School was officially supposed to start on October 12th. However, that doesnt mean we are going to have class. My first clue? My community counterpart, who is also a teacher went into the capital.
So I walk there, meet the director, and have tea with two other women who work there for about three hours. Then go home because everyone decides its too hot and they need naps. Repeat x5. That was my first week of school.
The next week, we actually had classes. I teach 1st-4th year of middle school, so the equivelent to 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Each class is 2 hours for a grand total of 8 hours a week. However, the English teacher they have had for the past two years has a limited amount of English. He is really a French teacher. So I'm pretty much starting from square one. On every class. This includes, alphabet, numbers, pronunciation. Everything.
My first class was a 3rd year class and I was interrupted in the middle of it by my bosses. The Peace Corps education director came out to see me. He also brought care packages and my absentee ballot, so it was a welcome distraction. With that, class was over within an hour and I got a pimp ride home with the entire town staring at the new teacher in some huge ass SUV.
The kids are really excited to learn English though, and it seems like everyone I meet is happy I'm here. It feels nice to finally start doing the job I was sent here to do... Yay!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Adjusting to life at site....
Lots of hiking to do in Aioun. There are lots of scenic views around the city.
Showing off my henna I got for Eid. And notice the Longhorn on my right hand. TEXAS FIGHT!
It has been two weeks at site and this is my life so far...
It's surprisingly easy to get used to not having electricity. There are no convinces like a/c but I've lived without that since leaving America, so that's not a big deal. Now there is no TV or a way to charge my phone. But it has lead to me reading a lot of books... and one of my region mates is giving me their solar charger, so it is definitely do-able. The only bothersome thing is not having light at night, but that is easily remedied by going to sleep around 9.
Integrating into the community is so much easier in a small site. There are less then 2000 people in my village, so everyone knows I am the first American in town and they all know who I am and want me to come over. Of course the first thing anyone asks is if I want milk or tea. Milk is huge in the country side. It definitely takes some getting used to to chug a bowl of milk from the cow about 20 feet away from where you are sitting.
Water comes from wells. To have a readily available supply, we fill up big bidons with water which are big plastic barrels. When the water gets low, we go to the well and fill up our bidons again. Thank god it's a kid's job to keep the water full, so I never have to actually lug the water up w/ the rope and bucket. However, when you get towards the bottom of the barrel, the water becomes really dirty and sandy. I almost had a break down the first week because my bath water was literally brown. And I'm lucky if I get a bath once a day. So the water situation is going to get some taking used to.
The sun here is ridiculously strong. I took a walk for about 10 minutes one day and got a sun burn on my face. First of all, it was around 5 when the sun was not strong and getting ready to set. And I have never burned on my face, my freckles just darken. Apparently they have reached their melanin capacity because I walk in the my family's compound and they asked me why I was so red.
Eid was the other day. It's the big holiday at the end of Ramadan. All the family comes in so I met so many people. And they were all jolly because of the holiday and you could eat again. We had awesome food and just partied. I got henna-ed and got my hair braided and everyone was so impressed with me because I suddenly became beautiful. It was a pretty awesome experience.
School officially starts on the 12th, so I'll be lesson planning soon and getting the kids prepared to speak in English! I'm really excited and can't wait to be doing my actual work as a Peace Corps Volunteer!
The Glorious Return
The Hodh Ech Garbi, my region is a two day travel from Rosso. So being cooped up in a car for multiple days can take a toll on anyone. As volunteers, we are accompanied by a Peace Corps staff who is in charge of making sure we are posted. Some more competent then others.
In theory, when you get to your region, the volunteer spends a couple of days in the regional capital, mine being Aioun, to go house shopping. We need things like matelas, which are small mattresses that Mauritanians sleep on, buckets for showers, mats, kitchen supplies- pots, pans, plates, silverware, etc. Since my site does not have a daily market or electricity, I also need canned food, oatmeal, coffee, etc. After we buy all these things, we are taken to our site by Peace Corps and dropped off.
Of course when put in practice, rules are bent. We get to site a little before noon, and that very day I am told to have everything ready by 5 pm . The morning was spent doing protocol and the markets are closed for the hottest part of the day so I had absolutely no time to do shopping. Nothing would have even been open. For some reason I was the only one to leave at a moment's notice. On the first day of posting a staff member is required to stay overnight. I have an inkling that mine wanted to get it over with, get to site and be rid of his duties.
I was told to hang out without any house wares and go back to Aioun by myself, go shopping, and return with everything alone. However, this is of course easier said then done. Travel is done by taxi brousse. Drivers go between cities and stuff as many people in a car as possible for a fee. Four in the front and four in the back is a very common sight. Sometimes you can't tell who the driver is because there are two people in his seat. They also charge for baggage. So having a mattresses and huge rugs and multiple bags is going to cost me. Add to this that I am American, which makes it ok to rip me off.
I make it to Aioun without a problem and stay with the other volunteers in the regional house. I do my shopping, etc. and hope I didn't forget to leave anything out. Here is the hard part. I plan on going back to my site in the same car with another volunteer, Jackie who lives in Awinat Zbil. (Loosely translated to cow shit.) She came into town to go shopping also. Since we have so much baggage, we have to go to find a local driver to drive to our house, load up our baggage, and take us to the garage where we can find cars that are going east, to other cities.
We make it to the garage and then have to haggle to get to our sites. All the while paying huge amounts for our baggage. Here's the fun part...
My site does not have a road, it is all sand. And my house is about a kilometer and a half away from the paved road. So the taxi stops at my town, the driver looks at me and says, “Agjert, this is your stop,” and leaves me on the side of the road. Literally. With a mattresse, my big traveling backpack, a normal back pack, my purse, and two buckets filled with food. I obviously can't carry all these things, so I ask to take him to my house. But no, I am crazy for asking him because can't I see that his tires can't drive in sand? Imagine being abandoned on the side of the road in the middle of Africa, feeling almost completely helpless. I was about to flip my shit. So I say good bye to Jackie who looked as freaked out as I was, and wave to her with all my shit.
What's a girl to do? I literally walked up to the first house I saw and told them about my problem. I was an English teacher and I am new to town, but need help getting me and all my stuff to my house. Fortunately they were nice about it. They said to wait there and if they saw cars going in to town, they would stop them. The offered me milk and tea. All of which took a little over 2 hours. But hey, I had time to kill and I needed to integrate in the community. It was getting dark and there were less and less cars and they all wanted to charge me outrageous prices for driving less then two kilometers.
I called my counterpart and told him where I was and he came with a car to come get me. Of course I had to pay him too. I should have known, anyone is willing to rip off the American, even your adopted family. With that, I said my good byes to the family that took in the crazy American for an afternoon and promised to come back for tea.
All in all a thirty minute drive back to site ended up taking almost four hours. This just goes to show how flexible you have to be, and not to be weary to ask for help from those around you. Otherwise you might go a little crazy.
In theory, when you get to your region, the volunteer spends a couple of days in the regional capital, mine being Aioun, to go house shopping. We need things like matelas, which are small mattresses that Mauritanians sleep on, buckets for showers, mats, kitchen supplies- pots, pans, plates, silverware, etc. Since my site does not have a daily market or electricity, I also need canned food, oatmeal, coffee, etc. After we buy all these things, we are taken to our site by Peace Corps and dropped off.
Of course when put in practice, rules are bent. We get to site a little before noon, and that very day I am told to have everything ready by 5 pm . The morning was spent doing protocol and the markets are closed for the hottest part of the day so I had absolutely no time to do shopping. Nothing would have even been open. For some reason I was the only one to leave at a moment's notice. On the first day of posting a staff member is required to stay overnight. I have an inkling that mine wanted to get it over with, get to site and be rid of his duties.
I was told to hang out without any house wares and go back to Aioun by myself, go shopping, and return with everything alone. However, this is of course easier said then done. Travel is done by taxi brousse. Drivers go between cities and stuff as many people in a car as possible for a fee. Four in the front and four in the back is a very common sight. Sometimes you can't tell who the driver is because there are two people in his seat. They also charge for baggage. So having a mattresses and huge rugs and multiple bags is going to cost me. Add to this that I am American, which makes it ok to rip me off.
I make it to Aioun without a problem and stay with the other volunteers in the regional house. I do my shopping, etc. and hope I didn't forget to leave anything out. Here is the hard part. I plan on going back to my site in the same car with another volunteer, Jackie who lives in Awinat Zbil. (Loosely translated to cow shit.) She came into town to go shopping also. Since we have so much baggage, we have to go to find a local driver to drive to our house, load up our baggage, and take us to the garage where we can find cars that are going east, to other cities.
We make it to the garage and then have to haggle to get to our sites. All the while paying huge amounts for our baggage. Here's the fun part...
My site does not have a road, it is all sand. And my house is about a kilometer and a half away from the paved road. So the taxi stops at my town, the driver looks at me and says, “Agjert, this is your stop,” and leaves me on the side of the road. Literally. With a mattresse, my big traveling backpack, a normal back pack, my purse, and two buckets filled with food. I obviously can't carry all these things, so I ask to take him to my house. But no, I am crazy for asking him because can't I see that his tires can't drive in sand? Imagine being abandoned on the side of the road in the middle of Africa, feeling almost completely helpless. I was about to flip my shit. So I say good bye to Jackie who looked as freaked out as I was, and wave to her with all my shit.
What's a girl to do? I literally walked up to the first house I saw and told them about my problem. I was an English teacher and I am new to town, but need help getting me and all my stuff to my house. Fortunately they were nice about it. They said to wait there and if they saw cars going in to town, they would stop them. The offered me milk and tea. All of which took a little over 2 hours. But hey, I had time to kill and I needed to integrate in the community. It was getting dark and there were less and less cars and they all wanted to charge me outrageous prices for driving less then two kilometers.
I called my counterpart and told him where I was and he came with a car to come get me. Of course I had to pay him too. I should have known, anyone is willing to rip off the American, even your adopted family. With that, I said my good byes to the family that took in the crazy American for an afternoon and promised to come back for tea.
All in all a thirty minute drive back to site ended up taking almost four hours. This just goes to show how flexible you have to be, and not to be weary to ask for help from those around you. Otherwise you might go a little crazy.
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