I have arrived in Africa. After traveling from Tulsa to Philadelphia to Dakar to Noaukchott to Kaedi, I should be stationary for the next few weeks. The plane ride from Philadelphia to Dakar was as uneventful as a good plane trip can be. On the other hand, our flight from Dakar to Noaukchott landed so hard that the door to the cockpit flew open.

Noaukchott was interesting. Trash is not picked up in Mauritania and instead it is left wherever it happens to fall. The city is very busy, although it was not clear to me what everyone was doing. Life in Mauritania consists of a lot of hanging out, especially during the hot part of the day, and drinking a sugary shot of mint tea three times in repetition with friends or strangers.

After receiving more innoculations and my malaria pills our group of 75 stagaires set off on a bus to Kaedi. We are the largest group of stagaires in the history of the Peace Corps in Mauritania and thus needed large transportation for our 450 km trip to the east. We travelled in an old Spanish bus that had one of those accordion connecters in the middle. The bus trip took nine hours and only a few times did I think I was going to die.

I had my first traditional Mauritania meal that night in Kaedi with a few other stagaires and a Hassaniya instructor. Maurtinian food is eaten out of a communal bowl using only the right hand, the left hand is used for other dirtier tasks. We had sheep and couscous that was pretty tasty, although the dishes here are usually drenched in oils.

The next week were spent at a Lycee in Kaedi where all of the stagaires went through various training seminars and generally getting to know Mauritanian culture and the demands of being a Peace Corps Volunteer. Also we were able to get to know the fellow stagaires we will be working with during the next two years.

After a week at the Lycee we were assigned languages to study and moved to homestay families. I will be studying French and then Hassiniya, the Mauritanian dialect of Arabic, and I am staying with a host family in Kaedi. Other stagaires are in the region, but not necessarily the city of Kaedi. About half of the stagaiers remained in Kaedi, which is good for socializing and that sort.

My host family is led by Omar and also contains five other families. Omar is my host father and renamed me Moktar. Omar is the only real speaker of French, the rest speak some french and alot more Hassiniya. Despite our use of an outdoor toilet and the unclean water, we do have satellite television and I was able to watch the U.S. lose to Colombia on Friday night. About 300 hundred kids are around my house all the time asking me questions about America or anything else that pops into their minds. I had the unfortunate duty of telling my host brother that while I did not personally know the Notorious B.I.G., I did know that he had been dead for quite some time.

I have French class for six hours a day M-F and on Saturdays and Sundays I do absolutely nothing. Thus I am free to spend sometime at the internet cafe here in downtown Kaedi. I had written most of this post yesterday but was thwarted by a city wide electrical outage. Now that I have some stability I will try to post with some regularity.