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

Teaching?

You easily find my pictures by clicking on the tab on the right of the screen titled 'Pictures in Africa.' I will continue posting because I love speaking with pictures and Ithey spice up my blog. I recently watched a documentary "Born into Brothels" filmed in the red light district of Calcutta. Children are given cameras to capture their lives, but instead of exploiting their work they are given chance to go to school. The title is duanting but give it a shot and look at the kids on the cover instead of the title.
Anyway, teachers here are on strike next week, April 15-....until who knows when? I have found it more difficult working with the educators than the students. I live with two teachers in my village, Tagia teaches French and Wagea is a Science wiz. They are both miserable because in Mauritania teachers are placed throughout the country according to the needs of the regions not according to where the teacher is from. There is a preference 'region list' each teacher fills out during the summer and they list their top three regions. I would imagine that my village didn't make any of those lists. These two men have found life here unbelievably difficult because they are both far from their friends, families and first language- Yeah, I can relate a little. I'm not aware of the repercussions if a teacher is absent but the one week spring break became a three week tour of Mauritania. If they don't teach to begin with then
my question is, why are they going on strike? (I'm not speaking on behalf of the entire Educational system in Mauritania, only the bushes that I live in)

Electricity problems in Selibaby

Greetings again. Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. There have been rolling blackouts the past couple weeks throughout the city and we haven't figured out the pattern, I mean that would be too easy right? Boutique owners are seriously suffering as they are losing all of their cold products. Drinks, ice, Mauritanian popsicles...etc, forget about trying to cool down when it's 130degrees.

Anyway, life is going well, school is almost over (if you could only see me jumping up and down every time I leave class) and the new volunteers are almost here! I have never been more excited to become a veteran, although I feel as if I know exactly the same amount as I did coming in almost a year ago. It's humorous reading their frightened concerns about what to pack and what to expect because the current volunteers remember these thoughts far too well. Maybe I don't know anymore than I did, but our daily challenges such as traveling, how to eat, language, how to use the bathroom and which hole to squat over provide us with our intimidating PC intelligence. (whoa sarcasm)
I will hopefully upload a few pictures from village life soon. Oh yeah and Nana, Im taking my malaria medicine- I really don't have and never did have malaria :)

This is my cute, little, African mother Magita. She moved to Ould Yenge from Germany three years ago because she simply wanted to change her life. Magita was tired of living in the materialistic world and wanted to teach children...so she moved to Africa. Yes, she is the bravest woman that I have ever met. We get together a couple times a week to laugh, cook, cry, and vent about village life. She teaches preschool age children French, English and Arabic at her home in her backyard. I was nervous once I found out that I would be the only volunteer in my village, but having Magita only a couple huts away is the same as a site mate. I'm not sure if I would have made it this long without her support- she is such an inspiration! She recently built her own house and plans on living in

the village for the rest of her life. That wasn't a typo, she is never leaving. Yeah, she is somewhere in between the lines of amazingly generous and crazy. She is loved, admired and a huge hit with the children.

Since it is veggie season (November-March) the farmers protect their precious veggies on top of their houses when they dont' sell everything in the market. If they attempted to put the veggies anywhere else they would be devoured by animals and maybe myself. The picture above was taken on top of my roof overlooking my neighbors house. Love this view!
This is my new bedroom- I moved from a mud hut to tile! Let's talk about an upgrade. Life is much better ---I mean, much cleaner :)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!! I was surrounded by all my close friends and delicious food during the tough holiday season in Nouakchott, so no worries Nana. I think I might have gained 10 lbs after that care package of pure chocolate and peanut butter you sent. Thank you! Thank you to everyone for the Christmas presents- you guys rock! I cannot believe that it's already January... I have been here for almost 7months. I'm having a great volunteer experience in Mauritania, but love being able to say that next July I will be home. I miss you all and civilization dearly.
On Friday I am heading back into the bushes of Ould Yenge (still not sure how to spell it because I have seen at least three different 'correct' spellings) and will be there until February 10th. I have cell phone service if you for some reason have to hear my voice..don't hesitate to call. I might even answer during class because classroom interruptions are pretty regular. You have the occasional cups of tea being offered,fights to break up,teachers asking you questions about politics, students asking for money... and the list goes on. People don't take me seriously at school because no one at school takes it seriously.
This month I am really working hard because I have taken the last month off with Peace Corps sessions in the capital and then New Years in St. Louis, Senegal. Hopefully the ball will start rolling with the girls mentoring center this month before I leave again in February. On February 15th Peace Corps Volunteers will be heading down to Senegal for a softball tournament- WAIST, West African Invitational Softball Tournament. Mauritania has claimed victory for the past 5 years and will hopefully take home the gold again this year. This will be a refreshing vacation before Spring break in March.
I'm finding it harder and harder to write to people and on this blog not because I don't miss you, but I'm adjusting to my new life here. Slowly I'm developing wonderful friendships with other volunteers and even with people in my village. We met a couple Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal, which I cannot even imagine being a volunteer there because they are living the luxurious life, anyway, and he told us that their Country Director and Medical Officer told them that they should 'try to be more like the volunteers in Mauritania because we are working in one of the hardest countries in Peace Corps." We all had these cheesy smiles on our faces and responded with sarcastically surprised "Really?" Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm working in an extremely difficult place- that should tell you something about my standards right now.
I don't know when I will be able to write again, but know that since distance and technology make communication difficult you all are always in my thoughts and prayers! See you soon.
xoxoxoxoxox
PS- I was at the beach on Christmas Eve and we made that cute little sandman :)