North BRAKNA!

The news I'm sure you've all been waiting for: I have a permanent site! On August 30, I will be moving to Magta Lahjar, in the North Brakna region of Mauritania, (INSHALLAH!)! Right as we were all starting to get into a routine with our host families and language class, all the trainees moved back to the center for a few days of sessions. Then, on the day of site announcement, we all watched a huge map of Mauritania drawn out in the sand. The APCD's went region by region calling out who will be where. We all went to our "town" in the sand and stood there, scoping out where our friends would be in relation to us. I was absolutely thrilled to be located in the same region as a few of my really good friends. And most of my awesome friends here are close by, il humdililah!

The next morning, bright and early, we all took off for our sites. I rode in a brousse taxi with a pseudo site mate and the trainees who would be in the region just north of Brakna. It was quite a cozy ride. Two hours to Nouakchott, then another 3ish hours to Aleg, the capital of North Brakna. We spent the first night in Aleg, getting to know our new region/site mates who are current volunteers. The next afternoon, I took off for Magta Lahjar with my site mate and three pseudo sitemates.* The following day, I got all mulafa-ed** up to meet the mayor (who wasn't there), a lady at the bank I'll probably be working with (who wasn't there), and the police chief (who wasn't there). Welcome to Mauritania. BISMILLAH! I also ate lunch every day I was there with a community contact, who is really awesome and going to be helping me with whatever I decide to do. The rest of the time, I hung out at my site-mates house, under the tent. The house is real nice. There are two bedrooms and a massive hallway. In another building is the toilet, the "shower" and a kitchen (3 separate rooms). There's a wall surrounding the whole area, with a nice size yard and a tree! I will be staying there, once I move to site, until I find my own place. Inshallah. The water situation is pretty laughable. Every other morning from 3am-5am, the town has running water. This means we fill up these huge canisters with as much water as we can/need. And did I mention I kind of have the best site mate in all of Mauritania? She's fantastic!

The last night in Magta, we were struck by a sandstorm at 4:30 in the morning. That was exciting trying to get mosquito nets and all of our stuff inside before the rain started. We got up a few hours later and all headed back to Aleg. We spent the last two nights in Aleg with all of the region mates. By the time the week of site visit was over, all the region mates were pretty bummed to be leaving one another. (The current volunteers will come at the end of August to cheer us on through swear-in.) Sadly, one of the trainees was stung by a scorpion right before we headed back. The scorpions here are not deadly, but it hurts pretty bad. Which made the taxi brousse ride back painful for her. She's fine now. It's not terribly common to be stung by a scorpion. It happens to many volunteers. It's like a bee sting, except 10x more painful. Other than that, there's nothing you can do but wait for the pain to go away within a day or two. It was an ugly guy.

And now we are back in Rosso. Wishing we were all back in our sites!! I absolutely love all of my region mates. It really makes the next two years seem bearable. Magta Lahjar is a beautiful town, lodged between sand dunes and a temporary lake. The weather is dry, which is SO much better than humid Rosso. However, it is a very conservative town. It will be exciting to see what happens!

I wish you all the best and hope America is fantastic! I miss you all!!

Liz

*Pseudo-site-mate: The three volunteers that are in brousse. Magta Lahjar is the closest town to their sites, which means they pass through frequently enough to be site-mates.

**Mulafa: a large togo-ish sheet women wrap around them. It covers everything. Even the head. And I hate them.