I went to my friend Youssouf's on Friday afternoon to eat some rice and fish and watch Prisonbreak. During the middle of the third episode he turned to me and said something about Friday and Saturday being the new weekend. We were hanging out, watching TV, getting ready to eat with our hand, so yeah, it was just like the weekend.
Heading home in a taxi the driver said something similar, than I heard it again at a boutique. I figured this must be some Mauritanian proverb I'd either never heard or never been able to understand before.
That evening, I met my friend Angela told me she might have to start teaching on Sundays. Yes, the weekend was now Friday and Saturday. There was talk about this in the Parliament last week, the passed the resolution this week, and announced the news on Friday morning.
Turns out this is the third time they've done this in the last few years. Friday is the Muslim holy day and everything shuts down after the afternoon prayer anyway. What remains to be seen is if anyone actually starts working on Sunday again.
Map of Mauritania
Mauritania straddles the Sahara Desert, bordering Morocco and Algeria in the north, and Senegal and Mali to the south. It covers 397,950 square miles, an area greater than Texas and New Mexico combined.