Christmas greetings from Mauritania

Merry Christmas All!
So I'm a couple days late, but for all I know it's actually September, so oh well. Apologies that this is the first email I sent in mass in many months. When you live in a town with no elecricity, suddenly sitting in front of a computer becomes really difficult. That and I've forgotten how to type...
So basically I'm still alive and well in Mauritania. Right now I'm in Nouackchott, living it up with a real bathroom and bed. We spent Christmas at the Country Directors House. It was really nice, with all sorts of food and drinks. Unfortunately, I got really ill the morning of Christmas Eve, so I really couldn't eat anything. It looked delicious though!!!! In a couple days I'm heading to Senegal for New Years where I hope to be fully recovered and really be able to celebrate...
I'm not really sure where to start off, since I don't think I've written since swearing in. I'll start around there I guess. So I live in a really great little town right on the Senegalese River called MBagne. It's a Pulaar town, meaning lots of Black Africans, very few Moors. It's about 3000 people, very liberal, small enough so that I always know someone somewhere but big enough to get great luxuries like vegetables and soda. Again, no electricity, but I really don't mind. You adjust to things like that rather quickly. I have my own house, and if you saw the pictures yes I have a puppy as well. House is really basic and essentially serves no purpose other than storage. No really, its hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I always sleep, cook, eat, drink outside, so I'm not really sure why I even have it other than a place to throw all of my junk on the ground (some things never change). I have an enormous yard and tree. I'm hoping to start a garden next year, was a little late this time around. As you might have heard, living conditions here are pretty tough. It's hot, and dirty. A total lack of all things luxurious, and by luxurious I mean like, broom with a handle, not BMW luxurious. Total lack of variety in food, with lots and lots of rice and bread and tea. That being said, it's really bizarre because my happiness here is much different that in the US. Such trivial things like cappuccinos, a good movie etc in the states make me happy, where as here it just comes from a sense of well being and friendship, acceptance, success, etc. It's overwhelming. Not to say I wouldn't love a cappuccino here too...
Everyone in my town is really kind, as Peace Corps has been there for so long, they are used to crazy white people running around. The children are generally terrible little devils, but that's the case every where you go. My "family" is the lady who shares my Mauritanian name, Kolle. Shes really amazing, partly because shes Senegalese, and automatically much cooler than everyone else. She's my age and has three kids. She laughs all the time and love to eat lettuce, which is really rare. Her husband works for the police and he's a good person to have around. For example my phone was stolen the other week and he spent all day calling and yelling at the person, and trying to find them. We just celebrated Mohammed's Birthday here, so we slaughtered a lamb at their house. It was pretty funny, cause he knew he was going to die, perhaps because Ive been telling him that I was going to eat him for many weeks now, and ran off at the last minute. He was caught and very tasty...
My girl's center is going fairly well. It's what I love the most and hate the most all at the same time. It's just shocking to see some of these girls sometimes, sixteen years old, married with three kids. They are still in school though which is very very rare. My village serves lots of other towns totaling around ten thousand people, and in their equivalent of a high school they have 26 girls. Terrible. I just really hate men here, they are useless pieces of junk. They just kind of lie around and do nothing but drink tea. The boys go to school, while lots of girls are forced to stay at home and cook and clean and work. Girls are married very young to very old men which I still find very disgusting. Anywhooo, enough man bashing, thus far we've done some English classes, computer classes, goal setting, arts classes etc. Hoping to get some more professors involved next year....
Going to New York with Mehdi in January for a week. I'm really, really excited to see him, eat some real food, and freeze my butt off for a week. Good Times!!!! I hope to hear from you all sometime, and I'll try to get better myself at this mail bussiness... And I'm just gonna put this out there: I love letters and packages. Like even if you mailed me a stick of gum I'd probably be moved to tears... So if you get inspired, my address is:
Lauri Dunn, PCV
BP 66
Kaedi, Mauritania
West Africa
Again, Merry Xmas all. Lots of Love!
And while this seems like an odd thing to put at the end of a letter, yes, some French tourists were just killed in RIM. Word is a very small amateur Al Qaeda group. Don't worry though, I feel very safe here, not to mention I,m in the very liberal south. And I think my villagers would sooner carry me to Senegal than let anyone even say not nice things to me or hurt me. So just disregard that news...

Love,
Lauri