West Africa. They swear it cools down water but i think its about the sickest thing ever! The picture on the right was in one of the Dogon villages where mirrors (or reflective sunglasses) apparently dont exist... these girls spent a solid 5 minutes tapping my eyes and showing their friends their reflections (although im sure they could have gone on playing with them for an infinite time if i would have let them).

Sadly in the middle of our Dogon trip we found out that the PC Mauritania/Mali Soccer game was cancelled. Everyone had really been looking forward to it for a long time but due to the continuing terrorist activity in north-eastern Mali the embassy decided it was best not to have so many Americans congregated at the same place. Then later during the same phone call we found out that our new group of volunteers had been denied visas by the Mauritanian government so all of our plans for this summer (that virtual revolve around training the newbees) no longer existed. Although there is still a possibility that training is just postponed until later this summer, it is still a huge blow to our moral as we watch the second year volunteers COS (close of service) and the possibility that they wont be replaced starts to sink in.

GMC Art Project

2009-06-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

One of the last projects I did at the center this year was an introduction to art lesson in coordination with Amanda (my fellow girls ed volunteer in Aleg). For almost every single one of these girls, this was the first time they have been given the opportunity to use their creativity through art and learn hands-on about things like the color wheel, drawing, African/Islamic art motifs and painting. We taught the girls how to create secondary colors from primary colors and then had them practice with a color by numbers and watercolor paints. From there Amanda taught the girls about some basic painting techniques and together we practiced by painting a flower using pointillism. On the next day we studied African and Islamic motifs and using the projector (a borrowed godsend from our bureau in Nouakchott!) we studied photos for the different type of art they could find throughout Mauritania and Western Africa.

The next step was the hardest, giving the girls absolute freedom to create their own painting of African/Islamic art. It’s a delicate balance of giving them examples to use but still making them push themselves to really create something original. In the end, it was a pretty successful couple days and you could see some of these girls discovering their artistic side. Even though there was only a few weeks left in the school year they keep asking when the next art class would be!! I guess I’ll just have to start planning one for next school year!

So for now the center is closed during the summer, with the exception of the 10th Annual Girl's Conference in Nouakchott at the end of June. Although its going to be an exhusting 4 days, im excited to be able to bring my 3 best girls to participate. Blog post on that to come in just a few short weeks!

My Faux 23rd BDay Party

2009-06-02T05:29:00.000-07:00

Because Yates will be out of town for my real birthday, her and Julie decided to throw me a little mini faux bday party last weekend. Since everyone else was down in St. Louis for Jazz Fest, it ended up being just me, Yates, Julie and Zach but it was still such a great day! By the time I came over to the house in the morning they had already hung ballons from our big neem tree (Yates actually thought I may not notice the ballons due to all the trash and plastic bags that are in the tree haha ). Then we made enchiladas for lunch and spent all afternoon lounging in the kiddie pool. They even made me two desserts, a banana cake with chocolate icing and Zach’s famous mango pie (with colorful coconut shavings on top). Sadly, by the time the cake was cut the fluish sickness I had been fighting the whole day got the best of me and the drinking games we had planned were replaced with sleep, but I still could not have asked for a more perfect faux bday party! Now onto Bamako to celebrate my real bday!

look how good our enchiladas look!!! its amazing wht creativity and some velvetta can do!

its always so sad when we have to drain the kiddie pool at the end of the day

GMC Female Health Campaign

2009-05-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

For the past few months I have been working with Tiffany (a health PCV in Boghé) on a big female health campaign in my center, something that I have always wanted to do with my girls. Back at the end of March, Tiffany had a few intro to women’s health classes at the center and I started collecting anonymous questions from the girls (think sex ed, everyone’s too embarrassed to be the one with questions so I made all the girls write two questions down). Then we coordinated a series of seminars with local medical professionals where their questions were answered and the floor was opened up for more questions and discussions. For many of the girls this was the first time they had ever been able to candidly talk about their health and get their questions answered. An example of some of the questions are “how do women get pregnant?”, “how can I avoid getting pregnant”, “why do girl’s get their period”, “why are girls more susceptible to contracting AIDS?” and “why do some women have cesarean births?” I was so happy to see that through these seminars the girls were able to understand and control decisions made about their bodies. In a place where being married by 16 and having your 5th child by 22 isn’t unheard of, education is the most important tool to give these girls.

Following the huge success of these seminars, we decided to bring the female health campaign on the road to one of our nearby villages, Sarandougou. The girls spent 2 weeks working nearly every night brainstorming the subjects they thought were important (and weren’t too radical, villages tend to be much more conservative), researching their subjects, writing/practicing sketches and discourses and making posters. The topics they ended up presenting were puberty, AIDS, breastfeeding, female nutrition, and malaria (although not really related, very important in our area!).

When the big day came, all the girls pilled into a prison bus with me, Tiffany and Amber (another one of my sitemates who teaches English at the middle school) and headed to Sarandougou, about a 30 ride outside of Boghé. PC has a long standing relationship with Sarandougou and currently my friend Ryan is an English teacher in their middle school so he helped set the ground work for our visit. Since he is currently in America (and I am sooo jealous!), he left a lot of the day-of organizational work to the other professors at the middle school and they did a fabulous job! By the time our bus arrived, there were hundreds of girls waiting for us. The professors gave us the use of the teachers lounge to set up/practice in and then took care of dividing the village girls into two rooms, one for elementary girls and another for middle school age girls. I have never seen a better run event in all of my time in Mauritania! The professors were able to keep all the annoying snoopy boys out of the school compound and even managed to get the head nurse at the local health post to come! By the time we were ready to present, all 210 girls were quietly sitting in the desks of their respective rooms waiting for us to start.

I have never been so proud of the hard work of my center girls! The presentations were organized so well and they presented their information and sketches like professionals. This event developed their leadership skills, inspired peer education, and made the girls thoroughly educated in the area of women’s health. My biggest success story so far!

On the left is the room with the elementary girls, over 100 in one classroom! (which actually is the normal amount for a teacher in that room as well). On the right are my girls presenting HIV/AIDS with a poster describing how AIDS destroys your immune system.

On the left are the girls presenting how breastfeeding is nutritious for babies and the signs of malnutrition in children. On the right are some of my girls presenting on basic nutrition and why eating vegetables/fruits are so important for the body (a major issue here).

On the left are some of my girls presenting a breastfeeding sketch while on the left is some other girls presenting the malaria sketch (the girl outside the malaria net is pretending to be a mosquito to show how sleeping with the net can protect you from getting bitten).

On the left is one of my girls giving a discourse on malaria to the elementary girls while on the left is a picture of the middle school girls classroom.

On the left are all the center girls who participated in the prison bus getting ready to go back and on the right is me (the proud mama!) with my girls!

Mornings in Boghe

2009-05-03T04:12:00.000-07:00

When you think of African wildlife, you think Lion King. Unfortunately, Mauritania leaves a lot to be desired as far as wildlife but every morning when I go for a run outside of Boghé I am able to enjoy most of the wildlife Mauritania does have to offer. The air is still a little cool, the sun is rising and I can go the entire 30 minutes in peace without seeing a single Mauritanian. Here’s a little visual peak into my mornings…

Sunrise over Boghé and some of the wild dogs that aren’t as lucky as Bailey is.

The road I run on that follows the canal and electric lines along the outskirts of Boghé and a few of the millions of donkeys I see everyday.

Long horned cattle and the water tower in the distance at the Boghé garage (where I catch taxis out of Boghé)

One of the cool things Mauritania has to offer, camels! Unlike ever other animal here, I never get tired of camels. The day before I brought my camera out on my run, I saw some camels rolling around the dirt to cool off. It was pretty hilarious seeing these huge awkward animals trying to lie in the dirt and roll back and forth on their humped backs

Another type of wildlife Mauritania is actually known for is their birds. Unfortunately, I am not as patient or dedicated of a photographer as Eddie so I didn’t get pictures of some of the prettiest ones, so ill have to describe them. The most beautiful one is about medium size and at first glace looks just black. But when the light hits it right as it flies, the head turns a beautiful iridescent teal while the body and wings turn iridescent blue. and then of course, you cant forget the goats!

Mauritanians love Barack!

2009-04-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

Our last night in Nouakchott we went to this fancy restaurant with tons of amazing Barack artwork. Our personal favorite was the painting on the left where Barack is painted wearing a 'boubou', the traditional clothing of moor men.

Bunny Ears Make Everything Better

2009-04-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more entertaining to me then pretending to celebrate normal festivities like you would in America. Although it may seem ridiculous, and somewhat childlike, pretending that Mauritania is a mini America makes me a lot more sane. For instance, “Spring Break Boghé!”, Halloween costume party, stuffing Christmas stockings… so naturally Easter was no different. Thanks to my mom, this holiday was complete with everything a 6 year old could dream of haha….

Me, Julie and Yates started the Easter festivities off with egg dying at the Boghé house on Good Friday. It was unanimously agreed on that everything is better (and more hilarious) when wearing bunny ears. Washing the dishes, packing, doing work, cooking, everything. Also, putting Easter bunny ears and bells on Bailey is always a recipe for a good time.

Then I went up to Aleg to visit Amanda for a little bit before we both went to Nouakchott together for some much needed R&R. All I can say is thank god I travel with bunny ears in my purse because we just happened to run into a guy selling vegetables (on Good Friday mind you) with an "I heart Jesus" hat on. The perfect holy week photo op! Once we got to Nouakchott Saturday we decided to buy each other “easter baskets” (plastic bags with goodies in them) and hid them around the room for us to find on Easter morning (with bunny ears on of course). On the right is a pic of us with our Easter complets and goodies!

After baskets we went to mass at the Catholic Church here in Nouakchott. It was a really nice mass, even complete with some Mauritanians converting and taking their first communion (notice the Africans in the picture on the left wearing completely white/sequins/glitter ball/rhinestone dress and hair creations). On the right is a picture of the courtyard outside the church, although it is also surrounded by a huge 20 ft tall cement fence so no Mauritanians can tell what it is.

Some of my friends that I went to Easter brunch with…

Everything is better with Easter ears! Picture on the left is me doing some work in the Huda, our hotel in Nouakchott. And on the right is me with the newly installed picture of Obama! Interestingly, if you go back to my Christmas post there is a picture of us with George Bush (lame duck president) and next to him, Sidi, the old president who was ousted in a coup back in August. Now Obama has replaced Bush and the other frame is vacant…

Spring Break Boghé!

2009-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

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…

Eddie comes to Africa!

2009-03-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

So, I was trying to wait to post this blog until after eddie had sent me all pictures we took but my patience isn’t all that great so the pictures will just have to come later! Eddie has already uploaded some of them so here is a link in case you’re interested to look at some now… http://www.flickr.com/photos/edman24365/ . Also, apology in advance, i tried to make this as short as possible! wasnt quite very successful...

Picking up where I left off in my last blog post, on Eddie’s first day in Dakar we hung out with some of my PC Mauritania friends who had stayed behind an extra day so they could meet Eddie. First, we went to the artisan market and bought what became known as ‘the circus’ and then we went to the Dakar central market which can be described as nothing short of chaos. I am used to crazy African markets but this was like the Boghe market x100. Pickpocketing is a huge problem and I realized how much I took for granted the feeling in Mauritania that my belongings were always secure. Bargaining was its usual hassle and it felt great to throw in the line “I live in Mauritania, don’t even try to tell me that costs that much.” But in general, things in Dakar are more expensive then Mauritania, either because of their general better quality or big city atmosphere so I didn’t really buy anything (although Senegal wax prints are so hard to not buy!). We had a great night at our hotel hanging out on the private beach/patio area, watching the sunset and then having some drinks and playing cards while eddie enlightened us all with new American music and we enlightened him on the horrible selection of Senegalese beer/liquor.

The next day all of my friends left to go back to Mauritania and Eddie and I explored a little bit of Dakar. During WAIST I had seen some great sights, unfortunately only from the taxi, so we started by walking along the coast near central Dakar seeing both la Mosque de la Divinite and la Phare de Mamelles (lighthouse of Mamelles).

Dakar was a little too cosmopolitan, crazy, and hectic for my taste and we were happy to get out of the city and go to Ile de N’Gor, a little island right off the coast of Dakar. The only way to get to the island is by using pirogues, a small handcrafted African canoe. Luckily the ones in Senegal are powered by motors (in Mauritania all they have is paddles), but it was still pretty intense crossing a little part of the Atlantic Ocean in a wooden canoe. We were the only white people on the canoes so I felt better that the locals trusted these little canoes (and often with their babies strapped on their backs). Then I realized rationally I wasn’t too nervous about capsizing because I can swim (again, unlike the locals), but how much it would suck for all of eddies cameras and electronics to get wet haha… I didn’t want his first few days in Africa to have successfully ruined all of his prized possessions!

Ile de N’Gor is a picturesque little island that I would describe as “Venice meets the Caribbean”. You could walk the whole island by meandering through the little alleyways in about 15 minutes. Everywhere you look are beautiful views of cliffs leading into the Atlantic Ocean. Our little hotel was great with a private lounging area (away from the hassles of the public beach vendors) and a great Italian restaurant. And our room had its own private little balcony overlooking the water were we could sit out at night and watch the glow and chaos of Dakar, from a safe distance. The calm and tranquility of the island unfortunately gave us our first (and certainly not last) money dilemma when we realized that atms were few and far between and credit card machines at hotels are practically nonexistent…

After a few days of relaxation we traveled across Dakar to take a ferry to the Ile de Goree, known for its historical role in the slave trade. I was amazed by the architectural beauty of this island, perfectly preserved with brightly colored, 17th century French colonial buildings and cobblestone alleys. We visited “la maison d’esclaves” (house of slaves), a stopping point in the trans-atlantic slave trade. Slaves from mainland Africa were transported here before they were forced onto ships to cross the Atlantic. It was a pretty emotional place to visit as an American, knowing the dark role that it played in our history. While we were there, we crossed paths with an African-American man, around 70 years old and wearing an Obama-Biden pin, who was looking out of the famous ‘doorway to slavery’, with silent tears rolling down his face. The rest of our time at Ile de Goree was spent wandering the streets, admiring the art and architecture (and in eddies case taking a million pictures haha). There is a huge collection of artists and paintings and you could spend hours just walking around and admiring the work (not without the usual African hassle).

After Ile de Goree we braved the massive Dakar garage and took a taxi brousse to St. Louis. This was Eddie’s first public transport experience and I am confident now that he understands my dread of traveling in Africa haha… it’s a random, huge parking lot filled with empty “sept places” (station wagons with third rows that can fit 7 passengers) and little signs every once and a while pointing out the major cities you could go to. Luckily St. Louis is probably the most popular destination so we only had to wait a few minutes for the car to fill up with other passengers. But if you ask Eddie about the few minutes we had to wait he’ll tell you horror stories of bargaining for prices, people grabbing at your bags, people shoving food/trinkets for you to buy, can kids begging for money, and people yelling “hey toubab!”. For me it was one of the most pleasant garage situations ive been in, but I guess for a normal person it was understandably insane.

The trip to St. Louis is only a few hours and Eddie got to see a lot of the traditional African landscape including the encroaching desert, endless amounts of goats/cattle/donkeys, the random group of camels, and his favorite- baobob trees. We checked into our hotel which was located on the ocean and had a nice pool/lounging area (which came in handy after Eddie got sick and leaving the hotel really wasn’t an option). We visited the St. Louis market, which is much more do-able then the Dakar market. Eddie had fun picking out crazy African fabric to get things made from back home while like usual, I had to be continuously bargaining and using phrases like “J’habite en Mauritanie, je connais le prix vrai!” (basically, I freaking live in Africa, don’t try to rip me off buddy).

Through our hotel we arranged to go on an overnight camping trip in the Desert de Lompoul sand dunes. We took an amazing private SUV with a great French couple to the desert, stopping along the way to look at baobobs and take photos of some of the herds of camels. Once there, our guide took us on a hiking trip in the dunes up to the highest point where you can see the ocean miles away. We ate lunch in a huge khima (Mauritanian style tents with sides) then had the rest of the afternoon to explore the camp. Right around sunset we took a camel ride through the dunes, me on the saddle and eddie on the camels ass haha. Dinner was an amazing 3 course meal, a perfect mix of traditional Senegalese and French food and topped off with a bottle of wine.

Getting from the desert campement to our next destination, a small fishing village south of Dakar called Toubab Diallo, was a little bit tricky and included a military size cargo truck, sedan circa 1982, 7 place (that popped a tire midtrip), and then finally another sedan. How we actually made it in one peice and in better time then I imagined is completely a mystery haha. At first look, Toubab Diallo just seemed like all the other small fishing villages we had passed along the way but once we got to the hotel area I found out why the travel book had so highly recommended it. I don’t even know where to begin to describe the amazing hotel, maybe something like a combination of an artist colony and an oasis. Every square inch of the hotel grounds (which is more like a campus setup) is covered with handcrafter sculptures, mosaics, gardens, and artwork. The artisits (both visual and musical) are paid to live and work at the hotel and you can wonder through their workshops and the never ending little nooks and balconys overlooking the ocean. The restaurant was amazing and the beaches were the cleanest and most beautiful that I saw on the whole trip.

The hotel staff also helped us coordinate a trip to the Reserve de Bandia, a safari like trip complete with our own personal (English speaking) tour guide and driver. We were lucky enough to have sightings of most of the major animals they had there including giraffes, crocodiles, warthogs, gazelle, buffalo, ostriches, monkeys, and rhinos (before our tour guide spotted them with us they hadn’t been seen in over 3 days!). Plus countless amounts of birds and baobobs, two of eddie’s recent obsessions.

Toubab Diallo brought a sad end to our amazing trip and we headed back to Dakar to pack up and do some final shopping before we both had to head home (me for cheese and alcohol, him for souvenirs haha). Saying goodbye the second time was so much harder than the first back in June when it hit me that Eddie would be leaving and I would have to face the Dakar garage and public transport in the morning by myself like I have been doing for the past 9 months. I am so fortunate to be able to share this part of my life with him so that Africa can become a little part of his life too. He was able to meet my friends, learn some French/pulaar, experience countless of my daily frustrations, understand my African inside jokes and appreciate the luxury of private transportation (although being on the coast in the cold season gave him no experience in Mauritanian heat haha). I couldn’t have asked for a better vacation… and now it’s less than 4 months till I come home for my summer!

Eddie and my vaca

2009-03-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

So i dont have pictures to put up yet and im working on a blog post now but here is a website that eddie uploaded some of his pics on... http://www.flickr.com/people/edman24365

Hopefully ill have time to update this soon!

Day in the life of me...

2009-03-12T12:13:00.000-07:00

so my mom said that i dont talk enough about everday life/work/etc and just about vacations and parties, which is pretty true, so here is a little look into the daily life of me...

7am: woke up. luckily its still a little cool in the mornings (only a few more days left of that). went for a run along the canal next to my house which offeres the perfect amount of privacy so that i feel comfortable running in pants but also close enough to the houses so i feel safe.

8am: shower. cold bucket bath that is. then getting ready for my day!

9am: walk to the market. i basically do this everyday kind of out of boredom/exercise/continuity. visit the post office to see if we have mail (the post man and me have a love/hate relationship), buy some veggies at my favorite veggie lady and go to my favorite "jumbo" boutique where the owners act like everytime they see me is christmas day. its good to start your day with mauritanians who you can trust and dont rip you off because youre white.

11am: spent some time at the regional house watching greys anatomy and reading

12pm-3pm: eat lunch at the house of one of my center girls with mark. surprizingly, she actually understood what vegetarian ment and we enjoyed an AMAZING mauritanian vegetarian meal (which i never thought was possible!) started with salad (weird to eat with your hands!), vegetarian maffe (a traditional african meal i didnt even know you could make vegetarian), little african cup cakes and fresh fruit, and lastly three rounds of atie (tea). **Normally i would eat lunch at the regional house and then hang out in the saloon at my host family's house in the afternoon**

3pm: more time lounging around the regional house

4pm-7pm: teaching english at the center. I teach the first hour and half class for the older girls while mark teaches the younger girls for the second hour and half (i have to chaperone marks lesson). my lesson was on food and maket vocabulary and conversations, went pretty well i think (inspite of the low attendance due to the fete this week).

7pm-9pm: hang out at regional house and make some dinner. usually involves some sort of movie/tv show marathons.

9pm-11pm: hang out with the host fam and/or read before bed.

So thats my day! some are more frustrating then others but today was a good one so i felt compelled to write about my normal day.. hope you enjoyed!

heres are some pics from julie ann's bday party a few days ago! on the right is a pic of the amazing bday meal that me and yates made for julie and our other regionmates (its like olive garden but better! lasgana, salad, brucshetta, and garlic bread) and on the left is some of us jsut hanging out at the regional house (i guess i didnt get the poker face memo).

on the right is julie ann's bday cake made by our adoptive regionmate amanda and then julies bday cupcake!

W.A.I.S.T

2009-03-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

So my huge vacation started off with a few days at the Rosso training center with all the other Mauritanian PCVs for a safety and security meeting before WAIST (west African invitational softball tournament). It was weird to be back at the center for the first time since swear in and felt a whole lot like summer camp. A hundred volunteers living in two huge rooms, segregated for boys and girls, with free standing mosquito tents and only a few latrines and no running water in the sinks. Thank god we were only there for a few days because as you can imagine the novelty wears off pretty fast haha … We left early Friday morning for Dakar in two huge coach buses and although the trip was long, a stop at a liquor store in Senegal and the sing alongs that soon followed made the trip much more pleasant. We arrived in Dakar around 5pm and went straight to the American Club, the country club like venue where the tournament is held. We were all in awe at the first American amenities we had seen in 8 months- tennis courts, bar, restaurant, swimming pools, sand volleyball court, and softball fields. At the club they introduced us to our host families that we would be staying with for the tournament (American expats who live in Dakar). I was placed with Julie and two other Mauritanian PCVs with a Gabon RPCV (retired peace corps volunteer) in a really nice western style apartment in the neighborhood of Yoff, right on the ocean!

The actual tournament was such an insane 3 days… theres nothing I could compare it too except something like a derby days mixed with Dayton to Daytona. Mauritania has 3 teams that compete- our A team the Pirates, B team the Buccaneers, and C team the Scallywags. I was on the 4th team, the Poopdeck Seaman aka cheerleaders haha… there are other teams there from PC Mali, Senegal and Guinea, along with some expat teams (whose family friendly teams didn’t appreciate our all day drinking). We spent our breaks between the games lounging by the pool/bar and having impromptu dance parties on the pool deck, upholding our Mauritanian PC traditions. Another crazy thing about the Mauritania teams is that we all get soooo into the whole thing. So many of the girls got ridiculous African hair extension and ive never seen so many mohawks/crazy facial hair creations before. I completely understand now what the second years volunteers meant when they said that other teams were scared of us… we come in with mob of a hundred people who are partying like there is no tomorrow (because really there isn’t since we have to return to the alcohol free giant sand box of Mauritania after the tournament). Also, our director doesn’t make us take vacation days, while all the other countries have to, so nearly every mauritania volunteer comes. Our A team made it all the way to the championships and chaos broke out when we won with everyone storming the field and beer spraying everywhere (poor mans champagne) hahaha. A great way to end a great presidents day weekend!

After the end of WAIST, some of my friends stayed in Dakar for a few days so they could meet Eddie when he flew in! We spent the first day (before he landed) laying out on the Dakar beaches and the second day (when he was there) going to some of the markets. Me, Eddie and my friends went a little crazy buying sculpted animals, which we dubbed “the circus”. We also stayed at this really cute place on the ocean that had beautiful views and cool rocks to climb on. I was soooo happy for my friends and Eddie to finally meet each other although one day was way too short!

on the right some of me and my friends at the A team game and on the left the back of my shirt, “thanks Washington placement office” haha... Mauritania isnt the most sought after placement

on the right me and matt going along with the pirates theme and on the left me, Julie Ann and Ryan at one of the field next to the ocean.

on the right the cheerleaders for the A teams championship game and on the left the winning team looking pretty bad ass in their pirates shirts and matching chayas (short, Aladdin like pants worn by the moors in Mauritania)

on the right freezing at the awards banquet (Mauritanian volunteers are creative, yes we are wearing table clothes haha) and on the left Julie Ann and Amanda discussing “natures fridge aka the wet sand” while trying to get our beers cold on the Dakar beaches

notice the “Obama’s cookies” brand of ice cream and me and Eddie in front of the presidential palace in Dakar

On the right, the circus! (a collection of Yates, Julie Anns, and me and Eddies carved animals) and on the left, me and some of my friends on the rocks (a picture that Julie calls “girl band”

Me and eddies african vacation!

2009-02-23T03:29:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-02-04T09:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

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)

Inauguration African Style

2009-01-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Like many other Americans, I have never been very interested and actually sitting down and watching a presidential inauguration but this election and new president has bought a breath of fresh air to everything having to do with American politics. Tuesday I went to Aleg (a large city about an hour north of Boghe) to visit my friend Amanda (another girls’ education PC volunteer). Although we didn’t have cable to watch the inauguration, we watched it across the street from her house with a local family on the French news channel ‘24’. Their cable did have English CNN but if we watched that the Mauritanian family wouldn’t be able to understand it so we watched the inaugural proceedings dubbed in French (if you concentrated real hard you could zone out the French and hear just the English). It was an amazing moment watching Barack Obama take his oath and literally feeling hope for our country and the worlds future coming back to me. There were a few tear jerkers, quickly followed by cheering all around when Bush boarded his helicopter to Texas.

After watching the live inauguration we went over to the regional house and started downloading all the inauguration stuff we could find and watch it all over again in English on a projector with all the other volunteers in her region (followed by watching a lot of this seasons ‘Office’ episodes that we downloaded!) It was nice to spend just a few days hanging out, making great (attempts) at American food and seeing Amanda, her GMC and Aleg.

On a side note, I am extremely pleased with some of Barack’s first few moves, including the closing of what I have always considered one of Americans biggest moral faults, Guantanamo Bay. I have hope in the future and it feels good...

More pics of St. Louis

2009-01-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

More pics of Christmas at Obies

2009-01-15T07:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas Travels

2009-01-07T05:06:00.000-08:00

Right now im at the end of a much needed, and very extensive, christmas break. We left Boghe on Christmas Eve morning and arrived in Nouakchott in time to have an amazing pizza for lunch and check into our air conditioned hotels. You cant even imagine how amazing simple luxuries are when you’ve been deprived of them for so long… First of all our hotel room. It was so nice that I would compare it to a Holiday Inn, complete with hot water showers and tubs, big comfy beds, an American movie channel and air conditioning. I would have been happy just to spend my 3 weeks vacation in that hotel room. Second, the food selection is unbelievable. Little burger and sandwich restaurants are everywhere (with real cheese available on everything!). Also, there are little supermarkets that have some american products that I can bring back to site like canned food, cereal, and cheese.

Anyways, back to my christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve Obie, our PC country director, has a big celebration for us at his house with amazing american food, all organized by him and paid for out of his own pocket. Christmas day is the same with all day festivities, a big buffet, christmas movies being played in his little movie theater room, and other american embassy staff and local mauritanian pc staff stopping by. It takes a lot to make missing christmas back home hurt a little less and he makes sure it happens. All 130 or so of us come in from our sites around the country, get put up in hotels and then are provided this amaazing 2 day long christmas party.

Here are some pics of our party at Obie’s house…

These are some pics from the Christmas day mass we went to in Nouakchott. Although Mauritania is an Islamic Republic, There are 3 catholic churches throughout the country to support the non-Mauritanian population. Please note the nativity scene in wax print fabrics (what my complets are made from) and the dance party that erupted on the alter after mass was over (to French Christmas carols with an African band).

Here are some pics from the PC bureau in Nouakchott… it is probably the most beautiful office building I have ever seen (or maybe ive just been in this country too long). Complete with Christmas tree and all!

Next we went to PK7 to visit our host families from training (where I was from june-august learning Pulaar). Me, Julie Ann, Ryan and Matt all came back to visit for 3 days and 2 nights and our families were sooooo happy to see us! My host grandpa, who is very senile and never affectionate to anyone ie. hit my 5 year old host brother in the head with his cane for doing something wrong, who knows what) even cried when he saw me… the whole little village was so excited to see us again. All of us got our old rooms back (ie. the villagers kicked out whoever it was who normally stays in that room). I gave my family pictures that my mom had printed off and sent to me of me with them and they LOVED it. And although they wanted me to come back and visit as soon as possible, I had to break the news that it probably wouldn’t happen til school was out of session for the summer.

After that we went to St Louis, Senegal for New Years and it was AMAZING… I absolutely fell in love with that city. Think a kind of run down version of New Orleans meets a Caribbean beach. Besides the fact that Senegal is in every way the promised land to mauritanian PCVs, St Louis has so much character and history. It was the very first french settlement in africa and the capital of all of French West Africa until it dissolved in the last 50s so it is very developed with a very old fashioned architecture feel. Our hotel had very european hostel set up with about 12 dromatory style room all coming off a courtyard and almost completely booked by other Mauritania PCVs. Although my hotel was located on the island (the center of town) other volunteers had rooms on the pennisula, which looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean. We spent most of our days having parties on the beach (alcohol is legal in Senegal!!!!), playing in the ocean, and walking around the old town and shopping. There are also tons of cool resturants and bars to go to at night.

New Years Eve its self was sooooo much fun… we had a little preparty in our hotel courtyard (we had the best staff ever) and then basically all of PC Mauritania went to this one really cool indoor/outdoor bar that had some cool music and african drummers. After that we tried to go to a club but a series of unfortunite (and hilarious) events got us kicked out pretty fast… I think the people in PC Senegal got a little scared of us. Imagine over 100 kids who live whats known as one of the hardest of all PC countries (and is dry) being let loose in a crazy party town like St Louis with alcohol… It was absolutely a blast though and i had such a time in Senegal, I cant wait til WAIST (and eddies visit) in just a few weeks!

After St Louis all the first year volunteers came back up to Nouakchott for a week of training… although the actual sessions can be very boring I will never complain about getting put up in a hotel and getting to spend a week in the capital. On one of our afternoons off me and some of my friends got pedicures which was mcuh needed after wearing nothing but sandels in the hot dry desert for 6 months. Also, because of the whole Gaza situation, Nouakchott has been kind of crazy and full of protests in support of Palestine. As one of only 3 Arab League nations who recognizes Isreal, it is a very controversal topic. Although I really don’t have access to that much news information (all the good stuff is in arabic or if im lucky french), Ive heard that both the Mauritanian ambassdor has left his post in Isreal and the Isreali ambassador here has left his post (you can find more about the current situation in mauritania by clicking aroudn onlien for a few minutes). The protests have been pretty peaceful, mainly just marching in the streets and sometimes burning tires and throwing rocks at policemen. But all and all, I still feel very safe so theres no need to worry!

Tomorrow i leave to go back to Boghe and inshallah will be having a little second christmas there (hopefully all of my packages have arrived sicne ive been gone). Ill make sure to send thank yous out as soon as possible to let everyone know if ive recieved your package or not.

christmas eve eve eve party in Boghe

2008-12-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Its been crazy here recently because Boghe is on the way to the capital so a bunch of people whose sites are way far east (the capital is on the west coast), used it as a resting place. So our party that was just going to be a little region party turned into something a little bigger...

All of my regionmates put gifts in each other stockings and we decorated the house and listened to Christmas music… kind of like being at home right? Hahah… my favorite of the decorations was the let it snow window decal which is so ironic in so many ways. 1. glass windows don’t exist in this country and 2. we are surrounded by endless amounts of sand, no where close to the idea of a white Christmas. Thanks mom for that haha…

Its really nice because from Dec 24-26 all PC Mauritania volunteers are booked hotels rooms in the capital by the staff so that we can celebrate the holiday together and then we have a big get together at the country director’s house- complete with amazing American food. I cant wait to finally go to Nouakchott! Real hotel rooms, American television, pizza, toilets, grocery stores, and endless other goodies. Then im off to pk7 to visit my host family from training for a few days, then to St. Louis, Senegal to celebrate New Years and finally back to Nouakchott for some 1st year volunteer training… its going to be a nice long and much needed vacation!

work update

2008-12-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

so i guess a few of you have been wondering why i dont blog about work, so i thought id write a little work update... work is going well, but like in america, work is work. It can be stressful and frustrating, especially with the language/cultural barrier. For example, after i finally got the center up and running, i had to cancel classes for 10 days because of the fete. And now with Christmas, New Years, and then a week long PC conference in Nouakchott, i am going to have to close the center for another 3 weeks. The goal of the centers are to been self sustainable so its a long term goal of mine to find maurtianians who are interested in helping me teach/manage the center. But for now the center will have to be closed while Im gone.

Its been really hard to put together a schedule because the most girls have night classes almost every school night and even when i plan sessions around their free time that can get confusing because their schedules change so often... very frustrating.

So far Ive had successful computer classes, a week of AIDS sessions (for worlds AIDS day last week), bball club, and a little session on how to use a dictionary (might sound unnecessary, but really is). Hopefully when I come back from break i can have some academic review sessions by local professors and have a session on succesful local women.

Tabaski

2008-12-09T09:59:00.000-08:00

Today was the Muslim fete Eid al-Adha, otherwise known as Tabaski here in Mauritania. It is also known as the festival of meat, so you can imagine how much I look forward to this day haha… I started out the festival last night spending some time with my family and watching Arabic Food Network (mostly American/English food shows with Arabic subtitles). After about two hours of watching cooking shows I made a comment to my host mom about how none of the shows had any side dishes or veggie plates, it was strictly meat dishes. She was like duh, it’s the fete of meat tomorrow haha… I don’t know how I didn’t put two and two together.

This morning started off with everyone in the family working on our meal preparation early and me hanging around being skittish knowing that the ram tied to the tree in our courtyard was going to be killed soon. It is called the festival of meat because it is the celebration of the day that Abraham (Ibrahim) was going to sacrifice his son Isaac (Ishmael) and then God replaced Isaac with a ram to reward Abraham for his obedience. So sure enough sometime in the late morning I saw the ram untied from the tree by some men I didn’t know and made my way back to my room for a good hour so I would miss the gross part… my family had a little laugh but completely understood that I would much rather be in my room reading a book then in the yard with them killing a ram. Then the family gathered in our salon while they finished up food prep… it actually smelled really good and the soccer being played on the tv was kind of reminiscent of watching football on holidays back home. For lunch we had meat with onions in gravy and french fries (all in one bowl) with bread to dip in it. My host mom made me my own personal bowl with just the onions, gravy and fries… it was sooo good (normally Mauritanians eat family style to the extreme- one big bowl for everyone, usually around 10-15 people, with your hands).

After lunch we all dressed up in our tabaski finest and I wore my very first female boubou. Enjoy the pictures, I hope they make you laugh as much as I laughed at myself. My host mom had made it very clear that for the biggest fete of the year no normal complet would do (the wax print, short sleeve, tight fitting, matching top/bottom outfits I normally wear). A boubou was very necessary for this fete. So she had some people bring over hand dyed (and pretty expensive) fabrics and I choose one for her to make the boubou for me. When I came out of my room in my outfit the kids in my family had a field day… I finally looked like a Mauritanian woman (the complets are for girls before they have kids and at my age I should probably be wearing a boubou by their standards).

Here are some pics of my huge, traditional female boubou that my host mom made. it is a big dress/sheet thing with a match wrap skirt underneath.

The rest of the fete was much like the past fete (to celebrate the end of Ramadan about 2 months ago). The other Americans came over to my house to visit my host mom then we went to greet and eat with other friends of past or current PCVs. It was a long exhausting day but went pretty well. Also, there are only 2 fetes really celebrated in Mauritania each year so im done with them for a while, phew!

The picture on the left is all the Boghe PCVs (my sitemates) and my host mom in our salon and the picture on the right is me and my little host sister, Yiy (age 4).

The picture on the left is some Mauritanians in their Tabaski finest and the picture on the right are two little boys who were sooo cute in their traditional chaftans and pants.

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-07T07:29:00.001-08:00

Winter has finally come to Mauritania! While it has been chilly a little bit in the early mornings for the past few weeks it is nothing compared to the temperature now. I know that a lot of it has to due with the fact that I’ve been living in 100 degree heat for so long, but it feels like its freezing here! Even during the hottest points of the day there is still a little chill in the air and anytime near sunset you have to put a sweatshirt on. Every night before the cold front came in I slept with a fan on me and now I’ve been sleeping in long sleeve shirts, pants, socks, and a thick wool blanket! Im curious how cold it actually is because at night it seems close to freezing.

We took some time to enjoy the cold and really kick our Christmas decorations into full gear. Heres a pic of the stockings me and Stephanie sewed (and Julie Ann wrote our names on with her amazing cursive glitter glue abilities). One for each of the 12 volunteers in my region... more crafting/Christmas decorations and pictures to come!

In light of the new weather changes, I have some very exciting things to add to my wish list (if you have been sweating non-stop for the last 6 months you would understand while it’s so exciting for me haha).
- Hot chocolate and apple cider packets
- chai tea

- warm clothes (stuff i already had in my closet but didnt pack to bring with me, not necessarily new stuff)

New Puppy!

2008-12-07T07:08:00.000-08:00

So last Sunday night I was coming over to the regional house and a bunch of little kids were sitting around our door and then starting running toward me yelling “petit chien! Deux milles ouguiya!” (little dog, 8 dollars). Toubabs are known as the only freaks in Mauritania who keep animals as pets haha… I called out some of the other girls who were at the house and we talked it over (while falling in love with this scared to death dog and surrounded by kids in the street) but unfortunately we already have one dog and way too small of a house. So we told the kids sorry, we can’t take it, even though it killed to know that those kids were probably going to drown the dog or just leave it in the streets somewhere. We all went back in the courtyard and were hanging out outside when there was a yelp from the far corner of the yard and we realized that the kids had thrown the dog into our yard! He was so scared and shacking, but no broken bones thank god. We spent the next few hours trying what to do and calling people to see if anyone wanted it because there was know way to let this dog stay over night and not get attached to it. Luckily Ryan said that he wanted it so we have been spending all this week with this adorable puppy (named Nittany, Jo Pa just didn’t sound right haha). Him and Bailey (our other dog) are so cute together and I had to put up some pics of them.

On other more sad note, word must have gotten around that the Americans were adopting puppies because the next night another puppy got brought to the house and two others the night after that. Then the next day I got approached by a bunch of kids on my walk home who had a puppy they wanted to give me. Its so sad because animals are so mistreated here but theres no way that we could try and save them all. When Tiffany leaves in August she is planning taking Bailey back to America with her so hopefully I will be getting my own new puppy when I move into the house… inshallah!

Refugee Relocation

2008-12-02T05:12:00.000-08:00

Here they are called "the 1989 events", when thousands of black african mauritanians were forced across the Senegal River by the arab mauritanians (and vice versa with the arab senegalese). They were forced to flee without their possessions and their property was taken in their absence. Its a very complicated situation (i suggest going on wikipedia and reading about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Events_in_Mauritania) and the effects of which are still being felt, especially in the south of Mauritania. For nearly 20 years black mauritanians have been living in UN refugee camps in senegal and recently the UN has begun to bring them back to Mauritania. Since Boghe is one of the largest border towns with Senegal, they have been using it to bring in the refugees and creating new villages for the refugees to live in. Below are some pics of their efforts this week...

These are classic "maurtanian style tents" set up in on of the open areas near the center of Boghe for the refugees to wait in between their river crossing and placement in their new homes.

The refugees being loaded into UN issue white canoes (very different from the traditional wooden ones ive been in!) with orange life vests (also a new concept for me!) on the other side of the Senegal River on a Senegalese island seperating the two countries.

On the far right is the UN canoes leaving Senegal and on the left is the UN tracks waiting to load the refugees and bring them to the Boghe town center.

Close up of UN trucks along the Senegal River.

On a side note, my host family in pk7 were returned refugees as well, who came back during an earlier attemp to return the refugees in 1997. The village was called pk7 (literal translation milemarker 7) because it was created at the whim of the UN in an effort to return the refugees (since their properties and previous homes/villages had been taken in their absence).

Baila's gift

2008-12-01T07:52:00.000-08:00

The other weekend me and my other pk 7 sitemates finally got a chance to visit our teacher Baila and give him our little thank you gift for helping us learn pulaar during stage. Since we spent signifigant more time playing cards then learning pulaar we thought giving him a decks of cards with a photo of all of us at class would be a great momento (Ryans mom made the cards on snapfish and sent them to us, thanks!). And we were right, he loved the cards so much... his exact words were "i will guard this for my whole life with my diploma."

below is a pic of our teacher and us playing cars after we gave them to him... look hard to see our picture on the back of the cards...

Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

As difficult as it was to spend my first Thanksgiving away from my family (and my first in 4 years away from eddie), I had a really great Thanksgiving here in Mauritania with all the other PCVs. About 25 of us got together and tried our best to transport all of American traditions here.
That started with a party Thursday night with Mariah Carey being played at midnight (because the Christmas season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving haha). Friday we went to the market early (10 am our time, 5 am your time) for some black Friday shopping (thinking of dad of course getting up at the crack of dawn). Unfortunately, the concept of sales doesn’t really translate here hahaha… below are some pics of use in the market getting frustrated when some of the shopkeepers tried to rip us off… normal black Friday shopping frustration, Mauritanian style.

Then we spent the rest of the day cooking a huge Thanksgiving feast (because the teachers had school on Thursday we had our big dinner on Friday instead) and was it a feast… I am still amazed at some of the great things we can make out of what is available in Mauritania (although some of it was boxed food sent from America too help us out). We had Mashed potatoes, gravy, pasta salad, okra casserole, squash, stuffing, duck, barbeque chicken (brought to you by Ryan), sautéed veggies/beef, cornbread, banana cream pie, pumpkin pie, and carrot cake. It was absolutely amazing… and all done with two burners, a toaster oven, and an open pit grill.

The rest of the night was sooo much fun… the Thanksgiving themed hats were a huge hit (thanks mom!) and after a little nap following the outrageous amount of food I ate, I was ready for round 2 of the party. All and all, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend what could have been a really difficult day. It was so nice to talk to everyone back home, I could just imagine you all sitting around at Grandmas and Papas passing around the phone (sorry about the little delay, I’m so used to it I kind of forgot how obnoxious it could be!) I’ll be spending the rest of the day today starting to make some Christmas decorations for the regional house and bringing the spirit of the season to Africa!

Club de Basket

2008-11-22T11:11:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day of basketball club and it went sooo well.. the girls really had a great time!! Apparently the University of Texas Womens Basketball program donated about 70 basketballs to my center last year but they were still in their boxes so when i started cleaning the center a few months ago i found them and decided that i def wanted to have physical activities part of the center. There is a basketball court at the lycee (built by peace corps years ago) right by my center.

Considering that most of these girls have never played a sport in their lives they really enjoyed themselves. Mark and Ryan helped me out and we ran a few drills and then jsut they them shoot around for about an hour and a half and we finally had to pull the balls away from them- they didnt want to stop playing!

"les actualites"

2008-11-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

So as another new craft project for my center im making a bulliten board of current events (or les actualites in french) for my center titles Mauritanie et la Monde (Mauritania and the world). so many people here have no idea of current events, geography and other culture in general (minus Barack Obama haha) so i am trying to collect newspaper/magazine clippings (preferably with pictures) that would interest the girls. For example, I have an article on a girls' basketball club in the arab section of Jeruselam (thanks Vicki!). I want to try and make a connection with the rest of the world and Boghe.

So if you see anything that might be good I would really appreciate you sending them to me! Thanks!

first few days

2008-11-19T12:47:00.000-08:00

So the first few days of my center went better then expected. The girls were all so excited and eager to be a part of the center... i tried my best to make them let down their guard and realize that the center was a place were there is no one there judging them on their thoughts or dreams. For one of the activities i gave them all journals and told them that these journals were like diaries for no one to read but themselves and the first journal entry was what do you want to do after you finish high school. It took about 10 minutes of me giving examples of what they could write for the girls to finally get it... they have never been encouraged to shoot for the stars, talk about what they dream of doing with their lives. I hope that it got them thinking a little bit about what they want in life and what they have to do to get there.

Another thing i did was the write out your name and use an adjective to describe each letter... describing what an adjective was was a little harder then i thought it would be but the girls caught on and were thrilled that they were supposed to decorate the papers with whatever they wanted using the craft supplies i had. Creativity is another thing that was kind of dropped to the wayside out of necessity and it felt great to watch the girls get so excited about coloring and drawing and decorating the room with their artwork (we put them all on the walls).

Now Im trying to create somewhat of a schedule for the center, which is harder then it sounds because a lot of the girls have classes until 6pm and the sun starts to go down around 630... ive spent hours starring at an excell sheet i made trying to come up with an answer that doesnt exist. well i mean it does, but i was just hoping to have classes after school and not on the weekends but it seems like that wont be an option now.

first day of basketball class in on saturday!! ankle length skirts, mulafas, and all!

Work update

2008-11-12T12:44:00.000-08:00

Things at my gmc (girls mentoring center) have finally started to pick up these past few weeks as the school year finally begins to get under way here. Unlike america, even when the government says school will start on a certain day, it doesnt. Directors dont come and teachers arent given schedules till a few weeks later and after about a week of class actually starting kids start to show up regularly. Kind of frustrating when im so eager to get my center up and running but i am dependant on school being in session to do so. But the past few weeks i have been trying to get the word out about the center from talking to teachers, putting up posters, talking to girls around the school and going into classes.

To apply to be a member girls had to write an essay on "what is the importance of girl's education" and be between a 2eme-5eme grade level (about the equivalent of 7th-10th grade). I got a lot of responses and was very happy to see that i was able to pick out my ideal number of girls for the center. I have 26 girls, split pretty evenly throughout the 4 grade levels. Tomorrow I am going to post the list of new members and then sunday will be the first day of the center! (we have an islamic sunday-thursday work week). Im planning on having two days of getting to know you activities and then, inshallah, will have a little open house on thursday for the girls, their parents, school directors, and other important women/people in the community. The center will be open probably about 4 days after school for a few hours and will also meet one morning a weekend for basketball club (exact times and days are dependent of the girls availability).

Eddies coming to visit!!

2008-11-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

Its official, Eddie just bought his plane ticket to come visit me in February!! I am so happy right now i cant take the huge grin off my face!

All of PC Mauritania goes down to Dakar for Presidents day weekend to participate in WAIST, a big softball tournament with expats in west africa (including all the PC west africa countries). Its the weekend that PCVs here in mauritania look forward to most because its a huge party/vacation in the most metropolitan city in west africa. Dakar also has the cheapest flights into west africa so eddie is going to fly in the day after the tournament ends, feb. 18th, and i will already be there to meet him! We are going to spend two weeks traveling through senegal along to coast north and south of Dakar. unfortunately, mauritania is just too far away and it is not worth the time, effort, or money to travel all the way to show eddie my site. also, mauritania requires a visa (while senegal doesnt) so we're just going to stick to traveling in senegal.

we have only started to plan out exact places that we want to go/things we want to see, but right now it includes Dakar, Ile de Goree (known for its role in the slave trade), Ile de n'Gor, Saint Louis (old captial of colonial french west africa), Le Parc National de la Langue de Barbarie, camel rides and camping in the desert, and Toubab Dialao. Im trying to make sure eddie gets to see a lot of traditional africa along with the more touristy things.

Im so happy that i will get to see eddie in only a few months! I am also starting to look for flights to come home this summer after my school gets out, so probably sometime mid-july.

Obama in Africa

2008-11-04T12:50:00.000-08:00

While it sucks not to be home for such a monumental election like the one today, there is no better place to be then in africa. All this past week I have been stopped by strangers on the street asking “tu as voté?” and I love to see their reaction when I give a little fist pump and say “yes I did! Barack Obama!”. Today I wore my new Obama/Biden shirt around and was practically cheered wherever I went (shout our to carrie dietrich for the shirt!). Africans absolutely love Barack and I love that so many people here are interested in American politics. My host family has been watching the french news coverage of the election and they always go above and beyond to make sure i understand everytime the anchors mention the election. its funny because people here hardly seemed to notice a coup even took place and rarely will take sides on their national politics but are so interested and informed about my national politics.

Also, ryan (one of our brousse volunteers) got the debates mailed to him so a bunch of us watched those this past weekend which really made the election feel real. Its hard to imagine when you fill out a write in ballot in the middle of the African desert that there actually is an election going on sometimes. we had a blast watching all the hilarious things that we had read about sarah palins preformance in the vp debate too hahhaha...

tonight me and the other 1st year volunteer in boghe are crashing at the regional house along with 2 other brousse volunteers to follow the election throughout the night online. things are looking good... crossing my fingers that ohio finally pulls through!!!

Halloween party!

2008-11-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Boghe had the big Halloween party for PCVs in Mauritania and it was soooo much fun! We had about 50 people here for a full blown American costume party and it turned out so well! I was kind of nervous because that is a lot of people to have in town (think no kitchen to make food in, no real bathrooms, and a tiny house). We talked to the restaurant guy next to us and he promised to be open all the time for those 3 days (normally they are just open for a few hours at night) and we borrowed a bunch of matelas and lessos (sitting mattresses and floor mats) from my GMC. We also had some of the more crafty guys in our region rig up a string of colored light bulbs across from the regional house to the tree in our yard and back. We also have a homemade ping pong table that we won in a tournament against the region next to us during Halloween last year set up in the yard. It was like a garden party but in the African desert with cheap gin. We had a little preparty on Thursday then Friday was the big costume party. Below is a picture of whole group in front of our regional house and another of us all hanging out under the tree in our courtyard!

Me and my friend Julie Ann planned matching outfits, I was Sarah Palin and she was John McCain (she had shaved her head on swear in day haha). It turned out sooo much better then I thought it would and everyone totally loved it. All of the costumes were really funny and creative especially considering that we had to make everything or find it somewhere in the African thrift stores. Here are some more pics from the night!

all my sitemates from pk7 reunited!

it was still around 85 at sunset so the sweatshirt had to come off! i tried my best to stay in character...

seasons changing...

2008-10-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-25T09:31:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-08T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-02T04:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

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...

a photo tour of boghe

2008-09-28T04:24:00.001-07:00

the picture on left is the only paved road that goes right through town that our regional house is located on. the door on the right leads to our courtyard (notice the donkey cart on the street). the picture on the right is inside of our courtyard at the regional house looking from our porch to the street (which is behind the stonewall). our dog bailey is in the picture, our hammock, kiddie pool, dried up well, and behind the laundry drying is our new vegetable garden!

these are pictures from the market where i go basically everyday, kind of out of boredom because it is ramadan and also because you have to buy your food on a daily basis

Barack Obama

2008-09-25T05:11:00.000-07:00

So last night Barack Obama had a press conference that was apparently broadcast internationally because my whole family froze and watched extremely attentively. it was live (with pretty horrible french translations- its hard to translate to live speeches) and had to do with the economy and the upcoming debate (i didnt even know there was one!) THey absolutly love him here, both because he has african origins and also because he might be the one to finally get george bush out of office (they, like most people from around the world, HATE him).

My host mom was out of town (and host dad has been MIA since i moved in) but my 3 older host brothers and host sister were full of great questions about american politics. They wondered how americans felt about George Bush, the oil situation, who i was voting for and who i thought most americans would vote for in the upcoming election. when i was first told where i would be spending my peace corps service i never thought i would be having conversations like this and i am realizing more and more each day how lucky i am to have such a great site placement and host family.

my host sister goes to university in Nouakchott (she is home visiting for the end of ramadan), where she studies biology (with a focus on global warming and conservation) and my other host sister goes to university in america. unlike many other mauritanian families, my family sits together and eats together and is not segregated by sex. my host brothers love to talk to me about politics and i love that they recognize that women have smart, thoughtful opinions to share just like men.

Breaking Fast

2008-09-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

During Ramadan, all Muslims (the entire population of mauritania) fast from sunrise to sunset which effectively shuts down the country, delays schools start, and makes for some very grouchy store keepers when you go to buy supplies to make lunch. So a big part of this month in the tradition of breaking fast after the evening prayer is called around 7ish. I have hung out with my family for bits and parts of their breaking fast but last night i decided to dedicate my whole night to sitting with them in the courtyard under the stars to really experience the entire event.

First, as soon as you can hear the pray call from over the loudspeakers of the mosque (they can be heard from any point in town), the family starts to chug liquids and eat some bread and dates (imagine how thirsty you would be after 12 hours in over 100 degree weather with nothing to drink). my family has a freezer so all of our drinks have ice chunks in them (quite a delicacy). there is ice cold water, bissap (a kool-aid type drink made from natural flowers here), hot sugary tea, and milk (clarification- powered milk=disgusting). I feel bad because they were throwing drinks at me until i couldnt drink another sip but i wasnt even that thirsty because im not fasting (and they know that). But the hospitality here is so strong that they wanted to make sure i had the absolute most amount that they had to offer. After that, they walk over to their pray mats a few feet away and all pray in unison (with the oldest son leading). i wrote in my journal by the food haha...

Next, about an hour after breaking fast, the first meal is served. Normally families eat banafe (something like a potato/beef stew) for this meal. It is sooo good and tastes like something grandma winland would make in southern ohio. like hearty american comfort food, except they eat family style around one large bowl on the ground with the hands, just a little different then ohio. my host family was really great about my dietary restrictions and gave me my own little bowl of just stewed potatoes in the gravy and i sat around the circle like everyone else except just eating out of my own bowl (probably the most low-key, least fuss/awkward vegetarian meal to date, finally!). After that meal i was stuffed and felt like i was about to burst but no, theres still the main course.

before the main course is served the tv was brought out to the doorway of the family room and everyone just relaxed and watched the news (unfortunately it was al jazeera in arabic so i couldnt understand it) and started to take naps on the floor mats and pillows that were set up in the courtyard (there is always huge mats laid down outside so youre never actually sitting on the sand). by this time it was about 930 and i was exhausted but was still trying to hold out for the last meal. then the evening call to pray went over the mosque loudspeakers and the whole family started praying again and then afterwards went back to napping. at about 11 i called it quits... but at least i tried to stay up for it all! i was just so full and tired (and i knew i would be eating the whole next day like normal) so i couldnt make myself try and stay awake. the whole family got a good laugh at me this morning and called me out on slipping away to my room and going to bed before the final, big meal.

Finally settled in

2008-09-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took my last trip of stuff from the regional house to my new room. It kind of feels like moving into a college dorm room all over again, except this time the walls are made out of mud and my roof is thatched. Even with that being said, I have a really nice set up in my new room. My host family gave me the chairs (I picked out the colors so they would match… trying to make things homey even in Africa!), desk and cot. All of those 3 things are pretty unheard of in bedrooms of volunteers (furniture in general doesn't really exist).

A little tour of my new compound/room….

This is from outside the gate looking into the family courtyard. My room is the open door on the far left (behind the blanket hanging on the line).

Once you go into the main door there is a little storage room (with working fridge and freezer!) and my door is on the left. Its nice because you cant see straight into my room from the courtyard so random people walking by don't gawk at me. Now pictures from inside my room! I tried to do a little 360 photo thing… right on your left when you enter my room is my desk (with toiletries, water filter, electronics, books, and other knick knacks) and fan.

As you go toward the left I have some pictures up and right now below them is a pile of all my clothes (im getting a shelf made right now to be able to fold my clothes and set them on). Im also a dork and put a map of Ohio on the wall next to the pictures (its hard to see in the photo). Then I have a window (with curtains I made myself!) my bed (on a cot!) with my mosquito net, shoes lined up underneath, and a little makeshift end table. Lastly is my little sitting corner with paintings, photos, and buckets of amazing American food underneath). And that's my room!

Last night I ate dinner at the regional house then went back to my house to hang out with the new fam afterwards. Since it is Ramadan, people basically sleep all day and stay up all night so there was a ton of people just hanging around in my courtyard. They had the tv from the family room put in the doorway so it faced out to the courtyard and everyone was laying around on mats and pillows watching a French news channel… after PK7 and no electricity I feel like I'm living the life. I love my new family and I am excited to finally be settled into my new home in Boghe!

We're getting an oven!

2008-09-17T08:50:00.000-07:00

our regional house in Boghe (where i cook all my meals) is getting a oven so now any care packages can include things that need to be baked! we all pitched in money and crossing our fingers that we can buy it sooner rather then later in Nouakchott. also, we could use any sort of small baking sheets, small muffin/bread/pie pans, etc. (maybe those new plastic/rubber ones might be lighter?) make sure none of the baking supplies are too big because the oven is going to be little.. think about the size of a microwave. Looking forward to baking and broadening my cooking horizons!

"When did terrorism stop being sexy?"

2008-09-17T04:38:00.000-07:00

(Quote from Julie Ann Clark after the BBC headline news “Focus on Africa” didn’t mention the 12 Mauritanian soldiers killed by Al Qaeda, instead spending hours on whatever political mess in going on in South Africa.)

I've spent the last few days in Dar El Barka to visit my past PK7 sitemate Julie. The village is about an hour outside of Boghé and is still in my region (important because we aren’t allowed to travel outside our region for the first 3 months of service). It’s a really beautiful village right on the river and right off the new paved road (with a brand-new middle school where Julie will be teaching English). She is the 1st PCV at her site and really lucked out on housing… she lives in the gated courtyard of the mayor’s sister’s house in the guest house, but the mayor’s sister has yet (in almost a month) to ever live in the house so Julie has a huge garden, pavilion, balcony, and housekeeping staff all to herself. The picture above left is taken from her balcony over looking her garden, the village’s mosque, the mayor’s house, and the river.

Although Julie’s site is only 40 miles away from Boghé, the whole process of finding the pick up that was going to Dar El Barka, waiting for the car to fill up and stopping along the way to pick up/drop off people took a little over 4 hours. Still not too bad of a trip by Mauritanian standards because we didn’t get ripped off, the car didn’t break down, and we got real seats instead of having to ride in the bed of the truck.

Above left is a picture of Julie in her guest house with the main house in the background. The river looked so amazing and it was such a tease to see all the kids playing in it since there is no proper way for grown white women like us to go swimming. Julie’s pseudo host family (its actually the family that works at the mayor’s sisters house) was so hospitable and generous. We went to visit them to “break fast” both nights I was there and although they knew that me and Julie weren’t fasting for Ramadan, they still insisted that we eat first because we were their guests. The older girls in the family (about me and Julies ages) are mostly newlyweds with little kids and were so excited to show off the new English words that Julie had been teaching them.

Overall it was a great first trip… I feel successful at braving the taxi brousse situation (that’s what all forms of taxis are called here) and am so happy that I finally got to visit Julie at her site.

A picture from the inside of the pickup on my way back to Boghe! gives you kind of an idea of what the countryside looks during the rainy season in Southern Mauritania.

found my new house!

2008-09-09T11:23:00.002-07:00

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.

first few days in boghe...

2008-09-02T04:03:00.000-07:00

Ive been spending the past few days getting settled into my site... right now im still living at the regional PC house but me and other other new volunteer in Boghe have been looking around at rooms so hopefully ill have a new family to live with before too long. no complaints about not moving in with a family right away though... its been great just to relax and hangout with americans, watch movies, eat amazing american food, use the internet, and party!

today ramadan started which will really switch things up since every single person in town will be fasting from sun up to sun down for the next month. Luckily the volunteers in Boghe have a regional house to go to and cook our meals at since our host families wont be eating. i havent experienced it yet, but ive heard that you get heckled at for even walking down the street with a bottle of water or buying groceries in the middle of the day. some volunteers choose to fast so they can better intergrete and understand how their friends and families are feeling but i dont know, i really like food. and theres no way im giving up water in this heat!

Thanks to everyone who has sent me cards and care packages! My new post box in Boghe is awesome and im getting packages within 2-3 weeks (no delay sitting around in the PC bureau in Nouakchott!) And so far nothing (and nothing sent to any of my friends) has been opened or tampered with so that has been really reassuring. All of your kind thoughts and goodies have been amazing and remind me everyday what supportive family and friends i have back home. Thanks again!

Swear in!

2008-08-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning I was sworn in as a member of the Peace Corps! It has been a crazy past couple of days… the swearing in ceremony was more emotional then I thought it would be with almost all of the returning PCVs, our teachers, sector directors, PC country director, and American Ambassador there to watch us take our oath to uphold the US Constitution. All of the trainees were decked out in our best Mauritanian outfits and it seemed surreal to be repeating the oath after the Ambassador along with the 76 people that Ive spent the last 10 weeks training with.

After the swearing in we had a great lunch and then got to have a pretty long q & a with the Ambassador and his chief of security to discuss the current events (the coup, US counter-terrorism efforts in Mauritania, and the recent closure of one of the provinces to PCVs). I was really impressed by the Ambassador… he was very friendly and interested in talking to us and also answered all of our questions very well (plus his wife was hilarious). Me and Julie felt like dorks but still asked if we could take our picture with him :)

After he left we had a few sessions on finances (got our move in allowances and first 3 months pay!) and then spent the rest of the afternoon resting and cooking the great American dinner that we had at our swear in party (make your own taco bar!) Our party was at a hotel right outside the city and all the PCVs were there ready to help to initiate us into PC Mauritania. It was a great/crazy night full of American music, food, dancing and drinks…

Friday we were given all day to recover from Thursday night (which was much needed), had a final session on posting, and packed up the PC SUVs with ALL of our bags to move to our final sites! I just got to Boghe a few hours ago and im starting to settle in a little. The next few weeks will be spent looking around to find a host family to live with and starting to prepare to start to work (school, and my GMC, starts after Ramadan in October). Until then, I will be living at the regional house (where we just got the internet installed!!!) the picture below is of all my new region mates in Brakna South including both the new PCVs and returning second years.

day before swear in...

2008-08-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

Good news! the language test went well (as well as i think it could have gone) and i passed!! that was the last major barrier between me and becoming a volunteer tomorrow morning. preparations are now under way for our big day tomorrow... swear in in the morning, lunch with the ambassador, amazing american meal (cooked by us!) for dinner, then celebration party at night. its weird in one day i will be a real volunteer and in just four days i will be leaving for good for my final site.

on a side note, in a letter that i just recieved today from reenie i was reminded of something that ive been meaning to post on, the mauritanian opinion of barak obama. its funny bc when i bring out my american magazines the kids in my family all think that every man (no matter if he is 70 or black) looks like my male sitemate ryan and every women (even if she is chinese) looks like me or my female sitemate julie ann. but they can point out a picture of barak obama from anywhere. they may not really know his policies but they know he is black and has african roots and they love that.

picture is of my four sitemates and our teacher, baila, during our last evening class (evening class was always outside, on a mat, next to bailas house)

Leaving my homestay

2008-08-24T01:49:00.000-07:00

So its been about a week since my last post and a TON has happened. According to my family, now Ko mi Pule (I am a pulaar). I left my training homestay for good this morning and they have spent the last few days creating me into a pulaar women. They gave me traditional pulaar earrings (red and gold yarn hoops with nails to go through your ear) and gave me fabric to make a boubou from (look at the picture with the green and black fabric to see both the fabric and the earrings). In the picture though im wearing it like a mulafa (what the arabs wear in this country) because I am going to have to take the fabric to a tailor once I get to Boghe. The picture was taken in my little one room house with my host mom. Grandma, uncle, two little brothers, and host cousin (my favorite- little 11 year old Fatimata). Little Fatimata also gave me traditional pulaar beaded bracelets that you can see in a lot of the pictures. Unlike what you would think, they are not stretchy at all and took about 5 minutes to squeeze each bracelet on (two were broke along the way). They also don’t have clasps so I guess im wearing these for awhile!

on our last night at site we threw all of our host families a little fete to thank them for being so generous and welcoming over the past two months. The day started off with killing the sheep we got for the party (picture is of the sheep, while still alive hahaha). I made sure to slip away during the actual killing. I taught Fatimata how to take pictures with my camera so we finally got a good picture with all four of the American PCV trainees at my site. Me and Julie made sure to wear our “yoodi no feewi” (very very beautiful) Mauritanian clothes.

As night fell and our little fete started, the kids were off the wall dancing and going crazy so we thought it would be a good idea to make some super sugary Mauritanian fruit drink bissap. god you would have thought we spiked the juice with everclear the way these kids got with that much sugar in them. one of our favorites in a tiny little girl, Maimouna, who kept us entertained for a good part of the night... here is a pic of her and us around the bissap.

And as an end to the night and as a last step of me becoming a pulaar, they decided to give me henna (or poudi in pulaar). Turns out Mauritanian henna is not near as delicate or intricate as the Indian henna that were used to seeing in the states. They did both my feet and only my left hand, wrapped them both in plastic bags, and then to my surprise told me that I couldn’t take them off until morning. Its kind of difficult to pack up your room, get ready for bed, and go to the bathroom with both feet and one hand tried up in plastic bags. And I think I might be allergic because now, almost 12 hours later, my hands and the bottoms of my feet are still tingly and kind of burning… pain really is beauty here…

Also, here is a picture of some of my family on a normal afternoon. It was hard to describe in pulaar that I wanted a candid photo (bc they loovveee posing for pictures) but I think this is a pretty good representation of them. Naked little baby, a kid haphazardly sitting in the prickly tree, and everyone sitting around the lesso (mat) under the tree to escape the sun and enjoy the breeze.

Over all, it was a great last week to my Peace Corps training experience. Im still going to be at the center for the next few days in Rosso with some wrap up sessions and language test (wish me luck!) If all goes well I will swear in on Thursday, August 28th and finally make the big move to Boghe on August 30th.

Lunar eclipse

2008-08-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

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.

some pics of PK7

2008-08-15T01:54:00.001-07:00

pictures are of a sunset at PK7, PK7 during a dust storm, and the inside of my little one room house

coup update- of lack there of...

2008-08-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

so nothing much as really happened since i posted last... you guys in america with regularinternet and news access probably know more about whats going on then i do. nothing in my everyday has changed and life continues as normal in PK7. people seem to be pretty split over whether or not they favor the coup but i have yet to meet someone who really is passionate one way or the other.

My life has gotten a little crazier since model GMC started today. for the next week and a half i am going to be going into rosso each morning then having language classes back in PK7 each night. the GMC (girls mentoring center) is where all girls education volunteers work and the PC has created a little mock GMC to help us practice lesson planning and test out some of the lessons that we create on girls here in Rosso. im kind of nervous because ive never planned a lesson before, im by myself (everyone else is teaching in pairs), and it has to be done in either pulaar or french. i dont know if i said this before, but of all the 15 girls eduation trainees, 14 are learning hassaniya and i am the sole pulaar speaker. so naturally when it comes to presenting our lessons we were partnered with fellow language speakers and i got the shaft. its good practice though because i am also one of the few girls ed trainees who is by themselves running the GMC at their final site (or at least thats what i keep telling myself).

picture is of my little host brother tizine... after about the first week here he began to recoginize me and started smiling when i came in the room and my grandma declared that now, i was family.

coup d'etat

2008-08-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

within 6 weeks of living in africa, i have experienced a coup d'etat. it actually wasnt as thrilling and exciting as it sounds (which is good) and so far everything is very calm. Its kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time... The state radio and tv stations were turned off before the president and P.M. were arrested and so the people really dont know what is going on... thank god for shortwave crank radios and bbc world news (thanks val!) Ive heard that Nouakchott is realitivly calm and that the military is patroling the streets but that is about all the information i have. out en brousse (rural sites), you never could have guessed that a coup even happened and everyone just went about their everyday business not at all nervous about the political situation. there was hope in this president because he was the first democratically elected in mauritania (last year) but the food crisis and rising prices hurt his popularity. here is an article from CNN and BBC (http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/08/06/mauritania.coup.ap/index.html) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7544834.stm) (about 8am wed.)

there have been coups in the past, although none have been serious enough to bring about PC evacuation from Mauritania. PC evacuated during the six day war in Israel in 1967, the gulf war in 1991, and had a voluntary evacuation following the events of september 11th and the invasion of Iraq (all because of a possible threat on american lives due to the status of Mauritania as a muslim state, not because of the unstable situation of Mauritania). the other PCVs and members of the staff dont seem to nervous about all this and hopefully it will bring about changes for the best.

i finally just my first round of packages which was amazing and luckily nothing was tampered with or missing. Turns out the packages get to the capital fine then sit in the PC bureau for a few weeks, which would explain the delay of all of our packages and letters. my new mailing address is supposed to bypass the bureau so hopefully things will get here a little quicker. either way i was really happy to see that nothing was messed with and everything got here safely. thank you meredith for your bday gift! im finally got it in my first package (it arrived at my house the day after i left for the PC) and im wearing it right now. thanks to lindsey too for the cherry koolaid! (you did well teaching your brother how to share). you all cannot even understand how happy your letters, pictures from home, and packages make me! thanks!

look close! the picture is of me at man-loin, a little sand dune/canyon that me and my sitemates found about a 15 min walk from PK7

some reflection...

2008-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

my site visit came at the perfect time... after 5 weeks of sitting through tech sessions and struggling to learn pulaar and french i was ready for a reality check. the visit made me remember that im here to do something good and that i will be given a chance to do that something good just once i get to swear in august 28th. ill be able to use my training to do whatever i want and that kind of freedom and responcibility is both exciting and a little scary. what does or doesnt happen at the GMC is completly up to me. the food situation of being able to make good, american food (with relative ease) whenever i want is also helping me get through the next few weeks of food with my mauritanian family. dont get me wrong, my family has been extremely accomendating and i think im getting some of the best food out of all the trainees but after getting a taste of the possiblities of cooking for yourself its hard to go back to eating whatever people make for you.

so im trying to learn as much as i can these next few weeks but also counting down til swear in! only 29 days away....

Site Visit

2008-07-29T02:57:00.000-07:00

Site visit was an amazing blur of americaness that i didnt realize how much i had missed until i was there. complete with AMAZING american food, american tv (on dvds), electricity, fans, and best of all, an american party. my new sitemates are awesome and showed me around Boghe, took me to the tailor to get my first clothes made, and showed me the GMC (girls mentoring center) that i will be the director of. the girl who ran it before me just finished her service a few weeks ago so its all mine now. talk about about a ton of responcibility... i have my own building complete with computer room and will be in charge of a few dozen girls who come to the center after school with computer, english, french, health, etc, classes that im in charge of either teaching or bringing in people to teach. the building is in the same compound as the college and lycee (middle/high school) and has had a long, strong PC presence.

i stayed at the regional house in boghe which one person stationed in boghe lives each year and is the center for american things and get togethers in our region. its a small house but has a huge nice walled in front yard so we can walk around in shorts and tank tops and the locals cant see us. the front yard has a few trees, a hammock, a robinet (water spicket), and outhouse/shower. also there is a regional dog that lives at the region house named bailey! our first projects for revamping the house when we move to site permanently in a few weeks is to get internet at the house, buy a tv and oven, and build a garden- all stuff that im real excited to be able to use. the PCVs there right now are all such good cooks and made the most amazing food out of the most random things... turns out nearly anything is possible with some creativity. we had cinnimon pancakes with mango syrup and hashbrowns, spagetti with alfredo sauce and grilled veggies, spinach and artichoke dip, carrots sticks and ranch dressing, french fries and fried okra, and mexican night. you cannot imagine how good these foods are after only eating with a mauritanian family for 6 weeks.

ive decided to live with a family but pay only rent (most volunteers pay for rent and to eat with the family) and then make my meals at the regional house. the girl who is living in the house this coming year is a vegetarian and really open to letting me make my meals at the house which is great. hopefully i can find a good family to live with in the same neighborhood as the regional house because it is also the same neighborhood that the GMC (my work) is located in.

we also had some good, clean, american fun at the house with all the people in our region. the PCVs there were able to get some drinks from senegal and we got out a kiddie pool and spent the day/night blaring american music. good times...

also note that my address has changed. everything sent to the old one still makes it to me but the new one is more direct so should be faster. either one will work though!

pictures are of me at work at the GMC (the peace corps-Boghe sign), the regional house (inside and outside), and some of the great american food we made

Final Site Placement: Boghe

2008-07-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

after much gossip and anticipation, we got our final site placements today! the staff drew a huge map of mauritania out inthe sand with all the cities that we were placed in labeled and called us out one by one to stand in our new home for the next two years. i got my ultimate dream site placement: Boghe!! (pronounced bow-gay). its along the river, liberal (no mulafas for girls (head coverings)), big city (19,000 ppl), and vegetarian friendly. i met a girl whose stationed there now a few weeks ago and have been obsessing about the idea of getting placed there and then i was! shes a vegetarian to and lives in the regional house with a pet dog... my two favorite things!

we leave tomorrow for our site visit so i will be spending the next week or so getting to know my new site with my new sitemates (PCVs who are starting their second year). ive heard theres a lot of great vegetarian american food planned and i will pick out where i am going to be living (either with a host family or on my own). i have another new trainee going with me to boghe, mark, who is in the tech sector, and then there is a few other trainees stationed right outside Boghe. my sitemates during training at PK7 are all pretty close too (ryan is just a few km, julies about an hour out and matt is in kaedi) which is awesome.

more stories to come! wish me luck on site visit!

pictures are of the map the PC staff made of mauritania in the sand at the training center in Rosso when they reveiled our permanent sites

cattle and skys

2008-07-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

this is a picture of my grandma with our longhorn cattle at sunset and then another picture from my bedroom window at sunrise

modesty? pantless babies and topless women

2008-07-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time to post some of the cultural differences ive noticed since ive been in Mauritania.
1. modesty: god forbid you show off an ankle but women here whip out their boobs to breastfeed like nobodies business. Also, due to a lack of diapers, babies (or toddlers) go pantless until they are potty trained (about 3… a little old to be pantless all day everyday in any culture). And if they pee in the middle of the straw hut during dinner, oh well…
2. inshallah: everything here only happens if allah wills it and is solidified with the word “inshallah” that is said at the end every sentence. “we’ll pick you up for class tomorrow, inshallah”. If allah wills we get picked up for class then it will happen, not if the driver remembers to pick us up. It’s a good way not to be held responsible for anything.
3. if/when: in pulaar, if and when are the same word. I cant help but laugh every day in class when our instructor makes us talk about our daily activities and I have to start with the phrase “So mi finii”, in English “if I wake up…” Hahahah… not when I wake up, if I wake up. Goes right back to the if allah wills it, inshallah.

- picture is of the baby goat i saw being born last week.. hahah it makes the funniest baby goat noises that i ever heard so i had to chase it around the yard and pick it up

- picture of my one room cement house with my family's straw hut in the backround

Mailing tips

2008-07-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

so after talking to the current PCVs about mailing tips i have a few good ones i thought id share with whoever was interested in sending me something.
- big envelopes are less likely to be opened and rummaged through than small boxes
- on the custom slips (needed for anything bigger then a normal size envelope), write things that are undesirable for mauritanians to steal ex. "letters from home, tampons, etc"

i know the thought of receiving letters doesnt sound like the highlight in your day back in america but here it def is so only 94 cents could make my day!

- picture is taken out my front door of my little one room house of the family's front yard, cattle and straw huts

nglobes!

2008-07-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

along with the camel spiders comes the daily migration of camels (nglobes in pulaar) during the rainy season whoch is soooo amazing. each day around sunset about half a dozen wonder through our little village. no matter where we are hanging out all the little kids come find us and tell us that the camels are coming through because they think is it hilarious to see how excited the toubabs get over seeing a camel. hopefully when i come back to the center next week for a few days i will have time to finally upload pictures... im crossing my fingers!

last night i went to a wedding party in my village- of a 12 year old girl to a 20 year old boy - eww. it took everything in me to try and get the pit out of my stomach and just enjoy mauritanian culture for what it is. luckily i got out of forced awkward dancing in front of the whole town although my sitemate julie wasnt as lucky hahaha....

grandma fatimata took me to the market the other day and bought me a woodaire (sp? in pulaar), a type of cool wrap skirt that the women wear here with boubous (huge sheet like shirts) over top of them. grandma tried to get me to get a boubou too but i convinced her that i was fine with my american fitted tshirts. some of the other girls who are living with more conservative families (and who will most likely be placed up north in the more conservative part of the country because of their language placement) have to wear mulafas (full body/head sheet dresses). im really enjoying knowing that whereever my final placement is it wont be in a place where i have to wear stuff like that. on that note, we find out our final site placements next week!!! look for a post!! ill find out where ill be for the next two years and then i go on a site visit immeadiantly afterwards and pick out where im going to live in my town and meet who i am going to be working with... exciting!

- picture is of the camels that come in around sunset everyday eating in matt and julie's compound

so... rainy season=camel spiders

2008-07-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

im in rosso today for a GEE tech session and begged my way into having an extra 30 min at the center with air conditioning and wireless internet... niicceee. since the "rains" have started the camel spider population has come out of hibernation and now terrorize us at night. although our host families tell us theyre harmless (they still bite but they cant kill which is i guess harmless to mauritanians) me and my sitemates are all still scared shitless. they are about as big as your hand, a shade of white, and like to come into our little one room cement houses at night, the perfect time to interupt our nightly euchre games or make us freak out as were getting ready for bed.

so far i have been blessed with really good health (knock on wood) and havent had to spend too much time in the open air cement closet/hole in the ground that we call a bathroom. i got some sand in my contacts yesterday which irritated my eye a little but thats all i can complain about (the whole village was extremely concerned why the toubab, the mauritanian word for foreigner, had a damp cloth across her eyes).

a few funny stories about life en brousse at PK7. during the sandstorm we all boarded ourselves up early, about 8 pm, and i got ready for bed expecting that my family wouldnt be able to cook dinner in a straw hut during a huge storm (im never that hungry for dinner since its at like 10 pm every night anyways). the rain was so hard you couldnt even hear yourself think. normally my family comes and gets me for dinner and they didnt come that night so i just went to bed. at like midnight my 70 year old grandma is whispering/yelling my african name through the cracks in my door and shinning her flashlight. i told her i was in bed and id see her in the morning and fell back asleep. turns out she wasnt satisfied by that felt the need to go to our neighbors house, during the storm, where another PCT is staying and inform him and his whole family that i didnt want to eat dinner. she didnt want him to come convince me eat, jus wanted to share the info. i never thought id meet ppl so concerned with my eating habits.

my little sister fatimata is my saving grace. she is soo smart and has nearly perfect french and picks up on my english really quickly. she helps me get my point across, either in pulaar or french or a mix of the two, to the rest of my family and when i come home from my tech sessions in rosso i can always depend on her to know exactly where all the toubabs are hanging out.

heres a website with some pictures that my friend amanda has taken so far... theres a few from our training center in rosso but her homestay village is a little bigger and different then mine www.flickr.com/photos/amandainafrica/

and a link to camel spiders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_spider)
you tube has some crazy stuff as well!
*(picture link now works - updated by Eddie)

la fete d'independance

2008-07-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

today all the PCTs were brought back to the center to celebrate the 4th of july, complete with hamburgers and americans. so far i am lovinnnnggggg my homestay. my family is awesome and the other 3 trainees are a ton of fun. our village is a lot smaller then i thought, around 50 people who all say theyre in the same family but can articulate how. although the peace corps is paying them, i still feel bad that they gave their single room cement house for me to live in for the next 2 months while they are living in straw huts.

life is finally settling into a pattern with language classes starting at around 9am-1pm (with our prof taking little nap/smoke breaks about every hour of so). then its back to our families from lunch and a nap (a good time to go in my room and put on some shorts to cool off) and then language classes again from 530-730. pulaar is soo different then any other western language but im starting to pick it up. my family is having a hilarious time trying to teach me phrases and words at speeds that are impossible to keep up with. me and the other trainees hang out and play some cards til dinner at about 9 and then its off to bed.

the rainy season started earlier this week and it is nothing like what i experiences in cameroon. by rainy season here they mean huge sand storms and monsoon like rain for a few hours every night then they same hot and dry weather during the day. my village is literally a beach with houses on it so water doesnt do much at all but soak immeadiantly. but when the storm comes it really comes. all my roommates can imagine me alone with the wind blowing like crazy and the rain pounding on my tin roof kind of freaking out. im not a fan of storms at home either but at least here i comfort myself knowing that no matter how fast the winds start going tornados only happen in north america and im not the one sleeping in the straw huts.

the food has been pretty good so far and i think my family is happy that they get paid the same amount to feed a meat eater as they do to feed me. the past week as been all vegetarian foods all the time and they dont seem to mind at all. lots of rice, couscous, beans, carrots, potatoes, onions, green beans and bread. ive run out of all my granola/protein bars so any of those added in a care package would be greatly appreciated!! (peanut butter flavored anything especially). we havent gotton mail yet but it should be here soon!

ps. happy bday hattie! sorry i missed it again hahahha

- picture is of my teacher Baila during our daily afternoon Pulaar language classes

Pulaar

2008-06-27T00:52:00.001-07:00

Today we leave the center (and all the other 77 trainees) to start our two month homestay and language training. I was placed in village PK7 (in french literally milemarker 7) and my new language will be pulaar! since i passed the french test i was placed into a 3rd language. I havent had a chance to look it up yet but i heard its one of the most popular african languages (after swahili), esp. along the west coast. there will be 4 of us in PK7 but we are all staying with different host families (who may or may not speak any english or french). im reallly nervous about starting the homestay but also excited because its one more step closer to becoming a real PCV! In mauritaina pulaar is spoken only in the south along the Senegal river which is the exact region i wanted... i couldnt ask for a better placement!

over the next few weeks i will be living in PK7 taking 8 hour a day language courses and coming back to the Rosso training center about once a week for my technical girls education workshops.

look for a new post in a few weeks to see how village life with my host family is!

-picture is of the huuugggeee traditional mauitanian tent that was set up during staging

Bismillah!

2008-06-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

First post from Mauritania!! We all flew into Atlanta Tuesday night and spent wednesday and thursday meeting everyone and learning alot of the PC Mauritania basics. Then we took a direct flight from Atlanta to Senegal and made a 7 hour bus ride across the border to Mauritania. As promised, it is HOT and very very sandy. Our PST (pre service training) site is in Rosso, along the river that borders Senegal in southern Mauritania. So for now there's about 80 of us hanging out in a compound of cement buildings and sand learning the basics about being a PCV in mauritania. Lots of shots, getting used the food, learning the basic greetings in all the local languages, interviewing with our bosses so that they can best place us and figuring out how to go to the bathroom without toilets and toilet paper. use your imagination...

its been kind of difficult getting use to all the changes but the other trainees are all sooo great. we all slept in the sand under the stars last night (in our free-standing mosquito nets of course) and finally were about to explore Rosso today. Im nervous about leaving the training center and most the trainees in a few days to go to my homestay but excited to really start living the PC life here. one of the good things i found out is that while we are living with our homestays for the rest of PST (until im sworn in august 28th) is that there will be between 3-5 other trainees living right near me so i wont be all alone (yet!).

so thats it for now! in case you didnt notice, the price for sending me a letter is now 94 cents instead of 41 or whatever the guy from the post office told me before. Id love to hear from everyone! for the next few weeks i wont have regular access to the internet so your well wishes via hand-written things would be great! and a wish list will be posted soon too (ive already thought of a ton of things!). For now candy (non melting) is always a plus!

First entry!

2008-06-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog... just had eddie help me make it. There may not be much up now but hopefully i'll be able to upload pictures and entries often while I'm in Mauritania!

I thought that I would have all this free time after graduation but somehow I have spent almost all day every day for the last 4 weeks preparing to leave. I guess I didnt realize that my life was all over the place until i tried to get it all figured out. My going away party is tomorrow and im really excited to see everyone one last time... only 11 more days till staging in Atlanta then on to Mauritania!

Enjoy the blog!