Inshallah

Hi all (or my parents, who might be the only ones reading this!)

It’s been a little while since I’ve written because we’ve had major computer problems. We had to move our office here in Selibaby because of Peace Corps budget issues, and we’ve had trouble with the electricity at the new place. It might be figured out finally (Inshallah) but we’ll just have to wait and see!

Not too much has been going on here. I still haven’t started work. School is set to start on the 12^th, which may or may not happen. When we heard the date, my sister said “well then it won’t really start until November! No one will go yet.” Most people don’t know when school starts, so students kind of trickle in and word spreads that classes have started. Sometime this week I’m going to go meet the director (if he’s there, Inshallah) and find out what I’ll be teaching (again, Inshallah)

So what do I do with my time? I sit. A lot. Mauritanians have an amazing talent for sitting around doing nothing, and I don’t mean the American sense of doing nothing by watching TV or reading or chatting. I really mean nothing. Sometimes they talk a little or put music on, but often they lounge around and drift in and out of sleep. I’m not being sarcastic when I call it a talent—try sitting doing nothing and see how long you last! I still get bored sometimes and I read a lot, but I’m getting better at the art of being a blob. I’ll be a little busier once school starts, Inshallah.

The only real news has been the fete. Ramadan ended this week, followed by three days of holiday/party/eating, emphasis on the eating. When I originally asked my host brother what we do for the fete, he looked at me like I was an idiot and said “we kill a sheep.” Duh, of course, what else would we do? Then I asked my father. He leaned forward and said very officially, “well, first we kill a sheep.” He then described other things we’d eat, and added that there would be music. When I asked my sister, she told me “we kill a sheep. Then we visit people. You need new clothes.” So I wasn’t terribly surprised when right after we finished our bread and coffee, my father and brother slaughtered one of our three sheep. After they finished dragging him out of the pen, I swear all the goats stood at the fence watching and the other sheep hid in the back. I found myself wondering, how do they know?? But then I remembered that they’re goats. Although they have figured out how to break through the wall of my hangar and escape their pen…I’ll have to keep my eye on them. Anyway, I left the deviously plotting goats and watched the men strip the sheep down, layer by layer. I figured we’d have some of it for lunch, so when my mother and sisters started cooking, I thought they were getting a head start. Not so. We ate our first plate of meat and potatoes around 9:30 AM. Now, as most people know, I’ve been a life-long vegetarian. I ate meat for the first time here in RIM, and I’ve been slowly trying to make myself eat more of it so I actually get some protein. During the first day of the fete, I probably quadrupled the amount of mean I’ve eaten, ever. After our first plate of meat and potatoes, we had another when my father got back home about an hour later, then had binaf (meat, potatoes and onion) for lunch and again for dinner. Whenever I tried to say I was full, my family would say “Hawa, this is the fete where we eat.” And that was that. Three days of being fed intense amounts of food everywhere I went.

OK, that’s all for now. More news on work soon Inshallah!