A day with Moctar Ould Da

Two Mauritanian facilitators and Friends
My room back at Mbalal. My matela, mosquito net, suitcase and water filter

GEE Group at Mbalal. The person laying down is Rajel my facilitator
This is how you eat at Mauritania

So far, all the things that I’ve posted on my blog have been random thoughts about my experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania. The Mauritanian culture, my goals, the GEE program, language lessons and site visit have been themes that have dominated most of my blog. I have not, however, written about how does a normal day in my life look like. What is my schedule? What do I do? Where do I live? At what time and what do I eat? Do I do some sports?. So therefore, the purpose of this post is to answer these simple and basic questions. Hope you like it.

Like all you know, I’m in the first phase of the Peace Corps process called Stage. The purpose of this phase is to introduce the local culture and language to the trainees so they can prepare themselves for the next two years of their service. So right now, I find myself in a small, but beautiful town called Mbalal, where there is no electricity or running water. I’m with three other PC trainees (Amanda Dillon, Amanda Butcher and Eric Bell) and my language facilitator called Rajel, who also teaches philosophy in a High School in a city called Kaedi. I live with a big and awesome family where Im having a great time. I have 6 brothers and 7 sisters. So Im pretty busy all day.

So after giving you this petit intro, I will describe a normal day in the life of Pablo Solorio or in my Mauritanian name Moktar Ould Da at Mbalal.

I wake up at 7:00 am everyday and take my breakfast which is usually peanuts, bread and porridge (ATOLE). After that, I leave to my school or Madrassa where my language class starts at 8:00am and ends at 12:30pm. During class we discuss Mauritanian culture, of course learn language and joke a lot. After that I usually go back to my family’s Khaima (like tent) and practice my super Hassaniya skills with them. At 2:00 pm I usually eat Marrow wu Il Hutt, or Rice and Fish from a communal bowl where everyone eats at the same time with their right hand (using your left is a offense because usually that’s the hand you use to wipe your you know what with lol). After that I rest a little and read some books and wait to back to language classes at 4:00pm.

After class is over at 7:00pm, the other trainees and I usually go for a walk to the date garden and the soccer field where we see the locals play soccer. Once we head back to our houses, I take my usual bucket bath and take dinner with my family, which usually it is spaghetti with meat. After that I go back to my room and get my well deserved naptime. OH I FORGOT. Tea is the national drink in Mauritania, Drinking tea with a family shows that you respect their culture and is a sign of friendship. I brought this up because Im easily drinkinf 10 cups of tea daily. Sounds crazy but its true.

Any questions on my blog, please feel free to ask. Masselem