I got kicked out of my host family's, the President and Prime Minister got kicked out of office

Well, as some of you may have heard on the news, Mauritania recently had a coup d'etat. It was bloodless, so us PCVs are fine, and the general Mauritanian attitude is something between moderately excited (the old administration wasn't too well liked), moderately annoyed ("This is not democracy," said my language instructor), and lethargic (three years ago there was a similar coup which was dubbed "The worst coup ever" because nobody really cared after it happened).

That same week I also got kicked out of my old host family's house. This was pretty unfortunate because I got along very well with my host mother and host siblings, and the conditions were comparatively pretty nice. Apparently my host father has been popping into Peace Corps and requesting more money each week -- which, by the way, is ridiculous considering how much they get paid. This is the first time that training has been held in this city, so these families have never worked with Peace Corps before. Apparently several families have been requesting more money. They see an organization affiliated with the US Dept of State and try to see if they can get more money because they don't realize that Peace Corps 1-isn't rolling in dough and 2-has a policy of not paying bribes. It all makes sense, I suppose. But then, when we all went on site visit, my host father showed up at Peace Corps irate that he was not getting as much money for hosting me during the week when I was not even there. He said that if Peace Corps was not going to pay him more I had to go. He then up and left for Nouakchott, the capital city, with his other wife. Peace Corps tried calling his bluff a few times -- after all, they are paying him quite well -- but he never answered his phone. So, when I got back from site visit, I had to leave. I never did see my host father again. Saying goodbye to my host-mother was difficult. Her two year old daughter grabbed my legs and squealed a bit, and my mother told me she was going to learn how to write so that she could write me letters.

Fortunately my new host mother is also very sweet. She is a nurse, and she has been feeding me quite well. After losing 25 pounds in the first month, I have now regained three of those pounds in the second! And she gives me salad often, while salad is typically a rare treat for PCVs here. Vegetables are expensive and Mauritanians don't eat many fresh foods. While I was perhaps a little spoiled by physical living conditions in the first household, the lack of electricity or water in the second will prepare me well for life in Chinguetti.

In any case things are going well, despite changes in host families and in national governments. Also, I was able to start Hassaniye class two weeks ago, so hopefully my limited skills in French and this dialect of Arabic together will be enough to get me through the first bit of service. I'll try to write at least once more before the end of training, which is only two short weeks away, and I'll also try to upload some pictures. Until then, ma asalaam (with peace).