2005-11-30 - 12:12 p.m.

Thanksgiving, oh blessed holiday. This year I celebrated in Kiffa with some 30+ volunteers. Everyone prepared one or more dishes, which resulted in a smorgasbord of food. For the most part, all of the PC volunteers are good cooks by trade, since they are forced to improvise on limited means on a daily basis, but a few of them are REALLY good cooks. I was blessed on Friday that nearly all of those kind were present. Our desert line had 13 different dishes and everyone of them was amazing {I made the pumpkin pies}. It was heaven.

Afterwards we wallowed around in our gluttonous misery. I felt really bad for Ari (current girlfriend). She got sick the night before, and barely had an appetite for the first course let alone the second. During the night she got up 3 or 4 times to puke over the wall.

The day after we all took a trip to string of canyons 70km to the west of Kiffa. For what? To see desert crocodiles of course. I only saw them at a distance, but they were there. They live in ephemeral pools that move in the canyon throughout the year. They are about the size of a small dog, and eat the fish and stray birds that happen along their territory. The canyon itself was beautiful. Etched out from periods of heavy water flow. I decided to go exploring a bit while there and came back bloody and covered in burrs. Ari proved to be a better person than I by helping pick them off even though I hadn’t gotten up to hold back her hair while she vomited in the middle of the night.

On the car trip there and back, she and I become parents for about 5 hours. Adriana’s 7-year-old host brother came along for the trip and sat on our laps for the duration. We tried our best to communicate with him. His native language is Soninké, which is what Ari speaks in her village. He was very shy with her though, and would only respond with mumbles. With me, he was much more willing to talk, but his Hassanya is very rudimentary, so it was not easy to relay information. When we got lost and stopped for directions he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to his crotch. I took this as the international sign for “I’ve got to pee.” True enough, when I let hi, out of the car he ran some 30 yards off and started watering the plant life. On the way home I truly felt like a daddy when he fell asleep in my arms. After we got back I carried him to Adriana around for 10 minutes till Adriana woke him up and took him home. It has always amazed me how children can be tossed around like rag dolls in their sleep and not even give a hint of waking up.

I travelled over 2200 km for the trip (1375 miles). It took over 39 hours of travel, not counting the night I spent in Nouakchott. The way down was fairly uneventful. I rode to Nouakchott in a PC vehicle and then immediately left for Kiffa. We spent the night three quarters of the way there, and got there the next morning at 10. The way back was horrible. I was cramped in the back of a taxi sitting next to a man with a prosthetic leg that kept digging into my side and leg. The trip usually takes 8 hours, but our chauffeur wouldn’t go faster than 80km/hr and usually kept it around 50. After 12 hours of driving I was nearly in tears from the pain of the road. When I left Nouakchott at 10 I got into a much more comfortable car and thank the lord, three other skinny people (no sharp objects jabbing my body). We rode for an hour or more and I slept most of the way. Then, 150 km from any appreciable city, the car locked up and we pulled off the road. I initially thought it was a flat tire, and would only be a few minutes delay. I was corrected when I realized all the tires were still full. The driver, one of the passenger and I took off the faulty tire to have a closer look. It was the brake, or at least we thought it was. We unhooked the brake plates, but the tire still wouldn’t move. In the end we hiked to a nearby station to find a mechanic. In the mean time a truck showed up and let me into the back. I apologized to my companions and took off for Atar. After another 9 hours of travel I arrived in Atar just in time to teach English for my night class.
All in all the trip was great. I got to see all of my friends in Kiffa, and both my mind and body are growing accustomed to long term taxi travel. The next big trip is even farther, Aioun. Hopefully my wounds will have callused by then to ease the pain.

previous - next