03 August 2005 - 19:43
This isn’t the first time since I moved to Mauritania that I really wished that I had a car, but this time, it’s for a different reason. I want to drive around town, honking my horn like all the other nuts up here.
This morning, I left my house to get my breakfast from the corner boutique and stopped by to greet my neighbor. In addition to the usual “how are you with the tiredness?,” “how is your health?,” and “how are you with the heat?,” he caught me off guard…“How are you with the coup d’état?” Maybe I didn’t hear him correctly. Coup d’état? Yeah, the military overthrew the government this morning, he explained with considerably less concern than if he had been talking about a goat that was lost. Hmm. Again? The last time this happened (during my training a year ago), the government put down the rebellion before the paint had even dried on the insurgents’ rally posters. We’ll all have a good laugh about this tomorrow, I’m sure. “C’est la vie en Afrique,” laughs my neighbor. Life in Africa, indeed, say I.
Then came the call from Peace Corps. No traveling to Nouakchott. Why? We’ll explain later. Is this about the coup? Uh, maybe. Stay calm, act normal. Remain vigilant…blah, blah, blah. Visions of rescue evacuations begin dancing in my head. I throw some things in a bag and put my passport in my pocket, just in case. Another call. This time, from my friend Ahmed (regional commander of the National Guard, remember?), canceling our lunch plans. Guess he’s busy today. Probably won’t be going to the US anytime soon, I’d imagine.
So a coup d’état, huh? A “blow to the state.” It was more like a game of paddy-cake with the state. I climbed up on my roof to get a good view of the eminent rioting, but was sorely disappointed – my fellow Tidjikjans couldn’t even be bothered enough to skip a round of tea to get up and do even minor looting, much less flipping over donkey carts and the like, as I had hoped for. I bet no one in the country even got a papercut all day.
So now my host country is ruled by an organization with a longer name than the country itself. The Military Counsel for Democracy and Justice. Personally, I thought Maouiya was doing a pretty decent job, but these new kids sound promising too. We’ll see. At least they are keeping my life interesting. The downside to this whole revolution thing is that the security situation is a little less stable, but the upside is that the excitement factor of living here has definitely increased. And as an added bonus, the “VOTEZ MAOUIYA” baseball cap I bought a few weeks ago has tripled in value overnight! It’s a collectible now!
So where’s that list of Things To Do Before I Die… Survive a coup d’état in a foreign country? Check. Now I’m going to deflate my pool, just in case we still have to evacuate…
