15.12.04 - 16:26

At last, my webmaster and father has seen fit to upload some pictures. Please enjoy.

This is a lovely picture of my sitemate Annika and me wearing boubous on the second day of Tabasky. We spent the day at Horawindou, the teensy village of our friend Ba Yero. Here, we are pictured with some random female member of his household. She's Pulaar, by the by.

And here are the men from Horawindou (with one little girl.) The older men where the male versions of boubous, which are almost always blue or white. They stand beside a typical Pulaar circular house - made from adobe and thatched with reeds.

Ah, yes. The hospital. So clean and modern looking, yes? Well, from the outside, yes. (If you overlook the tumbling latrine and overflowing medical waste.) The inside shows blood-spattered walls, pot-holed floors, mistreated equipment, dust, and syringes.
In this picture you can see the charettes (donkey carts) that convey the sick to the hospital. I myself walk there a couple of times a week. Oh, and I'm taking this picture from the "middle" of the "street."

Here we have some village women carrying their wash to the lake after a big wedding. The two on the left are wearing mulaffas (Moor veils), while the ones on the right are wearing Pulaar clothing. This picture was taken only a couple of minutes walk from my house. On the left and right, you can see examples of fencing. The object is to keep cows, donkeys, and camels out with this fencing; goats, sheep, chickens, and guinea fowl manage to infiltrate ny barrier.

Here is my beloved Mauritanian father, Yahya Traore! He is sitting inside his house on a mattela, eating mishway at Tabasky. (Mishway is barbecued mutton.) I took this picture as part of a series entitled "What happens to the sheep at Tabasky." We are missing photos of the slaughter, the cutting of meat, the grilling, the sheep head, and eating couscous with mutton. Perhaps Buzz would care to upload those? Or are you all a squeamish bunch?

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