Training Site, PK10

My name is Ibrahim and it's an honor. Here in the little town of PK10, Mauritania--named for the number of kilometers along the main southern highway, moving from Rosso to Nouakchott--I have been blessed to live with an incredible family. My host country mother, Mbarka is a wonderful and warm woman, who has shared her family and life with me. She is the language teacher at the one room school that this little community is so proud to have. My host father, Alioune is a farmer, working the extensive rice paddies that consume the back country of this little village. In the periods when the sun and soil is functioning as God intended, he spends he days bringing in the catch from the Senegal River. I have eight siblings, the oldest, Mighin-19-is a student at the university in Rosso and an incredibly intelligent young man.

Each day I wake to the enthusiasm of my youngest brother, Ahmed-5-bringing me my morning breakfast of peanuts and the Mauritanian specialty, tea. After our breakfast together, Ahmed and I walk the kilometer or so to class, hand in hand. I spend the next seven hours in a very intense language study; Hassaniya is an offshoot of classic Arabic that developed as the Moors moved west across northern Africa. Hassaniya presents a tremendous amount of difficulty for an anglophone; the formation of the sounds necessary in the language are certainly sounds I've never before imagined I'd be uttering. By the end of each session my brains is swimming in a flood of new knowledge and my tongue cramped as if it had just lapped a marathon. It is a true mental workout to learn a new language through the use of my second language, French.

Frustration is constantly my afternoon companion as inevitably there are sections of each language session that I struggle greatly with. As I return home; like the perfect silver Maple it its fall dress at home in Ft. Thomas, I'm welcomed home with calm and comfort. My family here understands my struggle and wants nothing more than for my fellow trainees and I to succeed.

I've been privileged to share this training site with eight others; Ava Lambrecht of Delano, MN, Marta Grabowski of Chicago, IL, Tim Meadors of Cumberland MD, Katherine Monser of Missoula, MT, Mike Kelley of Stonboro, PA, Seth Luxenberg of New City, NY, Jessica Farley and Janna Sargent, both of Seattle, WA. Together we have made friends of each other and friends in our community.

There is much to understand and learn, but one thing I've not had to question or worry about is the strength of family. Love and compassion is the same, regardless of language, location or culture.