I like to be here when I can

Well, I'm finally here. Back in the States, that is... at the moment I'm crashing on Ben's couch in Portland, but I'm trying to figure out a plan to go visit people really soon. It doesn't help much that I'm phoneless and carless... I think I'll try to head south to Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, etc. possibly next week. Let me know if you would like to be visited, or perhaps could pick me up somewhere! Otherwise I'll be bussing it. I'll try to give people a call with Ben's phone one of these days pretty soon. Can't wait to see you all!

Hello from Civilized Parts!

Sorry it´s been so long. I´ve finished up my work in Mauritania since I last wrote, and have been traveling ever since. I have actually been writing, though... just on a different blog, which Lou set up for our travels. So if you´d like to read that for an update on what I´ve been doing, here´s the address: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/locabe/adventuroustrio/tpod.html

I should be home in a couple of weeks - see you all soon!

Why Can't I Put A Title On This Post?


This will be my last blog from Mauritania... I'm leaving in two days!! Casey and Lou are here and we'll be taking off for Morocco in the wee hours of the morning on the 13th. From there it's off to Europe for a bit of fun, and hopefully I'll be home in early August, though my plans are still flexible.

Leaving site was pretty hard and involved a lot of crying, but I'm feeling pretty resigned to leaving at the moment (well, ok, even a bit excited, I'll admit it :). I'm going to miss people here and even the lifestyle I've gotten used to. But it will be so nice to see everybody at home.

And now I must go do stuff... I left Casey and Lou all alone at the hotel, so I really ought to get back to them. I'll write more the next time I come across a computer.

See you all soon!

No, I'm not dead

Hi! Sorry it's been so long since I've written anything.

My last term of school was pretty busy. Because it's the hot season, our school schedule was changed to just mornings, six days a week. I continued to work in the afternoons anyway - it was a great chance to get a lot of kids familiarized with the computers. This was possible because we finally got a few working computers in the school library. I'd been struggling for two years with a couple of awful machines, so it was a huge relief to have something that worked for a change! I also continued with GMC, which wasn't nearly so painful this year. So the term's been quite full, and that combined with a broken computer in Aleg has made it pretty hard for me to find time on the internet!

I'm leaving Mauritania in under a month now! It's very exciting, though I will miss people I've gotten to know here. Everybody at my site wants me to stay for a third year - it's nice to feel loved. :) I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at home, probably sometime in August. Until then I'll be traveling around, hopefully. Casey's coming to visit me in Mauritania on the 5th of July, and Lou will arrive on the 9th. I can't wait to see them! We'll be going to Morocco, Spain, and France together.

Well, I should go eat some lunch, so I'll post again soon.... Don't even know if anybody will read this, since you probably all think I've stopped posting for good!

Eid Mabaruk

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody!

I've just come back from St. Louis, Senegal. After visiting it three times, I still love it dearly, and I had an especially good visit this time. I was in the French colonial downtown most of the time; it's full of good food and little coffee shops and old buildings and flowers and other such delights. The beach is also wonderful there - we went swimming, hung out on the sand, and had a bonfire complete with singalong the last night. And enjoyed wearing relatively little clothing. You never know how wonderful it is to put on pants and a tank top until you've been wearing long skirts and covering your head for several months.

Coming back today was a good trip, as trips go. We got a bush taxi (the standard method of travel in West Africa) to Rosso, on the Senegal River, then went through "customs", which means they record our passport numbers in a big book and send us on our way. We took a pirougue (which I'm sure I spelled wrong, and is a long wooden fishing boat) across the river. It's very wide and deep and green, with tall rushes on the banks. The sky was green and misty today as well, and riding so close to the water, surrounded by green, was a lovely experience. After hopping out onto the muddy bank on the other side, we got to sit around while the gendarmes complained a bit about having to work during the lunch hour, but they did their thing without too many hints that we should bribe them. We then wrangled with several loud guys in boubous for a couple cars and headed for Nouakchott. Our driver was a jolly fellow. One of the other volunteers had a keyboard with him (who knows why), and the driver requested some entertainment, so we had a jolly time playing Heart and Soul, the charlie brown song, and various christmas carols (with keyboard-provided backbeats). We even got him to try to sing in English, which was really funny.

I'm enjoying speaking Hassaniya again after feeling lame and touristy in Senegal, since I know exactly three words of Wolof. My french is fine for getting around, but I can't yell at obnoxious kids, make jokes, or argue very well, so I miss my Moors. Or at least my ability to communicate with them. Crazily enough, coming back to Mauritania is rather like coming home...

(p.s. - eid mabaruk means happy holiday)

The brief version

It occurs to me that it's been long and long since I wrote anything on this blog; yet, I am sick of sitting in front of this oh-so-slow computer, so I shall summarize:

- Ramadan was long, boring, hungry, and boring. Did I mention boring? School did not start.
- Eid il Fitr was good fun and full of sheep meat.
- School finally started two weeks ago and classes are good.
- There is a shower in Aleg, when the water's not gone.
- 8 months and 3 days to go.
- Company: excellent
- Mood: happy
- Weather: cooling
- Bugs: diminishing
- Elections: fun

I will elaborate on this last in a couple weeks, perhaps, for Mauritanian elections are quite interesting. But for now, bye!

Joy of Cooking

Who knew that quality of life could be so vastly improved by such a simple purchase? I got an electric toaster oven when I was in Nouakchott for the Girls’ Conference, and it has opened up whole new worlds of fun and happiness. The inaugural dinner was calzone followed by brownies; subsequent days saw quiche, coffee cake, and other delicacies. The possibilities are endless. I used to look through cookbooks with a certain sense of discouragement, knowing I could never hope to make anything that couldn’t be cooked in a saucepan. Now I read through my beloved Joy of Cooking (incidentally, a fabulous book – I can read it for hours) with a certain glee. I’ll probably spend most of my time at site from now on scheming about what I’ll bake when I come into Aleg for the weekend.

This opens up a whole new world of care package opportunities (wink wink, nudge nudge). Baking cocoa or unsweetened chocolate squares, brown sugar, brownie or muffin mix, chocolate or other chips, pecans, anything that can go in a casserole, pre-cooked bacon, parmesan or cheese powder.... yes, it all sounds very tasty, doesn’t it? I think so.

In other news, school supposedly starts tomorrow, so I'm headed back to Maal this afternoon. The first month will be pretty laid back because of Ramadan, when no one wants to do anything (including me). I'm fasting again this year (being hungry gives me something to do!) and therefore not inclined to work a whole lot. The sooner school starts, though, the sooner it's over... and when it's over, I'm done!