About me: I am an English teacher and Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa. I live on the southern border in the town of Boghé next to the Senegal River. I arrived in country roughly a year ago, and have been pleasantly content with life here as well as the Peace Corps program in general. I attended Tulane University in New Orleans and earned a B.A. in English literature. My hometown is Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Mauritania in Brief: The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is located in West Africa to the north of Senegal and to the south of Morocco and Western Sahara. Mauritania gained its independence from France in 1960. The climate is dry, arid, and "constantly hot", with the Sahara Desert comprising the territory up north and the Sahel comprising the slightly less arid area near the Senegal river on the southern border. The first democratically elected president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdellahi was inaugurated last April. The largest ethnic groups are the Moors, the Pulaars, the Wolofs, the Soninke, and the Bambara. The languages of instruction in the schools are French and Arabic. Historically populated by nomads in the desert and fishermen along the river.
