2006-03-03 - 10:38 a.m.

March 3, 2006

Back in Magta Lahjar again and for some odd reason extremely busy with several different projects at a time… which isn’t the easiest thing given the limited resources including really weak communication systems!!! I’ve definitely managed to fill up the next couple of months with plenty of work!!!!

I just came back from Kiffa where we had our regional Mentors’ Conference for the GMCs in Aioun, Kiffa, Tidjikja and Magta Lahjar. We used lesson plans developed by the volunteers in Tidjikja and I helped facilitating them as the interpreter of the group. Each center brought a few mentors (local women working in the GMCs) and the seminar revolved around their role as mentors, the different ways they can contribute to the smooth running of the center, how they can plan and organize lesson plans, how to present these lessons, the basic principles of adult learning, etc. It was a group of very caring and involved women, who really got into the sessions especially when issues about sustainability came up: how can we make sure these centers are sustainable in the long run?

This is a question Limnaye and I have been butting heads on lately, as she feels no one else in the community of Magta Lahjar can ever work as a volunteer apart from her… while my view on it is that she can start recruiting people and forming them, teaching them the ropes, so that one day they will be able to help her run the center without a Peace Corps Volunteer and by then, Inshallah, the government will have put in place a structured form to financially sustain these centers (which would automatically include some form of payment for the center mentors and managers)… so if she and someone else are expected to work as volunteers now, they will not continue to be working without payment forever, but will soon be rewarded for their efforts as a deal with the government seems to be closer now than ever… Inshallah!!! I think it was useful for Limnaye to see that there are indeed other volunteer mentors in this country… she’s not the only saint around! :-p

Speaking of Limnaye, she has been getting busier and busier teaching computer classes to paying clients out of center hours: another experiment for the center’s sustainability… we wanted to see if we could generate our own income by offering classes for a fee to women who did not qualify to participate in all of the center’s activities for free. She’s also been extremely helpful, as usual, with my other projects and the frequent visits from Peace Corps officials who are busy evaluating future sites for the upcoming class of volunteers. It seems like they will not only try to replace me in September, but will also most likely increase Peace Corps presence in Magta Lahjar by adding a couple of volunteers from other sectors (i.e. possibly Agro-forestry and Education). It will be good to know that my efforts will continued for another couple of years at least, pushing this quite conservative community to open up even more and learn to appreciate people from backgrounds different than their own… as well as to teach them how to take their own economic and educational development in their own hands!

As I mentioned earlier, I have several different projects going on right now.

I have the weekly Girls Mentoring Center with its guest speakers, lesson planning, exchange programs with other centers, etc. (and all the supply purchasing, bookkeeping, phone calls, visits and meetings involved with it – including coordinating plans with Limnaye for the weekends I will be out of site).

I am collaborating with a group of Columbia University students from the School of International and Public Affairs on a consulting project on girls’ education policy in Mauritania. I’ve been in regular contact with my counterpart, focusing on cultural analysis, administering surveys to girl students and their parents, and will be traveling to Nouakchott next week to meet with the Columbia team for two weeks and assist them in various meetings with ministries representatives, religious and community leaders, students/parents focus groups, etc.

I am also busy evaluating the school-bus program that I helped establish in Magta Lahjar… with several meetings and interviews.

I am organizing a moringa/nutrition training at three different sites in the Magta Lahjar area (I will write more about moringa in a later entry Inshallah!), as well as finalizing plans for two ten-day sewing trainings with local women cooperatives, as well as another tie-dyeing training focused on screen and wax printing… then there is COS Conference (Close Of Service) and my mom and sister’s visit to Mauritania!!! So much going on for March and April, while time is slipping by so quickly!!!!

I must run to FLM (the World Lutheran Foundation office where I manage to get access to Internet every now and then) to get this uploaded and do some more work on email before getting ready for today’s Girls Mentoring Center session, which will be a two-part session. First our weekly geography lesson, focusing today on neighboring Senegal, and then an open discussion on girls education in Mauritania (to get more insight for the Columbia project)… and then I’ll be busy getting ready to receive tomorrow’s guest speaker coming in from Nouakchott!

Much love and best regards to all!!!

Jordy

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