Kulturschock

25 Juilliet 2006

NOTES

A few cultural notes today.

--The mosque is the most hooked-up place in town, in every town in
fact, and has battery powered electricity at night, large gatherings
of men at varying hours, and is ten times more beautiful than any
other 'building' in town. In fact, it is beautiful.

--Everyone drinks everything out of little plastic bags, which are
tied at the top and bitten at one corner to suck out of. They are the
equivalent of plastic or paper cups in the US. They sell oil in them.
They sell water in them. They sell juice, and at the lycee, one of the
cooks sold frozen peach yogurts out of a bucket- 1 plastic bag of
goodness for 100 ougiyas.

All the children here have rhythm that American Symphonic
percussionists would kill for. An overturned plastic drum and their
hands and feet are enough to create impromptu concerts, yet they're
unable to master a simple patty-cake. What gives?

They have different words to mean 'shoo' depending on the animal being
'shooed'. Chickens are 'kss, kss', goats are 'tkk,tkk', and donkeys
are 'errr! errr!'. It's unreal.

Everyone here does a back-of-the-throat tounge click to signify an
affirmative answer (yes, right, okay, etc), and its counterpart, the
tooth-sucking 'No' sound. I love them, and because I think they are
slightly stigmatized as 'provincial', hearing some of the more
educated people (our teachers) slip them in once in a while is
adorable. These aren't the clicks like the language of the Bushmen,
nor is it part of their language in this way. It's like a head nod.
I've been practicing.

Everyone has to take their shoes off to walk on the mats which they
place on the ground for eating and sleeping. However, if you haven't
been wearing shoes and the bottoms of your feet have trodden all over
the shit filled ground, you're golden; you can go from one to the
other with no trouble.

Everyone EVERYWHERE drinks tea all the time. My family, at least, buys
it daily in little tiny packets from the boutique, and though larger
amounts would obviously be more economical, it isn't available. It is
made in little tiny pots and poured in little tiny glasses, from which
it is poured, one to the other from great heights, to cool it and make
foam.

There is sand in all the food.

All the food, besides bread and peanuts, is fried to within an inch of
its life.

Mauritanians go crazy for having their picture taken, and don't smile.
They make stupid poses. It is impossible to get candid shots.

They don't understand the concept of personal property, and will
borrow your things without asking.

Men hold hands with men and women with women. They lie on mattelas
together, and sit very close and stroke each others' hands and arms. It
has no sexual connotation and signifies close friendship and
brotherhood.

They talk very very fast all day long. My family repeats a lot of
things in the course of one sentence.

No one saves anything. My family can fit their belongings in a net
attached below the roof of their house. One does not acquire money
with age, and the only social insurance is an abundance of children.
Even the rich can be poor if their families are big enough to suck
them dry.

They are sufficiently content to pass the time staring at me, no
matter what I'm doing.