the only family reunion that could be crazier than my own

Megan and I were invited to the Niang family reunion in Jider El Moghen. So far we have learned to love the Niangs so we were really excited. They are a Wolof family and had people coming in from all along the Senegal river, both the Mauritanian and the Senegal side. Since the reunion was hosted in Jider, our friends, NDieye and Bobacar were in charge of providing the food. We went over at 8 in the morning to peel potatoes and slaughter some sheep. They bought 40kilos of potatoes, same amount of onions, and killed 2 sheep for one of the biggest feasts I have ever been a part of. It was my first sheep slaughter and it was really gross, I have to admit I felt kind of wrong watching it. If you want to see pictures check out my new album, "Vegetarians and Anna close your eyes." It did taste delicious though. The women were in their element sitting around gossiping and laughing and making food. Then the family came to town, easily over 50 people. They definatly brought with them a little Woolof flavor. As the first guests arrived, some of the women turned the giant metal bowls over and started banging on them like drums and all of the guests started dancing and waving their arms in the air as only African women can do. They tried to make us dance too but lets face it, African women have a little more junk in the trunk and are inherently better at shaking it than us toubabs- who did some lame form of the cabbage patch and ducked quickly out of the circle. Even the grandmas were getting their groove on. When I return to the states I expect this sort of welcoming so all of you better start perfecting your dance moves now. I am sure that Kare has some sort of African music CD that you can practice to; right?

Another note on these women is that they are absolutely beautiful with perfect Beyonce bodies, and a lot of the men are taller than the average basketball player in America. Hollywood and the MBA should do some major recruiting here. Actually, I am just kidding about that because I would not want to necessarily corrupt their peaceful lives. It is interesting because so many people here just assume that since you are American you must be rich. We have had some very interesting conversations with people telling them, to their disbelief, that there are poor people in America. In my opinion, which is clearly just an opinion, being poor in America is more desolate than here because at least in Mauritania people are taken care of. It is part of their religion to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Regardless of their religious obligations however, Mauritania is also a very hospitable country and I have seen many families make excess food for every meal to give to the poorer families or the can kids. Can kids are those kids whose parents are so poor they cannot take care of them so they are sent to live at the mosque where they are given cans and told to ask for money on the streets. It is very sad, but for the most part they do not look overly malnourished, and I have seen many kids with food at the end of the day. Anyways, what I am trying to say is that I feel like life here is rich with support from family and community. It is fun to talk to people and have them understand that America is a land of opportunity but it also comes with sacrafice. For instance, they find it incredible that I both attended university and had a job; and my college was not free. We explain how hard some people have to work just to scrape by and it helps them appreciate the value of tea time and siestas I think.

We also found a Woolof tutor at the reunion. His name is Oumar and I can actually understand his french, so that is pretty cool. We will start next week sometime. I don't know how ready I am to try to learn a 3rd language in 4 months but I think it will be really beneficial to learn Woolof in my community. Plus the African languages are so much more fun to say than arabic. "Leggy leggy" is see you later. Fun right?

Oumar also caught us up on some gossip in town and I now feel like part of the in crowd. It seems as though melodramas even happen in conservative countries; maybe it is all the spanish soap operas they watch.

I have been getting pretty good at handy work too. Megan and I have made shelves from one log piece of wood, and we made a fence for our garden. We will start planting soon.

As far as work goes, I am in Rosso now and starting tomorrow I will be attending a week long AIDS conference with both Mauritanian individuals and Peace Corps. It is a training of how to work with people with AIDS and how to do different workshops. I am pretty excited, I think it will be interesting. When I return to Jider I think my first project will be a simple one that doesn't require much language. I plan to do a mural on the wall of the dispensaire that illustrates healthy foods and food groups. This way I can hang out and get to know my co-workers better, as well as practice my language. I also will be able to take advantage of small lessons on malnutrition with people who come by and ask what I am doing.

Megan and I got hennaed again the other day by the mayor's little sister. It was fun to hang out with her family because her 9 children are crazy! They served us dinner while we were there and Megan had not gotten the bags off her hands yet so she had to eat spaghetti noodles with bags on her hands with a spoon. It was really entertaining.

Anyways, that is all for now I think. Check out my pictures for illustrations of all this.

Brusse Taxi?

Uncle Pat found this picture. He says this is how Jaime rolls! Does this look right, Jaime?
Jaime will be in Rosso over this coming weekend, so anybody who can Skype, try to call her!!

My new room in Jider El Moghen. Can you find yourself on the wall?
Me and my site mate in front of Megan's house. I love her mohawk!

pictures

p.s. pictures are updated. Check out Ramadan to see what I have done in the past month.

i survived a scorpion... what else you got?

This experience has tried my comfort zone and made me do things I have never done before. I will share some of my experiences here. In the last month I have fasted with locals, had in depth conversations in another language, eaten mayo on bread, worn silver nail polish, got bit by a scorpion, made mosquito repellent for a community, bought a baby goat, and started building myself a home.

I know the silver nail polish part of it seems random right? But I found some sparkly silver nail polish that I would never wear under normal circumstances. But these are nowhere near normal circumstances. I put some on and it made me feel like a girl again! haha. It reminds me a little of star trek or something. Maybe that is also because I have been couped up in Rosso watching endless marathons of "Battle Star Galactica" for a few days. It is the first thing I hear in the morning, and now these boys have the video game too so it is non stop! I have to admit that it was entertaining but I have missed a lot of episodes and now I don't know what the "frack" (as they would say) is going on. haha, I cannot believe I just said that. The girls in Trarza region have to get our hands on the sex and the city series, or something equally as obnoxiously girly to regain control of the living room.

On a more serious note, Ramadan has been interesting but it is finally almost over. We have 3 more days until Eid, which is the big party that finalizes Ramadan and restores order to people's lives. I say 3 days but it could be more or less depending on when we see the moon again- because that actually signifies the commencement of the festivities. People are really on edge and extra crabby, which I can totally understand because Megan and I decided to fast for a total of 3 long, hot days and it was difficile. It did make breaking fast at dusk more enjoyable though, I never felt like I really earned a glass of juice before but I definatly deserved it after a long day of not eating or drinking. We mostly did it just because we do not have a market in town and since no one makes lunch (because they are fasting) we couldn't even mooch off of others lunches; but it was still fun to really feel the pain with our community. The hardest part is at 6:30 pm when there is only about 30 minutes left and you can smell what people are making. Then when you can eat, the food tastes so much better. We also got up at 4:30 in the morning to eat bread and mayonnaise before the sun rose to try to hold us over until dusk. I don't know if it helped but it was fun eating in a sleepy daze. Megan cheated once during the day and had 4 skittles. She was so funny about it, but I told her that allah would probably forgive her because she is new. Our community loved that we were fasting and said that we were true bilaniya (locals).

I am learning French from listening to Megan speak. I can understand it pretty well but cannot form sentences, especially when Hassaniya is trying to seep out of my mouth. It is funny though because Megan says things in French that she would say in English and just directly translates it. I don't know if the translation always works with the English humor because sometimes people just stare at her, but I get what she is trying to say and I laugh. It is as though she is only speaking to me sometimes and we are in our own little toubab world. We are able to have some good conversations with some of our new friends. I never thought I would be able to have conversations about African history, the refugee tents in our town, why not all Americans are like Bush, and even dispelling rumors that Christopher Columbus was the first person to discover America with locals in a small African town in their own language! And all this in only 3 months, I cannot wait to see what progress I have left in the next 2 years. That's right, a week ago we celebrated our 3 month mark! It has gone by so fast, hasn't it? I bet you didn't even realize I was gone yet!

My mom asked me if I have done any work yet and I laughed. During Ramadan people don't like to work much. But I did make my first batch of neem cream, the mosquito repellent. Our new Wolof friend, Bobacar, helped us find a neem tree and collect leaves. Then we boiled a liter of leaves with a liter of water. While the water was heating we cut up the local peanut soap into shreads in a bucket. Then we added the hot water and some oil and whipped it up until it was creamy. We did it in front of Bobacar's house and all the people living around him came to see what the crazy toubabs were doing and I told them how mosquito's didn't like the smell of neem cream and that although it doesn't kill mosquitos it does decrease the amount of bites. They went wild for it and everyone ran back to get little jars or baggies or socks to fill up on their personal stash. The kids loved it and were digging their hands in and having cream wars with each other. Bobacar said that that night everyone put it on. He also said some people were confused because they still got bites. I will have to explain again that it just reduces the amount of bites because it really works and I want people to use it because these kids are so cute and I don't want anyone getting malaria while I am here. I did not have my camera, sadly, but plan to do it again when I return.

The neem cream day was a lot of fun until that night. After we broke fast with Bobacar's family we were just lounging around in the dark, waiting for our second dinner and stumbling through a conversation in French when I jumped up and started screaming. I had a sharp bite on my right knee and when I reached into my skirt to flick the bugger away it fell on my left leg and got me again before I was able to grab it and throw it away. It was a scorpion. I felt it in my hand and my knee instantly went numb. By the time we found a flashlight it was gone so I did not get to have my revenge. They assured me that scorpions here are not deadly and that I should live until morning. I stayed for the second dinner and then went home where I just took some benedryl and retired to my tent. I was excited to get back to reading "Twilight," a vampire romance novel which I was surprisingly enthralled in considering it was my first vampire or romance novel. The benedryl made me really tired but I wanted to finish my last chapter because the main character had just gotten bit by a vampire and things were getting intense. She was describing the venom pulsing through her blood as my own scorpion venom was pulsing up and down my now completely numb leg. I was drifting in and out of my own vampire drama in my head under a benedryl daze when a bat who made a home in the front entryway flew over my head squeeking in an alarming way. I freaked out and almost ran to seek shelter in Megan's tent. Needless to say, I survived the night and my Wolof friends made fun of me the next day for being so worried about the scorpion. I don't care what they say, I still think its a major feat. The next night I was very jumpy to everything around me. I made somewhat of a scene when a giant spider crawled on my arm and our friend, Mohammed, said "you study biology, you should not be afraid of haphabas" I don't care what I studied, feeling a creepy crawly on my arm sends shivers down my spine.

We have also made some productive steps in making a garden! We have to put a fence up first because the goats would have a hay day with our plants if we did not protect it. To make a fence we first had to gather big sticks to bury in the ground for our posts. Megan and I just wandered off trying to find sticks when we realized we may need some tools or some sort of directional help in the matter. We asked our neighbor and she volunteered her young son and his friend who had come over to play to help us. They both shot her a "maaaam" sort of look and begrudgingly grabbed a very dull "axe" and led us off towards our trees. After a few hours of cutting down limbs off trees and taking off all the leaves and twigs we had our posts for our garden and paid the kids in smartees and warheads for their help. They were very appreciative for the bon bons but were a little confused about the sourness of the warheads. The looks on their faces were priceless.

We also learned how to make maafe, which is meat, rice, and potatoes with a peanuty sauce. It is so good and we have been obsessed over it since my host family made it a few months ago. We asked my counterpart, Dado to teach us. We bought all the supplies and went over to her house to dig in. It was delicious! I ate until I couldn't even move anymore. Her daughter, Fatimatou, is the cutest baby I have ever seen and she tried helping a bit too. She new better than I did about some things. I am excited to get to watch her grow up.

My mom filled me in a little about goings on on the home front and it made me miss you all like crazy! Here are a few shout outs:
-Grandma: I got your package! Thanks! One of the drink packets exploded and my hands are now died red, which is amusing. Everyone appreciates the magazines so we can keep up on our hollywood gossip. I can't believe Bernie Mac died!
-Grandpa: You would love it here. Everyone likes to talk a lot and share their life stories, I have used almost a whole roll of duck tape and twisty ties putting my room together, and they love their second hand baseball caps here. I found some really funny ones in the market with laundry detergent on it and stuff.
-Anna: Have fun at homecoming! I wish I was there to do your hair, even if you, like me, would never fully admit to liking what was done with your hair. Either way, I am sure you will look beautiful. Make sure mom takes at least a few pictures where she does not chop the top of your head off. I heard you are a stud in athletic training class. Mike would be so proud! haha. I am as well; but not surprised, I knew you would be!
-Tarah: I heard you swam varsity on the relay! That's my girl! How did it go? I wish I was back in highschool for just one more swim meet, I miss swimming so hard you can't even pull yourself out of the pool. I am truly jealous you are just starting your high school journey, love every second and don't take yourself too seriously cause this time is so much fun! Take care of my sister for me. I know you two have each other's backs.
-Sam: I loved getting to talk to you last night. You and Ryan should get on your applications right away so I can come visit you. There is a cruise that goes from capetown south africa to Rio. If you end up in South America maybe I can do that and then swing by you. Are you having a heart attack yet mom?
-Kev: Get your visa and think seriously of coming to visit. You won't regret it. Enough said.

In general I hear that America is in a bind right now and I hope that everyone is staying happy and healthy. If Obama is not elected president I may not return home and I suggest everyone moves here instead, we can build a little compound in the country and live happily ever after.

the termites ate her homework

First, to get this out of the way- about the Al Qaeda incident that I am sure some of you have heard about.... 12 military soldiers were killed in the far remote deserts of Mauritania 100s of km away from any peace corps volunteer. A similar attack happened here in 2005 and Al Qaeda took responsibility. There is an article on BBC if you are interested for further information. I do not know much more than this but the attack was of military interest and very far from me. I have had nothing but positive experiences with Mauritanians and every person I have encountered is happy to have Americans here and very entertained that I speak like a local. They are a very generous, hospitable, and welcoming people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7617223.stm.

So anyways, we are back in Rosso because Megan and I spent almost all of our move in allowance and needed to go to the bank. Combined we could have maybe bought a camel burger, so we had to get to Rosso today. This is why when it started raining last night we were very nervous we would not get out of Jider today. We woke up this morning, and in fact the vans were not leaving from Jider because the roads were "mau zeyn" (not good). We had nothing else to do today and were determined to get to Rosso so we decided to walk with our backpacks to the main road and hope to catch a taxi brusse coming from Gani or Tekane into Rosso. Easier said than done. It is a little over a 2km hike to the road through mud that was sometimes knee high. I almost lost my flip flops and Megan fell in the mud. It was one of those slow motion falls where your feet slip for a few moments and you think to yourself, "I got this, I can recover" until you realize you can't recover and you go down with a splat. We saw a truck ahead and ran the rest of the way to the road yelling. We must have been quite a site, two white girls with their skirts hiked up to just below our knees, covered from head to toe in mud, carrying our shoes and dripping with sweat. I wish some of my friends from home could see me now. I feel like every day I live here is like a scene out of a backpackers dream. The truck was a small Toyota and already had easily 20 people on it but they let us join the party as well. When we got to Rosso there were people there asking us if we were going on to Nouakchott and laughed when we said that, no in fact, Rosso is our final destination. Dismal, flooded, dirty Rosso. I say dismal because of the Lonely Planet quote we found in the LP West Africa book the other day.

These are both quotes taken from Lonely Planet travel books:

"one could almost suggest that Mauritania was the place to avoid...to some the place is the pits - sand and an overwhelming sense of revulsion"


"Rosso is the main Mauritanian-Senegalese border crossing. It's a grubby, haphazard town with a slightly sinister feel. Most travelers breeze through, as there aren't any worthwhile attractions here."

Haha. It may be grubby and haphazard, but to me it is home. Anyways, we arrived in Rosso and walked another 1.5 hours to the bank and back in again knee deep mud and muddy water. One of the giant puddles we trudged through was hiding a dead donkey in it which we were lucky enough to stumble upon. All we needed was a proper shower and when we got to Brandon's house we were informed that there has not been water for 70 hours now. Lovely. Good thing we have mutard to lick us clean a bit. Also since it is Ramadan the restaurant (the only restaurant) is closed so we are now waiting, dirty and hungry for the sun to go down so we can eat.

To clear up the Ramadan situation for those of you who have asked, Jenny, the children do not fast. You do not start fasting until puberty. You also do not fast if you are pregnant, breast feeding, sick, have noncommunicable diseases (diabetes), are "unclean" as in have your period, or are traveling long distances. Although, many pregnant women still fast, which is an issue I may address in small groups. There is no hospital in Jider El Moghen, and I think for the most part people do not usually stay overnight in the hospitals anyways, but the sick are excused. If you are excused from fasting you make up for it a different time. In general, I love breaking fast with families. I love the cold drinks and the fact that everyone has a sense of accomplishment as they have survived another day and really deserve a giant meal. I wish families in the states ate together more often.

So Megan found a house and is living with the Mayor's family. It is an awesome place with a salon, a lumbar (outdoor hanger), big porch, bathroom, and the mayor owns a plot of land and said we could have some space for a garden right next to a small tributary where we can take water. When we were packing up her stuff she gasped because all her papers for school had holes in them. After we picked them up we discovered the root of the problem was a colony of termites that had nested under her books. She could actually use the line "the termites ate my homework, I am sorry."

I slept at Megan's last night since we were going to Rosso this morning and I woke up in the middle of a night to a large long-horned cow standing next to my tent staring at me. I got scared and flashed my light and it ran. They are easily scared. Megan and I went running yesterday at around 6, which is when they bring in the animals that were grazing all day. We came up behind a herd of goats that must of heard our pattering feet because they got scared and scattered in a few directions. The goat herder was not happy with us and yelled in angry hassaniya. It was an accident! We are new to this farm girl type of stuff!

I went to the dispensaire (doctor) the other day to hang out with the staff. On my walk to work I had to stop and wait for 6 monkeys to cross the path and scurry up the palm tree. I love my life. I also can't wait to share it with visitors! I told the mayor's family that my brother, mom, sister, and friends may be coming to visit and they got really excited and said there will be a big party with drums and food and dancing. So everyone figure out your visa stuff and get over here!

new pics as promised

new pictures are up... check out swear in ceremony and first week at site

the rains came in

Well I am now officially a volunteer in the United States Peace Corps! We had our swear in ceremony a few weeks ago. The ambassador came to say a few words and we had an elaborate lunch of chicken and vegies! we even had cold fanta! After that we had a celebration and a few of the volunteers made a mexican buffet, which was really good except that the ants thought so too and I literally had ants in my skirt all night biting me. I shook out my skirt the next day and dead ants fell out. Another thing to add to my list of annoying creatures I will get rid of when I meet a genie who grants me one wish. The next day was a day of rest and then everyone packed up all of their belongings and went to their permanent sites. It was sad being a Trarza volunteer because we stayed here in Rosso and watched everyone else sadly depart. I kind of felt abandoned by all these people that have quickly become good friends of mine. I don't know what I will do without Chelsea and Tanya everyday! haha, I am kidding, I love my region mates, I got really lucky with them. I have already said that when I get back to the states I would love to do a road trip and visit all of them.

Megan and I went out to Jider El Moghen finally. We had a ton of stuff to make a home with, a gas burner, pots, matilas to sleep on, a mat, even 2 spoons! Then we got to site and realized that the dream house would take a lot of work and we would have to hall all of the stuff from Rosso. So instead we spent the first few days just talking with families and introducing ourselves and asking if anyone knew of an open house anywhere. We have a few options, the best being the mayor's nephew's house. We basically just asked the nephew if he would move out and let us live there. So we will see how that goes; but as of now I am living with my counterpart who is very nice. She also has the cutest little girl, Fatimatou, that I have ever seen. I want one just like her. Haha, just kidding mom.

Another volunteer, Mike, came out for the day to help us with all of our stuff and to just get out of Rosso for a bit. He left the next day and now everyone in town thinks he is one of our husbands. My family asked me why my husband left me so quickly. Haha, I didn't correct some people because I figured it would be easier just to pretend I was married so that women didn't try to set me up with their sons.

Ramadan also started the day after we got there, which throws an interesting little twist on things. They are not allowed to let anything pass their lips from sunrise to sunset. That is no water, no food, no brushing the teeth (not like they do anyways but you know what I mean). This means that no one cooks for us. We also cannot buy anything in our boutiques in town, every time we ask where we can get something the answer is Senegal. We have decided Senegal is the land of magical things like cheese, bread, jewelry, alcohol, beaches, pants, and palm trees. Our side of the river has no palm trees and the senegal side is lined with them. It is really bizarre. Anyways, it is up to us to be creative with the things our lovely families have sent us in our packages. We made mac and cheese, but did not have butter so we used laughing cow instead and it was delicious. We also made canned ravioli. Then we got really crazy and made a chili with a chili seasoning packet and beans and corn. Sorry I talk about food so much but it is always on my mind here because there is nothing else to do but cook, prepare to cook, go to the market to buy food to cook, eat, and then think about the next time you get to eat. Plus things that would not normally taste good are now great. Like mayonaise on bread, I don't even like mayo, but I do here. So when I try something new I have to think, do I really like this or is it just that I am in Mauritania?

Other than obsessing over food, or lack of food, we have also decided we want to become buff since there is nothing else to do. We went running, which was interesting in this humidity, and we also worked out in Megan's room. People told us for days how they saw us working out and mimicked our arm excercises and laughed at us. I think the women would like a little fitness club though, it is entertaining for them. We also walked about half hour out of town, along the river and tanned in our bathing suits! We tried evening out our legs to match our arms, but instead my arms just got darker. We read and played cards and it was just lovely until we got swarmed by hundreds of bees and ran screaming down the path in our skivies. Everyone within 10 miles of us now know the toubabs have come to town. We also saw a monkey, some giant kuuti lizard guys, cows, and the cutest baby goat ever. I got really excited about the monkey and started clapping and it scared it off.

I learned Hassaniya and Megan learned French so it is funny because we are constantly translating between conversations and there is only one of us at a time that knows what is going on. Also, not everyone speaks Hassaniya, not everyone speaks French, but everyone speaks Wolof (the language of Senegal) which neither Megan or I speak. So that is also fun.

So after a few days we came back into Rosso for Megan's 25th birthday! The hour trip took us 4.5 hours because it had rained the day before and the "dirt road" was washed out. We were in a giant white van in a caravan with 4 other giant white vans. We got stuck at least 10 times and every time we did was an ordeal. Everyone would have to unload from the van and walk in knee deep mud to a drier spot where the van would meet us. Then they tied a rope to the van and would literally drag the van through the mud. Then move on to the next van. Then when all the vans made it we would pack it back up and drive for about 10 minutes and get stuck again. We pretty much pulled the van the entire 35 kilometers. We got to Rosso dripping with sweat, covered in mud, and sunburned regardless of how much spf 70 we put on. We got to the house and everyone laughed at the site of us, and we laughed to right up until the point where I tried to turn the water on and, what do you know, Rosso was out of water again. What an experience, TIA (this is Africa). I can't wait to make the journey back in a few days.

Anyways, for Megan's birthday we made sandwhiches because she is kind of obsessed by them. Rocco went to Senegal and got lunch meat and real cheese and we made proper sandwhiches and home made french fries, it was delicious. I had a birthday candle and we put it in the bread and Megan made a wish. I hope it was that we find a house soon so I can finally unpack my bags that I have been living out of for the past 3 months. A few of the guys got an online Football package so we can have Football Sundays and I can watch along with all the rest of the persistent fans back home as the Bears bomb this year!

I got all of my maladies under control finally and now have a normal bowel movement, etc. I did have bed bugs so I am now covered in little red dots, but at least they don't itch.

I got renamed, I am now Jemilla which is closer to my real name and it means pretty so I like this name better.

I randomly got to skype with mike and carina today. They seem really happy. I am so proud of them. It is so weird they are in Korea and I am in Africa and we were skyping! I love it. There is a camera here in the Rosso bureau and everything so if you want to skype, add me, I am jaime.pollard.

Well this is starting to be unconcentrated. Keep me updated with your lives!!!! I would also love to see some pictures so you should all get online too and do that. At least it doesn't take you 5 hours to upload 20 pictures so none of you have excuses. Anna, I want to see some football game pics or homecoming, etc. or if any of you want to print some pics and send them to me people here love seeing pictures from home!

Anna's Kuuti

Jaime, I thought you would like to see your new sibling.
Does he look familiar?

The girl on the floor is the one who did my hennae.... she was quite an artist. My feet are done too! I kind of like the foot one... maybe it is a future tattoo?!

I got attacked.... with hennae

So I have made it through training! Today, in fact, marks day number 63 here in Mauritania. On day 50 we celebrated and wore American baseball caps (I supported my Cubs of course). Day 100 I might wear pants! Now I am back in Rosso for a final week of admin meetings and then I move to Jider! I think the biggest change that I have undergone so far is learning how to do one thing at a time and living each day as it comes. I have always lived my life so chocked full of errands, work, school, friends, go go go. The other day I was going to sew my skirt while I read my book, and I had a novel idea... why not sew my skirt and then read my book. It was a wonderfully relaxing hour. Then I got bored. But I have definately become more patient and learned how to not think of what I have to do tomorrow, and instead lived in the moment.

Language class is over. We took an entire school year worth of hours in 8 weeks. I can't believe it's over because I don't feel that proficient yet, but in due time. Hassaniya is crazy. There is a verb for "to travel by car in the afternoon" and a separate one for morning and night. And the beauty of it is that each one is conjugated differently. We also asked our teacher to teach us some swear words so we can ward off the annoying kids asking for "un cadeaux." It was funny because most of the swears were not mean at all. The first few meant "you are bad," "get out," and then the last one was "God will kill your father with fire!"

We were talking about how there is not much wildlife in Mauritania and we think it is because nothing survives in the desert. This only means that those that do survive in the desert are persistent little pests. Chelsea, poor girl, had fleas in her room which lasted for about 3 weeks. The fleas would eat her alive at night, and then burrow in her clothes and jump onto the livestock so every goat, donkey, dog, cat, chicken, and cow running freely around boumbry became infected and it became a little epidemic on Chelsea's side of town. So she has been sleeping in my room for the past few weeks. We were too hot to sleep two in a mosquito net, and since mosquitos do not exist in Boumbry, we decided to sleep on the floor to get a breeze. Then we heard a story about another volunteer who slept out of her tent and had a cockroach crawl into her ear. She had to go to Nouakchott and get it flooded out. I have lots of them in my room, especially on nights where there is no moon. And they went crazy the night we had a lunar eclipse. So we had to chose between sweating all night or chancing with cockroaches. We chose the roaches, and developed a pretty solid system. She slept with the flashlight, and me with the weapon of choice, my flip flop (the one not eaten by the sand dune.)

Roach duty wasn't too bad since we didn't sleep much anyways because we also were both lucky enough to get Giardia, which is quite possibly the most unattractive and unpleasant little bacterial disease you can get. We got it because people do not wash their hands before eating because they don't want to wash off their hennae. You can look it up if you want but I will just leave it at we were running to the bathroom all night and  all day for about a week; along with putting up with abdominal pains so bad I can only equate them to what I would think labor pains would feel like. The worst of it happened the day that there was no water in Boumbry. My pot of water that was in the bathroom that we use to wash our hands was empty, our water filters were empty and we both had to go really bad. I asked my family where the water was and they shrugged it off and said "it doesn't exist today, maybe tomorrow, inshallah" We had to use neutragena facial scrubs and I ate a packet of gatorade powder hoping that it would at least keep in some of the water I already had in my body. Peace Corps finally brought us water at like 5pm and we were getting a little delerious. Its amazing how important water is.... so besides the starving kids in Africa, everyone finish every last drop of that glass of water because there are thirsty volunteers!

The next day I went to wash my face and noticed that the acne soap I had bought in town was actually face whitening soap! It is a huge trend here for Moor woman to use face whitening cream, and cover their hands and feet with mittens and socks on 100+ days to try to stay fair. The guy in the store kind of laughed at me but I thought it was my Hassaniya, maybe my Hassaniya was actually perfect and he just thought I was a Mauritanian whose face whitening was working well! The cream is actually a problem that the government wants us to teach women about because it destroys the melanin of skin pigment and lets the free radicals get to deeper layers of tissue; and thus the prevelance of skin cancer is on the rise here. It is hard to talk to women about it because, just like in America, they will likely shrug off health issues in favor of beauty. Just like if you tell a women who works in a tanning bed in America, they will likely respond "that's nice can we talk in 20 minutes." Never the less I will try to work on it, if not for anything else but that the white faces and dark eye and lip makeup freaks me out.

I ate lunch with a man who introduced me to his wife, then a few weeks later I had lunch with that family again and he introduced me to another wife. Polygamy is still common for some Moors. He also joked about the 10 year old girl serving us tea being his next wife. I laughed uncomfortably realizing he could be serious. 

I can appreciate most cultural differences, but I draw the line with the animal cruelty that goes on here. Kids are relentless. They have nothing better to do with their days but run around and jump off dunes, drop kicking dogs. I also watched a baby cow get killed the other day and I all thought about was poor cute little Noooormaaaan (right Anna). We really went off when we saw a group of girls swinging a string with a dead kitten attached to the bottom. They were just playing with it like a yoyo or something. We did not know how to express our anger in Hassaniya so we screamed at them in English and when they were really confused they held it out like they would give it to us so we could have a turn. We just said in broken Hassaniya "descend the cat child" because that is all we could muster, and didn't know how to say put down the cat. They think it is so weird when we call the dog over and pet it. Speaking of pets, Anna the Hassaniya word for the giant 3 foot lizard that we have here is "kuuti" but is pronounced kutchie. So you should name your new pet that.

Kevin- I showed some girls my pics from home and they all think you are zeyn hatta (very cute) and want to know when you are coming. So for anyone keeping track I think I may have pimped out both of my siblings now; I plead the fifth and blame the language  barrier. But in seriousness I want to know when you are coming too.

Our last night in Boumbry we had a dance party in the moonlight to music one of the girls had on her cell phone. Some of it was Hassaniya rap music, which wasn't too bad, and I have never seen such large women get down. We showed them some of our silly little American classics, like the cabbage patch, running man, shopping cart, macarena, etc. The women were making fun of us for doing "faire du sport" every day, and they asked us to race them. So we did. We raced Mauritanian women in the dark on the sand. They even took their mulaafas off and ran in tank tops!!! They were falling all over the place and so out of breath but they were having a blast. Then my sister stole all their mulaafas and through them behind a dune. It was really funny. I think I want to try to do a fitness club for women in my town and do small walks or dance parties to get them moving. 

The last day we were invited to Chelsea's tent for tea, where the women cornered us and attacked us with Hennae, like the picture of my sister. No Ian, you don't go to a tatoo parlor.. haha.. Hennae is die made from crushed up leaves of a plant and mixed with water. They took a few hours to apply the finely detailed mixture to our hands and feet. Then when it dries a little they put tea on it, wrap it in tissue, and then wrap it in plastic bags to sweat in the die. then they scrub it off and it leaves an orange design on your skin. Tanya has some good pics I will post later. I actually like it, but you have to sit still with bags on your hands and feet for 4 hours! I had drank an entire liter of water before going over and this was  a difficult feat to sit for that long in the heat of the day. It is extra hot now because it is "rainy season." Which means it has rained 2 times at night and the rest of the time there is just heavy humidity in the air. They also put it on your nails, but I already had pink on my toenails so now my feet look like disco barbie meets Mauritania. We also got bedazzled in gaudy rings and bracelets, one women even gave me the shoes off her feet. I got mulaafaed one more time and then we jumped in the peace corps car and left Boumbry for good with a loud cheer! It was really just hard to be trapped there, not able to leave when you have issues like flees, sickness, lack of water, spider bites, etc. Kudos to Tanya and Chelsea, and thanks for keeping me strong too!

We returned to Rosso and got strange looks for being dressed in Mulaafa and having hennae and I said it would be the equivalent of seeing Buddhist Monks walking down the streets of the ghetto in Chicago wearing Fubu jeans; it just doesn't match. I took a shower and used my new loofa from my first package (thanks mom) to scub at least 5 layers of Boumbry off of me. The loofa looks like I've been using it for a year. Hot right? I am so ready to move to Jider. One of the past volunteers built my town a school! So I have some big shoes to fill. There are not many latrines in town and people use the river to defecate; which is a problem because the snails pick it up and then when people go in the water they get schistomeiosis from the snails. Schizto basically calcifies your bodies organs, and it is painful and deadly. I am thinking of making latrines one of my projects too, but that would be far in the future. Until then, if anyone is thinking of being charitable this year, look into Peace Corps Partnership. It is based off of donations and when a volunteer wants to do any project that requires funding, that is where they get the funding. We can make this a group effort! haha. 

Tanya is going to Cancosa, which is pretty far to the East in a more conservative Mulaafa land. She has a bigger site, and apparantly a great market and a big house. Chelsea is going to Wudon, in the North. She has huge mountains of sand dunes to go sand boarding on. So I already have a few weekend trips to go visit them. I was talking to one of the guys in my region and we were sad to not have a ski season this year, so we are going to try to go up to Atar and go sand boarding instead. I have a feeling climbing up the giant hot sand dune with a board may be a lot of work, they should look into chair lifts.

I have to give a shout out to Mike and Carina who are going to South Korea tomorrow to teach English for a year. I am so proud of you and am so excited you get to do this journey together. Mike has a blog and Carina may make one too. I am so glad I got to talk to you guys (and Julisan) the other day! I miss you so much it hurts! Julie too is going to Germany for 2 years to work on her masters in German... I have such interesting friends! 

For those who keep asking what to send me:

I do have a ton of time on my hands, and who would have thought but I kind of like down time to read! I have already finished 3 books and am starting my third so books are always appreciated if you want to send me anything. I would like to read "White Maasai," "Walk Across America,"and Obama's book, and anything else that you love and think I should read. I also would like some body wash (maybe mint hemp... it is really good), games of any sort that I can play outside, a football, plain solid color tees (I have too many long sleeve ones), treats.

News links.

Here is another link I pulled off of the RIM parent's shared email. Just a little more information about the US's response to the coup, and the Americans living in Mauritania. It is brief.

US Calls for Reversal of Mauritania Coup http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-06-voa62.cfm

Coup d'tate today in Mauritania.

In case anyone heard on the news about the President of Mauritania being seized this morning and might be worried, I am posting a link to a news story. Apparently there is some political unrest there. I did talk to Jaime this morning. She said everyone is fine. The Peace Coprs is "business as usual" right now. The volunteers are all together in Rosso. The main trouble is in Nouakchott.
I asked her to blog today, but since so many people are in Rosso now she said she cannot promise because the computer lines get so very slow.

So here is the link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7544834.stm

address updated

hey guys... i updated my address. It is basically just to Rosso instead of Nouakchott. It should get here faster that way. And I got my first letter from Amber!!! So far she is in the lead for my favorite friend! She dated her letter June 30, so it looks like right now it took about a month to get to me. I love you Amber. Keep em' coming everyone.

pictures are up... see if you can spot the toubabs (foreigners)

so as promised, some pictures are up... they are on the right hand side of the blog under the link for picassa web albums. enjoy!

A few more notes

My mom did a good job giving my account of my site but here are a few more notes. I have one more month of language training in Boumbry before I move to Jider El Mohgen. It is an awesome site because it is a mixture of all of the ethnicities here in Mauritania. It is mainly Hassaniya (which is good because that is what I am learning) but there is also a part of town that is pulaar (straw hut African culture) and some Wolof influence since it is right on the border of Senegal (which is the more liberal culture, I might even be able to wear pants!!!). Hopefully this means I will be able to learn a little bit of all the languages as well as all the cultures. Megan and I found a really cool house to stay in. There weren't very many options available and the other two options were already flooded after one rain so we were afraid they may not last through the rainy season of August. The house has 3 rooms and we negotiated a deal so that if we fix it up we don't have to pay rent which is awesome! It is a fixer upper though. It needs a latrine, new roof, recement the floor, bars on the windows, new doors with locks, a fence, a garden, we were thinking maybe some paint. I am kind of excited to have a project to do during Ramadan though because usually people don't do anything for a whole month. And we plan to invite some of the guys in our region out to visit our really cool town and then hit them with a "while you are here we have a few little projects to do..." No, I am kidding, they have all volunteered their time to help us build our "Barbie desert dream house". My region mates are all really cool so I am excited to spend the next few years with them. And Mary, the girl that lives in Rosso (our regional capital) has a really nice apartment equipped with stereo, tv with dvd, some jeopardy playstation, and a nice kitchen! We did have Mexican night and it was so good! Mary made tortilla chips from scratch and we had fresh salsa, chicken, etc and then danced to 80s music all night. I had a mosquito in my tent I think cause I woke up with about a million mosquito bites and my whole body itches like crazy. Last night Rocco made us apple pie and he downloaded the new batman movie onto his hard drive, so all 15 of us Trarza (my region) volunteers huddled around one computer and watched Batman. I am not entirely sure what happened cause it was hard to see but it was still fun to watch it! We went to model school to see what it will be like teaching in Mauritania and it is insane. The kids are so eager to answer questions, an as soon as the teacher asks one every student is out of their seat, hands up, snapping and yelling "Monsieur monsieur!" Our model school had about 20 kids in it, but most classrooms have 60-70 with kids sharing desks. I can't imagine the chaos. Jenny you should look into being a teacher here, you would like how eager the kids are. Anyways, I am currently uploading some photos but it is only letting me do it 5 at a time so we will see how many I get up.

it is Jidr-El-Mohgen, and "I couldn't be happier!"

I just talked to Jaime. She was going to blog today, but the Internet was down the entire day. She asked me to update everyone on her assignment. She thought we would all want to do a little research on her area. Well, I googled it and there is no information on the world wide web about this place! Figures. Today she went to Jidr-El-Mohgen to visit what will be her permanent site . It is about 100 kilometers inland from the ocean. It is located on the Sengal River. It is in the southern part of the country. There are only two roads in Mauritania and this not on one of them. So, the Peace Corps put her in a brusse taxi and sent her off to her new home away from home. She said the taxi is exactly like in the picture that I posted. It is only about 35 kilometers from Rosso, but the ride took an hour and a half over the desert. Certain times of the year this village is only accessible by boat. The taxi was full to the top. The men sit on top of the vehicle while the women, cargo, and animals ride inside. Today the taxi was filled with bags of cement. They did not have enough room to sit up straight. It was very, very hot in the car. At five o’clock sharp, the driver stopped and got the out of the car to pray. That takes approximately a half hour. Only the men pray in public. Women can only pray if they are alone or with only women. Jaime was sitting by a small window, which was covered with a grate. Just outside of the car a man slit the throat of a goat. She watched the goat bleed out on to the sand in the middle of the desert. She was hoping that when she arrived, her family would have prepared a dinner which would include fish since they live on the river. But they served macaroni and goat. She is getting tired of goat organs and rice. She has a new appreciation of beets! She said her family is very nice. The mom is a nurse at a community health center. The south is a more diverse area and it is less conservative, which makes Jaime happy. There is no electricity or running water in the area. Because it is on the river, there is a malaria problem. One of her projects will be malaria education. She will do a malaria caravan visiting villages up and down the river. They will teach people to make insect repellent using Neem tree leaves, soap, and oil. She hopes to encourage the women to make it, put it in baggies, and sell it at market to start a small business for themselves. Another project will be AIDS awareness, of course. She will work with visiting doctors and midwives and nurses to establish family health, community health, and feeding centers. At the feeding centers she will monitor red-zone children. They provide malnourished children with meals of porage and help educate and encourage the mothers. This will be the first health education program in this area, so it is a high priority site. There are other volunteers in the region. One guy who has been there a year now has a monkey that visits him regularly. Jaime will have a site-mate. She is very excited about that. Her name is Megan. She is in the English education program. Since Megan will be working at the local school, Jaime will have access to the children. She wants to buddy-up and use the school setting for more health education too. UNICEF is also going to be doing work in the region and Jamie is looking forward to working with them too. She will be staying at her site-visit for one week, then return to her community and language training in Boumbry for about three more weeks. She will be going back to Rosso around the 26th so she will blog then. They are planning a Mexican party including Sangria and Mexican food. She is very excited about that and claims that she has not had any alcoholic drinks since Atlanta. When she returns to Jidr-El-Mohgen it will be about the beginning of September, and that is the start of Ramadan. Jaime is so proud to be part of a group of volunteers who are the biggest group to go into Mauritania. They also are the first group who can claim that they got to “assignment” and not one person has gone home. What a wonderful group of people!
Jaime’s phone does work from there, which I am very grateful for. I wish all of you could hear how excited Jaime is. She is truly in her element.
In Jaime’s own words, “I couldn’t be happier!”

Taxi!

Like this, Jaime?

I guess grandpa has nothing to complain about. (Remember Norway?)

Shipping advice from another PCV/RIM mom:

Another mom sent a comment to me regarding my inquiry about shipping ideas. Thanks to her, I was able to send a box for $49.95 through the USPS. But, the "Priority Mail International — Flat-Rate Envelope" (9.5" x 12.5"): is only $11.95. That seems to be the best option, if anyone is interested in sending anything.

For the info that the postal clerks look at - go to http://pe.usps.com/text/Imm/mo_010.htm#ep1207199?

getting used to living en brusse

So I think i said last time that we were going to be visiting the local malnutrition and vaccination center. It was really cool! I have been so frustrated trying to learn this language and getting adjusted to different maladies, and it was refreshing to be reminded why I am here. There were 100 families that showed up with their multiple children to get their baby's weighed and arms measured. It was hot and it was a tiny little center with families waiting all around the building. There are no concept of lines so people just passed their kids up to the front of the room and shoved crying babies in my face for an arm measurement. The kids that were in the red are considered malnourished and are entered into the nutrition education program. All the children also got fed oatmeal so not only was the room hot from 100 bodies, but also from the stove. It was chaotic but very fulfilling. After the CREN we went to the market. I figured I would buy my country family something from the city, so I bought them some mint for their tea. When I gave it to them they all started laughing and my sister showed me to their garden that I did not know existed and the only thing in it was mint. I guess it is the thought that counts. 

That night we went to the wedding. We didn't even go until 11pm. All the women put on fair and lovely (skin whitening cream), orange makeup around their eyes, and dark lipstick which makes them look like they are dead, its really scary. The wedding was under a tent, and there was a pen in the middle of the room that looked like a boxing match. It was really used for dance-offs and when a couple made it to the pen to dance everyone on the sides would scream and clap. Our language teacher went with us and was our hero. If a guy came over to talk to us he would literally grab them by their arm and throw them away with a stern warning and a slap on the head. It is now official that everyone in the 3 neighboring towns know that the whiteys are here.

The next day we went back to Rosso for a 4th of July celebration at the Peace Corps camp. We watched Talledega Nights on a projector and had hamburgers made for us from the local butcher. It had a thin layer of camel meat, thick layer of french fries, peppers, eggs over easy, lettuce, and yes ketchup all on a bun. I was so full; but it was so satisfying! That night Peace Corps dropped us off back in Boumbry right as it was getting dark; but we could still see the storm coming in. My sitemate, Chelsea is afraid of storms at night so I took her bags and she was going to sleep in my room after she had dinner. I made my way to my room and the door was cemented shut, which was their way of fixing my lock. Therefore all three of us had to run through a sandstorm in the dark across the garbage heap to Tanya's room. We ate cold oatmeal in one of our tents and then had to all sleep in half of the room because the other half was leaking from the rain. The next day I took a rock and chipped away the cement until I could get into my room. We had to do laundry because all of my clothes smelled like stale rain water. The cutest little girl ever was not satisfied with the way we were doing laundry and came over to help us. She is only 5 and much more of an expert than us. In return we taught her and Brett Favre how to play "where the wild things are" UNO.  Yes I said Brett Favre; I couldn't believe it either but when I first got to Boumbry he was the first kid I saw. He always wears his old ratty beat up Packers jersey. You can barely make out the 4 on the back but he thinks he is so cool. I cannot believe that I am in the middle of nowhere Africa and Brett and his Packers have found their way to annoy me! The kid is cute though, he, like the rest of the kids, are obsessed with "Go Shorty, It's your birthday..." so whenever they see us they want us to sing the song to them even though we only know that line.

Julie you will appreciate this: the sand dune at my flop! We have been getting up early to explore the dunes and goat graveyards and introduce a little movement into our lives. I went to do a flip off the dune and my flip flop stayed in the sand and was sucked in! That day we went to visit some of the other trainees in a town 20K away. We took a taksi brusse which is just a taxi that drives up and down one of the two paved roads in Mauritania. You just stand on the side of the road and wait for one to pull over and it doesn't matter how full the car already is, everyone piles in. We were 8 deep in a tiny car, thank god we did not have our bags because I don't know yet how we will maneuver that. Even the roof of the car is piled high (about 3xs as tall as the car itself) with hay and bags and food and goats (litterally live goats)). It was an experience. MBallal was fun. We played soccer and ate dates in the palm tree garden. It was so pretty!

Tanya, Hooda is her Mauritanian name (which we are pretty sure is the name of her family's former goat) went to the capital Nouakchott the other day to meet her representative in congress. She said there is an ex-pat bar that you have to show an American ID to get into because they sell alcohol, but the main cool thing is that there is a POOL in it!!! She also went to an air conditioned pizza hut and had a calzone! We are going to Nouakchott for a Peace Corps Christmas Party and I can't wait! So Sam, Ryan, and Kev if you come visit you will get to meet all 150 volunteers and stay in our directors mansion. Word is he owns a pet tortoise too!

We also went to a soccer game in Boumbry which was, interesting. We walked up and the music literally screeched to a halt as the entire field stopped playing and stared at us with the rest of the sidelines. We did a quick wave and sat down to watch the chaos that is Mauritanian soccer. There are about 20 people to a team on the field at one time and there were maybe 4 people with shoes, another handful with one shoe, and the rest barefoot. They are pretty impressive though. One of the women that sat next to me (and by woman I mean she is a few years younger than me married to a man in his 30s and has 2 kids) asked if I was married. I said no and she looked very confused. Then she asked me something else that I did not understand and she grabbed my breast. I was so confused, but I guess that is the symbol for "have children?" it was embarrassing for me but no one seemed to mind.

I am starting to understand the language a little better; and yes I am starting to click as a response to questions. I am, however, fluent in charades! It doesn't help to learn the language when the goat eats my homework on a daily basis. Chelsea stressed at every meal how much she liked the vegetables and every day she got more and more. I wanted to stress how much I like the fish. And for those of you who know me, in the states I do not like fish, which goes to show how much I dislike goat organs. So we had fish for lunch and I went on and on about how good it was. As a result, the next night for dinner they prepared me my own special dish. They handed me bread and literally opened a can of sardines and dumped it into a bowl. YUCK. It was raw and still had eyes and smelled awful! My water bottle tasted so badly of sardines, I had to soak it in bleach, and I threw my toothbrush away. Figures. I guess I will stick to stressing how much I like carrots. 

We had our first daytime storm, which was awesome! It was my favorite day so far. The sky was so dark, and low to the ground; which we thought was just storm clouds. However, when it got closer we realized, with sand in our teeth, that it was a wall of sand followed by a powerful rain. There is something calming and reassuring about a storm in all its wrath. Maybe it is thinking about the places that the storm has been and where it is going that connects us and makes the world seem a bit smaller. It was thrilling to watch it come in. I got some cool pictures and will hopefully get them put up saturday night or sunday when I am back in Rosso for our official site assignments.... woo hoo!

Nights are getting less scary. I realized that most of the time when I freak out in the darkness I am doing it to myself. Not only by imagining scary things in my head, but literally like when I am brushing my teeth and the beads on my wrist are clinking and I jump and scream thinking it is some weird sound made by some gigantic Mauritanian insect only to realize it gets louder when I jump up and down. Try explaining that one to my host family in Hassaniyan. I just say "aane mejnuna"- I am crazy. I am getting used to the bugs though. I have a system now. If something is crawling on me I give it a light shake and if it leaves for a second it is a fly. If it continues to crawl, then it warrants a little more attention. 

It gets pretty chilly at night, and this is the hot season. Actually, it may still be 80 degrees but it feels cool! Sam if you are bored and want to make me a knit hat I would love you forever!!! To add to the list my mom already made for things you can send me (don't feel obligated, just some people have asked), I also will have a lot of down time so send books for me to read! I really want to read "No God but God" if anyone has that. I guess it is a good account of the Islamic religion and I figured while I was here in the Islamic Republic I might as well try to really understand it. It is incredible how devoted people in most third world countries are to their religion. They must spend 1/3 of their day praying or preparing to pray. I do not know the last time in my life that I devoted myself to something that I knew with such certainty in my heart to be true.

Shipping costs!

Wow! I went to ship a box to Jaime. It weighed about 9 1/2 pounds, and it was about 10 x 10 x 8 inches. I had it priced by the US PO. They wanted $90, and they said it would probably never arrive. DHL wanted $250. UPS and FedEx both wanted over $400. I guess Jaime lives in the most remote place on earth! If anyone else has any advice, please let me know. Hey, I was reading someone else's blog that came up when I googled "Mauritania Peace Corps blogs". He must be in Jaime's group. I could tell by the dates of his entries. Anyway, there was this youtube link and I watched it. If you watch, Jaime is in this group. She is laying on the floor on her tummy on the right side of the screen, in the front row. She has on a red shirt and a long skirt. At the end of the skit she stands up and turns toward the camera. You can see then that it is her. Check it out, I was excited!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwY3X5PRiJA

I talked to Jaime today!

I talked to Jaime today. She is still happy and fine. She has gotten over that 3 day sickness. She said that she will not be back in Rosso (where the Internet cafe is) until July 16th or 17th. She said she is keeping notes of all her (mis)adventures and will write about it all then. In the mean time, she said that 3:00 our time on Saturdays she will have her phone on and try to be somewhere where there is good reception. So if anyone wants to call her, that would be a good time. Otherwise they seem to have a mid day break at around 9:00am our time. She said she could get calls then too. Mike and Julie, I know you said that you wanted to call her so that is mainly why I am writing this. And Fern, (or anyone else who it interested) Jaime's wish list included:
dry fruit, granola bars, powdered drinks, packaged spaghetti sauce, (the kind you add water to and boil), and music! Her family has a boom box that plays cassette tapes. They love to dance, so Jaime wants to give them a box of music with a good beat (not rap.) She says they listen to Shakira. Sam, Ryan, and Kevin, Jaime is very excited about a Christmas visit and she says she already has a party lined up to bring you to!! Anyway, keep commenting! She is enjoying that too.

back at summer camp

So I know my blog is all over the place but I will only get a few hours to write every few weeks so they will be long when I do. Sorry. First, I forgot to tell you that as soon as I came to Boumbry they renamed me Mona so that is now my name. I don't know why Mona, I don't think it has any significance in the culture and they don't know what the Mona Lisa is. I am a sight to see in town because I am one of three white people so whenever we go anywhere we literally have a following. they see white person and automatically think 1. rich and 2. doctor. Therefore I have people coming up to me all the time saying "tabiiba, tabiiba" (doctor, doctor) I have a headache or my finger hurts here, what should I do. I have to explain that I don't know what to do and that I am only a volunteer. But I think most of the whiteys that come here are doctors and the like so that is how they relate. I even had a girl come up to me and say "last time a Peace Corps was here they showed us how to put a condom on a sick to prevent pregnancy so my boyfriend and I put a condom on a stick and had sex and I still got pregnant and I don't know what I did wrong." So education, it has become clear, is of utmost importance. My "sister" was also very confused as to how I got all the way here from America. I think she thought I literally flew here, until an airplane flew overhead and my "cousin" pointed to the sky and then it all clicked and she was amazed. 

But now I am back at summer camp; which is what we decided Rosso is because we have our own area and good food, lots of friends, funny skits, euchre, and childish games like assassin. I forget how easy we had it just 4 days ago and today I was spoiled. I took a real life shower and slept with a cool breeze, I sat in a chair when I had my update with my advisor, I had good food that did not consist of animal organs, and we even had ketchup with dinner! I'm not sure why because it was pasta but we did dip the hot dog buns (no hot dogs, just buns) in the ketchup and it was the best thing I ever ate!

At Boumbry there are a ton of flies that suicide bomb into eyes, nose, ears, mouth, any annoying place that they could invade they do. And there is something in the water that definately does not agree with my stomach, even after adding bleach. There are alot of weird bugs and I don't know yet if they are friend or foe. The goats eat my scarfs when I hang them to dry. They speak a crazy language that I am not sure I will ever really understand. Mulafaas are very constricting and are about 6 yards of fabric too long. I am also in a very conservative site where we are not allowed to show any ankle or hair. If the wind blows my mulafaa off my head there are 3 girls running up to fix it. Yet when we danced to the local drum band the girls were booty dancing with the best of MTV! I don't understand what is so offensive about my ankle and not about that. There is garbage everywhere. We decided to completely integrate into society we had to stop hiding all our garbage in the corner and eventually just throw it on the ground like everyone. She threw her zone bar wrapper on the ground and immediately turned around and hit her head on the beam of the khyema (tent). Karma. Religion is also everywhere. In Islam, if you look at the lines of your hands, the v shaped one is the number 8 and the straight one is 1 so you have 9 on both hands which together is 99 which is also the number of names for Allah. So many of the women sit around all day with their prayer beads and recite the 99 names of Allah over and over again, which ensures their entry to Heaven.

Just when I am so frustrated for all the uncomfortable things we are put through, I see the babies what are so malnurished their arms look like pencils, and the mothers with 10 children that don't have the means to feed them and I am reminded that I am in Africa and I have a purpose here and it makes it all worthwhile. And the community is so excited to have us. We went for tea at the chief of medicine's khyema yesterday and he was so excited to get to work and it crushed him when we told him we were only there for 2 months. He is the wealthiest man in the community and lives in a tent out of 2 suitcases which he packs up during the day to let guests come in for tea. 

Here, 80 % of Africans see a traditional medicine doctor rather than take advantage of the free health clinics set up by NGOs like UNICEF or WHO. We will be working with the medicine men in our towns because we don't want to completely run them out of business either. So, today we had one of the more respected medicine men come in and show us some of his craft. He is 80 years old and has been practicing for 60 years, ever since he recieved his teachings from the gins (spirits). He is alluring, mysterious, and a little scary, as I think all medicine men must be. He even has one opaque eye which is totally stereotypical in my mind. He had some sort of animal claw with him that he kept receiving phone calls from spirits on and he would talk to them in a secret language and then continue with his presentation. If he were on the streets of New York he would be crazy, but here he is praised! It reminded me of the but eels! haha. He kept pulling things out of his little Mary Poppins bag. All sorts of powders and tree bark and plants for every ailment, protection against firearms or snakes, potions to get married,etc. Some of my favorites were if you take 3 stones from every place you visit and bury it in your yard you will always be moving forward in life. I thought that was a good one for you Daphne with your collection ! I also liked the head of a boa constrictor he had in his bag that he said to soak in water and then rub the water on your wrists to cure arthritis. hmmm. 

Anyways, I have a long day tomorrow. We are going to learn how to make a garden in dry conditions, visiting the local hospital and vaccination centers, and then at night its back to Boumbry where we have been invited to a wedding! Weddings are crazy, the women put on "fair and lovely" which is a skin whitening cream they are obsessed with which is very bad for you. Then they put on crazy scary makeup and the wedding goes from 7pm tomorrow (thursday) night to 8 pm friday night! My kind of party! haha. Weddings usually start on Thursday because the president changed the weekend to Friday Saturday instead of Saturday-Sunday. There is a lot of dancing and they think it is hilarious to see tou baabs dance (whiteys) so I am sure I will be center of attention (second to the bride). But really I am excited because I here there is fruit!!! Well, good night!

woops... i ate an artery

so i am back in the whole in the ground computer cafe in rosso for some more health training. i saw my mom caught you up a bit already so i will just elaborate. i am in Boumbry and when i say my family only speaks Hassanaiyan(arabic dialect) I mean that they cannot even read Hassanaiyan unless it is written in Arabic letters so i am working on that too. right now i speak hassafranglish which is kind of cool to have so many languages being thrown around with such different people and to understand each other. pretty exciting. sand dune races were fun, if you can ignore the goat poopmine fields. it is funny that you cannot eat with your left hand but that they can play with goat poop with their right hands and still eat with it. gross. i guess there really is notmuch to do for entertainment in the desert. biddi (my teacher) said that when women are bored they "make baby" which is why some women have 12 kids. can you imagine being pregnant for 10 years of your life.
We had 3 big thunderstorms, which means that all of the local goats, chickens, dogs, flies, cockroaches; etc came into my room to seek shelter. i am like the snow white of the desert. the cockroaches are huge, sounds like people are walking around my room at night. good thing i have my tent. they are not as big as the camel spiders though, which are just as they sound; huge.
i turned down the kid who begged for annas hand in marriage, but there are tons of camals just wandering around and the babies are sooo cute so it is tempting. haha. there are also lots of long horned cows wandering. i think the most annoying animal is the rooster. i would love to drop kick one. it crows from 3 am until 1 in the afternoon.
so it was dark one night when we were eating at 11 pm and i took a bite of i thought goat and it was chewy and kept chewing without dissolving and so i just freaked out and swallowed but when i threw it up the next day it was a fully intact piece of artery. ,y sto,ache did not agree and i have been sick for 2 days. i have to go now, so much more to say tonite.

Jaime's whereabouts

I just talked to Jaime. She doing her first family stay. She will be there for about 2 months. She will have a weekly visit to Rosso, and she will update her blog when she is there. The little village she is in does not have any electricity and therefore no computers. She has taken a lot of pictures and says it is beautiful. She has not had an opportunity to put them up yet, and she does not know when she will. She said the connections are so slow that her friend took 3 hours to load 20 pictures on his computer. Anyway, she is with a family of 3, mom, dad, and a daughter who is 22. She cannot communicate with them at all. They do not speak either French or English. It is a dialect of Arabic. They live in the middle of the desert a little north of Rosso but not near the ocean. She is doing 7 hours a day of language training. She has her own bedroom. It has 4 walls and a roof but no furniture at all. She has her own bathroom, but it is just 4 walls, no roof, and a hole in the middle of the floor. She played with her family in the sand dunes last night and then needed a shower. They emptied the dish/kitchen water that they had used to cook with during the day into a bucket and gave that to her to wash in. She said it was brown. She does not know what she is eating, but she says it is not bad. This is a very conservative Muslim area. She cannot wear American clothes at all. They made her a "moolafa"(phonetic) which is about 6 yards of fabric. She is supposed to wrap herself in it, but she does not have that much height so she cannot master it and it falls off of her. She met some young boys who live nearby. When they state their age they say the year they were born and then you do the math, they were '93, so they were Anna's age. Jaime was sharing her pictures with them and learning how to say all the different family members. They offered her a camel in exchange for her sister. She did not tell me if she accepted. Two other volunteers are fairly close to where she is.
Anyway, I just thought I would share with everyone! Jaime sounds very happy!! She said she will try to post something Wednesday. By the way, her cell phone did work from where she is!

might be the last one for a while

Ok, so I know I just wrote but seeing as it took me 5 minutes to turn on the computer and another 10 to find the at symbol so that I could log into my gmail, I was a little crunched for time before. The market was so much fun; I bought my first fulaar, a headwrap. It's colorful. I got it for free because as I was holding it a goat came up and started chewing the corner. Then I got my internet for free because it took forever. I like Mauritanians, they are genuinely nice people and not nearly as pushy as the Turkish salesman. In fact, sometimes I felt even a bit ignored until I waved the money in their face. There is a ton of dirt and garbage on the street, and more goats than people. They are working on a drainage system here in Rosso though, so at least the government seems to be helping a bit.
Vegetarians close your eyes for this next paragraph. We had a goat in our Peace Corps compound today that we loved. He was so cute. I say 'was' because around 5 we all started to wonder where he had gone until we smelled the cooking meat and realized he just became dinner. Tomorrow our cross culture study involves something about preparing meat and after dinner they brought in a new goat. I think we might have to watch the whole process, and possibly contribute? I also hear that they eat eyeball here. I kind of feel like I should eat it if the occasion arises, its all part of the experience right? What is the concensus on that? It can't be much worse than taking baths in a bucket or wiping with your hand. Too far? Ok, I will stop for now. I can't wait for my first visitor!!! haha. We had mango today, it was delicious. I don't know if it is because I am in a desert and craving anything fresh and fruity or if the fruit really is just better here.
So tomorrow morning we find out which local dialect we will be learning and that will indicate somewhat which region I will be in. Then Friday morning we move in with our host family for the rest of the 2 month training period. We don't know any of the language yet so that should be, um interesting. I am excited though, they say that the training sites are really cool, like grass roof mud houses, exactly what you picture when you think Africa! I hope I go to one like that. I will try to get pics up eventually but I honestly haven't taken many yet. I am trying this new thing where I act like a local and not a tourist since I have to live here; for some reason everyone can see right through my disguise, even when I wear a burka. But I do want to get to know the area and people before I start taking pics of them, so be patient. Also, i don't know how my internet or communication will be for the next few months, we have been spoiled here at the Peace Corps camp. So it may be a while. Hopefully I will have some real stories for you all next time that don't involve weird food or bathroom rituals. Miss you all.
jaime

its so hot here

hi all! it is so hot in this little internet hole in the ground. i dont knoz if it is me or the guy next to me but the stench is unbareable! i forgot to put an initial warning on this blog but it is going to be raw and real so you are all about to get to know me much better! sorry about the typing too but i only have 5 minutes and it is not enough time to figure out this arabic keyboard. i heard today that peace corps particiants are not allowed to try out for survivor çi dont know about amazing race so i think there is still a chance for that0. and mauritanie is ranked the hardest place that peace corps sends volunteers so i think that makes our group the elite 80 ,ost hard corps people of America! haha; jk! well that just took me 30 min: I am going to go walk around the market now!
jaime

je suis arrivee!

Well, I had a blast in Atlanta for my staging, despite the arm sores I got from them poking me with shots (just kidding Daphne, if you are reading this it is really not that bad.) My flight got in and I was the last one to arrive at the Sheridan. The rest of the Peace Corps crew had me throw down my bags and dragged me right to the karaoke bar (ok, maybe not dragged) and I knew right then and there that we would all get along. We spent the next few days in pre-training and playing the name games, making me feel like a freshman in high school again. Then on my birthday, I moved to Africa (weird actually saying it). It is hot here, my expectations of that were not disappointed! We arrived at the Peace Corps site and there was a procession of 50 people all jumping out of their skin to meet us. Most of the PC workers are locals and they do not really speak English. They are trying to teach us different African dialects, but they are teaching in French, which makes it difficult because I don't speak French or any African dialect for that matter. All I know so far is Asala Malekum. We also got to have a few meals. The lady that is in charge of food is amazing, they call her mama! Apparantly this is the best food we will have so they are easing us into Mauritanian meals. Even baguettes they say is a luxury. Good thing I know how to say "I would like a baguette" in French, right guys? haha. So for meals, we all sit on the ground in groups of 5 (actually, for everything you sit on the ground, I miss couches already) and eat your "pizza slice" section out of one big plate. The base of each meal is either rice or couscous and then the rest is fish or goat. There is a whole technique where you have to ball the rice with your hand and then eat it. It is rude to do anything or touch anyone with your left because that is the hand you wipe with so eating messy food with your right hand only without being able to clean your face with the left is definately an art form. We sleep outside in our mosquito tents because it is so hot, but the stars are a sight to see, remember Egypt Sam and Julie? I get that every night now. And it is cool at night! Well everyone here is really cool, exceding my every expectation so I am in good hands! I will be making my blog secure soon so if you want to be able to read it and it says you have to get accepted that is why. Also, I got a phone so if you want my number let me know. It will work well while I'm in Rosso for the next few months but after that it depends on where I am placed.
I miss you all already.
Jaime

Kevin helping Jaime to the car.

It feels like 27 months worth of stuff!

She really got on the plane!!

The last few days have been a revolving door at our house! Kevin came home and people were stopping in at all hours. All the goodbyes were tearful! It has been exhausting. I think Jaime was organized and ready. We got to the airport and her bags were 5.5 pounds overweight, but they let that slide. Anna and I stayed at the gate and watched Jaime's plane take off tonight. What a difficult goodbye (for now) that was. Jaime is so excited and so sure of this decision that we really have no choice but to support her and be truly happy for her. The experiences she will have she will keep with her through this long life! Jaime will never say I wish I would have....... We will all be enriched by her experiences if we all stay in touch! I know she will watch for emails, letters, and comments on this blog.
Jaime, I hope you have a happy birthday! Go live life to the fullest. I Cannot wait until I hear from you.

10...9...8...7... and the final countdown begins

Ok fine. My mom has been nagging me to start a blog so here goes. I have reached my 10 days and counting mark before I leave for Africa. When I was in Denver a few weeks ago there was a snowstorm, which was kind of odd for May; and now back in Gurnee we have had a week straight of thunderstorm warnings and flood watches. I think the weather gods are trying to give me my last few weeks of precipitation before I head to the unforgiving heat that is the Western Saharan Desert. The coolest it gets there is about 70 degrees, and the average rainfall per year is 0-5 inches! I have been running around like crazy trying to get everything on my bucket list accomplished. In the past few months I have officially graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison (again, but this time for real), said almost all of my goodbyes, had 3 different graduation/going away parties (I'm really milking it!), watched my little sister Anna graduate from 8th grade, gone skiing, gone to a Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) concert in Texas with my Aunt, gone to a Cubbies game, shopped a lot, and now I have created my blog, yet I have still managed to add more to my list than I have crossed off. I do have some cool new stuff though, like a mosquito net tent, and a solar power battery charger! I can't wait to play with them. I have my official date of departure: June 17th at 4:55 pm I will be going to Atlanta, GA for my staging (paperwork and immunizations, can't wait!) They are putting us up in the Sheraton, it looks really nice! I suppose they want to spoil us before kicking us out into the sand. I think that is all for now! Please keep in touch and send me your addresses and stuff so I know how to get a hold of you!
Here is my first phrase in pulaar (one of the possible local languages I could be speaking in Mauritania): Assalaa Maaleykum! Peace Be Upon You.
Jaime