Nouakchott after the kidnapping

 I went to El Mina to sketch at a metal sculpture workshop. 

Sketched the children of five schools practicing at the French Cultural Center.

Today I sketched a groupe of librarians beeing told about a exhibition on the environment at the French Culturel Center and Mamadou Anne, Mauritanian painter of the first generation, at an exhibition on "Vents du Sud" library .
 Not bad, the city is teeming with activities where locals and foreigners interact and participate. This, in the week where three Spanish tourists/humanitarian workers were kidnapped by what all assume to be the work of a branch of Al-Qaeda Magreb.
  Silence replaced the rumors running the first days after the kidnapping.
 Mauritania got to be known by the rest of the world  and classified as a dangerous place. For us foreigners that have chosen to live here its with pleasure that we see that life goes on peacefully. We all worry about the rise of violence and of acts classed as terrorists and hope that the two men and woman are safe and well and hopefuly will join their families and country soon. But when we try and check most of the cities of the world many are much worse than Nouakchott but haven't been classified the same way!