OCF Mauritania

I’ve just spent a very fun week hanging out with ladies and learning how to tie-dye. The volunteer who lived in Maal before I came, a girl named Jen, came back to do a training for the local women’s cooperatives. There were classes on sewing, tie-dying, and boutique management, and she brought in three great Mauritanian ladies from Nouakchott to teach them. I spent most of my time hanging out in the tie-dye class, though I didn’t actually get to do any of it myself. It’s much easier than I imagined, and I’m now inspired to do lots when I get home. They learned everything from wax stamping to tying and sewing patterns with string – lots of fun! The prettiest patterns are from a technique they call salad, where you scrunch the fabric up on a smooth surface and then toss spoonfuls of different colors over it. I did my part to support the cooperatives by purchasing a few items...

Life’s been pretty busy since school got out, surprisingly. I’ve been running all over the place (Nouakchott, Aleg, and I’m headed for Kaedi tomorrow), and with all the kids back in Maal for the summer I have a few more people to hang out with. Lots of them, including my friend Meshry, who speaks English very well, go to school in the cities. It’s fun to have them around.

I’m also busy packing and cleaning and squaring everything away before I take off for Afghanistan on the 12th! I’m terribly excited! I’m getting some new clothes (since everything I have is pretty much worn through and stained beyond recognition) and getting fancy henna done, since that’s the Mauritanian thing to do on special occasions. It’s a long, long, long, boring process that involves someone putting tape on your hands and feet for hours, then henna paste, then they wrap you up in plastic bags and leave you to marinate for a couple hours more. But when it’s done it looks really cool! I hope lots of people come to hang out and keep me company, ‘cause I won’t be able to read. I’m going to have some tagine made (that’s a meat and sauce affair that you eat with bread) to attract some entertainment. And then the next day I take off for Aleg, then Nouakchott, then Paris, London, and Islamabad! Perfectly thrilling. :)

Well, that’s all the new news at the moment. Happy Summer to everybody!