Forgot to post our swear in day pics. Here they are. PS-thanks for the package Vicki!
Monday, September 29, 2008
Time Out in the Village...
Here's something I wrote under a tree in Ganni.
Sitting alone on a woven mat under the tree and reading some random book I was quietly approached by two children, an older sister and a younger brother. No older than 7 and 5.
It was in America I might call a 'quiet' spring afternoon. Anything but noiseless, with no less than seven species of birds chirping their hearts out in the tree above me. Goats were of course loudly crying out to each other as annoyingly as possible just to hear each their own voices. I think they might actually be so stupid as to think they are dead if they can't hear their own bleating. Like a spring afternoon in America, their was nothing of silence but the simple surprising harmony of the cumulative sounds and the tranquility of the surroundings. It was reminiscent of sitting next to my dad's pond with a line out in the water. The sum of the noise creating a sort of enchanting or perhaps endearing quiet.
Anyways, I'm rambling... it was a nice day! So the brother and sister came up silently behind me while I was reading. When I realized they were there I turned and saw their hands already timidly outstretched to me. There was no fear of this stranger only a kind of wonder as they stared hesitantly at my white face and quizzically at my tattoo. I took both of their hands and greeted them first, as is customary, in Arabic then in Wolof, their mother tongue. I let go of their hands and asked them how they were doing in French. They just continued to stare at me silently.
The sister wore a bright white and yellow dress made of light cotton that danced in the breeze. A breeze which in America might seem more akin to a warm furnace blast, but here we call it a cool breeze. The wind made the loose ends of the dress dance in a playful manner that starkly contrasted the unmoving resolve and serious manner on the sister's face. It was the resolve of a seven year old girl to go over to complete stranger dragging her brother along to shake his hand... As silently as they came to me they turned and left, I said peace only in Wolof, a customary good-bye, to them and the little boy turned around. Throughout the whole encounter he had seemed totally unsure about me and the whole situation that his older sister had dragged him into. As I said good-bye he turned to me and smiled at me. He continued on for a little bit, then turned and waved and smiled again several times; each time running to catch back up with this sister who didn't wait for him to stop until they turned down the path.
Even though the exchange transversed three languages, more was said and passed on in the strong resolve on the face of the girl who led her brother hesitantly to greet a toubab and the final relaxed accepting smile and wave of the young boy. Sitting here under the tree contemplating this meeting, I realized while I have no idea what I'm supposed to be accomplishing, this is what I'm supposed to be doing here. In this little encounter I accomplished two of the three goals of the Peace Corps and I can say if this was all I was ever able to accomplish each day or even once each week I would consider my service successful.
Sitting alone on a woven mat under the tree and reading some random book I was quietly approached by two children, an older sister and a younger brother. No older than 7 and 5.
It was in America I might call a 'quiet' spring afternoon. Anything but noiseless, with no less than seven species of birds chirping their hearts out in the tree above me. Goats were of course loudly crying out to each other as annoyingly as possible just to hear each their own voices. I think they might actually be so stupid as to think they are dead if they can't hear their own bleating. Like a spring afternoon in America, their was nothing of silence but the simple surprising harmony of the cumulative sounds and the tranquility of the surroundings. It was reminiscent of sitting next to my dad's pond with a line out in the water. The sum of the noise creating a sort of enchanting or perhaps endearing quiet.
Anyways, I'm rambling... it was a nice day! So the brother and sister came up silently behind me while I was reading. When I realized they were there I turned and saw their hands already timidly outstretched to me. There was no fear of this stranger only a kind of wonder as they stared hesitantly at my white face and quizzically at my tattoo. I took both of their hands and greeted them first, as is customary, in Arabic then in Wolof, their mother tongue. I let go of their hands and asked them how they were doing in French. They just continued to stare at me silently.
The sister wore a bright white and yellow dress made of light cotton that danced in the breeze. A breeze which in America might seem more akin to a warm furnace blast, but here we call it a cool breeze. The wind made the loose ends of the dress dance in a playful manner that starkly contrasted the unmoving resolve and serious manner on the sister's face. It was the resolve of a seven year old girl to go over to complete stranger dragging her brother along to shake his hand... As silently as they came to me they turned and left, I said peace only in Wolof, a customary good-bye, to them and the little boy turned around. Throughout the whole encounter he had seemed totally unsure about me and the whole situation that his older sister had dragged him into. As I said good-bye he turned to me and smiled at me. He continued on for a little bit, then turned and waved and smiled again several times; each time running to catch back up with this sister who didn't wait for him to stop until they turned down the path.
Even though the exchange transversed three languages, more was said and passed on in the strong resolve on the face of the girl who led her brother hesitantly to greet a toubab and the final relaxed accepting smile and wave of the young boy. Sitting here under the tree contemplating this meeting, I realized while I have no idea what I'm supposed to be accomplishing, this is what I'm supposed to be doing here. In this little encounter I accomplished two of the three goals of the Peace Corps and I can say if this was all I was ever able to accomplish each day or even once each week I would consider my service successful.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Ouch
First stuff that's not about Fantasy Football!
So I finally went out last week and got some fabric to have an outfit made for me. Here in my city we have two markets basically and if you want clothes you go out and buy the fabric then you find a tailor and have them make you your outfit. Sounds pretty logical from here, but I guess I wouldn't make those assumptions if I was someone reading this in the states... anyways, as anyone who knows me in the states can affirm to, I wear clothes that are inappropriately flamboyant in the states and thankfully here in this super conservative Muslim country that's perfectly fine. So I got this amazing and expensive deep purple and lavender fabric and had an outfit made, I'll get pictures up when I can. It's a pretty pimp outfit.
Anyways, I went to go find some more fabric because I need a few outfits and I chatted up this one lady and the guy who sells shoes next to her and talked her down on prices a bit but she didn't have the colors I wanted. Manna was with me and talked to her about getting me some green fabric. I didn't get away without buying this sweet ass black fabric with orange and white accents for a halloween outfit!
Anyways.. I went back today with Manna to the market and we stopped by the stalls of Binta (the lady with fabric) and Tejani(sp???) the shoe guy and Binta had one thign of nice green fabric but it was too bright. So she went to go get me some other fabric and had Manna and I watch her stall for her. So we actually went into the stall and sat and Manna discussed prices of fabric with perspective customers in Pulaar while I talked with the Tejani in French. By the time the lady got back Tejani decided we were best friends and he gave me a pair of shoes for free and then shined them for me. It was pretty awesome, Binta came back with some sweet choices of fabric and it was all in all a pretty great day.
As far as languages go, my French still needs some cultivating but I got a Wolof tutor with my sitemate Meredith and I'll be learning Wolof in French. So hopefully I'll be able to speak French and Wolof by the end of this year and then next year during stage I'm going to sneak into my old facilitator's class with the new stagiers and learn Hassaniya and then I'll get a Pulaar tutor for that year... that's my grand scheme to learn all the languages here except for the uncommon Sonyike*(sp) and Bambaran.
Ok, now for Fantasy Football!
So I lost this week by 4 points! If my dear sweet Ben Rothlisberger had of gotten me 4 points or if I would have put in any other QB I had I would have won.. oh well. This next week the guy I'm playing has literally half of his team on bye weeks. 6 of his starters aren't playing this week and he doesn't have a back up for two of them yet. I know he will but.. right now it's looking pretty good for me. Bad week, but I'm still in it and looking good for the long term.
So I finally went out last week and got some fabric to have an outfit made for me. Here in my city we have two markets basically and if you want clothes you go out and buy the fabric then you find a tailor and have them make you your outfit. Sounds pretty logical from here, but I guess I wouldn't make those assumptions if I was someone reading this in the states... anyways, as anyone who knows me in the states can affirm to, I wear clothes that are inappropriately flamboyant in the states and thankfully here in this super conservative Muslim country that's perfectly fine. So I got this amazing and expensive deep purple and lavender fabric and had an outfit made, I'll get pictures up when I can. It's a pretty pimp outfit.
Anyways, I went to go find some more fabric because I need a few outfits and I chatted up this one lady and the guy who sells shoes next to her and talked her down on prices a bit but she didn't have the colors I wanted. Manna was with me and talked to her about getting me some green fabric. I didn't get away without buying this sweet ass black fabric with orange and white accents for a halloween outfit!
Anyways.. I went back today with Manna to the market and we stopped by the stalls of Binta (the lady with fabric) and Tejani(sp???) the shoe guy and Binta had one thign of nice green fabric but it was too bright. So she went to go get me some other fabric and had Manna and I watch her stall for her. So we actually went into the stall and sat and Manna discussed prices of fabric with perspective customers in Pulaar while I talked with the Tejani in French. By the time the lady got back Tejani decided we were best friends and he gave me a pair of shoes for free and then shined them for me. It was pretty awesome, Binta came back with some sweet choices of fabric and it was all in all a pretty great day.
As far as languages go, my French still needs some cultivating but I got a Wolof tutor with my sitemate Meredith and I'll be learning Wolof in French. So hopefully I'll be able to speak French and Wolof by the end of this year and then next year during stage I'm going to sneak into my old facilitator's class with the new stagiers and learn Hassaniya and then I'll get a Pulaar tutor for that year... that's my grand scheme to learn all the languages here except for the uncommon Sonyike*(sp) and Bambaran.
Ok, now for Fantasy Football!
So I lost this week by 4 points! If my dear sweet Ben Rothlisberger had of gotten me 4 points or if I would have put in any other QB I had I would have won.. oh well. This next week the guy I'm playing has literally half of his team on bye weeks. 6 of his starters aren't playing this week and he doesn't have a back up for two of them yet. I know he will but.. right now it's looking pretty good for me. Bad week, but I'm still in it and looking good for the long term.
Monday, September 22, 2008
More boring Fantasy updates..
Sorry no pictures still. My camera is currently being dissected and we don't have the proper tool to open up the part we need to open. But maybe we're going to try to make a tool to open it up. In'Shallah we'll have a working camera again by the end of this month.
Anyways... onto Fantasy!
So I lost week one by like 3 points, won week two and now week three hangs in the balance.
I have Chris Chambers playing tonight and I'm down by 13. Rothlisberger getting injured hurt me a lot. I got -.16 points from him this week. I've made a lot of trades recently so here's my current roster and my line up for week 4.
QB-Matt Ryan (Atl @ Car)
WR-Chris Chambers (SD @ Oak)
WR-Steve Smith (Car vs. Atl)
WR-Michael Jenkins (Atl @ Car)
RB-Larry Johnson (KC vs Den)
RB-Reggie Bush (NO vs SF)
TE-Tony Gonzales (KC vs Den)
K-Jason Elam (Atl @ Car)
Def-Da Bears (Phi)
Bench
QB-Ben Rothlisberger (Pit vs Bal)
QB-Gus Frerotte (Min @Ten)
WR-Marvin Harrison (Ind BYE)
WR-Amani Toomer (NYG BYE)
RB-Ricky Williams (Mia BYE)
DEF-Colts
I need to pick up another Tight End and drop a receiver or QB. I don't know when big Ben is going to be back in form and I think that Matt Ryan could have some good games... no idea about Gus but I figure it couldn't hurt to pick him up and see what happens. Comments and criticisms are welcome!
Anyways... onto Fantasy!
So I lost week one by like 3 points, won week two and now week three hangs in the balance.
I have Chris Chambers playing tonight and I'm down by 13. Rothlisberger getting injured hurt me a lot. I got -.16 points from him this week. I've made a lot of trades recently so here's my current roster and my line up for week 4.
QB-Matt Ryan (Atl @ Car)
WR-Chris Chambers (SD @ Oak)
WR-Steve Smith (Car vs. Atl)
WR-Michael Jenkins (Atl @ Car)
RB-Larry Johnson (KC vs Den)
RB-Reggie Bush (NO vs SF)
TE-Tony Gonzales (KC vs Den)
K-Jason Elam (Atl @ Car)
Def-Da Bears (Phi)
Bench
QB-Ben Rothlisberger (Pit vs Bal)
QB-Gus Frerotte (Min @Ten)
WR-Marvin Harrison (Ind BYE)
WR-Amani Toomer (NYG BYE)
RB-Ricky Williams (Mia BYE)
DEF-Colts
I need to pick up another Tight End and drop a receiver or QB. I don't know when big Ben is going to be back in form and I think that Matt Ryan could have some good games... no idea about Gus but I figure it couldn't hurt to pick him up and see what happens. Comments and criticisms are welcome!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Sweet Home Mauritania
Well, we just had an Alqaeda attack here. Exciting stuff. Not really actually. All's good so far. More importantly I wanted to read to you some descriptions of my country from some travel books.
These are all quotes taken from Lonely Planet travel books
"one could almost suggest that Mauritania was the place to avoid...to some the place is the pits - sand and an overwhelming sense of revulsion"
"Rosso is the main Mauritanian-Senegalese border crossing. It's a grubby, haphazard town with a slightly sinister feel. Most travelers breeze through, as there aren't any worthwhile attractions here."
That's my home sweet home, the place to miss with an overwhelming sense of revulsion, not to mention being grubby and haphazard with a sinister feel... Anyways... just got a text saying my camel burger is at the house so I gotta run and eat!!
These are all quotes taken from Lonely Planet travel books
"one could almost suggest that Mauritania was the place to avoid...to some the place is the pits - sand and an overwhelming sense of revulsion"
"Rosso is the main Mauritanian-Senegalese border crossing. It's a grubby, haphazard town with a slightly sinister feel. Most travelers breeze through, as there aren't any worthwhile attractions here."
That's my home sweet home, the place to miss with an overwhelming sense of revulsion, not to mention being grubby and haphazard with a sinister feel... Anyways... just got a text saying my camel burger is at the house so I gotta run and eat!!
Friday, September 12, 2008
What's Your Fantasy?
Okay, so I gotta keep you updated on my Fantasy Football cause it's important right?
I ended up losing by 3 points which is no fun, and what is worse is that I lost even though I had the third highest scoring team of the week. Sucks when your teams score would have beat almost everyone else but one team does just a little better!
Anyways.. I've made some moves and I dropped tynes, picked up Jenkins (WR-Atl)... then I saw that Young was having some.. issues and so I dropped him and went ahead and picked up the Atlanta QB as well. He looked pretty good last week. Not good enough to put him in ahead of Roth, but a strong back up I hope.
Anyways, here's my current line-up for week two.
QB-Ben Rothlisburger (Pit @ Cle)
WR-Marvin Harrison (Ind @ Min)
WR-Michael Jenkins (Atl @ TB)
WR-Chris Chambers (SD @ Den)
RB-Larry Johnson (KC vs. Oak)
RB-Reggie Bush (NO @ Was)
TE-Tony Gonzales (KC vs. Oak)
K-Jason Elam (Atl @ TB)
Def-Da Bears (Chi @ Car)
and my Bench
QB-Matt Ryan (Atl @ TB)
WR-Steve Smith (Car vs. Chi)
WR-D.J. Hackett (Car vs. Chi)
RB-Ricky Williams (Mia @ Ari)
TE-Heath Miller (Pit @ Cle)
Def-Indianapolis (Ind @ Min)
One thing that sucks... almost all of my starters are playing away games. Hopefully that doesn't dampen my score too much and I can pull out a victory and maybe stay close to the front of the pack for the all season high scoring team bonus.
Any shit talking or advice is welcome.
I ended up losing by 3 points which is no fun, and what is worse is that I lost even though I had the third highest scoring team of the week. Sucks when your teams score would have beat almost everyone else but one team does just a little better!
Anyways.. I've made some moves and I dropped tynes, picked up Jenkins (WR-Atl)... then I saw that Young was having some.. issues and so I dropped him and went ahead and picked up the Atlanta QB as well. He looked pretty good last week. Not good enough to put him in ahead of Roth, but a strong back up I hope.
Anyways, here's my current line-up for week two.
QB-Ben Rothlisburger (Pit @ Cle)
WR-Marvin Harrison (Ind @ Min)
WR-Michael Jenkins (Atl @ TB)
WR-Chris Chambers (SD @ Den)
RB-Larry Johnson (KC vs. Oak)
RB-Reggie Bush (NO @ Was)
TE-Tony Gonzales (KC vs. Oak)
K-Jason Elam (Atl @ TB)
Def-Da Bears (Chi @ Car)
and my Bench
QB-Matt Ryan (Atl @ TB)
WR-Steve Smith (Car vs. Chi)
WR-D.J. Hackett (Car vs. Chi)
RB-Ricky Williams (Mia @ Ari)
TE-Heath Miller (Pit @ Cle)
Def-Indianapolis (Ind @ Min)
One thing that sucks... almost all of my starters are playing away games. Hopefully that doesn't dampen my score too much and I can pull out a victory and maybe stay close to the front of the pack for the all season high scoring team bonus.
Any shit talking or advice is welcome.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
howdy
So it's Ramadan and I'm chilling for the next three weeks with about nothing to do. I'm sorry to say that my camera is non-functional right now thanks to a traumatic event which shall go undiscussed here. It should be fixed soon, In'Shallah. That means that no new pictures shall be posted for a while. And while I do have about 170 pictures from swear in party I've been sworn not to post most of them online so I have some filtering to do before any of those go up! :)
Life here in Rosso is pretty good. I have a sweet apartment I'm living in where I basically live in the second story of a building. I have a wrap around patio and a roof I can climb up onto.
At night i love to climb up onto the roof and enjoy the breeze where I can look out over my city and watch life happening without anyone knowing I'm there. Since it's Ramadan and everyone sleeps and does as little as possible during the day time when they fast they are all super active at night and from my roof I can see all the action.
I can't explain how crazy it is over here or how normal all the craziness seems to me already. I can't believe this is my life right now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Okay, that's my whole random blog for the moment..
Oh wait, the only reason i got on to blog was to say that i have skype now brandon.forester
I only get online like once a week but maybe you'll catch me or we can set up a chat sometime! Peace all.
Life here in Rosso is pretty good. I have a sweet apartment I'm living in where I basically live in the second story of a building. I have a wrap around patio and a roof I can climb up onto.
At night i love to climb up onto the roof and enjoy the breeze where I can look out over my city and watch life happening without anyone knowing I'm there. Since it's Ramadan and everyone sleeps and does as little as possible during the day time when they fast they are all super active at night and from my roof I can see all the action.
I can't explain how crazy it is over here or how normal all the craziness seems to me already. I can't believe this is my life right now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Okay, that's my whole random blog for the moment..
Oh wait, the only reason i got on to blog was to say that i have skype now brandon.forester
I only get online like once a week but maybe you'll catch me or we can set up a chat sometime! Peace all.
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