This Is How I Disappear

It has been a hectic couple of weeks and I have a lot to say I am going to try to put this posting into a few categories; Kristy's Awesome Peace Corps Project, St. Louis, Interrupted Service, Chinguitti/Camel Trek, and Break-In. I know this is going to be a long post but a lot has happened, and it's my birthday and I'll do what I want :oP


Kristy's Awesome Peace Corps Project

Is funded! Wow, that was fast, we really would like to thank everyone who dug deep and gave what they could. We would like to put a special thanks to a charity named Water Charity who sought us out and donated a majority of the funds, if you still wanted to help give to the project you can help them, so they can give again. She has yet to tell the community because we haven't been home for long, but that guy is going to bubble over with joy.

St. Louis

Every year, there is a Jazz Festival in Senegal and PCRIM makes a showing, they hock the wares and crafts of the communities they live in, listen to some music and bask in the awesomeness of St. Louis. This year Kristy and I were busy working, if you can believe that, but when we got the chance to go, we did. We stayed in a little bungalow on the beach, for like $12 a day. The experience was amazing, we had good food and drinks, good company, and the majesty of the Atlantic right outside our room.

Interrupted Service

Do you remember one of my previous posts, had a link to an article where some idiot thought it would be a good idea to come here and push Christianity on the Islamic Republic of Mauritania? Well, after 6 years of angering his community and performing unwanted actions, they killed him. This freaked a LOT of people out, especially when we didn't have all the information, and then after 4 days Al Qaida said they did it (this is debatable). A lot of over protective parents, and PCV's expressed concerns to Peace Corps and their reaction was to allow us to interrupt our service (IS). Kristy and I have not taken this option because we are safe. The option stirred a lot of emotions in us and I will only say that in all things we must go where our heart leads us. Our wonderfully large class has lot approx. 20 PCV's due to the IS option and it saddens us, that projects are unfinished and communities are without PCV's.

Chinguitti/Camel Trek

One of the things to do in the RIM is visit the city of Chinguitti. The city is full of history and ruins, there are parts that are still used that are about 900 years old and the desert has eaten parts that are older. Chinguitti is in the Sahara, no doubt about it, it's on a elevated rock plain and surrounded by dunes and date palms. There is a volunteer, Oumar, who lives there set up a camel trek for us. He knew the guide, arranged the destination, an oasis, and took as around getting all of our materials, and played tour guide. He was an amazing host.

The guides showed up in the morning with 4 camels, John, Emily, Kristy, and I all rode, they led us out a bit, we hopped on, and were led through the Sahara. The desert is nothing small. It had dunes as far as I could see, an absolute difference from the Atlantic just a few days before. We were led to a tiny oasis and spent the day there among the date palms. In the late afternoon we went sand boarding. It was a lot of fun. Stayed the night just outside the oasis and headed back in the wee hours of the morning. Walking in sand is no joke, camels are amazing creatures. On our way back a lone man on a camel caught up to us and joined our caravan, he had been in the desert for days, solo, and was merely passing through to another city, that was impressive.

Break-In

Our house was broken into, on the night of the 3rd. They used a rock and beat through our wall. It had to have been kids, the whole is small. I know that is unsettling, but we were gone for almost 2 weeks and everyone knows everyone's business here. We lost some money, some small material things, and a bit of our peace of mind. There are things in works to improve house security, but they will move at the speed of Africa, until then we will be vigilant and guard what little we have. We could have gone home with the IS and didn't because we are fine. Peace Corps is helping by funding our security improvements.

I want to thank those of you who sent warm wishes to me for my b-day. It's already better than it was last year :D