Stage is all but over...

Or is it?
First of all I'd like to give a warm welcome to those of you reading my blog a little more closely this time around, you know who you are. And as always, a lovely hello to my family and friends who have not yet realized the futility of trying to get me to post pictures up here and have not yet gone elsewhere for their "living vicariously" and other such things. It's not that I haven't taken pictures, or that I don't want to post them, it's just that the liklihood of ever actually doing it with the combination of bad internet connections and slow cyber computers (and a peculiar streak of orneriness which is direct from my dear parents anyway so I don't know why you're so suprised) is something around the likelihood of ever getting a decent bit of cheese or glass of wine in this country... you know it happens, you've heard people talk about it, but it just never seems to happen to you.
So, those of you who are still with me, even though your stumbling hopes of pictures of the Mauritanian vastness are now crushed like a fire ant that just bit me on the ankle, welcome. Today is the last day with our host families, which seems to bring out the best and the worst of the whole host family exprience. On some level, everyone is a little more interested, a little more attentive, the kids more playful, etc, but there always has to be that one killjoy who asks you to give her pretty much everything you own at one point or another, "for remembrance". I'm sorry, but you just don't need my shoes, tent, fan, bag, clothes, flashlight, water filter, or bucket to remember me (I think my grandparents would agree that I'm unforgettable as is) and maybe you should just take the damn chocolate I gave the whole family and be happy about it? Hmmm? Okay, sorry to rant, I'm done.... now I'm on to language testing... which is mildly terrifying, swearing in... which is exciting... and the lovely possibility that it will take me weeks at my site to find a decent place to live... all while staying at a random person's house who i met four weeks ago for twenty minutes. Awesome. In all seriousness though, things are excellent. I had a fantastic family, relatively speaking, a very comfortable situation, I feel very comfortable in Hassaniya sometimes and I generally am looking forward to being back at the center for a week or so and I am very excited to finally get to my site and start doing my job (which probably consists of drinking tea at people's houses for the next six months... c'est la vie)
And now I've been ranting long enough and I'm not really sure even what I said but I know I've been typing for about twenty minutes and that is certainly enough of my cyber time. Best of luck to those of you doing things and such... and in the I-wish-these-were-immortal-words of my friend Meghan D from home "try not to get dead or smuggled"

Budget Cuts, Coups, and General Wrapping Up

So the coup was a non-event. That's true. But now there's kind of some international condemnation as people come to realize that there was just no justification for it and holding the president in jail isn't such a hot idea. A lot of countries have pulled all non-humanitarian aid from the country, luckily Peace Corps counts as humanitarian aid so we're not going anywhere yet. Budget cuts are evidently a huge issue right now across the board for Peace Corps, and they're just generally going to tighten the belt on us for next year significantly. What exactly that means is kindof hard to place, in concrete terms it means there's 5 Nouakchott days per quarter rather than 7, and site visit is kindof wiped off the roster for next year's stage (but they're requesting special dispensation). In general, they were expecting more of us to ET and we haven't and that combined with inflation, the falling value of the dollar, and Peace Corps as a whole freezing the budget creates a kindof ugly money situation here.
On another note, Model GMC started earlier this week, Cortney and I were the first to present a lesson and after talking to our audience we decided on American slang and got rave reviews. Never mind that we kind of mixed up a bunch of slang from California to New York from the 80s to now, it was still fun and at least one girl said Peace Out to me as she left, so I consider that a win. Everyone teaches one lesson and a computer lesson at a cyber next week monday or tuesday, so Cortney and I taught first and we're basically sitting around watching other people's lessons until next week.
I've also had the epiphany that the best thing ever to get in the mail is probably spice packets and spices and things like taco seasoning or chili seasoning and pretty much anything that can be made with eggs, oil, water, or pasta and looks like it has a ton of flavor.
Alright chumps, I'm off into the wild blue yonder. We're just 9 days from leaving our host familes and 13 days from swearing in. Inshallah. Just need to pass a language test before swear-in, which is the driving force behind everything at the moment. Hope all is well!

There was a coup

But so what?
At least that seems to be most people's reactions to it. I'm safe, don't worry about it. The president tried to fire some top army type guys who evidently were involved in the last coup and they, in turn, fired him. Poor guy is under house arrest with a private chef in the palace in Nouakchott. So it goes, this is Africa. Anyway, it was bloodless and generally shrugged at by most of the populace as far as I can tell, though it is a little sad to my American eyes because he was the first and only democratically elected leader in Mauritanian history... I think.
Anyway, that's about all that's news worthy and bloggable... I got a little sick once, but what else is new. It was hot, but that's not very interesting. I'm starting to be able to understand my family when they talk, which is good, but still can't really respond well so they think I haven't learned anything which isn't so good. They keep telling me words I already know and I'm kind of over living with a family at this point, ready for some privacy!
Let's see... what else.... can't wait to swear in, get this show on the road!

Okay, I know it's been a little while

But here I am writing a new entry to catch you all up. I'm posted to a town of about 21000 in the Gorgol region, it's called Mbout and it's the halfway point between two regional capitals, Kaedi and Selibaby. It's actually the same size or bigger than some of the other regional capitals, for example Kaedi is only supposed to be about 30,000. Kaedi is the regional capital of Gorgol and that's where my region mates will get together, one of the PCVs there has a house big enough to accomodate us when we come in every couple of weeks for a break from our sites. And the house has a puppy named Kelbi (which means "my dog" in Hassaniya) who's very well behaved and very good at hunting lizards. I'm posted to Mbout with Cortney Donnelly, another GEE volunteer and we're the first PCVs in the town for maybe three years. Three years ago there was a PCV there who ETed early, the year before that there was the same thing, and the year before that again. So basically Mbout has a reputation of chewing up and spitting out PCVs, but I'm not concerned. There's running water, electricity, and we're gonna be the first PCVs posted there with site mates. We're supposed to start a GMC (girl's mentoring center) which means we have to get the community to donate a space and pay for the electricity for it. After that maybe we can get a grant and bring in some computers, start applications for picking which girls can attend, and convince members of the community to take ownership and mentor girls there. Everyone I tell about it calls it a tough posting, and my APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director, the director of the GEE program inMauritania who picked Mbout for us, her name is Seeham) keeps refering to Mbout when she talks about difficult sites. It's gonna be a challenge, that much is obvious, but I can't imagine a better placement or a better country. At the end of my service I'll (hopefully) be able to point to a GMC with classes and mentors and sustainability and say "I did that" which is going to be gratifying and fantastic.
Further notes on Mbout. The road between Kaedi and Selibaby is really rough. It's terrible. Every car that goes between these two cities passes the night in Mbout and having Cortney and I placed there changes the dynamics of PCV travel in both regions Gorgol and Guidimaka. Basically they can crash overnight with us rather than having to worry about being stranded somewhere. The road is also improving by the day. There is a Portuguese company working from the edges in, they're working from Kaedi to Mbout and Selibaby to Mbout to build a new road. Furthermore there are permanant bases for the Portuguese in all three towns and the PCVs in these regions have made friends with some of the Portuguese who speak excellent English. All of this amounts to the fact that when I met Pedro, a geological surveyor or something, in Kaedi he told me he goes out to Mbout three times a week at least and he'll give me a ride whenever. Riding shotgun in a land rover beats being perched on top of a rice sack in the bed of a pickup any day, plus he makes the trip in half the time. There's also a rumor that the Portuguese base in Mbout has a pool.
On language, the Gorgol is a largely Pulaar speaking region but Mbout is about 60/40 Hassaniya and Pulaar. This means I'll be doing a lot of my work in French, and I'll probably have Hassaniya and Pulaar tutors once I get to site. I'm back in Rosso now with my CBT host family, and I promise I'll try to post some pictures soon (though I warn you I only broke out my camera today for the first time). In three and a half weeks we go back to the center for a couple nights and then swear-in is the 28th after which I'm off and away. I couldn't imagine a better country to be in, Mauritania is beautiful, harsh, hot, and friendly. Mbout is one of the hardest cities in this, one of the hardest countries. I couldn't ask for anything more.
A note on insects, a new second place for most irritating. Blister beetles. They're bugs ranging from a couple centimeters to over an inch long and they pee on your skin and cause a big painful blister to sprout, and if you're not careful when you pop the blister the run off causes a whole string of more blisters. But you also can't squish these little jerks, because that basically just makes them pee all over you, instead there is a cup and throw method to get rid of them. They beat out fire ants, but still can't hold a candle to flies.
Oh, and Alicia, yes the bike ride from Cape Town to Cairo is still on the to-do list. :)
Okay, so now let's see, what else? Anyone have questions? I got really sick during my site visit, fever around 102-104 for a couple days and nasty stomach problems, but now I'm mostly recovered. The sad part about losing weight here is that it's gonna take so much effort to put it back on. I'm down 21 pounds from the 172 I started out at, which is far from atypical among the male PCTs. The good side is that weight loss is kindof plateauing and I can start to work on reaquisition now and especially once I settle into a house at site. I personally think I'll live alone, and Cortney will probably live with a family based on our personal preferences. The town is big enough to accomodate both preferences. Oh, and I have a new address. Mail will get to the Kaedi post office faster than if you send it to Nouakchott and then the Peace Corps trucks it down to us. So for now:
John Tyler, PCV
B.P. 66 Kaedi
Mauritania, West Africa

And if you're going to send something make sure you write "Par Avion" and "Air Mail" on it a few times so it doesn't get stuck on a boat and end up taking a year to get here. Alright everyone, happy August. Talk to you soon.