Back to Kaedi

Well I've just finished up an interesting first three weeks in Boghe and am returning to Kaedi to meet up with the other 60 volunteers. Much has happened in 3 weeks, I think most of us are more changed than we could imagine. I have been through some difficulties, mostly in the last week, meeting face to face with the issue of slavery in my host family. It really jarred my perceptions of Mauritania and my family. I've come back around full circle since then, but I spent at least one day wondering why I gave up running water, toilet paper, pants and diet coke to exist in a cultural exchange that was so seemingly one-sided. I felt like I was giving up alot of myself and getting nothing in return. That was pretty misguided of me, I spend most of my time here getting to know people and talking and trying to learn the language and the customs and every time I make an effort, if I even try a little bit, people pull out all the stops to help me out and help me strengthen my language skills and comfort level and understanding. My french is improving with leaps and bounds and my Hassaniya is starting to come together. I have so many stories to share and never enough time or internet bandwidth to share them with all of you, its a shame!!!

After I felt so frustrated, I was sitting out with my family as several neighborhood boys played with an old cassette tape player listening to music. For children, as well as adults cassettes are huge here. This really inspired me to pull out my ipod and start sharing my music with them, to see if they had heard some of the things I listened to. In Mauritania, as in the States, hip hop is incredibly popular, but many artists in America dont seem to get any airtime. Sharing music with these boys was for me, an incredibly rewarding cultural exchange. I only had a few hiphop and R&B songs on my ipod but they really got a kick out of Lauryn Hill, and Chingy, of course, Akon. I felt really glad to expose these kids to new music!! I tried a Fall Out Boy song on them and let's just say that it didnt go over well at all! Poprock is falling on deaf ears over here. After that I showed my hostmom pictures of everyone that I had stored on my ipod. She says I am a photocopy of my mother! Most of you guys will probably agree. I will try to get a photo of my host family soon, I just have to find someone to take the picture, and I really dont trust mauritanians with my camera yet!