Back to work

Thanks to everyone for the congratulatory words and emails in regards to our GMC (girls' mentoring center) opening.  I was just telling John that I think we both need to take a step back sometime in order to see the full extent of our work here; opening the GMC didn't feel like a big deal (probably because we were both stressed out about it and because it didn't go exactly how he or I envisioned it), but it is the culmination of 6 months' work here.

After we opened the center and had our first adult English class, we both left for a few days in Selibaby and a double birthday party.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but all volunteers talk about "hitting their limit" at sight.  I usually know that I'm about there when I start having urges to throw rocks at kids, hit creepy men in the face, or laugh at pretty much everything.  Then I know it's time for some American time in a regional capital.  It's refreshing to hang out with other Americans, cook for ourselves, and waste entire days watching movies in front of a fan.

On Sunday, John and I travelled back to M'Bout, and yesterday, we had our first GMC meeting for the girls.  We've split the girls into 2 groups:  first- and second-year middle schoolers and third- and fourth-year middle schoolers.  This works a lot better since our space is small, and we're planning on just teaching the same thing two afternoons in a row, which isn't really that much more work for us.  Yesterday, we went over the center rules and had the girls decorate index cards with their names, school years, and birth dates.  I'm hoping to do a lot more art activities with them because art is not taught in the schools here, and most of them have had very few opportunities to do something creative.  We'll begin our computer lessons on Saturday, which I think the girls are really looking forward to as well.

I think that's about it for now.  I know that a lot of you in the States are still very much in winter mode, but the hot season is coming upon us fast here.  Midday is scorching (I think it was 105 the other day), but it's still cooling down at night.  I'm dreading the time when I wake up sweating in the morning.  Think about that when you're shoveling snow!

And the GMC is open!

First of all, I think this is my first blog post from M'Bout!  About a month ago, John and I got the internet set up, and it's running pretty well now.  The service was donated to the girls mentoring center (GMC) by the provider, and we receive a set amount of credit each month automatically.  It's really pretty cool.

And now for the big news...(dun, dun, dun)...we have officially opened our GMC!  After six months of hounding the mayor for a space, a funding proposal for materials, an essay contest to choose the girls, and an afternoon of putting everything together, we had an opening ceremony / open house last Sunday, March 8, which happened to be International Women's Day.  We invited all 40+ middle-school girls, their parents, the mayor, school directors, teachers, and local NGO workers to come see the center, drink tea and zrig (a milk drink), and ask us questions about upcoming events.  It was hectic and crazy -- the 50 gallons of water that we bought that morning were all contaminated with gasoline, so John and I ran around town looking for some more water for about an hour -- but I think, everything considered, it went pretty well.  We probably had about 50 or 60 people come, but we had planned for 150, so we were both a little disappointed about that.  Not all of the girls came because there was a soccer game that same evening at the school, and even though we invited all of the girls' parents to come, we only got one dad.  I thought that parents would want to know where their girls were going after school, which is why we invited them, but most adults tend to stay home here and I realized afterward that I've never seen an inter-generational party here.  We have them in the States all the time -- family get-togethers with parents, grandparents, and kids -- but I think that this is a strange concept for Mauritanians.  Plus, the one father who came (a retired teacher) told me that most parents just aren't that invested in their daughter's education.  Sad, and probably true.  Still, it feels good to have things up and running and to have some structure to my time now, with lessons about 5 afternoons a week.

Speaking of lessons, John and I taught our first adult English course last night.  It went fairly well, but also made me realize that speaking a language and teaching a language are two completely different things.  Most of the students are just excited about the chance to speak English with a native speaker, so that's encouraging.  I'm going to try and get some ideas from other volunteers when I go to Selibaby this weekend.

Take care, and I'll write again soon!