2004-07-25 - 7:23 p.m.

I am back online after quite some time away from this journal... thank you for your emails/guestbook messages: I loved reading every single one of them!!!

I got my first package: thank you Karen!!! :-) And know there are more on the way... love it!

People have been asking me what I want/need... I think what makes me really happy is hearing from you and being kept updated with your lives: everything else is a bonus!!! (some ideas: meat jerky, newspaper articles, protein supplements and vitamins, breakfast/energy bars, "just add water" soups, gatorade or crystal light powder, photographs, drawings, magazines, books from my amazon wishlist... letters, letters, letters!!!!!) :-)

I still have no idea as to where my "site" will be after training, but I will probably be told in about ten days or so. All I know is that it will most likely be away from the Senegal River (which is where I am now) because I am getting trained in Hassiniya and not in the so-called "river languages" (Puular, Wolof, Soninke).

Speaking about language, I am now somewhat able to pick up a few words here and there when local people are having conversations with each other: hurray!!!!!!!!! :-)

We are all taking a few days off from our family environment and from our language classes as we are all back at the Lycee (the training center) for a series of classes ranging from Cross-Culture to Health and Safety, to Business Consulting in the RIM (Republique Islamique de Mauritanie)...

I have been struggling a little in the past week or so with certain cultural differences and adapting to them and/or coping with them. Differences dealing mainly with gender roles, the view and expectations of women on the part of men, the "hidden" laws and norms regarding interaction between the two genders, the view of relationships/love/ marriage, etc. A struggle that has been escalating particularly due to a certain family member who is very keen on wanting to pursue me regardless of my invented "5-yr long relationship with a man in America"... I am hoping to get some useful advice and insight from Peace Corps staff while at the training center these days!

It's still very warm but since the rainy season started, there are a few really cool days with thunderstorms and "yasir min is_hab" (lots of rain - in hassiniya)... which means that the "namuus" (mosquitoes) have also started to become quite abundant!!

Well... tomorrow will be Malaria Monday number 4: it will have been a whole month in Mauritania at the end of this week!!!! (big cheesy smile)My family is starting to ask me when I will starting making them the famous mint tea... I think that will be my goal for the week: master the art of making tea for my family and their many guests!! :-) INSHALLAH (God willing)!!!!

Love to all and a tight hug,

Jordy

P.S. I weighed myself today and it looks like I lost 13 pounds since the day I landed in Nouakchott... but Mashallah (thanks be to God)I have not been sick yet, unlike other volunteers so far...

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