jay's realizes his dream.
-after forty-two years, Jay completed an eleventh month process, and became a Peace Corps volunteer -Mauritania is an Islamic Republic; Jay received his offer about a year after 9/11, at perhaps the height of American media-inspired fear of Muslims -his inner voice told him: Go. You will teach what you need to teach, and you will learn what you need to learn -he was glad and grateful he went -a 180-degree different culture; his gray hair was a bonus -he was to write an English textbook and had three secondary assignments -Mauritania is about the size of Texas and New Mexico put together, almost all of it Sahara Desert -the Sahel as the shore and the desert as the ocean -he lived in Mauritania's capital, Nouakchott; four major ethnic groups -even if married, a man and a woman should never be seen holding hands walking down a street but two people of the same gender (including soldiers!) could; sense of time was extremely loose; his work on a book unrecognized; the people in large part believed that their lives were out of their hands, in those of Allah's; a visitor stopping by during mealtime would be expected to eat; focus is being together, not doing together -Chinguetti, a medieval trading center -a cultural manual for arrivées (newcomers) -Jay was well taken care of, receiving incredible generosity and graciousness 1 hour 3 minutes 01-08-21 debug comment |