Sunday, October 19, 2008

Wolof Fun

So I was thinking the other day about a few of my favorite phrases and such in my new language of Wolof an I figured I would share some with ya....

1. Fanaan ak Jamm (My favorite)
Translation: Pass the night with peace,
Their equivalent of goodnight, I just think it has a nice ring to it..

2. Fukki Bukki Guddi, Fukki Bukki Becchig (A Wolof Toung Twister)
Translation: Ten hyenas at night, ten hyenas at day.
Those words are pronounces as if oo sound in boot.

3. Ndank Ndank (a useful little phrase)
Translation: Little by little, or bit by bit
Great for all types of explanations of things

The last one was actually a phrase that I made up when attempting to translate the American proverb of "No pain no gain", it actually ends up sounding more poetic in Wolof I think....and the guys I work with in the fields right now, really like the phrase lol...

4. Suduul woon metti, amul xalis ak amul doole (My Wolof poetry)
Translation literally: Without the grace of pain, one does not have money and strength
This phrase was made when I was explaining to my friends of the GDD cooperative why I like working in the fields with them.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Location of my village Ganni


I have marked on a map of the Mauritania the approximate location of my village. Its right along the Senegal River. So I live on the border between Mauritania and Senegal.

Real work and the hot season is almost over!!

Well I just wanted to get in a short little blog today. It was a rather exciting afternoon. I had a meeting today with the branch manager of CAPEC Bank Ibu N'Jaay. CAPEC Bank is a micro-financing bank based in Mauritania. They primarily work with agricultural cooperatives in the country. Their main goal is to make credit available to those (the poor) who cannot get get credit through traditional banking institutions for a multitude of bogus reasons.

I talked to him along with the help of my friend and fellow volunteer (Mary: her French is way better than mine lol) just primarily about what steps are needed to open an account there and how to start obtaining credit. The process was surprisingly simple and I'm really excited to bring the news back to my village and the GDD cooperative (the co-op I am initially helping). If you are interested in learning more about micro-financing and the impact it can have for people in developing nations, may I recommend the book "Banker for the Poor" by Muhammed Yunus. It is truly an excellent book and explains his story in Bangladesh and about how he basically started the micro-financing movement around the world. The book really provided me with a great deal of motivation about the work I am doing with the Peace Corps.



lso, I have been getting requests from people to give more information about the the culture, climate, and general life in Mauritania. So I wanted to take a quick second to provide some general info about the weather today. Mauritania basically has three seasons:

Really Hot and Dry (March-May)
Really Really Hot and Wet (June-October)
Hot and Dry aka Cool Season "which is a relative term" (November-February)

So far I have braved the hot seasons of Mauritania where I would say it averages around 100 degrees or so. I was telling my parents the other day, that you know you live in a hot country when even the people who live here aren't used to it and complain about it everyday lol. But honestly, it has been better that what I expected and the nights here are really starting to cool off. So that is a definite plus. Well hopefully that gives you a better idea about the weather here, if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask :-)

Cheers....

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Taxi Brousse Chronicles: Part 1 When 1 Hour Becomes 8

So I want to start this segment on my blog called the Taxi Brousse Chronicles, its essentially just stories from my trips on the taxi brousses in Africa. For all those who don’t know, a taxi brousse is usually a pick-up truck or van that delivers goods from cities out to the villages. Also, people can pay a fair to ride along. It’s the primary method for getting out to brousse sites such as my own, Ganni. Without further adieu part 1, enjoy:

This happened on Friday October 3, 2008. I had planned on coming back to Rosso from Ganni with my site-mate Rocco on Thursday 2nd, but much to our chagrin our plans were thwarted by Mother Nature in the form of a thunderstorm. This means that the road between Ganni and Rosso floods out and you have to wait a day or two until they dry out.

So on the morning of the 3rd we’re awoken again by the possible threat of rain at about 6am. (We normally catch the taxis at 7am into town.) Then, once the threat subsides a bit and it’s around 7am, we decide to head to the road and see if we can find anyone going into town. The roads were still pretty wet and the clouds looked ominous, so we weren’t totally sure if anyone would come. However, like clockwork a taxi shows up at 7am, this one is a brown pick-up truck that isn’t hauling too much. So we hopped on and there were a few other people on board with us too. A pretty light load, considering I have been on these things with upwards on 28 people. And away we go!!

We get no more than about 100ft outside of Ganni when the treat of rain becomes real rain. Now in general Mauritanians hate the rain, I can’t say I’m too particularly fond of it either, especially sitting in the bed of a pick-up. So we pulled over and the driver whips out a large orange tarp. We were initially really excited, but when we realized that the tarp was completely filthy and covered in dirt, mud, and sand, our excitement quickly faded. Also, there was 1 other taxi brousse that showed up that day and they didn’t have a tarp. So, the tarp was put over our truck bed and also some of the cargo and people from the other taxi was transferred to ours. So there we were huddled in the back of this pick-up, in an orange sweat box, getting filthy, but avoiding the rain. Then, were off again!!

Then probably about 4k outside of Rosso, because the current road we were on was technically still being constructed, you can’t really drive the whole thing. So, in our first attempt at going off the road, our taxi gets stuck. The other taxi behind us sees this and manages to take another way off the road and comes to help pull ours out. However, in the process of this the other taxi breaks down. This happens more than you think here, but somehow someway they manage to fix the other taxi brousse. Then another rain storm hits and we have to wait it out. After the 2nd storm, we manage to get our taxi unstuck and the driver announces were heading back to Ganni because of the condition of the roads. We then begin our merry way back to village, wet, dirty, beaten, and despaired. On the way back, the other taxi brousse gets stuck in the mud and breaks down again. Its been a really long morning already, so Rocco and I decide we’ll just walk the rest of the way to Ganni. Now between when we left Ganni and when we got back it was 9:45am. It took us nearly two hours to drive 4k, come back to Ganni.

The story does not stop here though, oh no, not by a long shot. Right, as we get back to Ganni, our taxi pulls up and tells us they’re going to try this northern road into Rosso on the other side of the sand dunes, and since its on higher ground it shouldn’t be flooded. Rocco said he had taken the road once before and since we were already wet, filthy, and cold, we figured what the hell, it couldn’t get much worse. Also, since the other taxi brousse was a POS, it was not going to be making the trip. So we took on all of their cargo now, which included 3 goats. And were off!! kind of, because they decide we should stop in the Ganni market first and pick up snacks for the road because it’s a longer trip.

Okay, NOW we’re off!! But we have to go 15k away from Rosso to catch the road to lead us to northern pass. The rain had let up to a drizzle though, and there were blue horizons, things were looking up. For a bit on the way to the road, were literally driving sideways because of the slope of the road and the mud. Rocco and I were sitting in the back and were looking at the road straight on practically like we were driving. Also, during this time, the goats were going crazy all over the place and one pooped on my foot. I was not very happy about this. So now, I was cold, wet, filthy, tired, and had a poopy foot. ewwwwwwwww…….

Before we got to the northern pass, we had to drive through some trees and such. One of which smacked square in the head when I wasn’t looking and helping with one of the goats. Also, because the road was well worn and our driver was moving pretty fast, I swear he almost rolled the thing a few times….But on we went!!

Then, we finally reach the northern pass, honest to god, it was probably the most beautiful thing I have seen in Mauritania. It was stunning, like something out of a movie about Africa. It was these huge open grasslands and prairies. We saw a troop on monkeys watching us from the top of one of the red sand dunes in the distance. There were sun rays draping the land, blue skies, and really beautiful rain clouds in the distance. It all just added to the appeal. We would come across small random villages with proper African tents and grass huts. We even stopped at one and they gave us water and milk. There were also herds of animals everywhere!! Only Mauritania doesn’t really have the traditional animals you associate with such a scene, but we do have A LOT of livestock!! Here is how the equivalent went:

Cows = Wildebeests
Donkeys = Zebras
Sheep and Goats = Gazelles
Camels = Giraffes
Dogs = Lions
Monkeys = Monkeys ☺

So, in our defense the trip didn’t really get much worse. The normal 50k trip between Ganni takes about 1.5 hours, this northern trek ended up taking about 6 hours. So in the end our trip took a grand total of 8 hours. But, the beautiful scenery really made the whole trip worth it. So there I was, wet, dirty, tired, stinky footed, scratched head, delirious, but happy…..