28 November 2006 - 19:42
Today is Mauritania's Independence Day. Last night, I was on my way to the gym, and I inadvertently walked through the tail end of a parade. This parade consisted of six drummers leading two columns of men in fatigues who couldn't march in time or in step with each other, carrying lanterns attached to tree branches and bits of discarded pieces of wood they found on the street (note: this is not because they couldn't get decent-looking rods to hold the lanterns, it was simply because they didn't care). I got in trouble by the last guy in line because I tried to cross the street right after the last soldier had marched by (I did need to get to the gym at a decent hour afterall), but I had failed to notice the police car that was apparently part of the parade, stuck two cars back in traffic that was waiting for the parade to pass. So I waited until the traffic had gone by, then crossed. Silly police.
Today, I found out that there were going to be a few celebratory events, including camel races, so I went with a small group of friends to watch (the other options were watching a horserace, parachuters, or a shooting display - no thank you, I'd prefer not to be anywhere near a Mauritanian with a loaded gun. Armed men here regularly point their weapons right at people inadvertantly because they're not paying attention to the way they are holding their gun, and they don't appreciate being told that they are being reckless). The race was 17 km (um...10 miles) outside of town, and the government hadn't provided transportation for any of its citizens, so most of the people watching were white embassy and NGO workers - the Mauritanians who actually made it out there had hitchhiked. The police, who were strangely decked out in riot gear (maybe they expected a larger crowd than the 50 that showed up?) let us go out onto the "racetrack" to take pictures of the start, but then didn't tell anyone that they were starting. One guy just said go, and the jockeys were up on the camels and off towards the dunes before anyone actually got their cameras on. And they were only an hour behind the scheduled start time!
The "racetrack," which was a long, presumably round, track that led way out into the desert, covered in scrub brush and delineated by rusted iron bars. It started off leading straight away from the seating area and went so far out that after about three minutes, we couldn't even see where the camels and riders were. Fifteen minutes later, the first camel came riding in. The jockey spun around in his saddle, almost falling off. The last camel rode in five minutes later. All in all, about 30 seconds of semi-excitement. The winner got $400. Five minutes after it was over, the police made everyone leave the venue - no loitering here, the show's over, folks.
That's about enough Mauritanian culture for me to last about six months. Thanks for the show.
