There's been quite a lull in the action as of late which is what I find the most challenging about being in the Peace Corps- aside from the poverty and the heat. I get on real highs when the CereAmine training is active, the feeding center is active and it appears as though something is about to happen. But the weeks of lull send me into a funk. Also, when I am working, I am spending lots of time with Mauritanians which makes me feel productive. If I am not working I don’t really get a chance to interact with them, as I don’t enjoy simply socializing. I love the interaction while we are doing something productive, flipping bean skins, roasting grains. But laying around, sweating, in culturally appropriate garb, trying to make small talk isn’t my idea of fun. I'd rather be home reading a book or writing a blog, or taking a nap. That is pretty much how I feel about doing it in the US as well. It just proves the adage, where ever you go, there you are!
Thankfully I have been a stay at home mom for the last 3-4 weeks with little Miss Kitty, and she has occupied me. But like the sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. Yesterday, Miss Kitty moved to Chinguetti. The house seems very empty. I had to do my laundry without her help. The upside, I did manage to get an extra hour of sleep this morning. Hallelujah. I have been sleep deprived since I scooper her off of the road.
The big news, I ran into Genevieve aka Achia, 2 days ago on the Carrefour. She is the woman who runs Les Enfants Du Desert. Or rather she came in for a quick landing. I am not sure how much coffee she’d had, but she was really wired. She stopped her car in the middle of the road, hopped out, kissed me, then another women she knew drove up and also parked in the middle of the road then Genevieve proceeded to have a meeting in the middle of the rond point. I had a hell of a time hanging onto her French as she was speaking a mile a minute. I can speak African French and I get to feeling a little cocky until I try to have a conversation with a French person. Then my bubble is burst pretty quickly and I spiral into depression that I will never be able to speak this language. I did however; manage to get out that I wanted to put together a meeting with her, my counterpart and the women’s coops to discuss the CereAmine trial. She was ready to do it right then and there, but Morella wasn’t due back in town till that evening, so I opted for 10 am the next day, converging at the rond point. Then off she tears, nearly fishtailing out of the Carrefour, like a mad woman, or a woman on way, way too much caffeine.
Yet, from our brief conversation, I could tell that she had been doing her homework on CereAmine. She was a wealth of information; she even knew the price that the ladies and I had agreed would provide them a reasonable profit. She proceeded to explain all of the benefits to the holistic solution of CereAmine to the other lady who pulled up next to us. Man, this is a small town and/or wow, is she well connected. But okay, I have made some progress after lo these many weeks of stagnation. I have a meeting finally scheduled with her to discuss the trial, the trial that was suppose to start around Easter. At least I think that is what the meeting is for. After she drove away, I was left wondering if I was suppose to go ahead and set up the meeting with my counterpart and the women for 10 the next day.—or what? Oh well.
Fast forward to the next day. I helped Jessica get over to the Chinguetti garage with Kitty then hightailed it to the Carrefour for our rendez-vous. Where Morella and I sit. And sit. And sit. Crap I must have misunderstood our lieu de reunion. 10 am; Carrefour; demaine. How hard is that? I really need to get more sleep. We try to call, but her phone number hasn’t been working for weeks. Then, after about 30 minutes we see her blue SUV pull up at the rond point. Yeah, I didn’t miss understand, she was just running late. So we hop in her car and off we go. Where we are going, I have no idea; who we are seeing, I have no idea; but off she zooms. She drives directly to my counterpart’s office. Theyhave known each other for years and have apparently already spoken about the benefits of CereAmine both for the feeding center and the creation of income for the women’s cooperatives. She is completely onboard.
Thankfully I have been a stay at home mom for the last 3-4 weeks with little Miss Kitty, and she has occupied me. But like the sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. Yesterday, Miss Kitty moved to Chinguetti. The house seems very empty. I had to do my laundry without her help. The upside, I did manage to get an extra hour of sleep this morning. Hallelujah. I have been sleep deprived since I scooper her off of the road.
The big news, I ran into Genevieve aka Achia, 2 days ago on the Carrefour. She is the woman who runs Les Enfants Du Desert. Or rather she came in for a quick landing. I am not sure how much coffee she’d had, but she was really wired. She stopped her car in the middle of the road, hopped out, kissed me, then another women she knew drove up and also parked in the middle of the road then Genevieve proceeded to have a meeting in the middle of the rond point. I had a hell of a time hanging onto her French as she was speaking a mile a minute. I can speak African French and I get to feeling a little cocky until I try to have a conversation with a French person. Then my bubble is burst pretty quickly and I spiral into depression that I will never be able to speak this language. I did however; manage to get out that I wanted to put together a meeting with her, my counterpart and the women’s coops to discuss the CereAmine trial. She was ready to do it right then and there, but Morella wasn’t due back in town till that evening, so I opted for 10 am the next day, converging at the rond point. Then off she tears, nearly fishtailing out of the Carrefour, like a mad woman, or a woman on way, way too much caffeine.
Yet, from our brief conversation, I could tell that she had been doing her homework on CereAmine. She was a wealth of information; she even knew the price that the ladies and I had agreed would provide them a reasonable profit. She proceeded to explain all of the benefits to the holistic solution of CereAmine to the other lady who pulled up next to us. Man, this is a small town and/or wow, is she well connected. But okay, I have made some progress after lo these many weeks of stagnation. I have a meeting finally scheduled with her to discuss the trial, the trial that was suppose to start around Easter. At least I think that is what the meeting is for. After she drove away, I was left wondering if I was suppose to go ahead and set up the meeting with my counterpart and the women for 10 the next day.—or what? Oh well.
Fast forward to the next day. I helped Jessica get over to the Chinguetti garage with Kitty then hightailed it to the Carrefour for our rendez-vous. Where Morella and I sit. And sit. And sit. Crap I must have misunderstood our lieu de reunion. 10 am; Carrefour; demaine. How hard is that? I really need to get more sleep. We try to call, but her phone number hasn’t been working for weeks. Then, after about 30 minutes we see her blue SUV pull up at the rond point. Yeah, I didn’t miss understand, she was just running late. So we hop in her car and off we go. Where we are going, I have no idea; who we are seeing, I have no idea; but off she zooms. She drives directly to my counterpart’s office. Theyhave known each other for years and have apparently already spoken about the benefits of CereAmine both for the feeding center and the creation of income for the women’s cooperatives. She is completely onboard.
We scheduled a meeting the coops who will be producing the product for next week. She would also like to witness the actual production to ensure it is conducted in sanitary (a relative term) conditions. I also, want them to make each other aquaintance as I feel it is vital to creating a sustainable relationship between the two parties. Morella and I have explained to both my counterpart and Les Enfants du Desert that we do not want to be in the middle of the transaction. Again, Morella explained that the CereAmine, although we trained them, is the ladies product to sell. Providing all goes well, which it will, we should be in full production to make 120K of CereAmine for the 5/1 trial start. The trial has been expanded to two of the centers.
So once again, all is going well.
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