Welcome to Mauritania

Well it has been a long time since I wrote anything on this blog, but I figured an update is always nice no matter how late it may be.
I'll start off with a quick summary of what I have been up to since my last update. I left Burkina Faso at the end of April to return to Canada and finish my degree at the University of Waterloo. I was home for about a month then went off to Camp Ouareau in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. I worked there over the summer then came back home to Guelph for a few weeks again before returning to Africa. I am now in Mauritania doing an internship with World Vision.
In many ways the country of Mauritania is very different from Burkina Faso or Senegal. It has a similar climate to Burkina (hot and dry) and even dryer in most parts, but the people and the lifestyle is very different.

• To start with, Mauritania is an Islamic Republic. This means that the population is officially 100% Muslim.
• French used to be the official language in Mauritania, but it is now Arabic. Schools are taught in Arabic and the government officially works in Arabic, but much of the international business is conducted in French (NGOs, International affairs, International Governments). There are also a number of local languages including Wolof, Pulaar, Soninké, and others.
• Mauritania finds itself in the gap between North Africa and West Africa. In the south of the country there are many black African people as it borders on Senegal, but in the north you have mostly Arabic people. Slavery is still very recent history and as a result there is still a fair bit of racism.
• One thing that I appreciate a lot about Nouakchott is that you are able to walk the streets in peace. You don't have to constantly be shielding questions about where you are from and being offered things to buy. People are still very friendly and it is always polite to greet people as you pass, but they will not ask you for candy or your phone number as you get so often in Burkina.
• The tea in Mauritania is the best in West Africa (in my opinion at least). You still are often offered the typical 3 small cups of strong green tea with plenty of sugar and foam on top, but in Mauritania they add mint which is delicious!
• As I was told by a friend, Mauritanians are desert people. They love the desert and at nights you see families eating their dinners on the sand dunes right next to the city. Rain is a necessity for the agriculture in the country, but you don't find many people that are happy about the rain while it is falling.

Mauritania is a beautiful country with very friendly people. I am looking forward to my adventures this coming year and will try to give some updates along the way...

A funny story for you

The other night, after supper, I got stuck in the bathroom. I unlocked the door as usual and turned the door handle, but immediately knew something was not right when I heard a click instead of the door opening smoothly. The few of you who have used the bathroom in my house will know that the light in the bathroom doesn’t work. It hasn’t ever worked for us and we have never looked into getting it fixed. We keep a big flashlight on the shelf just outside the bathroom to bring in if you want light, but I gave up that habit sometime in October and at night I don’t mind the dark.

Anyways, I found myself pulling and tugging at the door which wouldn’t budge. As the door was back-lit I could see exactly what was holding the door shut: basically a metal bar coming out of the door and going into the frame which was not moving. Luckily Jeannette was home and heard my banging around. The two of us worked on the door for about five minutes before she called Kevin for his ‘technical skills’. The two of them worked at it for another half hour or so, taking off the door handle, trying to figure out the hinges, and even trying to force the door open with brute force. Finally we decided that we needed to call the guard to get me out.

Meanwhile, I had just been about to take a shower so all I was wearing was a towel. Luckily the crack of the door was just big enough to allow my sarong to pass through and make me a bit more presentable. Once the guard came and tried the door himself, he called a locksmith. Kevin read me a story from the other side of the door while we waited for the locksmith to come with his tools. After cutting apart the lock and trying to cut the piece holding the door shut, the locksmith basically gave up on taking apart the door handle and went the route of force. The wood of the door finally gave way after he slammed into the door with his shoulder a number of times.

Luckily I am not claustrophobic and found it more of a funny experience than a nerve-wracking one, but I am quickly losing confidence in the locks and door handles here in Burkina!

Across Africa

I know that it has been ages since I wrote on this blog. I apologize and I promise I have a good reason, but that can wait. As I said before, I have biweekly assignments that I am writing as part of my mark so here is my first one of this semester to keep you occupied while I get back in the rhythm of writing.

From Canada, people often group the many different countries in the continent of Africa under the single banner of ‘Africa’. Imagine grouping together all the European countries with their various ethnic groups and naming them ‘France’. Then think about how many ethnic groups comprise Europe and multiply this number by fifty or even one hundred. Africa is comprised of thousands of different ethnic groups. For example, there are approximately sixty languages spoken in Burkina Faso and at least as many different tribes. If you move to any of the neighbouring countries, you will find a completely different composition of ethnicities. There may be some overlap of ethnic groups like the Mossi people of northern Burkina due to the arbitrary placement of country borders in colonial times. Nevertheless, there are still major differences in cultures, languages, histories, and traditions moving from one country to the next. And people in Canada are rarely able to even distinguish between countries.

Over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays I traveled to Senegal with my family. While there were many similarities to Burkina, I was continually struck by the differences. The same sentiment was expressed by Kevin and Jeannette on their return from Botswana and Ghana respectively. In Burkina motorbikes outnumber cars by a ratio of at least ten-to-one while in Senegal, Botswana, and Ghana there were very few motorbikes to be seen. ‘Fast food’ was another anomaly for each of us during our travels. Language was another difference that I observed in Senegal. While the majority of people living in Burkina’s cities are relatively fluent in France, communication with market vendors and taxi drivers in Dakar is a challenge without a working knowledge of Wolof, the local language.

In my opinion, one of the biggest contributors to these differences is the varying levels of Western influence that has been present in each of these countries. Burkina is a landlocked country with few natural resources and tourist attractions. Senegal and Ghana on the other hand contain fairly major ports which have been used for hundreds of years by different European countries. They are also major tourist destinations for European travelers as they are relatively easy to access and inexpensive. Botswana also draws foreign tourists and money with its game parks and the Okavango delta. As Western tourists infiltrated the society of these countries they began to offer more of the comforts and ideals that the tourists desired such as fast food restaurants, luxury hotels, and larger vehicles. The Western influence can still be observed in Burkina Faso, but it has permeated the society to a lesser extent.

When I tell Burkinabé people that I am Canadian, their following question is not to determine where Canada is or if it is a part of the United States, but rather in what region of Canada I live. When I tell Canadian people that I am in Burkina Faso, often their first question is instead “where is that?” Whether or not we have visited a specific African country, we have still been influential in the changes it has experienced over time. With the amount of influence that we have had in these countries, the least we can do is respect their differences. In a world that is becoming more globalized and better connected every day, distinguishing between our global neighbours is important and arguably essential.