Before my parents freak out...

It's amazing how fast news can spread these days.  I wanted to post to let everyone know that life here is proceeding as normal, despite the coup d'etat that took place today in Nouakchott: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7544834.stm.  I'm actually quite proud that Mauritania made headline news on BBC (and, despite this scary sounding article, the coup was non-violent)!  Suprisingly, my language facilitator was completely calm about the whole thing:  he kept getting cell phone calls throughout our class this morning, and then one of my classmates got a text from another volunteer about the travel suspension, so he reluctantly told us about the coup.  I wish I had had my camera to take pictures of our faces!  "Seriously?!," we cried.  "Don't worry though.  The coup was successful," he replied in French.  "Umm...that's a good thing?!," we responded, "Can you explain this in English?  Because we might not be understanding here."  From what I know, the former democratically-elected president was overthrown, and the military is in charge again.  I have no idea what this will mean for the country.  My language facilitator wouldn't speculate, so I'm not going to do the same.  All in all, it sounds a lot scarier than it is, and we've gone over Peace Corps' safety and security measures, and I have faith that they place our safety above anything.

In other news, I got my second mail delivery yesterday:  a card from Grandmom (with photos from the Donnalley beach trip) and one from my mom!  Yippee!  Mail makes me so happy now; thank you for that.

Other things that make me happy:  what I had for lunch today.  My language classmates and I decided to skip out on lunch at our host families' houses and treat ourselves to a restaurant meal.  We had hamburgers:  goatmeat patty, fried egg, french fries, onion?, ketchup, and mayonnaise on a huge bun.  These are the only kind of burgers available in Rosso, and they are absolutely delicious!  I would never have eaten one of these in the States, but after almost 2 months of rice and fish, I was dying for a burger.  To top it all off, I had a DIET Coke (diet drinks are hard to find here -- sugar is quite popular) and a Mars bar for dessert (straight from the fridge!).  I hope my enthusiasm comes through in my writing!

Okay, I'm signing off now because obviously I don't have much to talk about if I'm discussing my lunch -- except for the coup, I guess.  I wanted to let you all know that I appreciate your concern, and that we're all doing well.