19 January 2006 - 20:37
Half the reason I went to Rosso was to see Baba Maal, but the concert kept getting pushed back. I got tired of waiting and was starting to get homesick, so I packed my bags, got a car to Nouakchott, then left for Tidjikja the next day. Half of my trip home was spent in the back seat of a car, crammed in, as usual, with four guys in three seats, except this time, we had added fun – one door or the other in the back half of the car kept swinging open every time we would go around the curve, depending on which way we were turning. So we were slamming doors shut (no easy task with four people on the bench) about every 10 minutes or so during the 4-hour ride from Sangrafa to Tidjikja. It was so bad that one of the Mauritanians in the car asked the driver for his paperwork and proof of insurance!
I got back to Tidjikja in one piece, but my house, neglected for the past two months, was a wreck, so my three regionmates came over and we cleaned it up so that it’s presentable for when our Country Director visits next week. After working all day, we decided to celebrate with the First Annual Indoor Softey-ball Homerun Derby Tournament (my giant hallway is perfect for it, especially since it’s too cold to play outside without a parka). Thanks for sending those sponge-balls, Mom!
Like I said, it’s really cold here (well, relatively speaking, compared to the rest of Mauritania), so I’ve been staying inside, under my blanket as much as possible. Having no hot water to shower with is not fun, but I’m forcing myself to shower at least twice a week, no matter how much it sucks. I brought back cucumbers from Nouakchott, so I made my first two batches of pickles yesterday – one dill, and one sweet. Next week, I’m making my Grandma’s cinnamon rings, curry pickles, and another batch of dill. Mmm.
Being back in town is nice. While I was gone, the construction workers actually started working on our new market building, surprisingly enough. Our office internet still works, despite our $600 outstanding bill with the phone company, and one of my friends actually opened up a restaurant not too far from my house. Yippee!
There was a health campaign against trachoma that went around Tidjikja while I was gone, handing out medicine (if anyone wants to hear me rave about the idiocy of ignoring prevention and focusing on treatment, bring up the trachoma campaign when you talk to me) and painting eyes on all of the buildings to mark where the workers had distributed medicine. Now there is a red eye painted on my front door, which weirds me out a little. There's also red and black eyes painted on EVERY building in town. So now when I'm walking around, not only do children and old people stare at me, but so do all of the buildings. I'm being watched constantly. If the goats and donkeys start staring, I'm gonna lose it.
