tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4080046398804361912024-02-18T23:40:45.086-08:00Selibaby ShelbsThis blog represents the opinions of Me only and in no way reflects the views of the united states peace corps or any other mentioned organizations or people.Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-38546350845756683702010-02-20T08:26:00.000-08:002010-10-05T12:11:29.519-07:00Folktales/Stories/FolkloreWhile attending our "Mid-Term Reconnect"/"Consolidation Conference"/"Transition Conference" in Thies, Senegal, prior to our evacuation we had a training session entitled Mauritanian Folktales/Stories/Folklore led by a few Mauritanian teachers who shared some local folklore and symbolism with us and a few illustrative tales. This morning I found my very...um..."interesting" notes (Mr. Sisco, I imagine you know exactly to what I'm referring here...). At any rate, I read through them for old times sake and stumbled upon the folklore page, on which I had taken the time to paraphrase two of the Mauritanian Folktales; I thought perhaps some of you out there might be interested in reading these, especially those PCRIM folks who unfortunately happened to be on vacation during this conference and missed out on this session. I'm sure I tried to write as close to what was being dictated as possible, so the wording is a little odd, as it is directly translated from French, either in my head, or the head of the teacher telling the story. Enjoy!<br />
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"A hare (symbolizes honesty, intelligence) had a cow and a fox (symbolizes cunning) had a bull. The cow became pregnant and the fox insisted on being the herder for the day of the birth. When the calf was born the fox said said it was his bull's calf. The hare knew it was his cow so they went to the judge, a squirrel (no idea what this symbolizes...), who said to come back tomorrow for a judgement. When they came back the squirrel made sounds like he was in labor. The fox said that was impossible because the squirrel is a male so the squirrel said 'okay, so give the calf to the cow.' MORAL: Calves are for cows, kids are for moms."<br />
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"Once upon a time a turtle (who represents patience, wisdom) worked at a blacksmith and he tells everyone to keep their mouth shut or he'll burn their mother, but a guy just says 'wow! a talking turtle!' and runs to the king and says 'look! a talking turtle!' The king says if he's lying he will be killed so he tries and tries to get the turtle to talk but he won't. They hang the man and right before he dies the turtle says 'keep your mouth shut or i'll burn your mother!' MORAL: Keep your mouth shut about other peoples business."<br />
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Yay for Mauritania!!!Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-13758041921872667222009-09-21T14:24:00.000-07:002009-09-21T14:24:42.300-07:00New Blog!Hey Everyone!<br />
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I'm updating everyone on my existence at a new address these days:<br />
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http://unemployedinasmalltown.blogspot.com/<br />
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Chronicling my adventures and misadventures seeking employment on a blog for all interested parties to enjoy! Please check it out~I'm looking for suggestions. If you know people who are hiring, send me their info! I'll apply and if the opportunity doesn't work for me I'll throw it up on the blog for others to check out!<br />
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Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to do so!<br />
ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-30978554570160197852009-08-16T06:07:00.000-07:002009-08-16T06:42:24.791-07:00GoodbyeDear Followers of my blog,<br /><br />For the past 14 months I have been posting the emails that i send to my friends and family on this blog in case i missed anyone on the email list that might be following the blog. I have to say that the comments have surprised me at times, i never thought very many people would see it or read it and i never thought it would be people who didn't even know me. I wanted to make one last post for you guys, the parents of other volunteers, other volunteers themselves, "future" RIM volunteers from the group that didn't quite make it ( so sorry we never got to meet guys, we were looking forward to it just as much as you were, but hey now you can be thankful because it would have been pretty miserable to get there only to be evacuated), and any others who read/are reading this. <br /><br />Thank you for letting me tell you my story, it always feels good to have a story to tell that people want to hear. I will not be posting on this blog any more unless I decide to re-enroll in the peace corps and go somewhere else, but at this moment the chance of that seems pretty remote. I was immensely attached to my family and life in Mauritania and moving straight out of there and into a new community just doesn't feel like something i'm strong enough to handle any time soon. I know that I would be comparing these relationships to the ones i made in Mauritania and its not fair to go into a new community with that outlook. I was very lucky in the two host families that i had in mauritania, both during training and at site I was made to feel welcome and like a member of a family within moments of my arrival. I can't express how much this meant to me and i wouldn't trade these experiences for the world. <br /><br />To all the prospective Peace Corps Volunteers out there that might be reading this: I know the application process is so drawn out its painful, there are people in my class who had been waiting 2 or 3 years for a placement. Just know that Peace Corps itself, the whole experience, will be long, drawn out, and sometimes discouraging and exhausting, just like the application process, but when you get there, if you have the right attitude, and your open to whatever might happen, i promise it can be the best decision you have ever made in your life. <br /><br />Finishing Peace Corps, whether you're ready or not, is not like leaving any other job you will ever have. I may have left my heart in Mauritania but the pain of leaving is nothing compared to the joy of the experiences and memories that i brought back with me. <br /><br />Good luck to everyone applying/transferring/continuing/debating service! I know I'll do Peace Corps again some day, but not until I'm good and ready. <br /><br />The group of people I served with were all amazing in their own way, and so talented and motivated that even though this feels like the end of something big for us (well, it is) and is also the beginning of something even bigger! Good luck everyone! Especially those that direct transferred and are continuing right now, I admire your strength and dedication. <br /><br />To the parents of direct transfer folks, I bet you wanted them to come home at least a little bit, but I bet you're just bursting with pride in your awesome child for their decision to continue(Tim's mom, that ones for you!). <br /><br />To Anyone Else who might be reading this: Does anyone have a job for me? Just kidddddding! I love you all, but I most likely won't write anymore. <br /><br />Goodbye,<br /><br />Shelby Perry, RPCV<br />Health Education Volunteer/Water Sanitation Engineer<br />Selibaby Mauritania <br />June 2008 to August 2009Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-35264680956886938192009-08-10T15:32:00.000-07:002009-08-10T16:05:50.936-07:00some highlights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9onURKaU1RboBNxmNkq3_vP2xRL7tuLou4yflPRKWmHx41EaXtjJR5Stl_8ICu2oOHYUpSCoRvyUwWxXGTWy1vaeQiMviiB2Kx5Tba8lMI1HGgrZYTdUg6g_Z8uXOXf6Z4VhdDSkN2Gs/s1600-h/Eco-Camp+125.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9onURKaU1RboBNxmNkq3_vP2xRL7tuLou4yflPRKWmHx41EaXtjJR5Stl_8ICu2oOHYUpSCoRvyUwWxXGTWy1vaeQiMviiB2Kx5Tba8lMI1HGgrZYTdUg6g_Z8uXOXf6Z4VhdDSkN2Gs/s320/Eco-Camp+125.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368471443918578306" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkznu-LQu-5jFc1kzJNIVmon9DkWg3_0lwLCHMtkU2l9wIKz3oPOM417SC24PsVtAfoQSUCKoGZmNpP4UufY6XHnZKP7nqJ5MF2riykhr1wQV06Hb8zM6UgnSjrKrKqkf7ZLdrC4qrHs/s1600-h/Eco-Camp+081.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkznu-LQu-5jFc1kzJNIVmon9DkWg3_0lwLCHMtkU2l9wIKz3oPOM417SC24PsVtAfoQSUCKoGZmNpP4UufY6XHnZKP7nqJ5MF2riykhr1wQV06Hb8zM6UgnSjrKrKqkf7ZLdrC4qrHs/s320/Eco-Camp+081.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368471440645334818" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzbkv-fQ-wDLyR6m6NhimD6jFo_0xRiayhovkQcLPSo5z-wtsxYo4zjNzClp2ZmbuWlqQwc_HMZpuj7MKtS3MVlQskLvi3wUe3HUVlK6EUeMMwguejjFtHoeg_61N3xxgE-cBNslUpAo/s1600-h/Eco-Camp+028.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKzbkv-fQ-wDLyR6m6NhimD6jFo_0xRiayhovkQcLPSo5z-wtsxYo4zjNzClp2ZmbuWlqQwc_HMZpuj7MKtS3MVlQskLvi3wUe3HUVlK6EUeMMwguejjFtHoeg_61N3xxgE-cBNslUpAo/s320/Eco-Camp+028.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368471434355996226" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9h3nWihBl2JmRn-oz9X_cZAB7e4Yvm7_g1Sv5SaZ_-ZYOBDFw8-lTZdVZGo029PmWjOhuk9iGlDH_69u7cvPovtEezAtYi7p-vq2_0yxcVLvYHS8v1uhKd8vljwOmo4JcNCUJGwKSeKA/s1600-h/may+008.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9h3nWihBl2JmRn-oz9X_cZAB7e4Yvm7_g1Sv5SaZ_-ZYOBDFw8-lTZdVZGo029PmWjOhuk9iGlDH_69u7cvPovtEezAtYi7p-vq2_0yxcVLvYHS8v1uhKd8vljwOmo4JcNCUJGwKSeKA/s320/may+008.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368468377162005426" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIkp8t6aSDa0X2KM6cC5z5iE2lhIhoOtGoTBIOFxEqMfePxLs4ZFpR_GiwoLmtkeDmHHuSO1IF33EWFHApFJLKj9Y931PsEyIcJTetClpMMf8pqqBaRPp5Lj9rbu2iPeryPRKQbQtNj0/s1600-h/Eco-Camp+089.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIkp8t6aSDa0X2KM6cC5z5iE2lhIhoOtGoTBIOFxEqMfePxLs4ZFpR_GiwoLmtkeDmHHuSO1IF33EWFHApFJLKj9Y931PsEyIcJTetClpMMf8pqqBaRPp5Lj9rbu2iPeryPRKQbQtNj0/s320/Eco-Camp+089.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368468371934716738" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8NpBF9SnKh4TwwBeId6euJE5St42RY3pHk2YzupE6IWflUspnDC_YcMWQQRVVYqV1M9A6qxo8iXfq61ki5Qm64vSlDOK7XBL4_kLigAYJYLkasXTVMttJcPfzatRZ2B6XXTl0SxRz-s/s1600-h/June-July+09+001.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM8NpBF9SnKh4TwwBeId6euJE5St42RY3pHk2YzupE6IWflUspnDC_YcMWQQRVVYqV1M9A6qxo8iXfq61ki5Qm64vSlDOK7XBL4_kLigAYJYLkasXTVMttJcPfzatRZ2B6XXTl0SxRz-s/s320/June-July+09+001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5368468366016742530" /></a>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-29731350196673561722009-08-10T15:31:00.000-07:002009-08-10T15:32:08.243-07:00oh crap.10 August 2009<br /><br />Dear beloved friends and family,<br /><br />It has been wonderful corresponding with you all through email over the past 13 months, sharing my experiences with you and hearing your reactions has been such a rewarding part of all of this for me. I have missed you all dearly but i never could have done what i have been doing without your support and understanding and love. With that said i would like to give you the latest bit of bad news in a string of bad new-es...after a few security threats came to light on friday (confidential, they can't even tell me) and then suicide bombing in nouakchott on saturday night (that didn't kill anyone but the bomber himself in case you're worried) the United States Peace Corps has decided to suspend the program starting immediatly and continuing indefinitely. What does this mean? First that i am very very sad, we all are, i have cried a great deal all ready and i used up all my phone credit so i can't even call my parents of my host family until i go out and buy more but when i do i will cry some more. As long as we are continuing our career with peace corps we are forbidden from traveling in, passing through, or visiting mauritania at all. I have many options ahead of me, exactly what they are i will find out tomorrow morning in detail but they involve transfering to a different program, completeing my service and leaving, signing up for peace corps response, or interrupting my service, leaving the option to return open if the program reopens. I don't know what i'll do yet but i will know by friday because thats all the time i have to decide. This bomb was dropped on me just about an hour ago and i don't even really know how to process it yet but i will say this, i respect the decision of the peace corps, i will respect their wishes and not return to mauritania, but i want everyone to know completely and truly that this has nothing to do with mauritanians as a people, nor does it have anything to do with muslims, this is because of an outside threat that has been brought to the attention of peace corps. The director of peace corps herself, Jody Olsen, came here to break the news to us and she is a huge supporter of the mauritania program and told us how much our relationships and families mean to us and it was obviously very hard for her to break this news to us, so i can completely respect the peace corps side of things, and i know you all will too. <br /><br />I know you will all be supportive to me in whatever capacity i choose to continue or discontinue my peace corps service and i hope you all know how much this has meant to me. Start planning my welcome home party, i could be out of here as early as friday and i want to see you all as soon as possible! Ann, tubing? Becky...i'll pay for half your flight up if you can come see me...Mom and Dad call me! i ran out of phone credit...i want to talk to you! Cory...thank you for everything! and i mean everything! all the packages, the harddrives, the phone calls, the support, the everything, you are the best brother imaginable and i know you had more to send and were going to keep supporting me through it all and it was your birthday even when we were talking about it so i just wanted to say thank you and i love you and thank you! <br /><br />I love you allllllllllllllllllllll with all my heart, see you all so soon i can't even believe it. I have been evacuated. crap.<br /><br />shelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-64399974265742154072009-08-03T12:02:00.000-07:002009-08-03T12:04:24.055-07:00J'ai de la chance!August 3rd, 2009<br /><br />Hellllllllllllo!<br /><br />Bet you’re all curious where I’ve been huh? Well okay maybe not but I’m going to tell you anyway! I’m on my little vacay, in Senegal, at a posh establishment enjoying all of the beer and cheese and ice cream Senegal has to offer in the company of 50 of my closest friends on the continent. So what have I done? I feel like a kid at camp…some days we have technical sessions, training activities, and other times we have trips to various attractions in the area including a company that hand weaves famous African art into huge tapestries the likes of which hang in the UN, the Atlanta Airport, and other rich folks home (they cost ~$1000 per square meter) and I vowed someday I’ll come back when I’m rich and buy one. The artist that scales them up or down for the patterns is waiting for me, he has faith, I’ll be back. The tapestries themselves are all woven by local women and though I went on a weekend and was unable to see them weaving, I saw photos of them working on huge looms and it made me think of Birdi (you would have just loved this place, I wish I could have shared it with you! What an amazing place!). We also visited a local artisan’s village but I found them to be way too used to tourists and seriously over priced…they wanted to speak to me in their broken English even though its much easier for both parties involved to do the bargaining in French, they tried to trip me by dropping the price and then when I counter they would ramp it back up and say it all excitedly like it was a fantastic deal for me to pay 2000 more than the price I just turned down, I’m guessing it works for them with tourists but I told them that I wanted to think about it and then peaced out, besides, my friend Dame tells me I should save my money to spend in Mauritania anyway, that’s where I live and work and I owe it to them to inject my money back into that economy, so I held off on purchasing. There was a little drum that tempted me a great deal but I couldn’t get the man below 5000 cfa (roughly $10.00) and I felt like it was a little bit much so I waited and found it from another woman that knows and loves peace corps Mauritania for 2500 cfa so I’m pretty glad I waited. <br /><br />In the artisans village I met a gentleman named Booboo who spoke a good amount of English but was not exactly fluent and he kept calling me back to show me his wares, I told him I was just there with my friends and I wouldn’t buy anything so I didn’t want to go look and he relented but then called me back over later and asked “excuse me, can we do the friendly?” which I think meant that he wanted to be friends. Just to be sure I asked what he meant and he clarified with “you know…for….possibility.” I’m still not exactly sure what this entails but I said no just to be safe. <br /><br />Yesterday we were bussed as a group out to a monastery to tour the gardens and watch the service if we wanted, and sample their Besop wine and goat cheese, it was beautiful there! We walked through grapefruit and avocado and cashew orchards, in vine-draped, tree-lined paths around the whole property. After that we boarded the busses again and took a driving tour around Lac Rose, a pink salt lake where men in dugout canoes were scooping salt off the bottom like sand and filling buckets that women carried to piles on their heads. It was really neat to see, especially the goats climbing the 10 or 20 foot high piles of salt. When we came out the other end we continued on to the beach and had a picnic with chicken sandwiches and apples and then swam in the ocean and played Frisbee...it was fantastic. So clearly folks, I’m living a very rough life here and deserve your sympathy! Oh, hey and thank your Mauritanian government because the delay in visa processing for the security team has extended our vacation and we will be spending a long weekend staying on the shore at another beach community where other volunteers have offered to give surfing lessons and huts on the beach sell cold beers. I’m really suffering…seriously. <br /><br />If all goes according to plan we should all be back in Mauritania by the middle of the month with our noses fitted snugly to the grindstone, trying to catch up on all the work we’re NOT doing right now. I feel like one of those people that join the army picturing the deserts of the middle east and ends up getting stationed in Hawaii...pinch me, this is surely too good to be true!<br /><br />Okay I’m running out of computer battery but love and happy thoughts too all, I’ll write more when I know!<br /><br />Shelby<br /><br />ps. Puppy had 6 puppies...so i'll have that waiting for me when i get back too!Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-23603215685410715812009-07-24T10:42:00.000-07:002009-07-24T10:48:52.723-07:00PANIC ATTACK! (just kidding)July 24, 2009<br /><br />Helllllo Friends and Family,<br /><br />Here I go, playing with your heart strings some more! So I’m taking a little...umm…trip. To be exact it’s a country-wide peace corps excursion to Senegal! BEFORE YOU FREAK OUT I AM NOT BEING EVACUATED AND THERE IS NO SECURITY THREAT THAT CAUSED THIS TRIP! Okay, now that I have that out of the way, heres what happened:<br /><br />I had big plans for this weekend, I hopped on a taxi late yesterday afternoon and headed out to Tabatha’s village, Coumba N’Dao, and we planned mosquito repellent making sessions, moringa powder demos, a pilgrimage out to the Pulaar village to visit some mutual friends, and some world map painting, plus some good old fashioned duck duck goose with the eco-health camp girls. Unfortunately, as frequently happens ‘round these parts, all of my big plans were foiled. About 2 hours after arriving, Tab and I were wandering from house to house in the town greeting every one of Tab’s friends that would be offended if we didn’t greet them the moment another volunteer arrived in town, me stumbling shamefully through Soninke greetings and Tabatha yammering away in her nonsense language as I like to call it (just kidding Tab, you know I appreciate the importance of Soninke, I’m just jealous because I can’t speak a local language!) and we get a phone call from Emily in Selibaby. Phone service was spotty at best and through the static, this is what I understand Emily’s side of the conversation to roughly have sounded like:<br /><br />Sshshshshshsh(static)shshshsh very important news! Shshshshshs(static)shshshsh going to Senegal shshshshshshshshsh by the 27th shshshshshshshshshs probably coming back shhshshshshshs bring everything shshshshshshshshsh……(dial tone)<br /><br />So naturally Tabatha and I had a panic attack, finished our greetings, because not doing that would be unspeakably rude, especially since we had already greeted some people and playing favorites is not a good idea, and then climbed up on the roof at her house and held our cell phones up in the air until we could get through to our APCDs and to Emily for more information and we learned that the panic attack was entirely unnecessary and a little over the top, but oh wellll. The “evacuation” is a test of the emergency action plan, we’re “evacuating” to the PC Senegal training center (apparently a 5 star establishment compared to our lovely Rosso spot) and hanging there on peace corps’ dime for roughly 10 days to discuss the future of the Mauritania program with our dramatically diminished volunteer population, which will probably involve consolidating sites that have only 2 or 3 people left in the region and a general, shall we say, coming together of peace corps Mauritania! As if we weren’t the closest most awesome group of peace corpions that ever there were…<br /><br />Anywho, whilst we are gone a special crew of security evaluators are going to go through our country with a fine tooth comb (as they will be doing with all the sahel countries as a routine thing) to make sure all is well and good and that way when we all get back to our sites all of our parents can rest easy that our current living conditions are probably not sanitary or healthy but at least they are not in anyway threatening our personal safety and we can feel good and happy and maybe get some work done and stop playing games with your hearts. So there you have it, think of this as putting the lid on a big container that has all that crap that happened this summer in it and MOVING ON! Back to Peace Corps Mauritania business as usual!<br /><br />After finding out what all of the hullabaloo was about, Tab and I canceled all of our plans, packed up all our things, said some goodbyes, and grabbed the first taxi back to Selibaby this morning. Now all 6 of my region mates are here, hanging out at my house, and tomorrow we move en masse to Kaedi and then Nouakchott where we’ll be meeting up with everyone else and taking a big ol’ bus down to our humble lodgments for a 10 day surprise vacay in Senegal. I went to my host family’s this morning to try my dandiest to explain what this all means in French and they didn’t really seem concerned at all. I brought them a baby mango tree, told them I’m going on a surprise trip to a Peace Corps conference in Senegal and I’m not absolutely positive when I’ll be back and they, being much better adapted to Mauritania’s tendency to mess up anything planned in advance, said “okay…safe trip! Hey wouldn’t it be funny if it rained tonight and you couldn’t go anywhere tomorrow?” (no….it would not.) And then they added “Hey! Lets braid her hair!” So that’s brings us to now, with a throbbing head full of very tight braids, packing my “most important things” to depart on an “evacuation” drill first thing in the morning, watching the horizon get darker and darker with threatening clouds and crossing my fingers that it won’t rain. <br /><br />To those of you that know that when I moved into this house I inherited a VERY pregnant dog, no, she has not had any puppykins yet, and I have to leave her in a time of need, but I found her a very dependable dog sitter, and I’m quite confident that she’ll be fine. To those of you who get a hold of me on a regular basis, starting the 28th of this month I will be reachable only by my orange number, which I don’t know off the top of my head but I’ll text it to you. To those of you who are curious, I have not seen a giant spider since I moved in to my new house, and am being haunted only by the occasional mouse in cleaning up after me in my room and funny little toads that make weird old man noises hopping all over the place. And finally, to Tabatha’s Dad, Tab tells me you enjoy reading this, so I wanted to say thanks for letting me know that’s its worth posting these on my blog too…that and you’re daughter’s awesome, but I bet you knew that already :o)<br /><br />Love and hugs all around, <br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-89137648452780497092009-07-23T00:41:00.000-07:002009-07-23T00:42:08.347-07:00addressing concerns and eco camp!July 10, 2009<br /><br />Hello Everyone!<br /><br />I hope this finds you all well and happy, etc. I am doing well…for<br />the few hours that I was undecided as to whether I was going to take<br />the IS and come home or not I thought there would never be a clear<br />choice, I thought I would always be wondering what if…no matter which<br />option I chose, but from the minute I made up my mind I’ve never been<br />more sure about anything in my life as I am that it was the right<br />choice for me. The emails and messages of support I’ve gotten from<br />you guys have made it that much easier for me, so thank you for your<br />continued support and concern…I’m positive this would have been much<br />more difficult if all of you hadn’t taken this news so well.<br /><br />All told we are losing 20 volunteers from all over the country, these<br />people are leaving for various reasons ranging from personal issues at<br />home, to not wanting to be alone at site (with all of our second years<br />leaving that is happening for the first time to a lot of people) to<br />people who were on the fence already and thought they might as well<br />just go now because of all the benefits offered with the IS. Among<br />these were people with genuine security concerns, but I want to be<br />clear to you, these security concerns do not apply across the board,<br />many sites are far more difficult than mine, far less friendly places<br />to live. Selibaby is an incredibly diverse city in an incredibly<br />diverse region, sharing borders with both Mali and Senegal, the local<br />population is very accepting of other cultures and very accustomed to<br />being that way; more than that, they have been working successfully<br />with aid organizations for ages and French volunteers, German<br />volunteers, and others live in this region all the time. This is not<br />true for all of Mauritania, many sites are astoundingly un-diverse and<br />still others have grown up around industry, such as the mines in the<br />north where they have had the constant presence of foreigners but<br />often in a very negative context. Volunteers at these sites have<br />experienced security concerns involving petty theft and breaking and<br />entering, as could happen anywhere in the world, these are not<br />serious, but surely they are intimidating, especially to people who<br />will be alone at site for the first time. Volunteers who are going to<br />be afraid for the entire next year at their site should absolutely go<br />home, the peace corps is a wonderful experience when its done right<br />but its no reason to live in fear.<br /><br />That said, I want you all to know that I do not. I’m cautious and<br />careful, I avoid large events, especially those with political or<br />religious leanings, I don’t leave the house after dark unless<br />accompanied by another volunteer or one of my host brothers, and I<br />have a dog living with me that scares the pee out of every Mauritanian<br />to set eyes on her but loves me to pieces. I’m careful, but not<br />scared. This is why I stayed, and when all is said and done I know<br />I’ll be glad I did. All 5 volunteers in my region are staying, and as<br />an added bonus we are probably getting another who will be moving down<br />from another site to run our girls mentoring center now that Kim has<br />finished her service. When I told my friends in the community about<br />having to make this decision they had no doubt that I would stay, even<br />before I felt the same way, but they still sympathized with a feeling<br />of unease that such an offer might create and many generously offered<br />to guard or find a guard for my house, but I have puppy and that’s all<br />I need. Please do not worry (too much) about my safety, I know its<br />difficult to understand from so far away with no real understanding of<br />the culture other than what you’ve heard from me, but I love life too<br />much to do anything stupid and Aunt Jen, if it ever comes down to it,<br />I’ll be home LONG before I’m scared. I love you all so much, I hope<br />this helps puts your minds at ease a little…<br /><br />Anywho, now that I got that out just thought I would also write a<br />little about what I have been up to lately. These past 5 days I have<br />been at Eco-Health Camp in Kankossa. The camp was a world vision and<br />peace corps sponsored event for girls to get away from home, have some<br />fun, and learn a little too. I brought 2 girls from Selibaby and my<br />host sister as their chaperone, and Tab brought two from Coumba N’Dao<br />(her village) and a chaperone as well and Sari came along to help out<br />too. Getting out of Selibaby is a little tricky during the rainy<br />season and our prayers for good weather were not heeded by mother<br />earth because she rolled in a big storm at around 3 am the night<br />before we left and continuing until we were halfway to our final<br />destination. The “road” between here and kankossa is a rough track<br />through rocky rugged terrain slashed with the gullies carved by<br />seasonal rivers. If its raining upstream, one of those rivers can<br />postpone your travels indefinitely and in that respect we were lucky.<br />We got stuck in the clay-ey mud only one and our driver took off his<br />shoes and white boubou and laid his metal grippy strips in the muck<br />barefoot because no one wants to mess up perfectly nice shoes when<br />feet are so washable. He hopped back in the car and gunned the engine<br />with his clay-encased toes dripping mud all over the pedals and floor<br />of the car (no ones real concerned about messing up cars though…) and<br />we zipped right out of the mud and, after the driver rinsed his feet<br />and donned his shoes, continued on our merry way. The camp was what I<br />would call a wonderful success because you can’t expect these things<br />to go perfectly and we had the following things working in our favor:<br />an awesome volunteer team who did all the planning and setting up for<br />us before we got there, lots and lots of yummy food, important lessons<br />paired with fun activities, and an amazing sports activity every night<br />(the favorite among the girls: duck duck goose). That said, here are<br />some things that went slightly differently than planned: The cooks<br />robbed us mercilessly with their magic traicks, making meat, powdered<br />milk, and vegetables disappear, price gouging us on veggies that they<br />were selling at their own stall in the market and knew we would have<br />to buy, and making certain items and utensils appear magically in<br />sacks or buckets like the 2 dirty knives we put with the dishes to be<br />washed and then found in a sack, hidden, presumably from us. That<br />made me sad, because these are not bad people, they can just get a<br />little greedy and are very good at exploiting an opportunity. One of<br />them even had the audacity to interrupt our closing ceremony and<br />demand one of the backpacks for herself that was the participation<br />gift for the girls, and she was decidedly not a girl, but rather very<br />well could have been old enough to one of their grandmothers.<br /><br />At the end of the camp we negotiated a car back to Selibaby for 7 as<br />Tab and Sari were staying behind to do some visiting, and got a Helix,<br />which is a truck with room for 6 inside and one lucky member of our<br />traveling group in the truck bed (I couldn’t do that to a girl or a<br />chaperone so that lucky member was me). Cars usually leave for<br />Selibaby in the evening and often stay a night on route and because we<br />didn’t want to do that we were forced to buy out the car for an<br />exorbitant amount, as always when we travel, but I was okay with that<br />because I would have the back to myself and not have to fight for a<br />good position on a truck bed taking rough dirt roads at 70 km/hr,<br />course I was not all that surprised when I found out I wouldn’t have<br />the back to myself after all, but that the garage guys brother would<br />be hitching a free ride part of the way with me…I made some angry<br />noises, he assured me it was only for an hour or so and so I let it<br />go, not worth fighting about. Now, I’m not sure whether I should have<br />been surprised or not when we reached the city limits and picked up<br />two more, clearly told ahead of time to be expecting the car, clearly<br />expecting a free ride. I was tired and angry and we had fought with<br />the garage guy a lot about the price of the car, him insisting that no<br />one would want to leave on this particular trip in the morning and he<br />wouldn’t be able to sell ANY OTHER PLACES in the car so we would have<br />to pay for them all…so I had a few choice words with this gentleman<br />who promised to pay me and acted all indignant that I was so upset…I<br />asked him to see things from my side and couldn’t he see that it was<br />stealing? Then I put on my headphones and calmed down, remembering<br />that it was world visions money that had paid for the car and any<br />money he gave me should be for them or I would be stealing too and<br />then I worried if I was too mean to the guy and maybe I shouldn’t have<br />said stealing because that’s very offensive here, maybe he hates me<br />now, I need to be more careful. I was polite but not overly friendly<br />the rest of the trip and when he got off the car at his stop I thought<br />I was out here giving Americans a bad name when, as we’re pulling away<br />he wished me a good trip and safe travels and then starting forward a<br />few paces while we left him he the dust he yelled “oh I forgot to give<br />you my phone number…” No man or woman with old enough sons can stay<br />mad at me in this country; their perceived possibility of marriage is<br />far too tempting to burn any bridges.<br /><br /> I can see that this message is getting long and you’re probably bored<br />so I’ll finish up, I got back to Selibaby safe and sound and all the<br />girls and chaperones got back to their respective houses without<br />problems. I never did see a penny from that chauffer, even though we<br />picked up two more people on route but I was still given my space in<br />the truck bed and it even felt a little better with company, even<br />though we didn’t talk at all, so I saw no need to fight over a few<br />thousand ouguiya. Got home to find puppy looking very pregnant indeed<br />(anyone want an African puppy?) making her all the more feisty and<br />also needy for attention (I was woken up many times in the night to<br />her sleeping on or trying to tunnel into my mosquito netting, and when<br />I finally let her in a goat jumped up on the wall and she almost tore<br />it all down trying to chase him away). I’m happy, slightly less than<br />healthy with the dregs of a cold still hanging on making my nose run<br />and my head ache in the heat of the day, and I’m glad to be back in<br />familiar territory with my host family and all my friends here. I’ll<br />write more as soon as I have a good story to tell,<br /><br />Love,<br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-86409380508654157732009-06-22T02:20:00.001-07:002009-06-22T02:25:34.817-07:00here he is!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOgId6_kdLCF47zPUpXN9Dx6qL-ucfHA5DfAk91wkx9tu6bjHe9jBY3hPPUggllgVcbclGaYoragoZEJcFkYnUbM_7NJwMNt-Vhie6s7ZCt9BDcXWVzUvYBiEPtaTPW7qUUmx7L4k3_h4/s1600-h/spidey+002.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOgId6_kdLCF47zPUpXN9Dx6qL-ucfHA5DfAk91wkx9tu6bjHe9jBY3hPPUggllgVcbclGaYoragoZEJcFkYnUbM_7NJwMNt-Vhie6s7ZCt9BDcXWVzUvYBiEPtaTPW7qUUmx7L4k3_h4/s320/spidey+002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350080621819831426" /></a>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-77916502804405778032009-06-19T03:08:00.001-07:002009-06-19T03:11:19.968-07:00i'm losing a turf war...(NOT for the squeamish)June 17, 2009<br /><br />Hola!<br /><br />I've been gone for a month...haven't been here at all, and it took precisely 2 nights back with my host family before my giant spider friend realized i was home and came to say hello. Yesterday i found him waiting for me in my room when i woke up in the morning, just chilling there, like an old friend making himself completely at home, and this morning he was making his angry face at me through my mosquito netting at 6 am...waving his hairy legs all around and everything. My famiy has caught on to my "frozen with fear" look and when i stop moving and point they usually come and remove the source of my distress for me. Thats wonderful, don't get me wrong, but they never kill it, they just flick it away, and i'm convinced its always the same guy. His intimidation tactics are working, i'm moving out very soon and into an empty house that a COSing volunteer is vacating, but i have 6 more nights with this creepy crawly popping up all over the place. My dilemma is this, one well placed shoe or book and hes history but my host family keeps saying he won't do anything and they never kill him, so should i? can i justify killing something that apparently means me no harm? I mean he's big enough to qualify as more animal then insect and i wouldn't just kill a mouse or a dog if it intimidated me but did me no harm...but if he follows me to the new house hes dead.<br /><br />Recent encounters have bolstered my courage enough to get a good photo so that i can share with you this handsome fellow...that shoe is a size 9. He's about the size of a mouse.<br /><br />cheers,<br />shelby<br /><br />ps. becky/merry...why are you reading this? i put that warning in the subject line just for you two!Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-70388561252059232842009-06-19T03:05:00.000-07:002009-06-19T03:07:23.008-07:00home smelly homejune 15, 2009<br /><br />Hello Everyone !<br /><br /> <br /><br />Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you all know that after 35 hours in planes and airports, 27 hours in taxis and garages, and a few minutes on a boat, I am finally back at site, safe and sound! I loved seeing everyone that I got to see, and those of you that I missed I’m quite sad to have missed you but when I come home for good I’ll have time to make the rounds and actually see everyone! Grandma, I’m so sorry I didn’t make it out to see you again, I really wanted to but towards then end I got quite stretched for time. Eleanor, I’m so sorry I missed you as well, again, time got away from me. Birdi, I really wanted to make it out there on my last weekend but with my brother coming home and other visitors coming and going I knew I didn’t have the time to make this trip, I’m sorry I missed you this time but I’m sure I’ll see you first thing when I’m back for good!<br /><br /> <br /><br />Dad, Mom, Cory: You guys mean the world to me! You made this trip so amazing for me it was incredibly difficult for me just to come back. I love you guys so much; I don’t know what I would do without you! <br /><br /> <br /><br />Save Sidi Staff: I returned to site to find my project team well into the study phase of the project with lots of new information for me. We have a new location and within that neighborhood have assessed the need for our center, determining that over 50% of the children are moderately malnourished and another 10% are severe (probably beyond the scope of the project, these children should be hospitalized). I have begun the proposal and funding application for Peace Corps partnerships funding, which I will send a copy of to you when it is complete along with other updates and pertinent information. <br /><br /> <br /><br />See you all again in a year! Love and hugs,<br /><br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-89306621296600963432009-05-04T01:52:00.001-07:002009-05-04T01:52:56.635-07:00whats worse than a dead rat?May 4th, 2009<br /><br />Hey-lo!<br /><br />Hows everybody doing today? lovely i hope? Well i figured its been long enough since I've sent you all an update and though I have been busy with actual work (shocking i know) I have managed to have some rather more interesting experiences of late, one of which i would like to share...in case the creepy thing gets its way and eats me in my sleep. (sorry mom, dad, and cory, I know you've already heard this story)<br /><br />Whats worse than a dead rat? Why a giant (alive) spider of course! About a week ago I was seated in my room on my mattela (foamy mattress thingy) minding my own business, writing in my journal, when from the ceiling beam above drops the biggest gosh darn freaking spider i have ever seen in my whole existence (not counting on tv). I knew they were here, i've heard tales of them, but this is the first i have seen and it drops from the ceiling and runs FAST around in circles next to me and then off the edge of the mattela and into my heap of junk that i call my room (due to a recent losing battle with clothes munching termites everything i own was at the time piled sloppily in the center of the room to keep those hungry little monsters out of it). That was my first mistake, in keeping my room so messy i had inadvertently created an ideal giant spider playground for him to dance and frolic in all the live long day and i would never be able to find him. <br /><br />WELL i wasn't about to just leave him in there! I would be afraid forever if i did so (go me!) i decided this was one of those times in your life when you can face your fear and become a stronger person and yadda yadda yadda...so after i overcame my paralysis from fear i slunked back into my room and prepared to tackle my mild arachniphobia head on, and there he was, clinging to the side of my bath bucket, waving his big long legs at me as if to see come and get me if you dare! Paralyzed once again with fear, i stood in the doorway and tried to plan my next move. Eventually he got bored taunting me and retreated farther back into the room, taking up a hiding place under my mosquito net. Finally able to move again, i shook out each of my possessions one at a time and piled them on the other side of the room until all that was left was the mosquito net. Then it was show down time....i poked the net, nothing. i shook it a little, nothing. i shook it alot, nothing. i lifted it up and dropped it (its a tent style thing, like a little mesh one man tent), still nothing. I lifted it, turned it, dragged it, finangled it sideways, and dropped it and there he was, waving his little front legs in the air, staring at me with that weird little face of his...<br /><br />so i ran away, figured that was enough fear facing for one day, i went and got my host sister (who might i add is terrified of little toads...) and she calmly scraped him onto a piece of paper with a flip flop and tossed him outside. <br /><br />i knew he'd be back though...knew it all along. so i shouldn't have been surprised when i woke up the next morning outside in my mosquito net to find him standing on top of it, right over my face, staring down at me. OH IT'S ON NOW!<br /><br />I flicked him off, hyperventilated for 15 to 20 minutes, and then went on with my normal day. 2 days later i had almost forgotten the whole thing (mistake number two...underestimated the sneaky little creep) and at 10ish one night i went in my room to start dragging my bed and net outside, i flicked on the light, and there he was. he scurried under my net again and stayed there...this time i got my host brother, who said he was harmless, laughed at me for my silly fear (he is afraid of hedgehogs), and using a piece of paper, picked the little guy up like one might use a paper towel to wipe up dog poo, carried him outside, and promised to put him far far away. <br /><br />Nightmare over right?.....RIGHT? <br /><br />WRONG. Last night i was sitting outside on my mattela, chatting pleasantly with my neighbor Amadou when the relentless monster runs right down the post next to Amadou and heads straight for me, much to my embarrassment i jumped up faster than i've ever moved in my life and squeeled like a little girl while the creature ran over my foot, saw all my reinforcements, and changed course off towards a tree to regroup and make plans for a later attack. To Amadou's credit, he jumped a little too, right before he and everyone else laughed at my macho display of bravado in the face of extreme danger. <br /><br />yes...so now i live in fear of his next move. wish me luck!<br /><br />On a lighter note, i'm going to be taking a little trip in a few days, leaving the beginning of next week for senegal to take a little break. I'll be out of mauritel service but if you want to reach me (mom, dad, cory...) you can try my orange number. which i forgot, but i'll give it to you later!<br /><br />Love you all,<br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-50839831252074838492009-03-29T03:49:00.000-07:002009-03-29T03:50:11.479-07:00war storiesMarch 29th 2009<br /><br />Hey-lo Everyone! <br /><br />I hope this note finds you all well and happy and keeping warm, thought hopefully not as warm as me. Maurtiania is coming into the hot season and I have a solid 3 months of blistering heat to endure…so far its not terrible, working its way up a little farther every day thought. At 3 in the afternoon its usually between 105 and 110 in the shade. Its not my favorite time of year to say the least…all metal everywhere is hot to the touch, shampoo and lotions and sunscreen come out of the container extra liquidy and warm, water comes out of the tap hot, bathing is only refreshing when theres wind for evaporation, otherwise you’re pouring hot water over yourself in the hot sun. Candles melt inside in the shade, chocolates not solid ever, and the ice we buy at the boutique next door (a liter of water in a plastic baggie frozen) melts in a shockingly short amount of time. I was drinking ice water from a metal cup the other day and the top of the cup was hot to the touch and the bottom filled with ice. Oh the joys of the Sahel!<br /><br />So before I left on this grand adventure I remember reading a letter the peace corps sent to my parents about how to stay in touch with me while I’m here. It outlined all the methods and then had a little note about how volunteers tend to like to share their “war stories” and it makes their service sound extremely miserable (for an example see above) and it said that you should keep in mind that they are probably sharing the wort parts and not the happy parts and not to worry about them too much. I realized that I have not made my service seem nearly miserable enough to you folks…heck half of you have told me that my stories make you want to move to Africa so ready…here comes a war story to show the other side of things…its not all fun in the sun! (Not to worry folks, I’m sharing this story because in hindsight I find it hilarious and I’m still quite happy here…despite the heat)<br /><br />So I spent three nights away from my host family recently with some other volunteers and when I returned home I detected a fowl odor in my room. I figured a toad had hopped in and passed away and I was smelling his or her remains, so I rifled through all my baggage, refolded all my clothes, restacked all my books, and peered under my mosquito net but I found nothing. My room is rather small and very hot so it was impossible to track down the most stinky spot and therefore the source of the odor, it all smelled terrible! I gave up and hung out with my family for the afternoon and evening and as darkness fell a few friends of my host sister stopped in.<br /><br />Now, here in Mauritania when you have guests it is customary to roll out a plastic or reed mat, set out a few mattelas for sitting, and lounge around on the ground with them, take tea, and chat. Amineta requested the use of my mat and mattela and I obliged, entering mmy room and tossing them out the door behind me, and renewing my search for the stench. It got worse when I moved the mat and sure enough, on closer inspection under where it had been I found a gooey spot on the floor with baby maggots squirming angrily at my rude disruption of their home. Uh-oh…I ran outside to warn my sister…something on that mats not really appropriate for guests! But by the time I got to her it was all set up and the gentleman was lounging carelessly on my mattela. I searched frantically with my eyes and saw no visible signs of the grossness that must be there somewhere and it was a windy night so I sat down and hoped the wind would carry the stench away and there would be no problems, and fortunately it seemed to have done just that! <br /><br />Unfortunately the moment they left Amineta laid down on my mattela and immediately told me there appeared to be a “mauvaise odour” emanating from it. Not the mattela! I though…its my only one! We searched and searched and found only a smudgy gooey spot that was particularly pungent but no obvious source. I crossed my fingers that whatever it was had been in between the mattela and mat and was now somewhere on the ground and therefore no longer my problem. I got some spray, some soap, and a scrap of fabric and went to work on the smudge but there seemed to be an awful lot of smell for just that one little spot…and low and behold when I lifted up the mattela to have another look I found nothing underneath it but just my luck that the very spot where I grabbed it to lift it up was where the unfortunate rat who had made his way inside the cover and died and then spent at least 3 days fermenting was trapped. Of course I didn’t notice at first, sitting there holding my mattela I thougt “my mattela seems squishy and fleshy today and is missing the dry pillowy texture it normally has…I wonder why…” <br /><br />And then realization dawned. It’s a sad moment when at 11 pm you discover a rotten rat carcass inside your only bed and realize that you have no choice but to peel off the cover, dispose of the rodent, and sleep on it. Don’t worry…I covered it with a blanket and put the smelly side down by my feet but still….I hope to god I’ll never have to do that again. Yuckkkk. <br /><br />The next day Amineta helped me wash all my clothes, my mattela cover, the mattela itself, all my blankets, pillow, sheet, mat, and the floor of my room. Then I set it all out in the sun to be disinfected by the uv rays and then I washed myself and then, just for good measure, I brushed my teeth and scrubbed my feet. I feel better now, but there you have it folks…my war story. The best part is that when I discovered it I made a eeeeeeewwwwwyughhhhhhhhckkkkk noise that would have been a fairly normal reaction in the states but here they don’t use that sound to indicate gross and consequently found it hilarious when I did. Now they do it all the time, and its hilarious for me. <br /><br />At any rate I’m spent on staring at the computer screen so I’ll write more later…<br />Hugs and kisses!<br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-1557346439530245802009-03-16T03:41:00.000-07:002009-03-16T04:00:49.177-07:00Birthday Happiness and other SadnessHi Everyone,<br /><br />I haven't been keeping up with my emailing lately but I'm catching up now! As many of you know my birthday was 2 days ago and I had a wonderful one! So thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and happy thoughts for thinking of me at all when i'm so very far away. I had a wonderful day with lots of yummy american food and my wonderful sitemate Emily (my We! I don't know if you read this but I betcha at least one of your parents will so Dear Emily's Mom(s): You're daughter is wonderful, you should be very proud, as i'm quite sure you already are. She is a thoughtful and kind friend and I'm so happy to have her here with me in Selibaby!) spent most of the day baking for us authentic Dog Team Tavern sticky buns and the rest of it in the insufferably hot kitchen frying french fries because shes wonderful! So extra special thanks to her (and her family for mailing her the sticky buns makings!) having a heap of wonderful friends here makes it easier to celebrate my birthday on the opposite side of the planet from all of you! <br /><br />But amongst all of the birthday happiness and celebration I have received some extremely sad news, fellow PCV Catherine "Kate" Puzey serving in Benin was found dead on March 13th, 2009. <br />You can read the Peace Corps press release here:<br />http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1435<br /><br />I can't imagine what her friends and family both in the US and in Benin are going through right now so keep them in your thoughts and prayers.<br /><br />Love and Miss everyone!<br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-27263479584580447232009-02-22T02:48:00.000-08:002009-02-22T02:49:41.792-08:00time flies...Feb 22, 2009<br /><br />Hey Folks! <br /><br />Wow, so as of yesterday I have been in Africa for 8 months...and i have 17 more to go...thats so much and so little at the same time! So how is everyone? I hope you're all well! I've heard from a few of you, Aunt Jen and Sandi and Cory (Le garcon court...hahaha) and I love to get updates so keep them coming! Here's what i've been up to:<br /><br />I just got back from my little mini vaca...a week backpacking in Senegal. We walked through the countryside village to village, swam under 300ft waterfalls in deep ravines, watched monkies play and saw baboons and warthogs out the car windows, slept in grass huts under giant mango trees, and made tons of new friends! After a week of non-stop walking i threw the towel in, admitted defeat, and went home on my own because of my blistered feet, while the others continued on foot to Guinea. I had a fantastic time though and I was starting to feel that "get back to work guilt" anyway, I'm not here to just abandon my projects and head out on vacation whenever I want and I needed to get back to do some actual work because I don't have mine quite as figured out as my traveling companions did and I felt like i had left some loose ends. <br /><br />While traveling my cell phone was stolen so I have already gotten a new one but I need to buy a new SIM card for it for Mauritania before I can recieve phone calls, so mom, dad, and cory, when I get it I will call one of you to give you the number so we can talk again! I miss my weekly calls! <br /><br />I'm trying to think of some fun stories from my travels to share, the whole thing was absolutely one of the greatest adventures I have ever been on in my whole life. I was seriously sad to call it quits early, not to mention terrified of traveling alone back to Selibaby but I ended up really enjoying the trip. When I opted to start back we were staying at a village campement in Dindefelo, Senegal, a little village with a gorgeous waterfall and a decent amount of tourism (for a small senegalese village) with no real regular transport into town short of renting an entire 4x4 which was way out of our price range. This was the leg of the trip that scared me to do alone, we had walked to 35k out there from the nearest city and I had absolutely no interest in walking it back alone. Fortunatly the manager of the campement found me an extremely nice french couple who were passing through on their own vacation and had rented a 4x4 that was planning on leaving the same day i was, the catch: they weren't going all the way back to the city. They gave me a free ride out to the main road, knocking 25k through barely there and confusing criss-crossing roads off my walk and deposited me on a wide well traveled roadway 10k outside of town. I started walking hoping to get picked up by a taxi brousse coming from somewhere else and heading into town but it was not to be. Only one vehicle passed me on my whole entire walk and he had no interest in picking me up, although there was steady bicycle traffic and i was offered several rides on the backs of those (i turned them down though, i had a big bag and walked seemed less likely to end in disaster). I reached town with much of the day left ahead of me so i continued on to the garage and caught a car to the next city on my route back to Selibaby. It was a hot, sticky, miserable car ride with a woman getting sik in a bucket in the seat behind me that left me feeling queasy and dirty and when I arrived at the garage in Tamba I grabbed a town taxi, climbed in and said "take me to a nice hotel, really nice, but not too expensive...preferably with a pool." The driver said he knew three and would take me to each until I found one within my price range. I splurged on the first one we stopped at, wasted no time booking my room, deposited my bags on the ground and made use of the first hot shower i've seen since new years. The hotel staff were incredibly friendly and fammilliar with peace corps. They all called me by my local name, greeted me like an old friend in Pulaar each time I saw them and were sad to see me go so early the next morning to catch my car to Bakel. I loved it there, I felt like i wasn't a tourist at all, just a friend passing through.<br /><br />My car trip to Bakel was much more pleasant than the previous days voyage. Igot the first place in a car that i thought would take hours to fill (it won't leave until the 6 other places are all sold) when a family of 6 showed up headed the same diretion as me to attend a religious ceremony for a family member. Perfect! They were a friendly and fun pulaar family of the surname Diallo (the bean eating cousins of the Ba's so for the duration of the trip they changed my name to Amineta Diallo and would refer to me only as such). They shared their bread and I gave them all pieces of chewing gum i had gotten from the states. They told me that if I ever go back to Tamba I am to find their house and pay them a visit (impossible as Tamba is a huge city and probably 1/3 of the population are Diallo's, but the thoughts very sweet!) and we parted ways as I got my town taxi to the river and they got their car to their destination city. My taxi brought me right to the banks of the river where I passed through the police post more easily then it ever is when traveling in groups and bought my place in the wooden dugout canoes to Gouraye, on the otehr side of the river. Once in Gouraye I had an eaqually pleasant time with the gendarme post over there (unheard of in mauritania, they just love to give us a hard time!) and easily found my place in a car to Selibaby, without even trying, in fact my place came and found me before i had even reached the garage, the ticket man knew exactly where i was going. <br /><br />When all was said and done, I was shocked to learn that I absolutely LOVED traveling alone, that said I probably won't do much more of it but it wasn't the scary experience that I had thought it would be. It was fun and easy and strangely empowering! I ate in a restaurant by myself, stayed in a hotel alone, haggled taxi prices, made new friends, crossed borders and rivers, walked 10k, and turned down 4 marriage proposals. If i can do that, i can do anything!<br /><br />Now i'm back at home and completly out of internet time but I miss and love you allllll and i'll write more soon!<br />oxoxoxo's<br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-71427515336423388492009-01-18T04:39:00.000-08:002009-01-18T04:45:29.823-08:00Happy New Year!January 11, 2009<br /><br /><br />Holy Cow!<br /><br />It’s a new year! I have completed over 6 months of my Peace Corps service! Man time sure flies when your having fun! I hope everyone back home had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I wish I could have been there, but alas, I was here, on the beach, eating (REAL!) cheese sandwiches and drinking homemade sangria in the sunshine…gosh my life is rough…I don’t know how I do it. All that’s over now though, and I just arrived back at site this morning, at approximately 2 am, slept until now, and here I am! Its 8:30, which might be the latest I’ve slept in 6 months! So…about my trip, it lasted a grand total of 21 days, including a stop in Boghe (for a little party and to break up the trip to Nouakchott); Nouakchott (for Christmas festivities at the Peace Corps Director’s house); Rosso (oh my old home, this is the city where I had “stage” so we crashed here for a bit to break up the trip to Senegal); San Louis, Senegal (sun, sand, and sea to ring in the new year); back to Rosso (to break up the trip back to Nouakchott and for more visiting); Nouakchott again (for Early Term Reconnect and In-Service Training); then homeward to Kaedi (to break up the trip back to Selibaby and celebrate John and Tanya’s birthday); and finally back to Selibaby (the garbage filled streets of Selibaby have never looked as inviting as they did last night at 2 am after something around 7 hours stuffed in vehicles made to hold 9 people with 20 strangers)….oh its good to be home! <br /><br />So I bet you wouldn’t mind hearing some tales of my adventures would you? I didn’t think so. Here are some highlights: <br /><br />We did all of our traveling in groups to be safer and happier on the road and when six of us were ready to leave Nouakchott to head for Rosso after Christmas we grabbed a pair of cabs, piled ourselves and all our luggage into them, and said “Le garage Rosso” to each driver, separately, which seemed like a perfectly fine idea considering there is only on Rosso garage…only our assumption proved to make an ass of us as some cab drivers have friends who are drivers and they will bring business straight to them instead of the actual garage. Myself, John, and Emily arrived at a Rosso garage, and the other cab with Sari, Tabatha, and Rob arrived at the Rosso garage, but by the time they did John had bargained us down to a great price for the cab where we were so we decided to have the others meet us there. While waiting for them it became clear that there had already been 3 passengers in the car we had bought out for ourselves who had been booted for us, because we were going all the way to Rosso and they were going only part way so the driver would make more money off of us. These people were not exactly thrilled and a small scuffle broke out between a small collection of cab drivers and the disgruntled man who wanted vary badly to put his things back into the cab…and in fact succeeded only to have them tossed out again by our driver. Being foreign we simply backed up, stayed out of the way, and awaited the outcome of the scuffle. Naturally we won (money always does), and the man left in a huff while our friends loaded their bags and we all stuffed ourselves into our car and headed for the gas station to fill up for our journey. There happened to be another car there with a man in it who happened to be friends with many of the Peace Corps “higher ups” and recognized us as new volunteers. He greeted us and we chatted for a minute and then gave our driver a stern talking to in Hassaniya which John used his awesome language skills to decipher and it was something like this: “I know these people, they are my friends so don’t try anything stupid because I know your name and I know your car and I’ll find you.” This made us a little nervous and reassured at the same time. Okay, we’re all gassed up, stuffed in, loaded up, and on the main road out of Nouakchott, toward Rosso, and ready to relax the short 3 hour trip away when our cab swerves down a little side road and we’re like okay, he probably knows where he’s going, and then he stops rather suddenly and hops out…to retrieve Rob’s bag, which has fallen out. Great. Off to a good start. We reload and head back towards the main road where we hit the gendarme stop we’re now quite sure he was on the back road to avoid but miscalculated a little because there, waiting for us, was the gentlemen who had been booted from the car and hey, good news, he’s a cop. Our driver is instructed to follow him and we set off once again, back in the direction we came from. Down another side road, and our driver slows, the space is growing between us and the other car, and suddenly, sharp left, he floors it, we’re flying down a back dirt road, and Sari in the back, holding all the bags says “are we making a run for it right now?” Indeed we were, we were racing off through the back streets of Nouakchott in search of a police officer that was friends with our driver and would take our side. We found him, stuffed him in the front seat with Rob, and beat the other man to the police station, presumably because he was still searching for us. All parties convened inside the station while we sat in the car and waiting, not really sure what to do. Eventually everything was worked out, and our driver returned to make the rest of trip, which was fairly uneventful, thank god. <br /><br />Hmm…what else is there to share…it feels like there should be so much but so much of it is just the experience as a whole, being in Senegal, on the beach, with strange men coming to try to sell us things and hoards of children watching our every move. I went out to collect some shells off the shore and an army of children handed me more shells then I even wanted within minutes once they realized what I was doing. One day a (possibly drunk, definitely strange) gentleman came up to us on the beach wearing a pointy beginnings of fat dread locks, a stretched out old tank top, and a big goofy grin, and that’s all. He tried to make conversation but we did our best to ignore many of the locals on the beach because they were always either selling something or begging for something or hoping to steal something and so our friend, not to be deterred, began singing to us. He stayed for quite a while, just singing away to no one in particular. It was an interesting experience. <br /><br />On another day Sari and Tabatha and myself took a day off from the beach and wandered across the bridge back on to the mainland to shop for some fabric and spend some time in a real market, not the tourist trap that is the island. The market in San Louis was amazing, narrow alleyways of tiny booths stacked with veggies, barrels of raw grains, heaps of fish, and skinned goats and sheep hanging from above. They seemed to go on forever, getting smaller and smaller then larger and than smaller again, twisting and turning, we were good and lost when we came out all of a sudden, facing the river and the bridge back to the island. I could spend days in the food market in San Louis, but instead we headed back to the island across the bridge and to meet some friends for dinner. What an amazing trip! By the end of it though, I was ready to go home to Selibaby. A few days in Nouakchott for training was enough to exhaust my patience with a city that feels like it has more cars than people and basically no traffic regulations, just crossing the two streets to get to the Peace Corps bureau felt like a live version of frogger. It was good to have a bed though, and a toilet with toilet paper, and air conditioning, a tv with 2 whole English channels! It’s the little things in life! <br /><br />Alrighty, I’ll bet you’re all tired of reading now, or were hours ago, so I’ll wrap it up! Hopefully I’ll get to the computer soon to send this out. Much love and happy thoughts to all of you back home, hope your holidays were as fun and exciting as mine! I’m going on 7 months here now, so I’ll see you all in about 17 more! <br /><br />Love, ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-81197193171611989922008-12-21T08:16:00.000-08:002008-12-21T08:17:51.471-08:00Merry Christmas!<p class="MsoNormal">Hello Friends!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I know it’s been ages since I’ve written, I’m getting lazy.<span style=""> </span>So I’ve currently been here 6 months and I still love it so I must be doing something right.<span style=""> </span>Its still hot, but I’m getting used to it.<span style=""> </span>It’s “reproduction season” here…which means baby goats everywhere, little lambs frolicking in the streets, and alas, kittens and puppies at kim’s.<span style=""> </span>Yes, we currently have 5 cats and 6 dogs here in Selibaby so if you know anyone in the market for a rare African puppy, let me know I can totally hook that up.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A few days ago we got a mail shuttle so let me do a quick round of thank-you’s:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Mom and Dad: I already talked to you on the phone but I forgot a few things…first I gave the little wind up frog to Hawa and she loves it!<span style=""> </span>Its totally adorable, she carries it around and call it my friend and says shes not scared of frogs anymore which is the cutest thing ever!<span style=""> </span>Also, thanks a billion for all the toiletries, your timing couldn’t have been better…I’m getting low on toothpaste, the local variety being Crust (a terrible knock-off of Crest) which scares me, and I bought some local shampoo (made by Palmolive, who I thought only made dish soap, but what do I know) that leaves my hair somehow greasy and dry at the same time.<span style=""> </span>And thanks for everything else, I won’t list it all here because I’m lazy but it was all wonderful!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Cory: I’m going to skype you today and I’ll say my thank you’s then but FYI you’re awesome, thanks for being the awesomest big bro ever!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Grandma:<span style=""> </span>Thank you for everything! The book of puzzles has already provided hours of entertainment and I’ve already started reading the books!<span style=""> </span>I have already eaten some of the food and some of its coming with me on my Christmas vacation to keep food costs down and I’m so excited for that!<span style=""> </span>Thanks for thinking of me, I love to hear from you!<span style=""> </span>I wrote you a big long letter answering all the questions you asked in the last letter I got from you but there was a problem with the last batch of outgoing mail and there is a chance it was stolen, so keep your eyes out for it but if it doesn’t show I won’t be terribly surprised.<span style=""> </span>Thanks again, Love you!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Aunt Ann:<span style=""> </span>Surprise Christmas packages are one of my top 10 favorite things ever!<span style=""> </span>Thank you so much for yours!<span style=""> </span>I have a confession to make, I opened the do not open until Christmas packages because I’m going traveling for the Christmas holiday and I leave tomorrow with only a backpack, space was limited as I’ll be traveling for close to a month so I unwrapped them to see if they were something I would want to bring with me or not and then after I realized I will want to bring both the shirts and the book and then I felt bad for opening them early but not too bad because its Christmas and you can’t be mad!<span style=""> </span>Thank you for all of it, its all great and thoughtful! I love it all, especially the sewing stuff…my locally made clothes tend to spring holes every now and again.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Becky Fogarty:<span style=""> </span>What a fantastic surprise!<span style=""> </span>A box full of yummies from an awesome friend right before Christmas with a letter that made me smile and miss you bundles!<span style=""> </span>Thanks so much, you’re the sweetest friend ever and I miss you like you wouldn’t believe!<span style=""> </span>Hugs and kisses!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And a Merry Christmas to all!!!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Now that that’s out of the way, a quick note and then its off the computer for me, I need to spend some time prepping for my trip tomorrow.<span style=""> </span>Here’s my tentative travel itinerary: Tomorrow we are heading to Bohge, another southern city for 2 days for a little Christmas party with some other volunteers, then to the capital for Christmas eve and day and then off to some combination of Rosso, San Louis, Senegal, back to Rosso, and then to the capital again for Early Term Reconnect and In-Service Training and finally back to Selibaby on January 8<sup>th</sup>-ish.<span style=""> </span>I know, sounds exhausting right?<span style=""> </span>But I’m so excited for it!<span style=""> </span>Computer service will be limited or non-existent during this time so don’t expect any updates until its allllll over, but I’ll be thinking of all of you, especially on the holidays, and wishing I was there, no that’s a lie…on new years I’ll be on the beach in san louis so I’ll be wishing you were here but I’ll probably be pretty content where I am!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’m going to try to put up pictures today so check those out, they’ll be on facebook.<span style=""> </span>Hmmm…what else is there to say?<span style=""> </span>Everything is going great here and I’m happy and healthy again, very well fed, and very excited for my voyage.<span style=""> </span>Hugs and kisses for you all!<span style=""> </span>I’m going to go bake cookies and pack my bags before my skype rendez-vous (yep I speak rocking French wooo!).<span style=""> </span>Much love and warm holiday thoughts from here in warm sunny <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mauritania</st1:place></st1:country-region>!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shelby</p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-48960814493713486252008-12-05T03:55:00.000-08:002008-12-05T03:57:20.913-08:00long time no talk<p class="MsoNormal">December 4, 2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hiiiii!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So folks, get ready, this is going to be a long email!<span style=""> </span>I haven’t written a real honest to god email in ages so grab a cup of tea, curl up in a blanket, and get cozy because this ones going to take awhile!<span style=""> </span>I say that because rumor has it its getting cold there now, I mean, that’s what the word on the street is, it’s getting cold here too.<span style=""> </span>Yeah, very cold, we were all shivering all night and most of the morning…goose bumps and all.<span style=""> </span>Yeah, freezing, just like where you all are, this morning, in fact, it was all the way down to 70 degrees.<span style=""> </span>Yup, jusssssssssssst like home folks, a real Vermonter here, freezing her heiny off in 70 degree weather, but there you have it.<span style=""> </span>Hey when did it get to be December anyway?<span style=""> </span>What is this?<span style=""> </span>One minute its Halloween and we’re eating donuts off of strings in the backyard at our harvest party and I blink my eyes and everyone’s back for thanksgiving dinner eating ourselves into coma’s and now its December?<span style=""> </span>At this rate folks I’ll be home in no time!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>So I’ve been here 5 months and it feels like so much and so little at the same time!<span style=""> </span>My French is improving but I still have a longggg long way to go, but now I at least have the language skills to tell people that I have only been here for 5 months and barely spoke French at all before I came so they should be thankful that I can say the things I can.<span style=""> </span>My Pulaar vocab is improving too, I have a whole library of insults, and the standard “I’m leaving”, “I’m home”, “When night comes, come home” because that’s what my host dad says to me every time I go anywhere in the evening.<span style=""> </span>My Pulaar teacher has accidentally (we hope its an accident!) forgotten our Pulaar lessons 2 weeks in a row now, so I’m just going on what I learn from my other “Pulaar Teacher” our neighbor and my brother’s friend Musa, who comes over and talks at me in Pulaar and I talk right back at him in English and then he yells at me in what he thinks sounds like English but really sounds like gibberish and then I yell back at him in actual English lovely little phrases like “you’ve lost your mind!<span style=""> </span>I don’t even know what you’re doing right now you raving lunatic! You’re totally crazy!” and everybody laughs.<span style=""> </span>Ahhhhh good times and fine memories from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mauritania</st1:place></st1:country-region>!<span style=""> </span>Somehow through all of this I have actually managed to pick up some pulaar though, so, all is well I suppose.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">At any rate, that’s been my life lately, weighing babies, learning languages, and getting made fun of by my ridiculous family here.<span style=""> </span>In the last package I received my parents sent me a <st1:state st="on">Vermont</st1:State> life magazine with photos of <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State> foliage and changing leaves and other photos of the season.<span style=""> </span>I brought it home with me to show to my family who flipped through it with the speed and efficiency of someone reading a magazine in a language they don’t speak, pausing only once or twice to remark on a picture or sound out a headline just to make me laugh.<span style=""> </span>“C’est toi!” my little sister Hawa says, pointing to a picture of a woman in a wedding dress in front of a barn.<span style=""> </span>“Oooo…un Rastafarian!” my host brother says pointing at a white man with dreadlocks in the UVM ad.<span style=""> </span>“Qu’est-ce que c’est?” (what’s this?) they ask at a photo of some American dessert product or another; and then they’re finished, not especially interested in “chez moi! <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Vermont</st1:State></st1:place>!” all that much at all.<span style=""> </span>Oh well, I think and grab the magazine back only a little disappointed in their reaction (I was expected lots of oooooo’s and ahhhhhh’s and a few c’est jolie’s through in for good measure) when Musa grabs the magazine from my hands and points to a picture in the seasonal spread on fall and foliage.<span style=""> </span>“Here’s the reaction I was hoping for” I think. And Musa says to me in broken French “what’s this?”<span style=""> </span>I don’t know what a scarecrow is called in French so I call it a fake person that we leave in the fields to scare off birds.<span style=""> </span>“We have those here!” he says, “we leave them in the garden to keep the birds and monkeys out.”<span style=""> </span>Yeah…same exact thing.<span style=""> </span>“In Pulaar that’s called a demba nedDo.” (the D being a pulaar letter that doesn’t exist in English but involves breathing in to make the sound, kind of like the sound Homer Simpson would make if he were drowning) “Kaa demba nedDo!” he says.<span style=""> </span>“Whats that mean?” I<span style=""> </span>ask.<span style=""> </span>Souley fills me in, “he called you a scarecrow.”<span style=""> </span>So there it is, no interest whatsoever in <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State> life, but instead a handy new insult for my vocab.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">This was about a month ago, since then it has spiraled out of control, last night I was walking home not even close to my house yet, and a man who was basically a complete stranger (he lives a house or two over from me but I don’t think I have ever talked to him in my life) walked past me and instead of greeting me with the standard nalleejam (good evening in pulaar) he busted out “Kaa demba nedDo!” with a big smile.<span style=""> </span>Yes folks, if for some reason you decide to pay me a surprise visit here in Selibaby and you get all the way here and can’t remember my Mauritanian name just ask around for the scarecrow and surely everyone will know just who you’re talking about.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">What else can I tell you about?<span style=""> </span>I have lots of time on my hands, Monday is a fete so naturally no ones going to work or doing much of anything at all until at least Wednesday, in fact we even left work early yesterday because “the fete’s coming.” Of course I only ever work from 9am to noon, but it seemed completely normal to leave at 11:15 yesterday because there is a fete in 4 days.<span style=""> </span>“See you Wednesday….or maybe Thursday…” said my coworker as we parted ways, leaving a touch of doubt in my mind as to whether or not I’ll work at all next week given that Thursday is the Mauritanian equivalent of Friday and if you are a Mauritanian and you don’t go to work on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, the chances of you coming on Thursday are not exactly very good.<span style=""> </span>So I have at least the next 6, if not the next 10 days off, which would be exciting if when I worked I was actually busy or tired and in need of a break, but when I work I work no more than 3 hours a day and no matter how hard I try I actually have very little to do but read or write letters home when I’m at work.<span style=""> </span>Last night I was so desperate for a cause as a health volunteer that I stole my host brothers cigarettes and promised to dole them out one at a time until he quit.<span style=""> </span>The standard African’s answer to an American trying to get them to quit smoking: “But American’s are the ones who make cigarettes!” They say that as if its my fault that they smoke…grrr, I’m not a fan of that line of thinking!<span style=""> </span>Its interesting to me that the best selling brand of cigarettes here are called American legends and they are manufactured in the European Union…so at least those aren’t my fault even if they do pretend to be American!<span style=""> </span>So here are my health volunteery plans for the next few months: Anti-Smoking campaign, because its not my fault you smoke damnit!<span style=""> </span>Nutrition seminars in Tabatha’s village for the skinny little kiddies, sex-ed and family planning at the health center for young mommies-they just learned about the female condom here when an NGO gave them a bunch to distribute, only they can’t seem to distribute them because no one knows what they are so Emily and I are going to have the awkward job of telling them, yes I enlisted back-up for this one because I’ll be red as a tomato explaining contraceptives to a bunch of women younger than me with 3 or 4 kids each.<span style=""> </span>I have also been making pretty health posters for the hospital and 2 of them went up on Sunday, one more to go, photos as soon as possible I promise!<span style=""> </span>And finally I’m hoping to organize a series of health talks at the girls mentoring center starting with one about skin-lightening cream because I absolutely hate the stuff.<span style=""> </span>Look up skin lightening cream if you have a minute, its pretty disturbing stuff.<span style=""> </span>So there you have it, all 5 months of my time here have lead up to this plan, wish me luck!<span style=""> </span>Soon though I head to the capital for more health training and when I come back I’ll be on my way to some more projects that will hopefully look a little more impressive on my resume!<span style=""> </span>Anywho that’s all for now, I’ll put pictures up on facebook soon and hopefully be full of amazingly exciting stories by my next email because I hit the road for Nouakchott for Christmas in about 2 weeks, followed by new years in St. Louis, Senegal on the beach baby!<span style=""> </span>Then back to Nouakchott for Early Term Reconnect and In-Service Training and finally back to Selibaby, refreshed and ready to get back to my busy life of whatever it is I do here, except I’ll have spent so much time with other Americans I won’t remember how to speak any French or Pulaar anymore. <span style=""> </span>Oh well, c’est la vie!<span style=""> </span>Learning languages gives me something to do so I should be thankful.<span style=""> </span>Love ya’ll, I’m sure I’m be online once or twice before Christmas but just in case I wish a Very Happy Holiday Season to you all!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hugs and kisses!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Shelby</st1:place></st1:City></p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-74534851735512631102008-11-20T01:51:00.001-08:002008-11-20T01:51:57.139-08:00la rhume11/20/2008<br /><br />Hi Folks,<br /><br />Its been too long since i've written and this is going to be short so sorry bout that. I seem to have attrapp-ed la rhume (that pure franglais baby...it means i have a cold) and possibly an eye infection, so here i am, the un-healthy health volunteer spouting health advice to people and sniffling. I'm told its the "saison du vent" (windy season) and everyone gets sick now, which certainly seems to be the truth given that its been insanely ridiculously windy all day every day for the past week, and everyone at my house has the sniffles (these things travel fast in the land of the communal cup, bowl, tea casse, everything). Its also evidently the season of eye infections, i was warned, i reluctantly gave up my contacts and picked up my sunglasses so that now i stumble around in blurry darkness, and still i seem to have a slight unhappiness in my left eye. It's not hard to see how this could have come about in a land where waste management doesn't really exist and its not uncommon to find both the feces and the bones of various animals in any given square foot of ground, when the winds pick up its not just sand they're blowing in your eyes if you know what i mean. <br /><br />Still, its hard not to remain positive in the land of so many friends! I have millions of friends, i made three more on the way here. I made three friends, received one dinner invitation, and was told twice by random people that they will be returning to the US with me. A friend came over last night, he was a friend of my host brothers first but now i think he might come over half to see my brother and half to pester me, and he told me that i read too much and need to talk all the time so that i will speak pulaar in two months. Why you ask? So we can get married of course! A friend found me on my way to work yesterday and invited me to his house, me and any other white female friends i might like to bring along. I have gotten 4 business cards, 3 phone numbers, 2 dinner invitations, and a partridge in a pair tree since the last time i wrote an email. Everyone is just so friendly! Its weird though, they all seem to be men. Okay, so i'm not really this naive, i get phone numbers because i refuse to give out mine, i get dinner invitations for my friends because i refuse to go and they think if i can bring a friend i'll be more likely to come, and i never actually got a partridge in a pear tree through it would have been a nice gesture. Its not easy to make female friends here, mostly because the women work constantly, and the mens sole household chore seems to be making tea, the nature of which is purely social anyway. I drink 15 or so tiny cups of tea a day and talk in some interesting combination of languages with men during all my free time. This has been very informative and from our talks i have learned how to effectively stave off marriage proposals, at least for the time being. I HATE KIDS. that all you have to say. Men here want wives for the sole purpose of keeping their house and raising their children and as i am an american who can barely wash clothes let alone cook who doesn't want children, i am virtually unwanted...unless i can bring them to the states with me, then they might be willing to compromise. I love getting all womens rightsy on them, evoking the children debate and reminding them that as men than can have no possible comprehension of what childbirth is like and therefore have no right to tell me i have to have children, men here aren't used to women who stand up for themselves. "No babies for me, no thank you" works better than "I have a finace" or "i'm married" here. Interesting. <br /><br />Thats all for now,<br />I have to go do some work or something now, Love and miss you all!<br /><br />ShelbyShelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-44806145820471727992008-11-07T04:13:00.000-08:002008-11-07T04:15:02.773-08:00"Taxi-ing"<p class="MsoNormal">11.05.2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hi Folks! </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">FIRST I need to say HAPPY (slightly belated) BIRTHDAY TO BECCA!<span style=""> </span>22!<span style=""> </span>Hope it was fantastic! This winter we’ve been friends for 20 years, TWENTY YEARS! I love you and I miss you!<span style=""> </span>Have a fantastic 22<sup>nd</sup> year; I’ll see you sometime during our 23<sup>rd</sup>!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So here I am, back in Selibaby, after my first real taxi brousse experience out to Gouraye to watch Levin and Sam make a very successful school garden at the elementary school there.<span style=""> </span>Tabitha, Sari, and I, all came along so that we could pretend to be real volunteers with actual projects for a day.<span style=""> </span>The trip out was my first time riding taxi brusse, and it went well, I’m told.<span style=""> </span>Of course I had no idea as I had nothing to compare it to and I found it rather uncomfortable and a touch crowded (14 people in the back of a small pick up truck, 4 in the cab, 1 on top of the cab).<span style=""> </span>I was tucked snugly in the back of the truck bed with the other 13 people back there and all their luggage, sitting on my backpack and listening to my old i-pod, who unfortunately broke again about half way though the trip.<span style=""> </span>As far as I was concerned it was a touch too snug back there for my liking, considering we left at a steamy 11:30 in the morning and drove through all the hottest hours of the day and successfully sweated off all of my sunscreen and got a nice rosy glow on the top of my nose, which is now peeling off, but the others assured me that I was very happy with the situation, evidently there are frequently many more people stuffed into the truck bed, though I don’t see how that would be possible with out sardine stile stacking.<span style=""> </span>At any rate, it was a beautiful scenic drive, we made good time, and we only had to get out and walk once where the road got rocky and the driver thought we might pop the tires with all that weight.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Once in Gouraye we commenced with the school garden, and it was really inspiring.<span style=""> </span>About 20 students came with 2 teachers and took turns doing everything that needed to be done to prepare the beds and seed them.<span style=""> </span>I took about 12 billion pictures, so keep your eyes out for those because I’m going to do my darndest to post them ASAP.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The whole thing too only about 2 hours and left us the afternoon to wander on foot out to Sounatu, a little Pulaar village where the boys needed to check on some trees they had planted.<span style=""> </span>This was what Levin described as a 40 minute walk, which turned out to be just over an hour, but to be fair we took our time, taking pictures and visiting with some random French tourists we met along the way who are driving their way across <st1:place st="on">Africa</st1:place> for no apparent reason.<span style=""> </span>It was a beautiful walk and we saw shepherds with flocks of sheep and goats, a giant lizard, some snake trails in the sand, huge seasonal lakes filled with lily pads, and the always beautiful Senegal River, on the other side of which loomed the always illusive <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Senegal</st1:place></st1:country-region> where they have things like paved roads and beer…jerks.<span style=""> </span>The village was adorable, with all sorts of baby animals and cute kids trailing behind us wherever we went and picking the burs out of my skirt for me when I tried to do it for myself.<span style=""> </span>The walk back sucked a bit, considering it was 1:00 pm when we left and it was hotter than hell outside.<span style=""> </span>Just to put this in perspective, when we got back the t-shirt I was wearing was not only fairly thoroughly soaked in sweat, but it was also crusted with salt from all the sweat that the hot wind dried while I was en route.<span style=""> </span>Gross right?<span style=""> </span>Sorry, it was necessary to share that.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So that brings us to the trip back, taxi brusse ride numero deux pour moi (I’m so good at French!) and this one started out a little worse and ended a little better if you can believe it.<span style=""> </span>(OK here’s where everyone who’s easily excitable when it comes to my personal safety should just skip ahead to the next paragraph…that’s you Dad).<span style=""> </span>This time the taxi picked us up at the house we were staying at and was already packed and ready to go, the truck was a bit smaller than the first one and the entire truck bed was packed with luggage secured in place with a rope net with 8 people sitting on it already, 3 on one side with their legs hanging off the edge, a woman and her two small children in the middle, and 2 on the top of the cab.<span style=""> </span>We had about 5 minutes to clamber on, and secure ourselves with all of our luggage before the truck started moving.<span style=""> </span>I was sitting facing the back with my legs curled under the bumper, clinging to the net for dear life with my purse on my lap and some nice gentleman on the top of<span style=""> </span>the cab was wearing my backpack backwards.<span style=""> </span>I’m not going to lie, I was a bit scared.<span style=""> </span>The roads are uneven deep sandy ruts through fields of dry grass sprinkled with scrubby trees covered with sharp thorns and our driver didn’t really seem to be taking his time (we were probably going about 30 mph, but it feels like a lot more when your on the bed of a truck with your legs flapping in the breeze).<span style=""> </span>Anyway when we got going and I adjusted a little I started to feel much better and by the end of the trip it felt more like an amusement park ride than a taxi and we were all laughing at poor Tabitha who got the seat facing backwards on the middle of the tailgate and was literally caked with dust on every exposed surface, it really was hilarious.<span style=""> </span>They dropped us right at Kim’s door and it was no hassle at all to get our luggage because ours had never been secured under the net anyway so no one even had to get off the truck.<span style=""> </span>Fantabulous!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">As fun as it all was, I think I’ll avoid taxi brusse whenever possible during the rest of my time here (aka be a giant homebody and just sit around here in good old Selibaby, which is just fine with me).<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">That brings us to election day, and the election day party.<span style=""> </span>We had big plans (a bag of brownie mix and several Michael Moore movies to make us good and angry at the current administration and dreams of cold drinks and pita sandwiches from a local restaurant) which turned out to be a bit of a bust as the electricity had apparently been out since we left for gouraye the day before and no one had any cold anything, pita man didn’t have any pitas, and our little oven doesn’t work without electricity.<span style=""> </span>As stubborn as I am, I refused to give up on the brownies though, so I tried and succeeded at making a brusse oven (a pot of sand with a lid over a gas burner that kind of unevenly cooks everything you put in it) and made a decent batch of alright brownies, with only one minor setback, the “oven” got so hot it heated up the whole little gas stove, melted off the knobs, and burned the hell out of our already disgusting pot holders, but everyone agreed that it was a worthwhile trade for brownies.<span style=""> </span>Shortly thereafter the power came back on and we went out and got salads instead of pitas and I made another batch of much more successful brownies with caramel swirls, cookies and cream and chocolate instant pudding, and Luis came over with his internet and laptop and we kept up with election polls until I passed out at around 11:30.<span style=""> </span>All in all a good night, oh, and kitty had kittens, 3, we named one Obama.<span style=""> </span>Perfect.<span style=""> </span>Now I must go because I am writing this on my laptop at Kim’s and its after 6, which is my self imposed curfew because I like to spend the evenings learning Pulaar with the fam, plus I think they get a little sad when I spend all day at Kim’s with other Americans.<span style=""> </span>Every time I go back at the end of the day they say I’ve been gone for 4 months and have probably forgotten all my Pulaar and French because of all the English I spoke while I was gone.<span style=""> </span>I don’t want that to happen!<span style=""> </span>So here I go!<span style=""> </span>Much love and happy thoughts!<span style=""> </span>Dad, try not to think too much about the taxi brusse, its just part of life here, and besides I’m fine!<span style=""> </span>Love you all!</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shelby</p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-86794483176987018852008-10-25T09:51:00.000-07:002008-10-25T09:52:34.956-07:00BANDITS!<p>October 22, 2008</p> <p> </p> <p>Hello Lovelies! </p> <p> </p> <p>I don't know what to write to you all because I've written so much lately in journals and letters and emails and messages that I can't remember who I have told what but I'm going to tell you about the "bandits" at my house and if I have already told any of you this…too bad.</p> <p> </p> <p>During my long and arduous search for a family and/or place to live I visited many a household (like 4), eventually settling on the one I love with now.<span> </span>When I went to drop off the lease we had Emily and her host sister Hawa with me and as we walked away Hawa told Kim and Emily all about how I should not live there and the neighborhood was full of bandits.<span> </span>We found this disconcerting and didn't return to sign the lease until we had taken the time to ask around to see if there was any merit to this claim.<span> </span>We found that my host family has been housing volunteers forever and ever (15 years-ish) and no one seemed to have any qualms with the neighborhood so I went for it and signed the lease.<span> </span>Ok, before you all freak out and think I'm totally crazy for moving into the bandit filled neighborhood you should also know that after proclaiming that my new neighborhood was full of bandits (my new neighborhood being college, the very same quartier Hawa lives in herself, and about a 5 minute walk from her house) she announced that I should rent a little house from them and move in there, so though I trust her, I had some doubts as to her motives.<span> </span></p> <p> </p> <p>So, lease signed, I moved in and got settled.<span> </span>The family consisted of my host mother, Leldo Ba, whom I adore, even though we don't really speak the same language at all, my host father, whom I refer to as father figure because I don't know his name and who also doesn't speak any language that I do but is very nice, 2 older guys, Ibrahim and Souleymane, whose places in the family I couldn't quite figure out until much later, (Souley being my oldest brother at 27 and Ibrahim's place in the family being the basis of this entire story), an older sister Amineta, another big brother, Adama, a younger brother Alieu, and a little sister, Hawa.<span> </span>I spent plenty of time trying to divine Ibro's place in the family, as I had plenty of time to spare, until one day he up and disappeared.<span> </span>Souley asked if I had seen him and I admitted that I had not, but he had only been missing since breakfast and he would turn up.<span> </span>So the following evening hw still has not turned up and a gentleman pulls up in a truck looking for him.<span> </span>Souley informs him that we have not seen Ibro in a few days and they talk in angry hushed tones for a few minutes and then the man leaves. <span> </span>Oh man, what was that all about, I think, but before I can ask Souley tells me. <span> </span></p> <p> </p> <p>Ibro (who is 42) is my brother Adama's (who is 24) friend from Senegal and he was staying with us against the wishes of my big brother, Souley, because my father refuses to turn a friend of the family away, even though Souley didn't trust him. <span> </span>Souley maintained his distrust and never left Ibro at the house by himself, slept in the same general area, and watched him like a hawk. <span> </span>Evidently just a few days ago Ibro left and never came back, with some money that belonged to the man who showed up in the truck and now the whole of Selibaby is looking for him. <span> </span>Mystery solved, bandit found, and suddenly I feel a whole bunch more appreciative of my big brother who made sure I locked my bedroom door every time I wasn't in there, or if I was in there but I was sleeping (at first I just found this annoying, but now I get it). <span> </span>Before you all freak out and think I'm living with dangerous people know this, my family watches out for me more than I know, they take turns walking me to work if they hear the kids yelling toubob at me, they make sure my room is locked and my windows closed and they help me keep even the termites out of my room, they make me sleep right smack dab in the middle of the compound so that I'm surrounded while I'm asleep, and when a sand storm or anything else picks up they make sure I'm safely relocated into my locked bedroom. <span> </span>People here don't steal from friends or family or people who are good to them and for the most part they only steal out of desperation, Ibro stole because he had nothing else. <span> </span>I believe that he would never have done it if he had any other options but he had only days before asked me to ask my Portuguese road worker friend to get him a job, so I believe he was desperate. <span> </span>Don't worry about me, the bandits are gone.<span> </span>I'm safe now, but I still keep everything locked up like fort knox just in case. </p> <p> </p> <p>I gotta go now, but I'm happy and healthy and doin just fine, and I saw a monkey yesterday so my life is complete, love and miss you all,</p> <p>shelby</p> ps. i almost forgot to mention, i got so many wonderful responses to my last message i just wanted to say thank you to everyone who wrote to me....i'm so lucky to have the friends and family i do! love you guys!Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-7375558707499492372008-10-14T02:17:00.001-07:002008-10-14T02:17:29.919-07:00Thank yous!<p class="MsoNormal">October 13, 2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Merry Christmas!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Okay I know its not Christmas but that’s what today felt like here: shuttle day.<span style=""> </span>When the shuttle driver saw me collecting my packages he said “oh tu es tres content maintenant n’est pas?!” Which means you are really happy right now aren’t you?<span style=""> </span>I got Packages and/or letters from: Mom and Dad, Cory, Meaghan and Jilly, Elly, and Grandma and I want to give a great big heartfelt thank you to all of you, it was amazing!<span style=""> </span>Boxes and letters and cards and magazines and so much more, so much more than I could even have hoped for so here are some individual personalized thank you’s:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Mom and Dad:<span style=""> </span>Thank you so much for everything!<span style=""> </span>You remembered everything, even the pictures for me to draw and the first thing I saw when I opened the first box was a jar of peanut butter and that was all it took, I was smiling ear to ear.<span style=""> </span>I read every one of your letters mom, dad where were you on that?<span style=""> </span>Too good to write to your little girl?<span style=""> </span>Get on that!<span style=""> </span>The letters are my favorite part, I love to hear what is going on there and I would love also to see photos if have any you could send!<span style=""> </span>Thank you also for the water bottle, that’s amazing, its got the life straw water filter built right in!<span style=""> </span>So cool!<span style=""> </span>And how could I forget, the puppy treats! <span style=""> </span>Puppy loves them, I gave her three and made her sit for them and she did, usually she won’t but I told her since they were special American dog treats she had to sit to get them and she did!<span style=""> </span>I took a picture of me feeding them to her so you can see, but she looks creepy in it because her eyes are glowing yellow.<span style=""> </span>At any rate shes perfectly content and sleeping on my feet right now and its adorable.<span style=""> </span>You’ll never know how happy it made me to pick through my boxes of silly goodies, so thank you thank you thank you!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Cory: You have outdone yourself again, I was incredibly excited to get the letter in the first package with the rock from the grand canyon and the Sedona rock and the memory card full of amazing music which I’m listening to right now and the letter about your time at home, tell Eddy and Ali that I said hello and that I hope all is awesome in NH and happy belated graduation, I’m so sad I missed an old fashioned Peru woods party!<span style=""> </span>Tell anyone else you talk to that I say hello too!<span style=""> </span>The second package, the one you sent from school, there are no words to describe my happiness with that package.<span style=""> </span>Obviously the i-pod (Awesome name choice by the way, Dayanand is the perfect next name in the saga of my ipod owning history, for being such a worldly ipod right from the get go!) is amazing and I’m am so lucky to have you and I know that but you went above and beyond by filling it with amazing music and movies and tv shows and everything, my regionmates have figured out how to watch them on the computer and are watching the Bourne Identity right now, I was too but I couldn’t concentrate on a movie with so many thank you’s running around in my head so I figured I would write this and then watch when I’m done.<span style=""> </span>As if the ipod wasn’t enough, you also stuffed that box to the very top with so many amazing things!<span style=""> </span>I’m very excited to have tea tomorrow morning that’s not served in a shot class and composed of 50% sugar!<span style=""> </span>The spices are great and were immediately added to the collection we have going here that I have been going through so quickly with all my cooking that it felt awesome to be able to contribute back.<span style=""> </span>Oh what else, the camelpak, I’m told will be great for carrying extra water on long taxi trips and I also have now made it a personal goal here to go on a camel trek in the sahara while wearing my camelpak and the moment I do you will be sent photos.<span style=""> </span>The baby toys are going to a baby that lives with the family Emily, my site mate, lives with.<span style=""> </span>The baby’s mother died during or shortly after childbirth and the baby is now being watched by Emily’s family during the day and spending the nights at the neighbor’s house, which I gather was her mother’s compound when she was still alive.<span style=""> </span>She is so tiny, she just learned to roll over a few days ago and has been getting into all sorts of trouble ever since so I can’t wait to give her some toys to keep her busy.<span style=""> </span>Thanks so much for all of it again, I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to have a brother as awesome as you, all the other volunteers are jealous!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Elly-belly!:<span style=""> </span>I am better now that I have gotten your card and I found your letter adorable and hilarious!<span style=""> </span>I love you tons and I’m so thankful for your thoughtful card and package fully of yummy granola bars and the like, I had no idea it was coming and the surprise made it that much better!<span style=""> </span>Your card is going up on my wall for sure and the next time I get all artsy (almost once a day here…I have a lot of time on my hands) I’m making you a card and sending it out your way!<span style=""> </span>Love you tons!<span style=""> </span>I hope RPI is treating you well!<span style=""> </span>Hugs and Kisses!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meaghan and Jilly: Your package brought much mystery and much more happiness into my life.<span style=""> </span>I can only assume that the card you sent separately went with this package because there wasn’t one in this package but the envelope didn’t fair very well and theres a chance it could have gotten away…I can also only assume that the M&Ms got away because I’m guessing you didn’t send an empty bag, but that’s what I got, an empty M&M bag with a little hole in the end…I think it spent a lot of time in the mail room and was visited by little mice friends, or a sketchy local character who was hungry, either way whoever got it probably deserved it a lot more than I do anyway because I have been so blessed to day any more would have been ridiculous! <span style=""> </span>All the other goodies were intact and amazing, right down to the frosted animal crackers that reminded me so strongly of Meaghan Gallagher I almost broke my face in half I was smiling so wide.<span style=""> </span>LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Write again and tell me how your doing, I so love to hear from either one and both of you!<span style=""> </span>I will send you each a card as soon as I can that you will have to staple into the Lamb-gina journal for future smiles! LOVE YOU!<span style=""> </span>XOXOX</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Grandma: You’re letter made me so happy!<span style=""> </span>I love that you are trying to be greener and using the canvas grocery bags, and the fact that they are the ones Cory and I made so long ago makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!<span style=""> </span>I’m so happy Jen sends my emails to you, I was hoping you would be kept updated.<span style=""> </span>Its funny to me how my being on the other side of the world has shown me how easy it is to keep in touch with everyone that I used to be so close to that I took them for granted, now I have such an appreciation for family and friends, because they mean everything here, that I’m desperate to hear from you guys way back over there!<span style=""> </span>I hear from Ann and Jen and Kathy more now than I ever did before and I had no excuse not to be in touch, I just never made the time because in the states communication is so easy its completely taken for granted…why would I call or email now when I can do it just as easily any other time?<span style=""> </span>That attitude let me feel okay about barely talking to you guys anymore and I’m sorry but that’s just dumb!<span style=""> </span>You are my family and I hope if I take nothing else from this trip across the ocean, that I will at least learn to stop taking my family for granted and do a better job of keeping in touch!<span style=""> </span>So there you have it, and to anyone else (like you mom, because I know you read every word of all my emails <span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="">J</span></span> ) reading this I think you should do the same!<span style=""> </span>Family is family, whether through marriage or blood or adoption or whatever, so don’t let them forget how much they matter to you!<span style=""> </span>I love you Gramma, and I’ll send you another card soon!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Okay, now I’m done with those, so the rest of you can stop pretending like you didn’t read that last part and keep reading here.<span style=""> </span>One more quick thank you, to all those of you who have written me emails, if you have written and I have not responded it is not because I haven’t read them or don’t want them, I just sometimes have limited computer time but I love each and every email I get and I read all of them religiously because it’s the closest thing I have to being there with you guys and it makes me so happy to hear from you, you have no idea!<span style=""> </span>Every time I go into the Peace Corps office and use the computer its like being in Americaland for a little while and it’s a nice break from <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Mauritania</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<span style=""> </span>It always feels weird to walk out after an hour or two on the internet and still be in the dusty, goat-filled streets of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mauritania</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style=""> </span>Not that I don’t love it here, I do, I just love it at home too, so I love to live the culture clash that switching gears from your emails to greeting random strangers wearing giant white or blue or green boubous in Pulaar causes in my head.<span style=""> </span>You should try it sometime, its great, just make sure you’re okay at laughing at yourself because you’re going to have to do a lot of it here.<span style=""> </span>When you talk to people, about 50% of the time you are both speaking a language you are not 100% comfortable with and most of time they know about as many words in English as I know in Pulaar/Soninke/Hassiniya/Wolof.<span style=""> </span>It seems almost everyone here knows how to say “How are you? Fine!” in one big long string, because they learned the question and the response all at the same time, which I thought was funny until I realized that most of the time when they greet you in any of the languages here they do it in a similar manner, for example, if you learn French in Africa you are liable to greet someone in french by saying:</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Bonjour!<span style=""> </span><span style="" lang="FR">Ca va? Ca va bien? Comment allez-vous? Et votre travail? Et vos famile ? Ca va vos famile ?<span style=""> </span>Tu va bien ? Bien alhumdulilah ! <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Which can be roughly translated as :</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hello!<span style=""> </span>Hows it going? Its going good? How are you? And your work? And your family? How is your family? You are well?<span style=""> </span>Well thanks be to god!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And they’ll say all of that, even if all you say in response is ca va once or twice.<span style=""> </span>So now when I get text messages from my English-speaking host brother from Rosso that say: </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Hello.<span style=""> </span>How are you?<span style=""> </span>You are fine I hope and your family is nice and that you are fine. I hope you are fine. Good bye.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Its totally normal, and only a little bit funny.<span style=""> </span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Mauritania</st1:place></st1:country-region> is awesome.<span style=""> </span>I’m done writing now, love you all, I’ll write more later!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Shelby</st1:place></st1:City></p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-51194261266501881782008-10-11T03:58:00.000-07:002008-10-11T04:49:34.210-07:00Silence speaks louder than donkies...October 11, 2008<br /><br /> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I risked life and limb to get here this morning, just to write to you people, and to translate my resume into French for an NGO. <span style=""> </span>It rained again last night, and I’m not talking a few shimmering sprinkles. <span style=""> </span>The sky opened up and dumped water on this dried up little town like a freaking bucket. <span style=""> </span>The streets are a mess, and my toes are coated in the deliciously squishy clay mud that this town is made out of. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I was woken up by the complete absence of sound at around 4am. <span style=""> </span>That’s the first time that has ever happened here, total silence except for the quiet little plopping sound of toads jumping around on my mat, there was nothing else. <span style=""> </span>It was creepy not to hear a single donkey bray and goat cry or dog bark or anything, and I just laid there in my mosquito net watching the moonlit yard. <span style=""> </span>The lightening had already started in the distance at that point but I couldn’t hear any thunder, that’s how fast storms move around here. <span style=""> </span>By 4:30 I was up, with the rest of my family, dragging all of our bedding into our rooms because the wind had picked up and it was laden with sand making sleeping outside uncomfortable to say the least.<span style=""> </span>Once I was inside and settled back into bed the wind slowed down again and I considered moving back out, but thought better of it. <span style=""> </span>By 5:15 not only was the wind back, but big fat rain drops were starting to fall. <span style=""> </span>A few big fat drops of rain have fallen before during sandstorms, so I thought little of it and got up to shut my door to keep the toads from taking refuge in my room. <span style=""> </span>Well by 5:30 it had picked up full scale and started downright pouring. <span style=""> </span>The wind drove the rain in through the termite holes in my walls where it proceeded to melt the mud bricks and form little mud rivers down my walls, so I got up one more time and dragged my net into the very middle of the room and put buckets under the termite filled sandy mud puddles and thought about how crazy my life has become that this was not odd at all, simply tedious and annoying when I’m trying to sleep. <span style=""> </span>In an effort to better appreciate the moment I snuck outside by myself into to morning darkness and pounding rain and just watched the power of the storm for a little while. <span style=""> </span>I was cold and wet (though not soaked, I stayed under the eaves and refrained from dancing in the rain like I have been known to do in the past) and alone and gloriously ridiculously happy to be where I am right now living this every day. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">A few nights ago, after a fantastic dinner of (here comes a combination that would be considered amazing only here…get ready) fresh live oysters with lime juice, amazingly strong and flavorful soft brie, and cold beer (all courtesy of Luis), Pot pie by Levin, and (my pride and joy) home made cream-filled, cinnamon sugar doughnuts freshly fried up by yours truly, myself, Luis, and the other volunteers who were in town become engaged in a big long conversation about peace corps service and how we all feel about what we’re doing and whether or not we’re doing any good and how fundamentally selfish it feels to me to be here (though no one else seemed to feel that way) and all of that jazz. <span style=""> </span>Following the conversation, during which I learned a lot about myself, I wrote a big long journal entry that was accidentally even more revealing about my true character, sometimes when I get writing I write things about myself that I didn’t know were true until I see them committed to paper and its always a little bit scary to re-read them later. <span style=""> </span>Without getting to self-help book on you, I’ll share this:<span style=""> </span>I think I feel bad about my presence here because I was on some level hoping that when I got here I would find people in dire need of my help, however unrealistic and border-line sadistic that hope is, I wanted them to need me so much that I would come out of this service feeling like I had done something so wonderful, that I had helped so many people who couldn’t help themselves (it sounds worse and worse every time I put it into words). <span style=""> </span>The reason I feel so bad about it now is that I have come here and found that they don’t need me, not really, not in the way I had sort of decided they would. <span style=""> </span>I don’t feel needed, and therefore I have tipped the scales in the opposite direction of the way I was hoping. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I wanted to come here and do great stuff for everyone else and then as a lucky side effect, I would have this amazing experience and opportunity to grow as a person; but instead it’s the other way around. <span style=""> </span>I am here growing and learning so much and taking so much out of this experience for myself, and as a lucky side effect I might do a few good things along the way. <span style=""> </span>This is something that I’m having a hard time coming to terms with because I thought I was being selfless by coming here but clearly that’s not the case at all. <span style=""> </span>So there it is, my daily dilemma, and for now, until I can think of a better way to deal with it, I’m just going to work on being okay with whatever comes out of this whole thing, and rely on the wisdom of Levin to make myself feel better, his wise words being something along the lines of: “How could you be doing harm here? <span style=""> </span>I mean I guess if you try really hard you could mess things up pretty bad, but I don’t think it could happen on accident.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So there you have it folks, I’m going to do my best not to accidentally make a big mess here, all the while appreciating all the wonderful things my service means to me. <span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Much love and as always, more to come,</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Shelby</st1:place></st1:City></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">PS. A few new photos up on facebook if anyone is interested</p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-37805197296695674642008-10-04T06:55:00.000-07:002008-10-04T06:56:00.316-07:00Lies Lies Lies...<p class="MsoNormal">“Hiya Friends!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I have some extra time on my hands what with it being a holiday weekend here, and though I spent the first three days of this weekend, which just so happened to be the 3 day fete marking the end of Ramadan, gorging myself on mass quantities of food, I am content to spend the Saturday on the computer, away from endless greetings and various drinks and meals with random people.<span style=""> </span>I have these moments all the time where I think ‘I should write about this in my next email’ and then I get here with my computer and all those moments have completely left me and I end up writing to you about whatever random event pops into my head.<span style=""> </span>Well, I wish I could say this time is different but alas, I have nothing for you, so here’s another heap of random observations for your reading pleasure, or annoyance, whichever the case may be.<span style=""> </span>For the record, if you are reading these hoping for some life changing insight or amazing and inspiring story of hope and wonder from the wilds of <st1:place st="on">Africa</st1:place>, you’re reading the wrong e-mails.<span style=""> </span>I don’t even know what I’m going to do here, I mean I’m hear with all this training on things that are important but how to do them is not what people need to know.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Yesterday I was having this discussion with Luis, a friend of ours from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Portugal</st1:place></st1:country-region> here working on the roads.<span style=""> </span>I say I don’t know what I’m going to do here not because I’m feeling exasperated and overwhelmed already, on the contrary I have been loving it here so far and even though I feel I have done very little, I know I’m not supposed to have done anything but observe and learn right now and so that’s what I’m doing, but here is what I have observed (and also the source of my confusion on what I will do with my time here): In training I learned how to make a cream from a local tree that repels mosquitoes, how to make fly traps, proper methods of hand-washing, what foods a child needs to eat to combat dehydration and malnutrition.<span style=""> </span>I learned how to run an animation or give a presentation showing how easy these things are to do and why they are important, but here’s what training didn’t tell me: People here have a hard time sparing water to properly wash their hands when they have to haul every drop from a well a few kilometers away from their house, or when they pay what are for them vast sums just for the privilege of a running water tap on their property.<span style=""> </span>People know that mosquitoes are bad and should be repelled, but to ask these women, who prepare 3 meals a day from scratch, do all the laundry by hand in buckets, haul all the water, wash all the dishes, sweep the whole compound, care for their numerous children, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, gardens, and all other household chores every day, to spare the hour or so it takes to mix up a batch of neem cream is essentially asking them to give up an hour of sleep in many cases, they work so hard.<span style=""> </span>What I am beginning to see is that I have been given a tool box full of band-aid solutions to solve problems with roots so much deeper than can possibly be addressed by one volunteer, even with 2 years to live and learn these problems inside and out.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I have always been the type to try to shoulder burdens that I can’t possibly handle but this may very well be my biggest one yet, and the hardest part: On the surface everything looks fine.<span style=""> </span>On the surface these people are poor, but that doesn’t matter to them, after all they have never known any other way.<span style=""> </span>What I see when I’m here is that despite the precious little they have in material goods, they are rich beyond my wildest dreams in kindness and community and generosity; and here I am, a little American girl, with my backpack full of useless gadgets that I thought would be so handy to have here, that I paid more than the average Mauritanian makes in a year for, trying to tell them that everything will be better if they just wear neem cream every night and wash their hands with soap.<span style=""> </span>As far as I’m concerned right now I’m doing more damage here than good, providing these people with a living, breathing, metric of the American dream, against which their life couldn’t possibly measure up in any visible way.<span style=""> </span>Of course when it comes to the invisible means I have a hunch that the “American dream” leaves much to be desired.<span style=""> </span>I hope that I’m doing at least a little bit of good for myself and maybe even the people I’m sharing this experience with (ie. You kind folks) just by seeing and showing how having so little can give you so much.<span style=""> </span>Of course Luis says people here are so nice and so happy because of all the green tea they drink, but for whatever reason, on the surface everyone here is one hundred times happier than anyone I’ve encountered in the states. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>Anyway the point is, I come here toting my American ideals and they have no place here, and if by some chance I plant some seeds here, when they grow into whatever they’ll be, I doubt they’ll be beneficial in any way to anyone here. Now before you all go getting worried that I’m feeling depressed about my choices or my service, know this, nothing could be farther from the truth.<span style=""> </span>I’m so happy here Luis teases that I’m going to stay when my service is done.<span style=""> </span>I know I just got here and I can’t let it get overwhelming yet, I’m just taking every step of every day as a learning experience, and hopefully, if nothing else, I will come out of this with a new understanding of finding the root of problems for any future aid or NGO work I might be able to do.<span style=""> </span>So if nothing else, I’ll gain something from this, and hopefully I won’t mess anything up too bad while I’m here!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So, on that note, I’ll try to talk about something a little more hopeful!<span style=""> </span>I have a little project, I’m making posters for the hospital pediatrics office about neem cream, moringa (an amazing tree that has every imaginable nutrient a malnourished child could possibly want in it, not to mention a million other uses), and oral re-hydration salts.<span style=""> </span>I’m blundering my way through the French translations and will hopefully have the body of the posters written up and the basic layout done by the end of the week.<span style=""> </span>I spoke to some Mauritanians about the wonderful moringa tree when I was trying to compose part of my poster, and I found that they have a lot of misinformation when it comes to moringa, at least I think its misinformation because if its not then it’s <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Mauritania</st1:country-region></st1:place>’s best kept secret.<span style=""> </span>I had my dictionary on my lap and I said to my friend Souleymane, “If someone asked you why Moringa was so good, what would you say?” Well he reached right over and took my dictionary and said “Moringa cures over 160 diseases” (Which could be true, it’s roots and seed pods have been found to have remarkable antibiotic properties) but then he continued, flipping through my dictionary on the French to English side, he found what he was looking for and pointed, “it cures this” he said, and pointed to the English translation: Cancer.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“It can’t possibly cure all cancers, maybe some but there are many types that have no cure at all,” I said.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“Perhaps not all, I don’t know, but some.”<span style=""> </span>Okay, I’ll give him that, maybe.<span style=""> </span>He continued flipping and selected another word, which he showed me, “this too” he said, pointing to diabetes.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“Hmmm…really?<span style=""> </span>I don’t think so…at least they never said that in our training” I said.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">“I think so” Souley replied and searched some more, coming up with his third and final example of the wonder cures of moringa: paralysis.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">That was enough for me to realize that he was doing the traditional Mauritanian thing and trying to answer the question just to be nice, even if they don’t know the answer, because they don’t want to let you don’t by saying they don’t know.<span style=""> </span>They’ll do that also with directions, if you ask someone how to get somewhere the peace corps recommends that you ask 2 or 3 people and take the general consensus as people here would prefer to give the wrong directions that have to tell you they can’t help you.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Teachers will do that too.<span style=""> </span>As a teacher you are in a place of authority and respect, you don’t want to tarnish the reputation by not being able to answer the questions of your students, so whether they know or not, they’ll always give an answer.<span style=""> </span>Its been going on for so long sometimes ts hard to tell if someone is making up the answer because they don’t know, or if they think they know but the person who was teaching them made it up because they didn’t know, and so on and so forth.<span style=""> </span>Its really not as bad as it sounds, people don’t ask many difficult questions around here.<span style=""> </span>There is no ponderings of the intricacies of life or science, most of those questions are answered by religion and here that’s basically law and as a rule, not questioned.<span style=""> </span>That leaves silly questions (like how old are you) for people to lie about.<span style=""> </span>Everyone lies about their age, at least all women; and some of them don’t actually know.<span style=""> </span>My 13 year old host sister says she’s 9, Emily’s sister has a twin brother who is 20 but insists she is no older than 16.<span style=""> </span>My sisters in Rosso told me at least 4 different ages each, and even after 3 months of living with them the only one I know the real age of is Saratou because my host parents told me she is the same age as me, she would never admit that though.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">When people here ask my age and I say I’m 22 they assume that by that I mean 26, and if I’m 26 why aren’t I married? And if I’m not married, would I like to be?<span style=""> </span>And if yes then would I be willing to marry an African?<span style=""> </span>Will I live here after I’m finished with my service? And just like that I understand the lying, it’s just easier, I can’t answer these questions, and even if I could I don’t know that I want everyone here to know the answers.<span style=""> </span>Now I lie, because I’m integrated (Je suis une vrai Africainne!), and it’s easier.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Am I married?<span style=""> </span>No, but I have a fiancé, he’s waiting for me in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style=""> </span>He calls me every week and we don’t know when we’re going to get married but probably right after I’m done with my service here.<span style=""> </span>He’s not going to visit because that’s expensive and we’re saving money for our wedding, you can’t talk to him when he calls because he doesn’t speak any French, or Pulaar, or Soninke, or Hassiniya.<span style=""> </span>He has a job in the States but I can’t tell you what it is because I don’t know the word for it in French, but it’s something with cars.<span style=""> </span>I won’t live here after I’m done, at least not right away, because his job is there and when I’m done I will miss him so much I won’t want to live with an ocean between us anymore.<span style=""> </span>I’m a pretty convincing liar now, so that’s something else I can take away from this experience, easy guilt-free lying about my marital status.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Okay I think that’s enough for today, this has been another long one!<span style=""> </span>I hope you guys haven’t run out of patience with my rambling e-mails yet!<span style=""> </span>Someday I’ll get together all the emails that I have written and all the journals that I’m filling each day, and all the letters I’ve written and all the sketches and paintings of plants and cows and tea services and goats and I’ll put them all together in the worlds coolest scrap book that I’ll want to read over and over again to relive these days of my life but no one else will have any desire to see haha….it’s going to be great! You just wait and see!<span style=""> </span>I love you all, keep emailing me you’re love! <span style=""> </span>I have so much to look forward too: 2 weeks until shuttle day when I get all my mail and packages!<span style=""> </span>So to anyone who as sent something that I’m going to get on this shuttle load, THANK YOU!<span style=""> </span>I’m fully confident that this shuttle will make my month!<span style=""> </span>Now I must go and compose an email to the PCMO to request more malaria pills on that very same shuttle.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Peace, Love, and Ice Cream (Jess, I still wear my Ben and Jerry’s bracelet everyday, my host family can’t believe I worked at a store that sold nothing but ice cream, I’m confident their disbelief is simply cleverly disguised jealousy)</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Shelby</st1:place></st1:City></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-408004639880436191.post-35067116878335070482008-09-28T03:22:00.000-07:002008-09-28T03:23:26.525-07:00updates<p class="MsoNormal">September 26, 2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Well hello there friends! </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Update time: I moved in with a family into a nice small termite infested (its actually kind of cool, they are surely natures architects!) corner room with a really great and friendly French speaking Pulaar family.<span style=""> </span>Many of them speak bits of English and they are all very friendly and they all make a fantastic effort to talk with me and keep me entertained, which is why I feel really guilty right now for not having been there all day.<span style=""> </span>I am back at Kim’s and I spent last night here because Sam and Sari are in from their villages so we all hung out last night, had dinner, and got caught up.<span style=""> </span>We also went to the tailors and I got a blue and black embroidered sparkly type thing (although I don’t actually know what yet, my French is no good so I just tell the tailor to make what he would normally make with the fabric and let him use his creative genius to make whatever…I’ll find out what it is when I pick it up tomorrow) and Sari got one that’s blue green and yellow; whatever they come out to be, they will be our outfits for the fetes at the end of Ramadan.<span style=""> </span>I am excited; I’ll surely have to take pictures.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In other news, I don’t have much other news.<span style=""> </span>I’m still working one week at the health center, one week at the hospital.<span style=""> </span>I have been teaching people to make neem cream mosquito repellant and that has been my only recent contribution.<span style=""> </span>I’m going to read up on nutrition and malnutrition for a presentation me, Morgan, and Sari (Health People) are hopefully going to do with Levin and Sam (Agro-Forestry Folks) in the middle of October at a school in Gourat, a little village south of here right on the Senegal river.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I don’t really have any other updates so I’ll share a silly story.<span style=""> </span>I was sitting the Peace Corps Bureau (Room with a computer in it where I can get online) the other day and in walked a gentlemen off the streets, this happens quite frequently as the person inside the bureau is almost guaranteed to be American, curious folks often wander in to make small talk.<span style=""> </span>He tried to give me some perfume oil, first on the hand which I accepted and then he went for the cheek which I refused.<span style=""> </span>He told me his name was Samba and he likes toubobs (for those of you that don’t know, toubob = white person) and wanted to know if I was American, which I obviously am.<span style=""> </span>He told me that he knew a guy that met an American here and they got married and he lives in the United States now, which is pretty standard small talk for anyone around here, everyone knows someone who married and American and why am I here if not to interview interested parties? I said that was lovely and tried to continue my work.<span style=""> </span>He then asked if I was talking to my family to which I replied I was composing an e-mail to them and he requested that I compose one for him in French to his friends (because he would much prefer me do it then have to do it himself and have to pay for the time at a cyber café) to which I replied that this was in fact an English computer and had the incorrect keyboard for composing French emails (which is a lie but he was trying to take advantage so I just told him to go to the cyber).<span style=""> </span>The fellow hung around some more and then got to the point; here is our conversation in a nut shell:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: So are you married?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Me: No, I have a fiancé, he’s waiting for me in the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> (also a lie, don’t worry)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: Do you know any other white people? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Me: Some…I’m working now though.<span style=""> </span>I have to do my work.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: Yes, work is good.<span style=""> </span>We’re friends now right?<span style=""> </span>We can be friends?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Me: um…sure..</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: Good, I’ll give you my number, and when you get back to the states you call me.<span style=""> </span>Help find me a toubob wife and then call me.<span style=""> </span>I want a pretty one, who’s rich.<span style=""> </span>I’d also like her to speak Pulaar.<span style=""> </span>Very rich, if possible.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Me: Yeah…ok…good luck…there are tons of women like that in the states.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: And your man, in the states, you tell him we’re friends too now.<span style=""> </span>All three of us are friends.<span style=""> </span>Next time he calls, you tell him that. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Me: ok….</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Samba: And then ask him to help look for my wife, because he’s there and you’re going to be here for 2 years and I don’t want to wait that long.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So ladiessss….if anyone is interested in a Mauritanian husband I’ve got this friend here…</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">September 27, 2008</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It seems like whenever I write these early in the morning they come out all weird and deep, but that just might be because it’s early in the morning and everything seems deep right now.<span style=""> </span>At any rate, here are my “deep thoughts” for the day.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Every once in awhile here I slip up and without paying attention, an American thought pops into my head that doesn’t really apply here.<span style=""> </span>Little shadows of the life I left over there just pass by and then they’re gone.<span style=""> </span>This morning as I was closing the latrine door I thought “did I flush?”<span style=""> </span>FYI, I haven’t seen a flushing toilet since I got here 3 months ago.<span style=""> </span>Sometimes I see a piece of garbage on the ground and think, oh that’s just a plastic lid to a disposable coffee cup, or a bit of toilet paper, or a take out container, or some other remnant of the things I left behind when I came here.<span style=""> </span>These little moments don’t make me sad, it’s not as if just the site of the piece of plastic piping that looked like a coffee lid made me start to examine all of the things I don’t have here, its just for that fraction of a second I forget where I am, and in a little place in my head I have the “land of plenty” mindset still intact.<span style=""> </span>I still expect to find MacDonald’s wrappers in the garbage heaps, I still think “oh, if I make too much I’ll just stick it in the fridge and finish it tomorrow,” occasionally I even consider swinging by a café for a cup of coffee.<span style=""> </span>Here though, there are no MacDonald’s, there is no refrigerator, and the only cafes we have are called cyber cafes and they are just buildings with a few computers in them where you can go and pay by the hour to surf the net.<span style=""> </span>In fact there isn’t really even real coffee here, its all Nescafe, not my favorite.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So through all of this I wonder, these few things that still pop into my head, they may fade with time, or stick around, who knows, but for every one of those little slip ups there are a thousand things here that don’t phase me anymore even though I would never have seen them in the states.<span style=""> </span>These things, like going to a restaurant and being given one cup for all 4 people and a big bucket that says bob’s mayonnaise on the outside full of cool water to dip the cup in and share, or having to haggle and fight and bargain and sometimes walk out of stores just to get a good price on anything in the market, or bathing, doing laundry, washing dishes, and carrying drinking water all in the same bucket.<span style=""> </span>These things are normal for me now, and will be normal for me when I leave here, so in 2 years am I going to be compelled to bargain for the price of a bunch of bananas or a kilo of sugar?<span style=""> </span>Am I going to assure the waiter at a restaurant that I don’t need a water glass or my own, surely I can just share with my friend?<span style=""> </span>I probably won’t try to do my laundry or my dishes or take my showers in a bucket, I do miss running water and the various machines we have there that do all of that stuff for us.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s a funny feeling to be torn between “the land of plenty,” as I like to call it, and life here, the land of very little but so much at the same time.<span style=""> </span>I feel incredibly wasteful when I think about things I used to do there, but at the same time wasteful things happen here too.<span style=""> </span>Garbage is everywhere, just tossed all over the ground.<span style=""> </span>Every time you go to the store you are given a tiny plastic shopping bag to carry your purchases, these bags end up every where; clear, blue, green, pink, and white, all tangled in the thorny trees like so many Christmas ornaments.<span style=""> </span>You can buy a tiny packet of 4 cookies, a tiny bag of raw peanuts, a bag of soda, a bag of cold water, a bag of 4 garlic cloves, or a bag of rock salt, and if you do buy one or more of these things they’ll put that bag in a shopping bag for you.<span style=""> </span>I’d say probably 50% of my trash is various sized plastic bags.<span style=""> </span>Volunteers try to find ways to reuse them, discourage the distribution of them, encourage the use of reusable shopping bags, anything, but we often fail.<span style=""> </span>I’ll tell the merchant I can just put my purchases in my purse and they will put it in a bag for me to put in my bag.<span style=""> </span>Little things like this are every where.<span style=""> </span>These things frighten me because they represent the influence of the developed world, I remember having the same conversations about dealing with the huge quantities of price chopper bags we used to have around the house over there, but over there things are slowly starting to change, stores give you discounts for reusing bags, canvas shopping bags are showing up all over the place and the waste is becoming less; here though, it will take years for something like that to happen, because the current method is so easy and the negatives are not really a concern for people here.<span style=""> </span>When you cook your dinners according to how well you can afford to feed you family today, the fact that the plastic baggy you got your potatoes in is going to be around longer than they are is not a major concern.<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Those are just my thoughts for the day, I best be off now.<span style=""> </span>Hopefully I’ll send this today or tomorrow.<span style=""> </span>Love and miss you allllll!</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Shelby</st1:place></st1:City></p>Shelbyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04414830126127196470noreply@blogger.com2