Open House at the GMC
29 Jan 2009 Leave a Comment
We had an open house at the GMC on January 17th. It was kind of hard to explain the concept of an open house because there isn’t really a term for it – in French or Arabic. An open house translates into la grande fête or big celebration/festival in French. So you can imagine how that turned out. Everyone we invited kept asking – oh, you’re having a big celebration, what for? Is it an American holiday? It was quite funny actually. But it went well; the collège and lycée directors came, most of the girls came with their parents (at least moms), and our teachers spoke along with our CF. Things were crazy, however, once they were allowed to grab snacks; within ten to fifteen minutes the food was gone. I’m not sure if we’ll do an open house again because I think Mauritanians expect the events to be more structured. But it wasn’t a failure, so we might do it again next year because it allows the community to learn more about the GMC. However, I think we could do a better job of promoting it – or, “encouraging/reminding” people to come.
{welcome to the the Atar GMC}
{inside the GMC}
{we moved outside because it was too crowded}
{waiting}
{listening to the speakers}
{Brandon gave the Welcome speech – in English; Aminetou translated}
