1999-03-02 - 8:04 a.m.

I'm going to jam pack as much info as I can into this entry. I'm in Kaedi right now on the senegal river. The internet has been down for a few days now so no one has had any access.

We drove from, Nouakchott on Wednesday in a set of land cruisers. One of the guys said it was like driving through Nebraska. There are only a handfull of plant species in this country so you just see the same groups over and over. The dunes are amazing. We weren't in the northern desert area where that's all there is, but they were still pretty amazing. We stopped a few times on the road for bathroom breaks. When mauritanian men go pee outside they squat down on their knees with them spread apart. We also stopped for the drivers and some of our trainers to pray. For those of you who don't know the islamic religion requires one to pray five times a day. When the driver got out he said "I'm going to go pray" but we thought he said "I'm going to go pee." Since the acts are very similar looking at first glance it took us a minute to realize what was going on. So now anytime we have to go to the bathroom we say I have to go pray.

We have started eating with our hands. The first meal was difficult. I couldn't make a ball out of the food to put it in my mouth. Additionally, the meat wasn't the best I have ever had. Since then all of the food has been great. I'm sure that I will eventually get tired of couscous and rice, but for now I can't get enough.

I know everyone is wondering about the toilet situation and yes I have wiped my rear with my hand after deficating. The culture that surrounds the left and right hand is amazing. You can only eatshake hands, recieve items with the right hand. Since we sit on the floor when we eat, we can't even put our left hand on the foor in front of us for support. It ,ust remain at our laps, safely quarantined from the fecally immune right hand population.

My time is up so I will try to get in again tommorow. Love and miss you all.

previous - next