2004-09-09 - 12:42 p.m.

So this is the big day. This afternoon I will swear in to be come a volunteer. It is a pretty anticlimactic event that I am less than excited about. It is going to be sad leaving for Atar in two days. I have become close with a lot of the other volunteers, and after I leave I won’t see them again very much or very often. I like my region mates, but it would have been nice to have one of the people I’m better friends with up there.

So big surprise, I passed my language test. It if funny because they say I speak Hassinayen at the same level I speak French. This is grossely inaccurate, but I can’t complain about a good test score.

Last night was great. We had the last town meeting (talent show). I sang two songs. Jenny and I sang “Me and Julio down by the school yard.” At the end of the show Luke and I did “Living on a prayer” which was a rousing success. I stressed my voice out with all the practice and performance, so I am a little hoarse today. In addition to that Luke and I made up a set of categories people could vote on for our group (i.e. Person most likely to spend a night in a Mauritanian jail, or Person most likely to drop below half of their ideal body weight, etc). We handed them out the day before and asked for monetary donations for the prizes. We ended up getting a decent some of money and were able to get nice awards. I was in charge of that part since Luke is generally the MC for the rest of the show. I picked a group of people to present the awards and then announced those people to come up to the stage a la academy awards. Everybody loved it and afterwards told Luke and I it was the best town meeting. Nice to hear because the two of us put a lot of time and effort into it.

Not too much else going on. Normal hustle and bustle of cultural classes and safety and security sessions. I will put the last of my M’Beidia entries in when I get to Atar in a few days.

previous - next