2005-03-13 - 11:18 a.m.

Journal excerpt dated March 12, 2005 (third entry posted today!):

I manage to hit my six-month anniversary at site (pheew! I survived!) and it seems that this “six-month mark” is coinciding with two personal battles:

• The first one against a colony of parasites who doesn’t seem to want to leave my system despite the long and aggressive treatment I just finished undergoing (the amoebas I talked about in my late December entry are still relentlessly bothering me!!!)
• The second one aimed at overcoming the infamous “six-month crisis” that most volunteers go through as part of the bell-shaped culture shock experience…

Are the two battles connected in any way? I can definitely see a few links between my recent wave of frustrated, fatigued, de-motivated, mood-swinging, range of feelings, thoughts, and actions and the emotional and physical effects of not having control over some of my most basic bodily functions… eh! Being a Peace Corps volunteer definitely does force you to develop a healthy dose of self-humor!

So as I try to get a grip of my Mauritanian life again… I threw myself on a mission of home and life improvement!

I finally decided not to spare the joyful life of the chirpy little mouse I was sharing my home with and called my landlord into action. He helped me get rid of the sand dunes the mouse had managed to transfer into my house through the ever-growing hole in my floor and placed thick cement slabs over it… and the many little holes spread around the perimeter walls of my house. Ghali, my landlord, also gave me “rat-icide” to mix with food the mouse might enjoy nibbling on… I’m still not quite comfortable with the idea of killing any creature larger than a mosquito and having to deal with its dead body, so I might spare the mouse from this unhappy end, if I notice that the cement measure is effective enough in keeping it away!

I’m on a desperate search for ideas on how to “beat” the flies that are infesting my home, along with the rest of the country… any ideas????? They seem to be getting worse every day as the heat increases with the hot season approaching….

I seem to have started to become a little bit compulsive with my “multiple times a day” foot scrubbing (to try to get rid of the dusty sand hue on my feet), anti-bacterial hand gel usage (quickly running out of my US-purchased supplies!!), teeth-brushing (to counteract the sweet mint tea staining and cavity-forming effects!), head-to-toe bucket baths (to counteract the sweating process)… it’s starting to get really hot here!

I recently bought a new bottle of Eau de Javel (read “bleach”) and started to generously pour it in and wiping it over all of my water containers and cooking utensils, regardless of their intended uses… a measure I admittedly started slacking on once I realized I wasn’t getting sick from the local water and community-prepared beverages and food… eh! Yeah, right! That reality didn’t last long… as my amoebas bear witness!

And so I am starting over with the daily refusing of the “welcome zrig” beverage made with fresh (not pasteurized) goat’s milk, (non-filtered and non-bleached) water, and sugar, eliminating the “mburu sauce” from my diet (bread dipped in barbecued meat grease… and animal hair, sand, and unknown particles!), and eating the less possible amount of locally-prepared foods and cooking more often for myself… scared of the infamous “fecal-oral” contamination process!

Yes, I finally have realized (thanks to my amoebas) that I am not invincible and that I must pose some limits to my “cultural integration efforts”! I am hoping that taking care of my hygiene, health, home environment and diet a little more closely, and forcing myself to get out for walks everyday despite the unbearable heat, making the conscious effort to interact with the local community despite the frustrating language and cultural barriers, thinking less about “what I miss” and more about “what I have gained through my experience here” and being patient with the extremely slow rhythm of my work, might help me get over my six-month crisis… Inshallah! A few road trips visiting fellow volunteers at other sites might also be a good action plan component! ;-p

I really would like to plan my next vacation though… so if any of you reading are planning to visit Mauritania and/or the surrounding area (including Europe) and/or are inviting me (all-expenses paid) to wherever in the world you are (hihihihi…) in the next six months, shoot me an email: I am desperate to finalize plans!! ;-p

No, really… apart from all my self-humoristic venting, it really isn’t that bad here and I will eventually win my two battles… DEATH TO AMOEBAS!!!! LIFE TO POSITIVE THINKING!!!!!

A smile and a hug… with love,

Jordy

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