My Marabout

So my two roommates moved out, one managed to leave without paying me which earned him a shrug from me and my other roommate who was also not paid (or lied and has my money, either way, still a shrug.) My other roommate just relocated because the 7,500 Ouguiya (~$25) a month rent was too much and is now paying only 3,000 at another house. As soon as he left my landlord rented his room to someone else for 3,000. Yup, economics to not function well here. Someone told me that Mauritania is one of the few places on the earth where the economic laws of supply and demand do not function, that when there is a surplus people will raise the price and lower the price when things are scarce. This is true. Maybe I already told this story but I was once buying oranges and was asked if I wanted to buy a single one or a kilo. It went like this:
Me: "How much is a single orange?"
Woman: "50 Ouguiya"
Me: "And a kilo?"
Woman: "400 Ouguiya"
Me: "How many oranges are in a kilo?"
Woman: "5"
Me: "So I could buy 5 single oranges for 250 or buy a kilo for 400"
Woman: "Yes"
Me: "So its, less expensive to buy single oranges than a bunch?"
Woman: "Yes, its not good if I sell just a single orange"
At this point I bought a single orange and gave up trying to do anything productive for the day.

So anyway, the point of this post is to talk about my new roommates. One is a marabout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabout), think Muslim shaman, who claims he made someone rich in the states, and the other is a guy who is going to be reopening the post office in my town, I'll let you know when it happens. I don't know how I feel about the post office guy but the marabout is really interesting. Mostly he is monkishly modest, generous, and nice. He spends the majority of his waking moments praying, starting at 3am every morning, and a lot of times I have trouble telling if he is praying or sitting in silence being bored, so I don't really talk to him much. We get along well, but there is not really much of a relationship to speak of. I don't know if it works for nonmuslims, but if you needed an spiritual work done, I invite you to come visit.