Hitching a ride out of Nuakchott took all of two minutes, and the very helpful Mauritanian soldier who offered a ride ended up walking me straight through his country’s notoriously tricky customs in no time at all. Arriving in the bustling Senegalese border town of Rosso would have been intimidating if it hadn’t been for my Nuakchott friend Merina, whose older brother’s daughter (but not his niece) was waiting to guide me to their lovely home near the town center. A note on family relations: it is easy for a Westerner to get confused! A man not only calls his biological dad “father”, but also all the brothers and half brothers of his dad can also be father (meaning all his uncle’s kids are brothers and sisters, instead of regular cousins), and even the friends of
... read more
