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.

WAIST, Dakar and life back in Selibaby

OK, here's an overdue update. As most people know, February is a favorite month here in Peace Corps Mauritania because for about a week we go to Dakar for WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament). This means a week of delicious food, legal alcohol that doesn't come from a plastic bottle, meeting other PCVs and hanging out with the wonderful PC RIM volunteers who those of us living down in the Guidi don't see very often (funny thing about how off-roading discourages visitors). It was needless to say a wonderful week.

John came back with me through Senegal to Selibaby, which from Dakar is a 14 hour car ride to the river. We got to the garage at 6:45 AM and were told that there was a car with one space left. In Senegal, one space actually means one space, so we had to wait for the next one which ended up leaving around 10:30. We piled in the Sete Place (7 place, it's kind of like a mini-station wagon) and headed into the mass of traffic that is Dakar. We pulled over in the middle of the city so that another passenger could load his two giant rams onto the roof. This is how one travels with animals here--you pop it in a rice sack, tie it up and tie it to the roof of a car. For 14 hours. Try to picture this happening in New York. The sheep were needless to say not too thrilled about the trip. It's funny to look out the window of the car and see the shadow on the road--car hood, car roof, giant sheep horns, back of car. At one point, one of the rams was so intent on escaping the plastic bag that he almost fell off the car. He was thumping around a lot, and suddenly the people in the way back seat started yelling to the driver to stop. I looked out my window and the ram was hanging off the side of the car. So we pulled over, plopped him back on and kept going.

We got to Bakel, the town where we cross the Senegal river, close to midnight. We got the driver to take us to the bar that the Portuguese road workers usually go to when they visit Bakel, and since they know us there they let us spend the night. We set up our tent on the floor in the back hall of the bar. We sure know how to travel in style! We left Bakel around 7 and waited for a few hours on the other side of the river for a car to Selibaby, and after a rough but mostly uneventful ride of the back of a pick-up we got home. John stayed for a few days and then took Maggie home to M'Bout (we drugged her a little to make the ride easier, and decided to keep her on his lap rather than taking the rice sack approach. They made it without any big problems).

So now I'm back in Selibaby and back to work. It's hard to believe that the 2nd trimester is almost over! In a couple weeks my students will take their end-of-trimester exam, and then we get a week off. It's starting to get hot again, so I think I'll take the opportunity to get out of Selibaby for the week before heading into the home stretch of the school year (which also happens to be the hot season...good times).

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of spring (or if you live in New England, more winter). And congrats to John's family on baby Eliana! She's beautiful :)