Palm Reading...

Yes, I'm that bored.  I looked up some palmreadery online and this is what my palm say about me and my future!  I had one of my Korean students read my palm for me once and she just looked at it and smiled at me.  She refused to tell me what my palm said but said I should marry her.

My Heart Line

-falls in love easily

-freely expresses emotions and feelings

-some emotional trauma

My Head Line

-creativity

-adventure, enthursiasm for life

-thinking is clear and focused

-momentous decisions

My Life Line

-plenty of engergy

-vitality

-strength and enthusiams

-extra vitality

My Fate Line

-self-made indivdiaul; develops aspirations early on

The Shape of My Hand

- spontaneous, enthusiastic and optimistic

-sometimes egoistic, impulsive and insensitve

-extrovert

-do things boldy and intuitively

Some advanced readings....

-the long length of my ring finger denotes that I may have artistic talent as well as a reckless and wild nature.

-my straight fingers represent honest, direct and clear headed.

-soft heart

on all of my fingers I have the same types of knuckles which represent I am a person whose intellect and practicality work well together.  A strong instictive drive is charactersitc of well-developed knuckles.

the balls of my fingers show a strong intellect and courtesy of the mind

Finger Spacing

-the distance between my pinky finger and wring finger indicate an independent mind.

-the closeness of my wring and middle finger suggest that I have an art related life and fate will aid me in success.

-the distance between my index and middle finger suggest that my success will come from somewhere other than my own goals and dreams.

Some smaller lines-

Health Line

-the triangle it forms with my heart and head lines is referred to as the "lucky triangle".  The broad angle indicates very good luck.

Fame Line

-likely to have fame in the arts

Marriage Line(s)

unclear but I believe mine indicates a marriage (as opposed to affairs or separations, etc.)

Money Line

The line running to my ring finger cutting through the Fame Line indicates money obtained through luck and surprise

Line of Intuition-represnts intuitiveness (duh)

Oh my goodness.. there is more and I am still bored!  Now the 'Mounts'

Jupiter mount-kind, more interested in respect than wealth.

Saturn-responsible, hard-working, aloof, gloomy

Apollo-proud, flatterer, extravagent

Mercury-clever, crafty, competitive

Inner Mars-Aggresive, argumentative

Plain of Mars-Uses the qualities of the heart head and destiny lines

Outer Mars-Strong-willed

Venus-Affectionate, sympathetic

Neptune-artistic talent, Charasimatic

Luna-Lovers of nature and beauty, immagintive

Dominant Mounts-

Venus-represents love/affection/passion

Lower Mars-represents physical courage

Okay, there are about 100 other things to look at in the 'degrees of the palm' but believe it or not I am not that bored.

Interesting Article..

It's terribly written but it does give a little humanizing perspective of those on the other side of this rift.

http://www.ennaharonline.com/en/news/1175.html

My mother told me...

... that I need to stop swearing even if this is my blog and that I should proof read my blogs because she can't believe that I'm an English teacher after reading my writing.

Since tomorrow is mother's day I guess I'll start proof-reading and stop swearing as much. She also informed me that it's bum-fuck nowhere not butt-fuck nowhere. See, look who's swearing now. Where do you think I learned this kind of language.


Love ya mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Perfect Day

Okay so yesterday started off pretty boring. No electricity or running water. Mostly sat around sleeping and reading. Started and finished half a book. But come about 1 o'clock Eric, Nick and I went to have lunch with a Mauritanian friend who's we had over for dinner once and he's been asking us to come over for weeks. We finally found a time when we could and thank Allah we did.

Had some of the best Chebb Gen and Daomada I've ever had... yeah they fed us two plates of food at once. Pretty Akbar. Then we just hung out forever with him and his family and talked shit. Pretty entertaining to be talking shit in four different languages. I'm still amused by how we have conversations switching seamlessly between all of them.

His house is out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere(pardon my language, but this is my blog and it is my language)even further away than my school so we had a long walk. He was telling us about his friends house where he works out here and he said they had proper weights... we had to see this! So we go and we find ourselves the first Mauritanian 'gym' we've ever seen. It's just a guys dirt yard with some car axels welded to wheels, a couple of water jugs hooked to a rope and pulley system and a bench made of scrap wood -- but they are other than that the proper equipment. So we stay for a work out. We're working out with what have got to be 4 of the most ripped malnourished guys I've ever seen and it's like having four personal trainers yelling at you 3 different languages. I've been trying to do push-ups and sit-ups and running and some other stuff to make me feel like keeping something of my former strength from the states but it's been nothing like this. Eric and Nick are both much bigger guys than me and I thought I might look like the runt of the bunch when we were lifting but I was happy to see that I was more than keeping pace with them and the Mauritanians. This morning I am, however, a little sore. The good kind though. What more could you ask for? I'm definitely building a gym out of car parts when I get back home, I wish I had a welding machine here I'd go to town!

After that we just went home chilled out and had made ourselves a tasty treat. I guess that was pretty much all that made up my perfect day here.

I think it was such a nice day because we spent it almost all with Mauritanians (which is generally the opposite) and it was one of those times in a volunteers progress for me when I felt like I was breaking past another plateau. For the last couple months I've felt like my language and integration had been stagnating and there is nothing that I hate more than being stagnant. I'm constantly seeking personal growth, usually by putting myself into uncomfortable situations (like this stupid sandbox I'm living in!). In the last few weeks I've really been hanging out with my teachers a lot, I've got some new projects percolating, I feel like my French is starting to improve again, I'm getting better at Wolof I can pretty much understand what's going on 75% of the time in Wolof conversations, I'm starting to learn some Hassaniya beyond saying hello and it's hot for 45 min (I plan on sneaking into language classes this summer or getting a tutor so I can learn hassaniya as well) and more importantly I feel 'normal' again in my encounters with Mauritanians. I'm hitting a serious transitional stage again and I feel growth coming in many areas. Including these guns (yes I am pointing to my arms... oh yeah, you can feel the power!)

It's nice to have internet here at my place now. I am a morning person and I usually do most of my work between 5-10am. I can start reading my news and bullshitting on here on a regular basis, get a whole new morning routine. Okay, that's all my blathering and BSing for now.

Peace.

To Be Continued...

Had a pretty good day today. Almost a perfect day. I'm tuckered out though so I'll blog about it tomorrow morning (In'Shallah).

The nights are getting colder here again surprisingly. That's nice. Makes for lovely star-gazing. The moon has a light pale yellow halo around it tonight. I hope that ring around the moon doesn't mean she's getting married! I was really hoping to have the moon for my very own some day. I guess if she's not really made out of cheese then it wouldn't be as much of a let down though.

Goodnight friends, goodnight kids, goodnight animals, goodnight moon.

Happiness according to a refrigerator magnet...

So I just moved into my new house for the next year which happens to be above a cyber cafe. That means I'll be able to bullsh... ah, blog more often. Okay, really mostly bullshit. I have a lot of really close friends who are starting already to leave and some new people who are about to be coming in. So this is a transitional moment in the middle of a stagnation of extreme changes in my life... got that? Anyways, one of my buddies today was telling me about how he remembered growing up always seeing a magnet on his refrigerator that said "Happiness is having someone to love, something to do or something to look forward to." And we both just looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. Because that's pretty much the opposite of Mauritania. There's no one to love here, and if you happen to find someone that you might actually be able to have a meaningful relationship with you are so far away and so hampered by the situation that you can't realistically explore the possibility of something beyond sending text messages and seeing each other once every 2 months. You have nothing to do 98% of the time because it's just to damn hot and there is literally nothing to do here. While there are events or things that you can look forward too Mauritania has trained you like a dog that gets beat every time it reaches for a delicious beggin strip (I would actually eat a beggin strip in lieu of bacon right now!) not to raise expectations for anything good that might happen. Case in point, we have an amazing Administration here in our country that allows us certain travel and vacation privileges because they understand the difficulties of our lives. So, there are a few gatherings each year that allow us to go meet with those we might love in less depressing and more hygienic situations, allow us something to do and give us something to look forward too. Unfortunately the last two of these, the Atar Marathon and the upcoming Jazz Fest in St. Louis have been canceled... oh Mauritania!

I know my last post made me sound like a donkey screaming at evil spirits on a night of a full moon (which is a simile that makes perfect since if you live here)and with this one it might sound like another uninspired to head-bangingly bored and depressed blog, but the point of this little rant is the laughing.

Just reading my blogs it might sound like I'm an unhappy fellow, but nay, I am likely probably having the most fun here of any person in this country. And I'm glad to see that no matter what, even when facing the fact that I'm living in a situation which is the antithesis of happiness I can't help to do anything but laugh.

Hope whatever difficulties you're facing out there you are laughing those sons of bitches right into the ground like me. If not, give me a call and I'll make you feel better! Or at least it will give me something to do!

Promise now that I have internet I'll start blogging about all the happy things that happen here to me like my 30min walk to school every day where I'm accosted by children both ways who won't let me pass until I have greeted and talked with them in French, Pulaar and Hassaniya and for the smaller children who won't let me pass until I hold their hands for a bit of the walk, hug them or pick them up and carry them. The good times here are not so few, but they are fleeting and hard to keep in mind by the time I make it to the internet and the funny Allah laughing at me as he thwops me one on the noggin dwell a bit more on the mind. But I'll find time to fit them both now.