So I'm sure by now you've all heard the big news. Our lives have been kind of turned upside down. It's been hard to deal with. Everyone's talking about it but no one really saw it coming, although I guess it isn't that surprising...but still, it's hard to believe the US soccer team lost to Brazil after being up 2-0 at the half. It will be tough, but I know we can get through this.
Anyway, it's been a crazy couple of weeks here in Peace Corps RIM. Other than the tragic soccer game, there was the minor detail of losing about 1/3 of our class. With the security issues that have been filling nervous parents with terror lately, our country director got permission from PC Washington to offer Interrupted Service. IS basically gives you the benefits of an RPCV without finishing the 2 years, and is generally offered (or sometimes required if a program closes) when there are safety issues in a country. For us, it was a choice, and I'm staying.
Before anyone starts thinking I've totally lost it, let me explain. Keep in mind that this is based on my personal experience, so if there are any parent stalkers out there (including my own!) who have heard other points of view, remember that each person's experience is very different. I do not personally believe that our security situation has changed. Of course there are always risks to living in an underdeveloped country, but there are also risks to living in any major city in the US. Yes, there was an American who got killed in Nouakchott, but the life he led here was very different from ours and he made some very, very different choices that ultimately led to his unfortunate death (he had received several threats before, and continued his work as a Christian missionary in an Islamic Republic). Some people in the North have dealt with unfriendly people and anti-American sentiment, but I have never experienced anything like that. Selibaby (and much of the south in general) loves Peace Corps, and I have a strong network of people who keep me safe there. I feel welcome and useful in my community. I think that if you gave the IS option to all PCVs worldwide at the one year mark, you would have very similar numbers. Two years in a foreign country sounds great in theory, but there are a lot of challenges that go along with it, and some people don't want to be in it for the long haul. I completely respect their choice, but it's not one that appeals to me. So to summarize, don't worry, I'm fine, and I'll see you all in 2010.
Meanwhile, in spite of all of this craziness, we're all trying to continue our normal lives. As a teacher, "normal life" right now means trying to get in as much traveling and time out of site as possible because once the school year starts I'm pretty limited in that. I went up to Nouakchott on the 29th, and after a couple days there headed north with John, Brian and Kristy. We went to Atar, which was very beautiful and so, so different than the south! It has a lot more money, which is evident in every aspect of the city, and the style of buildings is also very different. The next day we went to Chinguetti to visit Carl, who took us all around the city. We walked through the old part of town, which is mostly crumbling ruins dating back to the 1100s (just outside of town there are other ruins buried in sand that date back to the 700s). Chinguetti was a stop along the trade route from Mali to Morocco, and is a really amazing place to visit.
After a day in Chinguetti, the four of us headed out on an overnight camel trek. It was really spectacular. Once you get a little ways out of the city, all you can see is dunes for miles and miles. It's intensely quiet and beautiful experience. Plus, camels are really funny! They remind me a lot of moose, just with big goofy feet and in sand. John's camel was the most ornery of the bunch, and kept making gurgling noises whenever she had to sit down or stand up (and sometimes at random during the trek). The others were pretty friendly. We got to a little oasis around noon (it gets too hot to trek all day), and we spent the afternoon lounging in the shade of date palms. Around 4, John, Brian and I thought it would be cool enough to go sandboarding out on the dunes, but didn't take into account the temperature of the sand (scorching), so we ended up going down a few times and then waiting until almost sunset. Sandboarding is pretty sweet, although the whole carrying the board back up a steep dune part is a pain. Luckily a few kids came to help with that--come on, who can resist a group of toubabs trying to ride a snowboard down a dune?? That's worth carrying a board up a big hill! We spent the night just outside the oasis, lying under the stars. One of our guides made us bread (with just flour and water) that he cooked in hot coals; basically, he shaped a round loaf, got a fire going, then spread the coals out and buried the bread right in them. It was pretty good, and really cool to see it done. We left around 6 the next morning to head back to Chinguetti, and although we were hot, tired and I was down a shoe (a dune ate my flip flop, it got pulled off when I was walking down hill and after searching for about 15 minutes we gave up--it was just gone), we had a fantastic time. Plus, now I can cross "ride a camel" off my list of life goals!
We went back to Atar on the 4th, and after a couple days there headed down to Nouakchott. John and I got back to Kaedi yesterday, and will probably be here for a few days before heading to M'Bout and Selibaby. We both need to get our passports so we'll be ready for our trips in early August--as much as I love it here and am looking forward to heading back to my host family and my little house, I can't wait to see my wonderful family in France in a few weeks! Plus the wine and cheese don't hurt : )
OK, I hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy. Below are links to the pictures from my various travels, so enjoy!
Camel Trek
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
More travel adventures
Well, obviously the biggest news from here (well, besides political instability and election problems…but that’s not news) is that we aren’t getting new volunteers anytime soon. Since the government still hadn’t issued visas, Peace Corps decided not to make the invitees wait in limbo and assigned them to other programs. We pretty much knew they weren’t coming, so it’s good that they don’t have to sit around and wait to hear. If/when the government (which will be decided in next month’s elections Inshallah) decides it will issues visas again, Peace Corps will look into opening the program, but it will most likely not be until next June. Bummer. So basically, the 71 of us still in country will be alone for the next year. The details aren’t really clear yet, but I’m sure we’ll know more after the elections.
After it turned out we weren’t going to Rosso for stage, John and I bummed around Kaedi for a while (and got rained in for a few days), then I headed back to Selibaby to say goodbye to my COSing regionmates and help move Shelby into the region house. I figured I would be there for a week or two, then head up to Kaedi en route to
We planned to leave Selibaby around 7:30. I spent most of the night before lying awake, watching lightening and dust storms off to the east and thinking “shiiiiiiiiiit.” The driver showed up at the house at 6:30, and let me tell you, this was shocking because Mauritanians aren’t always the most time-conscious people. He explained that he was early because he was worried about the rain, so we rounded up the girls and got on the road around 7. It took about half an hour to get out of town because the driver wouldn’t go on the main road (he didn’t want to pass the garage because he would have to stop and give the guys there some money), so we took random back roads and got stuck a few time trying to get out. OK, no big deal, we finally got on the road and headed out.
This is where the real problem starts: the sky around us was getting really dark, mostly to the south and the east, and there was clearly a large storm rolling in. I had asked the driver before we left if he had a tarp to cover the bags, and he said he did. We ended up putting most of them inside the car (it holds 14 people and we were only 7 leaving Selibaby), but there were a couple on the roof. So he gets out and messes with something on the roof as the rain starts, and we keep going. Then the rain really came, and it came hard. Looking out to the side of the road, it almost looked like snow because there were huge puddles of water covering everything. Oh, and the car had no wipers. The driver kept putting his window down a little to wipe the windshield with a towel. Then he would put the window up and the car would immediately fog up, but no matter how many times Sam and Levin tried to explain it, the concept of hot air on the inside making condensation went way over his head. Oh well.
The mentor, Haji, started yelling at him, and when I asked her what was wrong she told me that he didn’t have a tarp and was refusing to stop to put the two bags on the roof in the car. They both belonged to one of the girls, and held all her clothes and stuff for the next week. He kept saying he’d stop in the next town, but then wouldn’t stop, so we’d yell at him again. After a few river crossing adventures, we made it to a decent sized town, and the driver announced we’d stay there until the river on the other side receded some.
Now, you have to understand, seasonal rivers here aren’t little streams. With as little as half an hour of rain, they become anything from slight annoyances to raging rivers of death that sweep away cars and trees. When that happens, there’s nothing you can do but wait. So wait we did. It was still raining, so I asked the driver to finally get the bags down. He refused. We started arguing, and he told me to get them down, so I told him that it was his job to which he replied that it wasn’t. So I called the guy at the garage who we had arranged the car with, and he yelled at the driver on the phone. Then the driver crossed his arms and refused to look at me or talk to me for a while before finally getting the bags down. Oh, and he pulled out a tarp that he’d had inside the car the whole time. Nice work. Sometimes drivers here are wonderful, and other times they act like they’re doing you a favor by letting you pay for a seat in the car, and you should really be thanking them.
So he stormed off to have tea somewhere, and the rest of us sat around. When he finally came back, he was in a much better mood—he bought some meat to cook for us, and even apologized to me. It was seriously shocking. So he grilled up some meat and onions, and we all sat outside of a little boutique and ate. We stayed in the town for about 2 hours, then decided to try to road. We made it about 2 minutes outside of town before we got stuck in the mud.
If you hadn’t realized by now, this driver was not particularly open to comments and suggestions. All he would do for about half an hour is try to get up this small, muddy hill, get stuck, try to back out, and try it all again. He wouldn’t turn the wheel or try a different way up (of which there were many) or put the car in the low 4 gear, all of which we tried to suggest. He pretended not to hear us. He kept yelling at a group of kids to come help, but it was a lot more fun for them to sit on a wall and watch him walk around the car again and again, staring at the tire holes. Finally he got one of the kids to bring him a shovel, and was able to fill in the holes enough to get up. We drove through the river and kept going.
After a few more tough spots (such as a new bridge that is passable but not entirely done so therefore not open which crosses one of the raging rivers of death—seriously, we would have drowned or been stuck there for a couple days waiting for the water to go down—which was luckily solved by a phone call to our amazing friend Luis, who got the guard to let us pass on the new bridge), we made it to a town that (in non-rainy season time) is about 45 minutes outside of M’Bout. There are a bunch of cars sitting there, and everyone says the road up ahead isn’t passable. So we get out, sit under a tent, and wait. And wait. And wait. We end up spending about 4 hours there, and after we’d had lunch and slept a bit, everyone was eager to go. We finally found the driver, who had wandered off somewhere, and he said we were waiting to see if any cars got through coming the other way. Now, no one had actually gone to check on the road for a good 3-4 hours, and I pointed out that there was a good chance that the cars on the other side were doing the exact same thing we were doing, meaning we were all sitting there like idiots for no reason. I kept trying to convince him to let us try to get through, and if it didn’t look safe we could come back. He refused, yelled a lot, stopped talking to me again, then finally said OK. We all got back in the car, and about 2 minutes out of town saw the problem.
A river had sprung up, and when one truck tried to get through, it got stuck. There were a lot of cars waiting around, trying to help or just watching, and they finally got the stuck car out of the river, after which several others crossed with no trouble. Then an army of giant trucks that carry road supplies went through, also with no problem. So at this point, the other side of the river was clear of cars, and all the drivers on our side were waiting around because no one wanted to be the first to cross. Good God. Finally one went through, and our driver followed. We made it through easily.
Now, from texting with John throughout the trip, I learned that M’Bout was totally cut off by the river there (the bridge right outside of town is nowhere near done and there were about 20 feet of water), so our plan to pick them up kind of fell apart. We didn’t want to spend the night on the side of the road, so we decided to push through to Kaedi (the road technically bypasses M’Bout by about 2 kilometers even though all the cars go into town, so we could get by but not in and out of the town itself). A lot of cars came through right after us, so we ended up in a caravan of sorts, with each driver stealing the other drivers’ spots in line and trying to get ahead and nonsense like that. By this point it was dark, so we carefully crossed a few more rivers before something I couldn’t see stopped us. The driver got out, so Sam and Levin went to see what was up. A crowd of men gathered around what turned out to be a small bridge that had partially been washed away. It was only about 3 feet up, but underneath was rushing water. So the men drag a large stone over and prop it up in such a way that if a driver keeps one wheel on the broken bridge and the other on the stone they can maybe get over. Great plan right? I’m still in the car at this point, with no idea what’s happening, but Sam and Levin come back saying we’re stuck. Suddenly, our driver rushes to the car so we can be the second ones to make it over. The guys (smartly) don’t get in, and before they had time to argue with him we’re starting over the make-shift bridge. What I heard afterwards is that once our front tires made it, the rock gave out, so the driver gunned the engine and somehow managed to get across. The guys said it was the scariest travel thing they’ve seen in their two years here. Everyone else was really mad at our driver for ruining the bridge so no one else could get through, but we just drove off. We finally got to Kaedi around 11. The trip, which usually takes 5-6 hours, took us 16.
So that’s been my latest adventure. Since it probably took as long to read this as it did for us to do it in the first place, I’ll stop here. I’m hopefully going up north for a camel trek next week, so stay tuned.
Oh, and for being such good sports, here are some pictures. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
pictures
After my mom's comment about posting everyday, here I am! Ha. But seriously, I just got some new pictures up so I thought I'd send out the link. They're mostly from St. Louis and around Selibaby, and there are a bunch of the Girls Mentoring Center end of the year party. Enjoy!
pictures
pictures
Monday, June 8, 2009
Yup, I'm still alive
Yeah yeah yeah, I know, it's been a really long time since I've posted. I have several excellent excuses ready:
1) I was finishing up my first year of teaching, which included holding review sessions 4 days in a row for my kids and then giving and grading 150 or so exams
2) John and I made a last-minute, sanity-saving decision to go to St. Louis (Senegal) with a bunch of other volunteers for Jazz Fest, so we were out of the country for a bit
3) Our bureau has been without power for a good 3 weeks or so now because the cord that needs constant duct tape repair by the electric company guy stretches from our room into the room next door, and the man with the only key to that room left for Nouakchott for several weeks. Fun. Which brings me to...
4) My lovely home of Selibaby was without power in almost the whole town for 15 days straight, and then it came on for about 10 hours before going out again for another 12, then on for 10, then just off. Grand.
Now I'm in Kaedi with John and have no excuse, so here I am. We left Selibaby yesterday afternoon (inside a truck, fancy fancy!) and spent the night in M'Bout. That trip wasn't too bad, especially when we got traided about half way there to another truck which only had a cow tied in the back with a net, so we went pretty fast (poor cow). We left M'Bout this morning in the back of an almost empty truck, which is actually much worse than sitting on a huge pile of stuff because you feel the bumps a lot more sitting on just a spare tire (which was so worn that little bits of metal were sticking out all over it...yeah that hurt) than on a big pile of bags. The driver was also going way too fast, so we got jostled around a lot. I spent a good portion of the trip clinging to the side of the car with my boubou poofing out behind me like a cape (faster than a cow-laiden truck, stronger than a scary old woman's handshake grip! it's a donkey! it's a goat! it's super toubab!). We made it with the usual scrapes and bruises but in one piece, and went straight to the post office to pick up John's mail (thanks to Allison for sending candy and to my mom for the cheese box--it made it!). We got to the house to see our very excited Maggie dog, who has gotten so big!! She magically remembered all of her training once we had cheese and bagel chips in our hands (sorry pupper, I love you, but this is cheese....).
I'll be in Kaedi for about a week or so, then heading down to Rosso to meet the new trainees. That's so unreal. I can't believe that all of a sudden I'm the person who's supposed to know stuff (sorry in advance to anyone coming to Mauritania on the 18th! Ha). We're closing in on our 1 year Mauritanian anniversary, with 71 of the original 77 still here. And we've got the heat rash, dripping sweat and layers of dirt coating our skin to show for it!
All of this also means that our 2nd year volunteers are heading out soon, most in the next month and all by August 6th, which will certainly be a transition. In the Guidimakha, we're losing 4 of the 9 volunteers in the region, so that will be strange. They'll certainly be missed (like crazy).
OK, that's about all the news for now. I'll try to be better about blogging (big Inshallah for power and the like). I hope everyone's having a great start to the summer back at home!!
1) I was finishing up my first year of teaching, which included holding review sessions 4 days in a row for my kids and then giving and grading 150 or so exams
2) John and I made a last-minute, sanity-saving decision to go to St. Louis (Senegal) with a bunch of other volunteers for Jazz Fest, so we were out of the country for a bit
3) Our bureau has been without power for a good 3 weeks or so now because the cord that needs constant duct tape repair by the electric company guy stretches from our room into the room next door, and the man with the only key to that room left for Nouakchott for several weeks. Fun. Which brings me to...
4) My lovely home of Selibaby was without power in almost the whole town for 15 days straight, and then it came on for about 10 hours before going out again for another 12, then on for 10, then just off. Grand.
Now I'm in Kaedi with John and have no excuse, so here I am. We left Selibaby yesterday afternoon (inside a truck, fancy fancy!) and spent the night in M'Bout. That trip wasn't too bad, especially when we got traided about half way there to another truck which only had a cow tied in the back with a net, so we went pretty fast (poor cow). We left M'Bout this morning in the back of an almost empty truck, which is actually much worse than sitting on a huge pile of stuff because you feel the bumps a lot more sitting on just a spare tire (which was so worn that little bits of metal were sticking out all over it...yeah that hurt) than on a big pile of bags. The driver was also going way too fast, so we got jostled around a lot. I spent a good portion of the trip clinging to the side of the car with my boubou poofing out behind me like a cape (faster than a cow-laiden truck, stronger than a scary old woman's handshake grip! it's a donkey! it's a goat! it's super toubab!). We made it with the usual scrapes and bruises but in one piece, and went straight to the post office to pick up John's mail (thanks to Allison for sending candy and to my mom for the cheese box--it made it!). We got to the house to see our very excited Maggie dog, who has gotten so big!! She magically remembered all of her training once we had cheese and bagel chips in our hands (sorry pupper, I love you, but this is cheese....).
I'll be in Kaedi for about a week or so, then heading down to Rosso to meet the new trainees. That's so unreal. I can't believe that all of a sudden I'm the person who's supposed to know stuff (sorry in advance to anyone coming to Mauritania on the 18th! Ha). We're closing in on our 1 year Mauritanian anniversary, with 71 of the original 77 still here. And we've got the heat rash, dripping sweat and layers of dirt coating our skin to show for it!
All of this also means that our 2nd year volunteers are heading out soon, most in the next month and all by August 6th, which will certainly be a transition. In the Guidimakha, we're losing 4 of the 9 volunteers in the region, so that will be strange. They'll certainly be missed (like crazy).
OK, that's about all the news for now. I'll try to be better about blogging (big Inshallah for power and the like). I hope everyone's having a great start to the summer back at home!!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
As my parents remind me regularly, it's been too long since I've written. I guess I've been too caught up in the baseball debate taking place on John's blog to pay attention to my own (GO RED SOX). Not too much is new here really, just trying to get through the rest of the school year. It got cut by about 3 weeks because of the elections on June 6th, so after this week I only have 3 weeks of classes. The downside of this is that I lose this time with my students, and it makes it tough to get everything done that I'd hoped to. And by tough, I mean impossible. But they've definitely made progress--they now mostly greet me in English on the street and have started arguing with each other in English in the classroom (I have to let them off the hook when they yell "that is my pen!" at the kid who took their pen).
John is visiting Selibaby this week, which has been great. He's used his time here to catch up on internet stuff, raid our book collection and chase children away from our wall. Oh, and along with Kim we spent about an hour yesterday pouring water down ant/termite hills. This is what we do for fun here. I'm not joking. Sometimes we draw on the dog too. The power has been out for a couple days now, so that cuts down on your options! Being bored takes on a whole new meaning here.
I also recently started a prep class for the 6th year students who will take the BAC in June. Basically, it's the end of high school exam that determines if you even get the option of going to college. Nationwide, about 10% of students pass. That number is usually lower here in the south and in other rural areas. So every Friday, I run an optional class to get students ready for the English section of the BAC. They never learn how to take this kind of test (during the first class, I gave them a practice test and most didn't understand the format of multiple choice questions...the real test is in 2 months), so I'm trying to work with them on how to go about answering reading comprehension, make educated guesses, budget their time, etc. Most students didn't even attempt the essay question on the practice test, and almost all of them said "teacher, it is very hard!" as if I had written it to torture them. It was a word for word copy of the BAC from 2004. I only have time to do 6 or 7 classes, but hopefully it will help a little and I can start the same class earlier next year. It's been fun working with older students too, and quite a change from teacher first years!
OK, that's all the news from here. But for being such good sports you get a new photo link! Enjoy!
new picts
John is visiting Selibaby this week, which has been great. He's used his time here to catch up on internet stuff, raid our book collection and chase children away from our wall. Oh, and along with Kim we spent about an hour yesterday pouring water down ant/termite hills. This is what we do for fun here. I'm not joking. Sometimes we draw on the dog too. The power has been out for a couple days now, so that cuts down on your options! Being bored takes on a whole new meaning here.
I also recently started a prep class for the 6th year students who will take the BAC in June. Basically, it's the end of high school exam that determines if you even get the option of going to college. Nationwide, about 10% of students pass. That number is usually lower here in the south and in other rural areas. So every Friday, I run an optional class to get students ready for the English section of the BAC. They never learn how to take this kind of test (during the first class, I gave them a practice test and most didn't understand the format of multiple choice questions...the real test is in 2 months), so I'm trying to work with them on how to go about answering reading comprehension, make educated guesses, budget their time, etc. Most students didn't even attempt the essay question on the practice test, and almost all of them said "teacher, it is very hard!" as if I had written it to torture them. It was a word for word copy of the BAC from 2004. I only have time to do 6 or 7 classes, but hopefully it will help a little and I can start the same class earlier next year. It's been fun working with older students too, and quite a change from teacher first years!
OK, that's all the news from here. But for being such good sports you get a new photo link! Enjoy!
new picts
Thursday, April 2, 2009
New Pictures
Hi all,
We're back from Nouakchott with our sterile and surprisingly energetic puppy--you'd never know from looking at her that she had surgery 2 days ago, except for the little line of stitched on her belly. Poor thing.
Here are some new pictures--some from Shelby and Luis' birthdays, and then some from our trip. I put up lots of puppy pictures for you, Allison! She's a sweet dog : )
Enjoy!
We're back from Nouakchott with our sterile and surprisingly energetic puppy--you'd never know from looking at her that she had surgery 2 days ago, except for the little line of stitched on her belly. Poor thing.
Here are some new pictures--some from Shelby and Luis' birthdays, and then some from our trip. I put up lots of puppy pictures for you, Allison! She's a sweet dog : )
Enjoy!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Vacation time!
Yes, that's right, I'm on vacation. I know a lot of you are saying, "AGAIN??" but come on, I live in Mauritania, do you really want to trade? Keep in mind it's over 100 in the shade everyday now.
It's the trimester break here, which not only means a week off but also marks the official countdown to the end of the school year. Funny how that doesn't change once you become a teacher. I gave my students their exam last Sunday, which was difficult because this time I gave it on schedule and therefor had all 3 classes taking their exam at once. The way it works here is other teachers proctor your exam, and you float between classes to answer questions. This wouldn't be a big deal except that some of my colleagues are shockingly less diligent about catching cheaters than I am. I know, you'd never see that coming! There several times when I walked into a classroom to find all my students talking, passing notes, etc., and the teacher sitting on a desk in the front staring into space. I just looking at them all and said "Seriously??" That tone of voice translates quite well. I asked them, "do you talk during my exam?" and got a chorus of "no teacher" and "pardon teacher," and I told the teacher to kick the next kid who was talking out of the classroom. They, of course, did not. To be fair, one of the three was actually walking around the class and trying to keep them in line, and that was very much appreciated. Needless to say, after it was done all 156 of my students and I were ready for a break.
That night, I stayed in town at Kim's house so that Tako Guy and I could leave in the morning (she went to Boghe and I to M'Bout). We bought our tickets at the garage, and were told that since the driver was coming from our side of town, he would pick us up at the house around 8 or 8:30. I gave them my number, and got a call later that night saying the car was actually coming at 6:30. So the next morning, Tako and I got up at 6, and by 6:30 were ready to go. We figured it would be a while, but usually they only change the time like that if they've sold out the car and aren't waiting for any more passengers. So we waited. And waited. And waited. At 8:30, I called the number that had called me the night before. The driver that answered said there had been car trouble but it was fixed (NEVER a good sign) and he was coming soon. So around 9:30, a truck pulled up to take us to the garage. We waited there for everyone to load into another truck, which is quite a process because they have to tie all the bags down before we can all get on top of them, but people are so eager to claim their spots that it gets a little rowdy. Tako and I claimed our space near the cab of the truck with our legs hanging over, even though lots of men kept telling us to get in the middle because a) they don't think it's safe or proper for women to hang their legs over and b) they don't want the middle because it's uncomfortable and you end up curled in a ball with people sitting on you. After a lot of pushing, shoving and refusing to get on the car unless that annoying man got his butt out of the seat we had rightfully claimed, we headed out around 10:30, putting us in M'Bout around 1:30.
Wrong. A little ways outside of town, something under the car started clanging around whenever we went over a bump (keep in mind this is an unpaved, unfinished road, so everything is a bump). The driver kept looking under the car, making people get down (which resulted in more arguments about seating arrangements) and driving a little farther. Finally, we pulled over in a town that should be about 35 minutes from Selibaby (it took us over an hour to get there) and the driver announced that we needed to wait for a new truck to come. Just grand. So we all sat under a little hangar near the road and waited for about an hour for a new truck. We rearranged AGAIN, and got on our way.
Now, I'm sure this already sounds like a pain, but keep in mind that we left at 10:30 and it was already well over 100 degrees. I'd guess that for most of the trip it was about 130 in the sun. There were 2 clouds the whole time. We ran out of water pretty quickly, and barely stopped in the towns we passed. Even when we did, I couldn't get down because the man behind me kept trying to steal my spot. He didn't want his legs over the back of the truck (cry me a river mister, people always have their legs over the back) so he kept trying to get me to move over so he could sit over the side next to me. There was no way he could fit there. So he complained the whole way, and he was sitting on a friggin' bag of pillows. PILLOWS. Good God. Anyway, then he started falling asleep and leaning his head on the back of my head or on my shoulder. I shrugged him off a few times, and he would start yelling at me for pushing him. Finally, I turned to him and yelled, "you spend all this time making noise about how you can't sit there, it's so uncomfortable, and yet you're comfortable enough to sleep on me!!" The other passengers got a kick out of that.
It ended up taking us 5 hours to get to M'Bout. It should take 3. We were on the car from 10:30-3:30 (the hottest part of the day). I thought I was going to pass out. John met us at the garage with water, and we ended up spending the rest of the day sitting in his house feeling sick and trying to re-hydrate. Fun.
Tako left the next morning, and I spent another day in M'Bout with John and Maggie dog, who is so big now! I'll put pictures up soon. On Wednesday, we took another adventure, this time with the pup, to Kaedi. It wasn't that bad, all things considered. I'm very grateful to have a dog that doesn't get sick in the car and benedryl to drug said dog with. Beautiful things. We've been here in Kaedi since then. The second-years are all up in Nouakchott for their Close of Service conference (so, so weird to think about), and we're heading up there tomorrow to do work at the Peace Corps office, get our mid-service dental and physical exams and get Maggie fixed and vaccinated. Oh, and eat as much pizza as possible. Yum.
That's all the news from here. If you read this before tomorrow morning, send us good vibes--we're taking a 6-8 hour taxi brusse ride with a puppy. Oy. And for John's family, he's alive and well, sitting right across from me but far too lazy to post on his blog : ) He says hi.
It's the trimester break here, which not only means a week off but also marks the official countdown to the end of the school year. Funny how that doesn't change once you become a teacher. I gave my students their exam last Sunday, which was difficult because this time I gave it on schedule and therefor had all 3 classes taking their exam at once. The way it works here is other teachers proctor your exam, and you float between classes to answer questions. This wouldn't be a big deal except that some of my colleagues are shockingly less diligent about catching cheaters than I am. I know, you'd never see that coming! There several times when I walked into a classroom to find all my students talking, passing notes, etc., and the teacher sitting on a desk in the front staring into space. I just looking at them all and said "Seriously??" That tone of voice translates quite well. I asked them, "do you talk during my exam?" and got a chorus of "no teacher" and "pardon teacher," and I told the teacher to kick the next kid who was talking out of the classroom. They, of course, did not. To be fair, one of the three was actually walking around the class and trying to keep them in line, and that was very much appreciated. Needless to say, after it was done all 156 of my students and I were ready for a break.
That night, I stayed in town at Kim's house so that Tako Guy and I could leave in the morning (she went to Boghe and I to M'Bout). We bought our tickets at the garage, and were told that since the driver was coming from our side of town, he would pick us up at the house around 8 or 8:30. I gave them my number, and got a call later that night saying the car was actually coming at 6:30. So the next morning, Tako and I got up at 6, and by 6:30 were ready to go. We figured it would be a while, but usually they only change the time like that if they've sold out the car and aren't waiting for any more passengers. So we waited. And waited. And waited. At 8:30, I called the number that had called me the night before. The driver that answered said there had been car trouble but it was fixed (NEVER a good sign) and he was coming soon. So around 9:30, a truck pulled up to take us to the garage. We waited there for everyone to load into another truck, which is quite a process because they have to tie all the bags down before we can all get on top of them, but people are so eager to claim their spots that it gets a little rowdy. Tako and I claimed our space near the cab of the truck with our legs hanging over, even though lots of men kept telling us to get in the middle because a) they don't think it's safe or proper for women to hang their legs over and b) they don't want the middle because it's uncomfortable and you end up curled in a ball with people sitting on you. After a lot of pushing, shoving and refusing to get on the car unless that annoying man got his butt out of the seat we had rightfully claimed, we headed out around 10:30, putting us in M'Bout around 1:30.
Wrong. A little ways outside of town, something under the car started clanging around whenever we went over a bump (keep in mind this is an unpaved, unfinished road, so everything is a bump). The driver kept looking under the car, making people get down (which resulted in more arguments about seating arrangements) and driving a little farther. Finally, we pulled over in a town that should be about 35 minutes from Selibaby (it took us over an hour to get there) and the driver announced that we needed to wait for a new truck to come. Just grand. So we all sat under a little hangar near the road and waited for about an hour for a new truck. We rearranged AGAIN, and got on our way.
Now, I'm sure this already sounds like a pain, but keep in mind that we left at 10:30 and it was already well over 100 degrees. I'd guess that for most of the trip it was about 130 in the sun. There were 2 clouds the whole time. We ran out of water pretty quickly, and barely stopped in the towns we passed. Even when we did, I couldn't get down because the man behind me kept trying to steal my spot. He didn't want his legs over the back of the truck (cry me a river mister, people always have their legs over the back) so he kept trying to get me to move over so he could sit over the side next to me. There was no way he could fit there. So he complained the whole way, and he was sitting on a friggin' bag of pillows. PILLOWS. Good God. Anyway, then he started falling asleep and leaning his head on the back of my head or on my shoulder. I shrugged him off a few times, and he would start yelling at me for pushing him. Finally, I turned to him and yelled, "you spend all this time making noise about how you can't sit there, it's so uncomfortable, and yet you're comfortable enough to sleep on me!!" The other passengers got a kick out of that.
It ended up taking us 5 hours to get to M'Bout. It should take 3. We were on the car from 10:30-3:30 (the hottest part of the day). I thought I was going to pass out. John met us at the garage with water, and we ended up spending the rest of the day sitting in his house feeling sick and trying to re-hydrate. Fun.
Tako left the next morning, and I spent another day in M'Bout with John and Maggie dog, who is so big now! I'll put pictures up soon. On Wednesday, we took another adventure, this time with the pup, to Kaedi. It wasn't that bad, all things considered. I'm very grateful to have a dog that doesn't get sick in the car and benedryl to drug said dog with. Beautiful things. We've been here in Kaedi since then. The second-years are all up in Nouakchott for their Close of Service conference (so, so weird to think about), and we're heading up there tomorrow to do work at the Peace Corps office, get our mid-service dental and physical exams and get Maggie fixed and vaccinated. Oh, and eat as much pizza as possible. Yum.
That's all the news from here. If you read this before tomorrow morning, send us good vibes--we're taking a 6-8 hour taxi brusse ride with a puppy. Oy. And for John's family, he's alive and well, sitting right across from me but far too lazy to post on his blog : ) He says hi.
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