Ch.2

Oct 8, 1994

Today, I hope FSU beats Miami in football. I hope to find a new family to live with. Last night, I ate with the Secretaire de la Region, (regional secretary). I had a wonderful time. At my house, nobody really talks with me and the 18-year-old boy who is in charge of keeping me keeps asking me to give him my stuff. Other people here are really nice. Last night, we talked in French of the disease here (AIDS is not very common here!) and the official told me of what he knew about America (quite a bit!) We speak in French, of course. Mine is still not real good, but it is getting better.

Well, I have much more to say but I wanted to wrap up this letter so I could get it off in the mail.

Oct 15, 1994

I'm writing in black because I just found an American pen that actually writes, unlike these other Mauritanian pens. I don't know whether or not to be upset today, I just found out that FSU lost to Miami, 29-28 (The rumor mill at work in Africa: the actual score was 34-20, I think.) I feel like I should not be upset because I am here in Africa "doing great things." But actually, I am a little mad. Though I am 5000 miles away, I am still an American and still a Seminole.

Life has been pretty good here. It has been pretty hot, around 100 degrees every day, but it doesn't feel nearly as bad as it sounds. The heat here is very bearable, as I have learned that the human system of perspiration is very effective at cooling the body in low humidity environments. However, there is a price to be paid in water consumption. Yesterday, I drank about five liters of water (more than one gallon) and went to the bathroom once.

Yesterday was a really fun day

for us all. We went "en brousse" which in English means "in the bush." We went to a village in the country and just hung out and played football and soccer and Frisbee and stayed cool by drinking beacoup "a lot" and sitting under a tree. The village sat on a hill overlooking a plain with merigos (French "merigots") (seasonal lakes) and mountains on the other side. One picture is of me with my friend Ben and a man

who spoke no French that wanted me and Ben to give him some money. As white men, we are always assumed to be rich people. Though I don't feel rich in America, I do here. Everyone here survives on what Americans would see as nothing. It was a big party for us yesterday, because they slaughtered two goats and buried them and cooked them and I ate a little bit (the intestines in my bowl didn't look too appetizing.) Everyone here thinks I hate kids because I held a belt in my hand to retrieve my football. Kids here respect sticks and belts but nothing else.

10/19/94

Though I am kind of feeling bad today, yesterday was a really good day. Ben and I and the three sons of the Secretaire de la Region and the son in my family and a cousin went on our first hike out of the city (and possibly the last). It was really cool. They took us to a rock with some petroglyphs

on it, and some engravings on top of the rock. I hope you like the pictures. We had about a six-mile walk, and we carried our five-liter jugs of water in our backpacks. It was about 110 degrees when we left town, but it cooled off when we got in the country. It was really beautiful there-it reminded me of why I wanted to come to Africa. I just hope I did it justice with the pictures.

As I think I told you before, I have been named the fou (fool)/bandit/animateur of the group. I am having a lot of fun here with everybody, and I think/hope that I have been good for the group. All of the staff know me by name, and I just wish I could remember all of their names.

Today, right now as I write this, we are in a cross-culture class. Today the topic is: if you walked into a room with three groups: western, blacks, and Moors (Arab descent). It is really exciting and is providing me with valuable insight (NOT!). We have 4 types of classes here: language, 40%, tech-training, 40%, cross-culture, 15%, and medical ~5%. In these x-culture classes we examine interpersonal relationships and I learn very little here (but I think others are severely lacking and have the potential to learn much), along with learning about the different cultures found here in Mauritania. I just learned in class that "all" Mauritanian women are circumcised. (Not true!)

Each week, a new person (volunteer from the field) comes in to talk to us about water and sanitation. Last week, a really nice guy named Scott was here and he took me to the market to buy the beads I sent. The two oblong stone beads were dug up near Kiffa (supposedly), and are extremely old. Another bead-a clear blue/purple one (you know I don't know) is a slave bead (possibly!) These beads were used to pay for slaves a long time ago. (I don't know when.)

It rained last night. That is the third time it has rained since I have been here.

10/22/94 Saturday

This day is like Monday in the states. We have Friday off to do whatever we want to do and we start back in school today. It keeps us all really screwed up. Today we saw our first dust storm and we went up on the roof to watch a cool lightning storm here, when it storms, the winds kick up a tremendous amount of dust. After it rains, the next day is clear and extremely hot.

Yesterday, our day off, was really fun. Myself, Ben, Kaylen, Dawn, (one of my fellow Water Sanitation volunteers) the nurse Barbara, and two others went to several villages en brousse.

It was a lot of fun. The volunteers have pretty nice houses. Two of three were made of concrete and they were really clean. Each of the volunteers lived in a house by themselves and shared a yard with another family or families. The biggest problem I foresee in brousse is a lack of food. We have vitamins to take because in Mauritania fruits and vegetables are available only at certain times of the year. I have started a list of foods that I eat here that I don't eat at home: onions, eggplant, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, and the other native stuff that we don't have at home.

Exciting news on the medical front: I had a marvelous case of diarrhea on Thursday (bathroom trips 5 times in 5 hours-after every eat or drink I had.) By Friday morning, Cipro, an antibiotic, had cured that, but during the night I was hit by the blister beetle that causes you to blister up where it pees on your skin. (Actually, it exudes a fluid from the base of its hind legs. Close enough!) There really are some nice creatures here in Africa.

Well, I'm home now and I wish everyone would leave my house. It is storming, and three people were in my room to watch me write. I ran two off, but now the son remains, and he won't take a hint to leave. He just asked me to give him my blank cassettes. He is always asking me to give him something so I just gave him the el-cheapo Optek sunglasses. I think that there is no better way to annoy me than to sit here and watch me while I write. Finally, he just left, and I hope he doesn't come back.

It has been difficult to communicate with the states form here. Mail goes out to Nouakchott on Wednesday mornings. The phone service is terrible, and the only available phone is at the post office, where I can use the phone only from 10:00 to 10:30, and even then it is hard to get through. A 3 minute phone call to the states costs 8 bucks, or 900 ouguiyas (half of my weekly salary.) When I called home to talk to mom, it took 27 minutes to place the call, if you can call it that. Otherwise, things are going well. My butt hurts today from the gamma globulin shot I had yesterday. I also had the third in a series of rabies vaccinations yesterday. I have now started to be or been completely vaccinated against yellow fever, malaria, rabies, hepatitis B, typhoid, polio, and possibly some others but I can't remember. We all feel like pincushions.

Have I mentioned that I don't have to do my laundry here? Each Saturday, I bring my clothes in and a lady hand washes all of my laundry (except for my underwear-we have to wash them ourselves.)

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