Appreciating the best of both worlds
Maite Uranga
Life in Africa
I just got back to Mauritania after three weeks in the United States. I definitely needed to go home, but I am also happy to be back here. I arrived about 20 hours ago and the bizarre thing is that Africa is no longer strange.
I am sitting on the balcony at the Peace Corps house in the capital overlooking the street. A group of six boys is playing soccer in the sand as goats and pedestrians walk through the game. People yell greetings to each other in at least six different languages, most of which I understand. It is humid, hot and dusty. Men and women wear long flowing robes. This is all so normal.
A year ago finding a subject to write letters and articles about was easy; everywhere I looked I saw potential subject matter. People I talked to provided large amounts of material and of course the painful weather caused by the Sahara filled many pages of self-pity in letters. I am still aware of all of this, but it just is not as interesting or as painful. For example, writing about the chaos of the market would be like writing about the speed of 7-11. Few Americans take time to marvel at the speed of a 7-11, and I no longer look in wonder at the chaos of the markets.
My life here fills the same old day-to-day routine that my life at home did. Sitting at a table and eating dinner with a fork and knife seem just as normal as sitting on the floor eating with my hands. The same for running water or lack of running water, church bells or the call to the mosque and interstate freeways or donkey cart paths.
I watched a National Geographic program about West Africa when I was home and in many ways felt like I was watching a home video. Americans want me to describe Africa and Africans want me to describe America. I live in a space between the developed and developing worlds. I see the joy and sorrow that both provide.
Some Mauritanians look to the United States as a dream and an unattainable perfection of freedom and wealth. Others see it as a colossus that reigns down on the rest of the world. Some Americans are horrified by the living conditions of Mauritanians, the conservative manifestations of their culture and their Muslim and North African connections. Others see village Africa as something that was lost and with it a dramatic and detrimental change in the quality of life.
Before I left I knew about these different views. Now I actually understand them. I go through all of these various opinions multiple times a day. I appreciate the freedom and respect for human rights that the United States generally provides. I find it funny that Americans work 60 or 70 plus hours a week to give their children a "better life." I still do not understand how anything ever gets done in Mauritania with the pace at which things happen. I love that in Mauritania, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins generally live, if not in the same house, at least within walking distance of each other.
I have given up trying to figure out which is better and which is worse, and it usually depends a lot on the day. The longer I live here the more similarities I seem to find, and the differences fade away. I hope living in the middle of the developed and developing worlds will allow me to take the best from both.
Maite Uranga graduated from Notre Dame in 2000 and is currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Mauritania. Her column appears every other Monday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, September 16, 2002
