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.