home smelly home

june 15, 2009

Hello Everyone !



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!



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!



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.



See you all again in a year! Love and hugs,

Shelby

whats worse than a dead rat?

May 4th, 2009

Hey-lo!

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)

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

Nightmare over right?.....RIGHT?

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.

yes...so now i live in fear of his next move. wish me luck!

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!

Love you all,
Shelby

war stories

March 29th 2009

Hey-lo Everyone!

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!

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)

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.

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!

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…”

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.

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.

At any rate I’m spent on staring at the computer screen so I’ll write more later…
Hugs and kisses!
Shelby

Birthday Happiness and other Sadness

Hi Everyone,

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!

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.
You can read the Peace Corps press release here:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.media.press.view&news_id=1435

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.

Love and Miss everyone!
Shelby

time flies...

Feb 22, 2009

Hey Folks!

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:

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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!
oxoxoxo's
Shelby

Happy New Year!

January 11, 2009


Holy Cow!

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!

So I bet you wouldn’t mind hearing some tales of my adventures would you? I didn’t think so. Here are some highlights:

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.

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.

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!

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!

Love, Shelby

Merry Christmas!

Hello Friends!

I know it’s been ages since I’ve written, I’m getting lazy. So I’ve currently been here 6 months and I still love it so I must be doing something right. Its still hot, but I’m getting used to it. It’s “reproduction season” here…which means baby goats everywhere, little lambs frolicking in the streets, and alas, kittens and puppies at kim’s. 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.

A few days ago we got a mail shuttle so let me do a quick round of thank-you’s:

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! 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! 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. And thanks for everything else, I won’t list it all here because I’m lazy but it was all wonderful!

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!

Grandma: Thank you for everything! The book of puzzles has already provided hours of entertainment and I’ve already started reading the books! 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! Thanks for thinking of me, I love to hear from you! 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. Thanks again, Love you!

Aunt Ann: Surprise Christmas packages are one of my top 10 favorite things ever! Thank you so much for yours! 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! 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.

Becky Fogarty: What a fantastic surprise! A box full of yummies from an awesome friend right before Christmas with a letter that made me smile and miss you bundles! Thanks so much, you’re the sweetest friend ever and I miss you like you wouldn’t believe! Hugs and kisses!

And a Merry Christmas to all!!!

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. 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^th-ish. I know, sounds exhausting right? But I’m so excited for it! 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!

I’m going to try to put up pictures today so check those out, they’ll be on facebook. Hmmm…what else is there to say? Everything is going great here and I’m happy and healthy again, very well fed, and very excited for my voyage. Hugs and kisses for you all! I’m going to go bake cookies and pack my bags before my skype rendez-vous (yep I speak rocking French wooo!). Much love and warm holiday thoughts from here in warm sunny Mauritania!

Shelby