Room Update

I walked to the market with Mark last week to buy roofing materials as planned. Before I had even walked into the hardware boutique I encountered my first obstacle of locating the OloOlogo car which normally parks in the same location day-in and day-out, except for this Saturday when the auto I normally take between my village and Boghe was parked in the Carrefour several miles away. After calling the driver and unsuccessfully explaining in Pulaar why I needed him to return to the market, but eventually locating his brother who seemed to think the items would not be problematic, I decided to make my purchase anyways. The actual buying was relatively painless, but then the drama commenced.
When the boutique owner mentioned that I needed to locate men to help carry the wood beams and large metal sheets to the car and tipping was expected plus an unexpected transportation fee I almost lost my composure in the middle of his store. Once again language became problematic when I tried to explain to complete strangers that I needed help carrying a few large items to the auto…I often imagine the difference it would make if I had been lucky enough to be stationed in an English speaking country, but alas I awake from my daydream to discover I am still in Mauritania!
In general, the additional costs would not have been problematic except I am currently feeling a money crunch as I purchased items totaling over 55,000 ouguiya (over 200 American dollars), an amount greater than my monthly Peace Corps Volunteer Salary and when I learned that the Peace Corps is only willing to reimburse me for 25,000 ouguiya (100 American dollars). It doesn’t seem to matter that since my first visit to OloOlogo in July 2008, Peace Corps personnel have consistently been reassuring me and my family that the roof will be paid for by Peace Corps Headquarters or that I was ensured suitable and appropriately secured housing upon my placement in late August, due to department-wide budget cuts I am being forced to spend an overwhelmingly large amount of money on a traditionally guaranteed item.
After spending almost an hour trying to explain to several men I randomly located in the market my need for help, an overly involved third party mediator finally joined the conversation and negotiated with multiple parties to eventually decide upon an afternoon meeting at the hardware store to load all the roofing supplies. So, I finished my other errands in the marketplace and returned home to eat a quick lunch before returning to the hardware boutique a few minutes before the prearranged meeting time.
I waited…and waited…and waited for the boutique owner to arrive. Thirty minutes after the settled upon time and minutes before the auto normally leaves for my village he finally opened the shop although the auto was still MIA. I started panicking as I began trying to create a back-up plan in case the auto left me in the market without the language or money to rent another car and unable to walk to the regional house with 20 sheets of metal roofing, 11 4meter long wood planks, a bag of cement, and a new plastic floor mat. Minutes before I began yelling in English out of pure frustration a fellow OloOlogan arrived and ensured me that the car was enroute to the boutique.
After my supplies were loaded, I watched for another hour as various other supplies were bought and loaded for the village and numerous coolers were filled with fresh fish. Finally, we seemed to be heading towards home when we made one last stop. I was already sitting on top of 50kg sacks of sugar, rice, and charcoal because the car was overly packed when I was encouraged to move back farther. In the only 3 foot space without a sack, 4 men loaded a cow (not calf) into the passenger area – tying its feet to prevent escape but otherwise allowing it to moo and thrash in an extremely small area!
Since we left over an hour and a half later than normal and because the car was full to the rim with supplies we drove straight to Olo instead of stopping at a number of other villages along the road. Each time we hit a bump the cow moo’ed, the stacked food sacks slipped forward, the patrons yelled, and the fish filled coolers jumped in the storage rack on top of the car – one eventually was bounced off which led to a brief pause as the driver collected the sandy fish- but otherwise the entire trip was longer and more tiring than usual.
When we finally arrived in the village I was forced to disembark as the cow was forcefully removed from the auto and because I was not interested in being knocked about by the large, horned animal I chose to walk the final three blocks home.
I was almost asleep out of pure exhaustion when I heard the familiar rumble of the auto approaching and opened my eyes to watch it ramble down the dirt road in a cloud of dust, turn right into my living compound with the right blinker flashing orange into the night and eventually stopped in front of my half-finished room. At least everything made it successfully even if I arrived extremely flustered and frustrated.
My mood was not improved when my host father woke me later in the night to ask, “Why did you not buy a door?,” even though a door was never promised by the peace corps and I am fairly certain he has stated several times throughout the months that the door was “no problem.”
After a restless and worry filled night, I woke up in the morning still frustrated and on the verge of calling my service quits. I eventually pulled myself together and managed to walk to the health post only to be continuously questioned about my puffy eyes and generally annoyed by numerous coworkers, in particular I was not in the mood to explain yet again why I was not married or looking for an African gorko [boy]. At least I learned that a mason should arrive Wednesday, Thursday or Friday to begin work, Inshallah [Allah willing] so I continued to remain optimistic about a relatively soon date of completion…however, I currently remain roofless.
Due to a religious celebration of the prophet Mohammad’s birthday that is occurring this week I am not optimistic that the mason will arrive Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this week either, so who knows when I will finally report a completed room...