Notes from a Nasraniye

Homecoming

2009-08-21T04:01:00.001-07:00

Ive been trying to work out this really depressing blog post about how Peace Corps Mauritania got evacuated, but I havent been able to figure out how to express what the past few weeks have been like. Stressful and emotionally draining and tearful, definitely. But Ill tell that story another time.

I just finished the first leg of my trip back to AMERICA! And this is just so much more exciting than any story about terrorist attacks and abandoned friends and family. (Thats not to say that Im not a little bitter, if you cant tell, ha. Ive actually been refered to as a "refugee" in the past two weeks.)

The trip is going to take about 48 hours altogether. I flew out of Dakar, Senegal at 12:30 this morning and arrived in Madrid around 7 AM. I probably got about 3 hours of sleep on the plane, and Ive been sick, so I was a wreck when I got into the airport here. Luckily a couple of people had started a little slumber party on the floor in a corner of the airport. It was kinda like a free hostel without beds. There were four or five good sleeping spots in that corner. I curled up with my bag in one of them, and a half hour or so would pass and Id wake up and there would be completely new people passed out in the other spots. Like musical spots to sleep on the floor.

After a couple of hours, I was feeling a lot better, so I decided to come into town. I literally just picked a metro stop on the map in the station, said to myself, that looks good, and went. Just my luck, the first thing I saw when I came up from the metro station was....STARBUCKS!! Yay globalization!! I didnt even get anything, but it was pretty amazing just seeing that happy green sign. I wandered around for a while checking things out. This is my first time in a Western city in 14 months. A little overwhelming, but AWESOME. I forgot how pretty things can be! People in the world actually DO build side walks and drive cars without the doors falling off of them and grow grass! GRASS!!!

I would up at this gorgeous park full of trees and fountains and benches and people just hanging out enjoying the non-sweltering weather. Not gonna lie, a tear or two came to my eye. I never realized how much I missed these things. And this is in some random city! I cant imagine what its gonna be like to be back home. CANT WAIT!

Next stop: leaving Madrid tonight around 6:30 for Paris. Hopefully Ill be able to check in from there. Let you know how it goes!!

The Moor Next Door

2009-07-22T02:04:00.001-07:00

For those of you interested in the recent elections here in Mauritania, check out this blog. It also has good info and commentary on general happenings in Western-Arab relations.

I'll write more on the elections soon...

To Mali and Back

2009-07-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

I realized its been way too long after I read my last post. Developments between then and now include but aren't limited too: a tour of Mauritania, a trip to Mali, a World Cup qualifying match, a homemade wine festival, a girls' conference in Nouakchott, a mass exodus of volunteers from Mauritania, a hand-me-down guitar, and a new house. I need to elaborate on all of the above, but its a lot and I have pictures I want to put up so I'll probably spread it out into a few posts.

The Mauritanian tour, trip to Mali, World Cup qualifier, and wine festival are all pretty much the same trip. I spent about a week traveling through Mauritania, starting in Atar and hitting up fellow volunteer sites in Akjoujt, Nouakchott, Gerou, and Kiffa on my way east to Mali (check out the map). It was a good chance to meet up with people and see a lot of the inhabited country.

We left Kiffa around 7 PM on a bus that was completely overbooked and stifling hot. Since we didn't have seats, we spent the better part of 6 hours alternately sitting and standing in the aisle. It was a rough ride, to say the least. We got to the closest Mauritanian town to the border around 1 AM, where we had to find a taxi to take us across the border. We got there around 3, waited for our paperwork to get through and for our bags to be searched before finally getting back on the road and arriving at the bus station in Nioro (first town in Mali) around 4 AM. We had to wait a few hours to catch the next bus to Bamako, so we literally passed out wherever we could: wood benches and plastic lawn chairs on the side of the road. We were so exhausted we didn't even care, and I actually slept really well.

We finally caught a bus around 9 AM, and the rest of the trip just got better and better. By the time we pulled into Bamako, the dusty brownish yellow desert had been replaced with lush greenery and streams and rolling hills.

Bamako is beautiful. It's relatively small, but for what we're used to, the mild bustle of the lazy west African city, with its blossoming trees, star burst markets and belching taxis, was plenty of action.

One of the main inspirations for the trip was a World Cup qualifier between Mali and Ghana at the stadium in Bamako. The entire city was decked out in Malian flags on the day of the game. We went to the market to buy jerseys, and everywhere we went people were cheering and singing and cars were honking. The ride to the stadium was even more chaotic: scooters with three people piled on all yelling and waving flags, taxi cabs packed to the brim with people hanging out the windows cheering. Everyone was calling back and forth to each other between the cars and the honking was non-stop.

The grounds around the stadium were swarming with people. The first semblance of organization we saw was a huge, snaking line at least 5 people across with everyone pressed up against each other basically hugging the person in front of them so that no one could cut the line. They were all singing and bouncing forward inch by inch so it almost looked like a dance. At first it was impressive and kinda cool to see, but then we realized that we actually had to wait in it, and it was looooooooooooonnnnng. So we finally got to the end of the line (it took at least 10, maybe 15 minutes to walk the length of it) and started waiting. About five minutes later, we saw some people gathering a little ways away around what looked like another entrance that had been locked up. Before we knew what was happening, everyone near us started bum rushing the gate they had just unlocked! People were full on sprinting. There were so many of us that if you had stopped or even really slowed down, you probably would have gotten slammed into by about 7 people running behind you. Think the stampede in The Lion King. It was awesome.

Once we got through the gate, things calmed down a bit. Somehow we managed to find everyone we had come with inside, about 30 of us all together. The stadium was nice and the crowd was pretty peppy at first, but Mali was the underdog and it showed both on the field and in the crowd. Especially in the second half, the stadium was pretty low key except for this one section of Ghana fans, which was rocking the entire game. Ghana won a pretty easy 2-0 victory. Still, it was sweet being there and we got to see some well known players.

The market was another highlight of the trip. Mauritanian markets generally lack variety or creativity. They don't have a lot of crafts or artwork or much of anything interesting to look at. The markets in Bamako are bustling and full of color: wax print and tie dyed cloth, soccer jerseys, drums, leather work, silver work, wood work, paintings, the smell of grilling street food and men and women calling out. There's even a fetish market which, despite what the name might suggest, is full of dried out, rotting monkey heads, alligators, snake skins, pigs feet, and pretty much every other animal part you can think of. I never found out what exactly the stuff is used for, but they definitely don't have that in Mauritania.

A little bit on wax print: many of the black Africans in Mauritania and the rest of West Africa wear this fabric on a daily basis. Mauritanian wax print is usually pretty average looking: bright colors but no crazy patterns or themes. Sometimes you'll get a wax print with something like keys or high heeled shoes all over it, which looks even funnier than it sounds because women especially wear the same fabric from head to toe. In Mali though (and I've also seen this in Senegal - I imagine its the same in the rest of black West Africa), they have every kind of wax print you can imagine. The Peace Corps volunteers in Mali have had a PCV print made that incorporates the PC logo and Malian flag. Even better, we found Barak Obama wax print in Bamako, and a friend of mine bought it and had an outfit made! When she wears it, she has life sized images of Obamas head on her stomach, shoulders, back, and all along her skirt.

That about sums up the Mali trip. The rest was basically just partying and lounging. On the way back though, some volunteers near the border were hosting a wine festival. I might have mentioned before that a lot of PCVs here in Mauritania make their own wine. The PCVs in that area are particularly into it and and they decided to throw a weekend long party/wine tasting/competition for those of us passing through on our way back from Mali and whoever else felt like coming by. The wine was tasty, and they had bought a few sheep which were running around the house for a while until we slaughtered them and cooked them up on the last day of the festival. So yummy!

Pictures of all these happenings to follow, as well as a continued update on the events of the past few months. Check back soon!

Maintaining Sanity in Sandland

2009-05-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

So I just got back to site after about a week off. I spent a few days in Nouakchott to get visas for Mali and just generally chill out in air conditioned hotel rooms. After that, we went to Atar for a belated Cinqo de Mayo party. One of our regionmates had 5 bottles of tequila sent over from the States, someone else made a blobby looking pinata, and a real live Mexican came! I'd say it was pretty authentic.

Like I said, I just got home. I chased a camel spider around my room, then decided that instead of unpacking and/or picking up the wreckage left behind when I left the house at 7 in the morning, I should update my blog! The hot season has officially arrived and with it, a number of ways to keep my mind off the fact that I'm sweating out water faster than I can piss.

I have developed an intimate relationship with my bath bucket. I use it at least twice a day to completely drench myself, fully clothed, and often just sit in it in an effort to preserve water. My bucket is the only thing that makes me feel remotely human between the hours of 12 and 4 PM.

I spend an inordinate amount of time examining what I've decided are mouse poops. I have never actually seen a mouse in my house, but these tiny little poops have started appearing lately and I can only assume they come from tiny little sand gnomes or mice. One of a long list of Mauritanian Mysteries.

My current reading list consists of the following: Happiness by Mattieu Ricard (geneticist turned Buddhist monk - still working on it, Mom), Rogue States by Noam Chomsky (rogue linguist, philosopher and political scientist), News of a Kiddnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Power Rules by Leslie Gelb (apparently the foreign policy establishment just needs to use a little common sense), Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling (I'm refreshing my memory for the movie), and Micro-Finance and Economic Empowerment: Women's Cooperatives in Nigeria by Chineze Onyejekwe. I haven't made it halfway through a single one of these books, mostly because I currently have the attention span of an ADD three year old.

I've also decided to take up the guitar. Achieving this goal will be slightly problematic due to the fact that I don't actually have a guitar, but I spent two days fiddling around on Chelsea's and I'm optimistic. The first two songs we worked on were Since You Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson and Apologize by Timbaland. I think if I can nail those two I'll have a pretty decent repetoir.

I have come to the conclusion that in another life (in which I had style and upper body strength), I was a break dancer. This realization was sparked when I watched the complete season 3 of America's Best Dance Crew in a single 6 hour sitting and only grew stronger when I watched Planet B-Boy (break dancing documentary). I recommend seeing both, but go with ABDC first cause it'll only be disappointing after seeing the moves they pull in the documentary. Myself and a few regionmates are currently putting together our own, albeit slightly modified, break dance routine. Don't expect fireworks, but we're pushing boundaries. It's not about skill, its about self-expression. Freak the dream!

Other movies I've see recently: Religulous, which I definitely recommend (unless you're offended by the paragraph titled People Who Don't Believe in Evolution but Love Antibiotics in this article). In the past week, I've also been introduced to Eastbound and Down, the new HBO series staring Danny McBride, watched the complete 4 and 5 seasons of Entourage, Traitor, He's Just Not That Into You, a Star Trek: the Next Generation movie, most of season 2 of Arrested Development, Yes Man, and part of Home Alone.

I've been so productive, can't you tell? I'll pretty much do anything right now, as long as it helps pass the time. Luckily, work ethic in this country is even lower than usual from May through September, so I'm just being culturally appropriate. Only two more weeks til school is out, the GMC is closed, and I'm heading off to Mali!

The Ugly Underbelly

2009-04-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

(Disclaimer: this post is mostly going to be me complaining about life back at site. It's not as bad as it's going to sounds, but I got spoiled in Morocco.)

Looking back on my last few posts, I realized that I haven't posted much about site or Mauritania in general lately. I've been traveling a lot, and work hasn't been too eventful. I was back at site for less than two weeks post-Morocco before I went into Atar to plan a conference for the mentors and teachers from my regional and a couple of other GMCs. In Mauritania time, thats nothing. It took me a few days to get settled in before I could even think about teaching.

Maintaining my own house is a lot of work. In fact, just living is a lot of work. Cooking dinner in a 2x2 meter concrete box, hauling water out of a cistern for washing dishes in a bucket, bathing in a bucket, watering my bush, constantly refilling my water filter, washing my face and brushing my teeth in my yard with a plastic teapot for water. When I get back from even a few days out of site, I have to sweep a layer of sand out of my room, kitchen and two bathrooms (2x2 meter concrete box with hole in the floor for toilet, identical 2x2 concrete box with hole in the floor for shower) with a bunch of sticks tied together. And that's just my house.

To maintain friendships in this country, you're expected to visit regularly. Close friends visit daily, but as a foreigner, I can get away with once every two or three days. However, if you've been traveling, you need to catch up with everyone as soon as humanly possible. Since visiting usually involves at least an hour or two of eating, tea drinking, and/or sitting around watching TV and chatting, it takes the better part of three days for me to get all my house work and socializing out of the way. I usually get antsy to start working and gloss over the socializing part.

To get started working, I have to plan four separate weekly schedules for my college girls, my "working" women, my primary school girls, and my teachers. Inevitably, their schedules conflict. I have to get in touch with all 40 of these attendees to check their schedules and then put something together that works for all of them, keeping in mind that I have no electricity between 4 and 7 PM (which makes computer classes a huge hassle). Then I have to get in touch with all of them again to make sure they know when their classes are. And getting in touch with people is surprisingly difficult, considering that I live within a kilometer of everyone I work with. I see them pratically everyday, but when I actually need to get in touch with them for something other than shooting the shit, they don't have their cell phones on them, I don't have their number, reception is out, or I don't have the money to pay for the credit to call them all. When I actually get them on the phone, I have to explain things in my still limited Hassaniye. Eveyone expects me to adjust the schedule to meet their individual needs (but usually just wants), and inevitably, I have to redo the schedule 3 times before I can finalize it. Then I have to hope that everyone finds out what it is in time to make it to their classes.

Then I have to put up with less than half of my students showing up to classes because they didn't know when classes were or they just didn't feel like coming to class and I wasn't around to harass them about it. Right now, that's about where I am. I'm starting to get the hang of all this, but its hard to plan ahead because no one else here does.

Had my first real day of classes since I got back today, and it was exhausting. Up at 7 30 (slept through my bread delivery), spent an hour finishing my taxes, tried getting in touch with women to make sure they were going to make it to the 10 AM computer class I scheduled before I left for Atar three days ago. That class was cancelled, and only 2 out of 4 women showed up for the 11:00 class. Worked on the schedule for an hour after class, posted the weeks announcements, then walked home for a quick lunch on my own (usually I eat with a family, but that takes an hour, which I didn't have to spare today). Walking home at mid-day is already scorching, and the hot season hasn't even arrived yet! Back to the GMC half an hour later to finish the schedule and prepare for a two hour english/geography lesson. I usually spend half of class yelling at the girls to be quiet and pay attention. Its not that they're uninterested (well, sometimes it is), but they just have no discipline. After that, I spent an hour sitting in on a french class (my male teachers aren't allowed to be with the girls without a chaperone) and putting together a computer competency program. Finally started to make my way home at 6, which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on who I see on the way back.

I was supposed to teach a computer lesson from 7 to 8, but I was just not up for it tonight. Another hour to make dinner, whenever I can squeeze that in, or wait until 9 and eat with a Mauritanian family. Hopefully take a bucket bath at some point, and then, if I can keep my eyes open, watch a little something (I've been keeping up with LOST - keeps me sane, ha) and then pass out between 10 and 11. Done.

On top of that, I've got a few secondary projects I've been trying to get off the ground for a while but just haven't had the time. I'm going to try to put together a project to have toilets built for my primary school. I need to get the estimate for that and then write up a grant proposal.

I'm also about to float this idea that's been rolling around in my head for a while. We have a feeding center supplied by an Italian NGO that distributes flour to local vendors for cheap (the grain comes from the World Food Programme). This same Italian NGO has been talking about starting a food program through the primary school, supplying mid-morning snacks (which would serve as breakfast for most students) and lunch. Right now, they want to serve a traditional Mauritanian porridge called inche, which has virtually no nutritional value. However, another PCV trained a women's cooperative in Atar to make a porridge called ceramine, which is a mixture of ground grains that provide a complete protein.

I want to train a women's co-op here in Ain to make ceramine, and have the Italian NGO buy it up and serve it at the school instead of inche. Most of these women's co-ops have no goods worth selling, and even if they did, there's no market for them. They mostly survive from selling vegetables from their gardens, and since everyone grows the same things (not a whole lot of options in the desert), the market is flooded and I can't imagine they make very much money. So, if the ceramine thing flies, these women will not only have a viable product but a market for it. And the kids will actually have something nutritious to eat. Should be an easy sell for the Italian NGO, but I don't know if the women will go for it. Mauritanians are very stubborn and set in their ways, regardless of how successful they are.

So, that's work at the moment. Stressful, but the end of school in June will open up my schedule a bit. I feel like a big whiner right now, ha, but it helps to vent about it. Also puts it in perspective. I can only do so much, and while all my traveling doesn't help, a lot of the difficulties I face here are beyond my control. I just have to accept those limitations. And if I choose to travel the way I do, I have to accept that it'll have an impact on my productivity at site.

Morocco Pictures

2009-04-09T04:20:00.001-07:00

Click here!

Morocco!

2009-04-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

So I guess I should preface this little tale by saying that this trip was probably the most fun I've had traveling, ever. Morocco is beautiful, the people are amazingly friendly and helpful, and I'd have a hard time finding a more ridiculously fun and relaxed group of people to travel with.

We kicked off our trip in true Peace Corps fashion by spending the night of St. Patty's in Nouakchott. We had a few celebratory drinks that night (including the infamous 3,500 UM carbomb at Shenkers...we thought it was a good idea at the time), saw a full moon, ripped some pants, had a heated discussion about religion, and left the next morning to make our way up to Nouadibouh. We managed to snag ourselves an awesome driver in Nouakchott who we used for the rest of the trip. Nouadibouh is on the coast about a 6 hour car ride directly north of Nouakchott on the border of Mauritania and Western Sahara (more on that later).

We got into Nouadibouh in the evening. It has a big fishing industry and is the port from which iron ore mined from the north of Mauritania is shipped out to the rest of the world. Since fishing and mining are two of the country's only real sources of income, Nouadibouh is central to the Mauritanian economy and is relatively international (I use that term extremely loosely).

So the seven of us met up with some of the PCVs in Nouadibouh and hung out for two nights. We went out to the ocean one day to play on the beach and explore the ship wrecks just off the coast. Apparently someone decided that Nouadibouh would make an excellent ship graveyard and people started running ships into the shallows near the port. It really does look like a graveyard with all those hulking iron carcasses rusting out in the waves.

We left Nouadibouh on the 21st to make a flight out of a city called Dakhla in Western Sahara. Western Sahara is a huge chunk of territory in between Mauritania and Morocco that the two countries went to war over around 1989. The dispute was never settled, and to this day, the land is simply considered occupied territory. Morocco essentially governs the territory, but it's sovereignty isn't formally recognized. When you cross the Mauritanian border, there's a 5 kilometer "no man's land" before you actually enter Western Sahara. This strip is essentially a buffer between Mauritania and the occupied territory that Morocco claims for itself. It's mined, and the road is unpaved, so drivers have to take extra care to keep to the car tracks that wind through this desolate piece of desert. Even worse, there's actually a population that's trapped there. Citizens of neither Mauritania nor Morocco nor any other country, these people can't ever leave that little strip. They're like people stuck in an international airport or something. It's sad.

We obviously made it to the entrace to Western Sahara (Morocco, for all intents and purposes) in one piece, and crossed the border without any problems. The drive up to Dakhla was beautiful, right along the beach, and we got into the city that evening. The difference between Mauritania and Morocco was noticeable as soon as we crossed the border. Almost immediately we found delicious food and bathrooms with real toilets. And it only got better!

After a quick flight from Dakhla to Casablanca, we crashed at the airport to wait for Steph to arrive from the States. We got in at 2 AM, so we just curled up in our sleeping bags (well, those of us who had them) on the floor and passed out until about 7, when she got in. I was so happy to have her there, and she got along with everyone soooo well. She put up with all of our Mauritania talk and handled the turkish toilet thing like a champ!

So to move this story along (cause I could probably go on forever about all this), we hopped a train to Tangiers after we met up with Steph. Lonely Planet described Tangiers as a seedy port town, but we thought it was gorgeous. Maybe our judgement is slightly impaired, coming from a place like Mauritania, but we really did have a great time there. Our hostel could have used some work, but the city itself was beautiful. Each city or town we visited had a "medina" or marketplace. Usually the oldest parts of the town, they're primarily only open to pedestrians, and the tight, winding little streets are lined with street food, crafts, and some of the cutest clothes ever! We mostly just wandered around the medina in Tangiers. Chels and I got haircuts at a genuine Moroccan women's hair salon, which was an awesome way to get a taste of real Moroccan life. We went out once, but there weren't a whole lot of bars and clubs were generally super expensive. We tended to wander around, drink coffee or Moroccan mint tea, eat street food, hit up a supermarket for wine or something, and then just hang out in our hotel rooms. We were very good at entertaining ourselves.

Our next stop was Fes, which was my favorite of the trip. The medina there is the largest urban pedestrian zone in the world. It has something like 9,000 streets, and it's pretty much impossible to navigate the thing without a guide. The first place our guide took us was the tanneries, which are apparently pretty famous. Also, possible the nastiest things I've ever smelled, but it was cool seeing how they dye all the hides and all the beautiful leather goods they make from them. Our guide took us around to a bunch of other little workshops: weavers and smiths and perfumeries. It was so hard not to wander off cause there were just so many interesting things to check out!

The new part of Fes was also beautiful, but in a totally different way. It was like a modern European city. We stumbled across a real live movie theater one night (granted, we were the only people there, but still!), and went to McDonald's multiple times (I even ate fries...I know, who am I?). I could totally see myself living in that city. It has the perfect combination of old world history and new world conveniences.

After Fes, we had a day-long trek by train and then bus to Essouiera, which is a small town on the coast a couple of hours northwest of Marrakesh. Essouiera is a cute little beachy town that supposedly attracks windsurfers and hippies, but most of the people we saw seemed pretty normal. We rented out a cute little apartment for all 8 of us, and had so much fun. We found a bona fide Moroccan bar (basically a cafe serving beer to a bunch of heavily smoking men) and had some of the best seafood I've ever eaten. Essouiera is a big fishing town and you can buy fish at auction at the docks. There's a strip of shacks right by the port with fish straight off the boats on display, and you just point to what you want or give them whatever you've already bought and they'll grill it up and serve it to you right there. The boys bought some barracuda and crabs at auction, and we all went down to the shacks and had that cooked up with calamari, sardines, eel (I think) and some other fish I didn't recognize. Delicious!!

Our last stop was Marrakesh, which was cool but a little overwhemling at first. It's definitely more of a big city than any of the other stops we made, and the main attraction is this huge square in the middle of the medina. A little touristy (complete with snake charmers, acrobats, and men covered from head to toe posing as belly dancers - I think they really thought they were fooling people), but cool to see, especially at night. Twinkle lights light up the whole square, and throngs of people crowd shoulder to shoulder, wandering through the maze of food stands and performers.

We also spent a day bike riding around the city. Considering that many of us hadn't been on bikes in years, that might not have been the best idea. The streets of Marrakesh are crowded with cars, mopeds and bikers, and lanes are apparently only suggestions. Right after we all got on the road, we were crossing over and these two women on a moped totally wiped out. Rob bit it trying to get up on the curb in the chaos that ensued, and Eric fell cause he was laughing so hard at the whole situation! Ridiculous, haha. After a little while, though, we all got used to the craziness and just went with it. It was a great way to get to know the city, get some exercise and enjoy the sun.

Steph left a night before we did, and being as amazing as she is, put herself and I up in a really nice hotel near the airport her last night. It was 3:30 in the morning when she left, but I was sad to see her go. Still, our last night in Marrakesh was probably my favorite of the trip. The seven of us took over this really cool lounge room on the roof of our hostel and sang and danced and just engaged in all sorts of hooliganry. We were doing impressions of each other and acrobatics and having intense political discussions for no reason in french. Which pretty much sums up the entire trip. As amazing as Morocco is, I think we had such a good time because we were just such an amazing group! As PCVs, we've gotten extremely good at entertaining ourselves and each other with very little to work with. Putting us in a country where even the most boring people could have a good time was like giving someone who can cook fillet mignon on a Foreman a state of the art kitchen. In fact, we are so good at kicking back, rolling with the punches and having fun no matter what, the train to Fes stopped at some station, and we all sat there for 45 minutes before we realized that we had actually arrived in Fes. We read, we chatted, people got off the train to smoke, got back on the train, hung out for a while. Mashallah, the train sat in the station for so long, or we would have been on our way to Tunisia or something in no time.

So we left Marrakesh by plane and arrived in Dakhla in the evening. Spent the night in a hotel, then left the next morning for the border. The drive was fine (though a lot less upbeat than it had been in the opposite direction) until we had to cross into Mauritania. The guards there were holding everyone up trying to extort money from silly foreigners. Luckily it wasn't a problem for us (in that we didn't have to pay, but we still had to wait like 4 hours to get through), but some Portuguese suckers in front of us spent 100 euro and made in through in about as much time we did.

Once we got across the border, Chelsea, Eric and I caught the sole train in Mauritania. It runs from Nouadibouh to Zourat, north of Atar, which is where the iron ore is mined. The train really only exists to ship the ore from Zourat to the port in Nouadibouh, and most people ride for free by jumping in the freight cars. On the way inland, though, the freight cars are empty so you sit in the bottom of what is essentially a huge iron bath tub, can't see anything, and freeze your butt of once the sun goes down. And it's on overnight trip. So we opted to ride in the moldy, rotted out passneger car. It wasn't as bad as we'd been preparing ourselves for, but I think the only reason we managed to sleep as well as we did was because we were so exhausted.

We got off the train around 7 the next morning, and after 3 hours of off roading in the back of an overpacked pick up truck, we finally arrived back in Atar. So, door to door, it took us 3 days of pretty puch constant travel. Kind of intense. I spent a day or two in Atar, then came back to site four or five days ago. I'm still adjusting to the slower, more solitary way of life back in Ain. Once I start teaching again this weekend, I think it'll be easier.

Well, I hope that wasn't unbearably long. I tried to condense things, but it was a pretty eventful trip, and I had fun reminiscing. I'll post pictures as soon as I can!

M.I.A.

2009-03-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

So I know I've been awful about blogging lately. I haven't posted anything about work, etc in forever. Fact is, I've been super busy. I'm currently in Nouakchott on my way up to Morocco. Should be getting back to Mauritania in early April, so I'll be sure to fill you in on the past few weeks and the trip then!

Just wanted to let you all know I am safe and happy. Talk to you soon!

Empowered Women Making it Big

2009-03-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Check out this documentary, airing live on March 5: A Powerful Noise. It follows the lives of three women living and overcoming in Mali, Bosnia, and Vietnam. Wish I was going to be around to see it, but I'll take comfort knowing that I'll be spending time with my own empowered women when it comes out...

Let me know if anyone decides to catch the show! I'd love to hear about it.

WAIST - The Return

2009-02-22T11:31:00.000-08:00

WAIST - all I can say is wow. First and foremost, check out the pictures. Nothing that I write here will be able to convey the ridiculousness of this event. WAIST was talked up by all the second years beyond belief, and it completely defied expectation. More than 100 PC RIM voluteers met up in Rosso about ten days ago to head down to Dakar together. The bender began before we left and didn't stop until we got back to Mauritania. We left Rosso around 7 AM and stopped off at a little hole-in-the-wall little bar as a pit stop. We must have been quite a sight to the locals at this little road-side Senegalese town, piling off of two big chartered buses. It was after 5 PM when we finally pulled up to the Club Atlantique in Dakar, the site of the softball tournament and our future debauchery.

The Club is a little bit like a country club back in the States, but without a golf course. It has basketball/tennis courts, a volleyball court, a restaurant/bar, a little food stand (the Shady Shack, without which I would have lived on a completely liquid diet the three days we spent in Dakar), a pool, and a number of softball fields. One of them, the field where the final game was played, is directly on the cliffs above the ocean. Gorgeous.

PC RIM completely dominated WAIST, in every way possible. We rolled up at least twice as deep as any other group there. We were loud, racous, mohawked, and ready to win us a championship. Team C was the party team. We managed to win a game against Senegalese PCVs, but in general we concentrated on the music playlist and the next beer run. One of our PCVs walked around literally the entire three days carrying a giant old school boombox, which kept the party going.

Those of us on teams mostly stayed in the homes of American ex-pats living in Dakar. I had about ten PCVs staying with me at a house about five minutes from the Club. Every morning, we headed over to the Club, played our games, cheered for the other PC RIM teams, and then went out for the night. Our A team put on a fine show, winning the tournament with ease and grace, supported by the rest of our constant cheering. I'd say about half of us, including myself, lost our voices from all the screaming. I still don't have mine back; all the Mauritanians back at my site think I'm sick.

(To be fair, they also don't really get that I was just in another country. Life beyond Mauritania is very difficult for them to imagine. Actually, even some places in Mauritania are very difficult for them to imagine. Some volunteers have had to explain to their host families that the US is not, in fact, south of Senegal, but on a completely different continent. They don't get the continent thing either. Some Mauritanians couldn't even tell you what, let alone where, Africa is.)

The tournament lasted three days, after which I was so exhausted I had to peace out. Some people stayed to check out Dakar, and I do feel a little guilty that I didn't see more of the city than the house, the Club, and a random bar or two. Next time I will have to stick around and explore. Dakar is huge and definitely the most like an American city that you can find here in West Africa. That in itself was a little mind-blowing: highways and traffic lights and grocery stores and office buildings. Weird. Even weirder to think that I'm sitting in a mud brick one-room house as I write this.

So after Dakar, Zach and I and a couple of friends made our way north to St. Louis and chilled out on the beach for a day or two. We like to travel in increments, a few hours here and there, since its so uncomfortable/tiring/can sometimes take three times as long as it should. After a couple days of detoxing in St. Louis, we finally made it back to Mauritania, where we split up to head to our respective sites. Parting was a little sad, but luckily we will all be together again in a month or so.

I'm going to Morocco at the end of March, and after that all the PCVs in Mauritania are getting together in Atar (my regional capital) for a marathon and some environmental work. The environmental work is productive but also just a good reason to get everyone up here. We're so out of the way, it takes too long for most PCVs to make it up to this part of the country, so this is a good opportunity for them to check out how aweomse the Adrar is.

WAIST - Where All Insane Scallywags Travel!

2009-02-05T06:27:00.001-08:00

Ok, not really. WAIST stands for the West African Invitational Softball Tournament, and its where Ill be heading on the 8th! Ok, not really, I'm technically not leaving Mauritania until the 12th, but I'm leaving site the 8th. Chelsea and a couple of other friends are meeting me in Ain, and we're heading down to Akjoujt to celebrate yet another birthday as only Filipino miners can: with booze and karaoke!

I'll hang out there for a day or two, after which I'll meet up with some other friends (Pablo and Amanda, for those of you who are stalking other PC RIM blogs...ahem :) in Nouakchott. They're visiting their host families from training for a day and invited me to come along. They had really good experiences during training, so I'm gonna go see what all the bragging was about.

On the 11th, all the volunteers heading to WAIST (probably about 100 of us) are meeting up at the training center in Rosso. Weird. We have a safety and security session, and the next day they ship us all down to Dakar, Senegal on buses.

I have no idea what to expect out of this "softball tournament". I've heard stories about crazy partying, but its also apparently a family event. We formed three PC RIM teams: A team (Pirates), B team (I forget) and C team (Scallywags). I'm a scallywag (its a pirate themed event for PC RIM - arrrr)! Note: I actually had to try out to be on the C team. We pride ourselves on our dancing skills, our pantsless inning, and showing up the 12 year olds we inevitably have to play at least once (and who inevitably beat us). The A team is actually really good. They've won the tournament something like 4 out of the last 5 years. Its a point of pride for PC RIM. Actually, its THE point of pride for PC RIM. Apparently there's a decent amount of healthy competition between the regional PC programs over WAIST. People take it pretty seriously. But for those of us not on A team, its a chance to hit some balls, drink some beers, and check out Dakar.

In the meantime, my GMC will remain open for classes. Supposedly. We'll see how good my teachers are. If they manage to keep things up and running, I'll be amazed. Ultimately thats the goal, but considering that I just opened a week ago, I'm expecting some drag while I'm gone. Let you know how it goes!

What a FARMtastic idea!

2009-02-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

TransFARM the White House Lawn

Itchy Patches, a Stray Puppy and Tyrannosaurus Rex

2009-02-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough week for the animal kingdom in Ain Ehel Taya. This morning, I identified the mysterious circle-shaped itchy red patches on my collarbone and rib cage as ringworm, undoubtedly given to me by my streetcat, Petey. According to WebMD, ringworm is not, as I previously thought, a worm, but a fungus, and unfortunately, not the yummy kind. More like the itchy, gross, get it away from me kind. My first course of action: applying liberal amounts of anti-fungal cream, wisely included in our medical kits for sappy do-gooders who can't seem to leave the animals here to suffer in peace, to said itchy patches. Second course of action: ditching the cat. I carried him as far away from my house as I could, and then set him "free". He stood there on a pile of rocks and garbage and watched as I walked away. I haven't seen anything that sad since I watched "The Hurricane" last night (which had me in tears for the better part of the three hour long movie). But before that, not for awhile. Sigh.

This post is so uplifting, isn't? I promise, I'll finish with something silly. Anyway, the day before yesterday, I'm walking down the street and see this kid standing in the middle of the road, staring at something on the ground: a puppy with his eyes barely open. I ask him where its mother is, and he points in the general direction of about half the village. So I ask him whether she's far or not (the only question used in this country to determine location, to which the usual responses "far" or "not far" are frustratingly subjective). He says she's not far, and I pick up the puppy to take back to his mother, naively assuming that she belongs to someone. After a 20 minute trek across the village and up the side of a mountain, we find the mother hiding out among some rocks. She's obviously a stray and won't come anywhere near us. My first course of action: climbing down off the mountain, followed by finding a comfortable looking goat pen in which to deposit the little guy. He's not there anymore. Maybe him and Petey will find each other and make friends. I just hope I don't wind up seeing either one of them dead on the side of the road.

As promised, here's a little something to take the edge off: I discovered a new constellation last night! My evening routine consists of dinner around 8 or 9, followed by a movie/a few episodes of whatever TV show I happen to be addicted to at the moment/reading, followed by facewashing/teeth-brushing/sitting around outside and looking at the stars. During the hot months, I slept outside and became very well acquainted with the phases of the moon, when it rises and sets, and a few easy to discern constellations, such as the Big Dipper. After a while, I realized that the Big Dipper is a pretty boring constellation. Seriously, a spoon? Unfortunately, I know very little about the stars, so I started coming up with my own constellations. My newest discovery: T-Rex. His head is those three stars known as Orion's Belt (I get the belt thing, but I have never been able to see the guy supposedly wearing it). His body extends down and out to the left. That's not a very astronomical way of describing him, but hopefully you'll be able to make him out. 100 UM if you do!

Already Addicted

2009-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

I think I might have lied in that last post. Its going to be very easy for me to keep in touch now that I have internet because I'm apparently willing to forgo sleep for it. I'm going to be up way past my old lady bedtime tonight!

I just finished uploading pictures to Picasa, which you can check out here. See, I'm doing better already!

And I figured I should post a bit on my non-work life so you don't get the impression that I'm a complete workaholic. Though, as I've mentioned before, work and non-work lives are inextricably linked here. Working has helped me feel more a part of my community. Not that I didn't feel comfortable before, but it's given me a firmer sense of my role within the community. I don't feel like an observer anymore. I'm doing something that other people can see, and they respond to that.

With many Mauritanians, I've had to reconsider my idea of friendship. I've learned that the ritual exchange of a passing greeting can also be friendship, when you come to not only expect but look forward to it on a daily basis. You don't have to speak the same language or share similar life goals or views of the world to enjoy a friend. Funny how when you adjust your definition of a friend, you seem to have that many more of them.

Of course, sharing those things does make it a little easier. Outside of my family, I've bonded most with the small Pulaar community here. Two of them speak decent English, and the rest speak French. They are all teachers affectated from the south, meaning that the government assigns them to different locations all around the country without much regard for where they're from and where their families live. They just pick up and go where they're told every school year.

The oldest, Sy, is like a second host dad to me. Actually, I'm not really that close with my first host dad (he's a pretty aloof, older Moorish guy), so Sy is really it. He's lucky enough to have his wife and two little girls living with him here. They serve as a surrogate family for the rest of the Pulaar community in Ain, which consists of five other younger men and one of their wives. They eat all their meals together and generally keep to themselves. While they're friendly with the rest of the community (all Moors), they're still seen as and feel like outsiders. The ethnic divide in this country is painfully apparent.

Lucky for me, I can kind of float between all the different groups here. My being here provides opportunities for these groups to interact more than they normally would and, hopefully, an example for some of the younger people. I'd like to think that seeing me accepting and being accepted by different groups gives them the chance to realize that they have more in common than they might have thought otherwise.

Anyway, back to the Pulaars: they're awesome. Tonight, for example, I ran into one of them on my way home. We stopped off at his place, and one of his roommates had a portable radio on him and was dancing in the yard while he did some chores. Moorish music can be stifled and oppressive, but Pulaars like listening to music from Senegal and other black West African countries. Pretty much what you typically think of when you think of African music. Its got that Carribbean vibe (well, I guess Carribbean music has more of an African vibe). Either way, I don't hear much of it up here in the north, so it was pratically impossible to keep from bouncing to the music coming out of that radio. It wasn't long before the three of us were having a full-on dance party in the yard. Completely randomly. We had to shut the front door, of course, because everyone else in town would think we were a little crazy at best, unpardonably lewd at worst. Which I respect, but its so nice to be able to cut loose once in a while.

Great Strides

2009-01-28T11:44:00.000-08:00

I have internet in Ain now! Disclaimer: regular access to internet does not mean that I'll be any better about updating my blog, but I'll definitely try.

Mainly I can't promise anything because if the last few weeks are anything to go by, I'll barely have time to brush my teeth in the morning and cook myself dinner at night. As soon as I started GMC shopping, life got a little crazy. My GMC is now (mostly) furnished. I'll be posting before and after photos as soon as its totally done. Its hard to believe how much has happened in such a short amount of time. I was so overwhelmed by it all that I was a little hesitant to just dive in (worried I'd let something fall through the cracks, I guess). But once I did, it was either sink or swim, and I think its safe to say that so far I've been able to keep my head above water. Classes should be starting next week!

I think the most valuable lesson I've learned in the past few weeks is that taking the plunge is the hardest part of getting involved in something that intimidates you. I spent a lot of time worrying about how I was going to pull everything together and make this happen, never having been single-handedly responsible for a project like this before. Since I actually started doing it, I've gained confidence with every obstacle I've overcome. And I've been working on giving myself permission to not do everything perfectly all the time. That's another lesson I've recently learned: I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself. Pressure is a good thing, to an extent, but it can be utterly debilitating in large amounts.

That being said, I can't imagine how unhinged I would have been the past 7 months (can you believe its been that long!?), and even more so the past few weeks, without the unwavering support of my friends and especially my family. The confidence you all have in me and your words of love and encouragement have been invaluable to me. I would not be nearly as capable if it weren't for all of you.

A Few Random Notes...

2009-01-17T16:32:00.000-08:00

After a thorough crotchal examination, Chelsea and I discovered that the kitten I picked up as actually a he. His name is Pierre Esteban Vieira Herion-Szabo (a.k.a. Petey). I brought him back to Ain, and he's the most well-behaved little thing. My family thinks I'm a little crazy for having a pet (they don't do that here), but they thought I was a little crazy before, so no harm done. Also, they captured another kitten thinking it was Petey, tied her up and left her for me to find. So I now have two identical kittens. They're super cute together, but I feel like two cats a cat-lady makes, so we'll see what I do with the second one.

Work is about to start getting a little crazy. I'm aiming to open up my GMC on March 8 (International Women's Day). In between now and then, I plan on purchasing all the furnishings and other materials for the center, setting it all up, having a meeting with my mentors and teachers and other people who have been involved in the planning process to settle on a preliminary schedule, running a brief "gender in the classroom" workshop for my teachers and mentors, holding an open house for the girls and their parents, and coordinating a hopefully not too elaborate ceremony for opening day. Eek, that's a little overwhelming, writing it all down like that, but I think I'll be able to swing it. One thing at a time.

Smack in the middle of all that, we have WAIST: the West African Invitation Softball Tournament. More on that later, but I'll be traveling down to Dakar in mid-February for a week or so. Not the best timing, but it'll be a good break. And something to look forward to while I'm running around taking care of all this GMC stuff.

I'll especially be looking forward to WAIST because Zach is leaving the country now and we'll be out of touch until everyone meets up in Dakar. He's going over land to Ghana for an environmental conference (and monkeys, apparently) with some other volunteers. Should be an awesome trip, and I can't believe I have to wait a whole month before I hear anything about it!

Luckily, I have plenty of traveling to look forward to in the near future. I love that about Peace Corps. When else would I have had the chance to explore this part of the world? Who knows if I ever would have made it to West Africa otherwise (there's too much to see!), but now that I'm here, I'm glad I'm getting the chance to check it out. I'm such a travel junky. Anyway, we're planning on heading up to Morocco in late March/early April. Exact dates have yet to be settled on (sorry to those of you who are waiting to buy plane tickets, it's not my fault!), but we're meeting up with home friends there and I'm beyond excited about it.

So that's whats up with me at the moment. I'm getting internet hooked up at my GMC, so whenever I actually figure out how to do that I'll be in touch!

Christmas and New Years Shananigans

2009-01-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't get to talk to all of you on the phone around Christmas, so MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Being away from family and friends for the holidays was a little weird. You were all in my thoughts, and hearing from some of you was one of the best Christmas presents ever!

Even though I wasn't at home, I had some awesome people to spend Christmas with this year. All the volunteers got together in Nouakchott and had a huge party on Christmas Eve. Everyone was so excited to catch up with people and cut loose after a rough few months for us first years. Most of the past two weeks was carefree good times, but we also got to vent to each other and realize that we're dealing with similar issues back at site.

We spent Christmas day at our Country Director's house in Nouakchott. Some of the volunteers spent days before putting together a huge feast with all this American food. Yum! After that we went down to Rosso for a couple of days, so I stopped off to see my old host family. They were so excited to see me! I wasn't really expecting that because we didn't have a close relationship or anything, but my mom was all about me coming back to visit over the summer. They were all impressed with my Hassaniye now, and it was pretty awesome seeing how much I've progressed in the last four months.

After a couple of days, it was time to start vacation for real. We hopped the ferry across the Senegal River in Rosso and caught a taxi down to St. Louis. Taxis in Mauritania are usually packed four people across in the back seat and two in the passenger seat, maybe another three or four in the very back seat if it's a Peugot station wagon. It's one of the most painful experiences ever. Inevitably you're squished between two massive Mauritanian women who think that because you weigh less than 200 pounds, you don't need any room, so you end up crushed sideways between them for a six hour trip. Luckily, you kind of go numb after the first two hours. In Senegal, though, they let everyone have their very own seat! Our car traveled at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour the entire way down, and it kept running out of gas and we kept having to get out and push, but none of that mattered because I had my own freaking seat. It was awesome.

Eventually we made it into St. Louis, which is an old French colonial town at the mouth of the Senegal River. It spans the coast of the mainland and two other islands, one in the river and the other on the ocean. I've never been to New Orleans, but a lot of people said that's what St. Louis looked like. Lots of old colonial architecture, thick old trees, and bougainville everywhere. And the cool thing was you had this vibrant, beachy African culture mixing with the European vibe. And it's a fishing town, so you can see all these brightly painted wooden fishing boats lining the banks of the river. The whole place was awesome.

A bunch of us stayed in a hotel right on the beach. It was a little far from the center of town where all the restaurants and bars and clubs are, but we managed to get around pretty easily. And we spent most of our time partying on the beach anyway. It was heaven. The beach was gorgeous, despite some trash (we're all a little desensitized to garbage now) and some creepy Senegalese dudes. Mostly they just wanted to scavenge floating beers, but some of them would sit down and stare at all of us like we were putting on a play or something. One cracked out dude came over in nothing but a tank top and sat next to us and sang at the top of his lungs for hours. He kind of ruined that day, actually, but for the most part it wasn't a huge problem.

We had a big bonfire on the beach one night, which was probably my favorite of the trip. For New Years a bunch of us had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then met up with people in town. It was almost like being back home, but better. Not only did we have a social scene to enjoy, but we were on a beach in Africa! I like reminding myself of that fact every once in a while; it still blows me away when I really think about it :)

We were kind of a force to be reckoned with that night: this rowdy group of 70 or 80 deprived PCVs showing up at the bar together. I think we might have frightened some of the Senegalese PCVs we ran into. First of all, Senegalese and Malian PCVs have apparently been banned from traveling to Mauritania because of extreme culture differences and the political instability. And yet, we're allowed to live here. Badass. Second of all, we're all just a little crazy. PCVs in Senegal can just walk into a bar and chill out with a beer, go to pools, wear pants, whatever, whenever they want. We can't, so being in Senegal after six months of social oppression was pretty much like letting a kid into a candy store after nothing but broccoli and spinach for six months. I think it's safe to say that we got a little crazy on New Years, but luckily everyone made it out alive, with only a few scrapes and bruises to show for it :)

After that, it was back to Nouakchott for a few days of "training", and now I'm back in Atar. I'm heading out to site tomorrow with Chelsea, and hopefully my house and GMC will be all set for me to start moving into both. Yay! Also, I just picked up a stray cat. I'm gonna try and keep her, so I'll let you know how that goes. The next few weeks should be pretty busy, but I'll be around. Hope you are all doing well. I love and miss you!!

More Peace Corps!

2008-12-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my blog, you know what an amazing, important experience Peace Corps has been for me so far, and any effort to make that experience possible for more Americans is definitely something I can get behind. Check out this website to learn more about the More Peace Corps effort, then sign the petition in support of expanding Peace Corps under President Obama (I love saying that...:)

Self-Proclaimed Slacker

2008-12-17T10:15:00.000-08:00

I know I've been terrible at updating my blog recently, and it probably won't get better for a while. I've been running all over the country since Thanksgiving, and I'll only be doing more of that for Christmas/New Years/some Peace Corps training. Major events in the recent past:

1. Went to Boghe (city down south very close to the border with Senegal), hung out with a boy, ate something resembling real food, realized this country is not as stuffy as the north makes you feel like it is
2. Found a house of my own to move into!
3. Went to Akjoujt (city a couple hours south of Atar) for a birthday, ate something resembling real food (actually, yeah, it was real food), drank wine, sang karaoke, had a dance party

Currently, I'm in Atar for a day or two to take care of some loose ends (including this blog post). Major events of the near future:

1. Going back to Ain the 19th to make sure repairs get done on my new house, teach some English classes, say good-bye to people
2. Going to Akjoujt the 22nd for the first holiday party of the season, will probably eat something resembling real food (basically every event from here on out involves real food, which is something I'm extremely excited about but I'll stop saying it)
3. Going to Nouakchott for Christmas! Aside from the real food I just said I wouldn't mention, I will also be staying in a real hotel with real beds and real running water
4. Going somewhere down south to kill a couple of days between Christmas and New Years, when I'll be...
5. Going to St. Louis! Yeah, that's in Senegal. They have beaches. And bars. And did I mention real food?
6. Going back to Nouakchott for early-term reconnect (ETR) and in-service training (IST). Yay PC acronyms! That basically just means we'll all be hanging out in Nouakchott (see above) for an extra week. Sweet!

So yeah, that's my life right now, in a nut shell. I'll probably move into my new place when I get back from IST, assuming all the repairs are made. I love my family, but it's gonna be nice having my own space.

Anyway, just wanted to keep you all updated. I promise to post something other than a numbered chronological list of my physical locations as soon as possible :)

Turkey Day Bliss

2008-11-28T03:20:00.000-08:00

Literally all I've been doing for the past 48 hours is eating, drinking, and cooking more food. Glorious. Breakfast this morning consisted of cold pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes, followed by warm pancakes and something vaguely resembling syrup. Yum.

I really wanted to post a good update on how work is going, but obviously I've been distracted, ha. My proposal was approved, and apparently I'm getting computers on the first of the month. I have no idea what to do with them, which is one reason why I didn't see the point in rushing to get my proposal off to begin with. The room isn't ready for me to start setting anything up. I'm still waiting on the Mayor to verify that I can have the room I want, and it still needs to have electricity installed (also the responsibility of the Mayor). Hopefully all that will get resolved at a meeting on the 30th.

I have managed to start signing up teachers to mentor, and I should be able to find one or two women from the local co-ops to teach things like sewing and dying. Finding mentors is probably the hardest part of this job. Volunteerism isn't a big part of Mauritanian culture. People generally expect some sort of compensation for their time, even if it's in the form of English or computer lessons. Which I have no problem doing, but I'm only one person and this job is already pretty demanding.

Still, I'd rather have too much to do than not enough. My next moves are going to be making sure I have a core group of committed mentors and planning out a schedule. Once the room is ready, I'll be working on purchasing furniture and other supplies in Atar, shipping them out to Ain and getting it all set up.

I've got some other ideas that have been germinating the past couple of months. I want to run a gender in education workshop for my mentors before they start teaching at the GMC. I also want to set up a program during the week for young women who either already finished or dropped out of school. At this point, the basics of getting the GMC up and running are dominating my time, but hopefully once things settle down after Christmas, I'll be able to start thinking more about these smaller projects. What with Thanksgiving, a trip down south, Christmas, New Years and training right afterwards, things are going to be a little crazy over the next month or so.

Solar Powered Oven

2008-11-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

I forgot, how cool is this, my mom is sending me a solar powered oven! I'm pretty stoked; I've been missing being able to bake. Now I feel like I'm going to be baking non-stop. Maybe this will help me win over some Mauritanians to American cooking, ha. I'm also thinking about maybe starting a project involving these ovens. It's just an idea at the moment, and what with the center, I don't have a whole lot of time for secondary projects at the moment, but I definitely see some potential here. I can probably tie it into the GMC program pretty easily. Thanks, Mom!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm in town for a couple of days, just for the big day tomorrow, then I'm heading back to site cause I have to teach on Saturday. But I got in this morning, and already it's getting pretty crowded at the house. We're expecting somewhere around 25 people for tomorrow, all PCVs from the region and nearby. It's been awesome catching up with people, and the food tomorrow should be delicious! Chicken and mashed potatoes and PIES! So exicted. :)

Aaaaaaaand I'm Back!

2008-11-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be aware that my Google account was recently hijacked by some company, since said company was sending out spam from my address. I wasn't able to access my account at all, and I thought this blog was lost forever, but I contacted Google yesterday and they restored everything (so it seems) in record time. Props to Google for proving once again how awesome they are. And sorry to those of you who thought they had gotten a nice email from yours truly and opened some nasty spam instead.

I was just looking back at my last post and thinking, if I thought the end of October was madness, I don't know what to call the past couple of weeks. Busy, to say the very least. Stressful also, but it feels good to be doing work. Last week I held three needs assessment meetings with different groups from the community: college (middle school) girls, co-op women, and teachers. Basically, these meetings are a chance for me to formally introduce the GMC concept (I now have an awesome DVD that explains in all in Arabic!), to interview people about how the program can address specific community needs, and to (hopefully) recruit mentors and other community members to help get the GMC open and keep it running.

I came into Atar a few days ago to work on my proposal. GMCs and other gender-related projects are funded by Gender and Development (GAD) grants, which come from USAID and World Education (an international NGO). I have to request money for every item I want in my GMC (tables, chairs, floor mats, computers, water jugs, pencils...you get the picture) and send it to Nouakchott for Peace Corps to approve. So I've been working on putting that together the past few days. My APCD (the Mauritanian woman who coordinates all GEE activities) arrived in Atar the other day to make sure all the GEE volunteers in the region are doing alright. She's coming out to site with me tomorrow.

The last couple of weeks have given me the chance to really start developing a concrete idea of what my GMC program should look like. It's a good feeling. Of course, I won't have the whole thing planned out until I have a set of committed Mauritanians, even just a few, to sit down with me and plan out the particulars. Unfortunately, there's a lot of pressure to just open the thing and get it over with. We were lectured incessantly during training about the need for sustainability in whatever projects we implement, so I was surprised to get some of this pressure from the same direction those lectures came from. Creating a sustainable program takes time, getting acquainted with your community, gathering the language skills and cultural knowledge to develop an appropriate project. In all honestly, I still don't have the skills to do that to the best of my abilities, but I'm only going to be here for two years and I'm here, after all, to work. Like I said in my last post, it's been trial by fire, but it's a great learning experience.

Also, I may end up with internet at site! I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, my life will be a lot easier in terms of work. I'll be able to get in touch with people whenever I want and unrestricted access to information for planning lessons, etc. On the other hand, I'm going to be tempted to use it all the time. And everyone in the village is going to want in on it, and I don't know how I'm doing to handle that.

On another note, my birthday was last week! I was at site, and while I didn't make a fuss about it, I had a great day. The happy birthday wishes were overwhelming. I wish I could put into words just how much it means to have such wonderful people in my life! Thank you, all. Mauritanians included, even though you probably will never read this. Memorable moments from my birthday: teaching the Happy Birthday song to my english class, being swamped at the wedding I went to immediately afterwards, and trying (unsuccessfully) to make birthday pancakes for myself and a few Mauritanian friends. They were unimpressed with my cooking abilities, which is unfortunate cause I'm trying to promote good nutrition. Oh well. I thought they were good, though decidedly unpancake-like.

I'm not sure what my next couple of weeks will look like. I'll be in Ain tomorrow but may end up coming back up to Atar with the Peace Corps cars to finish my proposal. I still have some things to price, and I'll need to email it to Nouakchott. My APCD wants it in by the weekend so it can be approved by Tuesday's meeting. Not that it really matters, since my GMC probably won't be open for another three months. But anyway, then it'll be Thanksgiving! We're planning a feast here in Atar, should be a good time. :)

Halloween/The Madness that was the End of October

2008-11-03T02:15:00.000-08:00

So can you believe I've been at site for two whole months? Crazy. And I've been in Mauritania now for...drum roll, please...five months! I have no idea where the time is going.

I came into Atar a few days ago for Halloween. About ten of us were here, and we had a pretty sweet little holiday bash. We got costumes at the dead toubab store. My outfit: neon blue spandex pants, a light blue, super sparkly collared shirt and a pink sash. I wouldn't say I dressed up as something specific; it was just generally ridiculous. Good times. :) A bunch of people went to a big party down south. Kinda wish I could have gone, but us newbies are not allowed to travel for another month!

What else is going on...since the last time I wrote, I went down to Akjoujt. Spent an awesome couple of days hanging out, eating good food (fried chicken! pork chops! BEER!), sang some karaoke, you know, the usual. And I got to pick Hayley's brain about starting up a GMC. Her situation was very different from mine. She's in a regional capital, with lots of resources (human resources, most importantly) that I don't have. Still, it was a good opportunity to see what I want to do with my situation, and what I need to do to really get the ball rolling.

In terms of work, I've had a rough couple of weeks. I've been trying to get some English classes started as a secondary project, just so I'll have something to do while I get the GMC up and running. And everyone wants them, so why not? What I thought would be a relatively simple process turned into a huge ordeal. Figuring out who to give lessons to (I obviously can't teach the whole village) and who to involve in that decision was complicated enough. On top of that, I had some issues with my counterpart, who was charging money for books and other supplies without me realizing it. And to complicate matters even more, I found out that the two people I work the most with are barely on speaking terms. Kind of sad that it took me two months to figure that one out, but it's not like anyone explained the situation to me. Everything here is very hidden, covert, almost. Relationships are masked by protocol and the necessity of formalities and respect for elders/gender differences/familial/tribal ties/etc. Needless to say, it's going to take me a while to learn the politics of my village and to figure out how to navigate them. Trying to get this English project off the ground made me realize just how ignorant I am of it all and how difficult that process is going to be. Trial by fire!

Anyway, I ended up having a big meeting with as many of the interested parties as I could round up and started signing girls up. When I get back to Ain, I'll finish that process (just need to hit up the local college - that's the equivalent of middle school) and get started!

I'm off to site tomorrow. I was supposed to go back yesterday but got a little held up, mostly because my best friend in region is in town and she only gets to come into Atar every once in a while cause its really expensive for her. I was going to go back today but had some issues at the bank, so tomorrow, finally, I will be back at site. Sorry this isn't a more substantive post; things have been pretty hectic and I've been more than a little stressed. I've been relaxing since I got in and haven't really had the brain power to write much. Also, my power strip out at site busted, so I wasn't able to type up any posts while I was there, but I bought a new one so I will get back on that.

Miss you guys!

Praise Allah for the Federal Write-In Ballot

2008-10-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

A Peace Corps car came up to Atar this weekend with ballots for all of us procrastinators who didn't get our absentee ballots worked out in time. Which was most of us, actually. The paperwork for those things is ridiculous. Luckily it all worked out, and I have just submitted my first presidential election ballot!

A few thoughts on the election: not only is this my first time voting in a presidential election, it's the first time I've been so personally invested in the outcome, and I'm getting really excited! I can't imagine what it's like at home now; the energy has got to be crazy. Literally every Mauritanian I've talked to has been pro-Obama, which makes me feel like we have a real chance to make up for the last few years if he pulls this one out. Here's hoping!

Ok, that's it for now. I'll be hitching a free ride with the Peace Corps car down to Akjoujt tomorrow morning. I've been back and forth a lot this month, and while I feel like I haven't been spending enough time at site, I seem to be getting things done. Hooray for being busy! I'll be in Akjoujt for a few days, then back to site until just before Halloween. Hope you all are doing well!

Day in the Life

2008-10-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

from 10/16

Things have picked up significantly since Ramadan ended. Suddenly, I feel like I’m incredibly busy, and while I’m definitely getting work done, I don’t know where half of my time goes. Whole days will pass, and I’ll realize that I spent a total of maybe two hours on actual work but had no free time because even socializing feels like work. It’s fun, but it’s usually exhausting, with the language barrier and all, and mostly consists of sitting around perfecting the art of not being bored. Most of my socializing is work anyway, at the heart of it, since I can only be friends with so many people, and it just makes more sense to cultivate relationships with people who can help me. So I guess its networking Mauritanian style, more than anything else.

Take today, for example: I woke up this morning expecting a relatively low-key day. I planned on visiting a local women’s co-op, drinking some tea, making some friends, then heading home for lunch, some prep work, and a nap. I head to the co-op around 10, wind up learning how to basket-weave, teaching a brief English lesson, learning the complete family trees of at least three different women, and walking home with a purse made of dates. As soon as I get back, the man from the mayor’s office I’ve been working with, Waled, calls and tells me that the mayor is in town and invites me to the equivalent of town hall to greet him. I stop on the way to chat with a new teacher friend of mine about some computer lessons I’ll be giving him and two girls he wants to recommend for my GMC.

When I got to the town hall, Waled led me straight past a group of police and national guard officers and what I assume were some lesser regional officials into a room where the town mayor, the regional governor and prefect (a.k.a. the Wali and the Hakim), the regional chiefs of the national guard and police, and a number of other important (read: incredibly old) looking men were sitting. Waled went back outside to join the other group for tajiin and tea, leaving me to be waited on with the big shots by men from the mayor’s office (who I had always seen as my superiors). Of course, I’m the only woman to be seen in the place. Even the women in the kitchen stay out of sight.

After greeting and small talking in French, they bring out what looks like half a goat, basically the best tajiin I’ve ever had. We eat, tea is served, and the next thing I know, the oldest, most wrinkly guy starts speaking in Hassaniye. Everyone’s listening intently. Nobody moves. When I showed up, I thought I was just supposed to meet the mayor, greet everyone and peace out. So I’m sitting there, having no idea what the guy is saying or whether its even appropriate for me to stay, but it seems like it’d be even more inappropriate for me to get up in the middle of him talking, which continues for a good thirty minutes. I decide to wait for an break in the talking, but as soon as he finishes, the next oldest guy starts talking. This repeats cycle repeats itself five or six times before I turn to the Wali and ask him in a whisper whether or not I should leave, since it seems like they’re conducting official business. He tells me to stay. So I stay, a little more sure of myself, and talk business with the mayor after all the speech giving. He’s got some pretty grandiose ideas about my program, but at least he’s enthusiastic.

The whole situation was a little surreal. Here I am, this random, 22 year old girl with a development project in girls’ education rubbing elbows with the decision makers of the region as if I mattered. Every aspect of official life here is very deliberate. The group of people you eat with, the order in which the tea is served, who gets to talk when. The fact that I was eating with this group of men when those who basically run the village were either outside with the group of less important men, or serving us, just blows my mind. It has to do with status here, which is often established by birth or position rather than your achievements. And while it makes me more than a little uncomfortable, I’m a white westerner, and that seems to override even the fact that I’m a woman, and a young one, at that.

After that, I planned to head home to rest a bit before meeting up with the big shots again to receive a visiting minister from Nouakchott. I stumble across a wedding on my way home. Hopefully this gives you an idea of what I meant in my last entry, about the male and female spheres. I have to fit into both, and the transition from one to the other is often very abrupt. Now its time for me to sit around with the women. I eat (again), listen to some music, then decide I really have to get home if I’m going to be able to function later.

Ten minutes after I settle onto my matela in my room for a nap, Rouqaya and a group of about twenty other women get home from the wedding and plop down in the courtyard about ten yards from my door. Groups of women here are loud. The scream and laugh and sing and smack each other (and each other’s kids). It’s a circus, and it’s a little overwhelming. Needless to say, I didn’t get any sleep.

Half an hour later, I’m up again for a bucket bath, then I head out to the party that’s being thrown for the visiting minister. I hike from one end of the village to the other at least three times, trying to figure out where the house is. I find it, only to be surrounded by a screaming group of children growing exponentially by the second. My friend Fatimetou rescues me, whisking me away to her house across the street. I give her a quick lesson in French and English. Two hours after his scheduled arrival, the minister shows up with an entourage of at least twenty people (including a truckload of armed soldiers and two random white people working on a nutrition project in Nouakchott; totally unrelated to his work from what I can tell, but they’re white, so why not?). They all walk into the courtyard, a huge crowd gathers around them, the women clap and sing, a cameraman films something at the center of the crowd, and barely five minutes later, they’re all piling back into their Land Rovers and peeling out into the darkness of the desert.

I get home around 8 o’clock, ready to relax after a long day. Rouqaya shows up at my door with this kid who’s been trying to do my laundry, to explain to me why he’s been sending me phone credit (cell phones here are pay as you go, and you can transfer credit from one phone to another through text messaging). This conversation takes about half an hour. I’m still not exactly sure what was going on there: something to do with a woman I bought soap from.

It’s 9:30 now, almost time for dinner. I’ll spend the next half an hour watching Al Jazeera with my family, eat some couscous, and then collapse onto my matela in the courtyard to sleep under the stars.

Women

2008-10-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

from 10/15

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Mauritanian women lately. In Moorish culture, life can be seen as consisting of a male sphere and a female sphere. The two overlap, of course, but women generally spend their time with other women. Since the women here speak no French whatsoever, its been hard for me to break into the female sphere. I hang out with them, but only recently have I been able to talk about anything other than where I’m from, what I’m doing here (in extremely basic terms), and whether or not I’m married. Also, there’s the fact that, on a personal level, I can relate more with the men. Luckily, I’m kind of an honorary man here, but it makes it even harder to figure out how I should behave in certain situations.

I wrote a little before about the female preoccupation with marriage, but I oversimplified it. It’s not just a question of money, of course. When I wrote that, I assumed that women here would want to pursue other life paths if given the opportunity. I was trying to understand Mauritanian culture through the lens of my experience as an American woman who values independence and self-sufficiency. Mauritanian values are dictated by religion, and here, it seems, marriage is a value in and of itself. I was talking (through a male teacher who was translating for us) with a female teacher about the goals of my program. I explained that I want to encourage girls to complete their education and to provide them with the ideas and skills to make more informed decisions about their futures. Of course, marriage came up, as it’s one of the major reasons why girls drop out of school. The woman wasn’t married, and I was thinking, great, here is a woman who sees the value in pursuing a life independent of a man and a family. Wrong. Even she thinks marriage is more important than being able to support herself (which she probably sees as a burden).

I’m going to have to adjust my motivations for working in the GEE sector. It’s going to be difficult (if not impossible) to change this mentality. This is a society that doesn’t believe in birth control because however many children they wind up having is god’s will (as is pretty much everything else that happens here, which explains the apathy to the political situation). I know there are a few women who do practice birth control, but its very secretive. It’s going to take a while before I have the cultural knowledge to be able to advocate things like family planning. In terms of encouraging girls to become active in the public sphere (to the extent that it exists, which is very little, outside of the bigger cities), I have to accept that marriage and family take priority over everything else. Basically, I have to reconcile my goals (and western ideals) with the Mauritanian system of values. Which I always knew I was going to have to do, I’m just starting to realize exactly how that’s going to affect my agenda.

For a while, at least, I’m going to have to focus on things that can improve their quality of life as it is, like health precautions (hygiene, nutrition, vaccinations) and general education. I get frustrated when people push me for lessons in English and computers, when, really, those things aren’t going to have much of an impact. Who cares if a handful of women in a village of a thousand people 40 kilometers from a city that is minimally connected to the world at large can speak some basic phrases in English? Most of them will never leave Ain, and if they do, more than likely it’ll be because they marry someone from another village. On the other hand, I value education as a goal in and of itself, and even if I only get through to one girl at a fundamental level, she’ll be able to apply those new values in the way she raises her own family. It’s a painfully slow process, this development thing. And it’s so much more than convincing girls to go to school. The economic and political situation of this country are shaky, at best. Even men with an education can do very little with it here.

Mauritanians realize that they’re without, but they‘re generally happy. I have yet to discover what they think is the cause of their disadvantage. Religion seems to be the under-lying obstacle for my sector, but how can I presume to say that something is fundamentally wrong with the way they’re living their lives? Who’s to say that one system of values is better than another? Children aren’t dying of starvation here. No one is homeless. Gun violence and drug addiction are unheard of. Every society has it’s problems, and the best I can do is help them solve those they perceive in their own society without passing judgment, and hopefully introduce some new ideas along the way.

Photos

2008-10-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who can't access Facebook, click here for my photos from training. Most of them were posted here at some point, but some weren't.

Also, I know I didn't get to share all of my photos from China, so here are the links to those albums as well:
China!
China 2!
China 3!

A Good Life

2008-10-11T09:09:00.001-07:00

Finally updated my posts (see below). Enjoy!

I got into Atar yesterday to pick up some English lesson plans. School is supposedly starting Sunday (the teachers here ended the last school year striking, so we're not really sure what's going to happen - also, school rarely starts on time in general). I'm still working out the details of the night classes I'll be teaching. My Hassaniye is coming along, but it's still a major issue. Also, I discovered that my counterpart and the mayor of my village have some misguided ideas about how money factors into my work. Long story short: the mayor doesn't think he has to pay the electric bill at my GMC and my counterpart thinks she can make money off of my teaching to pay the bill (and probably make a profit as well). My language skills are not quite up to the task of working this situation out, so I have to get in contact with my APCD (supervisor, of sorts) in Nouakchott to explain what is and is not allowed.

Other than that, life is going really well. This past week, I've absolutely loved being in my village. I can't remember the last time I had the feeling of being isolated and adrift I used to get sometimes the first few weeks at site. My work still overwhelms me when I think about it too much (both the extent of it and how effective it will actually be), but I'm just taking it one step at a time.

I've fallen completely in love with my family. My relationship with my family in Rosso was cordial and generally friendly, but a little distant. I realize now that was because they kind of sucked. My mom was polite and I never needed anything, but she didn't put much effort into making me part of the family. She was always yelling at and smacking around the kids, who were always screaming and crying, understandably. It didn't exactly make for a happy home environment. But my family here is totally different, and like I said, they're awesome.

Hadrami is my host father. He's probably about 55 years old, but he looks like he's 90. He owns a boutique on the gadrone, but his kids have been keeping it going recently because he's been sick. I'm not sure if he's going to go back to work at all. He's pretty old school, and since women and men traditionally don't interact casually if they're not in the same family, I think he doesn't really know what to do with me.

Zeinabou, his wife, is the cutest little lady you've ever met. She's the matriarch of the household, and generally oversees the housework (but her daughters do most of it). She's always laughing. She surprises me with random words in English sometimes, so I tease her about how she secretly knows English better than I do. She's incredibly patient with me. She always seems to know how to explain something to me when nobody else can get a point across.

Rouqaya, their oldest daughter, is my counterpart. She's married, but her husband lives and works in Nouakchott. She helps me the most with my Hassaniye. She's surprisingly receptive to my strange American ideas about girls education and nutrition and health. Her daughter, Tikber, is about 6 months old and is adorable. I make faces at her, and she giggles and scrunches up her nose at me. So cute!

Rouqaya has two younger sisters: Fatimetou and Aichetou. Fatimetou is about 14 years old. She's kind of shy and she studies every day, which is almost unheard of here. Especially for a girl. I've told you a little bit about Aichetou. She's married, and sometimes I forget she's only 12 years old. Girls here take on a lot of the household responsibilities at a very young age. But she still gets to act like a little girl from time to time. She's really playful, and totally infatuated with me. She likes to come in my room and just sit and watch whatever I'm doing, which is flattering but a little annoying at times. Still, she's a sweetheart, and we get along well.

I also have a few host brothers, which I didn't discover until recently. One of them, Dahmoud, lives with the family, but he's never around. He seems really nice, and he always smiles and responds when I talk to him, but I think he doesn't really know what to do with me, either. He's maybe 20. I think there are two other brothers, but I'm pretty sure neither one of them lives at home. Still figuring that out. Obviously, I don't know any of them very well yet.

Family time is best when it's just the women. We sit around making fun of each other and bickering and being bored and entertaining each other. Having never had sisters, it's a little foreign to me (ha), but it a good way.

I've been so focused on establishing myself socially, it's hard to switch gears and start thinking about work. Especially since most of the people I've been hanging out with (women), don't do work in the general 9-5 sense. They don't understand when I tell them I can't sit around by the side of the road all day and chat because I actually have things I should be doing. But now the holiday is over and I'm going to start being productive. I can't believe it's already almost half way through October!

“Ead”, which means "holiday", and is not, in fact, the name of the holiday we just celebrated to mark the end of Ramadan

2008-10-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

from 9/3

I got back to site (from Atar) the 30th of September, the last day of Ramadan. The day after is a big fete (holiday). Mauritanians dress up in new clothes and go around visiting friends and family and eating yummy food all day. Another volunteer came back with me to see my site but also to experience the holiday. Ramadan begins and ends according to the phases of the moon. Nobody here knows in advance when those are, so they watch the news the find out when the holiday is going to be. They usually don’t know until the night before. Some people won’t celebrate until they see the new moon themselves, which means they end up celebrating a day late.

Aly and I went to bed before we found out when the fete was supposed to be, so we woke up the morning of and had to ask. It was pretty obvious, though; my family was dressed in their best and people were already visiting by the time we went to investigate. The events of the day weren’t that different from any other non-work, pre-Ramadan day, but everyone was just so happy that Ramadan was over, the excitement was contagious.

We started the day with a typical round of tea. Then they brought out dates, which we eat here all the time, but they had made this delicious cheesy, creamy dip. Yum. Then they brought out a special tajiin: a plate full of goat organs. I had heard of volunteers being presented with this dish before, but my experience with organs had been limited to maybe some stomach or a little bit of intestine thrown in with some meat in the middle of a bowl of couscous or rice. This was just a big pile of every organ imaginable. I stayed away from the intestine (on principle), and I haven’t been able to get past the fact that stomach looks like pieces of terry-cloth (and honestly, can stomach even be digested?). The lung was decent (but squishy), and the heart was delicious. I had some other non-descript delicacies. Rouqaya ate the testicles. I couldn’t bring myself to be quite that adventurous. Still, I’ve come a long way since the kidney incident in Strasbourg, haven’t I, Mom? Brains!! :)

The rest of the day consisted of more tea and relaxing with the family and their visitors. Someone was trying to explain to Aly and I that “ead”, which is how everyone was referring to the holiday, was three days. We took this to mean that the holiday we were currently celebrating was three days long, so we thought we had plenty of time to make the rounds and visit everyone. Turns out “ead” just means “holiday”, and they were trying to explain that there are three major holidays every year. We didn’t figure that out until the next day. Oops.

My friend Fatimatou came over in the evening and took us to a friend’s house. One thing that I love about people here is that they meet you once and you’re automatically friends. Fatimatou left, and Aly and I just hung out at her friend’s house, drinking tea and trying to communicate, with typically comical results. People here are so friendly, and they love to joke and tease, even if they just met you. They invited us to a wedding that night. We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Fatimatou’s family, then Aly and I came home to eat dinner before she came over to go to the wedding with us.

Weddings are huge, three-day parties. I have yet to experience the whole affair. They set up in someone’s courtyard or in the street. Everyone sits around on the ground in clumps, and they bring out tom-toms (drums) and the women clap and sing and try to convince each other to get up and dance. Usually they have a real band at least one night. Mostly it’s just a big group of women; the men either loiter around outside or hover on the edges of the group. I think the rules about men and women interacting are a little different depending on whether it’s a black or white Moor wedding.

Anyway, I was a little disappointed after we discovered yesterday that the fete was over. I couldn’t help getting swept up in the excitement of it all, and it was awesome having a visitor for the holiday. I realized how much I enjoy being here. I am amazed by how much I feel like a member of my family and my community. Its little things. This morning, for example, my host mother, who is the cutest little old lady, brought Aly and I a plate of mutton. It was 9 o’clock in the morning, and grilled meat was the last thing on my mind, but it was such a sweet gesture. Or the friends who chase off the obnoxious little kids that inevitably follow me around screaming for cadeaux (presents). They’re just so genuinely concerned about me. And I so genuinely enjoy their company. Obviously, there are times when I get frustrated. That’s unavoidable, with the language barrier. And I definitely struggle with significant aspects of Mauritanian culture (not least of which are the attitude towards women and the blind adherence to religion). But I’m learning that certain human values are universal and that people in this world have more in common than we realize.

I have a kitchen!

2008-10-11T05:38:00.000-07:00

from 9/22

Ok, it’s really just a little twin set of burners on the floor of my room hooked up to a gas tank, but it’s one of the best things that’s happened to me since I got here! I’m still going to eat with my family pretty often, but now at least I’ll have the option to do my own thing if I want. I missed being able to decide when (and what) I eat.

Here’s what I have access to regularly: lentils, beans, canned corn, green beans, chick peas, tomatoes, onions, carrots, potatoes, milk, eggs, rice, pasta, tomato paste, garlic, basic spices (bay leaves, black and red pepper, pepper, cumin). Sometimes I can get veggies (bell peppers, cabbage, cucumbers) and fruit (apples, bananas, oranges, mango) in Atar. I have a lot to work with, but the basics are going to get old pretty quick, so any creative recipes would be much appreciated!

Ramadan

2008-10-11T05:32:00.000-07:00

from 9/19

For me, this month has been a lot of settling in, getting to know people, and getting used to the idea that this tiny desert village is home. For everyone else, it’s been a month of fasting. My experience of Ramadan hasn’t exactly been the norm because Rouqaya is breast-feeding and doesn’t fast. Most people wake up around 4:30 to pray and eat, then lounge/sleep through the day until 7:00 PM, which is when they break fast with tea, bread, dates, and something resembling cream of wheat called inshe. Everyone’s pretty miserable, especially towards the end of the day, and not much in the way of work gets done. Even with Rouqaya for non-miserable company, it’s been a very slow month.

Generally, I wake up around 7:30 or 8:00 and go for a run. Afterwards, I stop at the gadrone (the road from Nouakchott to Atar that runs through my village) to buy bread. The same women are there everyday, and I’ve gotten to know them, so I usually hang out for a bit. If they had their way, I would spend all morning bullshitting with them. Seriously, one of the girls gets mad when I leave, which bothered me at first, but that’s how it is here. Friends sit around with each other for hours, just doing nothing. It’s hard to get used to. I can’t help feeling like I should be doing something.

After that, I come home, eat, bathe, do laundry, whatever. If I have anything work related to do, I’ll do it in the morning before it gets too hot. I have tea with my family around 11, have lunch around 1 or 2, then lounge around inside until about 4:00 when the sun starts to go down. Then I’ll either lounge around outside or go for a hike.

My host family owns a boutique (a little market) on the gadrone. Rouqaya’s father, Hadrami, works there during the day. At 7:00, Rouqaya goes to relieve him while he breaks fasts and goes to the mosque to pray. Working at the boutique just involves laying around drinking tea and helping the occasional customers that wander in from time to time. Usually, one of her sisters and I will go to help and keep each other company. We close up around 9 or 10, come home and have tajiin. Tajiin is like a first dinner for Mauritanians, but I never make it to real dinner. As far as I can tell, they haven’t been eating real dinner until 11:30 or 12:00, which makes sense since they’re not eating during the day.

I’ve discovered that my twelve year old sister, Aichetou, is married to a 45 year old man who lives in Atar. Early marriage is still relatively common in Mauritania for a number of reasons but mostly money. Women are the responsibility of either their father or their husband, so the easiest way for a father to find relief from any financial trouble is to marry off one of his daughters. He no longer has to provide for her, and if the husband is well off, he’ll help take care of the rest of the family in times of need.

As a result, marriage is the main priority of Mauritanian women, especially in the smaller villages. Their main goal in life is to fulfill their roles as housekeeper and child barer. When I meet a woman for the first time, it’s almost guaranteed she’ll ask me whether or not I’m married within the first three minutes of conversation. My standard explanation for being single is that I want to go back to school when I go back to the States, but mostly they don’t understand why I would forgo marriage for an education. Or any other reason that could possibly keep me from getting married by the ripe old age of 22.

That being said, I’m pretty sure my village is plotting to have me marry a local school teacher, Hamdy. The last PCV to serve here (I think this was around 2000) married a Mauritanian from the village, which makes it a lot harder for me to convince people that I’m not secretly looking for a husband. Hamdy is probably in his early thirties and speaks French. I never thought this day would come, but speaking French is a huge relief for me after going days on end trying to make myself understood in Hassaniye. And he’s super nice. I went to greet him yesterday, and the next thing I knew, I was joining him on a “petite voyage”, which turned out to be a six hour trek. He took me to some farmland about 10 kilometers south of Ain, and we spent the day hanging out with the workers there. First we hiked for a bit, then we sat under a bush and had tea with some guys, then we hiked some more and had lunch under another bush with some other guys, then we followed around a camel for a while. Pretty sweet.

Now, of course, everyone is teasing me about my “habiib” (boyfriend). Luckily, its easy to take as a joke, and I think Hamdy could actually be a good friend. He’s very well respected in the community, and he wouldn’t do anything that could be construed as improper. He even asked Hadrami’s permission before taking me on that little trip, which is a good thing because I’m obviously totally oblivious to the rules.

Case in point: before I went into Atar last weekend, I told Rouqaya that I would be in town for a couple of days. The night before I left, I was eating with Hadrami. It came up that I was going to Atar the next day, and he mentioned that I hadn’t asked his permission. I hadn’t even dawned on me. So, not wanting to seem disrespectful, I asked if it would be alright, and he didn‘t have a problem with it. I ended up staying in Atar longer than I had told him I would, and apparently I was supposed to ask about that, too. I’m not sure what to make of this whole asking permission thing. I know I need to keep up the appearance that he’s in charge. He considers me a member of his household, and as such, I’m his responsibility, like one of his daughters. I think he’d even marry me off (and reap the benefits!) if I chose someone he deemed acceptable. When it comes down to it, though, I’m going to do what I want, so hopefully its just a question of respecting formalities.

(Not So) Briefly

2008-09-27T01:29:00.001-07:00

Hello again! I'm back in Atar for a couple of days, and I have been writing lots of posts at site, but unfortunately, coming into town was a little last minute and I forgot to bring the files in. So, you'll have to wait a little longer for all of the wonderfully random thoughts that have been accumulating over the past few weeks. I just wanted to say hi and give a quick update.

The end of the month marks the end of Ramadan and the end of the routine I have finally established at site. Ramadan is a month of fasting during daylight hours, which effects Mauritanians' entire daily routine. They wake up (and, by default, I wake up) around 4:30 with the first call to prayer. They eat a meal before the sun rises, then go back to sleep. Any work that gets done during this month is done in the morning, before people start to get too cranky and tired. The afternoons are usually spent lounging/napping. At 7:00, they break fast, then stay up for most of the rest of the night, taking advantage of the nighttime to eat good food and enjoy not being hungry. Rinse and repeat.

At the end of Ramadan, there's a huge party. I'll be back in my village, and a friend is coming with me, so it should be a lot of fun. After that, I'll hopefully get to start working in earnest, which will mean a whole new routine for me.

So much change in such a short period of time! It's been a good month, considering. Obviously, I've had my ups and downs, but I've settled in, both materially and mentally. These first few months are supposedly the toughest for a new volunteer. While I can't say I've been consistently happy since I got to site, I've never been unhappy, and I've definitely never regretted my decision to do this. And I've been making friends, which make a world of difference. For the toughest month of service, that's not bad!

I know this post is a little vague and obviously not the insight into Mauritanian life I promised a couple of weeks ago, but like I said, you'll get lots of fun details next time I come into town.

Back to Site

2008-09-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for site today, so this is my last post for a couple of weeks, inshallah. Just a few notes:

Here's Julie's blog for those of you who were interested. She's been in Peace Corps Philippines for about a month now.

I have a new mailing address for Atar:

Elise Szabo
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 24
Atar, Mauritania
West Africa

I should mention the title change. "Nasrani" is the Hassaniye equivalent of "Toubab". I only ever heard "toubab" in Rosso, even from the Moorish kids, and I don't get "nasrani" here nearly as much as I got "toubab" down there. Still, for authenticity's sake, I figured I go ahead and change it.

I'm showing my counterpart the GMC here in Atar today before I go back to site, which is why I ended up staying so long. My trips into town will usually only be for the weekend (Friday and Saturday). I had been wanting to show Rouqaya the GMC to give her a better idea of what I'm trying to do, and she was having some trouble working it into her schedule so this was the perfect opportunity. I'm hoping she'll also be able to meet with the regional official from the Condition Feminine (government ministry for women's promotion). If all goes according to plan, I'll have taken some huge steps towards getting real work done.

Hope everything is well in all your various corners of the world. I've gotten spoiled the last few days, being able to get in touch with everyone! Love and miss you lots.

"The Technologies of Peace"

2008-09-15T00:22:00.000-07:00

Someone recently sent around this article on Peace Corps in the Harvard International Review and it got me thinking. It addresses two separate but related issues: the need for a better funded PC and the role of increased access to technology in the PC mission.

A better funded PC could be an invaluable tool in improving the US image and our ability to project soft power abroad. Slabbert's Niger example (PC wanting to give training to recently elected local officials in that country) would have been a fabulous opportunity to demonstrate a genuine American committment to democracy, and a much more effective one than our current misguided attempts. The refusal to allocate $200,000 to the project attests to the current administration's bizarre definition of democracy (not to mention its disregard for other "US core national values"). I hope the next administration has a better appreciation for the value of Peace Corps's work and its potential for contributing to a constructive foreign policy.

On the second issue, I'm not sure that giving PCVs unrestricted access to technology would have the sort of magical benefits the article suggests. The access to information would be helpful, but the skillsets of the people we work with don't necessarily lend themselves to being "plugged in". Training in information technology can be instrumental in improving quality of life under certain circumstances, but the human element is so much more important to our effectiveness. The money it would take to equip us all and maintain that equiptment would be better spent expanding PC operations (I especially like Carter's idea of PC being politically neutral, within the bounds of security).

We have relatively regular access to the outside world, obviously, with the technology currently available to us. That being said, I wouldn't mind an upgrade. :) I'm just skeptical of technology being touted as the next revolution in development. Additionally, the image of the US abroad won't be improved by plopping someone down in front of a computer. That requires human interaction, cultural exchange, and a sincere interest in improving the lives of those we serve.

Play by Play: Jolly Ranchers and Kansas

2008-09-11T12:16:00.000-07:00

Right now, I'm eating massive amounts of candy and jamming to classic rock hits with Brandon. In air conditioning. Oh, joy.

:)

Back to Reality?

2008-09-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it hasn't even been two weeks since I left for site! Time moves very slowly here. To be more precise, the days go by very slowly. Weeks and months seem to fly by.

Anyway, I'm in Atar right now for a little decompression time. Here's some of my initial thoughts on life so far as a PCV:

Moving to site has been easier than I thought it would be in some ways and exactly what I thought it would be in others. Living with a family hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it would be. They’re pretty good at giving me space, and it’s been a lot easier to socialize and get acquainted with the community because of them. My counterpart, Rouqaya, specifically. At first I wasn’t sure whether she would get involved in my work other than introducing me to people, but lately she’s been explaining why I’m here and discussing my possible roles with the community, which makes my life a lot easier. For one, my language skills are limited at best, and my ability to assess what the community wants from me is equally limited. Rouqaya only speaks Hassaniye, but she’s patient with me, and she knows what words to use so that I’ll understand.

The language barrier is probably the most frustrating thing for me right now. Last night, for example, I was invited to attend a meeting on development in Ain. All the community leaders were there, and I’m sure some really interesting things were said, but it was all in Hassaniye, so who knows. At the very least, it was a good networking opportunity. If I can’t do anything else in Hassaniye, at least I know how to greet people. :) I’m definitely learning, though, so hopefully in a few months I’ll be able to have a substantive conversation.

Things I miss about home: not waking up in a pool of my own sweat, looking pretty, the red line, book stores, happy hour (specifically, that little martini place by the Adams Morgan metro with the awesome Friday night special), burgers, burritos, Whole Foods, farmers’ markets, iced tea, cold beer, washing machines, live music, speaking English, tall trees, bagels and cream cheese, coffee, newspapers, bacon (apparently, breakfast in general), bodies of water, wearing pants, showers, grilling, football season

Things I don’t miss about home: having to look pretty, bras, my job, commuting to my job, being plugged in 24/7, CNN, alarm clocks

I thought that second list would be a little longer, but there’s a lot I like about being here that has nothing to do with not being at home: Mauritanian hospitality, the fact that life doesn’t revolve around work, the focus on family, the sense of community, not rushing around all the time, being able to read all those books I never got around to at home. On the other hand, the constant focus on people and being together can feel smothering at times.

I feel like I haven't done a very good job conveying what life in this country is like. I'm going to try to remedy that over my next few posts.

Moving on Out

2008-09-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

No time to write, but I'm officially a PCV now! I'm in Atar until this afternoon. The past few days have been nuts, and I just had my first real cultural gaffe which will probably have a lasting impact on my relationship with the person. Crap. I still don't have the new phone yet, but I'm trying to buy it today. Let you all know the number when I can. Got some awesome packages. You all are the best. I miss you and love you and I'm thinking about you lots right now.

To Hell with Good Intentions

2008-08-25T04:51:00.000-07:00

So right after I wrote that last post, I had to read this speech by Ivan Illich for a cross-cultural session and write a little bit about it. It touches on some of the concerns I have about my service here, which I mentioned in "Development" (particularly the need to consider and incorporate local culture in development), but Illich is much more condemnatory. He views the American international development mission as not only culturally insensitive but just plain disrespectful. He feels that on no level can the middle-class American volunteer relate to the poor and/or underprivileged that (s)he claims to serve. Most provocatively, he suggests that the American interest in international development (as promoted by the U.S. government through Peace Corps, for example) is to stimulate the development of a consumer class abroad.

Illich was speaking in 1968, and his views reflect the cynicism of Latin Americans toward the U.S. at the time. His speech was also made to a group of volunteers who had only committed to serve for a few weeks or months, which I think makes a huge difference. You can't do much in two months, whereas two years gives you time to learn about and appreciate the culture.

Anyway, I have plenty to say about this subject, but I'm really interested to read everyone's thoughts, so please comment!

Development

2008-08-25T04:45:00.000-07:00

We’re leaving for our sites in less than a week, and I’ve been thinking more and more about what exactly I’m going to be doing for the next two years. I’m supposed to be training local Mauritanians, women in particular, to encourage and facilitate the education and empowerment of girls in their community. Peace Corps’ buzz word is “sustainability”, which means we’re technically not supposed to be doing the educating and empowering ourselves. The idea is to train host country nationals to do that, so that when we leave the process will continue. Basically, we’re working to make ourselves obsolete. Definitely an idea I can get behind, but I’m not sure how often that actually happens. If all the PCVs left Mauritania today, I have no idea which projects would continue in their absence, how effective they would be, and for how long. I’ll probably get a better feel for this once I actually start working, but its interesting to think about.

On another level, our work is supposed to impact general mentalities and social norms. All the sectors (Girls’ Education and Empowerment, Health, Environmental Education, English Education, Agro-forestry, and Small Enterprise Development) obviously target these to some extent, but I think GEE has more to do with culture than any of the others. The hard part of my job is going to be reaching across that cultural divide. I’m thinking that one of my most powerful assets as a GEE volunteer will be the example I set as a woman with a college degree, working on her own in a foreign country. On the other hand, it might be easy for girls to look at that and think, well, she can do that because she’s American, she’s not one of us.

As a foreigner, I’m definitely exempt from certain social and cultural norms. Taking advantage of those exemptions (consciously, not when I’m just being a silly, oblivious toubab) is something I’m going to have to think about, since it differentiates me from the girls I’m supposed to be mentoring.

I’m rambling at this point, and I have a lot more I’ve been thinking about, but I‘ll get into all this in another post: how the culture stands in direct opposition in certain respects to our idea of development, and whether or not it’s worth changing or losing parts of that culture (or even possible) in the name of development. Also, focusing on something like girl’s education when they’re not even getting enough nutritional value out of their food to grow hair, for example.

Of course, girls’ education is invaluable in terms of women‘s rights, and promoting women in development is one of the most efficient ways of promoting development itself, since educated and empowered women are that much more capable of contributing to society. In reality, though, I’m not under the impression I’m going to be shaking the foundation of gender roles in Mauritanian society over the next two years. The big gain out of this experience is going to be mine, and the biggest impact I’ll have on my village will be the little exposure to another culture my being there will provide.

Family Pics

2008-08-24T05:33:00.001-07:00

Had to use my friend's camera, but I managed to get some good ones. I also took an awesome video of my three year old brother dancing like Shakira, but I'm having some problems uploading it. Check back soon; it's totally worth it!

Model GMC

2008-08-24T05:19:00.000-07:00

I feel like its been a little while since the last time I posted. I’ve actually been busy! Everyone just moved back to the center. It was a little weird leaving my family, even though I'll probably go back and say good-bye again before I leave for good.

Hm, what have I been doing since I last posted...I taught my first GEE lesson on nutrition with another trainee, Amanda. It went alright; I think we both learned a lot. I gave a second lesson on PowerPoint with Pablo (Semper Reformanda, for those of you who have been checking out his blog) that went a lot better. It was kind of a rush, actually. First of all, I’ve gotten back to my old comfort level with French, which has been super helpful for teaching (even though I’ll probably be doing most of my communication in Hassaniye at site, it’s good to know I can get around basically everywhere else).

Second, watching these girls doing something useful on the computer that they couldn’t do before was great. Luckily, they already had some experience with computers, which made our job a lot easier. Some of the other trainees had to give lessons on how to use a mouse. That might have been better practice for me though, since the girls at my center likely won’t have touched a computer before.

The girls we taught were exceptional. A good chunk of them had finished lycee (high school), some had even passed their BAC and are going to university in Nouakchott. Total rock stars. They don’t even go to the GMC here in Rosso because they’re so busy doing all the things that we’re encouraging girls here to do: getting out of the house, finishing school, going to university and hopefully starting a career.

Model GMC has been over for about a week, and I've mostly been working on my Hassaniye since then. It's been coming along. Something clicked for me this past week, like I just woke up one day and realized I could actually hold a conversation. Very cool. And necessary, since I'm getting tested either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Also, I'm giving a speech in Hassaniye at the swear-in ceremony! Someone from each language (Hassaniya, Pulaar, Wolof, Soninke, and French) is giving the same speech, I guess so that Peace Corps can show that we've actually learned something. It would have been nice if we could have written our own speech, but it's definitely easier this way. Wish me luck!

Day in the Life

2008-08-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

As per Mom's request, I'm going to give you an idea of what my day to day life is like here.

I wake up around 7:00 for my 8:00 language class. Usually I'll meet up with some other the other five PCTs in my class on the way. We have class until 12:30, and then we head home. I'll hang out with my family for a little bit, maybe practice some Hassaniya or read, then we'll eat lunch around 1:30 or 2:00. Usually we have marru w'il huut, which is basically a big bowl of rice, with some fish and a few cooked veggies in the midddle. Everyone eats out of the same bowl with their right hands (left hands are strictly off limits). I try to nap after lunch, and then I have class again from 4-6:30.

After that, sometimes people head to the local restaurant, which is a little store-front type place with plastic lawn furniture and a TV. They serve "burgers", which are pretty much french baguettes with some chopped up meat, fries, mayo and ketchup. Not my favorite dish, ha. They also do these sort of half fried, half scrambled eggs, which are pretty decent. The owner is really nice; he let's us hang out for as long as we want, and most of the time we don't even buy anything. So sometimes we'll do that, sometimes we'll stop at the internet cafe, sometimes we'll just wander. The nice thing about living in Rosso is that I'm around a lot of other PCTs.

Weekends are usually spent finding new ways to kill time. We do a lot of sitting around trying to read or nap but usually sweating too much to do either. I drink a lot of tea with my family. Do laundry. In the mornings, a bunch of PCTs meet up to play soccer or football or something. I run sometimes. This weekend we're actually organizing a 6 K race out to one of the brousse sites, which should be fun. At the very least, it'll give us something to do, ha. We go on walks outside of town when the temperature drops. Sometimes I'll give an English lesson.

So that's pretty much it. We also have sessions at the center every once in a while. Right now, GEE is in model GMC, which means we get to plan and teach our own lessons to some of the local girls. So GEE trainees do that in the mornings, instead of language class. Model GMC is really good practice, but we're getting tested in Hassaniya in two weeks and I need all the class time I can get, so it's a trade-off. Also, I'm not going to be teaching any classes until I get my GMC set up, which won't be until January at the absolute earliest.

To answer Mom's question about me being on my own at site: that's not going to change. And I'm not the only one who's going to be at site by myself. I'd like to think that they chose us to be on our own for a reason, and that they considered the site itself when deciding whether or not to put more than one volunteer there. Who knows. Either way, I'm very close to Atar. I can travel in region whenever I feel the urge to see another volunteer. Obviously, they want you to spend most of your time at site, but I'm not really that worried about it. I might get bored, and I'm sure there will be times when I wish I had another American there, but in the long run I don't think it's going to be that big a deal. And who knows, maybe next year they'll give me a site mate! In the mean time, I'll do a lot of reading, a lot of sitting, drinking tea, eating dates, gardening, hiking, running, writing, and, of course, educating and empowering Mauritania girls.

Ok, that's it for now. My partner and I are giving our lesson on Friday, so I'll let you know how it goes!

Post-Coup Mauritania

2008-08-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now most of you have heard that the president was arrested a few days ago and the military has taken control of the government. Life under military rule has been pretty much same old (but it's still crazy to think about). I was on a break from language class when my friend texted me from brousse, "There was a coup d'etat in Nouakchott." I had been aware that people had some issues with the president, but I was caught completely off gaurd. It doesn't help that we're supposed to avoid conversations about politics with Mauritanians, but we asked our facilitator about it and he actually laughed. Apparently, this is the fifth coup he's lived through, so it's old hat at this point.

I did ask some other Mauritanians how they feel about the coup, which has given me some insight into not only the current situation but the political culture in general. But I've had to keep my inquiries pretty neutral. It's almost comical that we can't discuss politics (or religion), since most of us studied poli-sci, international relations, or some other related subject in school. I've definately had to resist responding to some provocative statements.

In terms of my work, I don't think the coup will have much of an impact. Peace Corps isn't going anywhere, and as far as I can tell, the funding that my sector relies on is still flowing. For other development/aid efforts, though, any suspension of international aid will definately be felt throughout the country (UNHCR does a lot of work in this part of the country relocating refugees from Senegal, for example). IRIN has some good information on everything that's been going on here.

Anyway, I'm safe and sound, of course. All the frantic phone calls/emails made me feel really loved, so thanks!

Site Visit

2008-07-30T06:05:00.000-07:00

I'm back from site visit! What an awesome week. The day after our sites were announced, we all shipped out. People from the same region traveled together in caravans. I was in a Peace Corps truck, which was air conditioned (woohoo!). Most people were not so lucky and got stuck in taxi brousses, which are basically 20 year old station wagons or pick up trucks that pack as many people as possible and will take you anywhere in the country you need to go. I got to ride one of those on the way home. Not fun.

We left at about 7:30 in the morning, stopped in the capital, Nouakchott, for lunch and a pit stop at the building where the country Peace Corps office is located. That was a trip. Nouakchott is nothing compared to NY or Paris or even DC, but as far as Mauritania goes, the place is heaven. The PC building is the largest in the country (10 whole floors!), and has escalators (which don't seem to actually work, but still!) and bathrooms with toilet paper and everything.It was a little overwhelming, being in an actual city environment again, and I've only been here for a month! I can't imagine what it's going to be like the first time I get back to civilization.

Anyway, we got in around 7:30 that night. Atar is beautiful. The surrounding region is gorgeous (see pictures), and the city itself is well kept since it's a big tourist destination.

Spent the night at a volunteer's house, which was like being on vacation (electricity, running water, shower head, fridge, stove, chocolate pie, illicit substances).

The next day we all did protocol, which is something you have to do in Mauritania to get anything done. You have to get permission for the work you want to do from a number of officials, in order of rank from lowest to highest, unless what you're doing involves large amounts of funding, in which case you're supposed to go from the bottom up. It seems like a huge waste of time cause some officials don't know what the hell you're doing there and some do and just don't care and some don't speak any language you speak, so it can be frustrating. Luckily, everyone I met that day seemed happy to have us and at least willing to give us the time of day, which was encouraging. On the other hand, I'm not going to be working with those guys too often since my site isn't actually Atar. But they still need to know I'm there.

After protocol, I went out to Ain Eheltaya with Beddih, one of the language facilitators, who luckily speaks French cause my community contact, Rouqaya, only speaks Hassaniya (we all have these people, either community contacts or counterparts, which are supposed to at the very least introduce us to the community and help us integrate, and at best will end up being work partners.) Ain Eheltaya is a pretty cute little village. There are a ton of palm trees (the Adrar region is famous for it's dates), and it's nestled up against the side of this canyon. And it doesn't seem to be too conservative. I think it's primarily a Moorish community, both black and white, and I had thought that Moorish communities are mostly conservative. That may be true compared to the other ethnic groups in Mauritania (Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof), but I think the Moors in the east are more conservative than in the north, which is where I am. I felt totally comfortable running in the mornings and walked around with my head uncovered. Such a relief. If I had to run around in a mulafa for the next two years I'm pretty sure I'd be miserable. I mean, they're pretty, but they never stay on right and they're hot, and when it really comes down to it, the concept of women having to cover up like that doesn't exactly jibe with my sense of morality.

We stayed with Rouqaya for three nights. She lives in a fairly large compound with her three younger sisters (they're probably about 15, 13, and 7, respectively, and she's probably 25), and her 6 month old baby. I don't think she's married, which is fine with me cause I don't have to worry about having a man around. I'm probably going to end up renting a room out of her compound, which her father owns. It's a big room with electricity, and they're going to wall off a section of the compound so I can have my own space, which is essential for me. I originally wanted to live on my own, but there aren't a whole lot of options in my village, and those that are available are pretty crappy (mud huts, no electricity or running water...not something I'm going to deal with if I don't have to). The village has electricity from 7 PM to 2 AM, which is more than enough.

I got to meet some of the village officials and other community members I'll probably end up working with. Everyone seemed really nice and excited that I was there, though I had a tough time explaining exactly what my objectives are. But at least they're enthusiastic. Hopefully the concept of girls' education won't put them off.

So I spent my three days at site meeting people, drinking tea, eating dates, laying around, reading. I'm going to get very good a killing time here. I'm thinking about starting a garden. And I'll be able to go into Atar on the weekends if I want, so I won't go too crazy.

After that I went back to Atar and met up with the other trainees and volunteers. We all went out to a little auberge (hostel type thing) in the brousse (country), which was near an oasis with an awesome watering hole where we got to swim and chill out all day. We spent the night there, but the next morning I got really sick and took a taxi brousse back into town. That was a pretty miserable day. I don't care if there's no humidity, 105 degrees is freaking hot. Luckily I had brought some meds with me and by the end of the day I was exhausted but pretty much better, for the most part. We left the next morning around 6:30, stopped in Nouakchott for pizza and milk shakes (amazing!), and got back into Rosso around 5.

Favorite parts of site visit in no particular order:
- food
- oasis
- getting to know my site mates

My site mates are all awesome, which is good considering that I'll basically be living with them for the next two years. It was kinda sad seeing some good friends being placed in regions far, far away from mine, which means I'll probably only see them every few months, but oh well. Such is life. All in all, a good week. :)

Site Announcements!

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

I'm going to Ain Eheltaya! We finally had our site announcements this morning. Ain Eheltaya is 40 KM south of Atar, a major regional capital in the north of the country. I'm gonna be the first and only PVC there, so I'll be starting my GMC from scratch!

Most Girl's Education and Empowerment (GEE) volunteers work out of a girl's mentoring center (GMC). GEE as a sector just started a year ago, but a lot of GMCs had been started previously by Education volunteers, so many of the new GEE volunteers were able to continue and expand on the work that was already being done. A few volunteers last year started their own GMCs, and I think there are 6 of us starting new ones this year. Four of those volunteers will be working in pairs as site mates, and another girl and I will be going it alone. Eek! I'm very excited.

Ain Eheltaya is a village of about 5,000 people. From what I can tell, it has running water but no electricity. My info sheet called it a "beautiful and elegant village", and it has palm trees, which is very cool. I'll obviously know more about it after my site visit, which starts tomorrow. It'll probably be a 7 or 8 hour drive, and its on paved roads, so I've heard.

So I'm obviously excited beyond words. Adrenaline is running high all around, and I just seriously can't wait to head out. We've got prep this afternoon, and then a tech session. I'm glad we got all the heavy sessions out of the way before they announced our sites cause I wouldn't have been able to sit still!

I'll probably spend my time in both Ain Eheltaya and Atar, which is where a lot of the volunteers will be and a number of trainees have been placed. It's gonna be awesome to get away for a week and cut loose. Fill you in when I get back!! :)

For those of you who can't access my facebook account...

2008-07-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

Likes

2008-07-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

As promised, I'm going to jot down some things I've enjoyed so far in Mauritania:

- cool, quiet mornings
- sunset
- the last call to prayer of the day
- showers
- learning Hassaniya
- taking a break from learning Hassaniya
- fresh bread and strawberry jam
- storms
- Biscrem (delicious chocolate-filled cookies)
- fruits/veggies (though these are few and far between)
- Sidi dances: our language facilitator knows how to break it down
- fellow trainees, without whom I would surely have ripped out all my hair by now
- the countless, daily absurdities that, while annoying, do provide comic relief - just another day in Mauritania

Also, I've lost 10 pounds since I've been here, and that's not even dramatic compared to some of the other volunteers. Most people have lost at least that much; some of the guys have dropped more than 20 pounds in the last 4 weeks. Just goes to show what a repetitive diet, constant sweating, chronic dysentary and no booze will do to your body.

Side note: tonight we watched Wall-E on a projector screen! Adorable.

Center Days

2008-07-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Back at the Center now. We spent the day in Mbalal, a brouse site where some of the other GEE trainees are staying. It's gorgeous out there. I'm going to try and post pictures, but the internet is being really slow so check back if they're not up yet.

I don’t think I posted about this at the time, but I dropped my camera in the sand like my second day here. It’s not completely busted, obviously, but I think there’s sand stuck in the lens or something because most of my pictures come out more or less blurry. I try to post the less blurry ones, but they’re still a little off, which sucks.

For anyone trying to send a package, I think I posted the address already, but I wanted to add that you should indicate “West Africa” so that it doesn’t get misplaced and wind up taking a ridiculously long time to get here. Apparently USPS thinks that Mauritania is somewhere in the vicinity of Madagascar or Mauritius. So here’s what the address should look like:

Elise Szabo
Corps de la Paix
B. P. 222
Nouakchott, Mauritania
West Africa

Mail gets distributed from the office in Nouakchott to wherever the volunteer is in country, so you can use that address for as long as I’m here in Mauritania. For those of you who are interested in sending care packages, here’s a list of things I‘ll love you for:

- Gummy bears/Starbursts/any sort of packaged candy that won’t melt too badly (no chocolate), preferably in large quantities
- Dried fruit
- DVDs
- Spices
- Flinstones vitamins

I'll update this list periodically. Thanks guys!

XOX

Backlog: 7/18/08

2008-07-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we move back to the center for a few days. They’ll be announcing our permanent sites on Monday, and then we all get shipped off on our site visits for a week! Everyone’s really excited to finally find out where they’re going.

So today was the last weekend day I’ll have to spend with my family for a little while. Not that I don’t like my family, but there’s just nothing to do on the weekends. My language class had an evaluation at 9:00 this morning, and I managed to kill some time afterwards running errands and such. Came home around 11:00, swept my room out (I could throw a frat party with the amount of sand my room collects in a week) and did my laundry (which somehow just ended up dirtier - I really need some practice with the whole doing laundry in a bucket thing). I sat in my room for a few hours before going certifiably stir-crazy, after which I managed to collect some people for a romp in the Sahel.

A storm had come through earlier, so the clouds were moving off in the distance. Once you get a little ways outside the city, the sky just opens up. I can’t even begin to describe it, and these pictures definitely don’t do the scene justice. The sky curves around the flatness of the earth, infinitely far away but just out of reach.

Being out underneath that sky gives me a sense of calmness that usually eludes me here. In the city, I’m constantly on my guard, surrounded by people I don’t completely understand and who are even more baffled by me. Every time I head out to the desert, though, I manage to re-center myself. I don’t even notice it happening.

In other news, I officially confronted my fear of cockroaches tonight by purging my room of one the size of a small cat. I am the man.

Update

2008-07-16T06:00:00.001-07:00

Just a quick note, since I just put up plenty of fun reading material: I'm feeling much better now that I finished a round of antibiotics for my Toubab disease. As a side note, I've never be so comfortable discussing my pooping habits.

I wanted to put up pictures, but the upload thingee is being difficult. Next time!

Backlog 7/15: Thoughts

2008-07-16T05:58:00.001-07:00

My host mom and I were chatting over dinner tonight. It was a pretty somber conversation. A friend of the family’s died today in a car accident and a number of his friends were injured. Transportation is probably the most dangerous part of living in Mauritania. There are two highways in the country, and by “highway” I mean an unlined, unlit, pockmarked strip of pavement winding through desert. Each highway links the capital with one of two cities: Rosso and some other city who’s name I can’t remember. To get around the rest of the country, people drive on dirt roads which I’m not even sure can accurately be called “roads”, since there’s not much to distinguish them from the rest of the desert floor. Anyway, I’m rambling now, but you get the picture.

So I’m chatting with my mom about this whole incident, and Muslim funerals, and rising food prices (she was shocked to hear that the Post ran a story on the food crisis in Mauritania), and somehow we ended up on the subject of Meme (my grandmother) being sick. I explain to her that my grandparents have been living in a community exclusively for senior citizens, but now Meme has been placed in a home so she can be taken care of. All that sounds bizarre enough, I’m sure, to someone who’s extended family mostly lives within a five minute walking radius of her house, but then she asks me how my grandparents are paying for it. In my broken French, I try to explain the concept of health insurance, which inevitably leads me to comment on how big a problem insurance is in the States. And then I realize, this woman could very well have never seen a certified doctor, never filled a prescription, never seen the inside of a hospital, and I’m trying to tell her that Americans being uninsured or paying too much for health insurance is a big problem. I was completely humbled by that experience.

The other day I gave her some Neosporin for an infected sore behind my brother’s ear that had refused to heal. It was better in two days. All she needed was Neosporin.

I’ve had two reactions to this: overwhelming appreciation for the life available to me as an American and incredulity at the staggeringly low standard of living here. Americans definitely have our issues, and I’m not saying that the U.S. is the best thing the world’s got going, but it’s exponentially better than a lot of what else is out here. I can drive down the street to the CVS for some Neosporin if my weird skin infections don’t go away. In Mauritania, Neosporin is practically a miracle drug.

Ok, that definitely wasn’t a post about how great Mauritania is, but it does make you realize how badly this country and others like it need attention from the rest of the world. It’s good to know I’m doing something right just by being here.

Backlog 7/14: TTATHOOMIM

2008-07-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

I’ve finally contracted the Toubab disease, so I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to vent about a number of Mauritanian absurdities/annoyances:

1. Toubab disease: a mysterious illness inflicting all (Western) foreigners living in Mauritania at one point or another, usually multiple times, and resulting in such pleasant symptoms as diarrhea and/or vomiting. No one knows the ultimate cause or origin of the Toubab disease.

2. The wildlife: various animals which roam freely through the streets in large numbers, consisting of donkeys, goats, chickens of a wide variety, dogs and cats, roaches, flies, spiders, and the occasional rat.

You have not known fear if you have never been awoken from a deep sleep by a donkey braying outside your bedroom window. This also applies to rooster crows and dog/cat fights. The aforementioned occur regularly, though donkeys tend to suffer conniptions during napping hours whereas dog/cat fights usually take place in the late night and rooster crows at an ungodly hour of the morning.

Armies of flies invade the house when the temperature rises above 85 degrees, which usually occurs at the break of dawn. Little short of a power washer will clear them out until the temperature drops again.

3. The walking circus: by that I mean us, the Toubabs. Whether we are walking, talking, or enjoying a mango in the peace and quiet of our own room, we manage to attract a crowd. Usually involving several dozen small children, these crowds will gather behind you as you walk, around you as you talk, or in your bedroom window as you eat, screaming, “Toubab! Toubab!” or “Bonjour, Madame!” regardless of whether you are, in fact, a woman.

These children are also carriers of what are commonly referred to as “jam hands” by the local Toubabs. Most notably contracted through the very messy eating of bread and jam, jam hands include all small hands covered in a slimy, sticky, often unidentifiable substance. Jam hands are highly contagious, as they are regularly thrust in your direction for a handshake in conjunction with the ritual screaming of, “Bonjour, Madame!”

Stay tuned for regular episodes of “Things That Annoy The Hell Out Of Me In Mauritania” or TTATHOOMIM. This acronym is also likely a word in Hassaniya which I will never manage to correctly pronounce.

There, I feel much better now. :)

In all seriousness though, I do love why I’m here and what I’ll hopefully succeed in doing. So, while there will surely be many more additions to this post, I’m glad I’m here, and I can only hope that a good sense of humor (among a great many other things) will carry me through. And to even things out (and keep Mom from worrying too much), I’ll make sure to post on all the great things about Mauritania soon.

Love you guys!

Pictures

2008-07-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

I finally have some decent pictures of where I am. There will definitely be more to follow, but for now, here's one of me on a hike outside the city. We're in the south, so this isn't really the desert, it's the Sahel. Looks pretty desertish to me, but I haven't been to the north yet. Up there it's all just dunes. Apparently there's sand boarding, which I'm pretty stoked to try.

Then there's the two street shots. The first one is of the main drag here in Rosso. The second is just a side street. The house where my classes are held is actually around the corner.

Just for some context. Enjoy!

Blogs

2008-07-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely overblogging at this point, but I'll take advantage of it while I can. I just wanted to post a link to the other PC Mauritania blogs: http://www.peacecorpsjournals.com/mr.html. There's more than enough to entertain you there if you're really ridiculously bored. Or if you just have some strange fascination with living in underdeveloped nations in Saharan Africa. I mean, who thinks that's cool...?

Toubab!

2008-07-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

Toubab! Toubab! That's what the little kids in the street yell when the see us. By "us" I mean myself and the other 75 Americans wandering around the city. You think they'd get used to us, but we're just as much a spectacle here as we were two weeks ago.

I'm at homestay now, which means I'm living with a family. You can see my room in the picture: my matle, which is what I sleep on, my mosquito net, you can see my water filter in the back lefthand corner. I bought a fan the other day, which was pretty much the best purchase I've ever made, and my house has running water!

All in all, I've been pleasantly surprised by my homestay. My family consists of a mom (Miriame), two boys and two girls. I'm not exactly sure how one of the girls is related to the family, and Miriame keeps talking about her kid's Dad who apparently is in some other city doing who knows what. The two boys are really young and think I'm like the funniest thing ever. The girls are older, probably about 12, and they help me practice my language. (By the way, I'm learning Hassaniya, which is exactly what I wanted!) My mom speaks some French, but she's got a really heavy accent, so I have no idea what's going on half the time. It's cool, though, I just chill.

Here's a day in my life: I wake up around 7:00, get ready for class, and my friend Sia comes by the house to walk with me to class. I have a Hassaniya lesson with four other trainees from 8-12:30, and then we all go home for lunch. I usually hang out with the family for an hour before lunchtime watching TV and practicing whatever fun phrases I learned that morning, such as: "Good morning," and "What work do you do?" I'm pretty sure this is the most entertaining part of the day for the kids. They don't do much cause they're out of school for the summer. The mom is an Arabic teacher, but during the summer she pretty much just lays around. Literally. They don't do furniture in Mauritania, and the women just don't do anything. They lay around on the floor and watch Bollywood or cheesy Spanish soap operas. All day. I don't know how they do it. On the other hand, its too freaking hot to do anything other than lay around between the hours of 11:00 and 4:00 anyway, so I don't blame them.

Back to class at 4:00 until 6, then I'll hang out with some other trainees until 7 or 8, head home, hang with the fam, eat dinner around 9 or 10, and then retire to my sweet room. Seriously, my room may look spartan in the picture, but I've got a fan and my computer and I rock the West Wing in there at night like it's my job. :)

The only thing I can really complain about is the fact that my mom doesn't understand the concept of being full. In Mauritania, fat women are attractive, so girls are encouraged to eat their faces off. And the food here is heavy stuff, soaked in oil. Whenever I stop eating, my mom gives me this evil look and says "Mange! Mange!" which means, "Eat! Eat!" I'm pretty sure she thinks they starve their women in America. I've explained to her that I don't actually want to gain 50 pounds over my 2 month stay with her, and she's grudgingly accepted that. But I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm emaciated.

Other than that, things are really going well. 7 hours of language class a day is a little intense, but it's necessary, and at the very least it gives me something to do during the day. They say training is the toughest part of our 27 months here. I can definitely see why, but at this point its all I know, and it's not nearly as bad as I was preparing myself for.

Hope all is well back home. I miss you all!

Mulafas

2008-06-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

I got my first piece of Mauritanian clothing today! It's called a mulafa (see photo) and is usually worn by Moorish women. It's insanely more comfortable than anything I brought to wear cause it's really light weight and we can wear tank tops and capri pants underneath. You don't know how excited I was to wear pants today; legs tend to get really sweaty in this heat under long skirts.

So in the photo is myself obviously, and two other girls I went to the market with to buy our mulafas. I've been walking around town a lot more the last couple days, and it's really interesting. I'll have to take some pictures and post them cause there's no way I'll be able to describe it properly.

Yesterday we had our language exams and I'm pretty sure I placed out of French, which means I'll get to start learning another language immediately. Woohoo! I really want to learn Hassaniya, which is about 70-75% Arabic. I feel like its the language I'll find most useful outside of Mauritania. Unfortunately, I don't get to choose what I learn, but ultimately I'll be happy with whatever I end up with. It's going to be awesome no matter what!

Some PSAs: I'll be heading to my homestay Friday, which is the day after tomorrow. I'll probably be out of touch for a while, at least online, but I do have a cell phone now! Email me if you want the number and you can Skype me whenever you want. Hopefully. It depends on whether or not I get service wherever I am, but at least I have one, right? Also, I would really like to have your all phone numbers so I can get in touch with you. So email me that info too.

If I have time to post tomorrow night, I'll let you know where I'm going to be staying and what language I'm going to be learning (we find out tomorrow). If not, wish me luck (I'm definitely nervous about living with a family), and I'll post again in a few weeks. XOX

Assalaam Aleykum!

2008-06-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Bet you didn't think you would be hearing from me so soon. I definitely didn't think I would have internet access this early in stage, but there's actually wireless here at the training center. Go figure. It's a little weird being able to contact people after preparing myself to be cut off, but this level of communication is not going to be maintained over the course of stage so I might as well take advantage while I can.

Just something quick for now: we got to Rosso yesterday after about 24 hours of travel. I've been covered in a thin (sometimes thick) layer of sand and sweat since then, despite showering last night. We're all just getting used to being constantly dirty, and some other fun little things like no toilet paper (we have something called a makaresh instead; picture a tea pot). It's been awesome. I didn't really know how I would handle being in a place like this, but my trip to China was a great way to ease into living like this.

Despite all these major adjustments, my being here hit me in the simplest of moments. There is a large tent in the "yard" of our compound (it's basically a sand pit). It's pointed like a circus tent, white on the inside and stitched with this really amazing, vibrant quilting on the inside. Underneath the tent are rugs and some thin pads we use as mattresses, and people tend to hang out under there during breaks. The wind picks up clouds of sand and blows it over the rugs in the afternoon. So I'm sitting under this tent, watching the sand blow, and I was just like, wow, I am so in Africa right now.

Ok, I have to run to an interview now. They're getting a feel for where they might want to place us, so this should be interesting. I'll post again soon though. Bye!

First Guest Post

2008-06-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. Just a quick note from Andrew. I heard from Elise yesterday - she made it in country just fine. I think that's about all anyone wants / needs to know from someone other than the official administrator of this site.

On a side note, I just discovered that the picture Elise is using for her profile picture is of me. Or, to be more specific, my feet.

Also, I've searched for something embarrassing to put up here, but nothing has presented itself. So in the meantime, enjoy a picture of Elise in Times Square, my future place of employment.

Best to all,

Andrew

Day One

2008-06-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

So I just posted yesterday, and not all that much has happened since then, other than the whole arriving at staging and meeting the other like 80 volunteers I'm heading to Mauritania with and going through my first full day as an official member of the Peace Corps thing. You know, the usual. Ha!

In all seriousness, the past 24 hours have been a trip. I left DC last night around 5:00 after a fairly upbeat farewell to my family and Andrew, who all came with me to the airport. I just wanted to say that my last few days at home were really wonderful. They weren't sad or tearful, as I was a little afraid they would be. To be sure, the weeks before then had been stressful, with all the preparations and good-byes, etc. Which is not to say that the last few days weren't, but there was a certain calmness in between all the crazy packing that surprised me. I can only attribute that to the awesome people I had around me, and of course the awesome people who are just as much a part of my life but weren't able to physically be with me. You keep me sane.

Like I said, my staging group is about 4 times bigger than I thought it would be. Craziness. Everyone seems really nice, and just being around and talking to people with the same anxieties and hopes has been a bit of a relief. Now I know I'm not completely insane!

Last night people formed random little groups and started getting to know each other. A bunch of us bought some six packs and just chilled in one of the rooms for a few hours talking and watching the basketball game. We were up this morning for 8:00 AM registration, and tomorrow we're meeting at 6:30 (ew) for immunizations. Needless to say, I'm probably going to take it easy tonight (West Wing, perhaps?).

I'll say bye for now, since I don't know if I'll have the chance to post again before we leave Friday morning. Wish me luck with the load of shots I'm going to have to endure tomorrow, and I'll be in touch from Mauritania!!

Last Day at Home!

2008-06-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Today I leave for staging! It's been a busy week or so, and I still had a million little things to make sure I took care of today, but I made it. Phew. I feel slightly unprepared (though I'm pretty sure I would feel unprepared no matter what), nervous, excited, a little sad/sentimental, and probably a few other emotions that are getting lost in the jumble of things.

I know I haven't had the chance to get in touch with everyone I would have liked to. And chances are, in my eagerness to make sure I saw everyone before I left, I saw you such a long time ago that it barely even seemed like a good-bye. I'll have my cell phone with me for the next few days (I'll be in Atlanta, Georgia for staging until Friday) so I'm going to be making some last minute calls in whatever free time I have. Procrastinate much?

Peace Corps will be sending an email to my mom when I get in, and I've asked her to get in touch with Andrew, who has generously offered to post here and let everyone know that I made it. So check back sometime over the weekend.

I know I've said it more than a few times, but I will miss everyone! Your phone calls and emails and best wishes, etc. have been a source of courage and comfort, so thanks! I wouldn't be able to do this without knowing you all are behind me. Love you!

Freedom!

2008-06-02T08:53:00.002-07:00

So I'm sitting on Andrew's porch, enjoying my first real day of NOT WORKING! I have to say, I could get used to this. Waking up at 10:30, strolling over to Whole Foods and/or Starbucks for breakfast, reading the paper in the sun...pretty much heaven.

It finally hit me while I was walking back from breakfast this morning that I'm leaving for staging two weeks from tomorrow. I'm starting to get really excited! Part of me has been making a concious effort not to romanticize what I'm about to do. I've been focusing on how hard this experience is going to be, and it's been keeping me from getting excited about it. Then I stopped working, and I've been meeting a lot of people lately who are returned volunteers or are thinking about joining up or know someone who has. And for some reason, walking back today, everything just came together and I was amazed and overjoyed that I'm going to be spending the next two years of my life doing something as cool as this! I'm not going to be sitting in a cubicle in some windowless office in southeast DC. I'm going to be in Africa!

Memorial Day Weekend in NYC

2008-05-28T18:25:00.001-07:00

So as the title of this post suggests, I spent Memorial Day weekend up in New York on a mission. Two missions, actually, though one of them was Andrew's, not mine. We went up on Friday so he could check out an apartment he's interested in for when he moves up there later this year. Then we met up with Laura, who I hadn't seen since...I guess February for Adam and Corky's birthday thing in Hoboken, for happy hour. I wanted to go up to say good bye to her (sniff), and Andrew needed to go for the apartment thing, so our forces combined with the end result being a really great weekend. Ok, it was mostly the forces of the firm he's going to be working for, but still. Saturday we went out to Long Island for some grilling at Laura's place, and Kaitlin (henceforth refered to in this blog as "Shirt") and Jim came for one last good bye. The whole afternoon was so relaxed, it could have been any afternoon barbequeing on the roof of Pennbrook or something back at school. Eventually we had to say good bye though, and needless to say I was a little down about it. I'm gonna miss both of them like crazy!

Andrew and I spent the rest of the weekend just kind of exploring the city. I had never really done the whole New York thing (despite passing through on numerous occassions...and drinking copious amounts of wine there...and facilitating photo shoots with bongo-playing homeless men...and...ok I'll stop there), so Andrew got to show me around. I'm so jealous he's moving there! He says he's jealous I'm going to Africa, but I think he's just saying that to make me feel better. :)

On the subject of Peace Corps, I just had my flight to Atlanta booked. This whole moving to Africa thing is starting to feel very real. Tomorrow is my last day of work, and I can't say I'm disappointed about that, but it just means that my departure is swiftly approaching. Eek!

Four Weeks and Counting...

2008-05-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

I've officially hit the one month mark! I got my staging package about a week ago and finally had the chance to look at it the other day. In less than four weeks, I'll be flying down to Atlanta to meet up with my fellow RIM (Republique Islamique de Mauritanie) volunteers for two days before leaving for Mauritania. I'm starting to feel genuinely excited, despite my anxieties.

On a different note, this past weekend was quite eventful. My brother had Prom Friday night, so I went with my parents to see him and his girlfriend off for pictures and such. Being in that environment again was a little surreal. It's hard to believe that my own Prom was five years ago! Everyone looked beautiful, of course. (I helped pick out the tux!)

I spent the rest of the weekend with Andrew and his family, who flew in from Seattle for his law school graduation. He had a barbeque at his place Saturday afternoon, which gave our parents a chance to meet and hang out for a little bit, which was pretty cool. There was a graduation gala at the National Building Museum Saturday night. The place was stunning. Tables were laid out in the main atrium (which is huge), along with buffet tables for food, multiple open bars, and live music. Needless to say, it was a good night (complete with dancing!), up until the part where Andrew, his sister and I left to go to the bar and I realized I had left my ID at home. Whoops.

Graduation was Sunday down on Georgetown's main campus. Very nice and actually pretty short, since they split the class up into their first year sections. One guy took his little baby up with him to receive his diploma. Adorable!

All in all, it was a pretty busy weekend. Slightly hectic at times, but I'm really glad I got the chance to meet Andrew's family (and friend) before I leave.

Things are actually going to be hectic from now on, as far as I can tell. I'm heading up to New York this weekend to say good-bye to some friends. My schedule for the next few weeks (basically up until I leave) is a little overwhelming, but at least it's all good stuff. I'm just trying to see as many of the people I care about as possible, trying to soak up every last bit of the familiar and the comfortable before I get thrown into the unknown. It's so tempting to get a little mushy here, but I'll resist. Suffice it to say that I will miss everyone here very much, and while I may not have the chance to see every last one of you before I leave (or spend as much time with you as I would like), I'm thinking about everyone and I will miss you all very much!

A New Generation of Erasers!

2008-05-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

I just found out that Robert Rauschenberg died the other day. I wasn't overly familiar with his work, but Andrew and I happened to catch an exhibit of his prints a couple months ago that impressed me. Back in the 50's he erased a drawing by Willem de Kooning, a well known Dutch painter, and called it art. He talks about what he was doing with that piece and why in this interview. Interesting insight into the mind of an artist.

James: Published Author

2008-05-12T10:26:00.001-07:00

James is having an article he wrote on adjusting to life in China translated and published in a Chinese newspaper! Woohoo!

Kick Off

2008-05-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

So I decided to get things started a little early to give everyone a chance to get used to the whole blogging thing (myself included). First time blogger here (aww), but also just slightly nervous, getting more nervous by the day and feeling the need to release some nervous energy.

Chances are if you're reading this, you already know that I'll be leaving in June for the Peace Corps. I fly to Atlanta June 18 for staging (more on that to follow) and leave a few days later with a group of other PCVs for Mauritania. Woohoo! At the moment, everything about this still feels very far removed. I'll be working (albeit part-time) through May 30, which gives me a couple weeks to get my act together before I leave.

I haven't done much in the way of preparation so far, but I did buy my first hippie skirt in China! First of all, if you didn't take the time to browse the link above (shame), you should know that Mauritania is a Muslim country. Needless to say, I'll be making a few wardrobe changes this summer, mostly involving ankle length skirts. Current volunteers have recommended having most of your skirts made after you arrive in Mauritania but bringing at least one or two to get yourself started. So, on my recent trip to China, I happened to stumble across an Indian store that sold exactly the sort of skirts I was hoping to find for my upcoming West African adventure. Go figure.

A little bit on China, since I know I haven't been the best at keeping people updated: I went to China for two weeks in April with a friend of mine, Nicole, from high school. Her brother lives in Beijing, and two friends of ours (also from high school) are teaching English in Shanghai. We spent a few days in Beijing visiting Seb, Nicole's brother, after which the three of us took a train to Xi'an (southwest of Beijing) to do some sight-seeing. Seb left us at that point, and Nicole and I went on to Shanghai to visit Julie and James. China was amazing, but it was even better to spend all that time with good friends, especially since I likely won't see them for a while.

Once I figure out how to post pictures on this thing, I'll put a few up from the trip. In the meantime, things are going to be a little crazy between now and when I leave, so there will be lots of fun things to post about. Hope you enjoy!