To my gardening friends and family

I was told that I would hit my stride being here and working here at the one year mark. Having just passed that date, I have to agree. I am comfortable with the conditions I am living in and the projects I am working on have improved in quality and are coming along easier than before. One idea that I have had for a while but have not done anything about is buying vegetable and plant seeds in the states and trying them out here. I've sat on this idea mostly because I am not sure where to being looking for desert varieties, although I am sure that if I had enough time on the internet I could find out. This is where you all come in. I was wondering if you could help me research, and then send to me, good varieties of vegetables and ornamental plants that will grow well in dry (200-300 mm of rain per year) sandy and clay soils. I am thinking that if you could get your hands on a seed catalog that is intended for people in Arizona, that would be the best bet. When they garden here, the three most popular things to plant are mint, watermelon, and lettuce. Which is interesting because all three of those require lots of water. They have to varieties of mint here, small leaf and smaller leaf. They would probably poop their pants if they saw the type of mint that grows wild back home. After sugar, water, and tea leaves, mint is the final ingredient in the daily rounds of tea. If you could get your hands on a variety of mint that has big leaves or can tolerate a LOT of sun, since they have to cover the mint they currently grow here, I would be a god. A varieties of lettuce and watermelon that can tolerate lots of heat and sun would be amazing as well. Frankly any variety of vegetable that can tolerate excessive sun and heat would be awesome.

In terms of plants, these are a bit trickier because I don't want to be the guy who becomes known for introducing the invasive species that has now taken over everything. You would think that would be difficult to do in dry land areas, but someone brought over a species of cattail that is now choking out canals here. Really what people want are ornamental flowering plants. Enough bushes and trees exist here that I do not want to mess with them by adding anything new. Also ornamental flowering plants tend to be pretty benign. My requirements for flowering plants are that they tolerate heat, sun, dry sandy or clay soil, and most importantly, that goats do not like to eat them.

The rainy season is just about here, YAY!, so I wish I had sent this out earlier, but that's not really important. If you are interested in helping me research this, let me know what you find or where you are looking and I can help out. Also, please forward this to anyone else you know that might be a good resource, aka someone from Arizona.

Thanks for the help!

Not everyone is all up in everyone else’s business.

Recently someone from home asked me how the situation in Iran is going to affect elections here and what people here thought about what was going on there. It was at that moment that I realized that I have never heard anyone here talk about what is going on in Iran. I asked a Mauritanian friend about why there wasn’t any discussion about what was going on in Iran and he said that it wasn’t Mauritania’s business. When I thought about it more I realized that in general people here do not have strong interests and opinions about what is going on internationally. The only events I can remember people talking about since I came here a year ago were Obama’s election, the short/long war between Israel and Palestine, soccer games, Michael Jacksons death, and the economic crisis. That is not to say that they are not informed. In fact, with all of the news they listen to on the radio and on TV, I would wager that they are more informed about what is going on internationally than most Americans. The difference is where as Americans have an opinion on everything that happens in the world, even though we might not always act on that opinion if there is not enough of a vested interest, Mauritanians simply don’t. They are concerned with what concerns them directly and do not have an overarching feeling that the world ought to act politically like them. Of course, they have a very strong opinion on how the rest of the world should act religiously but that does not seem to extend to political events. As I am writing this, I realize that what I am saying might only be true of the black African ethnic groups and not the Moors, they tend to have strong opinions about how everything should be. At any rate, I have not been able to decide if I like that they are not overly concerned with the affairs of the rest of the world or not. On one hand, we Americans are nosy, are sure that we are the pinnacle of civilization, and are easy meddling in more countries than we ought to be. In that sense, it is nice that Mauritanians seem to be content to let other countries run their own affairs as they please. On the other hand, this feeling of apathy towards goings on in the rest of the world also extends to political events in Mauritania. Even as apathetic as we are towards politics in America, compared to other developed democracies, our level of interest and involvement still blows Mauritanians out of the water. Both sides of the issue are germane enough that I am reserving a value judgment and will chalk this up as another thing that is just different.

More News

Ok here is the run down of new developments, nothing major. The connection is slow so I can't post links, but you can google all the stories.

Apparently the N. African wing of Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for killing the American teacher, although the officials doubt that it was actually them. The PC and the embassy are monitoring the situation. The FBI is also getting involved in the investigation of his death. At the moment there are no further security measures that are being reccomended besides being vigilant.

After reaching and agreement about the upcoming elections and then breaking it and then reaching a new agreement 3 or 4 times, it seems that the different political factions have come up with an agreement that is going to stick. Elections are set for July 18th.

The volunteers that were supposed to come here have been reassigned to different countries. It does not seem like my class of volunteers will be going anywhere. At this point the most likely scenerio is having a new class next year that is twice the size of a normal class since it will take the PC 6 months to find a new class once the Mauritanian government decides to grant visas again. This is going to make it harder to win the West African Invitational Softball tournament next year, but we will just be all the more vicious because of it.


Here are some exerpts of recent news stories:

Mauritanian Political Solution In Sight - Mediator
NASDAQ - New York,New York,USA
NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (AFP)--Rivals in Mauritania have agreed on a way to overcome all the obstacles to a political settlement and achieve a new ...
See all stories on this topic
N. Africa Qaeda says it shot American in Mauritania
Reuters UK - UK
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North Africa wing claimed responsibility for the shooting of an American aid worker in Mauritania, saying it was done in ...
See all stories on this topic

Organisation de la Presse Africaine (Communiqué de presse)
MAURITANIA / US Department of state Daily Press Briefing
Organisation de la Presse Africaine (Communiqué de presse) - Lausanne,Canton de Vaud,Switzerland
QUESTION: A faction of al-Qaida has apparently taken responsibility for killing an American in Mauritania and saying that he was proselytizing. ...
See all stories on this topic
MAURITANIA: Controversial opinion writer jailed for writing about ...
Menassat - Beirut,Lebanon
Considered one of the most vocal critics of the Mauritanian regime, dissident writer Hanevy Ould Dahah was jailed last week and charged with defaming ...
See all stories on this topic
Mauritanian journo detained
Le Mali en ligne - Mali
Mauritanian journalist Hannefi Ould Deha, who runs the online information site "Taqadoumy", is being held in a prison in the northern suburbs of the capital ...
See all stories on this topic

Bad news

Today an American aid worker was killed in Nouakchott, the capital. At this point I don’t know any more details than what is in this story: http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLN880180._CH_.2400
but I do know that I am still safe here. I am more safe in my village than I am in Buffalo or driving through the Adirondacks. Keep in mind that people are killed in the states every day for all sorts of reasons. Also, although the Peace Corps sucks at sharing information with us they have direct access to the embassy and can get (not give) the best intelligence the government has. If there is any real threat to my security, they will take the appropriate measures. For the moment, no one is going into the capital.

Its funny how hearing that some one from your country doing your type of work was killed in the country you are currently in affects you in ways that other news of peoples demise does not. For example, when I was just in Mali and we received the news that an British man was beheaded in Timbuktu, that did not phase me, but this hits home. Our lives are not always as hunky dory as we personally like to believe they are.

Addicts

For anyone who checks my blog the first thing every morning when they get up (Mom, Dad) you can now subscribe to a rss feed from my blog. To anyone who doesn't understand what that means (Mom, Dad) you can google it. Anyway, the link is on the right hand side panel near the bottom.

Milestones

On June 18th two milestones happened. The first was that I have been in Mauritania for a year and the second is that for the first time in its over 50 year history Peace Corps Mauritania does not have a new class of volunteers coming in. To explain how that happened I will give you a rough history of recent political events here based on my understanding. (Disclaimer, any opinions expressed are completely my own.)

1984: Military Coup which lasts for 21 years

1989: Some Pulaar herders from Mauritania and some Pulaar farmers from Senegal get into a row (some one is shot) that sparks a larger row between the Black African and the White Moor populations in Mauritania and Senegal. Both countries allow atrocities to go on and the Mauritanian army kills and deports many Black Africans. Refugees are still coming back from Senegal. This event is not directly relevant to the current political drama but it is so significant it is worth mentioning.

2005: Military Coup

2007: Sidi becomes the first democratically elected president

August 2008: Sidi’s control over the government and his popularity are slipping and he becomes worried about a coup so he fires all the top military commanders at 3am one night. They proceed to carry out the coup that he was worried about. Aziz takes power.

Fall 2008: All of the aid money and projects that were coming to Mauritania because they had a democratically elected government for the first time leave. Sanctions are put on the coup leaders. Aziz promises a return to democracy. There are minor crises with the cooking gas and fishing industries as the government tries to regulate them.

Spring 2009: International sanctions are tightened and for some reason the Mauritanian government decides to stop granting tourists and foreign aid workers visas.

June 2009: Elections are scheduled for early in the month but an international mediation group works out a deal to move the elections to July to allow the opposition parties to have enough time to organize for legitimate elections. Under the agreement the military junta will step down, Sidi will take power only to resign, and a coalition government will be appointed. The elections are moved but nothing else happens as agreed to. Currently a second round of negotiations might be needed.

Peace Corps is apolitical so since there was never any personal security threat to our presence none of this impacted us until now. However, since there are no new volunteers the future of the program is a little uncertain. Personally I believe that the PC will stay here until they are absolutely forced to leave. Officially the PC is waiting until after the elections in July and hoping that visas will be granted before they say anything about what would happen. However, if Mauritania continues to not grant visas even after the election, the PC will cease to exist in Mauritania when my class of volunteers leaves a year and three months from now, or as some people believe, soon after the elections. At any rate, if the program is shut down I expect that they would reopen the program as soon as possible.

Living with this kind of general uncertainty about the future is not something I have ever experienced in my life. At first I was excited about every new development but since I had so little actual information about what was going on (thank you Peace Corps) I have had to pretty much give up on speculating what was going to happen because it was too wild of a rollercoaster that never went anywhere. I will let you know what is happening when something concrete actually happens. As for now all of the volunteers in my class are preparing to spend the next year here by ourselves.

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(I will put all sorts of tales here as soon as I get through my inbox.)