Contact information
Name: Ginger Tissier (Peace Corps worker in Mauritania)
Email: gtissier@gmail.com
Skype name: tcaspice

Ginger's boss skype id: malijamaica

3/21/09 Meeting minutes Skype meeting with Ginger

General Information

US DoT Info

Mauritania

Mauritania

Picture of Bababe

Details about working in Mauritania

Living Situation

Team members would be welcome in most cases to stay with volunteers or host families if they are interested. Otherwise it is possible to rent rooms in homes or compounds for a reasonable rate; in rural locations, typically no more than 5,000 ouguiya/month (or UM) = ~$20/month (260UM ~ $1); in more urban settings, a room can cost up to 20,000UM/month = ~$80/month. If you choose to rent for the month, you will need to consider putting bars on windows and buying padlocks to reduce the potential for theft. Amenities depend on the site, many volunteers in rural areas live without electricity or running water.

Travel

Most people travel in public transportation, which is essentially a shared taxi. Rates depend on the distance for travel. To certain sites along the paved road, buses are an option.

Storage and transportation of the laptops

It is easy to rent a space for temporary storage in the capital city.  Transportation can be done by a privately hired vehicle.

Language

More educated Mauritanians can communicate in French, but most often volunteers work using a local language (Hassaniya - a dialect of Arabic; Halpulaar, Soninké, or Wolof) in both rural and city environments.  English is taught beginning in secondary schools. Most GMCs operate in a local language; Volunteers and mentors provide opportunities to improve French and learn English in class.  Depending on the level of education in the community, mentors may be able to communicate in French.

Working with Students in Mauritania

Students in Mauritania, especially those in rural areas, are often older than what we would expect coming from the US. Students have various reasons to be kept from school; most importantly they are expected to help provide household income, which can interfere with school time.

Working with Communities/ Locals in Mauritania

• Look at the distribution of the centers on Google Earth file.
• Would be possible to utilize 2 or 3 center within one region to keep it from being too spread out (I'm thinking between Kaedi and Bogue especially).
• Mauritania is difficult in this respect. The country is one of the least developed in the world and as such most of the country is considered "rural" and most populations are fairly dispersed.
• Sending 100 laptops to one village over another, frankly seems completely unfair and would not be a good way to distribute such a great resource in a country as poor as this one.
• There are a lot of problems in entrusting such endeavors to local agencies (schools included) due to a high rate of bribes, selling materials, etc.).
• With these mentoring centers, it is really a fabulous way to get ideas "into" the country (test the waters to see how it's received). Once it's in the mix... the local community picks up on it and there is a lot of potential to expand, trying to get something for the local schools at a later date.

Internet in Mauritania

Currently all GMCs have access to internet via a USBinternet cartridge and monthly service that we have acquired through a local telecommunications agency (even in the most remote of sites!). For you to work with this, it would be as simple as purchasing the cartridge (we could help you with this very easily).

Types of GMCs in Mauritania

1. The majority serve high school age girls.
2. In rural locations there is often no high school, so the GMC works with girls of middle school age.
3. Last year, volunteers began to work in "young GMC" settings; these are targeted at elementary school age (more likely the ones you would be interested in working with). GMCs vary in size; the smallest serves 18 people, the largest 300 (not rural).

• On average each center works with about 36 girls.
• In order to work with us, your team would probably need to split up to work with a minimum of two separate communities.
• Ideally the computers could be distributed to more centers than that to reach more girls.

Electricity
All GMCs have access to electricity (some only partially throughout the day) - we have a couple that have access with solar power. That being said, it's always to plan on as if power doesn't exist since black outs are pretty common especially during this period of time from June to August (end of hot season and entering the rainy season).

Health
Healthwise... we are all trained to survive here. I think you have to worry mostly about water and food. Water is easily treated with bleach or iodine tablets (bottled water is available everywhere). Most volunteers drink the local water once their stomachs are settled. Food preparation could be better... People eat a lot of rice here. You want to make sure the meat is well cooked mostly. Volunteers eat with host families when they first get here - they all get sick after a month or so (diarrhea is probably the number one complaint). Chances are you'll eat less than half of your meals with host families. Volunteers love to cook and host guests, so you'll get some home cooked meals and probably have a sandwich or two made in local restaurants. But you do need to get malaria medication! More than likely you will be working in the south. There are mosquitos which transmit malaria.

Local Language
Local language... I would love to say that you could... we can probably send you materials that Peace Corps uses for training. We have an intense 10 week period in which we are fully submerged in the language. This is just enough to prepare us - once at site we still take awhile to fully develop it to a level at which it is conversational. We find it is best to use these "mentors" and translators to get our message across to the girls. They understand our language and can teach it in a way that really drives the message home.

Guys working in Girls Mentoring Centers
Men are no problem. There simply has to be a woman present at all times, which our volunteers could provide. They are not allowed to be left alone with the girls. I would love to say that you could work with the boys as well. Boys at this age are typically busy doing work for the family and very much hard to control behavior wise. Now I believe since this is a unique project and it does serve the community during the summer months when school is not in session, we may be able to swing something where we include boys utilizing the local schools. All GMCs are operated in accordance and understanding with the local school system. In my opinion it would not be hard to be "flexible" and get boys involved. That will depend on the site and the volunteers working there. Potentially you would be working with a number of different volunteers who have different contacts throughout the community, which would allow expansion. I definitely think there are enough centers where multiple proposals could be accepted and easily adapted.

Concerns about safety

You raise valid concerns. The state department warning is there for a number of reasons. The border that we share with Algeria to the north is very difficult to control. There is suspected trafficking of various kinds in this area. There have been a handful of attacks on military outposts in this area since I have been a volunteer. There are no volunteers anywhere near this area - it's completely off limits to us (not that any of us really want to go up there... it's more or less no man's land - no roads to get there...). Also the war from the 1970s with Western Sahara left the northern border littered with mine fields (once again, a restricted area that we would never go into). In December of 2007, there was an attack on French tourists which ended up with 3 people killed. I was a volunteer at this time. All of my friends, and even most random strangers I met on the street apologized for such an atrocity. They were upset that such a thing could happen in their country, since they are known for their hospitality. August 2008, there was a bloodless military coup which most of the outside world disapproves of. There were riots over the recent Israeli-Palestine conflict (but when we're talking riots, really not a big deal in my opinion on the world scale when you see rioting on the news... I was a close observer, watching from our office building and later from a friend's apartment). There has never been a case where a foreigner has been held for ransom to my knowledge.

So to the outside world, it looks like a scary place. I think you are more likely to get injured in a car crash rather than be attacked here. Even here in the capital, there's a sense that it is just a large village. Everyone is connected here by family. When you first meet people they will go through 30 minutes of discussion to find a common friend if they can. Really bad things can happen anywhere, especially in Africa.... the tides can change overnight. Personally I play it safe most of the time... I wear local clothes (they love this... as do I... it's pretty fun, really. when else in your life can you wear ridiculously bright and mismatched clothes?), which makes a big distinction between myself and tourists. (you never want to be branded tourist like - they don't cover their heads, wear shorts and tanktops - the only reason they get away with it is because they are completely clueless as to what people are saying around them in local language). I am careful about going out at night alone - generally I just use it as an excuse to stay in. Volunteers live in their villages every day speaking the local language and eating with friends who become family. Many Mauritanians have a positive view of the US - most are impressed by the fact that we live here and they LOVE Obama... they say he is their cousin since he has African ancestry. They despise the French.

Visa

Getting a visa is not difficult. Our country director can write a letter to the embassy. I have a friend visiting now. There is only one embassy in the US (in Washington DC). You want to give yourself at least a month just to be on the safe side to mail it there and back. I think my friend's was returned to him within 2 weeks. Most volunteers have friends and family who come to visit; I've never heard of anyone having problems.

Places we could go to

• She has contacted volunteers who work in our schools and with various clubs to see if there is any interest for work at a school or other centers.
• They are promoting the GMCs because there is a chance at longer range sustainability.
• We would prefer to spread the benefits of this program rather than saturate one village, but really this would be great for any community in Mauritania.

Kobenni, Magta Lahjar, Kaedi, Bogue, Atar, Selibaby

• The youth GMCs are located in the following places (spelling may be different from maps you check; things are always spelled different here between french, english, and poor arabic translations - all of these places should be listed on the google earth file I sent you):
  Kobenni, Magta Lahjar, Kaedi, Bogue, Atar, Selibaby

Bababe

• Ginger received an email from a volunteer in a place called Bababe.
• He is an environmental education volunteer and would be interested in hosting you.
• I know his community - it's one of the better ones in terms of openness to outsiders and French is more common. He does not have a GMC. His village is located between Bogue and Kaedi (an hour in each direction), both of which do have GMCs... so perhaps those would be three good sites to work between. I asked him to send me a write-up. This is what he had to say:

Bababé is a wonderful town that is right on the border between between being a "small West African village" and a "city." Although it has over eight thousand people it still has the feel of a small village; say the name of someone's house and almost everyone knows where it is, the village elders still gather in the marketplace every evening, and when asked to describe their town people most often say it is like one family. Yet, at the same time the town is rapidly developing; two massive diesel generators were recently installed and now provide power from noon to midnight, it is rapidly becoming more independent from the two regional capitals on either side, and many local, national, and international groups are working together to improve the conditions of life here. With the arrival of electricity, internet is becoming available as well. There is currently a cyber cafe and small portable internet phones that use cellular technology and connect via USB are available at a reasonable price. The town very much has a sense of growth and forward progress. One of the other things people mention when describing Bababé is that the educational system is strong. There are three primary schools as well as a large middle school and high school. Geographically the town is in the south of Mauritania, two kilometers away from the Senegal River and about fifty kilometers each from the regional capitals of Boghé in the west and Kaedi in the east. The town is also its own department, which includes a number of smaller villages in the immediate vicinity.

Columbia Report on GMCs

Minutes from Paul Commons' 1st Conference Call, answered questions about OLPC etc

Minutes from Paul's 1st Conference Call from Ginger Tissier

Peace Corps General Info

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michiganto serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. Since that time, more than 190,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1.  Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.

2.  Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

3.  Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

For more information on Peace Corps worldwide: http://www.peacecorps.gov/

Peace Corps Mauritania

The Peace Corps came to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in 1967.  Since that time 1,900 Volunteers have served in small and medium sized communities to provide technical assistance, promote understanding of Americans on the part of Mauritanians, and promote understanding of Mauritanians on the part of Americans.

There are approximately 130 Peace Corps Volunteers currently serving in Mauritania, making it one of the largest Peace Corps programs in Africa. Volunteers work in 11 of the 13 regions of Mauritanian in the following 7 program areas: health education, girls' education and empowerment, agro-forestry, small enterprise development, environmental education, information and communication technology, and English education.

Peace Corps Volunteers provide a unique niche in development, providing human resources and skills that can be critical to the successes of community based development activities. Volunteers are prepared with language, cross-cultural, and technical skills, which are used to work directly with the local people and communities. The skills are used to help communities to help themselves and also to serve as a functional liaison between community members and technical project resources, something that both communities and development assistance agencies (including governments) need, but are not easily found.

Girls' Education and Empowerment

We have 28 volunteers in the Girls' Empowerment and Education sector, which oversee the day-to-day operations of 22 Girls' Mentoring Centers (GMC), which serve over 1000 female secondary school students across the country.  The GMC initiative is quite specific to Peace Corps Mauritania and is a cornerstone in our approach to supporting girls' education and schooling in a country where 50% of the girls enrolled in the first grade will not make it to the seventh (or the first year of secondary school) and only 73 girls out of 1000 will get a diploma enabling them to secure decent employment. Girls' retention and graduation rates in secondary and higher education represent a serious challenge for the Government of Mauritania.

Information about Mauritania

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania gained independence from French colonial powers in 1960. The country is over 1 million km² (roughly the size of California and Texas combined), with a population of approximately 3.3 million people.   Two-thirds of the country is Saharan Desert. The majority of the population lives concentrated in the capital city, a large port (supports fishing and mining activities) in the north, and in the Senegal River Valley region in the south.  Ethnic groups include the White Moors, Black Moors, Halpulaar, Soninké, and Wolof.  Half of the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood, even though many of the nomads and subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s.