Lettres de la République Islamique de Mauritanie

Early Termination

2007-11-29T02:58:00.000-06:00

Hey, sorry for those of you that I didn't talk to about this personally, but I'm leaving Mauritania. It's called an Early Termination or ET in Peace Corps lingo, and it means I'm quitting and going home. I'd rather not go on and on about the reasons why, but it's a personal decision, because as much as I liked Rosso, I need to be with my "real" family in Virginia right now. I'm currently in the capital again, waiting for my flight home, which is presumably tomorrow. I do want to thank everyone that's been so supportive, and sent me messages, letters, and care packages. It meant more to me than you may realize.

I'll miss the other PCV's, especially my fun and funny regionmates (who put together a mind-blowing Thanksgiving meal, with half a chicken each!). Life in the RIM can be tough, so I wish them all the best. I know they can make it because they're so cool about supporting one another and being there to vent common frustrations with. Vacations and visits to Senegal will help, too!
My host family was also incredible, and I have no doubt that they'll enjoy the company of another cheerier PCV sometime in the future (see, I am quite replaceable...).
The two English classes I had will be reassigned, though hopefully not to Mary, who already does a lot! The Girls' Mentoring Center is in good hands with Michael and his host mom/ star mentor, though I'll miss those girls that I was just beginning to really get to know.

Actually, the one thing I really wanted to share is related to the GMC. I unfortunately missed the first meeting of the "YGMC", for younger sisters/ cousins of the girls that are members. It's going to be a reading club of sorts, and there's definitely a lot of interest. I did have fun replicating a lesson that some other GEE volunteers put together for "Model GMC" during our training, a creative writing/ haiku lesson in French. We wrote this one as a group:

Un beau portable (A pretty cell phone)
Rouge, Avec lequel on joue (Red, with which one plays)
C'est très important (It's very important)
Though I suggested they try for a different final line (and I eventually forbade the use of the word "important" in the poems), so we came up with this:
Mais pas dans le centre! (But not in the GMC!)

This one was nice, too (also a group effort):

C'est mieux pour dormir (It's better for sleeping)
Le matelas est pratique (A matelas is practical/ useful)
Pour se reposer (to rest on)

Then the girls split into groups of 3-4, and wrote some on their own. They had trouble coming up with ideas/ topics, so I was running around suggesting things like trees, sunrise, animals, household items, foods, etc. We ended up with several on the topic of Chebbugen, the rice and fish dish that everyone eats daily or almost daily, and some on the importance of education and the dangers of aids (I suspect this one was inspired by a wall poster).
But a couple of my favorites were:

Coucher du soleil (Sunset)
Me rappelle le Ramadan (Reminds me of Ramadan)
Chaque jour, au soir (Every evening)

and the appropriately universal:
Ma mère est gentille (My mother is sweet)
Elle me conseille tout les jours (She advises me daily)
Je l'adore beaucoup (I love her a lot)

My personal contribution was:
J'adore boire le zrig (I love to drink zrig)
Boisson rafraichissante; (refreshing beverage;)
Lait caillé et sucre (curdled milk and sugar)
(...maybe Mike can come up with one about warm zrig.)

Trust me, these sound better in French than the impression my crappy translations must give. I don't have anything else to add, so I'll sign off with this sweet picture of my host brother and my two little cousins.

Season change, GMC open!

2007-11-12T05:17:00.000-06:00

The weather has been changing lately - it's cool enough to want to wear socks at night, though not enough for a blanket yet. And when you go out in the morning or at night, it's actually a little chilly (high 70's?). Of course daytime highs still reach into the 90's, but it's a nice change. That having been said, the cooler weather comes with incredible dryness (sucks for my skin!), since we won't see rain again 'till May or June. And this also means that on a windy day, ridiculous gusts of wind blow sand and dust over/ into everything. And I'm not sure why there's still so many mosquitoes, considering that there's fewer mud puddles around town for them to breed in. Oh, well.
And the novelty of the school strike has worn off, especially since yesterday there was one at the elementary school. I couldn't really find anyone who could give a logical explanation for these young kids getting up in arms with rocks and running around madly (I witnessed it from the roof of my house this time), other that this - Prices have risen in the market, including for essentials like bread (changing price of wheat), and people are upset. But since many grown-ups don't have strike-able jobs, they pressure their kids to riot to express discontent! I don't know how true this is, but even if it's a little bit true, WTF? At least this time it didn't spread to other schools, thanks in part to a police presence. But here's a nice visual of an empty classroom (actually one of mine) where students are not learning.
Oh, and guess how many hours I'll be teaching in a classroom like this one each week? As of yesterday, it'll be 6 instead of 9hrs! I was just on my way to request the director to lower my class load because it was getting difficult to handle three x 3hrs of classes on top of my GMC work, when I found out that one of my three classes was "dissolved", or basically spread out into other classes. Easily the happiest coincidence I've experienced here, but no, I will not credit it to Allah's will. I think I will be a better teacher with just 120 students (60 in each of the 2 remaining classes) to focus on.

As for the Girls' Mentoring Center, we had a great opening ceremony: I think everyone agreed that the 2 highlights were: short speeches, and good food & drink.
The following day we had our first meeting with all the girls where was had this great but unfortunately fuzzy picture taken of all the members. We now have a fully operational GMC, open 5 days a week, with an emphasis on computer classes (#1 most requested thing). They're good girls, and excited to be members. We're also planning some neat activities, as well as a possible reading club for younger girls (that our members would plan & impliment), and possibly a monthly "open-house" for non-member girls to enjoy a group lesson or activity.

RIM public schools (& my first riot scene!)

2007-11-08T04:32:00.000-06:00

So I know at least my parents are interested in more details re: teaching, but I hope others enjoy this too. First, some background on how classes work: students stay together in classes according to which BAC test (IB students know what this is - think of it as required AP tests that the vast majority of students fail) they will take at the end of high school (lycée). Teachers move to whichever class they're teaching in. There's a science/ math track, an Arabic track, and a bilingual track (French/ Arabic). I believe all tracks learn some English, but I might be wrong. The Arabic track students seem to care about English less, and are at a less advanced level.

Now for the fun stuff. To set the mood, let me begin by describing the 4 times I've been unable to teach a scheduled class in the last few weeks, and the increasingly hilarious reasons why not.

#1. I was given an official schedule of which English classes I was to teach a week and a half after classes were supposed to start (this initial delay was due to Ramadan). I didn't really think about the fact that I had 8 instead of 9hrs on the schedule until after I finished my first week of teaching (less than a third of the students showed up in any given class). When I checked with the administration, they confirmed that my schedule was "missing" one hour on Monday afternoons, so if any students had shown up (doubtful - see #2), I missed them. This wouldn't have fazed them, since more than half of their teachers had yet to filter in (Mary was asked to teach an extra hour on her first day, because the administration didn't want to release the students whose Arabic teacher was absent - good reason to always have a backup lesson!).

#2. When I visited my Monday afternoon class for the first time, I found some familiar students milling about, but they insisted that they were not in the class, and that those students had gone home because it's the last hour of the day. I stayed and prepped the lesson anyways, but after 25 minutes of sitting alone in the class (with random students stopping outside the door to gawk/ laugh), I gave up and left. I asked the administration, and they said that this often happens with the last hour of the day - students are tired and go home early. Another teacher advised me to try and get that hour changed, and now, two weeks after I made that request, it has been changed - to the last hour of the day on Wednesday afternoons. Sigh. Although the kids have been showing up after we did an exercise on negation (when I had them on Thursday morning), using the example "I didn't come to class on Monday" ("Do you understand?... Please repeat... Why didn't you come to class on Monday?"...). Apparently shaming students is one of the more effective discipline methods.

#3. Another mistake on my official schedule involved two classes. I thought I had one 3-4 and one 4-5, while it was actually one 4-5 and one 5-6 (the last hour of the day). After I had cleared this up, I went to teach the 4pm, which went fine. Then I found one student in the 5pm class next door, who explained that the students were released because of an absent teacher. The next week, I found those for 5pm at 4pm, and invited them to join the 4pm class rather than sit around until 5 (or go home). Some of them did, but then others who had gone home complained that they were counted absent because they came at 5. In fact, I had seen no students come next door at 5, but the following week I suggested the same thing, but then also taught the few who did want an hour off between classes rather than be able to leave an hour early. Summary - this is ridiculous, and I can't believe their other teacher is still not showing up.

Which brings me to the classes that I am not teaching today;
#4. Student strike/ riot! Good grief.
This is connected to teacher absenteeism, and I think the root of the problem is undoubtedly teacher dissatisfaction. Teachers at the public schools have little choice as to what city they teach in. They're "affectated" or assigned to a school in a specific town or village, often having to leave their families behind for the duration of the school year. The reason for this, as far as I can understand, is two-fold: because there aren't enough teachers willing to teach in rural or otherwise "undesirable" sites, and as a forced cultural exchange of sorts. The result is that they're sometimes very reluctant to leave their homes to come teach, especially if it's a black Mauritanian forced into a predominantly white moor area, or vice versa*. They're also paid on a monthly basis, and the pay is the same no matter how many hours they teach (so many are overloaded on hours), and I'm not sure how carefully teacher absences are monitored. And the pay is inadequate enough that public school teachers will skip out to teach at the private schools, where they're handed cash after each lesson taught.

So, back to the strike. This morning I was headed to the school around 9:45 for my 10am lesson. As I sidestep a puddle and scare a muddy duck, a kid rounds the corner and says excitedly in French "don't go there, there's a strike!". Naturally, this aroused my curiosity, and I kept walking. As I rounded that same corner, the sounds many kids screaming suddenly made much more sense: hundreds of students were wandering aimlessly or running madly in the last block before the schools. The middle school and high school are next to each other, and a few students were still running out of the middle school to join the others in the street. Most of these kids are pumped full of adrenaline, and this is clearly the most exciting thing that's happened at the school since it opened. It felt like a spontaneous "senior skip day" across two whole schools, with a bit of a pep rally gone wrong thrown in.
Despite being the only teacher in the street, I didn't feel unsafe, and several students filled me in on details. Evidently some middle school kids were getting angry because they still don't have a physics teacher (~correction: the bilingue students are mad because new reforms mean that math and science are now only taught in Arabic, not French, so technically they're mad because they don't have any math/ science teachers), and the administration wasn't able to calm them down or get them out before they started throwing rocks! This spread across the middle school first, and my host brother at the lycée said his class there was interrupted by a rock smashing through their window. As I get more information, I finally get close enough to see the entrance to the lycée where I'm supposed to teach, with a line of police blocking the entrance. At this point my conversation with a student was interrupted by the sound of rocks ricocheting off the tin roof of the house next to us, and a renewed frenzy of students in the street throwing rocks in the general direction of the school and the police. I confirm that the reason they're out in the street is because all school is canceled, at least for the rest of the morning, and if not for the day, and then start to head home.
Several kids (including a couple rock-throwers!) were being protective and seemed anxious for me to leave the scene, but I didn't feel very threatened (in part due to my obvious cluelessness) and walked away calmly. One young kid excitedly claimed that "someone was killed!" to get my attention, but some older teens I met on the way home said that "it's just the kids having fun". I got home fine and talked about it with my mom and host bro, and we could hear the kids screaming in waves (sort of like how you can hear a stadium from miles away when a touchdown is scored). When I left to go to the bureau and record this for all of you who like to read too much, my bro jokingly suggested that he could come along as my bodyguard. Good times had for all, and a day off for me!

I don't know how to transition this random thought in, but I've been thinking about it a lot: You know who must always be thrilled at the start of the school year? The goats. In the US, on the last day of school, you often find old notes scattered to the wind, right? Well apparently the tradition here is for students to do that every single day after school. Spend 5 hours taking careful notes, then tear out the pages and disperse them across the landscape for hungry goats to discover and excitedly devour. "The goat ate my homework" is never a joke. Someone even told me how this can be a problem in municipal offices - she came looking for the file with her original birth certificate, and was told in complete seriousness, that the file was unfortunately eaten by a goat.

*I'm going on far too many random tangents, but I had to mention an interesting exchange I had with my host mom about race, a very touchy subject in the RIM. I sometimes complain about kids bothering me in the street (I love the "mosquito" analogy, Mom - thanks!), and one time she had my host brother round them up for a 5-minute scolding/ shaming. But ultimately she recommended the same thing as my real mom - ignore them, they're not worth stressing about. So that's what I do, but the most interesting thing was my mom telling me that she had a similar experience when her husband was assigned (he worked in the military) to the all-moor city of Nema, far to the East and smack in the Sahara. Evidently when she walked around town or went to the market kids would yell "Pulaar! Pulaar!" at her. Crazy, huh?

Working!

2007-10-30T11:18:00.001-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but take it as a good sign - that I'm finally feeling busy! I now have a regular weekly schedule, even though my "real" work at the Girls' mentoring center is really just starting. Actually, all last week I was trying (along with my GEE sitemate) to get permission to administer a test which will help us admit new girls. Even though we were warned of it during training, I was pretty shocked at the inefficiency of the schools' infrastructure. Part of it was due to misunderstandings/ miscommunication, but I never expected quite so much red tape over such a simple matter. Well, we were able to announce the test today, and we're administering it tomorrow (inshallah!) so that we can select girls and send out invitations for our "grand opening" soon!

I've also begun teaching English as a secondary project. This is my third week doing it - I have three classes of high schoolers (equivalent to sophomores), each for one 1-hr and one 2-hr class each week - 9hrs per week total. It's definitely a challenge, but I like it pretty well so far, and one of my sitemates is a teacher trainer who also teaches the same age students, so I have someone to go to for help and advice. The only materials I have in class are chalk and a blackboard (I'll never think of Edison's smartboards quite the same way!). The students don't have textbooks, so any new lessons or information need to be written on the board for them to copy into notebooks. It can be especially difficult to maintain control with such big classes, and when I asked a Mauritanian for advice, she said that I should treat the classroom as a dictatorship, unlike a "democratic classroom", because that's what the students expect.
I don't have much to add (except, as always, thank you for your letters! Pictures or postcards are always a blast, too), and as a follow up to my food entry, here's another delicious dish I had a couple weeks ago. Moroccan couscous, a special treat (the photo doesn't do it justice)
Oh, and I recently had the amazing luck to meet Dr. Sato in the one good restaurant in the entire city of Rosso. This guy is working on such a great project, and is such an interesting character. It was an awesome coincidence, since we PCV's only visit this restaurant once a month or so... And on that note I'll leave you with three pictures of beautiful local birds (maybe Erinia can identify them?):

Food post (finally)

2007-10-08T04:52:00.000-05:00

I promised it a while ago, and here it is. I'm lucky that my host sister is a spectacular cook, and I'll do my best to describe the tasty things I get to eat (with more pictures, since they make you all so happy!).
First, the beverages. Alcohol may be prohibited, but drinks are a huge part of the culture, and all of them so far contain indescribable amounts of sugar. There's the ubiquitous tea, served in three rounds in shot glasses - chinese green tea, fresh mint, and sugar. Then there's café au lait, which I enjoy despite never having liked coffee, since it's more like hot sugared milk with a bit of nescafé; delicious. This is often for breakfast (or lipton tea with milk and sugar again), but during Ramadan it's also what everyone breaks fast with at sunset, along with buttered bread and dates. The other two special drinks are zrig, a traditional moor drink of cold sweet milk (there are many variations of it), and bissap juice. Bissap is a Wolof word, and the drink is the national drink of Senegal. It's made with dried hibiscus flowers, and plenty of sugar. Wish me luck protecting my teeth from the tasty onslaught.

Now for the food. The most common dish here (which fortunately, I adore), is chebugen.
The base is rice, and you can see the fish and vegetables in the middle. I avoid the hot peppers, but love squeezing the lemon and lime over my "section" (even though it's a communal plate/ bowl, you stick to the space in front of you for the base). The veggies are variable, but generally include cabbage, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and squash. It's the typical lunch dish in most families, but also appears as dinner, and has fairly consistently been the "second dinner" during Ramadan, though alternating with mafé. I don't have a picture of mafé, but it's also not as pretty to look at. Still, it's delicious - a base of white rice, with meat cooked in a flavorful brown peanut sauce. Two other things not pictured are 1) the different dishes prepared with pasta as a base, usually with meat (sometimes chicken!), and 2) hakko sauce over rice (prepared with bean leaves, meat or fish, and peanuts). A typical Moor dish is couscous with meat, and I like the rice & meat dishes. It's great to get to enjoy such a variety of foods (the Wolof dishes are the best, in my opinion), and Rosso's market has a lot to offer. My other favorite Wolof dish is banafa, because it's essentially one of my preferred American comfort foods: meat & potato stew. Anything with a more soupy consistency is eaten with bread. Like the appetizer of fish sauce in the picture below.
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"Lighter" dishes like that are the ones served first during Ramadan, most often fish (fried whole, or ground into spicy fish meatballs) served with french fries and onions. The next meal pictured was a special treat - chicken and fries! And the one beside it is my attempt at cultural exchange - this charming boy (my cousin) is helpfully cleaning up leftover pudding provided by yours truly.
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And last but not least, my absolute favorite picture of my family (and two PCVs) enjoying some watermelon. Everyone's so happy!

"Wildlife" of Rosso

2007-10-02T07:52:00.000-05:00

This should not come as a surprise to those who know me - I've taken a number of photos of the animals I've seen around town. It's also easier than taking pictures of people, because of the attention that a camera attracts. (all these photos, and some others, are on Picasa)

There are many beautiful wild bird varieties that I've been unable to catch "on film" (it is a digital camera after all). But of course much more common are dirty chickens, and even a few domesticated ducks that muck about in (and eat! eww) the filthy mud. Here's a great cross of the two - wild birds feeding in sewage!

Next up is the herd of cows that we ran into on our way to school, followed by some free-range goats. Everyone's goats (the sheep live more restricted lives) pretty much roam around town at their leisure, sifting through trash and eating their favorite treat, cardboard. The most impressive thing is that all the goats seem to return to their respective homes every evening, often with little prompting. I really feel bad for the donkeys (and horses) here, because as cart-pullers, they are very roughly treated. And any livestock is likely to experience the natural state of being strapped to the roof of a vehicle at some point in it's life. The other photo is of the feral dogs that live behind our offices.

The dogs are very fearful of humans, with good reason. Only a few people keep guard dogs, but dogs are generally disliked in this culture. There are also a lot of scraggly feral cats, but people seem to tolerate cats better (though apparently they share the black cat crossing your path superstition). Part of this stems comes from the Prophet's preference, since there's a story of him cutting off his sleeve to let a cat continue to nap on it. Of course both cats and dogs have huge overpopulation problems, and a spay/ neuter program is inconceivable. Periodically the town makes a collective effort and lays out plates of poisoned milk to bring the number of feral animals back down.

The last two photos I have to share are of the gecko that lives on my ceiling, and one of the baby frogs that lives by the family tap. I wish them well, since they both enjoy eating the mosquitoes that make my life hell. Still, the sheer number of tiny frogs is a little distressing... the nightly frog chorus sounds nice, but I hate (almost) stepping on them in the dark.
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That's all I've got for now - I'd love to hear what you think!

Oh, and one thing I should mention, since I just got some more lovely letters and packages - if there's one thing I don't need more of right now, it's stamps. I'm so grateful for all the stamps everyone sent me (including some 90-cent ones to send letters to France - Thanks!), and I realized yesterday that I now have over 100 stamps (even after giving some away to other PCVs). So I would have to write at least one letter per week for the remaining 90 weeks of my service, but keep in mind that I plan on going home for vacation in about 38 weeks (but who's counting?), in which case I would need to write about three letters per week to use them all up before I visit the US. And on top of all this is the fact that I've written no letters since I've been in Rosso (though this will soon be corrected). Love you all!

Interesting article

2007-09-30T04:50:00.000-05:00

This is a huge part of cell phone culture here in Mauritania, where it's referred to as bepage, or the (french) verb beeper.

To be appreciated

2007-09-25T04:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry the post about local drinks and foods will have to wait; I have yet to collect enough photos of the things I want to describe/ discuss. I hope the following will appease the masses (Rachele) until I can do that.

One of the the weirder things I've noticed about the culture here is that saying that someone is/ has "pas de problèmes" (no problems) is apparently high praise. I first encountered this at our end-of-training gathering, when many host families (including my sister) stated as much regarding the PCTs that had stayed with them. At first I thought it was a joke of sorts, but then I realized that this really is a close as anyone could get to "it was a joy to have her" or "she was as helpful as she could be" (as a side note, I also enjoyed one person's praising the fact that "her" PCT was always home, and never went out after sundown - like all the female PCT's, but it seems that in American society this would not invite respect from peers, since one could argue that it was akin to saying that she was a homebody with no social life).

People here are not liberal with compliments, and sometimes not being criticized feels like the best compliment of all! This probably sounds harsher than it is... the thing is that what is considered polite and impolite is very different here. I already mentioned that it's very rude to extend someone your left hand, or give them (or eat) food with it, since the left hand is exclusively for wiping yourself with after going to the bathroom (I was happy how amenable my new family was to the addition of soap next to the toilet). And while it's not impolite to spit or pick your nose in public, and burping is a compliment to the chef, farting is still rude here (but is also the source of the most popular Pulaar joke, which goes like this: "do you like beans?", and no matter what the answer, much laughing ensues, along with repetitive comments about who's the bigger bean-eater).

It's definitely not impolite (and is actually expected) for you to walk right into someone's house or compound, though in this context or any other, it would be extremely rude for you to not spend an appropriate amount of time greeting everyone present. Greeting is a repetitive process, when you ask over and over how someone's doing, how's the tiredness, how's the family, how's their health, how and they're doing with the heat/ rain, and how their morning/day/evening is/was. Except you ask and answer the questions simultaneously (and the answer is always "fine", "good", "in/with peace" or "well, praise Allah"), without actually listening to what you're answering. And you basically have to keep going until the other person stops, which can be awkward when you're still getting used to it. I had gotten fairly good at doing this in Hassiniya, and now I've almost got it down in Pulaar (with the timely addition of "how is fasting?" for Ramadan), but for you French speakers, it's simple enough - "ça va?" "ça va, mashallah." "et la famille?" "ça va, alhamdulillah." "et la fatigue/ la santé/ le travail/ la chaleur?" "ça va, etc." Oh, and I was surprised that people use the word "le carême" for fasting, but I guess it makes sense.

Ok, I digress - back to "politeness". Most people never use the words (which makes you wonder why they even exists in some languages) sorry, please, or thank you. And there is no word for excuse me - it comes across as a general shoving motion. Which makes me appear quite odd when I do use those words... oh, well. Oh, and the imperative form is the norm - "eat more!". Or to kids "get up! sit down! move over! give/take this!, etc". Fun times.

But I started this post about being complimented or criticized, and this has been an important element of my integration. The fact is that as a foreigner I feel like I'm being watched with an especially critical eye in a culture that's already quite critical. At least I appreciate that my family here is willing to let me try to help and really participate as a family member, as opposed to my Kaédi family which (perhaps inadvertently) excluded/ limited me by always treating me as a guest.

For example, I once asked to try to pour the tea in Kaédi, and was stopped and laughed away before I could even complete my first attempt. And my hand washing of my laundry in a bucket always brings somewhat derisive laughter, even though after close observation I still can't see what they're doing so differently. It's ironic because even the best tea-maker will occasionally put too much sugar (and be mildly berated for it), or even spill a bit as they pour from a foot above a shot-glass size cup, but if I were to do that, it would amount to an unforgivable mistake. So this is why I'm thankful that my family here in Rosso lets me continue to try new stuff, and they laugh at me with good humor that I can enjoy with them. There are some really nice moments too. Once I was "challenged" by my brother to make an omlette, and even though it was my first time cooking with the little stove, and I had to use a pot instead of a pan, and I had to cut the onion without the aid of a cutting board, I must say I made some rather good eggs. I suppose I'm fortunate that "omlette" here actually means scrambled eggs, and my sister helped encourage me with liberal use of oil, but the fact that everyone agreed that it was edible was positively thrilling. And I volunteered myself to help sort the rice one night, and to sweep the floor another (both jobs deemed generally acceptable, though "follow-up" was apparently necessary). But the absolute highest praise I received was when I helped peel and cut potatoes for french fries last night, and my host mom asked if I'd done it before (not like this, I answered)! So hoorah, that sort of means I did well - and it feels great to be appreciated, heh!

5th day of Ramadan

2007-09-18T03:56:00.000-05:00

The first day, the 13th (after the new moon was sighted), I had a small breakfast in my room after sunrise, but didn't fast because no one really expects me to. That having been said, I only ate a piece of bread around 1pm, so that I would be legitimately hungry when I broke fast with my host family at sunset. But after talking with them, I decided to try it the second day. I explained to them that even if I'm not doing it for religious reasons, I respect the ideas of personal sacrifice and having a better understanding of the sufferings of the less fortunate.

Now I had never done this kind of fast before, and even though you get hungry a little after noon, not drinking water must be one of the hardest things ever. You quickly forget that you're hungry, and I spent most of the second half of the day with thoughts of various cold beverages unwittingly flashing through my head. It was also pretty inconvenient that this was the day I had to do laundry, and that I went on a long walk in the heat to the market to shop for some essentials. But besides those two more-draining-than-usual activities, I spent the day reading, or lounging in a weird stupor in front of my fan, while my host sister fell asleep on my mat for 5 hours.

And this is why if you happen to ask me how my work is going, the most truthful answer is that I'm not really working yet. Not many serious projects are undertaken during Ramadan, not only because people are exhausted all day, but also because they're busy with their spiritual selves and their relationship with God. Nevertheless, you'd be surprised how much does get done. For example the carpenter we new PCV's hired to build us some shelves and desks has been doing some hard physical work the past few days, and people who work out in the fields can't ignore the fact that this is the peak of the planting season. And many food places remain open, including the egg sandwich spot that we love.

Because people still need to eat! You're exempted from fasting if you're sick, if you're pregnant or menstruating (though those days will need to be made up later), or if you're traveling. Young children and the elderly are also excused. But besides that, the deprivation during the day leads to some very tasty foods and drinks at night! I'm working on a collection of photos of my favorite dishes, which is only increasing now that I live with a family of amazing cooks! But typically when we break fast right at the evening prayer call we begin with a few dates, and some buttered bread and coffee, as well as water, and cold zrig or bissap. Last night I mixed one of the instant pudding packages I was sent, and no one wanted to eat it by the spoonful, they would only spread it on the bread, and were shocked that I made so much, saying I should have saved half for the next night! I was just happy they liked it. A short while later we had some tea, and then around 8:30 pm the first meal. Last night it was banafé, one of my favorites - essentially a meat and potato stew. I was full, tired, and headed for bed around 10, though the "real" dinner of pasta and meat had yet to come out.

I'm still eating little to nothing after breakfast and before sunset, but I don't tell people I'm fasting since it doesn't count unless you're also not drinking. The result is that I'm somewhat lethargic all day, and probably on the worst "diet plan" ever, since I slow my metabolism to a crawl during my waking hours, and then eat lots of sugary and fatty foods right before crashing in bed. But the nice thing is trying to meet new people and be invited to break fast with them. Normally I would be doing these kinds of visits over lunch, but it's fun so far. My real job right now is my own integration into the community, which is harder than it sounds.

For GEE work, I'm collaborating with 2 other Rosso PCV's on a 3-month action plan for the GMC, planning the opening (deciding which girls are members), choosing women to go to a mentor's conference, and starting up a new "young girls' gmc", where the older teen girls who are already members will serve as mentors/ teachers to younger girls. But the GMC is supposed to be on about the same schedule as the schools, and since Ramadan coincides with the beginning of school, many students will be absent until about mid-October, so we're planning our offical opening at the beginning of November. There are still limited activities going on until then, of course, including computer classes that are in the more than capable hands of an amazing, dependable adult woman mentor.

A few final notes/ observations on Ramadan: The fairly liberal town of Rosso has been a lot more conservative (and quiet!) because of people's stricter devotion/ religious observances. While my first few days here most men would extend their hand to shake mine, in the past five days I've only shaken hands with three men, all of whom I already knew pretty well. Some might shake my hand in a private space, but not in public. So instead when greeting men I put my hand over my heart and incline my head (another common way to greet people from a distance, rather than waving: clasping both hands together and lifting them over your head). Women (including non-moors) are more likely to wear a mulehfa during this time, and almost all women are covering their heads in public. It may be counter to my integration, and it would surely help control my ridiculous frizzy hair, but I still hate wearing a headscarf, so I don't. The more covered up people are now, the better, and I've even seen some people wearing socks with their sandals! That's all I can think of for now, but I'm looking forward to writing an entry all about food! Please send some love in my direction; I'm thinking of you all!

PS - If you look at my pictures at all (I'm working on adding captions), just a quick note about the changes from the desert landscapes to the grassy fields: many of these scenes are actually in the same places, with the only difference being a month of rain! You can see this clearly in the "Mount Awesome" pictures. Thus is the impact of the rainy season!

New home in Rosso

2007-09-12T03:58:00.000-05:00

Hello! So sorry for the delay in updating - I tried posting something the day before swearing in, but it never worked. But now I've got a great internet connection to use more often/ regularly. I was going to post my growing collection of photos, but forgot the USB cord... That'll be for next time. I do have a new mailing address here (look in the column on the left), and I added some "tips" if you have a pressing need to spoil me like Nikola's mom did. Anything sent to the old address will come to me eventually, but I have to wait for the Peace Corps shuttle to come down here, which it only does once a month.

So the goodbye party with host families, instructors, and fellow trainees from my language class was nice, with some appropriately sappy compliments and thank yous. I did pass the language test (I was one of the first ones tested on the 2nd when we came back to the lycée, and it was great to get it over with), with the required intermediate-mid level. I have some pictures to share from last Wednesday's swearing in, which was a very nice ceremony. Besides speeches and comments from PC country director, the American embassy's Chargé d'affaires, and local officials (Wali, Mayor, etc), five trainees/ new volunteers gave speeches in the four local languages and French. It was funny when despite great efforts to prevent this, several cell phones went off during the ceremony, including a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" exactly as we were all swearing to defend the constitution of the United States.

We had a fun party at a hotel afterwards. I need to describe this, but I think pictures will be necessary to fully understand what this "venue" was like. There was one average-sized room indoors where we kept the food and anything we wanted to keep dry, since it ended up raining most of the night. Just outside of that room there was one small tiled patio, and everywhere around it was mud and water. In order to get to the dance floor you had to navigate, in the dark, a good 40 yard path of only slightly muddy land surrounded by a filthy swamp. They tried to lay out cement blocks and wooden planks to help cross the worst area, but it ended up as a rather amusing (though also gross/ dangerous) sobriety test. The dance floor itself was big, pretty and tiled, but roofless, so it was incredibly wet/ slippery. One of my sitemates and I had bought 100 glow sticks off a departing volunteer, which I'd like to think added to the atmosphere. It was a memorable night (though not everyone remembers it), and it was smart to give us the whole next day to recover and pack before leaving to our permanent sites.

The trip down to Rosso went well, and we stopped at our favorite restaurant in Nouakchott for shawarma (meat), fries and ice cream! The past few days have been very busy, what with 8 new volunteers trying to do everything that needs to be done. We did some protocol with local officials, and we've all successfully lined up housing! We also opened our bank accounts, so that PC transfers us funds instead of giving us wads of cash. Four of the 8 volunteers are "en brousse", so in various villages on the outskirts of town, but they'll be coming into town relatively often. I really like all the volunteers in the region, and I know we'll have good times together. We shopped for essential items like matelas (the same cloth covered foam mats everyone sleeps on the floor with), small gas stoves (so we can make our own meals when we want to), fans (yes!!!), and the like. It was necessary to have Mauritanians help us out, so that we didn't get too ripped off at the market. Even so, our "settling-in allowance" was incredibly generous; actually an envelope overstuffed with 1,000 ouguiya bills. There were over 100 of them, coming to a total equivalent to around $400, and much much more than most families will see in a year.

As for my specific situation, I am renting a room (for 10,000/ month - $37) and living with an AMAZING host family. I'm thrilled to finally have all my stuff together in one place, and even though technically I'm still living out of bags, I feel so much more settled than I have for the past few months. I only realize now how much added strain came from being so uprooted, and the relief is enormous. My Pulaar host family is quite wealthy (my mother's oldest son is in the US, and her husband in France), their house is beautiful, and my living situation is completely different from my stay with a Moor family in Kaedi (pictures will help illustrate this later). Speaking of which, my new name is Thiamel (like camel, but with a "tcha" sound in place of the "c"), though outside of the family I might use Claire more. So although right now I have everything I need, eventually I'd like to have some new Pulaar-style clothes made, and I also really want some shelves/ furniture for my stuff. My room is very big, and there's a closet-sized room attached that would have been a bathroom but I'll use instead as a kitchen of sorts.

Just to give you an idea of the contrast (besides the cultural differences, which I'll get into later), which mostly has to do with the luxuries of an upper-class houshold: I now have easy access to a tap for water, a cement rather than dirt floor, a solid, non-zinc roof, a door that opens/ closes and locks easily, a real shower rather than bucket baths outside, and a real turkish toilet rather than a hole over a pit. My room is very secure, not only because of the locks or the bars over the window (and mosquito netting!), but also because my host mother spends most of her time in the front of the house, so she always knows who's coming in and out. She's a lovely person, and I can tell we'll get along great. I've only had two meals with them so far, but both were delicious! As for bugs, while mosquitoes are always a problem in this town (despite the netting over my window I still need a net indoors, so I'll try and have a simple frame built to hold it up), it's nice to only deal with them, flies, ants, silverfish, and the occasional small spider or cricket in my room, as opposed to the dazzling panoply of insects that found me in Kaedi.

The only other thing I'll mention for now is that my language-learning priorities have changed a bit. I definitely want to try maintain the Hassiniya I know, because I've already seen how it can be useful in market transactions, and because I'll need it for when I travel around the country. And while I really want to learn Wolof, because it's common and useful here and in Senegal, I've decided that it's more of a priority for me to get some basic Pulaar down. As I mentioned before my family is Pulaar (as are many people in Rosso), and even if we can often communicate in French, they're used to speaking Pulaar at home, and I want to be able to do the same, as soon as possible. I found a dictionary in the bureau, and I'm buying a notebook today. It's funny that I'm almost embarrassed to speak only two languages when everyone here speaks 3-5.

So those are my updates, and now I'll try and answer the emails I don't mean to neglect! I'm thinking of you all, I still miss home terribly, but I'm happy to be settled in a new home! Love!

Almost a PCV!

2007-08-29T13:18:00.001-05:00

The countdown is on! Sorry I've been unable to update (or check my email) in the past week and a half, but know that I've been writing many "snail mail" letters instead. Friday is my last day of language class, Sunday is our farewell party for members of our language class and host families, and Monday I go back to the lycée for a few more tech sessions and my language test (ahh!). But Wednesday is swearing in, followed by a party, and Friday I'm off to Rosso.

I don't have much time to update, so I'll just share some tidbits. There's always lots of trash and decomposing stuff on the street, and while some things (fish heads, sheep tails/ ears and goat hooves/ horns) I barely notice any more, occasionally something different catches my attention. For the past four days, every day on my walk home from class I see part of what looks like a decomposing hedgehog, and every day I promise myself to ask my language instructor if there actually are hedgehogs here, or if it's something else. And every day I forget about it about 10 minutes after getting home, and don't think of it again until the next evening. Maybe I should pick it up and keep it with me to remind myself (riiight).

Traditional health/ healing: Many people here have small marks (vertical slits) on the outside of their eyes. According to what I've heard, while it's sometimes done for aesthetic reasons (but if so, it's usually also made darker with dye), it's actually often done to young people or children as a cure for migranes!
And I was pretty surprised one morning to find my host mother performing a healing ritual of sorts on a friend's one-year old son. I had no idea she did this sort of thing, since she also uses "western" medicines for herself and her family (and when I went with her to the clinic with her where one of her daughter had given birth, she accepted a shot to help clear up an infection on her foot). But the ritual itself involved having the baby drink a goat's milk directly from the animal, and being bathed and having a dung mixture spread on his head (the baby did not enjoy any part of this, btw). I wish I hadn't had to leave for class, or that I had the language capabilities to understand the explanation of what it's for! I hesitated to give this example on a public blog, because it seems kind of stereotypical... Still, I was surprised and interested, and I thought you might be too.

I love you all!

2007-08-18T05:04:00.000-05:00

The server was acting up yesterday; here’s what I was trying to post:

Hello! I hope weekly updates are satisfactory for now (sorry I don’t post on Monday or Tuesday morning, Rachele!), and I’m always thrilled to see your comments. Thus the title of this entry; I was having a rough week, and even though the 15 min internet time I had was just enough to read and not respond to emails and comments, it was a great pick-me-up (I was laughing out loud in the cyber café, and smiling the whole walk home). Also, I got more letters and packages! I’m trying my best to keep up with responses, but I hope responding through these “letters” is good too!

Aunt Lynda and Audrey – thanks for wishing me a happy St. Claire’s! I definitely did not realize it at the time, as I’m used to Mamine’s card marking the occasion. Audrey I did get your letter, and I especially like the postcard of the Sacré Coeur. I’m going to enjoy decorating my room in Rosso with the cards and postcards I’ve gotten (thanks to everyone who sent me any!), as well as Nikola’s great collage. I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the congregation, but I’ll check when I go back. Aunt Lynda please send my love to Uncle Russ, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Martha, and to everyone else as well!

I added my current address to a more accessible spot, and this can be used throughout my service, though the lowly PCT after my name will change to the respectable PCV after swearing in, inshallah! I’ll probably get a P.O. box in Rosso, too, but more about that later. Mom, getting and opening the packages you sent was possibly the most exciting thing since Christmas sometime in the 90’s. And I’m so happy I HAVE HARRY POTTER 7!!! I feel a little guilty because some friends here who ordered it to be delivered express international through Amazon don’t have it yet, but I’ll obviously pass it on as soon as I’m done (I’m enjoying the unofficial PCT book exchanges).

Part of the fun of anyone receiving packages/ treats when we’re all at the lycée is that we share a lot. People were happy for the dried apricots and candy mom sent, but I also got some trail mix, oreos, and jelly beans from other PCT’s friends/ families! Quite a celebration. Although I should say that as much fun as it is to get stuff, I don’t want you all to expend all your energy (and money; these cost a small fortune to send!) sending me more than letters now, since I’ll appreciate it throughout my service (if you don’t forget about me). Not to mention that once I get to site I might have more specific requests…

I know I should be using this space for more cultural enlightenment, but I intend to compose more interesting and analytical posts when I get to Rosso (Hassiniya name: Ligwaariib). Especially because my first month at site I won’t be very busy, and it’ll be Ramadan, so the town itself will be more subdued. Meredith emailed me some great suggestions for topics to discuss, and mom and dad have sent me a lot of questions, so I’m making a long list of such ideas to write on later.

I do want to clarify that as difficult as it is for me to learn, Hassiniya is going to be a very useful language to know, even if I may not need it on a daily basis in Rosso. The fact is that along with French, it’s the official language of RIM, and some Moors only speak it, and it will definitely be necessary when I travel in country. Plus if I get good at it, I would have a leg up if I ever want to learn Arabic (spoken, not written!). Apparently we’re going to be told during our evaluations on Monday that if we don’t pass intermediate-mid on our language test, we’ll “get the axe”. I think this is absurd, obviously intended to scare us into studying harder (they’ve invested far too much time, energy and money in us to send us home simply for having trouble learning a language), which is completely unnecessary because I’m already trying as hard as I can. The good news is that I’ve heard that if I find a Wolof tutor in Rosso, PC will pay for my lessons. But for now, it’s all Hassiniya all the time. Yee-haw!

Later today I’m hiking back to Mount Awesome (so dubbed in Chris’ GPS), which will be fun. And next week I’ll be doing lessons with other GEE trainees at a Model GMC in a town 2 hours away. Random note – there’s a town we drove through on the way to Nouakchott called Boutilimit – 10 points to francophones who can tell me why I thought that was funny.

Last week I quoted the Lonely Planet guidebook, but I just found out that earlier editions (not that long ago) of Lonely Planet actually disadvised people from visiting RIM at all. It’s possible that pressure from PCVs contributed to their adding in the few pages they did. On that note I’d like to share with you this wonderful tidbit from an email of my mom’s: “The guidebook is for tourists who don't stay long enough to appreciate anything but the most obvious and don't have time to make friends. That's why despite the disadvantages of staying in places I didn't always love, I thought it was a better way to get to know West Africa.” Indeed!

Well I need to go by the market to get snacks for the hike, and a gift for my host sister’s baby. I don’t know if I said so before, but the baby that was born to one of my other sisters several weeks ago actually died after just a few days. She was very premature, and I did not even know she had passed on right away because they didn’t really talk about it (or maybe just not with me). But one of my other sisters gave birth last weekend, and though this baby was also premature, tomorrow she’ll have been fine for a week, and I think that’s when she’ll officially be named (My fam was joking that she was named Claire).

Other notes: I experienced my first blister from a blister beetle on my leg last week, and this morning I found two more on my arm. Annoying, but as long as you open them up and scrub them out under running water so the blisters don’t spread, it’s fine.
Also, having no thermometer, I’ve just been estimating temps in Kaedi to be TOO HOT, but someone with a thermometer informed me that we had one day last week when it was ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX DEGREES at 2pm. Sorry about the caps; I hate it when they’re overdone, but it seemed necessary/ appropriate here, so that you now have the opportunity to express appropriate sympathies. And if I ever said that the heat is not that bad because it’s dry, I take it back. The humidity is sometimes as bad as Virginia in August (shudder). But I’m still alive, and no heat stroke yet! And despite my obsession with sunscreen, I’m getting a lovely farmer’s tan, while my legs remain as pale as ever.

Back in training

2007-08-11T03:18:00.000-05:00

Hello again, just thought I'd add some stuff about Rosso, particularly the not-so-flattering description in the Lonely Planet guidebook: "Rosso is the main Mauritania-Senegalese border crossing. It's a grubby, haphazard town with a slightly sinister feel. Most travellers breeze though, as there aren't really any worthwhile sights or attractions here. For more details, see pg. 574" and on page 574: "The border crossing here is notorious for its hassles. Be prepared for some confrontation with customs officials who usually ask for "exit taxes"." Nice, huh? But honestly, I can tell I'll love it. We've already made friends with some border/ customs officials, and the lack of tourists is an advantage to those of us trying to do real work and have a positive reputation in town. Plus I'll have a better internet connection than this one! I'm so happy I'll be able to keep in touch regularly! Oh, and to my scrabble-loving friends: I actually brought a travel version with me, and one of my new contacts in Rosso is apparently a huge fan, too. I'm thinking of all of you, and all your adventures, and as always, I adore getting even the most mundane news of life back in the States (and accross the world!). Wish me luck now to stay motivated to learn Hassiniya; because I only spoke French in Rosso, I forgot almost everything, and got the lowest score of my class on my "mid-term": novice/high. I need to jump two levels, to intermediate/med in order to be sworn in! I'm going to go study now! The next three weeks will fly by, though individual days feel hot and long.
PS - This is random, but I was thinking of Sister Audrey's upcoming shindig, and I thought I should mention that Rosso has one of very few Catholic churches in RIM, and the only one with a visible cross on the outside. It's a very small congregation, with a French priest who's been there 15 years, and I had grenadine and cookies with a couple of the sisters there (they have a beautiful garden, and a pet tortoise!). They do mostly health education stuff, and they speak great French, which I enjoyed.

More news from a wet Rosso

2007-08-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

Hello again! I write you now from the Rosso PC Bureau (really just a room with a fast computer, a fan, and a lot of books!). Our first night here it started raining, and the house/ room of the PCV we're staying at (though she's currently on vacation) has a very leaky roof! The rainy season has been late in coming this year, and the very next afternoon/ evening was a much more severe storm. Even local people were shocked at the intensity, and we were bailing out water by the bucketfuls. It was a great moment when someone stopped to make and offer tea while we're all soaked and tired. Rosso has a pretty difficult rainy season (from now, although it was supposed to be a month ago, until September or October). There's two main paved roads, but all the other sand/ dirt (actually mostly clay) roads quickly become impossible to navigate. After the severe storm, there were places where people wade through disgusting water over their ankles and sometimes closer to their knees. Sometimes people are able to make stepping stones with big rocks or cement blocks. The rain also means a lot more mosquitoes, and I've been getting many more bites than in Kaedi, despite using repellent and even wearing my net as a sheet when sleeping indoors! Whole neighborhoods have to evacuate the area during this period, including my assigned counterpart/ first contact person. She had invited me to lunch with her family (actually a moor family that only speaks Hass, which is rarer here), but had to cancel because she was flooded out. Nevertheless, I've had many chances to explore the city a bit (and buy some rubber boots!), and I've been on at least a half dozen protocol visits or visits with various community contacts. It's fun, but definitely overwhelming. One of the main purposes of site visit is to line up housing, but I'm not too worried since I could possibly stay with the PCV currently on vacation during part of September, and she may have more ideas of families that could host me or apartments I could stay in. It's fun to see what's available now (it'll be harder once teachers start moving into town for the school year), and just trying to become familiar with the town (lots of great food to be found, and even ice cream!). It seems like almost everyone in our 69-person training group has gotten sick by now, and a few days ago about a dozen people fell ill with what might have been salmonella, but I'm lucky enough to still be feeling fine. I'm careful about drinking filtered or bottled water,but overall I think I've also just been unbelievably lucky. Thanks for your comments and letters; I'm happy you're happy I'm happy! I'll be writing more soon, and actually eventually I'll give you an address for me here in Rosso, so that letters and packages don't sit in Nouakchott for weeks before someone heads down here. Take care!

ROSSO site visit!

2007-08-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

Right now I’m sitting in an air conditioned room, at a computer which I’m using for FREE to check my email, and I’m sipping a gin and fruit juice ! Tonight the PCVs are making chinese food, and we’re watching movies! The town is quite big, with a lot to explore, and with a port to easily cross the river to Senegal (once I’m allowed), and to enjoy all the wonders found therein! Seriously, Rosso is absolutely amazing (and only an hour from RIM’s capital, Nouakchott), and I’m so unbelievably lucky (and thankful!) to be here! I was starting to worry about potentially sleeping with goats for the next two years, and instead I might have my own room, fridge, and fan! Have you noticed that every sentence so far has ended in an exclamation point?! The only “problem” is that my Hassiniya would not be as useful here, but it’s probably too late for me to switch... I’ll probably just finish and take my language test in Hass, but when I get on site I’ll find a Wolof tutor. French will be useful in this great town too. The ride down was interesting. The trip from Kaedi to Nouakchott (the more direct road is not finished yet) took exactly half the time as our initial bus ride in (four rather than 8), and we had “American” food there for lunch, before continuing three more hours due south to Rosso. The taxi brousse ride was exciting, travelling at a steady 130-140 km/ hr, and with numerous close calls with goats, donkeys, and an old woman in the street! Our driver also had a passionnate discussion about us taking a break, and by that I mean half an hour of shouting by the side of the road. Part of the travel time is from the many gendarme stops along the way. I also forgot to mention that my sitemates are freaking awesome, and I know we’re going to have some great times! It’ll actually be really hard for me to go back to Kaedi for a month before swearing in, but September will come soon enough. This is not a very culturally enlightening “letter”, but next time I’ll share some of the stuff I’ve learned through my experiences and in cross-cultural sessions, particularly about men and women’s roles, since I am going to be educating and empowering girls at the Rosso girls’ mentoring center! I didn’t mention that I get to do this with a solid team; one PCV who helped start the GMC has one more year of service, and one of my favorite PCTs (and one of four male GEE volunteers) is doing the same job as me! I know we’re going to have many chances to have a great impact here, and I’m pumped!

My "varied" forms of entertainment

2007-07-28T03:22:00.000-05:00

Hello again!
Thanks for your responses! One of my most exciting forms of entertainment is coming to the cyber to read emails, even if the connection is too slow to answer them all. Anyone who wrote to me can expect a "real" letter as soon as I can buy more envelopes. And if you ever feel like spending an exorbitant amount of money to send me a package that I might actually recieve, the top three things I'd like are: american stamps (I'm already running low!), crystal lite or kool aid (the walmart version has a peach iced tea flavor) in single-servings, so I drink more, and hard candy (anything but jolly ranchers), which despite what you think might still melt a bit en-route. Paperback books are nice too. But letters/ emails are cheaper and equally thrilling!
Considering that I haven't been out after dark since I left the US, it's funny to consider the things that keep me busy/entertained during the week:
1. Enjoying my "exfoliating skin regime". The sand and sweat do wonders for my complexion, and I moisturize more than before because I use sunscreen every day. Plus my peanut soap always has some sand in it, so it scrubs better than a loofah.
2. Consuming food and beverages. I may not ever get to drink alcohol, but I really love the tea, and sometimes when I have a headache the caffeine in it works better than advil! And I like the food fine (except for mauritanian couscous!), and if my family ever decides I haven't eaten enough they offer me bread or camel biscuits (not made of camel, just cookies like saltier, more flavorless animal crackers).
3. Visiting evironmental education trainee's garden. This was actually an exciting part of my day twice this week. A change of scenery, and a chance to speak "englezieh".
4. Stargazing from under my mosquito net. Sounds like I'm romanticizing, but it really is quite beautiful. With almost no light pollution, on a clear night you can see everything, including the milky way better than I ever remember seeing it. The waxing moon is lovely, too. Especially a couple hours after sunset, if there's a nice cool breeze, it's a beautiful way to fall asleep. And it's nice to feel safe from bugs under the net too, and this way I can be sure that I won't wake up to a chicken climbing over me (doesn't faze my host sister nearby).
5. Witnessing the multitude of uses of the family goats; for milk, meat, and water bottles, as well as garbage disposals and dishwashers (dad, reminds me of your "three rivers" joke).
6. Speculating about permanent site placement by myself or with other PCTs. We find out tues and I'm saving 15 min internet time just to post the announcement!
7. Sitting and staring at walls. I actually do this more than I would previously have thought possible, and it's not that bad. The funny thing is, sometimes I look around and realize that no one in my family is really doing anything either... a clear cultural difference, I guess. Plus I take the opportunity to do some deep breathing/ meditation which feels really nice (I thought you'd be happy to hear that, mom!).
Well, that's all for now, but one of my other fun activities is composing in my head or in my journal what I can write for my next letter home via this blog, so I'll try to come up with something good for next time, though I'll be busy with my site visit. Love!

Daily activities

2007-07-21T04:45:00.002-05:00

Hello friends!

Hope everyone’s doing well, and I have some time now to update you all on my activities. Just so you know, my desire to blog is quite strongly correlated with perceived interest, so if you don’t think I know you’re reading it (or even if you think I do!), please leave a comment or email me to tell me so! I’d especially love to hear your reactions and questions.

I haven’t really done a good job of describing what I’m doing, so here’s an example of a day in the life of Mariam/ Claire (I have to complete a simpler version of this in Hassiniya for class on Monday!): I wake up feeling dusty between 6 and 7am. It’s hard to sleep through sunrise because of the call to prayer, and the animals and kids getting louder. I eventually give in and take down my mosquito net, and drag it, my sheet, and foam mattress into my hot room. Sometimes I take a quick bucket bath before changing into clothes for the day, and I generally shuffle around aimlessly until someone in my family offers me buttered bread for breakfast (tea is no longer part of the deal). Once I have some food in my stomach I take my malaria prophylaxis and a multivitamin, and sometimes I spent a few minutes petting the family cat, who begged some bread off me. I get my stuff together for class, and set off on the 15 min walk through dusty sand streets lined with trash. I do my best to avoid/ ignore kids looking for a “nasrani” or “toubab” to bother, and I’m happy to make it to Moktar’s home/ classroom.

I learn Hassiniya from him with four other people, and our first session is from 8am-noon, with a half hour break around 10, when we might eat eggs for a snack. When I head back home just after noon, it’s gotten very hot, my brain is on overload, and I crash under the hangar with my family until lunch (ALWAYS rice and fish) is served around 1-2 pm. At least I finally get some tea! I sometimes have homework, but generally I don’t do much until leaving for class again at 3:40. In fact, one of the pieces of medical advice we were given is to limit activity between 11am and 4pm, and it’s not hard advice to follow. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve occasionally spent whole hours doing nothing but lying still and fanning myself (my fanning arm is sometimes sore).

Our second class session is from 4 to 6pm, and afterwards if I have any energy I might walk to the market (it’s closer to Moktar’s than to my house) to check email or buy a cold yogurt ball. Unfortunately the kids are more annoying/ determined at this time of day, and they can easily give me a headache. When I make it home I only have a few more hours of daylight (sunset between 7:30 and 8), but at least it’s cooler. My family usually wants to know what I’ve been studying, and though it’s nice that they care, sometimes I wish they’d just leave me alone to recover! I can hardly take shelter in my room, because of the temperature in there (but sometimes I do it anyway), so instead I always have something with me so that I can be “busy” writing, whether it’s class stuff, journal entries, or letters home. After sunset, most of the family watches tv, and the light is turned on only if there aren’t too many bugs/ frogs around (rarely). They mostly watch the RIM channel, as opposed to the one from Senegal or the one with American movies in French. It’s very boring, but I get excited when I understand a phrase or two. At some point, usually before dinner at 9pm, I take a bucket bath and wash my hair, and after dinner brush my teeth, and then hang out for a bit more. Dinner usually consists of couscous and meat, but sometimes the meat is too much for me (cow tongue, goat head, liver?), and I’m happy when it’s oily pasty or this one meat & potatoes dish. When I can’t keep my eyes open anymore, I set up my mosquito net and bed, and fall asleep, usually around 10. This is much harder if there are visitors.

Some exceptions to this routine: sometimes I have GEE tech sessions instead of language class, so learning how I’ll do my job, managing a girls’ mentoring center and working with host country partners. We did this all day on Thursday, and were even treated to lunch (delicious chicken and rice)! And on weekends I have more time like now to update my blog and do laundry and whatnot, and last weekend I went on a 4 mile hike to a nearby mountain with four other PCT’s.

Next Sunday I go back to the Lycée with all the other trainees, and we’ll be there together for some sessions, and Tuesday we find out our permanent sites, and the next day we go off for week-long site visits! I’m very excited to find out where I’ll be (as is everyone else). I’ve added a few more picasa pictures, including one of me in my mulehfa. Tell me what you think!

Phone info and journal exerpts

2007-07-13T13:47:00.000-05:00

Hey all - I really appreciate the emails you send me, and I'm sorry when I don't anwer right away. For regular mail, I will probably get some at the end of the month when all the PCT's meet at the training center/ lycée again, and I'll take the opportunity to send some out as well. It does take time, and I promise to tell you when I get some (please do the same!). Also, the situation with my phone is as follows: I do not have an actual phone, but I do have a sim card/ subscription. So my phone number is 763-9607 (from the US: 011 222 763 9607) BUT if you try to call it I won't know unless I've put my sim card in someone else's phone. So, if you get a call from me, it's because I have a few minutes free and I am using someone else's phone. Also, it's much more expensive for me to call the US from here, so it's best if I can hang up and you call me back using a cheap international phone card. So it is a little complicated until I buy a phone off a departing PCV, but now you know what to do if I drop you a line!

Now on to the fun stuff. I wanted to let you all know that I'm feeling much better as I get more used to my life here, and I wanted to share some things from my journal, before they become too "normal" for me to point out. Enjoy!

1) A few people in the US have asked me about my marriage proposal count. I've actually only "officially" been proposed to once, but I've had several interesting conversations with my family on the topic. It usually goes something like this: "are you married?" no. "why aren't you married?" because I was studying at the university/ I like being single (inconceivable!). "Are you looking for a husband?" no, I'm fine right now thanks. "are you sure? My sister's friend's nephew..." And so on. They loved it when I came back from class one day having learned how to say in Hassiniya "I'm not married but I have a fiancé in America", and even though I specified that this was not true, they insisted on knowing his name. So now if anyone asks, my American fiancé is named Imaginary. Oh, and on my way to the market this morning, a woman offered me her child, and was mad that I didn't really consider it.

2) Some more info about my host family (by the way, they're super excited about me sharing pics of them with the US, and they say hi, especially to my "real" family!). My mother's name is Mama (acutally her name; the Hassiniya word for mother is um, or um-i for "my mother"), and she has 15 children! Only 5 are boys, and the age range is from 12 to 30-something. This explains why my family is so huge. My grandma (Nana Aisha) is a great-grandma 21 times over! Actually, 22, because one of my sisters left for the clinic with her mom and grandma and sister at 2 am this morning, and apparently she's given birth to a healthy baby boy! I can probably look forward to a "baptism" soon.

3) It's culturally unacceptable (or at least strongly disrecommended) for a woman to sleep on her back, because it's "suggestive". I loved one PCT's idea to print the words "I'd rather be on my back" on the butt of her skirt. So I lay on my side when lounging under the hangar, but at night under my mosquito net I need to stretch!

4) Sandstorms! Believe it or not this hottest season is also the start of the rainy season, and rainstorms mean sandstorms! The first time was in the am just before I had to go to class, and the second two times were in the middle of the night. It goes something like this: after several hours of disturbing stillness in the air, a violent wind quickly picks up, bringing with it unbelievable amounts of sand/ dust (puts the Harmattan to shame). At night, this means I barely have time to drag in my bed/ net, and to close the door before it's ripped of it's hinges! I then cower in my room while it sounds like the roof or door is coming off, and sand/ dust blows in from cracks or off my wall. Usually after less than 1/2 hour, the sound changes slightly because now it's raining. At least I found out that my room is mostly waterproof, and it's a little cooler afterwards, but with the rain come more bugs! Especially mosquitoes and blister beetles, though I haven't seen many yet. We also get more frogs after the rain, and lizards are always around during the day. The frogs that visit my family's house take great risks when they come near the light to hunt bugs, because a bored child may chuck them accross the compound at a goat. I'm just happy to see these frogs eating critters that might otherwise bother me (I thought which I failed to accurately express to my family).

5) Speaking of communication, Hassiniya classes are moving onward. We've technically learned how to greet and say goodbye appropriately and at different times of day (this is much more complicated/ involved than in France or the US), how to introduce ourselves/ ask for basic info (name, age, work, etc), how to talk about our family, ask about the presence or absence of something, and most recently numbers 1-10,000. When I say I "know" these things, it means I know them if I have my notebook and 5 minutes to search through it. It does help that we don't need to worry about spelling/ writing correctly, but pronunciation can be quite difficult. I was pretty proud of myself when I went into a shop and upon realizing that the woman did not speak french, I was able to ask for "small bottle water cold" in Hassiniya, and was understood! I even understood the price!

6) Health stuff: I'm happy I brought my own multivitamins, sunscreen, and bug repellant, because PC provides none of the first, the second only upon request and in small amounts, and the last when they get around to it (it was supposed to be in our medical kit, but wasn't, so those who didn't have their own did without for the first two weeks). My diet is more than a little unbalanced; almost exclusively sugar and carbs, with little amounts of fruits/ veggies, protein or calcium. I'm feeling fine though, and I compensate as I can. I brush my teeth and floss more than even in the US because I'm totally paranoid about the cavities forming from all the sugar I consume. The food is still fine, but a little monotonous. "...really? Rice and fish for lunch again? What a wonderful idea! And you know what would be great for dinner? How about some couscous and meat? And can we please have it every single night? Yeah, that would be perfect. But don't forget the side of sand. And that beetle that flew into the pasta really adds a flavor I can't describe. I might have eaten around it, but you see I'm just not used to eating in the dark. Yeah, I know - silly me..." Oh, and my little sister had/ has pinkeye, and she's the one who often shares a bowl of food with me. After she and a couple other family members asked me several times for my meds, I had to ask my language facilitator/ teacher how to say "I cannot give medicines" and "I am not a doctor" in Hassiniya. He also explained it to them over the phone, and it hasn't been a problem since.

That's a bad note to end a post on, so I'll do this instead: My older sister Mariam had my picture as the background of her phone for the past few days, and was apparently showing it off to other women in the market. One of the other PCT's saw it, and she's the one who told me. (-:

Hello! Asalamu aleykum! Ish taari?

2007-07-08T04:12:00.000-05:00

I have so much to say, and so little internet time left! Ahh! A few quick things: no, I can't visit (or take pics of) the mosques because I'm not Muslim. I've had a couple convos with my host mom and sis about my non-Muslim-ness already, though I wouln't dare say that I'm atheist. I just say thatI believe in the same God, but don't pray like them (small white lie so they don't hate me or tell me I'm going to hell). I haven't gotten mail yet, but I might tomorrow.

I added two albums to picasa; one of training in the Lycée,and one of my family. I'll have to add captions another time.

On the fourth of July I met and moved in with my black Moor host family, and they're wonderful. Also huge! There's never less than15 people in the house/ compound, and often 25 at dinner. When someone was telling me names, I wrote down 30 different ones (actually 23, but there are 4 Mohammeds, 3 Mariams, 2 Minetous, etc). My new name is Mariam, incidentally, but you can still call me Claire. I've had 2.5 days of Hassiniya lessons, and it's hard but I'm staying positive. I'm just so desperate to understand everyone! A couple people speak some French, but honestly it doesn't help at all. I'll say "tomorrow" in Hassiniya, knowing it's the right word, and they'll agree "yesterday" in French. When an older son stopped by to visit last night, I was so excited that he spoke real, good French. Such a relief. And it was nice that someone acknowledged how surprising it is that an American speaks French at all!

Although it'll be nice to talk to some people from the states on the phone, it might also make things harder for me. I do miss home a lot, and I experience sometimes hourly ups and downs, but it's better for me now if I can feel better with my "new" family than to wallow in thoughts of "Amrik". Things are obviously very different, and when communication is lacking with my host family (all the time), I've cheered myself up by mixing up some kool aid to share, or cutting up all my gum, or butchering their language so they can laugh at/with me. I don't worry about the kids swallowing the gum, because no one else worries if they play with knives or chew on plastic bags (toddlers! and they're quite healthy). There is no running water, but every morning and evening they collect a lot from the neighbor's tap, and there's never a lack of it.

Not only do we have electricity and a tv, but I have a lightbulb in my room. I felt like an idiot the first night shuffling around with a flashlight and someone came in to turn it on. I can't really stay in my room for more than 10 min because it's so hot and has no windows, so I chill outside with the fam when I'm not at school. I'm still being treated like a guest, and they're very concerned about me eating enough. I know they're checking which foods I like best, because I often have carrots in my dinner! It's not as good as at the lycée, but still tasty enough. They give me bread and butter with my tea in the am, even though no one else really eats breakfast.

They have lots of goats and chickens, but no donkeys (though one donkey visits regularly). They have a cat with a name which I forgot. Surprisingly friendly animal, lives on bread and roaches. Crickets, flies and fleas abound, big roaches in the bathroom at night, and I think a camel spider charged me while I was leaning on a wall. My older sister killed it quick(before I noticed it was there), and then the baby played with it.

They're attentive to my desire for soap in the bathroom/shower, and when I wash my hands before eating. They also don't mind (but think I'm silly) that I drink my special filtered water, even though it's hot and there's cold unfiltered water available (from a goat skin!). They gave me a mulafa to wear, but I kept getting tangled in it. They also did henne on my left hand, and gave me two little glass rings. I need to buy them gifts in the market today, since I'm not ready to give away my backpack or shortwave radio.

Oh, and the stupidest thing I packed? an alarm clock. If there's a way to not wake up with the sunrise, the roosters, and the other people, I'd like to know what it is! By the way, at night, donkeys sound like a) they're giving birth, or b) they're dinosaurs. I go to bed soon after dinner (around 10/ 11pm), though others stay up well past midnight, and then get up at sunrise (6 am)! It helps that almost everyone naps after lunch, around 2/3-4pm, when it's hottest.

Oh, and about that article on the force-feeding of women, I do have mixed feelings. While I know it does happen (and is obviously a problem) in more remote areas, I have not heard about it much, even in our cross-cultural training. Yes, the standard of beauty runs on the heavier side even in towns, but the overweight women in my family at least seem very strong/ healthy/ non-diabetic. And while exercise is great, I think they get plenty just walking to the market or dragging kids/ water around. Frankly, walking or jogging in the heat of the day (some PCVs do it too), is not and will never be my idea of a fun or healthy activity. It seems like this is one of the few topics that western news sources can/ will write about when Mauritania is brought up. Just my 2 cents; I have no real specific knowledge on the topic.

Kaédi stage

2007-07-02T07:25:00.000-05:00

I'm typing this from a cyber café in Kaédi (after this i may not post info about my or other volunteers' specific locations, for safety reasons, though I can tell you in a private email). Wednesday I go to stay with a temporary host family for the rest of training (swearing in on Sept 9), so I'll soon find out which language I'll be studying. It wouldn't be Arabic, but rather Hassaniya, which is a derivative of Arabic and the official lang of Mauritania, or second most likely is Pulaar. To revise my previous entry, the bus ride was 8, not 4 hours, and there was no a/c and the windows wouldn't open. It was hot. Also, the cell phone situation is not quite resolved, though I do have a number, it's a bit complicated. Email/ letters are still best for now. We've been on a constant crash course schedule, learning about culture, safety, and our jobs/ roles. I don't even know where to begin. Overall I must say that I've been very thankful for a complete lack of GI problems or night terrors from maleria meds (I'm not on mefloquine like most of the PCVs & PCTs), a surprising tolerance for heat/ flies/ sweating, and an impossibly positive attitude (maybe just because I'm not sick). I think it's clear that I'm firmly stuck in the "honeymoon phase" so far. I have some good pictures, but I wasn't confident enough to carry my camera around town yet. I'll post them eventually. The PC staff here is incredible, and the food is delicious! They're spoiling us with variety, and I'm a sucker for oily dishes, tender meat, and innumerable forms of carbs... expect me to be fatter when I return. I drink more than 4-5 liters of water a day, but still pee much less than usual because so much is sweated out! Although many PCTs are sleeping outside under mosquito nets at night, I've found I sleep better in the indoor heat than to wake up covered in sand/ dust. Still, the weather has been exceptionally beautiful, and there's nothing nicer than lounging on a mat under a tree during a break. Oh, and the tea! Mer, you were right about the Chinese green tea as the drink of choice, and it always has a lot of sugar. One of our market day "assignments" was to walk up to someone having tea outside and ask for a cup! The people are great, though there are definitely some things that need some getting used to. Love and miss you all; take care and I hope to hear from you soon!

Nouakchott!

2007-06-27T11:04:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comments, dear friends (I enjoyed the back-and-forth, too)! This is after all the real reason why I offer you my lettres de la République Islamique de Mauritanie! And, now that I'm actually there, it's finally accurate! Your interest and encouragement really makes me want to write more, and as it happens I have more than a few moments to write to you from the Peace Corps building in RIM's capital! The flights were pretty tiring, especially since we all got up so early, but the excitment was overwhelming. We were fairly obnoxious as a group on the flight to Dakar, since not everyone who was on their way to South Africa (the flight continued after we and a couple others not with our group got off) knew why we were so excited. And we were somewhat scattered throughout economy class, making it more confusing for innocent bystanders. But we touched down smoothly, met PC officials in Dakar, inlcuding our wonderful PCD. We had our own chartered flight to Nouakchott (impressions of the town later!), and despite what I said last time, we did not get immediate r&r time. In fact, we're going with the hardcore method for dealing with jet lag - not sleeping at all until bedtime (so essentially skipping a night)! But again, there's so much to learn and see that I often forget that I want to fall over. For example, we just had a great tutorial on basic greetings and social rules, as well as how to eat properly from a communal bowl (burping is considered a compliment/ sign of satisfaction), what tea drinking is like (it's acceptable to nap in between the three rounds of tea), and how to use a hole in the ground with a makaresh rather than tp (perfectly sanitary). Email me if you want more details later, because I really should leave this comp to another waiting PCT. Tomorrow we head to our training site (I should know by tonight what language I'll be learning), where internet access will be patchy for the next few weeks or more. So letters are great (emails too even if I don't see them right away), and I'll try and let you know my cell phone # (which I should get in the next couple days) soon. Love you guys! I have no idea what to expect of our 4 hour bus ride tomorrow, so wish me luck once again!

2007-06-25T18:32:00.000-05:00

Hello again!
Staging has been a whilwind, much as expected, and I'm typing a few words before finding some food. It's been absolutely fantastic to meet all these new people, and I keep wondering at how it's possible that EVERYONE here (~70 Mauritania PCTs as well as the PC staff that's been leading us though basic safety/ health training, adressing our anxieties, sorting through our paperwork, and much much more) is so wonderful. I've never been in a better mood while sick, and I'm quite excited for my 5am alarm that will begin a very long day tomorrow. First we go to the clinic for shots and our first malaria meds, then we get bused to JFK, and our plane leaves for Dakar at 5pm, arriving there at 5am local time. Then we cross the tarmac for a smaller flight to the capital of Mauritania (Nouakchott), where we take a break for one night at the hotel, and the next day we head over to our training site! At some point in between this madness I will have a chance to check my email, so send me some if you can. Hope your Monday was equally exciting.

Last entry in VA

2007-06-23T21:16:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving for Philly/ staging tomorrow at 8am! While I'll surely get another chance to post sometime before the JFK-Dakar plane Tuesday evening, I really wanted to shout out to some of the awesome people that I've heard from or run into recently. More high school friends than I remember having (what are they all doing back in their hometown?! heh), and of course my fantastic college buddies. It's so exciting to hear what everyone's doing/ planning, and I want to be kept up to date on campaign work, job hunts, graduate studies, volunteering, general summer fun, and anything else (good luck and congrats to my stained glass superhero!). I can't write more now, as I'm not packed yet, but I'll share more news when I can. Wish me luck! (I'll need it as I'm fighting the most poorly-timed cold in my personal history, and I'd rather not infect the rest of my training group...)

Thank you! (& contact info)

2007-06-17T10:56:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to thank everyone who contributed to a perfectly lovely 22nd birthday. I was especially glad for those that were able to come out and visit, or to spoil me with fun movies, tasty meals, and walks around Kingstowne. But also everyone who sent me some sort of greeting, be it by phone, facebook, email, aim, txt, or otherwise (what does that leave?). Seriously, it was great to feel the love, especially while I'm still a little anxious about my impending departure. I love you all so much, and I'll miss you terribly!
This seems like a good opportunity for me to share some info about contacting me for those that may not have it. Despite this being a "public" blog, I'm not too worried about strangers sending me letters... During training (until September or so; PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainee), you can send me mail at:

Claire Moran, PCT
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 222
Nouakchott, Mauritania
West Africa
Airmail/ Par Avion

You can also always send me emails to my gmail account, though my access to internet will undoubtedly be patchy, especially during training. While regular mail isn't terribly dependable, it should eventually make it. I've got one week left at home, then I'll be in Philly for a couple days, and then I ship out from there!
Addendum: PLEASE, email me your mailing address if you don't think I have it (and even if I once had it I may have lost it); I'm filling in my address book to take with me, and while phone #'s and emails are great, I would love to have more addresses in case I suddenly get an urge to send YOU (yes, you) a letter. Thanks!

Trip to France!

2007-06-08T06:58:00.000-05:00

Here goes! My stories and pictures from the trip I took with Val to France for the past couple weeks. I had a hard time sorting through pictures since we took over 1,000. I brought it down to just over 200, but didn't have the heart to cut out any more. Those 200+ are all on picasa (organized by day), and I'll link to some of them while describing things.

The real day 1 was when we arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport on the 25th after missing a night of sleep on the plane. We managed to find our way to the hotel and crashed for a couple hours before I went out to explore and find some food. We were in the neighborhood above la Gare du Nord, near the Blvd de la Chapelle. There were almost only "ethnic" restaurants and stores, especially Algerian, but with Indian as a close second. I called Sister Audrey Frances to tell her we'd arrived (since she was in Paris too), and she said that they were having a BBQ at the house/ school. Vallie needed to keep sleeping, but I made my way to the 7ème arrondissement where the school is. It took longer than I expected, but at least I saw how to get there and got to spend an hour talking with Audrey. We agreed to meet up again first thing in the morning. So the pictures starting day 1 are at this point:

1. We met up with Audrey and she introduced us to some of the other sisters, and showed us around the school. It's also the home of the Oblate Sisters in Paris, and serves as a dorm for some of the live-in students, as well as a shelter for girls. We watched the presentation that the novices (including Audrey) had come to give to the students, and then had lunch before heading out. Audrey came with us to the chapel of the miraculous medallion on the Rue du Bac. Then Val and I went on alone to see the Jardin du Luxembourg, before meeting Audrey again and going to Montmartre and the Sacré-Coeur (my favorite site in Paris). It was awesome, but I insisted we climb to the top of the basilica (470-some stairs), which ended up getting us stuck in a massive thunderstorm. I'll never forget the sight of the rain engulfing the Eiffel tower as it raced towards us. Audrey headed back to the 7ème, while Val and I went back to Blvd de la Chapelle, all much wetter but no worse for wear. Val and I had an interesting incident at the Bistro where we went to get dinner. After what we thought was a fairly clear conversation with the bartender (we are both fluent, after all), we wondered why his friend joked that the orange juice would keep us up all night ("not if you put enough vodka in it", thought I), but as it turned out, my request for un vodka-jus d'orange, resulted in us both getting juice boxes, sans vodka, with our dinner. Should have gone with wine. Sigh.

2. The next morning we packed up our stuff and moved in with the Sisters. Our hotel had cancelled our last two nights due to a misunderstanding, and the sisters offered to put us up so we didn't sleep on the street. We said goodbye to Audrey, who was going back to the motherhouse in Troyes, where we'd see her again soon. Vallie and I had a great day "planned", and our first stop was the Arc de Triomphe (since we went before the true tourist season, we were the only ones there). [did I already issue a sarcasm warning?] Since Val was thrilled after all the stairs on the previous day, it was easy to convince her to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for the view. Next on our itinerary was the Louvre! Unfortunately our pictures inside didn't come out well, but suffice it to say that we rushed around madly for almost 2 hours before getting completely lost, and signs like these kept giving us false hope. We ambled over to the Jardin des Tuileries to recover a bit. We pondered over the fallen tree and seemingly disheveled woods in this otherwise perfectly tended garden, until we saw that the "dead" tree was actually a statue! Satisfied that we'd seen the Eiffel tower from enough angles, we chose instead to visit the Musée d'Orsay (and a statue of Jefferson on the way!), but unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there. We were pleased that we could see that tower thing again from our dorm room back with the Oblates.

3. Our last full day in Paris was the busiest yet. We woke up bright and early, and took the metro in the direction of Neuilly-sur-Seine. We stopped at Porte Maillot, near where my middle school/ high school was (I only went there for 6th grade, but Audrey spent 4 years there). Next we went to the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a cool park we used to visit as kids. Though it was closed (too early, heh), we found some bikes for rent, and took them around our old haunts for the rest of the morning. This included the statue near our old elementary school (recently renovated), our apartment, and Marymount, where I spent 7th grade. We also went to the fountains at Place Georges Pompidou, and biked the length of the Ile de la Jatte on the Seine. We returned the bikes, ate some sandwiches, and took the metro back accross Paris to a more famous island on the Seine: l'île de la Cité. Notre Dame was as gorgeous as usual, inside and out, but the real treat for us was feeding sparrows outside with our leftover baguette! Before going to the Palais de Justice and Conciergerie, we stopped at the Sunday pet market. You've maybe noticed in the pictures, but it was definitely raining/ drizzling the whole time (and continued to the rest of the day). We were lucky to have the nice whether while biking. As you can see I had Vallie climbing up the walls, but she cheered up when she read Robert B's profession on a list of names (yes, I know what it actually means, but it's still funny). She was not so cheery that our next stop was the museum of/ in the sewers of Paris. My favorite exhibit was of the stuffed sewer rats. Then, since we'd been too late the day before, we went back to the Musée d'Orsay to run through and see some statues in the main hall, before moving on to l'Hotel de Invalides. We enjoyed looking at armor and cannons, then finished the day at the Eglise du Dome (where one finds Napoleon's understated tomb). Just for the record, I know that a lot of these places are worth a lot more than a 1-hour visit, but we were going for quantity rather than quality by choice, and we certainly took full advantage of our 2-day museum passes.

4-5. We needed a break after all this hardcore touristy-ness, so we were happy to take our 4.5 hour TGV the next day. To give you an idea how fast this is, driving the same distance on highways should normally take 8-10 hours. You can see for yourself the changing scenery in the posted pictures, and we had a very comfortable ride with... our own seperate armrests! The woman sitting accross from us had her poodle on her fold-down table, and used it's head as a prop for her magazine most of the trip. It got significantly sunnier as we hit the coast, and we were quite cheery by the time we got off in Cannes, to transfer to a train for Grasse. FYI, that train station in Cannes is where we witnessed the first instances in a series of drug deals and drug use in public spaces - very entertaining. We felt very alone when we got to the train station in Grasse, because it Lundi de Pentecote (a holiday), and there were no taxis to take us to Mamine's house. So instead we got a ride with a stranger. By 7pm we finally made it to Mamine's in St. Jacques, and rested/ took pictures of her garden for the rest of that day and the next. She's a riot, and it was as fun as always to be with her. The only thing we "accomplished" was to walk 20min to the Casino for groceries.

6-8. We had a very exciting day with mom's college friend Michou (and her daughter Eva, who once visited us in the US) in Ste Maxime and St Tropez. When they got us from the train we stopped at a café before going to their house. We had a delicious lunch of fresh salmon, spent the afternoon at a fancy spa pool, then had dinner, and then drinks in St. Tropez at a very entertaining 60's themed bar. Because it was too late to head back to Grasse, we spent the night there. The next morning we got up early and went to Eva's school to be her show & tell in English class. The kids were in their last days of school, and were watching Dirty Dancing. We felt is was our duty to inform them that not all Americans are named Baby and Johnny, and we don't always speak in clichés and emotionally charged one-liners. I'm not sure they believed us, unfortunately (see what your favorite movie is capable of, Nikola?). We then "rushed" back to Grasse, to have a nice lunch with Mamine and mom's cousin and his wife. Since I'm on the subject (sort of), let me tell you some of the things that had been making me happy about my meals in France. Wine! Every meal had a red or a rosé, and it's tasty even when cheap. Bread! An integral part of the experience, and it goes besides, not on the plate, thank you very much. Water without ice! It's nice not to be the exception for a while. Salads with appropriate amounts of vinaigrette! Creamy, fatty sauces! mmm. Cheese!!! Pastries, desserts, and quality chocolate!!!! Ok, I think you get the idea. I was happy. The next day we went to Grasse with Mamine for errands, and also stopped by the convent there to say hi and bring news from the convent in Paris. That same afternoon we took a bus to Nice to visit with mom's other cousin.

9. Our endlessly relaxing day on the beach in Cannes. Brouse at your leisure.

10-11. The next day we went back into true tourist mode for our visit to Gourdon. A beautiful town at the top of a mountain, with amazing views of the Mediterranean, it specializes in glassblowing, and other tourist-attracting things, like selling an imitation of Sting from LOTR. Val showed off the ring she bought in the castle's garden, and had an awesome joking/ pouty pose for when I asked her to hike near the "cliff" edge. The next day was our last in Grasse, and we had fun in the garden finding the hidden stairs Papi built into the terasse walls (invisible if you're facing them directly), and lying in the poppies. It's not hard to see why Papi considered this property and the house he built on it his dream come true. We said goodbye to Mamine, and set off on another long train ride back up to Paris (to transfer on to Troyes). We got to Troyes quite late, were welcomed at the station by Audrey and another sister, and then fell asleep in our rooms (seperated for the first time!) down the hall from behind the church altar (the door to the right; I kid you not!).

12-13. We only had one full day to enjoy with Sister Audrey Frances, which we took full advantage of. She served us breakfast in what felt like one of those rooms you see in palaces, and then showed us around the motherhouse (with it's very own crypt!), and we played in the beautiful garden until lunchtime. After lunch we made her skip class to walk around Troyes with us, a fascinating medieval town, though there's no doubt what we were really excited about. The massive gothic cathedral wasn't bad either. After dinner we had fun chatting with the other novices, and showing off my ipod (I was able to fulfull 85% of their requests!), before a difficult goodbye and a send-off on the 10:30pm train back to Paris. Vallie and I got to Paris quite late, and witnessed some rather blatant drug transactions on the last metro (just before 1am) in the direction of the airport. When we got to the airport we found that the shuttle to our hotel was no longer running, and none of the cabs would take us there because they were waiting for people who wanted a ride to Paris instead. So came ride with stranger #2, except that this one asked for 20 euros. Blah. The hotel was super stinky and had charming hall bathrooms & showers like these, but it was good enough to catch 5 hours of sleep in. At 7:30 am we took the shuttle back to the airport, and proceeded with our voyage across the ocean to Newark (met returned, current, and future Peace Corps Volunteers on our flight!). After hour 6 of 8 on the plane, we looked something like this. Back in the states, we waited for our flight to DC, and we were thrilled to smile at strangers again!

While I doubt that many people will read this entire entry, it was an awesome trip that I'll never forget (perhaps with the help of this blog and the pics), and I was especially glad to have so much fun with my sisters. Vallie was the best companion, and we only tried to kill each other a couple times in two weeks (a new record!) I hope that some of you will consider visiting me in Mauritania, or go anywhere else with me after I come back. Please tell me about your adventures, too! Oh, and just out of curiosity, what did you find most interesting/ weird/ cool? Oh, and what's your favorite picture?

Quick note from St Maxime, France

2007-05-30T11:07:00.000-05:00

Coucou! I only have a few minutes, and it's slow going on a French non-qwerty keyboard (an azerty?). As the title says, I'm in St Maxime, which is near St Tropez in the French riviera(visiting old friends). I thought of Meredith while Valerie and I were raced through two-way streets as wide as an american minivan is long (lined with stone walls), in a french "minivan" slightly wider than a mini cooper. So went our welcome to the south of France! I have so much to say about Paris, Grasse, and France in general (we also have lovely pictures). Not on this keyboard, though. Right now I'll just say that I'm thrilled to have real bread, great public transportation, and the amazing mediterranean weather. Also, I just spent the afternoon at my first spa ever! I hope everyone is doing well, and I'm looking forward to hearing your stories!

May/June plans and RIM intro

2007-05-22T21:05:00.001-05:00

Vallie and I are leaving for France tomorrow evening, and now is as good a time as any to answer some of the questions that I've been asked. Before I start on Mauritania, here's a rundown of my schedule until my departure - I'll be in France until June 6th (Paris for 4 nights, then Grasse to see Mamine, and the last two days in Troyes), followed by almost three "free" weeks which will fly by (C-ville gathering June 16th! Please!), and then my staging begins June 25th. Staging is the two-day period when I meet the rest of the Mauritania training group before we all head out together. The training group will include volunteers in different areas, including agriculture, business development, health, and education. My position is under the community development umbrella; I'll be a girls' education and empowerment agent (GEE for short).
So on to my introduction of RIM. I'm not sure where to begin, now that you've seen the flag, so how about a map? Lately I've been describing/ attempting to draw this all the time (whether people ask or not, heh).

You can see it's bordered by Senegal in the south, Mali to the East, and Algeria and Morocco (and the annexed territory Western Sahara) to the North. I just read that it's the world's 29th largest country, about the size of Egypt. Three quarters of it is in (or on the borders of) the Sahara, so I can expect a "pleasantly" hot, dry, and dusty climate.
I don't yet know where exactly I'll be placed, and obviously both language and culture vary widely across the country. From what I've heard about half the volunteers end up in the Senegal river valley, which makes sense since much of the population is concentrated in this area and in/ near the capital, Nouaktchott. This southern part of the country where you'll find mostly non-Moor ethnic groups. The rest of the population is a more spread out, and consists largely of the Hassaniya-speaking Moors. Hassaniya is actually the dominant/ official language (along with French), and it's a dialect of Arabic. In the southern part of the country the languages of Wolof, Soninke, and Pulaar are more common. I'm excited that the Peace Corps sent me ten short mp3-formatted lessons for each of these four languages, so I can at least learn some basic greetings and vocab.
Also, as an Islamic Republic, it follows that somewhere between 99-100% of the population is Muslim. It's clear that Islam is very important in people's everyday life, and in society as a whole. I don't know what else to add right now, and as I've simplified and left out a lot, please do look up more information if you can/ want to (corrections/ clarifications welcome!). The Peace Corps welcome book for Mauritania is long but was really interesting to me: http://www.peacecorps.gov/welcomebooks/mrwb682.pdf Other questions people ask have more to do with what exactly my life will be like, but the truth is that there's a lot I won't know for sure until I'm there. I find out more all the time, and I promise to keep you posted.

Graduated!

2007-05-21T06:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was fantastic.

Last days in Charlottesville

2007-05-17T21:02:00.000-05:00

I've never had a blog before, but I figure this will be the easiest way to share my experiences with anyone who might be interested. The blog title is "Letters from Mauritania" (in French, if you didn't notice), and I may refer to the country as RIM for short. Just so you know, I'm not much of a writer, so please don't be disappointed by a frightening lack of humor, eloquence, or length in my entries (I also tend to overuse parentheses). It's really just a way to let people know what I'm up to, particularly in my upcoming Peace Corps experience in Mauritania.
Right now I'm a few days away from receiving my diploma from UVA, and enjoying the end of my time in Charlottesville. I'm working on getting everything packed and organized before graduation. Later I'll write something more about what I know so far of Mauritania and my assignment there.