Ah, what a week. I guess I should begin with the major world event, though I�m tempted to go chronologically and talk about me first. But� I�ll start with the coup. It�s kind of important.
We�d been told by current PC volunteers and staff to expect a coup attempt or two during our service; it�s a pretty normal thing here. This is the first one, however, that�s succeeded since Maaouiya took over in 1984. We got word of it Wednesday morning and class was disrupted a little as my language facilitator�s family lives in Nouakchott where things were going down. Not knowing French or Hassaniya well, I wasn�t able to get much info from the radio or my family. By the end of the day, what I�d pieced together from fifth- and sixth-hand sources was that this was, in fact, not just a coup attempt, but a successful one, and that the president was no longer. He was in Niger and the head of the police force, a former military officer, was now in charge. His group is the Party for Justice and Democracy or something like that (sorry, I�m getting most of my news in French) and they�ve promised to hold free elections in two years. This remains to be seen�
I�m a little frustrated this happened now because I�m not able to talk with people to really get a sense of how they feel about it. My family is not entirely happy, but they seem to have accepted it. In general, I think people are hoping for the best but expecting the status quo (or hoping for the status quo and expecting the worst, but people seem relatively positive). I�ve heard that some people feel the former president did a lot to improve infrastructure in Mauritania, like bringing water and electricity, and they�re not sure what this guy plans to do for them and don�t see why they needed a change. But, as GW likes to point out, most everyone likes the idea of democracy, and I think that�d be a welcome development here. And, yes, Mauritania has held �democratic� elections since 1991, but� let�s be honest. When there�s only one guy on the ballot, he usually wins. It�s really interesting to me to see the state-run media quickly change from talking about one leader to another. The government radio and TV stations were off for a little while Wednesday, but by Thursday, the news was back on, with the same newscasters and a different leader to report to and on. I found it funny that, as they ran the pics of Vall, the new guy, with foreign leaders, each time they showed a new one, they said his name and his title as the leader of the party for justice and democracy. It was kind of like watching Bush make a speech about Iraq�they used the phrase �justice and democracy� at least two dozen times in the two-minute piece.
We�ll see what kind of changes Vall ushers in. He�s met with a number of dignitaries from other nations (those who haven�t condemned the coup, that is, like China and, I think, Belarus). The president of Senegal had a photo op with him, though, which was a little surprising. He also met with the ambassador to Israel, which is significant. Mauritania is one of the few Islamic nations that has a diplomatic relationship with Israel, and it was one of the things many thought might change. I heard that Bush officially condemned the coup, but the American ambassador met with Vall, so I think that�s a good sign for our relationship.
As far as we know, the Peace Corps will not be affected by this. Vall has said that all diplomatic relationships and agreements will remain the same, and that he wants non-governmental organizations to stay. All the action took place in Nouakchott, which is a good 5-6 hours away, and was over quickly and pretty peacefully. The PC has asked us to limit our movement, however, so we�ve only been allowed to be in class and at home for the past several days. They kept saying there were probably going to be rallies and, supposedly, there actually was one today, but, apart from there not being fish in the market, I haven�t seen anything out of the ordinary. People here are generally supportive of the PC and appreciative of the work we do, and are typically friendly toward the States, so both the volunteers and the program should be perfectly safe.
I�m rather excited about this development and hope that it does bring a new concept of democracy to Mauritania. It will be quite interesting to see what that looks like here. The country is made up of several very different ethnic groups, all linked by their common faith, and coming up with a representative government may be a challenge. As a PC volunteer, we�re not allowed to get involved in politics, which will be difficult for me if they�re organizing voter registration campaigns and such while I�m here. But we�ll see if/when that happens. My cynical side is dubious, and I can�t help but wonder whether Vall wouldn�t just like to get his hands on the new oil money that will start flowing into the country very shortly.
In other news� we went back to the lycee last week and I know I gained back some of the weight I�d lost; we ate well. I was a little under the weather on Sunday with the general gastro-intestinal malady that I�m sure we�ll all become accustomed to here. I�m developing a fondness for oral rehydration salts. They didn�t thrill me at first, but when I realized that I was looking at a Nalgene bottle full of stuff that was good for me that I needed to get down quickly, and thought of all the times I�ve chugged glasses full of things that were not so good for me that I certainly didn�t need to be drinking, it got a little bit easier to force it down. That illness seemed to pass relatively quickly and, with the help of a lot of Pepto tablets, I was able to go on our outing to Lexeiba to finish our soak pit (more on that later, and pics if I can ever get them uploaded). The really interesting stuff started on Wednesday� I got this sharp pain in my side during class and tried to eat lunch, but that made it worse. Thinking this had something to do with the illness of the previous few days, I decided just to suck it up for a while and see if it�d go away. You know the phrase �writhing in pain�? It seems so colorful and descriptive and, well, painful. But what does it mean, to writhe? Have you ever really thought about what that looks like? Well, I no longer have to imagine it: I was definitely doing it on Wednesday night, and counting the hours until I could get to the infirmary and find something to make the pain go away. I fell into a fitful sleep around 1:30, ilhamdulillah, and talked to the nurse in the morning. Sadly, she had no idea what was wrong with me and told me just to take ibuprofen. It helped, though I kind of had to OD on it, and I�m feeling much better now. An interesting note: I saw another trainee today who described the exact same pain, so I�m a little less apt to write this off as a simple muscular anomaly. I�m just glad my appendix didn�t burst because I couldn�t have traveled to Nouakchott for emergency surgery the day after the coup. (Don�t worry, they would�ve come up with plan B, which would probably have been to go to Senegal, which is actually a lot closer.)
Some happy news on the homefront: the sister that I thought was pregnant was, and had her baby on Friday. They came home yesterday (she did give birth in a medical facility, which makes me very happy) and both are reportedly healthy. The tradition here is not to name a baby until the baptism, 7 days after the birth, so the little girl doesn�t have a name yet� though they keep telling me and all my friends that her name is Liz, which freaks me out. They laugh whenever they say this, though, so I�m hoping that that�s just a temporary joke until she�s given her real name next week. I�m very excited that I get to be part of the festivities and that I�ll be able to see how a newborn is treated during her first few weeks of life. I am, of course, particularly interested in the post-natal care she and my sister receive, both at the maternity center and at home.
Other notes: a goat ate my headphones. I think I have some others in storage here. We�ll see if I can locate them next time we go to the lycee. And that will be in a week, mashallah. On the 16th, we find out our permanent site placements and leave for a visit. We are all very excited, of course, and anxious to find out where we�ll be living and who we�ll be living and working near for the next two years. This will be a good opportunity to see our future community, meet some people there, and meet the current volunteers in our region. It will also be good to see who else will be around and start thinking about what projects we might work on together, and what kinds of projects our communities might need. And it�ll be great to finally know� this has been a long time coming.
Because our movement�s been restricted to class and home, I haven�t been at the cybercaf� for a week now and it�s starting to drive me batty. The best part is that I think we�re going to be able to move about freely tomorrow, but rumor has it (and you�d better believe the PC trainees have their rumors about the cybercaf� straight) that their router is broken. They�ve actually enlisted one of our tech-types to help fix it, but who knows when that may happen? So this posting will stay on my flash drive until they can get the internet working again, and I will be frustrated until then. But it�s probably good to start preparing for when I get placed in the middle of nowhere.
Ah� it sounds like a sandstorm�s kicking up. I�ve got to get my friend�s computer back to him tonight, so I�d best head out. These things come up quickly and are not fun to be caught in.