"Our host family is really great. Mohammed and Zeinabou are a couple about the age of our parents, and their two children have moved away. They've shown us nothing but kindness, and really personify the Mauritanian value of hospitality. They say in this country that no matter where you are, you can walk into a stranger's home, sit down for a meal and stay the night without so much as a strange look. I didn't believe that at first, but now I'm sure of it."
Peace Corps Volunteers Adam and Val in Mauritania: Our host family is really great
22 July 2005
We're still here
(That title would have had an exclamation point, if I could have found it on this French keyboard...)
Hi everyone, and thanks for still checking our site. We're here and doing quite well. It's been a challenge to update this site, as our only access to the internet right now is at the one crowded internet cafe in Kaedi with questionable hours and even more questionable internet service. Last night we tried for about an hour to open up this site, to no avail. But it is about the only place in town with air conditioning. Hang in there with us - in about two months we'll be in a place with better access, and will keep you all much better informed.
A quick update - we're doing really well. We've been in Kaedi, a regional capital in the south of the country along the Senegal River, for about three weeks now. Our flight over was good, though we left NYC about 2 hours late, which caused us to just barely make our connection in Paris to Nouakchott, which caused most of our bags to not make it at all... but everything has been resolved. We spent one night in Nouakchott and then made the 6 hour drive down to Kaedi, where we spent one week together at the lycee (high school) before heading out to our homestays.
Our host family is really great. Mohammed and Zeinabou are a couple about the age of our parents, and their two children have moved away. They've shown us nothing but kindness, and really personify the Mauritanian value of hospitality. They say in this country that no matter where you are, you can walk into a stranger's home, sit down for a meal and stay the night without so much as a strange look. I didn't believe that at first, but now I'm sure of it.
We spend a lot of time in language instruction - about 7 hours a day. Adam is working on becoming fluent in French, and I'm learning Hassaniya - a local, unwritten dialect of Arabic. Our host parents are Moors who speak Hassaniya, and the father speaks French as well, so they're a great help.
Impressions of Mauritania so far - The people are warm and so kind. It's HOT - hotter than we even imagined, but we've learned from the locals to spend the hottest part of the day laying in the shade, to sleep outside, and that there's no use complaining. This is hard, because we're having to learn how to do everything in a new way - how to eat (with our hands), how to sit and lay down, how to communicate, how to stay healthy, how to go to the bathroom... but it's worth it. We're still happy we're here and looking forward to the challenges to come.
Thanks for your support, everyone. We miss you all and can't wait to share our experience with you.
