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.
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