Transition

Hello to all!

Wow….what a month! Remember how I said you never know what is going to happen on any given day in Africa? Yeah. So I’m in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, having traveled the entire length of Cameroon, flown to Morocco and crossed the Sahara to get here.

The Transition Conference in Yaoundé (Cameroon) was pretty tough. Everyone was stressed out with the logistics of going home or traveling or whatever they’d chosen to do. We all knew it was our last week together and wanted to spend quality time, but we were all dealing with the mountains of paperwork and our own grief in different ways, so quality time wasn’t so high quality. Nelson (Peace Corps Chad Country Director) was finally able to come on Thursday and we all met him in the lobby of the hotel with hugs and tears. The man is a rock, a wall, a rock wall, but he cried as he updated us on the situation. It was very disconcerting and upsetting to see the great Nelson Cronyn cry.

After 4 days in a beautiful deluxe hotel in the hills overlooking lush Yaoundé, the goodbyes began: The first group to leave was those going straight home. The next day, a group of vols traveling left. Finally on Monday, it was our turn. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone and especially hard to have 3 round of goodbyes, but the funny thing is that I don’t feel like I said goodbye forever. I feel like our paths will cross again. Plus with the Peace Corps Chad Diaspora (I’m in Mauritania, 2 are in Benin, 1 in Mali, 1 in Morocco), we now have places to stay if we want to go traveling. In all, I feel so thankful to have been a part of Peace Corps Chad. I am so thankful to have known all the PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) and staff. Chad was a rough place, and looks like it’s just going to get rougher, but wouldn’t trade my time there for anything.

Greger (the other Chad PCV who transferred with me) and I flew out of Douala, Cameroon on Tuesday, April 25 at 2:05a.m. The Douala airport is not air-conditioned and a thunderstorm was brewing outside, so I received a quick reminder of what St. Louis feels like in August. We were pouring sweat and waiting in line to check in, when this woman a few people in front of us flipped out and started screaming at the check-in guy. Did airport security hustle up to cart away the woman? Did the clerk respond politely and calmly? No! He yelled right back at her and no one did a thing to break it up. It would have been entertaining if I hadn’t been wearing my heavy pack and drenched with sweat.

So, we left Cameroon at 2 something a.m. and arrived in Casablanca at 7:30 a.m., fully prepared to spend our entire 14-hour layover in the airport. But it turned out that Air Maroc puts its customers with layovers up in hotels! Not just any hotel, but a fabulous one right on the beach! We spend the morning strolling along the beach and contemplating how the hell we’d ended up in Casablanca. Then we came back to the hotel for a free lunch and a nap. In the afternoon, we took a cab into the old town and strolled around, occasionally stopping for mint tea or falafels.

Our flight left Casablanca at 11:30 p.m. The previous night’s lack of sleep had hit us by then and I was sleepy and crabby. I didn’t sleep a wink on the flight because I was wedged between Greger and a big businessman who hogged the armrest. We arrived in Nouakchott at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, having left Douala at 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Supposedly Nouakchott is surrounded by sand dunes but we couldn’t see them since it was dark.

We spent yesterday at the PC Bureau. It’s enormous. There are almost 90 PCV’s in country, making it more than 4 times larger than PC Chad. But all the staff has been extremely kind and welcoming. The Director, Obie, sat and chatted with us for about two hours, as if he had nothing else he’d rather be doing. He said that at Country Director Conferences, he, Nelson and the Mali CD are the trio that always goof around and get in trouble. I like him already. There are 3 other vols in town and they’ve been very hospitable. I’ve realized that a PCV is a PCV is a PCV, no matter where you are. One of the girls from the first Chad class, who was a great friend of Greger, and me extended for a 2nd year of service here in Mauritania. We’ll be in the same region as her! It makes a huge difference to have come with Greger and to have Lisa here.