Peace Corps Volunteer Jill Sutton in Mauritania
In Tidjikja
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:33 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
[ Peace Corps Chronicles ]
Hello everyone,
i am writing this from my future home in tidjikja. i have been here since friday and then i leave again back to kaedi this friday. basically, all i can tell you is that i love this place. this area of mauritania is so beautiful. it really is the true desert. the town sits on a plateau which we had to climb in a car to get here. it is gorgeous. there are so many more trees here, trees that resemble palm trees which is weird because there is less water being so far away from the river. the town is smaller than kaedi but cleaner. it is divided into two parts the old and new which is separated by what used to be an oasis. right now it is just a long stretch of sand. supposidly it can fill with water but i am not holding my breath. the volunteer who lives here now says he has never seen it but that the volunteers before him have. speaking of which, the only volunteer in the region lives in tidjikja! and is really nice. he has been really helpful with hints about living here. it is cooler here right now than in kaedi but i hear that it can get really hot in june and july. the winters here are really nice. ben, the guy who lives here, says that he slept indoors with a blanket with the doors closed. that is really hard for me to imagine because i sleep outdoors with no sheet even.
Editors Note: I've been remiss in my duties of updating the Peace Corps Chronicles lately. Please go check out the sub-site for some more recent news of Jill and her travels...
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You eat with the right hand. Got it?
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:28 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
Hey
to everyone who sent emails in regards to my health, thank you very much. i am feeling so much better now. i have been able to keep food down for almost a week now and my appetite has returned with a vegenence. if only my family would serve me good food. for lunch everyday i have what is called maru wa huut. that means rice with fish. i dont like fish so i just eat the rice and the limited vegetables we have. if i am lucky we eat maru wa il ham which is rice with meat, usually goat or sheep. it is more expensive than fish so i rarely eat it. for dinner we have the same thing everynight almost which is couscous. the mauritanian couscous is not too bad but when they mix it with milk and i eat it with a ladel, i dont like that. if i am lucky, i might get macaroni with meat or even french fries. but both those things are a delicacy and they havent given them to me in a while. maybe tonight.... yes we do eat with our hands, silverware is only used if a person has a cut on their hands. there is one large communal plate or bowl and everyone sits around and the place in front of you is for you to eat. the meat is usually put in the center and anyone can grab it. since i am a guest they will throw good parts of the meat at my place for me to eat. it appears rude at first but is really a nice gesture. we only eat with our right hand because well, i have already explained about the left hand thing. we dont shake hands with the left either. you also cannot hand something to anyone with your left hand. the left hand is bad and it all has to do with the bathroom thing. which i understand because, while i wash my hands after i use the restroom with lots and lots of soap, my family does not and most mauritanians do not. isnt that a pretty picture.
while it is hard here, i am having a relatively good time. i am getting used to the life here which is good. the language is still a problem but i can usually get by. maybe by the end of training i will be able to hold a conversation fit for a two year old. in less than two weeks i go to visit my future site. i cant wait to see what it will be like. when i return i will tell you all about it. right now, i am taking advantage of the fast connection at the cafe so i dont have much time. i havent checked my email in a while because it has been down. it is the "rainy" season right now so we have actually had a little rain. it, of course, comes at night when i am sleeping outside and i have to get up and move under some shelter (not my room because it is soooo hot) and then try to fall back to sleep with babies crying all around me. this has happened for the past three nights so basically i need sleep. a! nyway, i love and miss you all. please keep up the emails to tell me about things. i will talk to you later
love
jill
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Party Time
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:25 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
hey all,
i am feeling better, no more throwing up. i even got my appetite back today. it helped that last night i had a feast. a couple of us somehow managed to get invited to dinner at this rich mauritanians house. we had dinner in an air conditoined room, there were cold drinks offered to us with ice which is a novelty in itself. then they brought out this two huge plates of food. one had a whole lamb on it with olives and onions at the bottom to dip bread in and then the other had a couple of chickens with french fries all over them and sauce to dip bread in. that may sound weird to you but that is high quality. usually i only eat rice and fish maybe a tiny bit of goat or if on a good day i might get a little chicken. macarroni and fries are a novelty. i stuffed my face so much. then they brought ! out this huge plate of fruit which my family here never gives me. i ate oranges, bananas, apples, and grapes. it was heaven. here, food is one of the things we talk about. a lot of people, like me, dont eat very well. our families give us the same thing and it is cooked really poorly. i dont know if i have told you that we eat with our hands. there is a communal bowl and everyone sits around and eats out of it. now you may understand why i got sick. i wash my hands with soap before i eat but my family does not. they may rinse their hands but never use soap.
oh well, enough about the food. the language is a whole other story. i am progressing slowly but better than others because i have taken arabic before. hasseniya is very similar to arabic. it is still really hard though. my french is improving and the hasseniya is improving too. the area in which i am going to will be speaking hasseniya so i had better learn it.
love you lots
jillyjill
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Destination Tidjikja
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:23 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
hey everyone
there are a few people who are added to the list because i couldnt find where i put their email address so to those people, sorry it has been so long. I am fine. i am starting to feel better. my problem is keeping food down, there must be something wrong with my stomach, but the nurses and i are working on it. other than that i am alright. i am back with my home family from my brief interlude at the lycee. we are here for a couple weeks and then we go back to the lycee for more instruction and then we spend a week visiting our future sites. i did find out where i am going to be. the name of the city is called tidjikja. it is the regional capital of the tagant region, which means at least i am not in the middle of nowhere. there is a pretty good chance i will have electricity or possibly running water. we will see. even if that is the case, it is not like electricity or running water in t! he states. running water could be a spicket in the yard or one sink that has a faucet attached to it. who knows, we will see. there is currently one volunteer there right now although i have not met him yet. there is one girl going with me, she is not doing health but she is nice. there are two other people in my group going to the same region as me but are in much smaller cities. when i visit it, i will let you know how it is.
i am going to tell you all a little bit about the people here. there are four main ethnic groups. there are the pulaar, the moors, the sonnike, and the woloff. the moors speak hasseneya which is what i am learning and there are two kinds of them. there are the black moors which are the really dark africans and then the white moors which tend to look a little more arab. the white moors consider themselves superior to all. right now i live with a black moor family but when i go to tidjikja, it is supposidly primarilly white moor. the other ethnic groups live mostly in the south. any group you live with though serves lots and lots of tea. we drink tea in the morning, at lunch, at dinner, and whenever anyone comes over to visit. i am sure i have already mentioned the tea.
well it is time to sign off, i love and miss you all so much. please send me emails on whatever you want, i love to read them even if i cant respond accordingly all the time. if the internet was more stable i probably could. anyway i will talk to you later
love
jilly
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Kool Aid Is Okay
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:19 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
Hey everyone,
sorry about the wait but the internenet has been down again (this is afterall africa) and then i was sick. That is why this is another mass email. i am finally starting to feel a little better if only i would eat. my stomach is very sensitive at the moment. i wont be too graphic on my symptoms but lets just say they were bad. dont worry too much about me i am hanging in there. it is a lot harder when you are sick though. i am keeping hope with all the care packages that so many of you keep telling me about. i cant wait to receive them.
America seems like such a distant memory right now. everyone in the streets here stare at you and all the kids want to touch you. mostly they just shake your hand but it gets annoying after a while. i am wearing a mulafa right now which is what the hasseneya women wear. my family loves it when i wear one. They try and make me dance and then when i do they laugh at me. oh well.
my language is going alright. it is getting harder by the day but my family likes to work with me. right now the whole group is at our center (which is actually a high school) for a few days of technical insruction. for example i learn health stuff instead of language. it is nice to see everyone. So far nine people have dropped out. they say that almost half of most groups leave which i can understand because it is so hard here. tomorrow i find out where my permanent site is going to be. i cant wait. when i know i will let you all know.
well i am going to go now. i just wanted to say hello and that i was alright. i am enjoying all of your emails (rachel) but i hate the email situation here. you never know if it will work. the famous phrase is "in-shalah" which means whenever god allows. we use it all the time but when someone says it we know not to get our hopes up. i will write again and more personal ones next time, in-shalah. i love and miss you all.
love
jill
p.s people are wondering about the koolaid. i do have access to sugar so regular koolaid is alright. gatoraid packets are wonderful as well. basically just go to a camping store and buy food like that. believe me, i will eat it.
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Learning Hassaneya
Tuesday, August 12 2003 @ 03:15 PM EDT
Contributed by: brian
Hey Everyone
Sorry it has been so long. The city I am in has not had their email working properly. it has been hell not being in contact with you. Thank you for the emails, i was so happy to get them. Sorry but for now, this will be a mass email because i dont have a lot of time and it is the first one. Now that the email is up, i will write you personal ones when i get the chance.
Right now, i am still in Kaedi because that is where my family is. I was the only health person to stay in the city Everyone else went to rural villages. The reason I didnt was because of my language. Apparantly i speak french well enough to learn a whole new language that is called hassaneya. It is similar to arabic which luckily i have a background in. however the class is taught in french. luckily i understand it well enough. everyone else in my language class is pretty fluent in french i dont know how i got in. (sorry about any typos, this keyboard is really different than the ones in the us)
As to how i am doing, my only answer is that i am hanging in there. It is a really hard life here. We started with 56 people and since we met our families, 5 have dropped out. They werent kidding when they said that mauritania was really hard. it is so hot and conservative and hardly anyone speaks french except for some people who own shops which is why i am learning another language. So far i am not leaving but i can completely understand anyone who does. The food takes some getting used to it requires eating with your hands and squatting down to take a crap in this little itty bitty hole in the ground (no it does not flush) and instead of toilet paper there is a but pot which needless to say requires your left hand and is completely disgusting. luckily my family is really nice and if it werent for them and some friends ive made here i would be home too. i know it will get easier when i can speak the language which ! i should know soon because i have six hours of class of it a day.
Well my time here is almost up. i will be emailing you again and more individual too now that the internet is working.
I miss and love you all very much.
love jill
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In Kaedi...
Monday, July 07 2003 @ 11:52 AM EDT
Contributed by: brian
[ Peace Corps Chronicles ]
Hey Everyone
Sorry it has been so long. The city I am in has not had their email working properly. it has been hell not being in contact with you. Thank you for the emails, i was so happy to get them. Sorry but for now, this will be a mass email because i dont have a lot of time and it is the first one. Now that the email is up, i will write you personal ones when i get the chance.
Right now, i am still in Kaedi because that is where my family is. I was the only health person to stay in the city Everyone else went to rural villages. The reason I didnt was because of my language. Apparantly i speak french well enough to learn a whole new language that is called hassaneya. It is similar to arabic which luckily i have a background in. however the class is taught in french. luckily i understand it well enough. everyone else in my language class is pretty fluent in french i dont know how i got in. (sorry about any typos, this keyboard is really different than the ones in the us)
As to how i am doing, my only answer is that i am hanging in there. It is a really hard life here. We started with 56 people and since we met our families, 5 have dropped out. They werent kidding when they said that mauritania was really hard. it is so hot and conservative and hardly anyone speaks french except for some people who own shops which is why i am learning another language. So far i am not leaving but i can completely understand anyone who does. The food takes some getting used to it requires eating with your hands and squatting down to take a crap in this little itty bitty hole in the ground (no it does not flush) and instead of toilet paper there is a but pot which needless to say requires your left hand and is completely disgusting. luckily my family is really nice and if it werent for them and some friends ive made here i would be home too. i know it will get easier when i can speak the language which ! i should know soon because i have six hours of class of it a day.
Well my time here is almost up. i will be emailing you again and more individual too now that the internet is working. I miss and love you all very much.
love jill
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I'm Here
Monday, July 07 2003 @ 11:41 AM EDT
Contributed by: brian
Hey Everybody-
I just wanted to let you know that I am here and that I am safe. I am in the Capital Nouakchott and will be leaving here tomorrow or the next day for my training site. I am having a good time. I think we traveled for a total of 24 hours, it was awful. I also got more shots today. I had three in Philly and three more today. My arm really hurts from the rabies one. You wouldn't believe this city. It is so different than the US. I can't talk long because other people need to write home to their families as well. I just wanted you all to know that I am well and happy. I will try and write more when I have time at a real internet cafe instead of the peace corps headquarters. There are 56 of us so we all have to share. I love and miss you all very much.
Love
Jilly
