Photos

I finally got my world vision friends to let me install wireless internet in their office, which means now I can upload all of those photos I have been promising to put up.

The first is the West African Invitation Softball Tournament in Dakar, Senegal. WAIST is the biggest event for all of the volunteers here, nearly everyone goes and we look forward to it more than christmas. We also always cause the most rukus and generally always win. The pictures capture parts of the experience but in no way do it justice. http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/WAIST#

The second is from a celebration held in a town near mine for the new village chief. Technically it is two towns, one in Mauritania and the other across the river in Senegal, but that is just because when the colonists came they ignored the fact that the river was mainstreet and not a dividing line. http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/Fonde#

The third is of the oasis I went to in Terjit. This place fullfilled every expectation of what a desert oasis would be like. http://picasaweb.google.com/z.swank/Terjit#

Rototiller

Tell me what you think of this idea: buying a rototiller.

After helping the students in my school dig 45 1 meter by 3 meter garden beds (unquestionably child labor) I began to dream of having a rototiller here and I think it is a realistic idea. There are four types of farming that happen around my town (in order of least to most successful):

- Large scale acreage

- Womens cooperative gardens

- Small plots in the courtyards of houses

- Farming by the river

All of these are done by hand, which means at most the top 4 inches of soil gets aerated and turned. This soil is almost completely devoid of organic material. Also a lot of farming does not happen because it is too much work to bring more plots under cultivation. IF I had a rototiller, I could rent it out to cultivate new plots and to mix in organic material. Currently the most fertilization they do is throwing some manure on top of the soil, where the sun breaks down a lot of the nutrients. The really cool thing about this idea is that it is concievably a sustainable idea. Here is how the economics break down:

- Cost of a decent rototiller: 700 USD

- Cost of shipping: 200 USD

- Cost of gas: not that expensive per use

If you convert that all to Ouguiya you get a maximum of 300,000 UM. Divide that price by 600 hours of use and you get a price of 500 UM per hour. That is, if I charged 500 per hour I would completely pay for the rototiller in 600 hours. Now, 500 UM is too much for tilling a garden plot that might only yeild 1,000 UM of produce. However, 100 UM is not too much and even though that would change the break even point to 3,000 hours it is still concievable that it could break even, or in other words, be sustainable. There is no need for this to be completely sustainable and it makes sense to find financing for it, but the fact that it COULD be makes it seem like a pretty viable project. What do you think? Also, anyone know anyone in West Africa that has a rototiller I could talk to? Haha.

Food Crisis

Each year Mauritania imports 60 to 80 percent of its food + corrup and inept government = 

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=31125

I do not delude myself...

The reduction in the frequency of my posts is a direct result of my increased level of integration to life here; the more I am comfortable living here, the need for contact with home becomes less pressing. That said, I think I have reached a turning point in my integration. Up until now I was trying to participate and appreciate everything, but having attempted that for half a year I can now comfortably say that there are certain things that I am just not ever going to enjoy so I can stop trying. This is a liberating feeling that will ultimately result in a more enjoyable experience. For example, I will never go to another dance here (think “dance monkey dance” in front of hundreds of kids), I will stop waiting exorbitant amounts of time for other people, I will stop worrying about waiting for the third round of tea before leaving, etc. All of these things may be technically culturally inappropriate, but I know of no person in the world who is totally culturally appropriate. The downside to this change in attitude is that it is the recognition of the fact that I will never be totally comfortable here. I do like it here, but I cannot picture ever being completely contented here, even if it was not so hot. I agree with Barry Lopez that, “each culture is a repository of some good thought about the universe; we are valuable to each other for that,” and at the same time I agree with his reference to Wildfred Thesiger’s statement on traveling with the Bedouin, “I was happy in the company of these men who had chosen to come with me. I felt affection for them personally and sympathy for their way of life. But though the easy quality of our relationship satisfied me, I did not delude myself that I could be one of them. They were Bedu and I was not; they were Muslims and I was Christian. Nevertheless I was their companion and an inviolable bond united us.”

School Gardens

Ever since I arrived at site I have wanted to start school gardens and in fact the directors of the schools have wanted to start them for years as well. What lacked were the motivation and the means. I provided the motivation and was trying to provide the means but since I have no budget and the only way for me to finance projects through the Peace Corps is by a system of asking family and friends for to donate money, the process of procuring the means was going to be a long one. However, in the absence of the community financing it, I was very much willing to do the work. In fact, as of last week I had done the work; I researched and wrote a proposal and secured a significant contribution from the community. However, as I was explaining again why it was going to take so long to get the money to Ball Oumar, the director of primary school 2, he said “Well, hang on, why don’t we try calling the Mayor and see if he will finance the fencing.” Which made me both a little pissed and very happy because this is what I had wanted to do when I first arrived at site, but was told was useless. A day later we had the fencing.

As much as it would be nice to leave products of my labors here, I would much prefer that those products were really the products of Mauritanian labors that I just happened to be a part of. I think I may have mentioned this in an earlier as my idea of “Jujitsu development” where I my role is more that of a catalyst than typical international (financial) aid. While I cannot claim full credit for the things ending up the way they did, due to some other factors the Mayor has started paying attention to the schools in a way that he was not when I first arrived at site, Ball has wanted to have a school garden more and longer than I have, and it was Ball who made the call, the two schools in which I work now have 50 meters of fencing each that they are already putting up. In the end I achieved the result I wanted and do not think it would have happened without me, but I am not sure how responsible I am for it. Oddly enough that right there is how I measure my success here.

Update: I have a tree nursery of a couple of hundred trees and 10 garden bed planted at one school and will be planting the tree nursery at the other this week.

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.

President's Visit

So, if you remember not long after I arrived here there was a military coup and much international to-do that amounted to nothing. The guy who led the coup, General Aziz, was the same one who led the last coup that resulted in the first legit democratic elected president, who he ousted from power in this most recent coup. This led to the withdrawal of lots of international aid and was generally to believed to be a step backward, although a lot of Mauritanians were indifferent. At any rate, he is still in power and will soon be holding elections, only this time everyone expects him to make sure he gets elected again. (See previous article about the importance of good governance.) As part of his election campaign he visited my town. I kept my distance from him and his bodyguards with the uzis and mostly just took pictures of the people partying in the streets. In talking to my friends about how they felt, I got the sense that while most of the town and many people from the surrounding towns were gathered together, it was less of a support rally than it was a social event for the people. It is safe to say that the democratic spirit does not exist here and having seen the results I need to tell you too vigorously keep that spirit alive back home.