Response to your comments

I love your comments. I have been at my wits end with the dial up, crappy, unreliable internet connection here and have reached electronic overload, so I haven’t responded to each and every comment or individual e-mail, but know I love reading them. I devour them and they bring a smile to my face. It makes me feel connected to home to have you all along on this journey. If a situation seems daunting or unpleasant, I redirect my thoughts to how I can author it for your reading pleasure, and the stress subsides. Feel free to post questions to me, it gives me an idea for something to write about. Again, remember this is a public forum, so any really juicy question you may want to send to me in an e-mail.

The Peace Corps has 3 goals.
1. To bring education or technical skills to the country.
2. To facilitate greater understanding of Americans by Mauritanians
3. To facilitate a greater understanding of Mauritanians to Americans

I look upon this blog as part of my job and a way of facilitating this cultural exchange.

So here are some reponses to your comments:

Roylin, I’d love to hear about what’s going on in lovely central California. Actually, I get very little news. Here, the newspapers are in Arabic and we don’t have satellite nor TV’s. My best bet is shortwave radio, but finding an English station is difficult. Feel free to pass any little tid bit along. You are also welcome to pop a particularly interesting news magazine or section in an envelope for me. Sadly I get most of my news from the sign on page on yahoo. Heck, I know surprisingly little about the horrible flooding across Africa. It’s dry as a bone in Atar.

As for items to send, I have no idea how to facilitate that information but just know that nothing will go to waste over here. Mauritania is severely lacking in consumer goods, at least if you live outside of the capital. Maybe post whatever you send in the comments for all to see. We did already receive a package with measure cups and spoons, god bless Michelle’s aunt, so we’re okay on those. If I get too many of something I’ll pass it on to another volunteer and if they don’t need it (highly unlikely) it could always be a gift for a hcn who takes us under his or her wing..

Our taste in DVD’s is wide but no to the kid movies. It’s easier for me to tell you what we have vs. what we want. We watch a lot of movies around here. Anything you like and would want to watch a couple of times would be great for us. I love classics, drama, romantic comedy, cultish stuff—I am not too fond of horror but the others are.

We have:
I Robot,
Little Miss Sunshine
Chicago,
Pulp Fiction,
Shriek 2,
28 Weeks Later,
Gangs of New York,
Fight Club
Jackass 2
Mr B
Borat
Kill Bill 1 and 2,
Old School,
Battlegalactica,
XXX with Vin Diesel,
Adams Family,
Adams Family values,
Adventures in Babysitting,
Battle of Algiers,
Baseketball,
Batman Begins,
Beetlejuice,
Big Trouble in Little China (worst movie ever),
BlackHawk Down
Blazing Saddles
Rocky 4
Bourne Identity,
Bourne Supremacy,
Bullworth,
Dogma,
Enemy at the Gates,
Frailty,
Harry Potter Goblin of Fire,
Heat,
King Kong- new one,
Chronicles of Narnia,
Lock Stock and 2 smoking barrels,
Long Kiss Goodnight- another worst movie ever,
Lost (Seasons 1 and Season 2 except Disk 1 (that sucks))
Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome,
Thank you for not smoking
Far and Away
A Walk in the Clouds
Sense and Sensibility
Meet the Browns
Family Reunion
House of D
The Dark Crystal
Diary of a mad black woman
Matrix,
Naked Gun,
Office Space,
Over the Hedge,
Il Postino,
Red Dragon,
RepoMan,
Road to Perdition,
Shaun of the Dead,
Simple Plan,
Snatch,
Sports Night Seasons 1 and 2 (the only seasons),
Swingers
X men 3
Star wars 4
Indiana Jones TOD
Indiana Jones Arc
Indiana Jones Last Crusade (partially filmed in Mauritania)
12 Monkeys,
Transformers old and new version,
V for Vendetta,
Lucky Number Slevin,
Usual Suspects,
Volunteers,
Pans Labyrinth

Holly, Toubab – basically is white person which is synonymous with foreigner. They will also yell Nasranyia which means Christian. I rarely respond to either. My father insisted that people don’t mean any harm in yelling these names at me; I insisted that never in your wildest dreams would anyone in the US chase after you yelling AFRICAN or FOREIGNER as you walked down the street---every single, solitary day. I now have an appreciation for how the celebs must feel about the paparazzi. Some days it is all I can do to not chuck a rock at the kids screaming Donne moi cadeaux incessantly as they crowd around me and follow you down the next few blocks. But all they would do is pick it up and throw it back at me. Besides, what example would that set?

Advisory, when traveling in a developing country, DO NOT HAND OUT GIFTS TO THE CHILDREN. IT MAKES THEM ANNOYING AND IF THEY DON’T GET WHAT THEY WANT SOME BECOME AGGRESSIVE TOWARDS TOURISTS OR PEACE CORPS VOLS WHO STAND OUT BECAUSE WE LOOK LIKE TOURISTS BECAUSE WE ARE WHITE OR RATHER, NOT MOOR OR AFRICAN LOOKING. Asians get lumped in with us too. I have had more than one little kid throw a rock at me because I didn’t give him a gift. The little urchins. As if 2 years of my life is not gift enough to the people of Mauritania. If you must give something, take educational or art supplies to the local schools.

Karen,
We have plenty of sugar here. Single serving anything would be great as we don’t refrigeration, particularly salad dressing.
Mail is fickle. I received one package, a fairly big box, in 2 weeks, but most take up to 6 weeks. You can use padded envelopes, which are cheaper than boxes, but don’t forget about that fixed rate box for 37 bucks….especially if you are sending heavy jars of peanut butter.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

Cheers from here, Sharon