2004-07-05 - 2:31 p.m.

I found out where I'm going on Tuesday (i.e. tommorow). It is a village 40 minutes to the West of Kaedi called M'Bedia or something to that effect. I didn't bring my little sheet that shows how to spell it. I will be learning Hassaniyan, which is the language I wanted, so I am very happy. It is a dialect of Arabic that has Berbur influence. So when I leave I will be able to converse with most arabs. Two other environmental education people will be in the same village. One of them is Molly, a Geology grad student from Texas A&M, and Jeff, a 20 yr old from Santa Cruz. Molly and I haven't really gotten to know each other yet, but Jeff is a really cool kid. He and I played chess together on the plane ride over (I lost both games).

It is amazing how much water we drink here. Everyone carries around a nalgene with them. You will sit around for about 10 minutes and all of a sudden you will get thirsty. Then you take a sip of water only to realize your body wants you to chug it. On an average day I drink upwards of 6 liters. The truely amazing thing is we don't pee. Someone noticed it the other day and we found it is true for everyone. The body senses the arid environment and responds by shutting down all water loss systems. The kidney is truely an amazing organ!

We had a visit with our nurse today. She told us that even though our bodys are telling us we don't need to pee, we should try anyway to see what color it is (clear = hydrated, yellow = dehydrated). This is actually something I learned from my high school soccer coach. Growing up we would drink gallons of gatorade the night before a game so our pee would come out clear the morning after, and our bodies would be in prime condition for a match. This technique would generally result in sleepless nights interupted by frequent bathroom trips.

side note: the first cases of diarrhea have started popping up in the group. I know of 2 girls and 1 boy. Those people have been appropriately ostracized from the rest of us to prevent any further contamination.

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