I was an English teacher in northern part of Mauritania and during my summer break in 1989 I went on a tour of the interior of the country. During the tour we came upon a small village by the name of Jam Jam. I met a Pulaar woman who lived there with her family, and although we could not communicate with each other, we discovered that we had something in common: our bead necklaces. She reluctantly agreed to pose in this picture with me.