Isn't this a terrible idea? I mean really it's just downright miserable. A blog. What am I supposed to write about here? I could write about my ride into Kaedi yesterday but because there are several different types of audiences reading this thing, how do I know the best way to treat my subject matter? For example:

Dear Mom: Yesterday Cortney and I made it into Kaedi, overall the trip went fine, no major snags. We're going to stay in Kaedi over the fete for the end of Ramadan because that is Cortney's birthday too and she just got a cake mix in a package so we can make that in the makeshift oven at the region house. We hope to be much more productive in the next month, now that Ramadan is finishing up.

Dear Dad: Yesterday Cortney and I hitched a free ride on the back of a pickup truck into Kaedi, the ride was pretty rough but not too bad. We're hanging out in Kaedi for the next couple days because it's Cortney's birthday and we're gonna party with some other Americans to mark the occasion. Chances are pretty good that next month is gonna be equally frustrating to this last one because there's such a changeup of residents when Ramadan ends. Everyone goes back to their own town and we're gonna have to introduce ourselves to a whole lot of people all over again.

Dear Sis: I hate riding on the back of pickup trucks. Cortney had a cushy spot propped on a rice sack or something while I was sitting on the cooking utensils, my ass feels like ground beef after three hours of bouncing up and down on an unidentifiable bag of semi-sharp objects with way too many corners. All in all, for a free ride it wasn't bad and I shouldn't complain, I only came close to flying off once or twice. The mayor snagged us this ride with less than ten minutes warning so I'm pretty sure I left everything resembling clean clothes in Mbout. I guess beggars can't be choosers right? We were going a little nutso in Mbout alone and by yesterday morning we had both been yelling at nothing that we needed a ride to Kaedi or we were gonna lose it. Anyway, we were both in need of a drink and a shower and a little bit of American socializing. We'll get back to Mbout within a week or so probably, and who knows? Maybe we'll even do something this month. Though i guess I did move into my house, so that counts as an accomplishment for last month.

Do you understand my dilemma? I mean it's all the same story, it just changes a little depending on who I'm telling it to. I know the three people I mentioned above are all reading this nonsense every time I post (and I assume you three all kept to your respective little letters, right?) but who else is out there? I have my suspicions about a few of you. There's probably quite a few more family members, the occasional wandering friend who found this on facebook, and maybe some stalking parents of other PCVs, not to mention a Peace Corps nominee who e-mailed me last week. How can I know you're reading this if you don't ever leave comments?!

Alright. So I moved into my new house, I mentioned that, and it felt damn good to wave goodbye to the auberge, my hotel. I bought a bamboo bed and a big sera with some new thin mattelas for lounging about during the day. I wonder what you picture when I say that. (I found out conclusively that I now have the best argument yet for not posting pictures, I seem to have... misplaced... my camera sometime in the final days at the center around swear in. Oops.) Our mayor tried to switch us into a different sector, semi-unintentionally. He just casually mentioned that when the school director came back we could go meet him and set up which english classes we would be teaching at the lycee. No no no, that would be an education volunteer, and frankly we're woefully unqualified to try to teach english to 70 kids in a class room. No no, our sector really is just that GMC thing you keep half-dismissing.
I was sick for about a week, which was basically just Mauritania's way of stuffing my oft spoken hopes for good health and weight gain down my throat. Back to square one.
Yeah I'm afraid the only interesting news I really have is the stuff that happens to other people. Congrats to Emu and Dan on getting engaged! Wish I could be there for the wedding. Wish I could have raise a glass in your honor when the day rolls around. Neither is terribly likely, but I'll still be sending you both good vibes.
So that's about all I have today, nothing but a rather disjointed mess of a post really. To you, anonymous readers, who won't even bother to post a comment, at least do me this small favor. Go out and have a really amazing slice of cheese. Or a glass of good wine or beer. Or some lasagna. Or nachos. Or anything except rice. I'll enjoy it vicariously. :) Eid Mubarak!

Too much!

You will absolutely not believe it. No, you really wouldn’t. You’d think I was lying or crazy or maybe even both. So I won’t tell you. Tough luck chums, that’s what you get for being skeptics. So we’ll just move on then and I won’t tell you that one glorious thing that is foremost in my mind. No I really won’t, so if you’re reading for that you might as well just give up, go grab a beer and plop yourself down in front of the television. I know I would, in your shoes.

So swear in was a couple weeks ago, as all you creepy stalker parents already know. And there was our little sewage backup, the ambassador visit, the ceremony… the party. All of it is kind of old news at this point, right? Well in general, the party was excellent… and in spite of the fact that we were drinking plastic bottle Senegalese gin and whiskey (which specializes in giving you a hangover before it even gets you drunk) we powered through and managed to get down right ridiculous by the end of the night. A few days later, mostly recovered and saddened by leaving, Cortney, Nick, and I piled into Fall’s taxi with him before most of the group had finished their breakfast and sped off towards Kaedi. Fall, a significant character in the next few days proceedings, is the housing coordinator for stage. He’s one of the magicians responsible for tracking down 77 host families for the PCTS not to mention all the housing for facilitators and staff. He’s a retired teacher. He drives his car as a taxi sometimes. And he’s a little crazy… in a good way.

Eight or nine-ish hours later we pulled into Kaedi with all its pomp and splendor. Less than twenty four hours later… with barely any of our move-in shopping done… Cortney, Fall and I were off to M’Bout with a little stop along the way to drop off Sara Cate in Genki and Tanya in Lexaba. When we got to M’Bout we stayed with the Macire family, which is the family of the brother of our badass safety and security coordinator. Fall searched desperately for housing for Cortney and I and we ended up in rather temporary arrangements… which is to say that for this month I live in a closed up auberge… hotel… which turns into the town party spot after Ramadan. Cortney is still debating whether or not to stay with the family she’s with now.

Now it was a near thing, up until two days ago I would have had to say “No, I don’t have a place to stay after this month yet.” And I probably would have grumbled about it a lot, which those of you who called me had to put up with. Now though, thankfully, I find myself with lodging. I’m going to live in a very nice new looking house with two rooms and a hanger and a big courtyard and electricity which by all rights should be outside my price range but the mayor bullied the landlord on my behalf. Speaking of the mayor, the amazing mayor, who’s not actually the mayor, but who’s counting really. The real mayor is a minister in Nouakchott, which naturally impedes him actually being a mayor, so the guy who is actually the mayor is his first assistant. He’s amazing, and we’re having a footrace in a month, so I’m in training… sort of.

Now travel to and from M’Bout is ridiculously expensive, particularly in the rainy season, to the point that if Cortney and I can’t get rides for free from nice people… we probably won’t go anywhere and we’ll just go completely stir crazy. Luckily, for now, there are a couple of incredibly nice guys who speak English working for the Portuguese company that’s building the road between Kaedi and Selibaby with M’Bout in the middle. They go back and forth from M’Bout to Kaedi at least a few times a week. Pedro and Eduardo. Eduardo is the factory manager for the base in M’Bout and Pedro is actually dating a PCV in Kaedi and he gave us all a ride the other day into Kaedi. Hopefully he won’t mind too much giving us a ride back too.

Alright what am I missing now… oh water. Yes water. There is a water tower in M’Bout, but nobody has running water… everyone gets well water delivered and stored in old oil drums which one then siphons into a bucket for a shower or laundry or cooking or whatever. The presence of the water tower makes me feel a little like someone is playing an extremely elaborate practical joke on us… which they’re not. Probably.

Okay I think that about covers enough. If you have questions, feel free to ask me but I won’t tell you that first thing because now it’s been built up too much and it’s really a personal excitement not meant for grand groups of too-interested people. Send me e-mails! Write me comments! Call me! Best of all send me packages...

Oh and every couple weeks I might make it on skype occasionally so my new skype name is: john.robert.tyler

I know, it's clever. Forgot my old password for skype so here with we go with a new identity.

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.

Things I like

Paper letters, send me some because they're fun to get. I got three the other day, two from mom and one from Grandma and thank you both, it was fun to get mail.
A frisbee. I really want a nice ultimate frisbee of the kind that you get for like $20 at walmart, please.
Cliff bars. Peanut butter flavored. Sometimes protein is hit or miss when I don't like eating things like intestines or brains or other mystery organ meats with weird textures... so on those days cliff bars are great.
Visitors... but not until January. I don't actually have vacation time until January when I plan to enjoy some lovely days and nights in Senegal.
Today is the last day of class for phase 1, which ends officially on maybe monday or something. We find out our site placements Monday and take off for a week to visit them and our future region mates and to get a feel for what we need to do to hone our language skills which are ragged at best. So far, of the 77 pcts we started out with, we still have all 77 despite all expectations to the contrary. There is some speculation that we'll lose some people at site visit when people get to their sites and decide they can't live like that for two years or some other reason. I personally think we're just a badass group. Saturday those of us GEE PCTS who live in Rosso are taking a little field trip out to visit our rural counterparts in Mbalal, then we spend the next couple nights in the center camping out in tent city just like the first week. Today marks the one month from leaving home. One down, twenty-six or thirty-eight to go. :)
I love this continent, today has been a good day. I'm sorry if I don't describe things vividly, if I describe them at all, I just generally feel like I don't want to divorce myself from my surroundings by viewing them as new or different or fundamentally unusual. One little note though on a little critter that has moved high up on my irritating insects list: fire ants. The little bastards bite and scurry away and I'm left with a sharp and throbbing pain like a red hot needle in my skin for hours. Still not as irritating as flies though.
Okay you lot, best of luck with everything and leave me notes