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!”