2004-09-28 - 9:07 a.m.

Upon arriving in Atar Jessica and I were both beset with the task of finding a place to live. This initially proved more difficult than it may seem. Atar is growing bigger, and therefore houses are not as easy a thing to come across, especially houses that would fit our budget. The two of us were lucky enough to have met Sek, the host brother of a former volunteer here that knows lots of people in the area renting houses. I had seen one house during site visit that I thought I would enjoy renting. Before returning to it we visited a few places and the moment I entered my current domicile I fell in love. It is not the biggest, the fanciest, or the best located, however sprouting up in the middle of the yard is a huge Acacia. Not only is it beautiful, but it will provide shade and a place for me to lie, protected from the sun at all times of the day.
The front door opens into a courtyard, as is the style of all Mauritanian houses. To the left is a long building containing 3 rooms that open up into the courtyard. They are each about 10*10ft. To the right as you walking is another building containing a mudroom that will serve as the place where I wash myself. Next to that is the room that will be the kitchen. There is a stairway going up between the two rooms. This leads to the kneif. This is the toilet of the north. They build a 5*5 shack that you climb to the top of. Lying across the top are 3 wood poles about 6 inches in diameter. These are space about 2-3 ft apart. One squats on these posts and goes to the bathroom between the spacing. The waste rests above ground until the kneif is emptied. The ground in this area is extremely hard, so digging a below ground reservoir is near impossible.
My house does have electricity, but not running water. I have two big cisterns I will have filled every two months or so. I may eventually build a shower. This can be done by putting a barrel on top of my shower room. Then I would run a hose from its base into the shower and connect it to a shower head. All I would have to do is fill the barrel every so often. Until then it will be bucket baths for me.

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