Togetherness

It feels like forever since I was last at the training center, but in reality it has only been about 12 days. I have tech sessions again today and tomorrow for health, which means Mike and I get to spend the night at the training center this evening. We are really lucky to have a great host family, but at the same time it will be nice to get away for a bit.

Mauritanian culture is all about togetherness. They all eat together off the same plate, they spend most of the day together in the same room, and most of the time they all sleep in the same area as well. It is considered very odd by Mauritanians for someone to want or need some time to be alone. They see this type of behavior as being aloof or even rude. So...Mike and I pretty much spend every waking moment that we aren't in class or in the bathroom with our families.

A very common activity in our family is watching a Turkish (I think) soap opera on television that's replayed at least twice a day. It's dubbed over in Hassiniya and I'm starting to understand some words here and there. We've also figured out some basic plot points in the story line. Usually Mike and I will study our French or read a book while the others lie around watching TV and our little sisters try to read what we are reading even though they have no idea what they are looking at because the text is in English.

Another aspect of the "togetherness" in Mauritanian culture is group ownership of property. There really isn't such a thing as "my" toy or "my" outfit. Clothes are shared between mother, daughter, grandmother, etc. Also, it is not out of the norm for someone to ask you bluntly to give them something you own. For example, I have been asked by my 22-year-old host sister for my glasses, for medicine, and for one of my skirts. At the same time, they have been extremely generous with me and have given me a traditional Hassiniya mulafa outfit and a Pulaar outfit as well.

Here is a picture of me getting henna done on my hands (and feet as well). The henna lasts for about a month and dyes your fingernails orange until they grow out, but the design is really pretty and it was a lot of fun to watch.

The food has started to become a bit monotonous and we have been served pretty much every different part of a goat I can imagine. One night there was a big goat head in the middle of our plate. I've also seen what could only be skin or intestine mixed in with our rice or couscous at least a couple times. So far we have been a little sick but nothing major. Mike's had diarrhea at least once and I've been pretty nauseous at times, but it really hasn't been as bad as I expected.

For our second anniversary on Monday, Mike was sick, but we were able to go to the ice cream shop the next day and buy a sundae to share between us. We didn't really buy gifts or anything, but it was still fun.

We are really looking forward to Monday. That is the day we will find out our site placements for the rest of our service. Then on Tuesday we will depart for a week long site visit where we will meet our local counterparts in the town we will be working in along with the experienced Peace Corps Volunteers that have already been working in the area. We are pretty sure we're going to be in a regional capital, but there are no guarantees.

We were very happy yesterday because we got our first MAIL!!! And we got like six or seven letters at once. It was super! We've (well...I've) started sending some responses but I wrote the letters before we received the ones from yesterday so they may not answer the questions you asked. But please keep the letters coming...and include pictures, news stories, anything you think would be interesting to us from home. We're a little starved for news from home so please keep the letters coming!

Signing off for now, but I'm sure I'll be putting more posts up soon because we have more center days coming up this weekend. We love and miss everyone back home and hope things are going well!