So here’s a quick update of my life as I approach the year mark in my Peace Corps service.
[My living situation]
The French volunteer that I have been living with since the beginning of this year has decided to terminate his service a year early so that he can be with his girlfriend. I’m sorry to see him go, as he is one of the few people in Kiffa who make me feel at ease. But with him gone, I need to move yet once again. Luckily, the second year volunteer in Kiffa is vacating her house in middle August. So I’m planning on staying at a friend’s house until August when I can move into my new, and hopefully final, residence in Mauritania.
[My working situation]
Work is coming along. I currently have three projects in Kiffa. First, I’m starting a preventive health education program at the Health Center. Second, I’m starting a health library, also at the Health Center. Third, I’m working with the World Food Program to help start and monitor community-based feeding centers.
Hopefully more projects will develop towards the end of summer.
[My traveling situation]
I’m planning on taking a few trips during this summer, and they are as follows:
June: St. Louis, Senegal – Jazz Festival (beginning of June) and a tentative trip to southern Senegal/Mali/Benin (end of June)
July: Kaédi, Mauritania – Eco/Health Camp (Helping out at a weeklong summer camp for young Mauritanian girls; beginning of July)
August: Casablanca, Morocco – Traveling around Morocco with Lakshmy (beginning to middle August)
All right, that’s all I can think of at the moment. Entries and emails may become somewhat few over the next few months, but I’ll try to write and update every so often. Ya’ll take care now…
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Trying to understand the Mauritanian mentality
What follows is an attempt on my part to understand the mentality of the Mauritanian people.
[Per Diem]
Mauritania is flooded with foreign NGOs and international aid organizations. These groups often hold educational seminars. In some strange twist of history and behavioral conditioning, however, it has become necessary here to pay the individuals who attend these seminars simply for attending. This often sizeable payment is referred to as per diem. If those attending the seminar are required to travel, there is usually a traveling reimbursement that is separate from the per diem. If there is no per diem, it is unlikely that anyone will come to the seminar. Contrast this to the developed world where those who attend seminars have to pay in order to attend, the idea being that they will learn something and that they must pay for this information.
Some people hold the opinion that Mauritanians don’t value knowledge; that intelligence in this country gets an individual nowhere; that all the people in power have attained their positions through nepotism and corruption and that knowledge, if not burdensome, is unnecessary.
I agree with this partially. I think that Mauritanians have been conditioned to undervalue education because it does give any immediate wealth. Like the United States, people here are driven by instant gratification. But here, in a country that is ruled and ruined, in my opinion, by corruption, it is better to have cash jingling in your pockets and some abstract knowledge stuffed in your head.
[Ca n’est pas ma travaille]
My latest idea has been to start an educational program at the local health center. I want to use the health technicians who have small workloads to start leading educational sessions with the patients who come to the center. Preventive health education is something that is lacking in this country. Most of this education in the United States happens in the schools. The school system here, however, is so defunct that the little health education that is supposed to happen in the classrooms often does not.
I briefly mentioned my idea to the health technicians sometime last week. One of the technicians responded to my idea by saying that the activity is not part of her job description. [Just quickly, her job is to attend to severely malnourished children and then educate their mothers on how to prepare well-balanced meals.] I replied that education is very important and that while it may not be part of her job description, it is important for the community as a whole. She responded quickly by turning her head to the side and starting a conversation with someone else in another language. She managed to ignore me until I began to pack my things to leave.
I don’t understand it. I mean, here I am, giving two years of my life to help people in a different country who I probably will never see again, and yet she refuses to help the people in her own community just because it requires her to do just a little more work on her part. And on that last note, she currently does next to nothing – the malnutrition center, staffed by three technicians, receives only about ten children per month.
This is a specific example, but the same mentality exists throughout Mauritania. Nobody ever goes out of their way to do something if they do not get rewarded for it.
[Donnez moi cadeau]
Children in the streets, when they see a white person, scream Donnez moi cadeau! This holds true everywhere that I have been, including Senegal and Mali. I sometimes wonder if the kids think is a greeting, but then they put out their hands expecting a gift. And then I wonder if anyone ever really gives them anything as I smile and say Non! and walk away.
I feel white people get harassed more than I do. I tend to blend in with the locals here. Other volunteers, however, constantly complain about the children. From what little I have experienced, I pity the other volunteers: the children can easily become overwhelming. They’re like things constantly scratching and picking at your person, stretching and wearing you thin until you just can’t take it anymore, and then you break.
[The art of encouragement]
White Moors do not seem to understand the concept of encouragement. They are always quick to judge and to criticize.
While in Bababe during stage, I tried to teach the young boys my family how to draw. I gave them simple drawings to copy. They drew poorly, but I smiled and encouraged them on. One day, one of the mothers passed us where we sat on the floor. One of the boys got up to show her his drawing. He was excited and smiled so that his teeth showed. She looked at the piece of paper and said that it was not good. The boy’s looked down and sat next to me. I looked at the mother and said that the drawing was very good. She shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
The mother, in no way, was trying to be mean to her boy. I think encouragement in general does not exist in the Moor culture as it does in the Western world. Of course this is an overgeneralization, I know, but I notice more often than not Moors criticizing each other, putting each other down, laughing at each other and so forth. People generally don’t become upset, but they do get embarrassed.
During stage I also came to realize a lack of creativity in the Moor culture, and I wonder if this is due to the lack of a fostering society where individuals keep from trying new things for fear of being humiliated.
Mauritania is an interesting place, that’s for sure.
All right all, there’s much more to write, but I’m tired and the stars are shinning brightly tonight. My rooftop calls me to sleep.
Up next time…Hung up, time goes by so slowly – the Kiffa Music Mix 2007.
[Per Diem]
Mauritania is flooded with foreign NGOs and international aid organizations. These groups often hold educational seminars. In some strange twist of history and behavioral conditioning, however, it has become necessary here to pay the individuals who attend these seminars simply for attending. This often sizeable payment is referred to as per diem. If those attending the seminar are required to travel, there is usually a traveling reimbursement that is separate from the per diem. If there is no per diem, it is unlikely that anyone will come to the seminar. Contrast this to the developed world where those who attend seminars have to pay in order to attend, the idea being that they will learn something and that they must pay for this information.
Some people hold the opinion that Mauritanians don’t value knowledge; that intelligence in this country gets an individual nowhere; that all the people in power have attained their positions through nepotism and corruption and that knowledge, if not burdensome, is unnecessary.
I agree with this partially. I think that Mauritanians have been conditioned to undervalue education because it does give any immediate wealth. Like the United States, people here are driven by instant gratification. But here, in a country that is ruled and ruined, in my opinion, by corruption, it is better to have cash jingling in your pockets and some abstract knowledge stuffed in your head.
[Ca n’est pas ma travaille]
My latest idea has been to start an educational program at the local health center. I want to use the health technicians who have small workloads to start leading educational sessions with the patients who come to the center. Preventive health education is something that is lacking in this country. Most of this education in the United States happens in the schools. The school system here, however, is so defunct that the little health education that is supposed to happen in the classrooms often does not.
I briefly mentioned my idea to the health technicians sometime last week. One of the technicians responded to my idea by saying that the activity is not part of her job description. [Just quickly, her job is to attend to severely malnourished children and then educate their mothers on how to prepare well-balanced meals.] I replied that education is very important and that while it may not be part of her job description, it is important for the community as a whole. She responded quickly by turning her head to the side and starting a conversation with someone else in another language. She managed to ignore me until I began to pack my things to leave.
I don’t understand it. I mean, here I am, giving two years of my life to help people in a different country who I probably will never see again, and yet she refuses to help the people in her own community just because it requires her to do just a little more work on her part. And on that last note, she currently does next to nothing – the malnutrition center, staffed by three technicians, receives only about ten children per month.
This is a specific example, but the same mentality exists throughout Mauritania. Nobody ever goes out of their way to do something if they do not get rewarded for it.
[Donnez moi cadeau]
Children in the streets, when they see a white person, scream Donnez moi cadeau! This holds true everywhere that I have been, including Senegal and Mali. I sometimes wonder if the kids think is a greeting, but then they put out their hands expecting a gift. And then I wonder if anyone ever really gives them anything as I smile and say Non! and walk away.
I feel white people get harassed more than I do. I tend to blend in with the locals here. Other volunteers, however, constantly complain about the children. From what little I have experienced, I pity the other volunteers: the children can easily become overwhelming. They’re like things constantly scratching and picking at your person, stretching and wearing you thin until you just can’t take it anymore, and then you break.
[The art of encouragement]
White Moors do not seem to understand the concept of encouragement. They are always quick to judge and to criticize.
While in Bababe during stage, I tried to teach the young boys my family how to draw. I gave them simple drawings to copy. They drew poorly, but I smiled and encouraged them on. One day, one of the mothers passed us where we sat on the floor. One of the boys got up to show her his drawing. He was excited and smiled so that his teeth showed. She looked at the piece of paper and said that it was not good. The boy’s looked down and sat next to me. I looked at the mother and said that the drawing was very good. She shrugged her shoulders and walked away.
The mother, in no way, was trying to be mean to her boy. I think encouragement in general does not exist in the Moor culture as it does in the Western world. Of course this is an overgeneralization, I know, but I notice more often than not Moors criticizing each other, putting each other down, laughing at each other and so forth. People generally don’t become upset, but they do get embarrassed.
During stage I also came to realize a lack of creativity in the Moor culture, and I wonder if this is due to the lack of a fostering society where individuals keep from trying new things for fear of being humiliated.
Mauritania is an interesting place, that’s for sure.
All right all, there’s much more to write, but I’m tired and the stars are shinning brightly tonight. My rooftop calls me to sleep.
Up next time…Hung up, time goes by so slowly – the Kiffa Music Mix 2007.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Mauritania: an introduction of sorts, parte deux
The following is the introduction to my master’s thesis. I wrote it some months ago and haven’t yet edited it so please pardon any and all mistakes.
Land and Climate
Situated in northwest Africa, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a largely desert country, measuring 1 030 000 square kilometers in size with a shoreline some 700 kilometers long. It is bordered by Morocco and Algeria to the north, Senegal and Mali to the south and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The large expanses of flat plains that cover the northern and central regions are occasionally interrupted by ridges, sand dunes and rocky plateaus, which are often rich in iron-ore. The most significant of these deposits occur in Zouérat, in northern Mauritania. The southern portion of the country is mostly flat scrubland.
The rainy season occurs from the months of July to September; average annual rainfall in the Sahara region is less than 100mm while that in the south is approximately 600mm. The limited rains allow for some cultivation. Desertification, however, is a severe problem. The Sahara, which covers approximately 75% of the country, including Nouakchott, is slowly expanding southward. Wood has become scarce, with most cooking now being done on kerosene stoves. Further cause for environmental concern comes from increasing livestock herds, which as a result of additional wells and human population growth, is contributing to overgrazing.
Mauritania has recently experienced several natural disasters. Some 150 000 square kilometers of land were transformed into desert during the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, causing a mass migration of peoples towards the south. Apart from the Senegal River, surface water is scarce. This, along with a recent worsening of the water crisis has led to food insecurity, damage to infrastructures caused by advancing sands, and various health problems. In addition, drought stricken lands often become submerged in floods during the rainy season. These conditions have fueled urban migration, resulting in a 53% increase of the urban population and the appearance of several squatter settlements around urban centers within the recent past [Red Cross Annual Report: Mauritania {14 July 2006}]. Consequently, today only some 10% of the population is officially nomadic, compared 83% in the late 1960s.
Government and Economics
Mauritania is administratively divided into 13 regions, 53 departments and 218 communes. Despite its size, the country’s approximately 3 million people are limited mostly to towns and cities and a few fertile areas. Access to most of the population is limited, however, due to a lack of adequate roads.
Mauritania’s economy has languished in the recent past. The country is one of the poorest in the world, with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of US$560. This dismal situation is further exacerbated by a high national growth rate, which will see the country’s population double in the next 20 years.
More than three-quarters of its population live by traditional subsistence activities, predominantly animal husbandry. Agriculture along the Senegal River contributes to one-third of the gross national product (GNP). Use of irrigation systems is increasing; however, the government encourages cattle-raising and rain-fed farming methods, traditionally Moorish activities, to the detriment of black Mauritanians. While the fishing and iron-ore industries account for over 90% of export earnings, uncontrolled fishing practices and a weakening world iron market are devastating them.
Economic growth has also been undermined by political instability at the national level. Mauritania is currently in the process of ‘controlled democratization’, with a non-violent coup d'état occurring in 2005. It is hoped, however, that the first presidential elections, currently being held, in addition to recent debt relief and oil production will markedly improve the nation’s economic situation.
People
The Mauritanian people, almost exclusively religiously Islamic, are composed of a diverse array of ethnic groups. Socio-economic and cultural differences, however, between the traditionally nomadic Arabic-speaking Moor herders – who dominate the central and northern regions of the country – and the Afro-Mauritanian sedentary cultivators of the Halpulaar, Soninké and Wolof ethnic groups – who are concentrated mainly in the south – have given rise to racial discrimination and conflict. The most severe of this occurred in 1989 when some 40 000 to 50 000 black Mauritanians were expelled from the country on government orders. Racial tensions exist to current day.
Next time on “Adventures in Puddles”: What’s yellow and flies in the air? A fly with a gold tooth! – Reporter R. N. investigates French humor.
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