Wave of the Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyOlFGCx2tA

Ok so i finally figured out how to make videos, expect many more in the future!

Bad At Blogging

Hi all I know its been a while since I've posted I figured I'd update you all on what has been happening with me in the last several weeks. I've started teaching classes at the CFPP, things are going pretty slowly. I spent the first week going over computer parts and Microsoft Word vocabulary in french. This week I'll start actually using the computer. I wore a mulaffa to class on Thursday and the girls (all my students are girls save one boy) totally loved it.

I also moved into my new house this week, just as the Director of the Girls Empowerment Programs came into town and dropped off 5 big boxes for me! Thanks everyone for the spice mixes, fruit and nuts!!! I'm so happy for them!! So I moved into my new house, I'll send pictures later I forgot my camera cord. Lets just start with saying my house is awesome and huge, but needs alot of work. All the money I spend towards fixing the roof, and bathrooms, etc will be taken as rent payments. Its not a bad system, it just requires alot of patience. I also have room for a garden, I hope to have one by this time next year. The house also has a staircase onto the roof so I can sleep under the stars whenever I want. I plan on getting a tea set so I can entertain Mauritanians- (their favorite pastime is hanging out with friends, drinking mint tea and looking at photos). This is the first time I've ever really lived on my own without a roommate. Needless to say the first night I hardly slept at all, it was incredibly windy and all the doors and windows were banging around. So all night I kept leaving my bedroom to close stuff and place rocks against doors that have no handles or locks. And then ants got into my sleeping bag and decided to take large chunks out of my torso. Soooo Painful!!! It was quite a night but I survived!

Things have been sort of strange around town for the last two weeks, there have been large protests in Nouakchott against the president and prices of consumer goods. Last week this meant that lots of middle school and high school boys got psyched up to a fever pitch and rioted in the market, throwing rocks and breaking car windows. They tried to storm the high school as well but failed. Its kind of hard to understand exactly whats going on and why students would care about the price of bread and soda (they dont have money, dont work or pay for anything). Both Edna, my sitemate and I had gotten back from the market about 10 minutes before it happened. No one was hurt, or targeted and we ended up fine. I'm still trying to figure out why they got children so psyched up about market prices. But anyway, dont worry, all of us are fine. The day of the big protests our neighbors the three sisters were very protective of us and stood out on their stoop yelling at anyone that came near. They then fed us lunch and dinner!
I promise to write more emails, topics to come include - how I avoid the countless marriage offers I recieve daily, why nema rocks, and many many others!!


LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!!!

SITE ANNOUNCEMENT- NEMA

Well it finally happened after much nail biting and anticipation and threats of torturing our training coordinator (Aaron), the group called RIM 69 made it to site announcement. And what a blast it was!!! I've been placed in Nema, the newest Peace Corps Regional Capital. There has not been a Peace Corps Volunteer in that region in over 20 years (Since the conflict with Senegal). I am a mix of completely honored and a little perturbed at being given such a large responsibility. Never in a million years would I have expected to be placed in such a pioneer-ish position, in Mauritania! I consider it to be one of the best challenges for me, in the field of development, to cut my teeth on. It is about 3 days by car from Nouakchott, the capital, if those days are dry. If it's rainy, then I really can't tell you how long it could take me to get there. The drive out to Nema was absolutely beautiful. Once I was there things didnt go as smoothly as I would have liked, as I got really ill during the site visit but I have very high hopes for all that can be accomplished during my 2 years. There is electricity and running water and alot of camel meat, and it appears that there is a true desire for peace corps volunteers. My two concerns are that I found the site to be rather conservative compared to Boghe where I am living now, and almost all of the people speak Hassaniya, which I havent had the chance to learn yet thanks to the wonderful language department. That is incredibly frustrating to me but I think I'll pick it up quickly and I may have found a tutor while I was Nema, so this may be less of a problem than I thought. I was also pressured to wear a mulafa, a head to toe, hair and face covering veil, so I did wear one for one day, and really didnt like it. I'm struggling against wearing it because it really just grates against my principles, I feel like I'm giving into to something mysoginistic by wearing it. It doesnt help that I was reading the book "Reading Lolita in Tehran" while in Nema. The author was expelled from the Iranian University for refusing to veil herself. I just dont see the point if I already cover my head anyway as a sign of respect for all Mauritanians. I feel like I'll have to justify wearing it for myself before I just throw on a mulafa to please others. It's sort of a one way street with clothing over here, once people see you in native clothes they tend to expect you to wear them all of the time and make fun of you if you wear Western clothes, and ask you what happened to your african garb. I'm really not ready to be asked where my mulafa is every day when I get to Nema if I only wear it once. We'll see how it goes though, the fact that they have not had a peace corps volunteer to judge my behavior against means I get alot of freedom to set the standards for Americans, be that exercising or wearing pants, or not wearing a mulafa. Time will tell, as I want to be respected and credible in Nema as well. I guess that's all for now only 16 days left of Stage till Swear in and NEMA! YAY!