elliottkristi's Xanga

The New Year

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:13:11 GMT

The beginning of the new year found me participating in the training of the new volunteers for their 6 month evaluations in Nouakchott. I also found it my job to have to travel by taxi brousse back to Kaedi with a desktop computer. Not a fun experience. Moving a computer from taxi to taxi and trying to haggle with the garage mafia about the price of my ticket did not go well. First of all, how could I convince these people that I was a poor volunteer when I had a computer, second I was buying all of the backseat tickets so they wanted me just to pay for the whole car. It was a disaster. I was lucky to have two other volunteers with me to help.

The computer was for our Peace Corps bureau in Kaedi. There had been some mix ups about getting the computer to Kaedi on the PC vehicles so the Regional Coordinator, me, was left to fix the situation. Added on to that task I was also preparing for the biggest meeting I had ever planned and facilitated. It was scheduled for the 10th. I had to gather community members who were interested in the future of the GMC and explain our Goals and Objectives. On top of all that I was excitedly planning for the arrival of my friend Jenny to Casablanca where I was to join up with her for her 3 week tour of my Africa at the end of the month. My month looked very busy and thankfully the days passed quickly.

My meeting went great and I was so pleased with the reaction of the community members of Kaedi and the director of the school that I planned another one for the end of February. After the meeting and the holiday break the GMC opened up once again but this time to a very new program. I created a member committee of 4 girls who were to be representatives of the 30 members we had chosen at the beginning of the month. The 7 day a week program was cut down to 3 days of health lessons, computer trainings and a class on Saturdays for the young primary school aged girls, fully managed and taught by the high school aged members of the center. Everything was up and running smoothly without me and I hope to be able to leave the GMC fully operational without the PC by July.

Now I am preparing to go to Nouakchott again, this time to take a plane to Casablanca, Morocco to meet my friend Jenny for an 8 day adventure in a new country.

December 2007

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:47:41 GMT

I started December off in Mali, the country straight East of Mauritania. I went with my friend Brooke and we celebrated her Birthday, December 2nd, in style in the capital of Bamako. Many people who visit Mali go to Dogan country to see the beautiful desert rock formations but Brooke and I wanted to see green, not desert. We get enough of that. So we headed down south to Sikasso, near the Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast borders. We saw waterfalls and and jungle and experienced the Africa I had envisioned before coming to Mauritania.

Before I knew it, I was back to Kaedi and back to work with not very much time before the Christmas holidays. I wrote Christmas letters in time to send with my friend Nick, who was going home to America for the holidays. I was very jealous and made a promise to myself to always in the future make it home for the holidays if possible. I hope to never be away from my family on Christmas again. Once was enough to cure my independence. Twice was ridiculous. I've proved that I can survive the holidays without my family, there's no reason for me or my family to suffer again.

I left for Nouakchott the 23rd to prepare Obie's house (our Peace Corps director) for the big celebration of the Christmas Eve party and the Christmas day dinner. I alone was in charge of the decorations and all the other volunteers there at the house were working hard preparing all of the food. I worked the night of the 23rd and all day the 24th and was very happy with the way the house looked and felt. When Obie went to the US not long before, he picked up 100 red ornaments at Sam's Club and with all the lights and other decorations gathered from years prior I had enough to make an impression. My main priority was to bring a Wow! to everyone who walked in the front gate, so this meant the front of the house had to be spectacular. I hoped all the new volunteers would feel at home as soon as they walked through that gate.

Christmas was nice because I was busy and from Nouakchott I traveled 5 hours by bus up north to a city I hadn't visited before. Nouadhibou was big and modern with two story buildings and restaurants. The volunteers' homes had electricity, TV's and hot water. I stayed with a new volunteer, Maylen, in her Melrose Place style apartment and watched TV for straight 10 hours. We also walked to the famous ship graveyard, where ships from around the world come to die. Nouadhibou was much colder since it was surrounded by water and very windy and I enjoyed the New Years with the familiarity of struggling to keep warm.

November 2007

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:16:11 GMT

The GMC was opened and I was busy 7 days a week. Instead of choosing members the doors were opened for every high school aged girls who was interested. It was chaotic. The loonde (Pulaar word for the clay pot we keep water in) was always empty and it was very hard for me to get the girls to refill it. The members were tired of having to be there everyday and the new girls were coming too sporadically for me to have regular lessons. It was time for a change, but with Thanksgiving coming up and me preparing to go on vacation to Mali, I had to wait.

Things were changing at home with my host family though. We had new tenants, 3 Moor Female teachers (Moors are the white Mauritanians who speak classical Arabic). They brought with them good food and lots of noise. I cannot communicate with them because they do not speak French or Pulaar, but we get along with hand gestures and translations from my host brother Oumar and sister Mariam. Although my host brother, who comes for the month of Ramadan, was now preparing to go back to the big city of Nouakchott to continue his studies.

I had tried to get him a job with the Portuguese who are in my part of the country building a road, but things move slowly in Africa and we are, as of now, still waiting for the job for Oumar to start. The interesting thing about this road is that 30 years ago Americans built it. It's a sort of dirt/rock road that still exists but 30 years is a long time for a road to go without maintenance. Our Portuguese friends are making wonderful progress with the limited resources here and already the road to Lexhiba (before at least an hour from Kaedi) is only 30-45 minutes. This makes for a faster and less bumpy more enjoyable ride. It is also the road I take to go to Wadio, the village of my host family, so I have benefited as well as other volunteers who live along this road.

On November the 10th I took a group of 25 young primary aged girls out to my friend's village, Ganki, along the above mentioned road. We arrived to a group of singing girls and learned from the Kaedi Sage Femme (wise woman/midwife) about the dangers of female genital mutilation. I was very happy with the response from the girls and when asked if they thought they would still practice this when they had children they responded with lot's of no's and clicks (the sound mothers use here to express a disgust with a child's bad behavior). The day went fast and returned back to Kaedi in our rented "prison van" before the sun set.

October 2007

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:48:10 GMT

I stopped writing. It was mainly because I felt there was not much happening in my life that others would want to read and because a new volunteer told me she read my blog before she came to Mauritania and found it boring. So I quit, but my mother said I should just keep writing and that many people found it interesting. I think mainly they are her friends, but with encouragement from some others and some time today I will enter the events of the past couple of months and hope not to bore too many of you.

October started off with me in America! I was preparing to fly from Indiana to Texas for the wedding of my friend Shelly. Mom and I went for 5 days to spend our time navigating in our rental car around the strange highways of Texas. What is with those extremely confusing off and on ramps attached to the highways! We spent a lot of time making U turns underneath the overpasses.

We thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality of the Elam's in Wichita Falls. And the wedding was for us a week long party full of food, drinks and friends. I honestly wished that I could do it all over again. I also ate so much I could barely fit into my bridesmaid's dress that mom had brought over to Mauritania the February before for me to try on. At that time we thought we might have to take it in a bit, but I am so glad we didn't.

I was so happy to have my family and friends come visit me while I was at home, but the time was exhausting and I literally ate everything I could fit into my mouth and by the end of my time at home I was semi ready to get back to my life in Kaedi and finish my service with the Peace Corps.

I arrived in Kaedi just in time to prepare the GMC (after school program for girls) for the annual opening. In Mauritania we start school in October. This year I let the girls plan our party. They hired music and prepared speeches and and food. Everyone had a fabulous time and so did I. There were about 70 people there and we had snacks of popcorn and bengues, the same thing we had the year before only this time the members of he center had made them and I didn't have to pick them up from the market. It was less work for me, in fact I did barely anything and I was not nervous at all like I was the year before.

Fall is so green!

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:32:27 GMT

I'm so excited that it's finally September. I've now officially been here in Mauritania for one year. Right now things are very slow because the training for the new volunteers will end on Thursday, September 6th and then Ramadan will start around the middle of this month. I still have the GMC open 5 days a week but few girls are here in Kaedi because of vacation. I'm focusing on making contacts for mentors and preparing my site for the 3 new volunteers who will be joining. I also starting painting my room. White makes it look so clean.

I am also preparing to go home in 20 days! Just for a short vacation, I'm coming back. I'm so looking forward to picking up coffee at a drive through window and eating a big salad, without meat. I'm so tired of Chebujan, rice and fish. I hope to also enjoy watching cooking shows with my mother and sleeping in a bed and brushing my teeth over a sink and not my toilet/shower.

It's started to rain here for long periods of time. Other than the leaking in my room the rain brings nice things. The whole desert seems to turn into a green jungle. The grass pops up through the sand and it looks as though a golf course has just been laid. It seems to happen overnight. The rain also cools everything down. I've been able to sleep inside for the past 4 nights and my morning coffee doesn't make me sweat. Although my new Rainbow flip-flops aren't very pretty anymore because of the sandy mud.

I hope to have a chance to see most of you while I'm home.

Eco Camp

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:12:49 GMT

This past week I invited 6 girls from my Young Girls Club to join me and my mentor Khadjatou N'Diaye at the lycee for a 5 day environmental/health camp. All in all there were about 45 primary school aged girls from all of the country in Kaedi. We started off the week by splitting into 5 teams, each represented by a different animal. Brooke and I headed up the Shark team. It was filled with two of my girls from Kaedi, two girls from a village near Selibaby, two girls from Tawaz (near Atar), and two girls from Boghe. We of course won every event we participated in, except the Olympics, which we were cheated out of by Keith. The girls had a blast getting to know other girls from all over the country and learning how to make neeme cream. The neeme tree is a natural bug deterrent and the Peace Corps has discovered a way to make a cream out of the leaves and other local products. They also visited a local orchard full of mango and grapefruit trees.

As for the rest of May and June, I mostly traveled around. At the end of May I spent 5 days in my friend Virginia's village, M'Bagne. We conducted an exchange with 16 girls from my GMC staying with girls from her GMC. After the Exchange, Virginia, some other volunteer and I crossed the river to Senegal to start a day long journey to Saint Louis for Jazz Festival. We stayed in an Auberge and worked in a booth were we sold things made by cooperatives from Mauritania. We enjoyed eating a lot and listening to a lot of music!

I went to Nouakchott just in time for my Birthday and for an AIDS seminar. My friend Rachel and I share a birthday and we celebrated it for an entire week. First we went to a Moroccan restaurant in NKT with about 20 other people. The next day we had an amazing meal of chicken parmesan with salad full of avocadoes prepared by our friends Jess and Virginia at our Country Directors house. After dinner we watched "The Devil Wears Prada". We filled the rest of the week with pizza and other goodies we don't normally eat.

The rest of June was spent visiting friends in Aioun and traveling on a chartered flight to Senegal with my director to pick up the new trainees and escort them into Mauritania. Now I spend my day preparing training sessions in Kaedi for the future volunteers so they will be well prepared to run the GMC's all over the country. This is the first year for the new program of Gender And Development/Girl's Education and Empowerment and I happy to be a part of the Stage training.

Sorry for the delay in postings. I hope to be able to write at least once a month from now on.

Spring Time

Thu, 03 May 2007 08:51:11 GMT

If this is Spring I really don't want to be here for Summer. It's already above 100 degrees during the day. And I have to use a sheet if it dips below a cool 80 degrees during the night! Other than that I have been trying desperately to stay at site, until now. Every time I go away the GMC shuts down and is hard to get the girls to come back on a regular basis after. My goal is to get other people to run the center when I go away.

My new boss came to visit last week. It was really good to get to spend time with her and hear what her views are for the future of our GAD/GEE program. She was educated in Edinburgh, Scotland, but is Mauritanian. We were able to take a drive of a little over an hour to Lexeiba, a GMC site I have never been to. It was nice to see another center and I got a few ideas for my own center.

Two days ago I went back out to Ganki. I visited my friend Rachel there several months ago and went back for a short visit. I was again able to ride in a PCV (Peace Corps Vehicle) for free. It was a very pleasant ride. The windows were down, we were bouncing around, in a smooth way. The driver was playing some local African music and the sites were just what one would think Africa looks like in the dry areas. Little shrubs, camels, donkeys, goats and cows. There is a gravel road but we off-roaded it most of the way. It was great!

While in Ganki I enjoyed eating my beloved leciri e kosom, a porridge in milk, real milk:) We walked out to the marigot to see a garden with an old water pump that still works. It was beautiful to see lots of green and water. We ate tomatoes straight out of the garden, don't tell my mom and watched the cows who had come to get a drink from the marigot.

When it was time for me to leave we sat by the rode waiting for a karr (prison van) for over an hour and 1/2. Then when I went to get inside there was a cow, a pregnant cow, lying on the floor of the van. Poor thing. I told the owner I didn't think she was happy or comfortable, but he just laughed. C'est la vie ici en Afrique!

Mom's Visit

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 18:34:49 GMT

As some of you already know, my mother came to Africa all by herself just to visit me! I know it certainly wasn't to see the sights. As she can tell each and everyone of you over breakfast at Bob Evans there's really nothing to see except mercedes filled with more than 8 people, piled high with baggage and the occasional goat, stopping to let camels cross the road. She decided, on this so called vacation, that it was better to read her book than to look out the window. I don't blame her considering the drivers here always drive too fast, swerve too much and spend way too much time picking their noses.

So it all started with a 6am arrival in Dakar. Then a ride in a taxi to our homestay, an expat family. The woman had served in the Peace Corps in Niger and married a man who works for USAID. We had a lovely breakfast of homemade Valentine's cookies (thanks mom!) and headed to the American Club to watch my Mauritanian PCV friends play softball. We checked into our hotel later that afternoon and ate Korean that night.

The next few days were spent in luxury for me and camping in a "hotel" for mom. First we didn't have our own bathroom, it was down the hall, then we didn't have water...the usual. But we ate well. After Korean we ate Ethiopian and the Vietmanese in St. Louis, Senegal, then Moroccan and finally Lebanese in Mauritania. She definitely got the all around. But don't worry she ate plenty of the authentic African, Mauritanian food as well.

We traveled more days than not and before I knew it we were crossing the river into Mauritania and going to Nouakchott. We spent two days in my town, Kaedi and sped back to NKT for her flight back to Dakar. It went too fast and I can't believe she was here and is gone. If it hadn't been for the huge suitcase she left behind with so many goodies in it I would have thought it was a dream. It was so good to have her here to see everything for herself. I feel it's easier to talk to her knowing she knows what I'm talking about and can picture it for herself. But alas, she is here no more and I am sad. I will see her soon though.

Back in the swing of things!

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:39:37 GMT

Well, I've been back in Kaedi for one week. Last Sunday I flew to Nouakchott from Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain. I was there on my first vacation, spending time with Silja and Hauke. For those of you that don't know Sil, she is my sister from Germany. She lived with my family for a year when I was a freshman in high school. We are very close and I had a fabulous time. The air was clean, the streets paved, and the cheese never ran out:)

After arriving in NKT, I had lunch and then headed home to Kaedi. I arrived home around 10:30 pm just in time to receive a call from my mother. Right after I got off the phone with her I started to feel really sick. I ended up getting (Africa sick) just take a guess for about a week. It was the first time for me, however, my site mates were professionals at this sort of thing and helped me through the tough time. Now I truly feel like a Peace Corps Volunteer!

My friend Rachel from Ganky came into town on Wednesday and really helped me get up and going. I got so much done with her. On Saturday I held the GMC's first program for elementary and middle school age girls. It went so well and our next program is next Sunday. I had my GMC members (high school age) read short stories in French. Everyone loved it and we had about 30 young girls and 15 members. I'm really excited about the program and have been working with a local woman. Hopefully she will continue on with the program after I leave.

I have a couple of other pieces of news. We recently had a new baby lamb. Unfortunately she was sick and died after only 2 weeks. Last night I came home and we had electricity! Wow! That's a huge change for me after living for six months without it. However, it's not reliable and I think we might have stolen it from our neighbors. My mother is coming in less than one month!!!! I'm so excited but nervous about all the traveling she has to do. I would really appreciate all of your prayers for her health. I'm not sure she realizes how difficult it will be. Thanks for all your mail. I had 15 letters waiting for me when I got back from my vacation. I promise everyone of them will receive a reply. The hesitant dates for my visit back home next year are September 18-October 13. I can't wait! Was really happy to hear about the Colts! Wish I could be there to watch the game!

Ok, I will sign off. Please feel free to contact me through my email.

Kristi

Happy Holidays!

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 15:39:08 GMT

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas! I looked so forward to the holidays this year and now December is almost finished. I am back in Kaedi for the Muslim holiday of Tobaski. It is a celebration to remember when Abraham sacrificed his son Ishmael. I'm not an expert on the holiday, but I know there will be a lot of food and forgiving. It's a holiday that takes place 3 lunar moons after Ramadan ends. It will be either the 31st of December of the 1st of January.

I left Kaedi the 22nd of December in a PC car. It was such a nice 5hr drive with only 3 people in the back seat and the best part was that it was free! We got burgers to celebrate our entrance into the big capital city of Nouakchott, then check into our hotel. It was so nice! A bed, a bathroom with sink, shower and toilet! The best part was that we had hot water and an air climatiser (AC). I was in heaven. That night we went out for Mexican. The restaurant was decorated for Christmas and my friend Brooke and I took pictures by the Christmas tree. I will post them as soon as Brooke sends them to me.

The next day Brooke and I ran around to visit our language facilitators, Hawa and Biri, who live in NKT. Hawa is pregnant and will bring her baby to Stage in Kaedi this next summer. I'm so excited. We also met Biri's wife and two daughters for the first time. We had so much fun eating lot's of chicken and speaking French all day. That night we were not hungry at all so we bought pastries for dinner. That was the perfect day!

The next day was Christmas Eve and the day of our party at our director's house. We arrived at 6pm and greeted everyone. The house is big and beautiful but the best part is that it's cozy. It was the first time I truly felt comfortable. The best part about the night was the San Diego Chargers and Seattle Seahawks football game on the Army channel. I watched the entire game and was so happy the Chargers pulled through. We back to our hotel around 4 in the morning but we were up by 8 and ready for brunch back at our director's. Since the 2nd year volunteer's made our Christmas Eve dinner the first years were in charge of brunch. I was designated dishwasher and because I'm like my father I was very happy with the job.

Ok, I'm running out of time and will add more later!

Happy New Year's!