Welcome to Mauritania

We made it. We have spent the day getting more vaccinations, drinking water, and learning basic Mauritania survival skills. One of these includes...oh man, get this...when you go "number two" you have to wipe...with your hand.

I know. I still can't believe it. I won't be telling you how that goes.

It's incredibly hot, but I am loving it. The hotter it gets the more hardcore I feel. Apparently, each group generally loses a few volunteers in the first few days of training. They generally look at their host homes and say, "No."

Anyway, tomorrow we head to the third hottest city in the world. Kaedi. We continue our pre-service training and move in with our host families.

Every few hours there are prayer calls. It is the most beautiful sound- it's someone singing from some exotic place in this tiny town they call the capital.

Casablanca

Yesterday we spent the day wandering the streets of crowded, busy Casablanca. Pedesterians and vehicles shared the streets. Picture bits of glass, green and brown, everywhere among the crumbles of the sidewalks. Also, everyone honking all the time- taxis with "petit taxi" on top- a mosque quiet and cold compared to the still heat of the inner-city. I am polishing my (very simple) French with many "thank yous" and "hellos."

I didn't know what day it was because the time differences and flights allowed us to skip an entire night. Sweet.

Staging

Writing in from Philly, home of the "pork on a stick" (according to some girl) and endless rain. While I am unimpressed with the weather here, the 50 some people who are headed to Mauritania with me are all quite wonderful. Everyone is willing to participate in the lame skits that make up so many of these types of orientations. We have enjoyed making lists of "anxieties and aspirations." Some common anxieties include: bugs and animal attacks, lack of cell phones, and hallucinations due to anti-malaria medication. (Why does everyone seem to know the fancy name for this?- I do not.) We are all looking forward to tea, (well, everyone but me) getting tan, and being the center of attention.

Just kidding about those examples. The anxieties are way more intense, and the aspirations more cheesy. I am with 4 married couples, three Lauras, and one country director named "Obie" which is probably the best name ever. Dibs on naming my child that.

I would upload a picture, if I had taken any. Because I haven't yet, picture me in business casual, in a room full of people that fluctuates between 50 and 80 degrees throughout the date. Imagine me fake smiling a lot at people whose names I know (of course, I have memorized them all and they don't recognize me outside of the room...) but dont know anything else about.

Congratulations on actually understanding that last sentence, and reading my longest blog entry yet. We leave tomorrow after a few rounds of vaccinations. I will be in Casablanca on Friday. If I didn't hate exclamation points so much, that last sentence would be followed by three lines of them. I am jittery with excitement.

Sock it to me, sun, sand, and long skirts.