the grass is greeener on the other side
27 Jan 2009 Leave a Comment
This update is long overdue. Sorry! Enjoy!
Nouakchott
I spent Christmas in Nouakchott. It was pretty much amazing. The Peace Corps gave us two free days for Christmas because we (the first years) didn’t have any Nouakchott Nights (we get 5 each quarter) since ETR/IST were this quarter. Anyways, it felt heavenly being able to sleep in a real bed. The hotels here aren’t exactly what you would consider a nice hotel in America but after living here for months anything with beds and toilets is pretty awesome. Besides the hotel, the abundance of restaurants was really nice. I didn’t really eat at the restaurants when we were in Nouakchott for Christmas because we ate at Obie’s (Country Director) house for the most part.
We spent both Christmas Eve and Christmas day at Obie’s. On Christmas Eve we had appetizers and other goodies. On Christmas day, we had an amazing dinner. There was so much food and dessert!!! Aside from the food, it was really fun hanging out with people from other regions – most of whom I haven’t seen since August.
Aleg
Since we only had two days in Nouakchott, I decided to go to Aleg with Amanda (another GEE volunteer) to kill time before heading down to Saint Louis, Senegal for Christmas. Although Aleg may not be the prettiest place, it was fun hanging out with the other volunteers and meeting people in Aleg. Amanda’s counterpart is great. She’s around 21 or 22 and didn’t get the bac. So now she works at Papeterie (paper store) and helps out at the GMC. She speaks English pretty well but does not speak French. I’m rather envious; I wished we had a counterpart – it would make things a lot easier. Last, but not least, I had mishi (basically barbecue goat) which is what Aleg is known for. It was really GOOD!
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{Aleg has a ton of cows! We have none in Atar.}
Saint Louis, Senegal
We headed down to Saint Louis in one straight shot on the 29th. We had to travel through Nouakchott (Aleg is two hours away) to Rosso so that we could cross over. Since there were 8 of us we took a “mini-party bus” (basically a 15-passenger van) straight to Saint Louis.
{the door broke en route}
Saint Louis was wonderful! The people are so alive – quite different from Mauritania. It made me realize how much I miss living in the cities or just having a variety of things to do. The food was great as well. Saint Louis is a gorgeous city. It used to be the capital when it was a French colony. Anyways, I stayed at a hostel on the beach; it was great!
{the bridge to the island}
{w/summer @ the Tavern on New Year’s Eve}
