2006-07-15 - 6:35 p.m.

As to avert future threats from various Aunt groups, I am putting up this brief update on my life in Mauritania. I just finished Eco-Camp 2006. It was a huge girl’s camp I ran and organized for elementary school girls from all over Mauritania. This year it was in the Adrar, in Tawaz, Alexis’s old site. I nearly killed myself doing it. I’ve been preparing for it since November and additionally have been living in Kaedi for the last month working on training for the new volunteers. I was given the position of EE coordinator for this year’s volunteer training. Anyway, the camp was a total blast barring a few unfortunate incidents. Here are a few highlights:
-Opening skit Ari played a Red Bird in the play I wrote receiving rave reviews from the 100 attending Mauritanians.
-The Adrar is hot, and people from the South of Mauritania don’t like that.
-Mauritanian girls lack physical coordination. Yoga lesson = hilarious.
-I had to kick out two of my little girls from Atar: one for starting fights and name-calling, the other for biting two girls.
-People from the South love sugar and spices + People from the North hate sugar and spices = Constant Food Battles.
-Mauritanian Girls are so fun deprived that any game or activity makes them go into seizures from fun overload.
-I chased down and beat two little boys for throwing rocks over the wall at our little girls.
-Mauritanian girls love to sing and dance and do it all day.
-We had five lessons mixed in with the games and activities. The common theme: Stop cutting down all of your trees!!
-I love working with kids
-I saved over a million ougiyas (3 thousand dollars) through bargaining.

That’s about it for now. There is no Internet in Kaedi, so I will do my best to not be totally out of contact and will write when I make trips back top Nktt.

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