Winter in Akjoujt has arrived. We have highs in the seventies and eighties now and the winds have changed and now blow from the northeast. The winds are insanely strong. If you look to the north during the day, the sky is brown with sand blowing from across the Sahara. The lack of trees for thousands of miles lets the wind really build up and during the day it is sometimes really difficult to even walk from place to place. I am looking forward to returning to Senegal in a few weeks, where there are trees its not as dusty.

The school year is now half way over. Working in a Mauritanian school has been very interesting. I teach the fourth and fifth years of high school students(there are six years), which is equivalent to high school sophomores and juniors. The age ranges of students though is from 14-24 and attendance more resembles a college setting than a high school. Attendance is not mandatory and the final exam is such a large percentage of the final grade that simply passing that test allows a student to advance to the next year. Students are advanced by school year and not by subject. Thus, I have students that will fail English, but pass enough of their other courses to move on. But, they will be expected to complete the next years English competencies without passing the previous years prerequisite. This means that I have students who are unable to write the Latin alphabet, but will be advanced to the next level of English.

I have had a fun time interacting with the other Mauritanians at the Lycee. I teach an English class for professors, where we go over basics and then I explain slang terms to them. Afterwards we hang out and one of the professors houses and play cards and watch crap action movies in English with Arabic subtitles. My friend Cheikh Sidi recently asked if I had any dvds. I only had one, the TU-BYU game from this season. The teachers had no idea what was going on, but they are now TU fans. Heather is going to bring the TU-Bowling Green bowl game in a few weeks and I will have them watch that as well.

In house news, I have moved out of my house and I am staying with my sitemate, Hayley, until I find another place. My house was broken into during October, during Christmas break, and again last week. Unfortunately, Akjoujt is in a bit of a housing crunch right now. Akjoujt attracts quite a bit of labor from other cities in Mauritania due to the copper mine in town. The mine is expanding and so more people are moving to the city and taking any available housing. Hopefully, I'll find a place before I go to Senegal in two weeks.

Heather is going to be visiting in two and a half weeks. We are planning to spend time in Dakar, I have to play softball, and then check out the beaches and wildlife parks in Northern Senegal. We will also head up north to Mauritania and visit Nouakchott and Akjoujt. I think Akjoujt will be a day trip, there isn't a ton to see, but it would be interesting to have someone I have known for longer that seven months see where I live and talk about it to other friends. I am looking forward to seeing her and all the goodies she is going to bring with her. New skinny pants, American candy, rum, a good sleeping bag, etc.

Also, I recently found out that I'm going to be an uncle and my other sister is moving to Taiwan. I have so many people to visit throughout the world, I think the summer/fall of 2009 is going to be a ton of fun. I'd like to hit Germany, England, Taiwan, the Phillipines, and South Africa. Along with whatever I have to travel through to get there.