Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! Issallahmu Allahkoum!

That’s mixing religions, but it means “may peace be upon you.” That is the standard greeting in the Muslim world which takes the place of “hello” and I think in this season it is especially appropriate. Being out of my culture, I am getting an interesting perspective of Christmas. It’s safe to say that none of the commercialism of Christmas exists here; the only people who are not Muslim are the foreigners. As such, I have had not only the time to reflect on Christmas and the year but also have been able to do that without the usual distractions. It has also been the hardest time of year to be away from home. If there is any holiday that is about family, friends, and being together it is Christmas. Fortunately, I have plenty of happy memories of family and friends that keep you all close to me even though you may be far away. After all, it’s the sharing of memories that makes having friends and family so pleasant.

Reflecting as I am at this time, I realize that I often do not pay much attention to my memories. Often I live focused on the future and try to focus on the present but mostly forget the past. I think a better way to live is to treat all parts equally. Remembering your past reminds you what is important enough to be worth remembering, and helps to turn your attention to what really brings you happiness.

When I remember the events of this past year I find plenty of happiness. 2008 started with the end of my undergraduate days and what was my most enjoyable year at college. Thank you to my roommates in TH 48 and all of my friends at Clarkson for that. “The thesis” also figures prominently in my memories and fortunately ends up being a happy one. From my most serious academic challenge I launched into my most serious life challenge. Having been officially in the Peace Corps for four months now, I finally feel like I am settled in. I still do not understand everything people say to me, nor do they understand everything that I say, but I feel like I have hit a rhythm, and settled on a way of life that will serve me for the next year and a half. It is strange to think that almost a quarter of my service here is completed, I feel like I have done so little. Fortunately my memories reassure me otherwise. 

Though I have done much, I have learned far more. Some are lessons about myself, life, and culture that are immediately apparent, like the real value of having a stable and accountable democracy or how close connections to those around you are more valuable than any sum of money, others are more subtle and I feel will only be fully revealed when I return to the States. However, one that I would particularly like to share given the season is that while different peoples are more alike than we generally imagine, there are some cultural differences that do not translate no matter how hard you try. I encounter this on a daily basis and my reaction is often frustration coupled with anger that is unjustified and unhelpful. If peace is to exist on earth, we need to work to accept that there are differences across cultures that cannot be properly understood and that we need to fight the tendency to hate what we do not understand. Only then can true Christmas spirit of fraternity and sorority across the world exist.

Since I can not wish you all a merry Christmas in the usual present way, I am having a joyous holiday season with the warm memories you have left me. My Christmas wishes are of course peace on earth, particularly between cultures that do not understand each other, but also that you pay a tribute to your past and take some time to remember the good events and people that have made up your life.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years from Mauritania!

Travel!

Two good things are currently happening; I am finally starting to really get my work going and I am leaving site for a while. Unfortunately these two things do not go well together, but it is nice to not want to leave site because things are working and it is even better to leave for a while anyway, haha. I will be going to the capital to celebrate Christmas with the other volunteers, all 120+ of us. Following that I will be visiting my training site host family for a bit before going to spend New Years on an island off of the coast of Senegal. After that I will have another training that will last until the 10th. Then its back to my site for a little bit before going to attend an environmental conference in Ghana, which will be followed by WAIST (the West African Invitational Softball Tournament) in Senegal, which is the most anticipated event for all the volunteers here each year. After that it will be mid February, time passes fast when you are having fun!

Biogas Update

The biogas system that was in the pictures that I previously posted was financed by an NGO here called AMAD. One of my friends from AMAD said that they have been working on the biogas system for ten years. I do not think this is true and I also hope that it’s not because I was able to find a system that had several improvements online in just a couple of hours. One of the most exciting is what one of my friends calls a “cow shit bong.”

My research tells me that biogas is made up of CO2, H2S, and CH4, with the last of those, methane, being the usable part of the gas. One of the problems with the current biogas system is that there is a low concentration of methane. However, I read that you can reduce the CO2 and H2S content by passing the gas :) through water. So with the help of Dia, an AMAD technician, and Brian, another Volunteer, I installed a “scrubber,” or “bong” if you will. The gas enters through one tube that is below the level of the water in the container, bubbles upwards, and leaves through the other which is above the level of the water.

 

Another idea found is to weld a couple of barrels together and put them on their side at an incline with an opening at each end so it is easy to take out a little digested slurry and add some fresh cow manure each day, thus always keeping the unit at maximum production. Links to the documents for both ideas are here: http://www.echotech.org/mambo/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=60&Itemid=68 and here: http://www.echotech.org/mambo/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=59&Itemid=68

My ultimate goal is to help create a system that is relatively cheap that can produce enough gas for all of a families cooking needs. This is obviously a very high goal and I am fairly certain it is unreachable at this moment because there are people much more knowledgeable than me working on it and I feel like if it could be done we would know about it. However, I feel like the potential is there, and AMAD is already financing several pilot projects so do not feel like I am wasting resources by making improvements.

Again, if anyone has any more ideas or knows anyone who does I would love help.

A Day in School

Since I work in primary schools, they come up a lot in conversations with people from home. I think it will be useful to give a better picture of what they are like.

The school day starts at 8 am here, has recess from 10 to 10:30, or 10 to 11 if the director feels like it, then break for lunch from 12 to 3, and the afternoon session from 3 to 5. That’s 5:30 of teaching time each day. Class sizes range from 40 to 120 per teacher. About half of the students in the schools here don’t have desks to sit at. It has been officially forbidden to beat students, but I have not seen a classroom that did not have a belt in it. Mostly students get hit for misbehaving but I have seen them being hit for getting an answer wrong, which is just horrible on top of awful. Also awful is that up to 5th or 6th grade all the lessons are just repeat-after-me rote memorization. Later grades are a little better, but the trend continues. This leads to primary school students saying “Bonjour Mama, Bonjour Papa, comment tu t’appel?” (Hello mother, hello father, what is your name?) whenever they see someone who they think only speaks French (me). The same thing happens with high school students studying English, only it’s “HowAreYouFineThanksAndYou.” That is one reason why I am really excited about my environmental clubs; they will give the students a chance to participate in interactive lessons. Of course, it’s easy to criticize the schools but there are several factors that play into the situation: unmanageable class sizes, an unstable government, a governmental policy of moving teachers around to different villages without their consent, lack of materials, etc. I don’t think I would say that the kids here fit the stereotype of “all the kids in Africa who are desperate for an education,” but with a system like this I could see why. Certainly, I am thankful for the public education system we have in the U.S.

Tree Nursery Update

Bad news: So I am realizing that part of my failure to sell this idea is that people do seem understand that the point is to sell the trees. The capitalist mentality does not exist here as it does in the states. It could be one of the reasons that economic development is slow. It could also be one of the reasons that the culture is better in some ways. I realized that I was not getting through when Woni, the president of a women’s cooperative and one of the two people who have started tree nurseries, said that she started the nursery just because she knew that I wanted her to. It was a really nice thing to do and say, but it was pretty disheartening because made me realize that the probable reason why other people had not started nurseries is because they did not understand that there was something worthwhile in it for them. With everyone always asking me for things, I was happy to finally have something to be able to give, but I guess people did not understand.

Good news: There are now THREE people who have tree nurseries and the presentation on how to make and profit from them has been given to 25 people who work in cooperatives. Woni, who is awesome, now wants to sell the trees in the market and not only has 200 planted but is experimenting with different species and has asked for yet more tree nursery bags.

My Real Job

You would not know it from the most of the work that I have done and talked about so far, but the majority of my job here is supposed to be doing environmental education in the primary schools here. I was more interested in working in the community anyway and the slow start to the school year led to the schools not being a priority. However, I am finally getting to that part of my job.

I had mentioned that I finished repairing tables and benches at one of the primary schools and now I have finished at the other. Well that’s not exactly true, I did not actually repair most of the tables at Ecole 2, I sort of Tom Sawyered that out. When I went over there to look at what needed to be done, I realized that it was not making repairs but doing construction. At that point I said I needed someone to help me with it and the director knew a carpenter, that I had previously worked with, who was willing to help if he could have the left over wood (“left over” being used loosely). This was good news. What was better news is that the carpenter, Kaawi Ball, has a habit of not showing up when he says he will and when I am there, but then coming after I have left. Since he has the tools, this means that I waste a little time waiting for him, but he did almost all of the work by himself because he showed up when he felt like it. On the balance, I am more than alright with that. So that is done.

Since I am not repairing tables anymore I have had time to start integrating the environment into normal lessons, one of the three things we are supposed to do in the schools. The idea is that you take a normal rote lesson, could be math, grammar, or whatever, and make a small change so that part of the lesson talks about the environment. For example instead of calculating the benefit of selling a car you calculate the benefit of selling a tomato. The rest of the lesson stays the same and then at the very end the teacher spends a few minutes talking about what it takes to grow a tomato. That way the original objective of the lesson gets accomplished and the environment is also brought up. These integrations are very simple to do and since the school directors like me, I have their support for them. The problem is that with just a few minutes each time, it is hard to say much other than “trees are good.” One of the other things I am supposed to do is to create a school garden, but I do not see much point in creating a garden just to create a garden without an environmental education program that goes along with it. That leaves the third activity I am supposed to do which is also the one I am really excited about and I hope will bring all three of them together: Eco Clubs

The idea of the eco club is to do environmental games / science lessons with some students on the weekends. These could be coordinated with the integrated lessons and also be done at the same time as the garden. For those from home, it is sort of the same idea as the Selborne project that we did in middle school. Actually it is not sort of the same; it is the same because I will be using the same lessons. The reason that I have not started already is that to do these lessons, I need to translate them in French, something I am not very good at and something that did not really have me excited. At least that was the case until I realized that if I translated them well enough and put them into a book, that is the type of thing that I could give to teachers here and they could continue it after I am gone, not to mention that it would really help out all of the other EE volunteers here, and depending on copyright restrictions, in all French speaking countries that the Peace Corps works in. This is another one of those ideas that makes so much sense that I have to wonder if there is a good reason why it hasn’t been done before. So that will be by work immediately after Christmas, with the help of some friends translating 60+ environmental lessons into French.

Plug

This is a plug, but it is important.

Last year I had the amazing opportunity to go to the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Bali, Indonesia with a group of U.S. youth. What we were able to do there and the experience of it was nothing short of amazing and the most important two weeks of my life. It's killing me not to be at this year's negotiations in Poland but I am following the events online. I encourage you to do the same and to read the blogs of the youth there. We have the most at stake and I believe have the clearest view of what is happening. Check out the following blogs if you are interested:

http://www.sustainus.org/blog
http://dailyun.wordpress.com/
http://www.climatenetwork.org/eco/poznan-ecos

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all are well and passed the holiday with family and plenty of food. I am thankfull that you all are in my life!

And also because I forgot, happy election too! It is safe to say that my reputation here got better after the election and also I should mention that I know a few volunteers who cried when they finally heard the result at 4:30 in the morning, myself included. I hear there was a bit of that going on stateside as well. In the spirit of thanksgiving, I am also thankful to be able to share this moment in history with all of you.

Uprising

So there was a bit of an uprising in my village a number of weeks ago. However, before I tell the story though I need to give some background on the racial tensions here. Mauritania is comprised of three major ethnic groups; white Moor, black Moor, and black African, although the groups are not strictly restricted to the color of their name. White Moors are of Arab descent, are typically the most hard core Muslim, have the strictest culture, speak Hassanyia, a variation of Arab, and live in the more northern parts of the country. Black Moors are of African descent but have adopted the culture of the Moors, they speak Hassanyia and are generally slightly more liberal Muslims. Black Africans here speak either Pulaar, Sonike, or Wolof, are generally the most liberal Muslims, and live predominantly in the south. Although most everyone here speaks a number of local languages as well as French and Arabic because those are the only languages taught in school.

There have been racial tensions between the white Moors and black Africans for a long time and that came to a head in 1989. The trouble actually started between some Pulaar Mauritanian herders and some Pulaar Senegalese farmers over a land dispute, keeping in mind that the border between Mauritania and Senegal, formed by the river, was a product of colonization and not actual cultural differences. A Mauritanian was shot leading to further violence between the Mauritanian herders and Senegalese farmers over tensions that had been building for years. Neither of the governments of the two countries took actions to end the violence. In fact, the white Moor controlled Mauritanian government used the violence as an opportunity to try to expel all of the black Africans from Mauritania under the pretense that they were damaging the country and that was when the real violence started. Not unlike McCarthyism, being suspected of being black African was enough to warrant discrimination; only in this case that discrimination took the form of murder and forced expulsion. Whole towns were forced to leave the country. The town where I had my training was one of those. For years the Mauritanian government did not recognize the Mauritanian black Africans living Senegal as refugees and denied their existence. However, in 2007 the president, the same one who was ousted by a coup earlier this year, started a program to bring them back that fortunately is still continuing with the military government. Relations have greatly improved between the ethnic groups since 1989, but it is safe to say that there are still some lingering tensions. Those tensions were very much a factor when a Moor from the village immediately next to mine erected a fence on a piece of land that was typically used by the mostly Pulaar speaking people of my town.

I need to emphasize here that my understanding of the history and actual events of the situation is incomplete and is inaccurate. I can say that it is inaccurate with confidence because I have talked to the officials in my town and the one thing that they agree on is that they don’t all agree with the details. However, the basics are that the official above the mayor but below the governor, a white Moor, was asked to order the fence removed. He chose not to do that, potentially for legitimate reasons I don’t know. The next night 400 youth from my town got together and tore down the fence and a small building that was there. Hugely out numbered the police chose not to take any action until the next morning when reinforcements arrived. Riot police came, rocks were and tear gas were exchanged and arrests were made. I hadn’t heard of any of this until a friend stopped by and told me not to go into the market because there was a confrontation. Of course, I immediately went to the market to see what was going on. By the time I got there all of the action was over but a good portion of the village was just milling around. I wish I could tell you how it all was resolved, but it hasn’t been yet. It was actually a fairly controlled and level headed uprising, no other property was damaged and no one was hurt. I should also mention that while race was a factor, this had more to do with a protest against the inaction of the government than race. Things quickly settled down and are resolving themselves in their own Mauritanian fashion. Lets just say it is reminding me how lucky I am to live in a country with a strong, independent, and transparent judicial system.

Something Else

One of the aspects of my job that I like the most is the amount of freedom that I have. For example, I saw my boss for the first time in three months the other day. Yet, it should be no surprise that I am working just as much as if I was in the typical U.S. 9-5 job, and perhaps more depending on what you count as work. The point is that I can take hobbies and turn them into my job without much concern as long as they pass the test of my own conscience. For example, while visiting one of the primary schools I am assigned to I noticed that there were a lot of broken tables and benches (all the students here share tables and use benches not chairs). In passing I mentioned that I could probably repair them all. The director of the school happened to like that idea very much and long story short, two weeks, one black and blue thumb, two tubs of glue, one broken hammer, five cuts on my left hand, 60 rounds of tea, 3 kilos of nails, and 2,500 UM (~$13) from the parents association for materials later, 15 tables and 16 benches are now repaired. That’s enough seating for over 100 students which means there are no longer kids sitting on the floor at that school. Again, not exactly environmental education work, but its hard not to feel good about it. Plus, the school director and the inspector are pretty happy with me now and that should make my other projects go more smoothly.

While I was spending the two weeks repairing tables I felt bad that I was only at the one school and not doing environmental work because the director of the other school is really into it. About half way through I saw the other director and apologized for not being around to do environmental projects. When I explained what I was spending my time doing, he said “Really? That’s great! We have a whole bunch of broken tables at my school too!” I went over to check them out the other day, and let’s just say that there wasn’t the space to store all of the broken tables in one room so they had to split them up between three. There are more students sitting on the floor than there are at tables but there are enough tables for everyone if they all were repaired. I could easily spend two months just fixing tables there, which I will eventually do, but just one day a week at a time. Of course this project fails under the category of aid and not development by my previous definition, but when it costs next to nothing to give desks to hundreds of students, it’s hard to let the broken tables just sit there. However, I am looking for a parent who knows carpentry to help me out though.

Pictures of the two schools in which I work here: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/PrimarySchools#

Success

Winston Churchill once said, “Success is the ability to move from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” I think given the nature of my work here, that’s as good as a measure as any. In the case of my tree nursery project, it is not only a good measure but also sage advice. I have given the presentation a few more times and I am very proud to say that I have sold a few hundred nursery bags and people have started planting trees. While I am nervous until the trees sprout (some already have) and will not be completely satisfied until I see them being sold in the market (four months from now), I consider the act of making the investment of buying the bags to be the biggest success. People here are highly risk adverse and skeptical of new ideas, so that they are willing to risk some (even very little) money is a good indication of the worth of the project and my ability to express it. It’s been said better by more knowledgeable people before, but there is value in taking risks; Americans are typically risk takers and that has been citied as a reason of our rise to prominence in the world. I strongly believe that one of the most significant blockages to development in this country is people’s willingness to take risks and initiative. It’s certainly true that when you have less in general your safety net is smaller, but that still doesn’t mean that you should require everything to be a sure deal to attempt it. It is also true that from the perspective of Mauritanians, NGOs come in with big promises that they don’t always deliver on so it is good to be skeptical, but again, that doesn’t mean that everything should be anticipated negatively.

At any rate, the values of the tree nurseries appear to be proving themselves and I retain very high hopes for the overall success of the project. Ideally I envision the cheaply available trees meeting the demand that I already believe exists resulting in hundreds of trees being planted in the village and all of this happening with not much more work than I have already put in. I have chosen to partly evaluate the success of my projects here by how little work I have to do to get them going. My idea is that if it is a good project I ought to be able to get people to pretty much do it for themselves. If they are not willing to do that from the beginning, then it has little chance of being sustainable. Tom Sawyer is my idol. I strongly believe that all development work should operate in this manner and if it doesn’t then it is just aid, which is good for starving people but can actually have negative impacts for people who don’t really need it. I see the impacts of years of aid daily when people routinely ask me to give them just about everything I own when often much of what they want is within their reach, yet I know that they will not likely take the initiative needed to realize it. I want to be clear that I am not trying to say that people are lazy, just that a culture of dependency has developed here and it is embarrassing and depressing. Although I should also add that there is a strong gift giving as well as gift asking culture here, but I feel that the level requests that I personally receive and is expected from the outside world in general is unreasonable and detrimental.

I went off on a tangent there and I want to reiterate that I am extremely pleased with how the project is going and so are the Mauritanians who are involved in it. If this project lives up to its full potential, I will be satisfied with my service here, even if I accomplish nothing else.

Some local phrases of interest

It’s well known that not everything translates from one language or culture to another. In fact a lot of learning a new language is about learning how to think in that language as well as what the words mean in your own. The same is true for learning a new culture. Here are a few examples that I am struggling to adapt to:

- “Mi solkaani (I don’t need)…” Mauritania has a very indirect culture. If you have a problem with someone, a lot of times you will as a friend to talk to that person for you. For a while my neighbor was putting his stereo speaker in his window and blasting music out into the street. Mostly it didn’t bother me, but eventually I went over and asked him to take the speaker out of the window, to which he happily agreed. I found out a few days later that this had been bothering the whole neighborhood for weeks, but it was too direct to just ask him to take it out of the window. I think the best example of this though is the fact that when being pressed to buy things in the market, its impolite to say that you don’t need them because that is too direct. Instead, you are supposed to say “thanks”; “no thanks” is too direct as well.

- “Aan ko cukalel (You are a child)…” I’ve talked about social relationships here before, but it is difficult to accurately express how different the social culture is here. In the U.S. you are judged by who you associate with, but for the most part it is your own character that earns your reputation. Here, it is almost exclusively your who you associate with and your age and you only associate with your age group peers. Primarily your relationship with those older than you is based on doing what they tell you to do and for those younger than you, telling them what to do. In the U.S. after about 20-25 your age ceases to be a major factor in your social standing. However, here it never diminishes in importance. People are always surprised to find out my age and when they do they call me a child. Most people my age here are still more or less living to serve their parents, as is the role for all kids here.

- “Ine wodde yiyyi dum (It has been a long time)…” This one I get a lot. I think I many have mentioned this before but it’s difficult to have a lot of friends here, for both foreigners and nationals. One thing that I initially failed to appreciate is in a highly social culture, socialization takes more work. It simple to say and seems obvious, but in practice it has proven difficult for me. A great example is the phrase I mentioned. Basically, if I haven’t seen someone for just one day, they will tell me that it’s been a long time and ask me where I have been. (They will also ask me where I have been even if I have already seen them earlier.) Perhaps the most consistent event here is going to visit your friends; it takes priority over everything else and explains why not much else happens on time. I have to admit, there is a certain logic to it, what could be so important that you don’t have time to visit your friends. After all, in the long run, your social connections are generally more important than whatever it is you are rushing off to. However, I struggle to remember not to be indignant when people demand where I have been and that it has been a long time since I have seen them, especially when it has been less than 24 hours. In the U.S. it’s impolite and not true, but here it is just the opposite. That’s why it’s difficult to have a lot of friends here; you are expected to visit or call them every couple of days or they think you don’t care about them. Mostly I get by on the excuse that I am not from here.

A Tale of Two Games

It would be a gross understatement to say that my neighbor is like a father to me, so I took him seriously when he asked me to play in his first and perhaps last soccer match after he turned 60. However, Mauritania is a bit far away and I can’t leave the country for the first three months without being kicked out of the Peace Corps, so actually being there for the game was not an option. Instead, I arranged a game here to be played at the same time, which happened to be midnight, so I could be with him in spirit. Initially I was worried that it would be difficult to get people to agree to play so late, but I explained the situation and aside from the fact that they didn’t believe that you could be friends with someone that much older than you, they liked the idea. Really though, people here pretty much don’t need an excuse to play soccer.

We were six versus six, playing in the moonlight, because the electricity to the whole town shuts off at 11pm, on a patch of sand that had more cow patties than it did players. The other team scored three points early but we rallied and ended up winning the night with six points to their five. It was a very fun night and in the end I not only was able to be there in spirit but I actually started a tradition of late night games on the weekends (when there is enough moonlight).

Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/JackSSoccerGame#

Generation We

Millennials are the largest generation in American history. Born between 1978 and 2000, they are 95 million strong, compared to 78 million Baby Boomers. They are independent—politically, socially, and philosophically—and they are spearheading a period of sweeping change in America and around the world. No one knows the Millennials like Eric Greenberg. In Generation We, Greenberg explains the emerging power of the Millennial Generation, shows how they (and their supporters from other generations) are poised to change our nation and our world for the better, and lays out a powerful plan for progressive change that today's youth is ready to implement.

This is worth reading: http://www.gen-we.com/

It is a lot of hype, but in my experiences with the motivated people of my generation, the hype is mostly true. I don't think I am a shining example of what is described, but I definitely know some people who are. For all of us, lets hope that the hype proves completely true.

A few pictures

Sorry about the lack of pictures. Honestly, I am afraid to walk around my village with my camera because all the kids that see it will ask me to take a photo of them every time they see me. Some kids already ask me that and they don't even know I have a camera. Frankly, they harass me enough as it is, I don't need to give them another reason. However, pretty soon I will be taking some photos for a tree planting campaign I am thinking about doing and I should have some good ones of the community after that. For now you will just have to settle for my house and the chair I made: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/Myhouse

Biogas

I love biogas; turning wastes into useful products and thereby reducing the need for the use of other fuel. It’s a perfect solution as far as the environment goes. The problem is that it’s not always viable. For example, until I came here I had never seen a working system that was used for home cooking. However, an NGO has funded the construction of a few systems in the town next to mine as an experimental project. The systems are not perfect, but they are functional. Basically there are two large barrels full of cow manure and water that are connected to an inner tube, which serves as a reservoir, which is in turn connected to the burner. It produces enough gas to cook the 9+ daily rounds of tea, but not enough to cook all of the meals. There are pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/Biogas#

A biogas system like this would not be viable in the U.S. because people would expect it to power the furnace and the water heater too. Fortunately, the demand is not that great here. Also, I think that the culture here could be accepting of the system because they know that burning charcoal is a huge contributor of deforestation. (Its illegal to cut trees without permission. (That’s not enforced very well. I saw some one ride by every one from the mayor’s office with a load of freshly cut wood, they commented about it but did not do anything about it.))

The trouble with the system is that it doesn’t produce enough gas and it is a bit expensive. The whole set up costs 20,000 UM ($100). With the price and low level of production, it would take a year to recover the investment of the system. That’s too long for Mauritanian time frames. So I have a question for anyone who knows biogas, what could be done to increase the amount of gas that is being produced? Anything that would reduce the price would be good too, but that’s a harder question to answer when you don’t know the costs of things. I can send more specific information and descriptions if anyone is interested.

I would love to make this a project, and I think there is a way, but I need your help to make it better. Think if it as an opportunity to engage in international development work!

Happy Halloween

We had a good sized gathering here of volunteers to celebrate. I was wearing a cow's pelvis that I found as a mask. Looked a lot like the bunny from Donny Darko. I'll put up pictures when I can.

Internet

It may not be bothering you, but I am spoiled and it bothers me: Sorry about the lack of photos and the long response time to emails and posts, I just don't have enough time online to do everything I would like. Especially since it has been down for the last two days. I've read all the emails but I haven't had time to respond yet, hopefully I will before I leave to go back to my site. Just the way things are here.

"This is not food."

So I heard the following story direct from my friend Ousman, about lecciri and kosam (couscous and milk) that they eat A LOT here:

“Back when I was studying in the Ukraine, a group of us decided to go to Moscow for a vacation. It was a long trip so we brought some lacciri with us to eat along the way. When we got to Moscow and were going through customs, the officials confiscated it thinking it was a drug. We insisted that it was food but they didn’t believe us. At the time, Russia was still the U.S.S.R. and they sat us down between two attack dogs, who would growl every time we moved, for five hours while they did a chemical analysis. Finally they came out and said, ‘My brothers, we don’t know what this is but it is not food.’ We again insisted that it was, we ate it all the time in Africa, and it was culturally very important to us. They said, ‘That may be, but it is very cold here in Moscow and if you eat this you won’t survive, you need real food.’ Then they handed us the results of the chemical analysis: Vitamin A – 0.0000000001% Vitamin C – 0.000000000001% Protein – 0.00000000000001% etc. We asked if we could have it back and they said, ‘No we can’t give this back to you, it is not real food. There is plenty of good food here in Moscow, go out and buy some new food.’”

Aaaaand that is why people are malnourished here.

World Vision Visions

A few weeks ago I was invited to sit through a World Vision training about their sponsorship program. You know, the one that you see on TV for three hours on Sunday afternoons featuring kids with flies in their eyes and “For just a dollar a day you could provide food and education for a child.” It was pretty cool to see the ground level part of that program, having seeing the funding level part growing up. In fact, for a while when I was little, the World Vision “commercials” were the only real images of Africa I had seen. I think that could be true for a lot of people could explain people’s tendency to think that the whole continent is about to die from starvation. Nutrition is a grave issue here, but the entire population is not about to disappear. Anyway, pretty cool to see the other side of the first international development program I had ever had exposure to. Since I get pretty nutty about seeing how NGOs work, ormally I would write just about that, but during the presentation I had a massive brainstorm that I’d like to share. I don’t know what I ate, but it was one of those times when your mind seems to be working in overdrive. Here are some of my thoughts:

- Information, information, information is what PCVs have to offer. That and the time and ability to put it to use, but it is access to information that is our most useful contribution.

- The most valuable piece of information I have to share is that people in the US don’t enjoy their lives anymore than people here.

- Straight up international aid is a bad idea. Throwing money at a problem in a developing country and expecting it to solve all of the reasons why the problem exists in the first place is like removing a dictator and expecting a perfect democracy to just happen. You can’t jump too far ahead of the level that the people are at. For this reason, I prefer the type of development work where you are helping people help themselves. For me, its sort of like the approach that the martial arts form Aikido takes. With Aikido, the point is to simply redirect the energy of the oncoming person, not to fight it. I think development should work like that.

- Life is massive. That is, it takes momentum. Rarely does it change rapidly, but it is not static, like a gyroscope. To realize a change, it is better to prepare a path for life to travel down and then let it take its own course than to exhaust your energy trying to push it directly in the direction that you want.

- Good quotes are like little boxes with big truths inside that take a while to unpack.

- I relish living up to expectations, both mine and those of others.

- Development work is kind of like a drug. Its hard on your mind and body, but when it works it makes the abuse worthwhile.

- This is how I think my mind works; how I come up with ideas and solutions to problems: When I see a need or something that could be used, I note it. It then gets thrown into the mix with everything else that I know and am thinking about. Then after a while on a tumble cycle, things link up and an idea is created.

- I am improving myself to improve my life, the people in it, and everything that is touched by it. I am the one thing that touches everything else in my universe, so it makes sense to work from there.

- I like writing not for its own sake, but because it encourages and completes thinking.

All of that flashed through my mind over the course of an hour or so.

Love and Kindness

I want to thank all of you yet again for your continued support. While I never know quite how to respond to it, people often generously state what a good thing it is that I am doing and that is very humbling. In all honesty, for me, its just what I feel I should be doing. I don't mean to try to shame other people by saying that, we all have good reasons for following our own paths, its just that for me, its not something extrodinary. All the same, I could not be here doing what I am doing without the support of all of the loving and wonderful people in my life. So remember, you have a hand in this as well even if you are not over here in the heat. For that, I cannot thank you enough.

You can lead a horse to water…

But you can’t make it drink. In this case the horse is the people of Bababe and the water is a 10 fold return on a minimal investment after 4 months. It has been an interesting lesson on the difference of the culture here. Let me start from the beginning:

As you know I my objective here is environmental education in the schools and the community. As schools are (still) just starting, I have spent most of my time so far thinking about community projects. It’s rare to find an environmental project that actually makes money and for every 10 good ideas I think I have I always find reasons why 9 of them just wouldn’t work, but my idea of a for profit tree nursery passed both of those tests.

Being that Mauritania is mostly desert, sporting more people that it can naturally support, and sheep, goats, and cattle eat any new shoots, its safe to say that reforestation is an important issue. Therefore, the need exists. In the two large towns surrounding mine there are tree nurseries, but they fail to meet the needs of my community for two reasons. One, they are not near the market in their towns, which is expensive to get to anyway, and the trees are overly expensive with a starting price of 200 UM ($1). Having already started my own small tree nursery in order to put some greenery in public spaces, I realized that trees can be grown for less than 10 UM ($0.05). You only need to pay for the bags to put them in and a little bit of water, all the other materials, sunlight, dirt, poop, and seeds, are free. Therefore, if a person had a tree nursery of 100 trees and sold just 10 of them for 100 UM, half the price that the tree nurseries were charging, she would get all of her money back, and still have 90 trees to sell. That’s a pretty big safety net. I liked the idea for two reasons, it would be a money maker for women’s cooperatives, and most importantly it would reduce the cost of saplings to the level where people in the community would buy and plant them on their own without any encouragement. (It’s too hot inside the concrete houses during the day, so people either build hangars or plant trees. I don’t think it would be possible to have too many shade trees here.) I talked this idea over with a bunch of Mauritanians and they both loved it and thought it would work. (A number of old ladies blessed me for doing it :) I had the help of Doudou Ba, a native Mauritanian who is currently working and studying in the U.S. with the translation of the whole idea into Pulaar so I knew that it was clear. All I had to do was give the presentation and it would be gravy. And that’s where it fell apart.

All along, I had been looking for why the idea might not work. The trouble was is that I was only looking at the idea, which is pretty much flawless and forgot about the people. It was a combination of two factors that doomed the first presentation; first, the failure of a few key people to contact the women’s cooperatives like they promised me to, second, call it satisfaction with the way life currently is, disinterest, or laziness, but of the many people who knew about it, liked the idea, and promised attendance, no one showed up. Given the amount of work that I had put into pulling this all together, researching the other tree nurseries, starting a demonstration nursery, arranging for tree nursery bags to be sold in the community, creating a presentation, translating the presentation, and promoting the presentation, it was pretty disappointing to not have anyone there. However, I may have lost the battle, but the war is far from over.

In reality it is only a minor set back and lesson on the community with which I am working. After Halloween I’ll give another presentation, only this time explain the project more clearly, target who I invite better, and make sure that the people “helping” me actually do. The actual process of setting up the presentation was not done well enough is all. It was good enough for the U.S. but not for here. I will take the time to do it Mauritanian style next time.

New School Year

I voted yesterday and it felt great! While I don't know the extent of everything that is happening at home, it felt good to feel like I was helping to make something positive happen. 

However, the real subject of this post is about school. Officially, school started here yesterday (the twelveth) I am obviously not at my village, but given the experiences of everyone else, I would bet good money that the schools in my village have not yet started. This is typicial and no one ever expects them to start on time, its when teachers and students just start showing up that school actually begins. Nonetheless, I am heading back to my village today to hopefully begin the second half of my job, which is working with teachers to integrate environmental lessons and run an environmental club. Its a scary and like starting over because I have not been able to make any contacts with the school director or teachers because they have not been around, it is entirely possible that they are still not there. Lets hope that they are and I can launch the other half of my work here.

As a side note, I should be back online the 28th and I have been having phone problems this past week but that should be fixed today. 

Working = Happiness

Ever since returning to my village since my last trip into town I have been much happier there than I was before. This is because the break was over due and also because I have had productive things to do almost every single day. I am still very much in the PACA (Participatory Analysis for Community Action) phase, where my work is going around and talking to people about the community, what is good and works well and what isn’t. However, I am beginning to develop project ideas and start to act on them. Some of the ideas that I like and seem to fit the best are:

- Soak pits for grey water generated by “showers” that currently pools in the streets and serves as a breeding ground for mosquitoes

- Teaching women’s cooperatives how to run a tree nursery as a profit making venture. People here are aware of deforestation, know that it is illegal to cut trees, and love to have them in their compounds, but as near as I can tell no one knows where to get trees to plant. This strikes me as strange since tree nurseries are pretty simple to maintain and the trees could be sold for 300 UM (~$1.50) which is very affordable. In fact it strikes me as so strange that tree nurseries don’t already exist that I am taking extra care to find out if there is a good reason before I launch into it.

- A tree planting campaign throughout the public spaces in town. With the exception of maybe 10 trees, all of the other trees in town were planted during a previous campaign financed by an NGO a few years ago. I would like to replicate that on a smaller scale, focusing on public spaces that were neglected. This campaign would be tied with an environmental education campaign, yet to be determined. Ideally, enjoying the benefits of having an “overly” green town demonstrate what the surrounding lands could be like with the proper management.

- Restarting the trash collection system that was originally financed by the PC a few years ago, but was recently abandoned. I have not fully investigated this but I believe it is an issue of management and not materials, which is good because given the amount of money the PC has previously put in; I am not going to dig the financial hole on this project any deeper.

- Promotion of the use of manure and compost. These two things just make so much sense and are so free that even though they are not easily accepted I am going to push for their use.

- Biogas! I’ll admit, this one isn’t exactly practical, but given that it is such a “perfect” environmental solution and I am happy to devote some energy to trying to make it a viable alternative to charcoal for meal preparation. I saw a simple system that another NGO is testing out and of course have some ideas of how it might be improved.

- Small enterprise projects: hammocks, potato peelers, two piece camp chairs

All of that is in the domain of the community half of my job description. School “starts” the 12^th. So the teachers and school directors should be back in town on the 11^th. After I go back I will begin PACA activities with them to determine what my role in the schools is going to be.

Hooray for having things to do!

A few thoughts on time

So I am realizing that my concept of having lots of free time here doesn’t exactly represent the reality. Before arriving I pictured moving at the American pace, which I quite like, while everyone else moved at the Mauritanian pace. I quickly realized that it was not going to be possible. Not only would I drive myself crazy with impatience, but it physically wouldn’t work because the people I work with and interact with operate with a difference conception of time. I hear the word “faad” which means “wait” a lot. For example, immediately after eating lunch a friend was getting up to go and our host hold him to “faad ngam hirtari” “wait for dinner,” which at that time was seven hours away!

However, the fact that I am going to be operating on a different time scale is not what is really interesting to me. What I am still trying to wrap my head around is how I spend so much of my day not doing anything but don’t feel that I have that much free time. It seems entirely counterintuitive to me. The best explanation I have for it is because I spend so much time waiting for an event to happen, some one to show up, the hour long tea round to be finished, etc, in my mind that time is tied up in the activity that I am waiting for that the intervening hour(s) don’t feel like free time, and pass without anything happening because I continue to wait. My solution for this is to never be without a book, but at the end of the day I often find myself wondering how I did so little while feeling like that I was doing something the whole day. (Cara you were right about this.)

I think it also has something to do with the fact that during the first few months after I arrived here, when didn’t really understand the language, I developed an ability to sit for hours not doing anything and not notice the passing of time. That is, not be bored out of my mind. I can’t say that it is a preferred activity, but it is a valuable skill here.

Back to the village

My little American holiday has been much needed and it is time to bring it to a close. I don't know that if this will actually be the last time I use the internet before I leave, but it might be so I thought I would post this up just in case. It was great to hear from everyone, especially the people I had the chance to chat with. I don't think you know how important it is for me to catch up will all of your lives. It partly enables me to live vicariously but mostly it cuts down on the feeling of being isolated over here. Yet, even more importantly, being here is really teaching me the value of the relationships you have and the way I see things in my life is changing to reflect that. There is something about a person who makes less than $1,000 per year telling you that you don't need to pay for food to eat with them because "money is like water, its friendships that matter" that makes that point hard to miss. So thank you all for being in my life and for continuing to remain that way.

I don't know exactly when I will be back online. I will probably be back in to my regional capital in two or three weeks, but IF World Vision gets internet in my town it will be sooner. I'm not holding my breath for that one though.

Talk to you soon!

z.

Obama

I am currently listening to the presidential debates in real time over NPR that I am getting through a cell phone connection to the internet. Its a pretty remarkable thing. However, its not the technology I want to talk about. People here know more about the American elections than they do about the political situation in their own country. This is because it is likely that the U.S. government has more affect on their lives here than there own: coup d'etats make it difficult to govern effectively. However, its more than that. Obama has not just captured the hope of the American people, but without trying he as also won over the world. A lot of people are aware of this and much has been written of it. However, I'd like to confirm that it is in fact true. When I meet people in my village, one of the first, if not the first, question they ask me is who I want to win. I get news about the race from people on the street. Paint is expensive here and it is therefore rarely used, but walking around my town you can find Obama's name painted on things from fooseball tables to shops. Obviously, a significant portion of this support is because he is black, but it is not all of it. Its pretty remarkable to see people of another country rally behind our potential leader in such an enthusiastic way. It is certainly true that we should not let the world vote for us, but we would be stupid not to pay attention to what it is saying.

My Mood by Song

Courtesy of Jimmy Cliff:

Sitting here in limbo
But I know it won't be long
Sitting here in limbo
Like a bird without a song
Well they're putting up resistance, but I know that my faith will lead me on

Sitting here in limbo
Waiting for the dice to roll
Sitting here in limbo
Got some time to search my soul
Well they're putting up resistance, but I know that my faith will lead me on

I don't know where life will lead me
But I know where I've been now
I can't say what life will show me,
But I know what I've seen
Tried my hand at love and friendship
But all that is passed and gone
This little man is moving on

Sitting here in limbo
Waiting for the dike to flow
I know that it will
Sitting here in limbo
Knowing that I have to go
Well they're putting up resistance but I know that my faith will lead me on

Sitting in limbo
Sitting in limbo
Sitting in limbo, limbo, limbo

A Day in the Life (volunteer version, Ramadan special)

5:30 – Guy walks around singing to wake everyone up for Ramadan breakfast. Go back to sleep

7:30 – Wake up, pack up my tent, go inside

8:00 – 9:00 – Try to get BBC world news on the radio, give up, bucket shower, make tea, eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich and dates for breakfast.

9:00 – “Ok now what am I going to do with my day?”

9:00 – 12:00 Study language / meet with people before they get tired / clean house / watch other people work to see how its different here and out of boredom. My favorites to watch so far are cell phone repair, jewelry making, and home construction.

12:00 – 1:00 Go to eat lunch at Samba’s house

1:00 – 3:00 Sit under Samba’s sun block thing. Read, write, or nap

3:00 – 5:00 Computer time: writing a proposal for a project, writing blog posts, or reading PC info / listening to music

5:00 – 6:30 Go to the market or the sandwich boutique (25 cents for a fish paste sandwich that almost tastes like a cheese steak sub minus the cheese and the steak!)

7:00 Break fast with my roommate

7:30 – 9:30 Dinner and tea with Samba’s family or with some one else that wants to know why I haven’t been over recently or at all yet.

9:30 – 10:30 Duck out of where ever I am early, and go hang out with my roommate and listen to Mauritanian music

10:30 – 11:00 Watch an episode of House while my computer charges

11:00 Bucket bath again, set up tent, hope that it is not too hot to sleep.

Repeat.

That’s obviously not what I do every single day, but it’s a good average. I expect it will change significantly once Ramadan is over and once I start working more in the community. Right now my “work” is a lot of language studying and reading PC documents on environmental education.

New Friends

So as I said, I have started getting to know the community and I’d like to introduce you to a few of the people I am going to be working and living with. In no particular order, here is the cast:

Seidnu: The person I am sharing my house with. He works riding around in a refrigerator truck selling fish. He tells me he could make a lot of money doing it, but the work is intermittent. He has had no work for the last two months, but just got some now. He is very nice and is constantly asking if what he is doing is bothering me. He also has a habit of asking if I understand after he says anything. I have tried to get him to stop, but have given up. He may not actually be my housemate anymore though. Either our landlord is getting crazy in his old age or he already was. Long story short, there was a fight over nothing and now Seidnu says he is going to find a new place to live because he doesn’t want to deal with it anymore.

Gurlajo: Gurlajo is a real character. He is very animated, laid back, and loves to joke around. He’s the type of person that people gather around to hear his stories. He may not be the model citizen in terms of strict Mauritanian standards or if you have a problem with someone wanting to sleep with their niece, but he is harmless, nice, and intelligent. He is one of my best friends here. Gurlajo looks like a black Graham Thomas for those of you from home. It’s kind of uncanny actually.

Samba: Gurlajo’s older brother. Just as animated, but he in fact IS the model citizen. He is a teacher, runs a youth group that does presentations on AIDS, and has helped out every single PCV that has been here for the past eight years. He has a habit of being a bit long winded and a slight stutter that doesn’t help. He also has a lazy eye, something that is common here. However, he is otherwise good looking and intelligent. I eat most of my meals with his family.

Karim: I eat most of the rest of my meals with Karim. Karim is a bit younger than the rest so far, maybe late 20s early 30s and has a very playful attitude, particularly with his wife which is rare here. In all honesty I am spending a little extra time with him because I am trying to buddy up while he helps me find a cheap cell phone; he repairs them for his work. Also, a cheap cell phone here is about $10 U.S. There are four cell phone networks in Mauritania and it’s possible to call each one of them from the other but not to send text messages. All of the PCVs were initially on the same network but not everyone has coverage at their village. Also it is expensive to call here: about 30 cents a minute. So its not uncommon to find people with four different cell phones in their pockets. I think I will draw the line at two.

Usman and Sidi: Usman is a more recent acquaintance and one of my particular favorites. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that he speaks English. Also he has the best sense of humor of anyone I have met here. For example: The grasshoppers here are as big as your finger and have got to be just about the stupidest animal I know. They have a habit of randomly jumping up and then flying as if they were drunk until they hit something. Sometimes they hang onto what they hit making it look like they meant to go there, but mostly they just bounce off and fall to the ground. As we were sitting on Usman’s roof one night and a bunch of grasshoppers crashed into us he flippantly said that we were being bombed. Maybe that isn’t the funniest thing you have heard in a week, but because of the culture and the language barrier, it sure was for me. The reason that Usman and Sidi are together is because they both work for World Vision and both speak English. The difference is that Sidi doesn’t just speak English, he speaks it fluently and uses vocabulary I don’t know. However, interestingly enough, he doesn’t speak Pulaar, so in an unusual twist I am going to be teaching him Pulaar instead of English. In addition to both being English speakers, Usman, Sidi, and World Vision are all new here as well. I anticipate that I am going to be doing a lot of collaboration with them. At the very least I will be hanging around a lot because Usman told me he is going to be getting satellite internet next month and that I can use it whenever I want. This needless to say, is big news for me. I will let you know if it actually happens because well, this is Africa. Also I might be going on vacation with Usman in a few months as he has offered to drive me around Senegal and Mali.

Souleymane: So if Usman and Sidi are great contacts for my work, Souleymane already does my work. He is a retired drug enforcement officer that is now staying busy with just a few things: active in a national environmental NGO, is the president of all of the PTAs in my village, is an active member of the national human rights watchdog organization, is the chief of part of the village, and keeps a large garden to name a few. I have met him once and did not immediately hit it off, but given how much our interests are the same, I think that with time we will become very close. At least, we better because if I am not working with him I am still going to be working along side him.

Saada: Saada is by everyone’s admission, including his own, not mentally well. I don’t know exactly what is wrong but the symptoms seem to be that he cannot stay still for long periods of time, is overly social, even for here, and can no longer work. Apparently he wasn’t always like this. However, he is also incredibly nice and I have to imagine a little lonely because while everyone tolerates him here, I don’t think he can keep friends. He spends his days greeting everyone repeatedly. What is strange is that it seems like he is still capable of functioning at a fairly high level. I indulge him by visiting him but always come with excuses as to why I need to leave early because it can be a little difficult to talk to him.

Not pictured here: Dailil: Dailil is my counterpart and a teacher but has been on vacation so I have not seen her.

So now you know the people that I spend / will spend most of my time with as of right now. I’ll introduce the new characters as they arrive.

It has begun! (as much as possible)

So I have started working, in a sense. That is, I have started doing the preparatory work that I need to do so I can begin my real work. More concretely, my primary job here is to be an environmental educator for young kids. My secondary job is to be a consultant for the community, basically to help with whatever I can. However, before I can do either of those two things I need to know the community in which I am working. So the first few months here will be spent learning about the community, what works well, what doesn’t work well, interviewing people about their needs, and beginning to plan things to do for both parts of my job. It has been tremendously good to have this work to do but it is a little difficult not knowing when I will be able to do something concrete. At the same time, I do not want to hurry through this process because it means the difference between me showing up in a village in another country and culture and doing the projects that I want and me actually helping a community address the needs it is facing. Of course, part of the slow pace of my work right now is entirely tied to the fact that it is Ramadan and no one is moving much. I’ve mentioned Ramadan a couple of times and since my knowledge of it wasn’t that great before coming here, perhaps I should explain what it is.

Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting. Muslims don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise to sundown. You are also not supposed to think bad thoughts or of the opposite sex during the same time. The purpose of the month is to remind Muslims of their connection to Allah, that they are dependant on what Allah provides, and that they can control their desires. As an exercise, it’s pretty powerful. I fasted one day just to commiserate and to know the experience. Not eating wasn’t that difficult but not drinking anything was pretty tough. I basically didn’t move all day. It was that day that I discovered the wonders of napping in a hammock underneath a wet sheet, which is just about as close to air conditioning as I can get. The fun part about Ramadan is breaking fast. Everyone gathers around plates of food, flavored drinks, and tea a little before 7pm and waits for the prayer call to go off. They then eat a small snack, followed by a full on dinner an hour later and then another one at midnight. In the morning a guy walks around chanting to wake everyone up for a small breakfast before the sunrises. Add a lot of napping and praying and you have Ramadan.

My Health

Hello again all, it has been a while and a lot has happened. Yet, at the same time, not much has happened. That’s how life goes. As always I wish I could share the realities of my experiences, but unfortunately the best I can do is describe a few of them…

I’ll start with a note for those of you who are generously concerned for my health: it has been fine. I have not been sick since training and I have gained back the weight that I lost. The family that I eat with most the time cooks VERY well. (I eat meals that would be acceptable in the U.S.) I had some volunteer friends visit and one of them said the following: “I can’t believe it, this meal is ­actually healthy.” In the words of Bill Murray: so I’ve got that going for me. My mental health has been a little rockier but I am still doing well in this respect also. Loneliness, irrational frustration, anger towards kids/goats, depression, home sickness, boredom, and culture shock are some of the negative emotions that I have experienced. As far as I can tell these are all normal for the situation that I am in and I seem to be handling them well. From what I’ve been told, these sorts of troubles should taper off over the next two months, and then reappear close to the middle and the end of my service. I wouldn’t say that my emotions have been like a roller coaster, perhaps that I have just been operating at a lower level than normal. The good news is that through all of this I have kept a generally positive attitude and have not wished that I wasn’t here once. I consider that a pretty good achievement. Its sort of like this: while I am not always enjoying it, I am glad I am here.

So far the gain for all of this pain is that I am beginning to settle in. I established a routine and then broke it for one that is better. I know where to buy peanut butter (the literal translation for peanut butter, “tigi dege” in Pulaar, is “very peanut”). I established a budget, went way over it, and I am now back on track. Also I have already learned some important lessons that I imagine will stay with me throughout my life:

- All people are more alike than they are different.

- Most of the world eats a lot of rice

- How exciting it can be when ANYTHING happens

- How quickly you can find genuine friends (when you speak the same language)

- It is possible to sit and do absolutely nothing for hours and not be bored

- Nice people will rip you off

- When buying peanut butter, honey, and dates felt like a shopping spree

- Treats are meant to be consumed immediately and not saved. Saving them only turns them into a source of frustration.

- How much you are in control of your emotional state, what you experience, and how much you enjoy it

Skype

My skype name is zachswank and I will be online a lot between now and the 28th. If there is a particular time that works for you, shoot me an email.

*UPDATE* Ixnay on the Skypay. Apparently the internet connection here is just to slow. I will still be on it for chat though.

First dispatch from my site

So I am now on day 4 of two years at my site ;)! (well technically I am not there now, but I was this morning and I will be going back soon) The first thing that I want to share is that I love my town. Its in a very green area, it rained last night, I can see senegal, the people are awesome and seem to be very receptive to the type of work I am going to be doing. For example:

I was in a hardware store/boutique and randomly struck up a conversation with a guy named Usman who happens to be in charge of the work that World Vision is doing in my town. From that meeting I was invited to a meeting the next day with a number of community members and the head of World Vision Mauritania. At that meeting I met someone who is the president of one of the parent teacher associations AND an environmental organization in town. I also met someone who specificially requested a project on Moringa, a very beneficial tree that the PC is trying to promote. Also a number of other people have approached me randomly asking to talk about how we can work together. This doesn't necessarily mean my job will be easy, but the fact that there are a number of people who want to work with me rather than have things done for them should make it fun.

Another thing that comes to mind is that I feel that I am probably failing horribly at describing what life is like here, this is because it is drastically different. Yet, at the same time it is surprisingly the same. To make matters worse, I can only guess at what your preceptions are. I am not saying this in a defeatest manner, only as a recognition that I need to address what my experience is fundamentally like here. I will think about this and put it in a later post.

To end this post on a more upbeat note, here are some snippets of what I have learned recently:
- In Mauritania if you are going to be waiting for lunch for 45 minutes (read two hours) that is too short of a time to bother walking the two minutes to go back to your house to get something to do.
- Don't get lost and keep asking for directions at dinner time during Ramadan unless you are hungry.
- When the kids beg you for money, telling them you will only give them money if they give you money first doesn't work because they will. However, saying that they have to give you their pants is effective.

Well, that's it for now, as once again my time on the internet is short. I promise to begin writing on my laptop at my site, writing letters, and to post more pictures. I don't exactly know when the next time I will be on the internet will be, but two weeks is probably a good guess.

Photos

I've given up on trying to post photos here. Go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank

I'll let you know when I add new ones.

Books

Between studying a new culture, having plenty of time, loving learning, and being naturally intrusive I am increasingly seeing these next two years as a formative experience. As such, I am looking for reading recommendations. I am interested in your favorite books, books on the environment, politics, Buddhism, ethics, personal development, etc. I am particularly interested in anything that will be informative for my career in environmental politics. I'll read anything really, textbooks included. Send me a recommendation and I'll find a way to get it (that's you parents ;).

Food

I've had a couple of questions about food/preparing meals, so I will attempt to answer them here. As I have said before, there is a severe lack of variety. This is due to three factors: food is expensive, 70% is imported, and culturally there is a preference for simple diets. At my training site, breakfast (kacitari in Pulaar) was usually sour milk, bread, tea, and leftovers from the night before. Lunch (botari) was always rice and fish with veggies. Dinner (kirtari) was usually either rice with a little meat scraps or maccaroni with a little meat scraps. Dinner is the only one where there was any variation and even then, not much.

At my site it will be important to find a family to eat with for a number of reasons. First, sharing meals is tentament in Mauritanian culture, so much so that it is basically requried to establish a relationship with anyone. Second, there is no refregiration to speak of so everything must be bought fresh. Also for similar reasons of lack of cooking equipment, the process of preparing food is much more difficult. If I decided to cook all of my meals for myself, I could easily spend half of everyday just on food prep. At my training site thats exactly what one of my sisters did. (and she had help!) I think this might be one of those differences that doesn't fully translate via text, you have to experience it to really understand. Its similar to Amish have to prepare meals in a way but much more difficult.

Now a PCV!

So I am currently at my regional capital, where my bank and access to internet is, and shortly I will be heading out to my site for realseys. This post is mostly info because I don't have a lot of time. Here goes:
- I am now officially a PCV and brother in service to my AmeriCorps sister.
- I met the US ambassador
- A lot of people have been asking about my internet access, I don't think that I will have it at my site but I will definitely have it when I come into the regional capital every couple of weeks. I will have internet at my site so I can write posts and then quickly publish them. Thus, communication on my end should be better even though I won't have internet.
- The old one still works, but my new address is as follows:
Zach Swank, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 17
Bohge, Mauritania
West Africa
- I should be back relatively soon as I have not been able to get to the bank today so I am low on cash, probably in less than a week.
- Pulaar is coming along, I tested at intermediate mid on a scale of (novice > intermediate > advanced > superior). I can use it for basic conversations but need much more practice to make it actually useful for my work.
- Pictures are coming soon I promise! Everyone shared one connection at center and uploading pictures was just not possible
- As always packages are met with ridiculous amounts of joy. In addition to everything on the previous post, books I should read, spices, and various kinds of tea would all be much appreciated.
- I have been getting a lot of letters and I promise I will be writing back. Life has been pretty crazy these last few months and I had less control over my time than I have had since middle school. Also Ramadan should ensure that I have plenty of time to write. Please send more.
- Some things I am very much excited about: having my own place, having control of my time, not having to move again, the hammock I made, making my own tea without sugar, working on my Pulaar, starting to make connections for my work. The biggest thing though is having control over how I spend my time.
- Speaking of my place. As of this moment, my roommate is in Senegal (i think) so it looks like I will be crashing somewhere else for a couple of days. Alaa cadelle (no problem)

Still not a PCV yet...

Well, we are into our final week of training! I am a little nervous about being out there on my own in my village, but mostly I am excited to finally begin doing what I have wanted to do for years. We have more info sessions today and tomorrow, then swear in on thursday, friday to recover, and then we leave saturday for our sites.

Leaving my training site was a little hard. There were about 15 people crying total. Tough to leave my host family and tough to leave the village as everyone was literally in my family. I will definitely be going back to visit whenever I am in the area.

Its a little weird right now because we are all just sort of waiting to be sworn in. Even though we still have info sessions all of the work of staging is over. For the first time in a few months I don't have any work I need to be doing. The break is definitely enjoyable, but a little weird. Its a good intro to Ramadan which will start at the end of this week; no one will be much this next month but fast. It will be interesting to see how much work I will be able to accomplish...

Coup D'Etat

Yup, that happened. The military took the president into custody. When I heard that, I thought, oh that's interesting, and then went to shave. (It was not totally unexpected). All the same, I AM IN A COUNTRY THAT JUST HAD A COUP AND IS NOW RULED BY THE MILITARY. Pretty exciting stuff. I honestly a little disappointed that I haven't received any frantic phone calls. If I had, I would have said that everything is ok. Travel is restricted/not really possible, but not much else has changed. No one really knows what will happen now, especially since this just happened 3 years ago and was carried out by pretty much the same people. All the same, no one anticipates any security threats for PCVs. Thus, life goes on, just under military rule now. (again) haha.

This brings to mind some other things that are normal for me but are pretty interesting out of context:
- Watching the chief of my village play with a flashlight as a novel thing
- The fact that there are refugees being resettled in my village
- The fact that everyone in my village was at one point a refugee
- More to come

I thought I would have more time to post info but today was pretty packed and now I'm headed back my village. I won't be back online till the 22nd when I will be here for my final week before swear in. Sorry I couldn't provide more info.

Also I think some one just tried to call me. Try again if you did.

I have a NEW home!

So the place that I was talking about before that I loved but didn't get, I now apparently have. I have pictures of it that I promise I will put up when I can.

I have a home!

So before I left my site for site visit I found this sweet place to live; it had two trees perfect of a hammock, a closed in courtyard perfect for a garden, a bathroom that was actually attached to the house, screens on the windows, and I was going to split the rent (it would have been $40 a month) with the guy who was currently living in half of the house but was never really there because he sells fish in Nouakchott. We had it all worked out, but then the landlord came over and tried to kick the guy (Sydu) out because he thought that I would pay more if I was living there by myself. After we talked him out of that, he said I would have to pay double because I was "rich." So I didn't end up living there.

BUT, I got a call from Sydu yesterday and he has apparently found a better place for the same price. If you look at Bababe on google earth or maps it is on the NE side (the side with planned streets). So I will basically have my own place which will allow me to spend as much or as little time with the families of my choosing as I want. Pretty excited about that. Also it apparently has a real shower, which is so far above my expectations I don't quite know how to feel about it.

What's next?

So I head back to my training site tomorrow. I am very excited to continue to learn Pulaar now that I can connect its usefulness to my work and life. However, while I really like my host family and training site, now that I know my real site, I sort of feel like I am going back not to live there for the next month but just to learn Pulaar. I suppose that could be a good thing and it will also change as I reengage in my families life. I will be back at center (aka internet access) on the 6th.
Then again on the 25th for a few days for swearing in and then I will finally officially be a volunteer and leave for my site on the 30th. I have to say, the end of training is coming up very fast and more than a little scary... Mostly because there is not a whole lot of time left in language classes, although I will be getting a tutor once I get to my site.

Gimme Gimme Gimme I Need I Need I Need....

Hey all,

So some people have been asking what would be good things to send, here are some examples of stuff that I could never get enough of:

twist ties
granola bars
news papers / magazines / clippings
pictures from home (emailed or printed)
random stories
letters
love
spices for cooking
tea! (I'm definitely getting a lot of it, but not in variety and the amount of sugar they put in it makes mountain dew seem weak. So different varieties other than plain green and plain black would be good.)

"expensive" items that would make great presents for people here:
maps of the world
maps of mauritania
wind up flashlights

Also the address I originally sent out will always work but I will have a better one when I get to my site, which I will forward then.

Two days in the life

So I thought I ought to give you all a picture of what my daily life is actually like here. I will do one day in my training site and one day at the center.

Training site:
- 6:30 wake up with out an "alarm" because the animals and prayer calls are loud enough
- go back to sleep for an hour even though my family gets up
- 7:30 get dressed and be fed tea and bread by my family
- 8:30 language classes start
- 10:30-11:00 break from class, grab some food, maybe nap/check the garden
- 1:00 language classes break for lunch
- nap, read, play guitar, study
- 2:30/3:00 lunch with my family followed by tea
- 4:00-6:00 language classes
- 6:00-8:00 work in the garden
- 8:00-? do what ever I can in the very last bit of day light
- 8:00-10:30 talk with my family a little but mostly listen to them jabber in a language that I don't understand while I look at the stars
- 10:30 dinner
- 11:00 refuse tea and go to bed
repeat

Days at center:
- same wake up time
- 8:00-10:00 first session
- 10:00-10:30 break/snacks
- 10:30-12 second session
- 12:00-3:00 break for lunch/socializing time/time to go to the market
- 1:30 lunch
- 3:00-4:30 third session
- 4:30-5:00 break (thats what time it is right now)
- 5:00-6:30 fourth and final session
- social time
- 9:00 dinner
- prime internet time
- 12:00 prime euchre time followed by sleeping out under the stars

So now you can know what I am doing at various times throughout the day.

My new home

Hello World,

I will add pictures in another post but here are some notes about my home for the next two years:

The town has about 10,000 people in it, which is significantly bigger than what I had expected to say the least. It is right on the main road which makes it easy to get to. The Senegal River is a few km away and a little difficult to get to. I will have running water, cell service, and electricity at night. Which is pretty cushy. I almost feel like I am not "roughing it enough" but I know that that line of thought is garbage and will enjoy the amenities that I do have. Also, if anything they will make it easier for me to actually do my job. Speaking of which, there are a couple of schools and a number of cooperatives that I will be able to work with so there is no question of not having anything to do. There is also a rocky hill, which I like to call "the mountain", overlooking the city which will make for a sweet spot to chill when the sun is not beating down. I don't have a house yet but I am looking at getting my own place or splitting a house with some one else and then I will pay a family to cook for me. Lets see what else... My counterpart seems pretty excited and in general people were very happy to have me there.

Which gets to a point that I have to address about my work that became more apparent to me while I was visiting my site: I am not here to change anyones life. Mauritania, while it may import 70 percent of its food and seem like a totally distant land, is in no real danger of falling off of the face of the earth and that goes for the people in it. Basically I am here to work on environmental education and to what I can when they have requests of me, I am not here to really change the way they live. This is for two reasons. One, the notion of backwards developing countries is just as wrong as the notion of native americans as savages. Two, their way of life is infinitely much better suited to the land and available resources than mine. That's not to say that there aren't things that could be done in a better way, that is true for every culture of the world, just that I won't be doing any "saving" while I am here. I fully knew that before coming here but that point was really driven home when I saw the conditions of my site. However, there will not be a shortage of work for me to do either, it just first and foremost has to be in respect of Mauritanian culture.

Religion Part 2

Wow, ok there was a lot there. I love the discussion we have going. First (mom and cara) Ellen is my trainer who told me to write that. I actually had forgotten that it was at the bottom of the post, but I love that it incited so much curiosity ;)

I need to start this post as I should have started the other one: I am a foreigner here and struggling to understand a new culture. As such I am likely to say things that may be flat out wrong or insulting to Mauritanians. This is not intended and is solely the result of my incomplete understanding of a culture that is different from mine. With that said:

I love that the discussion on religion has incited its own exchange. I am not going to respond to absolutely everything but I think that everyone had truth in their comments. Basically, if I was one-hundred percent open with my views on religion, there is a good chance I that I would estrange myself so much that work would become impossible. There was a volunteer with similar view points as mine who shared them with people that he knew well and they never talked to him again. BUT, that is not of course true for everyone. I realized that in my first post I may have made Mauritanians sound fanatical and I did not mean to. Religion is taken very seriously here but there are people who don't give it much priority in their lives, they would just never publicly admit it. Perhaps one best way to emphasize this is to point out again that I am a guest in the ISLAMIC Republic of Mauritania. The notions of separation of church and state don't apply here as they do in the U.S.

I am excited that I have not been able to explain this perfectly because that is proof that religion here is one thing that is distinctly different from American culture. I look forward to continuing this discussion.

100% Religion

So, I'm 20+ posts and a month in now and I have not mentioned religion yet. Given how much it is a part of life here, its sort of a miracle that it hasn't shown up in any of my posts. So here's an intro to a topic I am sure I will continue to explore in future posts:

For starters, Mauritania is officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (RIM). The country is virtually 100% Muslim. The only people who would not identify themselves as Muslim are foreigners. Also, being Muslim here is not like being "Christian" in the U.S. I know many people back home who identify as Christian, but in reality their identification is about as far as their commitment goes. Maybe they go to church, maybe they practice their own brand, or maybe they just identify with the religion because it makes life easier. Those sorts of commitments don't exist in Mauritanian/Muslim life. Maybe it does, but people would not share it with anyone if that were the case. Being Mauritanian means being Muslim, rather Islam comes before the country but you get the idea. Also, demonstrations of faith for Christians is usually a once a week thing. It happens 5 times a day during prayers here. In short, religion is a way of life here for everyone.

As such, the concept of religious diversity does not really exist. There is a recognition that Christians are also "people of the book" but beyond that religious diversity is unknown. This makes for interesting situations for people who identify as atheists, buddhist, pagan, and many other beliefs. The general rule of thumb is to identify as Christian when asked about your religion no matter what you believe. Also, they generally believe that all Christians are Catholic here. Sharing that you are an atheist has been known to end close relationships with Mauritanians permanently. This has been interesting for me as I have thus far chosen to lie and say that I am "Catholic." I have done this for two very practical reasons, one I don't have the language skills in French or Pulaar to explain my beliefs and even if I did, I am fairly certain they would strain relations with my Mauritanian friends and family. It makes my life easier but it is also a bit of a challenge because I have to lie every time I am asked about it. I feel that after a while this will be a bit of a drag. Also, I have not had any conversion attempts yet, but I am sure that I will. The up shot of these is that they mean that the person(s) care about you because they are trying to get you to convert so you don't go to hell, but they can still be trying.

In short, being Muslim is VERY much a part of daily life here for EVERYONE and that puts one in an interesting position; interesting as a witness to a totally different way of approaching religion and also because it can put me in tough situations.

I am sure I will have much more to say about this in later posts, but it is so much a part of life I wanted to introduce it now.

On a totally different note, SITE ANNOUNCEMENT IS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH YEAH! very excited about that.

Ellen Rocks!