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 ;).