Hot. It is hot.

Ok, so much has happened since the last post. Mostly I flew to Dakar and then took a bus to my training center. Total travel time: 24+ hours. The flight itself took 9 and the bus ride was supposed to only be 6, but no one expected that to be the case.

In addition to actually getting here, there are a ton of things to talk about but I will save topics like the fact that a lot of men hold hands, the morning calls to worship at 4am, and the heat to other other posts. Today, given that I have just eaten lunch, I will talk about the struggles of being in the Peace Corps where you get wireless internet and cell service as well as eating meals and why it is easy to remember not to use my left hand.

First, connectivity. So yes, we are all a little uncomfortable that we have wireless. There were 16 laptops out in the guys dorm last night (about half of us had them) and there would have been more if we had told the girls about it. (Since starting this post they have found out and now there are a similar number sharing one connection again. Oh the hardships of the Peace Corps, only one wireless connection!!!) Almost everyone else also has cell phones, which will work pretty much everywhere. I didn't buy one because I told you all I would call anyway and there is no one to call here. Once training is over I will probably pick one up. You can call me then.

Allow me let to introduce you to our training center:

The courtyard
Guys dorm, it looks like a tornado hit now.



It was graciously donated by the Mauritanian government and resembles a series of airplane hangers more than anything but the large rooms are practical in the heat. A couple of fans can cool a whole room down by a number of degrees.


Now onto the interesting bit about food and the taboo of using your left hand. As you can see everyone in this photo is using their right hands to eat. (By the way after being trained for 20 years not to eat with my hands, it is very rewarding to be required to do it.) The food so far has been amazing. Lunch and dinner are served like this, ~5 people to a dish consisting mostly of rice or couscous with various meats and veggies in the center. Given that the food is eaten communally people get very upset if you use your left hand and the next picture explains why.

These are Turkish style toilets and are the nicer variety of the two that I will encounter (pit latrines are the latter.) As you can see the toilets are squat style and it is entirely possible that I won't see toilet paper for the next few years. I was at first nervous about remembering not to eat with my left hand but once I had used it for its Mauritanian purpose, it was pretty easy to remember not to touch things I was going to be putting into my mouth. ;)

That's it for today, more updates daily throughout the rest of the week until Friday when I will begin my community based training and will likely be away from internet for a week(s) at a time. Although I was wrong about that already...