Back from Kankossa

I just got back from a visit to my permanent site and I am happy to say that it is beautiful. I think it will be a good place to live for the next two years. The other good news is that I just got a new chip for my camera in the mail, so now that my camera works I will be able to put up some pictures in the coming weeks and months. I am going back to my training home-stay site the day after tomorrow for three weeks, and then I swear in sometime at the end of August and go to Kankossa.

Site Announcements

Today we had site announcements, which means they told us our permanent sites for the next two years. The training staff drew a huge map of Mauritania in the sand and then called out our names one by one, and then we went and stood in our part of the map. So my home for the next two years will be.....Kankossa! Which probably means nothing to most readers of this blog, but is exciting none the less.

I don't know that much about it, but I am going there tomorrow to visit for a week. I do know that it is about 9000 people, they speak French, Hassaniya, and Puular, and it is by a lake. Earlier in training I talked to another EE volunteer who is just finishing her service there, and it sounds like she accomplished a lot, so I hope that I will be able to do the same!

Hennahennahenna

Last night I got henna done on my hands and feet-it looks super cool and smells like sunless tanner. Or rather, sunless tanner smells like henna. I think most people in the village knew that I wanted henna because every time I saw it on someone’s hands or saw it being done I would ooh and aah and generally make a fool of myself. The other day my host-sister told me that she would do it if I bought the henna and lemon necessary for the process. Apparently all women in the village know how to do it. Getting the supplies cost 100 ougeya, which is about 40 cents. It ended up being a very social affair: by the time my sister started on my foot about 10 women had shown up to offer advice and start on my hands. It turns out that although all women know how to do henna, they don’t all know how to do it well, which is pretty obvious as I now compare my four extremities. Overall I really like how it looks, though. On my left hand is my Mauritanian name in Arabic.

A cultural note: although women do henna just for fun, it is especially important for marriage. Most Mauritanian wedding pictures are extremely creepy photos of the bride with henna on her hands and the groom standing behind her holding up her hands. The henna party proved to be the perfect forum for more of the hilarious marriage talk that always goes on here, a good time for me to explain that I planned to study and work before I got married, and, as always, a good opportunity for people here to laugh in my face.

Happy 4th!

We ended up going back to Rosso for the 4th of July, which was a happy surprise.  I just got done eating a camel burger and drinking some Hawaiian punch.  I also played some Scrabble and watched a little bit of that terrible Will Ferrell ice-skating movie.  It has been really nice to see everyone again and have cold drinks!

The home-stay so far has been interesting and, for the most part, really good.  Similar to most of the posts I put on this blog, I don't know where to begin.  I am living in a village called PK-10, which is 10 kilometers from Rosso.  Although it is not that far, it is definitely considered a rural site.  There is no electricity or running water.  This is not as hard as it seems though, and I think in some ways it is better than a city site.  People located in Rosso for home-stay have been complaining that all their families do is watch T.V, whereas I get to sit in the tent all day and say things like "Big rain" and "I have one living grandmother" in Hassaniya. 

There are six people in my immediate family: my mother, Miriam, my father, Moctar, three brothers, Brahim, Sheemwat, and Neigi, and one sister, Tikibu.  I also have a 25 year old uncle who is around a lot named Mohamed.  He is the only one who speaks French.  A quick rundown of the fam:

Miriam: She is on the serious side and rarely understands anything I say in Hassaniya.  She makes mulafas (women's clothing) for a living.  She has been divorced once (I think).  Overall she is pretty nice and always tells me to eat more.

Moctar: He wasn't around for the first few days and then when he showed up he didn't look at me or talk to me, which I guess is normal.  He is really old.  Now he will respond when I say hello, so I guess that's progress.

Tikibu: She is the oldest, which means that she is basically the family servant.  She cooks a lot and helps me when I need to get water or do laundry or wash my hands before dinner.  I don't really want to know what she thinks of me since she probably has to do the same things for me that she would do for a small child.

Sheemwat.  He is 10 and I think he is always making fun of me because when he talks to me he gets yelled at or smacked.

Neigi: My favorite brother! He is 4 and very funny.  Like most boys between 3 and 6 years old, he rarely wears pants.

Brahim: He is 11 months old.

Mohamed: He just passed some big exam and I think he is planning on going to university soon.  He is pretty cool and the only person in my family who I can actually talk to in any intelligent way.

My typical day goes like this:

7:00: Awake! The rest of the family has been up for a couple of hours, probably since the first call to prayer.

8:00-12:00: Go to language class

12:00-4:00: This is lunch/siesta time.  Usually this is also the time that I bathe, do laundry, write in my journal, or go to the boutique for Fanta. It is important to note that it is impossible to do more than one of these things in this 4 hour period.

4:00-6:00: Language class.

6:00-8:00: Work on the practice garden.

8:00-10:00: Dinner and chillaxing with the family.

10:00: Sleep and malaria-med dreams.

Other stuff worth noting:

I was informed yesterday by Fatou, the boutique owner, that if I didn't gain weight I would never get a husband.  I told her I did not want to get married yet and then she told me that if I waited until I was wrinkly to get married no man would want me and I would cry.

There was a huge storm last night.  It was the biggest storm I have ever seen.  We could see it in the distance as we were gardening last night, and by the time I got home half the sky was black.  My tent had gone into lock-down, meaning all of the cloth walls had been tied down.  We went inside and then the storm started and we just sat and waited it out.  It was incredibly loud, especially since we have a tin roof.  My mom was chanting and my dad was pacing the perimeter of the tent checking for leaks.  It is hard to describe now, but it was one of the most intense things I have ever experienced.

A lot of the day is spent lounging in the tent, where it is perfectly acceptable to nap any time of day.  The only downside is that in Mauritanian culture it is considered too sexual for women to lie on their backs and men to lie on their stomachs.  It sounds stupid, but I miss lying on my back soooooo much.  I can only do it when I am alone in my room with the door locked!

It is funny that French has become my "safety" language.  No one speaks English here and I barely know Hassaniya, so when I come across a French speaker I say "Thank God!"  My French has become a lot better even in the two weeks that I have been in this country.

That's all for now, I think I will be able to post again around July 20th.

A Good Day

Today was good! We just got back from digging a practice garden in town. It was really hard work and also the only real exercise I have done since I arrived here, and after I got back to the training center and showered I was in such a good mood and my head was much clearer.  I am glad I have an assignment where I am going to be doing some physical labor, because it is difficult to exercise here due to cultural/heat reasons.  Because of the starchy diet and lack of exercise, female volunteers actually tend to get a "rice belly" by the time two years is up.  Fortunately large women are considered very beautiful here!

In two days we are leaving for our 3 week home-stays.  We find out tomorrow where we are going and what language we are going to learn (in addition to French).  This home-stay is apparently the first "make-or-break" part of training, meaning the first time where a few people decide to go home.  I am worried mostly about getting sick.  Some home-stays are here in Rosso, but since I requested a smaller village for my permanent site I think that my home-stay site will also be in a smaller community.  

Every time I post on this blog I feel like I am mentioning about 1/20th of the things that I want to, so if anyone has questions about things here just ask and I will answer them on the blog in hilarious Q&A format.  This is the last time I am going to update this before home-stay, so check back in 3 weeks to a month!

One Week

I left last Tuesday and now it is Tuesday here, although it feels like much longer since I left.  Lots of ups and downs today.  

The ups:

-I had my French oral placement exam today and it went well, although I was pretty fast and loose with the grammar

-I went into town and bought detergent (in French)

-Did my laundry

The downs:

-I felt really tired and fuzzy-headed all morning

-I have a bunch of mosquito bites

-We had a health lecture and heard a horror story about malaria, and then I realized that I hadn't taken my malaria pill the previous day

-I thought I had malaria

I felt a lot better after lunch though.  I think my problem here is that we eat such a light breakfast that by lunch I am having hunger hallucinations. So no malaria yet.  No one is sick yet either-I think that happens more when we go to our host families.  The heat hasn't been that bad.  We stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day, and then in the evening it is cool and breezy.  

As far as adjusting, I think that it will get more difficult once we get to our host family sites.  Even though we are adjusting to the new culture and learning new things every day, our training center is still very American-friendly.  So far I think the hardest things to adjust to will be:

-The trash.  It is everywhere here.  In Rosso, where we are, it is on the side of every road-there are no sanitation or garbage services.  Before I came here I thought a trash pick-up program would be a possibility, but I don't know where it would go and just picking it up is not a sustainable solution.  The worst part is that once I get to my site I have to dispose of trash in the same way, since there is no other option.  It goes against my entire college major/assignment/environmental ethic, so we'll see....

-The long skirts.  I thought they were cool at first but I am slowly realizing that for two years I will not be able to show my legs above my ankles.

-The slower pace.  Even in training the meals and sessions always start late, and I am afraid that I won't get anything done while I am here.

-The culture. I'm not sure what to say about this yet, but it seems like the obvious one.

Overall things are going well though.  We are still in the planning phase of so many of the things that are going to happen during training, so I am excited for them to actually begin (home-stay, language, etc.).   

Salaam Aleykum!

Day two in Mauritania, and although we don't have toilet paper and can't drink the water we have wireless internet in our training center.  Although it is really slow... 

It has been such a whirlwind since we got here.  The flight to Senegal went all night and so we got to Dakar at around 4:30 am.  It was all black and then out of nowhere we could see the coast, and about a minute later we landed.  It was amazing!  It was also the first time I spoke French to someone who does not also speak English, when I frantically asked someone "Ou les toillettes??"

After that was taken care of, we took a 6 hour bus ride to Mauritania.  Senegal is beautiful.  I tried to watch everything out the window but once I started falling asleep I couldn't stop.  We arrived in Rosso early in the afternoon, and there was a huge line of people at the training center to greet us.  Previously the Peace Corps did training in a high school in Kaedi when it was out for the summer, but this is the first year that there is a permanent site.  

We have spent the past 24 hours mostly on cultural training and a little bit of language-now I can say "Hello, how are you" in Soninke, Pulaar, Wolof, and Hassaniya (and French).  I have realized that my French is not as bad as I thought, although to be fair I have only been talking to other Americans.  Another interesting thing is that we all eat with our hands out of a communal bowl, and only with our right hand, since our left hand is reserved for bathroom related activities.  In 5 days we leave to spend 3 weeks with our host families, which is when the real cross-training will begin, which is both exciting and terrifying! I have to go do some medical stuff now, but I will try to write again soon and include some of my more interesting personal thoughts in the next post.

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