After many months in Mauritania my service has come to an end. I am now back in Kentucky and not sure about my next few steps. Thank you for all the encouraging emails and wonderfully put together care packages- you all saved many of my days in the sand.

Three countries in three weeks...

My dearest friend Jane has come and gone (super sad face) and now I find myself back in he... Mauritania. We started our journey in Dakar, Senegal which is my least favorite city in West Africa. Crowded with aggressive, unhappy merchants selling the same over priced crap on every corner. After Dakar we dined with monkeys and played with crocodiles in the Gambia. In Mali we slept in historic villages gracefully placed atop mountain cliffs- I felt like we were always overlooking Pride Rock. We ran into several volunteers from all over West Africa which greatly took some of the pressure off our travel. I advise anyone who is traveling through West Africa to fly or take a car because cheap buses don't necessarily guarantee anything...even destinations. I feel like I lost part of my soul during the trek from Mali back to Dakar. Twenty hours into our 40 hour bus ride back to Dakar in our 130deg mini bus, 100 people over capacity, the woman beside us and the boy in front of us began getting car sick and before we knew it their previous meals slowly cooked on the bus floor. Pretty exciting stuff- but all in all, I will speak on behalf of both of us, we had a wonderful West African adventure. :) Everything seems easier once it’s over, right? Miss you already Jane. All my love.

One year down..one more to go.

I made it back to Kiffa last night around 10pm after a twelve hour exhausting taxi ride. Not only was it uber humid and unbelievably hot but I was also forced to sit in between two mulafa women (not the smallest people) wearing indigo mulafas. *Indigo mulafa= Deep blue, long piece of fabric covering the entire body. Embedded with a powder like substance that leaves the skin with a pretty gnarly frost bite color until washed off. I guess men here really dig the obese death look- there is also a whitening cream the women put on that gives their faces a white, burnt appearance. Not sure what all the ingredients are but I'm pretty sure bleach is one of them. When I arrived in Kiffa lats night I was lookin' pretty good- sweaty and blue and I still somehow managed to decline three marriage proposals. Beauty is definitely only in the eye of the beholder.
School is over, finally! One school year down and one more to go. One of the teachers wants to work on starting an English club this summer so hopefully I won’t be entirely bored everyday. I'm working on uploading pictures onto Picasa and will hopefully have the link on here soon.
The new volunteers will be here SATURDAY! Hopefully I will have a few site mates this upcoming year because right now things are a bit lonely being the only volunteer here. I had a trainee email me a few weeks ago from Kentucky because she was in Glasgow working with Paula Brooks and mentioned leaving in June with the Peace Corps. South central KY will be strongly represented this year :) what a small world.

Back in business

After a few unfortunate circumstances in my village I have moved to the second largest city in Mauritania, Kiffa. I joke that now I'm a 'big city girl' not only soaking up the Sahara sun but also amenities- running water and electricity! I seriously couldn't be happier. Although these are both flaky during the hot season, I will survive. Since I had to move at end of the school year I don't have my own classes. I am co-teaching with one of the Mauritanian teachers at the Middle school with one of his classes of 70+ girls. I wont even begin explaining that- not yet at least.

The other day I was walking around my neighborhood greeting a few boutique owners and an elderly woman began flagging me down and I immediately thought that she was mistaking me for someone else since I have been told that all Americans look the same. She asked me if George Bush was my brother because we look exactly alike...hmm, thank you?hah. I was relieved that she didn't want anything else.. not even a religious talk? Surprising.

Everything is going well. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dear friend Jane in June- my year anniversary in Africa. We will not be visiting Mauritania for obvious reasons but instead traveling through Senegal and The Gambia. Miss you all. I will try to be more consistent with the posts. Love