This journal is old. I do not maintain it any longer at this time. This journal was created, primarily, as a creative outlet and an archive of my time in Peace Corps in Mauritania. I am now too busy with work and other things that I lack the time to just sit and blog. RIP

Well, today I had my second interview at JSI (John Snow, Inc) and then later this afternoon I got a call from HR offering me the position. So, starting Monday I will be a Program Coordinator in the Immunization Basics Project -- http://www.immunizationbasics.jsi.com/. The job is in Rosslyn, VA, so I will have about a 40 minute commute by public transport every day to get to work (including about 15 minutes of walking). I am very excited about the job. It was my number one pick for jobs. I interviewed for it back in December but wasn't able to have my second interview until today because the program director was out of the country on work. So... after two months of searching, I finally have work. Not too bad.

Well I spent all day today taking the FSOA (7am-4pm).... and I failed. I got a 4.60 (out of 7; a 5.25 is the minimum passing score) and did not pass a single section on the FSOA. I was very disappointed... I wasn't expecting to pass but would have had least liked to have passed one or two of the three sections. Perhaps I will try again some day, but at the moment I am focused on trying to find employment here DC.

This past weekend I attended the anti Iraq war protest here in DC and had a housewarming party at my house the same night. The pictures from both events are posted on my smugmug page (medley.smugmug.com).

Ok, so I moved to DC just two days before the New Year. I had high hopes of finding a job by mid January... but of course that didn't happen. I am still applying for jobs and interviewing and looking for something temporary in the meantime to pay the bills. Now I am shooting for a good job by mid-February, inshallah. I have applied for more than 70 jobs and interviewed/spoken with people at at-least 15 different places, but nowhere that I want to work has offered me a job yet--so the search continues. With a year long lease I am pretty locked into DC too, but that's ok because this is where I want to be. I live in a house with two other guys; I have a very small room (so commensurately small rent) but the house is nice and the location is ok. Guests are welcome to crash on our couches. Perhaps by the time I next post on LJ I will be able to say that I have a job! I still have a 2nd interview for the sweet job at JSI coming up the end of the month (talk about really spread out 1st and 2nd interviews--more than a month apart!) and I also have the Foreign Service Oral Assessment at the end of January as well. I've stayed fairly busy searching, applying, and interviewing for jobs, visiting museums, and hanging out with friends. Once I start work I will be much busier but I will have a steady income (currently I am just draining savings, which is not fun) and will be able to really feel like I have accomplished something at the end of every day (I hope).

Well, I am starting to make progress on finding a job in DC. I have now applied for more than 50 jobs in DC and so far have interviewed for 4 jobs--I have two more interviews this week. I interviewed for a job with ACDI/VOCA today that I really really like and I have another interview for a job, at JSI, on Friday that I would really like to have as well. The other jobs that I am interviewing for are not nearly as exciting to me... so I hope that I get one of the ones that I want. One of the jobs is just too much of a commute but would be a nice place to work and I think they might actually offer me a job there. Thanks to everyone who has helped me in my job search, with my resume, and with networking! (if any of you read this...) I'll update this journal again when I actually get a job, inshallah. I will be in Harrisonburg from Dec 23-28, after that I wil be in DC. Happy Holidays!

Ok... so I am back in the US and I was thinking that I was going to hang around Harrisonburg for the spring... but then it looked like I was going to have a hard time getting into the classes I wanted at JMU, I didn't think that I could live at home anymore (I've been independent for the last 2 years), I started looking more seriously at grad schools and I think I can get out of the prerequisite classes that I thought I was going to have to take, and I wen to visit DC and it was so much fun... and working there would give me a lot of experience, good contacts, and make me some money to help pay for grad school with. So... I am moving to DC the end of December. I have a place to live already... now I am just looking for a job. Hopefully within a month, at most, I will have a job--inshallah. If you are in the DC area and need a place to stay (after the 1st of the year) just let me know (that is, if I at least halfway know you and you are not some completely random person reading my blog). I have a cell phone (verizonwireless)... feel free to give me a call: 540-421-8529. Otherwise, if you want to get in contact with me either leave a comment on a livejournal post or email me at andrew@andrewmedley.com (I just signed up to keep my domain name and web hosting service for an indefinite period into the future). Also... I am on facebook now, so look me up there if you're into wasting large amounts of time online networking and what not. (Hey, I'm not criticizing those who spend large amounts of time online... because that would be like the kettle calling the pot black. I have been spending my days online recently, since I don't have a job and am looking for work.)

Well... after being gone from the US for nearly 29 months, I am back. I had an excellent last month in Europe. After France I took a train to Barcelona and then flew to Lisbon. From Lisbon I went by bus to Seville and then train to Cordoba and bus again to Granada, Mallaga, Gibraltar, and the port of Algeciras for the ferry to Morocco. I ferried across to Tanger and took a train to Fes. In Fes I met up with a couple COSed PCVs from Mauritania and we traveled down to Marrakesh and Essouria. I then went up into the Atlas Mountains and visited another friend who is a Peace Corps Volunteer there. From Marrakesh I flew to Madrid, spent a couple days there, and then flew to New York. The US is nice... but I actually enjoyed Europe a lot. I am a little bit sad to be back... mostly because it means that I have to actually *do stuff* now like find work and move on with life. The food in Europe was great... and so were the museums, the art, the architecture, and the scenery, etc. I will be posting the rest of my pictures shortly.

I am in France right now... and it has been a while since I have posted anything to LiveJournal. After leaving Egypt, I spent one day in Malta, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then I took an overnight boat to Sicily where I stayed with a nice young Sicilian university student for 3 days; I visited Mt Etna, an active volcano and the ancient city of Syracuse. From Sicily I headed north to Rome. I really really enjoyed Rome. I stayed with a nice Roman couple and enjoyed socializing with them, as well as checking out all the gorgeous sights during the day. There is so much art and fantastic architecture in Rome. The Vatican Museum and St Peter's Basilica were amazing. One day I took a day trip from Rome down to Naples and had perhaps the best pizza I've ever eaten. Also saw some nice art there, as well. From Rome I headed north to Florence which was also amazing. I trooped around Museums for 2 days and saw tons of great art. After Florence I went to Venice... and I was tired. My feet hurt and I didn't enjoy walking nearly as much. The crowds of tourists in Venice may have been even bigger than in Florence and I didn't feel like visiting any more Museums. It is a fairy tale city... canals everywhere; no cars or trucks, just boats for transport (and your feet). But I found the slightly smelly water, the dirty streets, the crowds, and the annoying birds (seagulls and pigeons) to be a bit too much for me just then. From Venice I headed to Milan. Milan is a big city and has a wonderful public transportation system. The youth hostel I stayed at was kind of crummy and I couldn't get into the art gallery that I had wanted to because you have to book at least 2 weeks in advance... so I walked around and saw some other, lesser art and the huge Duomo (cathedral). After Milan I went to Genoa. I saw some more nice art there and visited the aquarium--but unfortunately I went on a Sunday and was joined by way too many other weekend visitors. After Genoa I pressed on to Nice where I spent the week staying with a nice British family. I visited the nearby artist village of St Paul de Vence and the city Nice as well as Monaco Monte-Carlo. The aquarium in Monaco was nice and less crowded than in Genoa. I saw some nice modern art in Nice (and a bit in St Paul, as well)... but a lot of the modern art that I saw, I didn't care for much. Unfortunately the Picasso and Matisse museums were both closed. But the Mark Chagall museum was open, and I really enjoyed his works--especially his very colorful paintings of biblical scenes. Now I am in a little village about a half hour drive north and east of Cahors, still in the south of France (north of Toulouse about an hour by train). It is very very green and very pretty here--and quite cool and drizzly as well. Yesterday and today we went out and collected wild mushrooms (it actually took a fair bit of walking around and looking before we found a kind that we recognized as safe and good to eat). From here I will head south to Barcelona... later this week. Then from there I will fly to Lisbon. Last week I booked a flight home and will fly from Madrid to NYC on Nov 20, in time for Thanksgiving. ....pictures are pretty up-to-date on medley.smugmug.com

So... my last brief Journal entry was from Athens. Since then I have been in Israel and Jordan and am in Egypt now getting ready to go to Malta tonight. Israel was nice; Petra was cool, but Jordan was slightly less nice (culture is too conservative and the seperation of men and women is too much for me). Egypt has been ok, but a lot of hassle--that's what happens when relatively rich people interact with relatively poorer ones, I think. Additionally, its Ramadan now so people are crabbier and sites close early and there isn't as much food or drink available during the day and most adults aren't eating or drinking anyway--at least not in public. But it is neat to see everyone break fast at sundown; it is very communal. People stand at the intersections and give dates and juice away to passing motorists who have to be on the road at sunset (like our taxi drivers) and there are big meals, many of which I think are free, in the market area and around mosques. But anyway... I'll be glad to get back to Europe where even though it is much more expensive, there is less hassle and it is cleaner, and most people aren't fasting(!), etc.

I must say, in visiting Jordan and my friend there (who is a Peace Corps volunteer--I spent 2 nights in his village) I am glad that I was not a volunteer in Jordan. The Peace Corps program there is a bit stricter and also the culture is very difficult. They have way more amenities than we did in Mauritania (nice houses with refrigerators and indoor plumbing and washing machines and internet in their homes) and the food and transport are way better. But the extreme segregation of women from men is difficult and my friend complained of loneliness being his biggest challenge. It is not an especially welcoming culture--they are suspicious of outsiders (it reminds me a lot of Moorish culture, but stricter).

After visiting Israel this time around I definitely have more sympathy for them than I used to. I am still unhappy with them for attacking Lebanon right before I was going to go there to visit... but they do get an awful lot of crap from their neighbors and the Palestinians. I don't think the Palestinians really even want peace, half the time. There are rocket attacks every single day from the Gaza strip--and this is after all the settlers there have been pulled out. Its a complicated situation, though.

Today I said goodbye to Adriana, again. She is flying to New York this morning. I am very sad to lose her companionship. It is nice to have someone to watch your back and to be there for you and to keep you company and to split meals with and hotel rooms. I am going to avoid staying in hotels as much as possible for the rest of my trip (I have several homestays lined up in Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, and Portugal--my next destinations).

I've been staying busy and having fun in the Mediterranean.

I am in Athens right now... after a whirlwind tour of 6 Greek Islands: Rhodes, Karpathos, Crete, Santorini, Paros, and Anti Paros. Tonight I fly to Tel Aviv. I really can't express how much I am enjoying the developed world... It's clean and orderly. There are public toilets (often free) and grass and fresh fruit freely available. And the food is good and the people are nice without expecting you to give them something.

All my pictures from Greece are posted to smugmug and captioned.

I'm now in Cappadocia, Turkey. It's wonderful here... and the scenery is nice and sometimes a bit bizarre and there are many historical sites to visit. Today Adriana and I rented a scooter. We drove 92km all around Cappadocia and visited an underground city, saw the beautiful countryside, ate lunch at a restaurant with really cool architecture, tasted wine at a winery, and briefly stopped off at some Fairy Chimneys before returning the scooter. Yesterday we visited cave churches, a pottery factory, and climbed the citadel above where we are staying for a wonderful 360 degree view of the surrounding area. Friday night we are heading to the coast and then on to the Greek Isles. I have uploaded all my photos from Istanbul (including ones I took the day that I left) and Cappadocia (all the ones I've taken so far). http://medley.smugmug.com/Traveling%20the%20Mediterranean Also, check out Adriana's pictures from Turkey on smugmug as well: http://adriana.smugmug.com

I arrived in Istanbul on Friday afternoon. It is wonderful here. I am staying, with Adriana, at the house of friends of her family here in Istanbul. It is a gorgeous house with a wonderful view of the Bosphorus. So far I have eaten lots of fruit and wonderful Turkish food and we have walked up and down the corniche some, taken a ferry ride, walked around the Grand Bazaar and spice market, visited a couple beautiful mosques, visited with a Turkish friend of Nancy's, and went out dancing--on the roof at a club in Taksim, Istanbul. In a couple days we will go to Cappadocia, and then on to the Greek Islands. It is so much nicer here than West Africa... how did I ever put up with it there?? I already uploaded photos of Istanbul to smugmug, as well. Plus all photos from West Africa (all recent ones) are up.

Should be flying out of West Africa in about 3 1/2 hours. I've been here the last 2 years. It could be strange. I've had a lot of fun hanging out with Alexis (ex-Mauritania-current Cape Verde PCV and a PCV from Benin and one from Mali here in Dakar for dental work) the last 30 hours or so. I leave very soon... off to Istanbul. I'm sure I'll miss West Africa, and I'll probably be back some day. But for now, I'm off to explore the Med.

Peace,

Andrew

Well, its my last day in Mauritania. This afternoon I leave for St. Louis and then tomorrow I will go to Dakar and fly to Istanbul, via Milan. I'm a bit sad to finally and completely be leaving Mauritania and Peace Corps and am a little bit nervous to be off on this long adventure that doesn't have much in the way of a set itinerary (I am planning to fly home from Lisbon in November). I will try to continue to post to my livejournal and upload pictures to smugmug as I travel.

Below I have posted all the books that I read over the last year. To see the books that I read my first year, refer to my 23 July 2005 entry: http://ammedley.livejournal.com/4200.html

Book -- Author -- Rating

41 after the quake by Haruki Murakami ***

42 Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind ***

43 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson ****

44 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ***

45 The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown ***

46 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****

47 The Bottomless Well by Peter Huber and Mark Mills ***

48 A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess **

49 Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *****

50 A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo ***

51 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling *****

52 Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner ***

53 Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut ***

54 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez ***

55 Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut **

56 The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell ***

57 Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih ****

58 The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie ***

59 Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt *****

60 Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man by Tim Allen *

61 The Infinite Plan by Isabel Allende ****

62 Losing the Race: Self Sabatoge in Black America by John McWhorter ***

63 Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger ***

64 the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon ****

65 The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley ***

66 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy ***

67 Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris ***

68 We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be Killed with Our Families by Philip Gourevitch ****

69 Development to the Beat of a Different Drummer by Yoder, Redekop, and Jantzi **

70 Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore ***

* not recommended

** ok

*** good

**** excellent

***** highly recommended

A "final" reflection on Peace Corps (modified from a recent email to my sister):

I am a bit sad to see it all go--that is, Peace Corps. I will miss the camaraderie and network of Peace Corps volunteers across West Africa, my fellow Peace Corps Mauritania volunteers, the parties, WAIST, traveling in West Africa, Jazz Fest, drinking brousse wine and bad Senegalese whiskey, riding on the back of a pickup, Luke and Adriana and Molly (and everyone else too, of course), cooking in Kiffa, being able to complain about how miserable it is here, hiking in the desert, going to the Peace Corps bureau, staying at the Welcome (nice hotel by the bureau), dancing at the Salamander in Nouakchott, going to the beach, visiting ancient sites and desert oases and pretty rocks, hanging out with the Sows and Maliam and Bintu and Dr Diagana's family, talking to the wonderful Peace Corps staff, riding around in big air-conditioned Peace Corps cars (or other NGO cars occasionally), going to the market, knowing people and being recognized by people around me, communicating in Hassaniya and French on a daily basis, reading lots of books, and having tons of spare time. In a way, I now no longer have a place in the world--at least not like I did as a health volunteer in Kiffa. I will have to learn to live a new life. My entire world is ending. It is as if I will be returning from 2 years in outer space. Peace Corps will become, like college, a distant and happy memory of a place far away and long ago that I can visit in pictures... I can still see the old friends from there and I can even return to visit, but I will no longer be a part of that world. It is kind of sad.

Well, this will probably be my last journal entry from Kiffa. I have almost wrapped up my SPA project, which is my last real work here in Kiffa (and some of my only "real work" that I have done here in Kiffa). Last week I went down to Caleb's village and Kankossa to visit and say goodbye--actually, also to help Caleb unload his fruit trees. I stayed just for the day; I was lucky and was able to ride down in a World Vision car in the morning and come back up with a Peace Corps car in the evening. I hosted Molly M at my house for two nights last week also; it was nice to have company. Now Jeremy is with me. We had Maliam over for dinner last night and his wife and her little companion came over for lunch today (the same meal; just leftovers for lunch--pasta and marinara sauce, and eggplant and egg dish, tomato and green pepper salad, garlic bread, and tapioca pudding). Maliam ate well, as he always does, but they didn't eat very much; the food was too different...

I really only have 3 days left now in Kiffa (the new volunteers come to visit on Thursday and I leave on Saturday). I am trying to be sad... but I can't. I'm sure as I'm pulling away on Saturday morning for the last time I will be just a little bit sad. I have a lot of good memories here and Kiffa and a few good friends. But Kiffa has also been quite trying at times. The heat, dust, bugs, trash, dirt, bad food, rude people, etc have all made it difficult sometimes. Here in Kiffa I learned to cook. I lived in my own house and paid my own bills and cleaned and kind of grew up a little. Here in Kiffa I also spent a year living with a Black Moor family. I now know many people in Kiffa: shop keepers and market vendors and restauranteurs and people at the health center and World Vision employees and many more. I am an outsider but I have a place. Leaving Kiffa will be ok... but leaving Peace Corps may be a little more difficult--I have enjoyed the relative security in being a Peace Corps volunteer and I have really enjoyed the company of the other volunteers. As volunteers we get 100% medical coverage, have an excellent and very supportive staff, we collect our paychecks once every 3 months and it's always the same and it doesn't matter how much "actual work" I get done and it's enough to live on. I've also kind of enjoyed the stigma of being a volunteer. I am giving up a possible more comfortable life in the US to experience things here, learn a new language, see a new culture and share my own, and help people--all for a relatively low salary and involving hardships of sorts. I know that I will look back on my time here very fondly. The memories of the harshness of Kiffa will fade, to a large extent. I will remember the good times and the friends that I had. I will remember the beauty of the Assaba more than I remember the trash right outside my gate (I hope). The extreme heat will seem almost unfathomable and so far away and long ago. I will miss the hours upon hours that I have just to lie around and nap and read or to cook, with nothing else more pressing to do. Writing these things makes me a little bit nostalgic. Most prominent in my memories, though, I think, will be the other volunteers with whom I served. I enjoyed their company very much, in general. They are exceptional people and we went through challenging times together. There were many things we just had to shrug our shoulders about and move on or laugh about and ignore. We ate well and partied hard whenever we got the chance. We had a lot of fun together. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Mauritanians. Being the last to leave of the three of us that were posted here in Kiffa in 2004, I find that I am a bit lonely without Luke and Adriana and am ready to go for that reason if no other. Luke left back in December and Adriana the end of June. We got off to a bit of a rough start... but we pulled through together. When we arrived in Kiffa there had been no other volunteers here for 9 months so we had to start all over again with a house and bureau and making local contacts. But we made it (well, not quite for Luke) and we even had fun. Now I am ready to go; *very* ready to go. I am excited to begin my COS trip. In just 10 days I will be in Istanbul and will begin a 3 month trek through the Mediterranean, inshallah.

Well... my time here is growing short (mashallah). This week I stayed very busy. I had 7 other volunteers come and help me paint health murals at the Health Center in Kiffa—actually, all I did was sketch and direct and help setup and cleanup and take care of logistics. I did almost no painting. Everyone at the health center is very pleased with the murals. I have uploaded pictures of them to smugmug. We had a lot of fun. We also ate really well. We had yummy pasta and sauce, a large Pakistani-curry meal, calzones, humus and bean salad, cheese omelets with beans, biscuits and gravy with cheesy scrambled eggs, and Jeremy made his delicious soupa tuscana. But, sadly, everyone left yesterday (Thursday), and now I am alone again. With only 2 weeks left and still a good bit to wrap up on my SPA project I will hopefully stay busy enough. The only problem with trying to wrap things up with my SPA project is that Dr. Diagana, who I am working with on the project, has been in Nouakchott for the last two weeks, and won’t be back until Monday, inshallah—he was supposed to be back a week ago (he told me so himself, on the phone).

Beyond that... I have been having fun getting to know the new French volunteer, Joseph—he took Xavier’s job. He is cool. He worked in the UK for the last 3 years, so he speaks English very well and has excellent comprehension.

Next week I will hopefully get to go down to Kankossa and Caleb’s village one last time and help Caleb plant his fruit trees in his garden cooperative there—he has been in Kaedi working as the Agfo trainer for Stage since June, so he hasn’t been in the region in quite some time.

I can’t wait to be done. It has been a good 2 years, but I am now ready for it to be finished. The weather right now is miserable. It is hot and humid and windy and dusty. The rains haven’t come yet so at least there aren’t too many bugs, but if/when they do come hopefully the amount of dust in the air will decrease. It is really nasty and makes me hate being here. I sweat all through the night and wake up every morning covered by a film of dust and have to go shower first thing—at least I have a shower.

This weekend I was going to go see the Senegalese singer Baba Maal perform in Boghe... but now his show there has been indefinitely postponed. Next week here in Kiffa we are going to work on painting murals at the Health Center--I have some volunteers who are willing to help me and will be joining me here for the week. From there I just have to finish up a little bit of grounds work and landscaping (which I am going to pay someone else to do) at the Health Center and conduct a short training on medical waste disposal practices—which I am going to get someone else to lead... and then that project is finished. By the time all that is done, I hope site-visit (for the new volunteers to this region who will replace me/us) will be upon us because at the end of site-visit I get to leave!

Kaedi again: Stage 2006

Friday, June 30th I went down to Kaedi for my last time. July 1st all the new trainees arrived in Kaedi. That night we (the current volunteers) had a party in Kaedi at one of the volunteer's houses. There were lots of people in town; lots of dancing--it was fun. On Monday I gave a session for the trainees on Water Related Diseases. While at Stage I also worked on lesson plans for a session on canning and food preservation, which Ariana is going to give after site visit and I worked on my Description of Service (DOS) and my Final Site Report (FSR) for Kiffa. I had fun in Kaedi and enjoyed the good lycee food. For the 4th of July the trainees put on a really good talent show and the kitchen staff cooked up a delicious dinner. But by the time Wednesday morning rolled around I was ready to go. I took a Peace Corps car up to Boghe and spent the day (and that night) there. Thursday morning I caught the first car I could find leaving Boghe for Nouakchott and I made good time coming in.

In Nouakchott

Friday night in Nouakchott we went out to the Salamander and danced the night away. Saturday night the Education volunteers through a party out at the beach and we danced and swam the night away. For breakfast a few of us walked down the beach to the fishing port and bought egg sandwiches and cafe au lait for breakfast. I've been doing things here in Nouakchott in preparation for my departure. I bought a plane ticket--I fly out of Dakar on the morning of August 18th for Istanbul. I can't wait! My last month at site could be kind of tough. I have to finish up my SPA project at the Health Center and pack up everything and say goodbye. I'm ready to be done.

I uploaded all my recent photos to smugmug. medley.smugmug.com

Tomorrow morning I leave for Kaedi for a week there--to help with stage and do my final language evaluation--and then on to Noukachott for a week before coming back to Kiffa.

Rainy Season has Begun:

Last night was cool but today is hot and muggy and there are puddles and mud all over the place. Yesterday we finally got a real storm (besides the two storms in May that I wasn't here for) after having some small nasty dust storms blow through over the last couple weeks—and apparently it knocked out the phone lines because I don’t have a dial tone and hence cannot use internet (so I’m writing this journal entry instead). A bit after 4 in the afternoon you could see the storm coming, still almost a half hour away: big clouds, a dark ominous sky, and rolling clouds of dust. Adriana and I were trying to run her last errands and say her goodbyes before the storm hit but we got caught about a 2-minute walk from our next destination. As the storm approaches everyone shuts down their shops and scurries for shelter—but there are always a few (like us) who get stuck out in the storm. Dust storms are incredible. Like nothing I’ve ever seen in the US—huge billowing clouds of dust that stretch more than 100m up into the air and are incredible to watch as they approach. When the storm hits it blocks out the sun and visibility drops; it becomes like a sand blizzard. Sand and dirt are drilled into your skin and eyes. As the storm blows through, the temperature drops and soon the rain comes. The rain clears the dust out of the air. Yesterday the rain was blowing in sideways in sheets. Adriana and I stood out in the rain to wash the dirt off of our faces and bodies; it was cold.

Saying Goodbye:

I said goodbye to Adriana this morning—it is the last time I will see her in Kiffa (I will see her yet in Nouakchott before she leaves). It was very sad. I am the last one from my stage left in the region. We had a lot of good times together and a lot of good memories. This past weekend we hung out and cooked all weekend. We made: crêpes and homemade ricotta, Soupa Toscana, spicy Asian fish soup, biscuits and sausage gravy (delicious!), beef kebabs, calzones, and apple pie.

World Maps:

Since I’ve been back in Kiffa I’ve spent 4 full days working on world maps with Adriana. Two days we just sketched out the maps, one day I helped her paint all of one map, and the last day (yesterday—her last day in Kiffa) we went with the calligrapher and wrote country names, outlined all the countries, and lacquered both maps. The project was supposed to be for the GMC girls but they mostly only did their own map (at the GMC) and even on that one Adriana, Caleb, and myself did a fair share of the work. The girls are not very good at sketching or painting—or writing, for that matter. Their map looks the worst of the three, but that’s partially because it was the first one that we did and we improved with experience—the last one looked the best.

Health Center Project:

In addition to world maps and cooking I’ve been busy with my health center project. The money came through the week after I returned from being away (perfect timing) and I stayed very busy that week getting the project rolling. I had to go to the bank and work with Dr Diagana on materials purchases and coordinate with the contractor; but things went smoothly. I spent more than 1.1 million UM (over $4000) in the first week of the project—mostly just buying materials—entire project budget is 1.77 million UM. Hopefully when I return from my two weeks away the contractor’s work will be finished (I’m going to Kaedi June 30 for Stage and then to Nouakchott for a week for COS medical and work).

What are the goals of my project? To improve the look and feel of the health center, improve the sanitation conditions (working latrines and better waste management), and paint murals that will clearly illustrate basic health lessons. In addition to the murals, latrines, and waste management planning, we are: painting the entire front outside of the health center, repairing the wall, installing a new gate, and cleaning up and beautifying the grounds.

Meditation on Leaving (51 days to COS—August 18th):

Saying goodbye is hard, no matter how many times you’ve done it. And I’ve had to say a lot of goodbyes in my life—but you also begin to realize that goodbye doesn’t necessarily mean “forever”; there are often chances to be reunited with those you say goodbye to. But when the end of something comes, your life changes forever and nothing will be the same again. The end of my time here is approaching and I know that my life will never again be like it is now; I will not be able to relive any of these moments again. And will be forever changed by my experiences here. I am leaving Peace Corps a different person than when I came. But I am happy with those changes and am glad for the time that I spent here in Mauritania and West Africa.

Since I’ve Been Back in Kiffa:

It’s been a couple weeks since I last updated my journal. I’ve been traveling and haven’t had much access to a computer or the internet. And since I’ve been back to Kiffa I haven’t gotten internet to work here either. It’s been hot in Kiffa recently, and a little humid as well. It didn’t get down below 90 F last night, yuck. And it’s a bit sticky and a little bit overcast. We had our first big rains of the season here in Kiffa when I was gone. Apparently my entire yard and street flooded. There is only a little mud left from where the puddle in the street was. With the rains, the bugs have started to return—especially the flies. I haven’t seen any mosquitoes at my house yet, but I’m sure they will come soon as well.

Since being back in Kiffa I’ve enjoyed having the shower (I shower at least twice a day) and I’ve enjoyed cooking and eating well. One night last week Adriana and I made pigs-in-a-blanket (Vienna sausages in dough, baked) and had those with wine, cheese, and olives. It was the perfect dinner. We’ve also recently had pumpkin pie, green-fish curry in coconut milk over rice, spinach-mushroom cal zones with marinara sauce, and potato-beef-spinach curry and daal and chappatis. Why eat dinner with Mauritanians when we can cook like this? They eat couscous with a morsel of meat or oily pasta with a piece of gristle for dinner. I much prefer to eat lunch with them; but even then, there are usually barely enough vegetables in the bowl (shared at least 4 ways) for just one person. I’ve had lunch twice at the Sow’s house since being back in Kiffa. I told them that I only have two more months left in Kiffa! They said that I should stay for a third year; two years went by so quickly.

Yesterday Adriana and I drew most of the world onto her second (of three) world map that she is doing. I enjoy the drawing part. It is all grid-ed out so it is not too difficult. Also, all my SPA project money just came through—to Nouakchott—so I should soon get it here and will get the project started.

Kaedi GMC Exchange:

Thursday morning (May 25), I left Nouakchott and met up with Caleb, Adriana, and Leah and six Kiffa GMC girls in Aleg. From there we traveled together down to Kaedi. For all of our girls, this was their first time to Kaedi; for some of the girls, it was their first time out of Kiffa! The Kaedi GMC girls were there in force to meet us—more than 30 girls. Our girls went off to home stays and we went back to the Rachel’s house (the Kaedi house). On Friday morning we went shopping with a couple girls to buy things for our canning training the next day. We also walked down by the river and visited an old meat packing plant that was put out of commission during the events of 1989, or so the story goes. Friday afternoon our girls tried to learn how to crochet plastic bags into purses. Saturday morning our girls led canning sessions on how to preserve carrots and how to make bissap (hibiscus) jam. I was very impressed with how good a job our girls did. Saturday was the closing party for the Kaedi GMC. We had lots of good rice and fish for lunch. Saturday night we had a small party of our own back at Rachel’s house. Adriana made delicious chicken in cream sauce, Jenny made mashed potatoes, and I made a nice okra dish. Sunday we loaded back into the car and left Kaedi. Leah and I were dropped off in Boghe, while Adriana and the girls continued back to Kiffa.

Jazz Fest, Senegal:

I spent two nights in Boghe, hanging out with the Boghe volunteers. On Monday I went to the Boghe GMC’s end of the year party and got to play the role of photographer. Tuesday morning Jared, Heidi, Mira, Loic, and I headed off to Senegal. It takes about 4 hours to get from Boghe all the way to the paved road in Senegal. The most annoying part of the trip for me is having to bargain with everyone on prices and them trying to royally rip you off. First you cross the river at Boghe. Then you have to bargain for a horse cart. Then you ride on that for a couple hours and cross water once more before the horse cart leaves you at the third and last crossing. From there it is just a quick horse cart ride to Dodel, on the paved road. In Dodel we caught a minivan going to Saint Louis. I got dropped off in the next town, N’dioum, while the other four continued on.

Hanging out in N’dioum was fun. BJ and Sarah were there—two Senegal PCVs I had met when I stayed at the house in January and then had met again at WAIST. N’dioum is pretty uneventful and relaxing. We went for a walk down to the river (BJ and I swam, briefly) and we watched Friends and ate and showered—its really hot anywhere inland these days. Wednesday, May 31 I had a long and painfully slow trip to Saint Louis. I took a minivan to Richard Toll where I was left to take an alhum (big bus/van) the rest of the way to Saint Louis. I sat in Richard Toll for 2 hours just reading and waiting for the alhum to go. I finally arrived at our hotel in Saint Louis just before sunset—8 hours after leaving the house in N’dioum. But Saint Louis was wonderful and cool. I went out for dinner at the Vietnamese restaurant. Another volunteer and I split a plate of pork spare ribs and a plate of chicken curry in coconut milk; it was delicious.

Running the booth was a pain in my butt. Fortunately Loic was there the day before and had been able to secure us a booth. Apparently they had decided not to reserve us a booth after all and then when they found a place for us it was even more expensive than the price they had quoted us on the phone. Most everyone else was very helpful as far as the booth went. Everyone signed up to work for at least 2 hours in the booth and there were plenty of people on hand every morning and evening to setup and teardown the booth. We didn’t sell as much as we had hoped to, so a fair amount of merchandise had to be carried back to Nouakchott. But we did sell at least 130,000 UM worth of merchandise—unfortunately that was sold largely to us. We did have a problem with a piece of fabric and 12,000 CFA going missing from the cash box. But otherwise, things were ok. I had fun eating good food, dancing, and having a few beers. Everyone stayed safe, other than a few thefts (Virginia had her camera stolen) and Jenny and Caleb getting a knife pulled on them while walking home the first night—they were unharmed and had nothing stolen.

Sunday morning I got in a 7-place taxi back to N’dioum (it doesn’t even take 4 hours in a 7-place). From N’dioum I caught transport to Dodel and from there another slow alhum to Pete. The alhum ran out of gas 7km before a gas station so we had to sit and wait for an hour while an assistant went and got gas. Sarah met me in Pete and we went back to her village, which is on the river and about 7km from Pete. She lives in a nice Pulaar village—the whole area is so Pulaar. I met a guy there who had lived in Kiffa for 3 years and spoke Hassaniya. Her host family eats well. I was there for my birthday; for lunch I had cheb-u-jin and for dinner I had soup-a-kondja (slimy okra dish over rice). I accompanied Sarah in her daily routines, which involved going to market in Pete, watering her tree nursery (she is a health volunteer but is planting trees), visiting people in the village, and just hanging out and reading and surviving the heat. Not more than 300m from Sarah’s house they are building a big cement bridge that would probably be up to US standards. And they work on it 24hours a day, so it is loud all night long—so weird for what should be a relatively quiet village existence.

I left Sarah’s village at 8AM Wednesday morning and arrived back in Kiffa at 10PM—14 hours of traveling. From Pete I went to the next town of Galoya and made the crossing over to Mbagne (it went smoothly and I didn’t get jacked on the prices at all). In Mbagne I was fortunate to catch a ride with an Oxfam car that took me all the way to Aleg, with a stop for mishwe (grilled meat) in Boghe. One of the Oxfam guys was from Cote d’Ivoire and had worked for Peace Corps there for 6 years before the program was shut down. Upon arriving in Aleg, I almost immediately caught a Mercedes going to Kiffa. Unfortunately it was one of the slowest Mercedes rides I’ve ever had. It took us 6 hours to go the 350km to Kiffa. Back in Kiffa Adriana had a simple dinner of pasta and sauce waiting for me.

Well... I am in Nouakchott and it is "cold"--like 70 F, but I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Kaedi. I came into Nouakchott on Monday with Brock and Maddy for the Cereamine (5 grain flour used to make porridge with) Conference that was held today and yesterday. The conference went quite well, I thought. The participants seemed eager and engaged... but I still don't have a lot of faith in them actually doing all that much once they return home.

The conference was largely organized by the SED and Health APCDs--Brian and Daouda, respectively. There were 6 of us volunteers that attended the conference; we were equally divided among 6 different regions, two sectors (health and SED), first and second year, and male and female. There were 35 participants who came from 7 different regions of Mauritania and were majority Black African and majority female. I didn't have to present at the conference. I was just there for support and because there were 3 people that I knew who were attending.

I am exhausted. I hadn't been getting enough sleep in Kiffa before I left, mostly due to the heat (114 every day for about a week before I left Kiffa) and here in Nouakchott I have been busy running around and I haven't been able to get enough sleep here either. I have accomplished almost all the things that I needed to get done while here in Nouakchott--mostly shopping for things, making phone calls, and taking care of business at the PC bureau as well as attending the Cereamine conference all day for two days.

I heard that Kiffa got their fist rain of the rainy season last night and that there were puddles in the street today and that the weather is just a little bit cooler because of the rains.

Also, I uploaded a bunch of new pictures to my Smugmug account (medley.smugmug.com) over the last couple days... so check them out. I have yet to label the pictures that I just uploaded.

It seems like a whole lot of nothing is happening here in Kiffa. I got a shower installed at my house yesterday—I will test it to see how it works today after noon (I have to wait for the glue in the pipes to set).

Last week I went “on mission” with Daouda (my APCD). We visited Aioun, Kobenni, and Tamchekett (all sites East of Kiffa). They were doing site assessments for new volunteers and site visits with the volunteers in Kobenni (right on the border with Mali). There are no volunteers in Tamchekett. It is pretty far away from Kiffa—80km East on paved road and then 90km North on a gravel road. Tamchekett sits on a top of a sand dune and is sort of pretty. It is a small town with a population of 2500—about half and half white and black moor. There are a couple Pulaars who work there (at the health center and the school). We spent the night with the Pulaar nurse. We arrived at about 9:30 at night, but he still went out and got a small goat and slaughtered it for us—no one in our group had ever met him before; sometimes Mauritanian hospitality amazes me! Being on mission with Daouda was good. It gave me a chance to talk to him a lot, see some of the other sites, and visit with other volunteers.

The next couple weeks should be more eventful for me—I won’t be in Kiffa. I am going to Nouakchott for a Cereamine conference next Monday. Then I am going to Kaedi for a Girls Mentoring Center (GMC) exchange between Kiffa and Kaedi. From Kaedi I am going to Boghe and then from there, directly on to Saint Louis, Senegal for Jazz Fest.

Well... there really isn't anything new in Kiffa. Life is just kind of dragging on. I cook and clean and do little projects around the house and log on to the internet every now and then to check email and look at grad schools and read the news. I did apply for my SPA grant and it was approved at Peace Corps so now we are just waiting for it to go to the US Embassy for the final stamp of approval. Once that happens, then I will sit and wait another month or so for the check to come.

I am also helping to plan Jazz Fest, in Saint Louis, Senegal (May 31 - June 3). I've had a hard time getting in contact with the people in-charge there about a booth--we want to take some items from cooperatives in Mauritania to sell--but I have been able to secure hotel reservations.

Daouda, my APCD, is coming to visit this week. Otherwise, it feels like things are kind of just edging towards the end of my service. I am less motivated now to go out and interact with Mauritanians (other than the market) and to do things (part of that is the heat). We have had several of our Mauritanian friends over to my house for dinner recently, though, and I do still go out to other people's houses to eat several days a week, usually.

Well, I have had some fun since getting back to Kiffa. My batch of bissap wine turned out pretty well--almost like a dry red. We have been swilling some of that to pass the time. We have also been cooking up some good meals--almost all the cheese that I brought back from Nouakchott nearly 2 weeks ago is gone (except for the mozzarella in the freezer and the camel cheese which is slowly aging in the fridge).

This morning we (Adriana, Xavier, Adriana's little host brother Alassane, and I) went out to a pretty spot about a half-hour drive from Kiffa. None of us had ever been there before. It is a spot west of Kiffa and just north of the Road of Hope that I had seen from the road before and wanted to go to but never had a chance. It is a ridge of really high and steep sand dunes that face a rocky plateau. We climbed the dune ridge (exhausting--probably about 100m high) and then we ran back down, but only once. It is very tiring but fun.

Tomorrow morning the President of Mauritania (who is temporary and seized power in a coup last fall) is coming to visit Kiffa, so everyone has been getting ready for that. Last week I also finally sent in my application for the SPA that I want to do at the health center here in Kiffa.

The not so fun times here in Kiffa are generally related to the heat (I measured 107 F on my porch today) and the electricity being turned off in my neighborhood and the internet not working for a lot of this last week--apparently the national phone company fired all of their technicians at once so the phones and internet have been worse than normal. Additionally, sadly enough, Xavier is leaving tomorrow morning for France and is not coming back. After a year in Kiffa he decided that it was enough and so is terminating his contract a year early. He was one of three French volunteers stationed here and will be replaced probably around the time that I am packing up to leave.

One more thing... for anyone who cares... my former sitemate Luke is back in Chad (after evacuating to Cameroon for about 10 days following hostile rebel activity in Chad).