The Hardest Part

You know, thinking about my Peace Corps service thus far. I have come to realize the hardest part about serving. Its not the ridiculously hot weather, the inability to communicate, the homesickness, the pestering children, the insane amount of flies and mosquitoes, or even overstuffed taxis.

Its not being able to be there for your family and friends back home when they need you. That for me, is the hardest part about my service.....

New Layout

Gotta keep it fresh.... Thus, I decided to change my blog layout. I think its a little more visually appealing like this. What do ya think?

My Friends (Part 1): Mbaay Fall

So I think every couple of weeks I'm going to write a small blurb about good Mauritanian friends of mine, who I have met along the way here.

I figured I would start this new section out by talking about my official "Community Contact" as declared by the Peace Corps.

His name is Mbaay Fall and he lives in my village Ganni with me. Honestly he is probably one of my favorite people I have met here. A lot of times with the Peace Corps, the volunteers don't really get along too well with their assigned community contacts. Usually it boils down to cultural differences or the fact the contact is just too busy to help. Or in the case of my one friend Chelsy, kind of a creeper.

But, A community contact is a person the PC finds in your village to help you find work there and integrate into the community. Most of the time, the contacts have worked with Peace Corp Volunteers in the past and has a pretty good idea how things are run. For myself, Mbaay Fall has been absolutely great. Even though he is rather intimidating when you first meet him. He is probably one of the largest Mauritanians I have met with this really deep booming voice. However, the guy really does have a heart of gold. He lives with his wife Colette and 6 daughters!! I also have to say, that his daughters are quite possibly the best behaved and most helpful children in this country. Most of the kids are little jerks!! lol But his daughters are fantasticly nice.

In Ganni itself, Mbaay is a teacher at the elementary school there. He teaches mainly French to the students and some history too. He is also the President of the cooperative I work with G.D.D. . Which may be one of the most well organized farming co-ops in Mauritania. I have also been told that is the main contact in the community for health. Needless to say he is a man of many talents.

Plus, he has really gone so far out of his way to make sure that I am looked out for in village. So thank you Mbaay for being such a great friend to me.

(He's the person on the left in the photo)

Centre Satara (The Diabled Women's Co-Op)

This past year, my friend Rachel Chapin has been working with a disabled women's sewing co-op based here in Rosso. The co-op actually situated behind the CREN, which is a center to help women with the health of their babies. Both the CREN and sewing co-op are operated by a great bunch of Catholic nuns living here too. They really are the nicest ladies in the world.

About the Co-op:
It is currently a group of 4-6 women who all have physical disabilities in some shape, way, or form. The co-op was created back in 1995 as a way to help these women earn a living. It has been going on pretty strong since then (with the help and care of nuns). Also, one nice cultural note about Mauritania (at least from what I have witnessed), is that the culture here does not really outcast people with disabilities. So most of the women in the co-op are in good spirits too. Which really helps us in motivating them.

In the past the women would mainly focus on clothes, table cloths, and woven key-chains. However, the sales were not always the best. Subsequently, in the past few years the women began to shift their focus a little bit to creating purses and bags. These have proven to be a really big hit with Peace Corp volunteers and French tourists. Thus, the women have recently become interested in exporting their goods to the US.

The Project:
Rachel was already sort of the liaison between the co-op and the Peace Corps. She would sell a lot of their products at our various events. Then this past Christmas, I also had the privilege to help sell some purses for them at our shindig up in Nouakchott. Again, the purses were a big hit. Also, in the past month, the women have also started making laptop computer bags, with foam lining and everything. They used mine and Rachel's Timbuktu messenger bags as their model. They can pretty much copy anything that is shown to them. Pretty amazing.....

So right now myself, Rachel, and Justin Piper (Another Volunteer in Rosso) are putting together a project to help the ladies send their good to the states to begin selling. We are currently working with a contact in the States named Patricia Covert, who is helping us find organizations to assist with the importation.

It is still in the very beginning phases of the project, but I am still very excited. The women are also really excited for the opportunity.

So I will keep everyone posted on the progress. Also, I will try to publish some pictures of the different things they make. They are really beautiful. And believe it or not, they make all of these products on hand crank old fashion sewing machines. Truly impressive....

Back in the Saddle

Hellllloooooooooooooooo USA!!!

My blog is back up and running. I apologize about the long delays, I was just totally stumped about things to write about. Maybe it was because I was sort of stuck in a rut doing the same things. (Thanks to everyone who helped out with ideas) However, things have been pretty crazy these past two months. 1) because I had a little vacation to Morocco which was amazing! The pictures are up on facebook. And 2) because this past week I have started some really exciting projects.

So I just wanted to give you his quick update. Another entry will immediately follow this one with some cool info about the projects.

Cheers,

Eric

Writer's Block

Okay Okay Okay I know, I am a fricken horrible blogger. I am very bad at updating..

My bad haha.....

But I do want to ask for help from people, because honestly I don't know what you guys would like to hear about on my blog. Or what types of pictures or videos you would like to see..

So please, if you would give me either a comment or facebook message about what types of things you would like to hear about my Mauritania life, it would be greatly greatly appreciated. I wanna keep everyone entertained lol....

Working in the fields

Out in Ganni, life has really been interesting the past month or so. I have been finding myself working with the GDD Agricultural co-operative nearly every day. So as of right now, my typical day basically includes waking up around 6:45am and going for a morning run. After that, I make breakfast on my little propane burner (really convenient). My breakfast is usually some oatmeal and coffee or tea. Around 8:30am, the guys of GDD come and pick me up with their horse cart. We all head out to their field for work.

The work varies depending on the day. Currently, we have finished all of the planting and such, so the work has been rather light. However, when we were tilling the fields, all of the work was done by hand, so that really made for some back breaking labor. There are only 3 tools are our disposal. I hoe, rake, and spade....

Around 1:00pm, one of the guys goes back to Ganni and picks us up a lunch of Ceebu Jen (Rice and Fish). We pretty much eat this everday. Its a love hate relationship lol. Sometimes, I am just like man, rice and fish again. But, its usually rather tasty and when I'm hungry, no matter how many times I've eaten it, I still get excited....so yeah love hate relationship.

After lunch we have a quick nap and tea. This is sort of like the tradition in Spain of the siesta. We sleep away the hottest part of the day underneath the big tree in the field. I used to never be able to nap in the states, but I'm getting pretty used to it here.

Then back for work and at dusk we head back to Ganni...

This is sort of the typical day for me right now. I am setting up a meeting with all the guys of GDD in December to start working on an Action Plan for helping them with their business needs...

Good times :-)