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

Shout

An American was murdered, it wasn't us or anyone who had anything to do with Peace Corps. Kristy and I were nowhere near the city it happened in, do not worry about us. You'll know more before we do you cause your news stations are in English, you lucky dogs. This may change our travel plans though :(

Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

The rains have started and the Sahel drinks deeply, there is new growth on virtually every plant that I see and there are now plants where there were not plants before. Grass has started to grow, it is one of the more beautiful things that I have seen in quite a while.

When it rains, it pours, we rarely just have a light sprinkling of rain. The rains generally start with a sand storm, the wind is violent carrying away anything not well fastened and it carries particles of sand that coat everything, these are best avoided. After the sand passes the rain commences, and it is glorious. The rain is carried by the same violent gusts of wind and thus is comes not from above but from the side. The rains last only a couple hours at their longest so far.

The other side of the coin, is that the insects have started to rally, and from what I remember this is but the beginning. Kaedi, like all of the cities I have seen here was not built for draining away rain, there are quite a few deep puddles that will become the brackish breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Kristy will be making a cream from leaves of a local tree called, Neem. Neem Cream is an ongoing project that PCRIM tries to urge the locals here to use because it works as a natural mosquito repellent and therefore reduces the chances of catching malaria.

P.S.

We have been in country for over a year now, it's been an interesting experience so far. It is still sad that we have yet to hear yea or nay on new Peace Corps Trainees. Kristy and I will be going to St. Louis and then a camel trek - keep an eye out for fun pictures :)

With A Little Help From My Friends

The following message was brought to you by the lovely and talented Kristy

Hi Everybody!!!

My Peace Corps Partnership project was approved and now I just need to raise the money. I need to raise a total of $1341. It's a school improvement project at one of the schools that I work with. The school is amazing with some great teachers and a very effective director. For my part, I work mainly with the 5th and 6th grade french speaking teachers (science, math and of course french are taught in French, everything else is Arabic). We had an eco club this past year with 20 students where they were able to learn more about the environment. We also planted 12 trees on the school grounds. The teachers I work with are always open to the ideas I have and so is the director. I really like working with this school and they make me feel like my time here in the country is worth something to them. This is why I want this project to get funded so badly. It entails the reparation of the school well and latrines. There is more information on the Peace Corp's website. Some of you (those who I thought wouldn't be too annoyed by this) will be receiving information in the mail about the project and how to donate. If you happen to be part of an organization, church, workgroup, club, etc and could possibly raise money for this project, I and about 560 students and teachers would be very grateful. I'm trying to raise the money by August so the repairs can at least be started before the beginning of the next school year. The donations are tax deductible too, woohoo! Anyway, that's the end of my "please donate" propaganda. Thanks for reading this.

Here's a link to the project and how to donate: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=682-117

You can also just go here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors
and search under Smiley or the project number, 682-117

There are pictures of some of the kids from the school here: http://picasaweb.google.com/draconismoon (the Eco Club Stuff)

Take On Me

Schools out for the summer! That means I have to average out my grades, turn them in, and not teach my own class of adolescents until 'Merica. I will say that teaching here has been a humbling and enlightening experience. Speaking the same language as your students is something that most teachers I know take for granted, wow is that rough. I had some great kids though that I was actually able to reach and the things I learned about the Mauritanian school system will hopefully be able to help me to help the teachers here. I posted some pictures of my classes they aren't labeled yet so it will have no context other than they are a Mauritanian school.

Over the next few months we hope to do some traveling, we want to visit some of the other sites, start planning a trip to Mali, and I too hope that I shall be able to participate in stage.

For those of you who were planning on visiting, there is a small issue of governments not being so friendly and denying visa's to each other. You may want to check to see if you can get one before you buy a plane ticket. It may just mean we have to meet you in another country, which can be arranged. I am not so sure I would want to vacation in the RIM anyways.

I heard what is destroying the youth of Mauritania today, it's Jack Bower. Keiffer Southerland should be ashamed! What the man was implying, because I asked, is the age old violence on TV excuse. I prodded further, if he would not place such blame on the parents of the kids who emulate such actions, like saving the president from terrorists. He said yes, and agreed too that violence existed in our youth prior to television but it was lip service. It is easy to blame something new that changes our society on the differences of each generations cultures. We did it with Rock and Roll, Rap, TV, and Video Games. What we find the hardest to do is adapt, work with what we have, love our kids just as they are, and make sure that they know what is acceptable and what is not.

Them Bones

I promised my conspiracy theory, so here it is.


The hill that I walk up and across every day has a well worn path very little foliage and fossils of some sort.




There are patterns in the rock that aren't just globs of stone, they have shape and form. I seriously doubt that they are a dinosaur, but that would be wicked awesome. I don't know who I would contact, if anyone would care, or if they are anything at all. My paleontology skills are a bit underdeveloped.



I know that this will probably never amount to anything but, meh it has been on my mind for a little while.

Best Of You

It has been a while since I have taken the time to write. Life continues on the nice slow pace that it always does here, with the exception that it is starting to really heat up. When I get up in the morning it is about 100 degrees now and life around here adapts. The primary schools have switched to a later schedule so that there are not little kids walking to school in the hottest portion of the day.

I have really grown accustomed to our lives here and do relish in our routine. I think that the walk to the market is one my favorite parts of the day. I get to see a good cross section of Kaedi life in a short walk past the schools, up the government centers hill* and to the market. There are animals going about their constant search for something to eat paper, plastic, or plant life, students on their way to or from school, I am always greeted with a rushed "How are you, fine?", and the vendors I know in the market are always glad to see me and don't usually rip me off any more. The market itself is chaos, cars, donkey carts, and people share the narrow road with vendors that are hocking their wares to anyone that they can stop. The things that are sold are so random there are vegetables grown by local farmers, imported fish from refrigerated trucks, goods that would rival an American dollar store, and the best knock off designer labels that Kaedi has to offer.

There are rumors that the school year is going to be cut even shorter. I know that this is a students dream. 3.5 months of school and the rest of the time is free. This, however, saddens me. My last trimester is only 5 weeks long with 2 hours a week, that is no time at all. I will soon be going to a Mauritanian English Teachers Association meeting to see what they are all about and possibly see if I can make a branch here in town.

Kristy is in Nouakchott right now finishing up a proposal to try and receive funding to repair a well and the latrines for one of the schools she works at. The kids have to pee on the side of the school right now if they have to go in the middle of the day. We are going to bother you, our friends and loved ones to donate when the time comes, a little goes a long way, seriously a dollar or two makes a difference.

*I think that there are fossils in it - look for a special blog soon outlining my conspiracy theory