First Impressions

In the north-western corner of Africa, where the vast Saharan desert meets the atlantic ocean, crammed between Morocco and Mauritania, lies West Sahara. This is not where we are currently situated. The fact that West Sahara has been under the control of Moroccan forces since 1975 has nothing to do with why we are not there at the moment. It is, however, the reason why we are where we are, which is the south-western corner of Algeria, in a refugee camp called El Aiun.

We have now been here for two and a half weeks, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to sum up our first impressions. Nevertheless, we will try and give a brief overview of what the first two weeks have been like.

After spending approximately eight hours on a plane, and somewhere between ten and elleven hours in airports, we landed in Tindouf at three o'clock in the morning. Here, we were picked up by our local contact, Abba Lehbib, and driven out into the desert. After a while, although it seemed like there was nothing else but sand outside, Abba stopped the car and told us that this was where we were going to live for the next three of four months. So, we pulled our luggage out of the car and entered a small yard surrounded by sandbrick houses. After a warm meal and an equally warm welcoming session the time had finally come to call it a day. A few hours later we woke up to our first day in the camps, and so the summing up begins.
In general, I think I can say that our experiences until now has been mostly positive. Our families are great, people are friendly and helpful, the nightsky is indescribable and yet, some of the sunsets has been able to completely put it to shame. Furthermore, it is surprising how fascinating it can be just to sit on a small hill on the outskirts of the camp staring into the vast brown, flat nothingness stretching into the horizon. Also, it is kind of strange, at night, seeing the lights from Tindouf, knowing that only 15 kilometres away they have running water, electricity, internet, and basicly all the luxuries the people in the camps lack. Still, it must be said that the biggest problem here is not the material standard, but rather people feeling frustrated about seemingly being forgotten by the world.
The teaching is getting easier (and hopefully also better) day by day. We teach two classes each, trying to cover three and a half different levels. We have not been able to start any extra projects yet, but Lars is planning to start interviewing people sometime next week, and Hodan is giving extra English classes to people who are not able to come to the Bucra Center (where we teach) during the day. (We kind of feel that we have to get started soon seeing as Fernando, our mexican friend down here has been able to start his own garden, find a local library and befriend it's owner, and is generally just running all over the place. =) In addition to Fernando there are surprisingly many foreigners in the camp. Germans, spaniard, a frenchman, two danes (that we have not met yet) and a swedish man).
The only thing that has been, and is, a slight problem is the internet availability. Three days before we arrived it actually rained pretty bad, and the internet connection in Abba's ministry was knocked out. Because of this, we do not know how often we will be able to update this blog, however, we hope that we can get connection on a slightly irregular basis.

Til next time, so long (and thanks for all the fish)!