Our New Names

In country over a month; we can now be identified as: scorpion smashers, Sonike (our language of choice) learners, left hand butt wipers, rice and fish eaters (lietarally every day), couscous eaters everynight, outdoor dwellers, on the floor sitters, no bed sleppers, cultural assimilators, off road travellers, toubahb superstars, bucket bathers, nutritious food cravers, desert gardeners, sand storm walkers, and I am sure there are a few titles I have left out.

It is really an impossible task to try and convey all we have experienced and all the emotions of these last couple of months. Mostly becaue there is nothing else that I have experienced that has been similar to my life in Mauritania. We have been without any Western amenities. We have no electricity, there is no running water, and there is no choice of food. We are in the "brousse". The bush surrounded by nothing but large expanses of desolate land. There are roads to the villages but the two tracks in the sand could easily be 100 yards to the right or left and it would not make a difference.

We made a trip recently to Woulloumboni which is located 65 km Northwest of Selibaby. It is a village that is even more remote than Gori (our training site). We travelled more than six hours on roadless terrain over sand, through rivers, and passed areas of pastures and trees. This will be our home for the next two years, our community of under 2000 people where we will work and live.

The last Peace Corps volunteer was there in 1988. This is a whole generation that is not accustomed to our white skin and strange Western ways. Most little kids run from us crying and hide behind their mothers who hold them and laugh. Older kids follow us in droves curious about our behaviors and the language we speak. Men and women alike welcome us into their homes and are thrilled when we utter any Sonike vocabulary.

Sonike people are proud. There are about one million Sonike speakers world wide. Most of them are here in the Gidimahka area of Mauritania and spread through Northern Senegal and Western Mali. Their cultural boundaries have been split and divided mostly by French colonialism. Even so they have retained much of their identity. They are good farmers and hard workers. They retain much of their identity by keeping their circle small and marrying within the Sonike realm.

It has been a difficult language to learn and at times a difficult culture to integrate into. We have just left our homestay and will be headed to Woulloumboni in a few days. We apologize for not being able to let you know more often how we are doing. There are many things that are inadequate in this country, internet happens to be one of them. We are hoping, at best, to be able to update our page once a month when we get to site. We are doing well despite all of our trials. We are looking forward to our permanent site and in some ways looking forward to living two years with nothing remotely similar to our lives in the states. Our permanent site is even more remote than our training site and will have less amenities. We miss you all very much and enjoy the emails and posts that people have sent. Thank you all for your love and support it helps us get along from day to day. We will do our best to keep you all updated and relate to you our experiences.

If people want more information on Mauritania look at the CIA website. Also there are a few books with chapters on Mauritania. The first is Disposable People. Each chapter is about a different country and modern day slavery. The second is Native Stranger. This is a book about a black mans journey back to Africa and some of his experiences. He has one chapter on Mauritania. The last is not about Mauritania but encompasses some feelings that both Christine and I have had. It is a speech by Ivan Illich called "To Hell With Good Intentions". It is thought provoking in the least.

Lee George and Christine Zwicky
Corps de la Paix
B.P. 222
Nouakchott, Mauritania
West Africa