I am getting ready right now to go to WAIST, which stands for West African Invitational Softball Tournament. It is held in Dakar each year, and a lot of Peace Corps countries in West Africa send teams. Mauritania sends three (A,B, and C); I am not actually playing though; hopefully just cheering and exploring Dakar.

Things are going well back in Kankossa-I was back for just three weeks after three weeks away for Christmas, which was an awkward amount of time. The biggest change in the past three weeks was that I moved. Typically I save major complaints for personal emails and my weekly chat with my mom, but I was extremely unhappy with the family I was living with for the past 5 months. I finally moved and found a room with a really nice woman and her two kids. I have only been living with them a week but already I am so much happier.

It was also strange coming back to Kankossa after three weeks away because I feel like it had modernized before my eyes. The town is three hours from a paved road, but recently got electricity. When I arrived 5 months ago it was on 4 hours a day, and now it is on from noon to midnight. The Education Inspection office just got two computers, so I have been giving them informal lessons on how to change their desktop backgrounds and not download viruses. I also came back to find that two of my neighbors had bought TV’s, which people here run off of electricity, gas generators, or car batteries. It changes the atmosphere so much. Instead of talking, people watch TV all day. I hesitate to pass judgment on this since a) it is still nothing compared to the sedentary habits of people in the U.S and b) it is not my place to tell people in a third world country that they should maintain a “traditional” lifestyle and forgo luxuries previously limited to wealthier nations. Still, it is interesting to see. The novelty has not worn off yet, although the consequences are beginning to show. One of the grade schools had a meeting last week with the APE (the parent-teacher association here) about how grades are dropping because the students watch TV all night instead of studying. Mauritania has not become the United States yet, though; a teacher in a tiny village 10 kilometers away told me they have a similar problem with kids not studying, but it is because they form drum circles into the wee hours of the morning instead of doing their homework.

There and Back Again

I just finished up three weeks of traveling in Mauritania and Senegal, including 12 hours in a taxi brousse today. Some highlights of the vacation:

Nouakchott: The city itself isn’t that nice, but we got to stay in hotels with both hot water and television. I have become used to bucket baths during the last few months in my village and had started to convince myself that I might even continue them when I got back to the U.S. One drop of hot shower water, however, was enough to make me realize my foolishness. I showered every day! I also got really into a Turkish soap opera dubbed in Arabic: there is a rich girl who plays the piano and the janitor at her high school is secretly in love with her. He also plays the piano. If anyone knows what this show is called, please tell me, because another post-Peace Corps plan is to order it on DVD, preferably dubbed in English.

Saint-Louis: This city is beautiful! Being there made me want to spend the rest of my life in West Africa. It was strange being somewhere that geographically was so close to Mauritania and yet so different in so many respects. Even though Senegal is about 90% Muslim (compared with ~100% in Mauritania) it is much more liberal; many women wear pants and don’t cover their heads, pork and alcohol are available, and the music is actually danceable. To be fair, I was in a larger and more touristy (by West African standards) area. Still, it felt like a true vacation. I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, made sangria for breakfast, and stayed up to watch the sunrise on New Years Day.

Food: My stomach did not always like it, but this entire vacation was basically an excuse to eat ten meals a day. (Sub)highlights: Chinese food, Vietnamese food, grapefruit Fanta, egg sandwiches, popcorn, beer, margaritas, pizza, chicken, avocados, cheese, chocolate, ham, Ben & Jerry’s (so expensive!), candy, coffee, jujubes, and oranges.

Saint-Louis

The French Embassy, where I wish I could live...

I am in Nouakchott now and the computers upload pictures way faster...

Kankossa Lake

More of the same: lots of skinny cows

Tavra

Tavra

Tavra

Merry almost-Christmas!! It definitely does not feel quite so much like the Christmas season in this 99.9% Muslim country, but now that it is so close I am getting excited all the same. I got into my regional capital last night and I am heading to Nouakchott this evening. Typically in Mauritania we spend Christmas at the Country Director’s mansion in the capital-I am excited because I have not seen Nouakchott yet.

Time in Kankossa passed quickly between Thanksgiving and now. Gardens are growing, and I am pretty sure that the only sunflower that sprouted in my garden was about to bloom just before I left. Language has been going better-it is at least not a daily struggle anymore. I started a tree nursery at one of my schools-baobab, moringa, Neem, and guava. Also, one of my site-mates and I are going to start adult English lessons after break.

The highlights of the last 3 weeks were Tabaski and a trip I took to Tavra, a village an hour south of here. Tabaski is the biggest holiday of the year for Muslims, and they slaughter a sheep and buy new clothes. If people can afford, they do this two days in a row. They kill the sheep in the morning and then eat a plate of it grilled, and then a plate of it with potatoes, and then a plate with cous-cous. Even for a large family, a full-grown sheep is an absurd amount of food to finish in a day. Similar to the post-Ramadan holiday, I was sick afterwards, but it was worth it just for the fresh grilled meat and the protein boost. I spent the first day of Tabaski with my host family, and the second with a friend and his family. His brother is a diplomat in Senegal, and it was interesting to talk to someone from Mauritania who has traveled extensively (36 countries!) and lives abroad, although it was also kind of depressing because it seems he has given up all hope for Mauritania.

A few days after Tabaski my site-mate Marta and I took a trip down to Tavra to visit another volunteer who lives down there. Tavra is a small Soninke village on the border with Mali. It was cool to see what life is like in a really small, isolated village here-even though Kankossa is very far from a paved road it is still a larger-sized town by Mauritanian standards. It was also interesting to see how culturally different Tavra was, both because of its size and because it is Soninke. Most men and boys would shake our hands, and kids never asked us for money or presents. Not quite like Kankossa! There are lots of huge rock formations around Tavra, and we went for a hike while we were there-check out the pictures!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the snow or rain if you have it! I am gone from my site until mid-January, so expect a few more updates before then!

Tavra