I can’t believe I’ve already been in Mauritania for 10 weeks! They’ve gone by so fast! I just left my training site PK-6 and in about 4 days we’ll be sworn in as the newest Peace Corps Volunteers in Mauritania!

Anyway, for the last 10 weeks 4 other Peace Corps Trainees—PCT—and I were in PK-6 to learn Pulaar and the African culture. Today we left PK-6 in a flurry of tears, hand shakes, hugs, and promises to visit. We all really love PK-6 and it was hard to leave.

Sanitation is interesting here: ok, so its almost non-existent to the American standard. In the Muslim religion there are 5 prayer times a day and each time the person praying needs to wash their face, hands, and feet. This is really practical since everything is not very sanitary: kids play in the dirt, next to the spot they peed in earlier in the day. Cows, goats, chickens, donkeys, dogs, and cats roam everywhere, including the yard. Everyone spends pretty much al their time outside since inside is just way to hot. We spend our time under an “mbarra” which is a low roof with no walls: shade and the breeze!

Anyway, everything has fine amount of dust in/on it, even the food! Food is good here, but it gets monotonous: rice, fish, and veggies every day for lunch. The young girls about 13-18 start cooking about 1-2 hours before eating, usually inside a small twig hut over a wood fire. When its ready, they spoon the rice into a huge bowl then strategically lay out the fried fish and vegetables all around, put the bowl onto their head, and walk over to the mbarra where the family is waiting. There’s a piece of cloth put on the floor, usually about 3 sq ft where anywhere from 8-15 people gather around. One of the 8-15 year olds, or who ever is “low” on the family totem pole will pour water out of the makaresh (which looks like a big tea pot) so each person can take their turn to wash their hands. Usually there’s soap but some times not, so that can be disgusting considering all the hands you HAVE to shake, the animals you’ve shooed away, the dirt we all do everything on, and the fact that your left hand wiped your butt that morning.

Then, all of us gather around the big food bowl and dig in! Right hands only, or use a spoon with your left. You have to grab a handful and ball it up in your fist. Try getting a piece of wonder bread and making it into a ball using just your right hand. Easy? Good, now try doing that with rice. Ha ha he he ha! Please tell me if/when you do this, so I can laugh!

When you’re done you get up, wash your hands, lounge around, and wait for tea!

I love it!