Hi again!

Written July 21st

i will give you the deets on
my life. i am only about 4 hours ahead of you all, so subtract four hours
from these times, and you'll know what i am doing:

7am: i wake up next to my two host sisters. "jam waali"
7:15 choke down very dry bread, appreciate that i am not sweating yet,
look at myself in a makeshift mirror made of my water filter and be
amazed at how hot i look
7:45 pretend to understand my host father speaking in french, and
utter out some nonsense that is apparently "goodbye" in Pulaar
8am-10am: try and stay awake, understand french and speak in pulaar. i
am in class with two other girls. we try and laugh a lot, and my
teacher doesn't care if i show my knees so i get to look like a ho in
class
10:00-10:30 eat cookies and enjoy a "pause"
10:30-12 class continues as the temperature rises in our "classroom"
which is by the way, the living room of my teacher's house. oh yeah,
in the past four hours i have consumed 3 glasses of super sweet tea
12-1 start sweating massive amounts, hang with my 12 year old host
sister who happens to cook and clean the entire house- i'm thinking
she might be our servant
1-4 sweat. eat fish and rice with our hands. drink tea. the usual
4-6 class again. my brain hurts at this point and i am wondering what
i am doing in mauritania and can i get off this crazy ride?
6-7:30 make peanut butter with the girls in my class, relish in
speaking english, get proposed to by teenage boys who only know "good
morning" and "will you marry me" in english
7:30-9:00 love this time of day. i pretend to call home on my family's
broken phone and i talk with you all and laugh a lot and ask my host
family if they want to hang out with you guys. it's pretty hilarious.
i also learn how to dance pulaar and roll around outside, as the
weather is now awesome
9:00 dinner. loving the eating with the hands thing. oh yeah, we can
also pick our nose in public, no problemo
10:00 bed time. sit ups with my sisters, which they call "sport"

i go to bed thinking "this is flipping awesome. thank allah for this
day" and tend to overlook the hell that is 1-6pm. :) love you all.
i'll be in touch in a month or so.

laura

here is my address for those who don't have it:

laura smith, PCV
Corps de la Paix
BP 222
Nouakchott, Mauritania
WEST AFRICA

It's hot here

Written July 20th

in a nutshell, my life is crazy busy. i really really would love to
hear how you all are doing- don't worry about filling my email inbox
with news because snail mail is amazingly slow here.

my host family in Bababe (where i am living until sep 7) is awesome. i
am learning the language Pulaar (which is a non written African
dialect) and my teacher doesn't speak English. it's crazy depending on
my French so much.

I sweat so much that I suck on bouillon (sp?) cubes to make up for the
lack of salt. my day is full of emotional ups and downs, coinciding
with the heat quite nicely. over 105, i am generally crabby, but mid
90s i am loving life.

i'm gonna send this now, in case my computer crashes. i love you all.

laura