It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Africa (HOT)

First of all, congrats to Jessie and Jeff on baby Sloane's arrival yesterday - I'm so excited for you guys (and Grandma & Grandma Ketcham)!  It's been fun following their blog and seeing Jessie's tummy get huge over the months, especially since she's so tiny normally :)

I had to pull up my calendar to try and figure out what I've been doing.  Spring camp (I can't remember my last post, but did I mention it was in Oujda, which is essentially on the Algerian border, in the northern part of Morocco?) was definitely a good experience.  I was nervous going in because of stories I'd heard, but all ended well.  We of course had teenage drama, but that's to be expected when you get almost 60 12-17 year olds together for a week.  Little relationships began (that I've since heard have already ended), hearts were broken and friendships were formed.  The irony of it is that the first initial of the first names of us counselors spelled out DRAMA.  We had some good culture talks with the kids and I learned I don't know the first thing about how to teach.  It was embarrassing, but we stumbled through it (they definitely didn't leave knowing any more English than they came with, but what can you expect in 2-4 days?).  I will definitely do my best to do it again next year.

After spring camp I headed back to Sefrou for a night and then went to Fez the next day because my lovely friend Jess was visiting me from Denver!  She was my first visitor and it was so fun, but so weird, to see someone from home.  We spent the next day walking around the medina in Fez and it didn't take her much time to figure out how annoying the men and boys there are (and why I ignore them, which at first she thought was rude).  They are constantly bugging you and in your personal space and generally rude (some of them learn a short phrase or two in English, and rarely is it not something derogatory or cuss word filled, often sexual).  She was over it after about an hour or two, plus it was really hot, so we headed to a cafe owned by a British guy and had banana smoothies on the roof overlooking some of the medina.  The next day we both got on buses (she with her tour group and me on what we call a souk bus - I'll explain later) and headed to Marrakech.  It was a full day (around 11 hours) of travel - including a 45 minute breakdown that involved everyone filing out of the bus and crossing the street to the minimal amount of shade provided by a few trees and a large metal sign (where we then left five guys behind because they'd run to the store to buy drinks).  It was also hot as hades and I was sweating pretty much the entire journey.  The only air circulation was one pop-up thing in the roof (that got closed a couple of times - not okay - not sure how Moroccans can wear winter coats, 5 layers of clothing and hats when it's 90 degrees outside, but they most definitely do).  It was a miserable journey and it just wouldn't end - even when I finally got there, got in a cab, but then couldn't find my hotel because Jess's tour guide hadn't told me the full name of the hotel (he'd also given me the wrong hotel in Fez so it was par for the course!).  Eventually I made it to the swanky hotel we were staying at though, grabbed dinner and then we went and chilled in the room for the rest of the night.  The next day she went on the tour of the city with the group and I stayed at the hotel and hung by the pool.  It was so nice, although super hot!  That night we went to a little vegetarian restaurant in the medina and then walked around Jemaa Al Fna (the main square) - it's an experience at night with the food stalls and the "hosts" grabbing at you and telling you their food is the best (it's all the same) and all the street performers.  The next day we sadly parted ways - Jess heading to Rabat and Casablanca and then back to Spain and me hanging by the pool again until it was time to go to my friend Kelsea's site, about 1.5 hours away.  It was a bit of an adventure getting there (all travel in Morocco is), but I made it (although I had to race to the front and off of the bus with all of my stuff because I didn't realize we'd already made the loop through her town and were headed back to 'kech).  Saw Kelsea's town and then the next day we went back to 'kech to meet up with a few other PCVs.  The parents of one of my fellow trainees were in town so we went to dinner with them which was nice.  They left early the next morning, but the five of us PCVs hung out in 'kech and walked around.  We'd heard there was a delicious Vietnamese restaurant in town, so I decided to figure out where it was so we could go there for dinner.  We did end up finding it, but I will say the food was a bit disappointing - I'm not sure if our standards are much lowered than they used to be, or somehow higher, but I guess at least we got Asian (it was a mix of several kinds) food.  Then the next day we all headed back to our sites.

I was in site for a few days and then headed out for another getaway which I'll have to tell you about at a later date.  Suffice it to say it was delicious and beautiful.  After that, I went to my friend Annemarie's site (and I even passed through my old CBT town TimHdit - they've definitely done some improvements, at least to the sidewalks there) because she is half British and was therefore having a Royal Wedding (Watch) Party.  It was really fun - she made a few meals of yummy British food (oxymoron, I know) and we spent the day watching the wedding festivities.  I saw a lot of people on facebook whining about the wedding and how they don't care about it and shouldn't we and they be concerned about money issues, not spending an insane amount on a wedding right now, but come on - we need a little excitement and happiness in our lives people.  Take a break from reality for a minute and enjoy!  And you say you don't care about it, but you obviously care enough to make it your fb status, soooo...   Whatever, I had fun watching and am not ashamed to admit it!  It was beautiful :)

After the wedding weekend was over, I came to my friend Cheryl's site, about 30 minutes from Azrou (our old hub town, ahh memories) and that is where I am now.  We are part of a small group that is planning our next training session, IST, that is taking place in June.  Our last training was so bad that we decided we needed to step up and offer our input and help plan this next one.  Hopefully our staff will listen to and implement our input (we actually called and interviewed every SBD PCV in our staj - group - and got their feedback so they should listen up).  We'll see what happens with that.  We're meeting with them this weekend or early next week to hash it out.

I'm going to Rabat on Thursday for another craft fair we have happening at the American Club this weekend. It's a more exclusive fair (not everyone is allowed to come) so there will be a smaller group, but it will be fun to see the people that are there.  The Rose Festival is taking place down in the southern part of the country this weekend and I had hoped to go to that, but the craft fair is more important so, priorities!  Below is a picture of some of the scarves my artisan makes, and then a picture of her and I in Fez after the last craft fair. I've never added pics to the blog before, but I figured why not?!

I'm sure by now you've all heard about the bombing in Marrakech.  It was so weird because at first the PC office texted us and said there'd been a gas explosion at a cafe (that was the first report they got) and to check on any PCVs we knew that might be there.  Then later there were emails saying that they'd discovered it was actually a bombing.  We all had to report in right away to let them know we were safe.  There have been concerns that there could be anti-American sentiments, but I've been in small towns and only traveled once since it happened, so I haven't felt that, at least not yet.  It could be different in Rabat this weekend though.  Fortunately I'm staying at the home of one of the marines (who guards the Embassy) and his family and we'll be next to the marine house (where the rest of them live) all day, so we should feel pretty protected. As the PC always tells us - (we'll) stay vigilant!

Oh, and this whole bin Laden thing - what a surreal few days it's been.  (We're not allowed to publically comment on Osama, so I'll have to keep my feelings to myself on this one.)  I am proud to be an American though :)  Leaving your country (when it's the US and you go to a developing country, especially to live there) will definitely make you feel a bit patriotic I think.

And since I won't probably be posting on here again before this weekend, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!  Especially to my wonderful mom, but also to the many others of you out there - brand new or more seasoned!!

**A souk bus, if I haven't told you before, is a regular bus, but one that should have been retired about 30 years ago.  They rarely have temperature controls, only some have windows that open, the seats are sometimes missing in places and often very worn out and they sound like they should die at any moment (and many do).  But it's the cheapest and most common method of travel (aside from grande taxis for shorter distances).  I won't be using them this summer because I can't handle the heat (I'm already freaking out about the weather, although fortunately the last few days have been cold and rainy).  I'll take the government-run CTM buses because they (typically) have AC and more comfortable seats, plus they don't stop as often and aren't (at least so far) usually very full.

Bacon, Fez and City Kids

So what did I do in February? Let's see if I can remember. The main thing that stands out is that at the end of the month we had our PPST (Post Pre-Service Training) in Azrou. I was expecting it to be freezing in that area during that time but unfortunately it was just cool. I was just hoping to see a little bit of winter. We had more (mostly useless) training, but it was good to see the group. And that was when we booked our Dublin trip...

So, March was definitely more exciting. On the 13th I left my site (after being there the first couple of weeks) and went to Sefrou where one of my fellow trainees lives. It's near Fez, so in the northern part of the country. On the 15th, 5 of us flew to Madrid (which was sorta cool because it was exactly 6 months to the day after left so and the passport stamps are right next to each other), spent a few hours playing cards and drinking beers in the airport. Ahh, drinking where it's not hashuma (shameful)! Then we flew to Dublin. We got in pretty late that night so we just hung out in the lobby of the hotel (they have a nice lounge and bar) and had a beer or two, ate and then went to bed. On Wednesday, we got up, ATE BACON for breakfast and went out sightseeing on the red, double decker bus. We did the Guinness brewery tour and saw several other sites of Dublin. We walked around, ate good food (Guiness & beef stew for me, at the oldest bar in either Dublin or Ireland) and then stopped at several pubs along the way. When we went back to the hotel, they were having a party with a band so we went and listened to the band and had a couple more drinks (noticing a theme here? No, I don't have a problem, just making up for lost time, ha!). They were a fun Irish band so hung out there for awhile, then moved out to the lobby when they were done. After awhile we went to bed so we could get up and get back to the city for the parade. We were staying near the airport, but it's not far from the city center and they have a shuttle that takes you to the airport for free and then we would take the city bus from there. Pretty convenient, especially since we booked the trip two weeks out and over a hugely popular time there. I could tell I'd been in conservative Morocco too long when every girl I saw I thought looked like a slut, haha! None of which (well maybe a few) would have ever stood out before living here, but man, I was constantly shocked! So lame! Thursday was St. Patty's Day so we went and watched the parade and then secured our spot in a pub. They had a great band so we had a great time talking to and attempting to understand the Irish guys standing behind us, listening to the band and drinking Guiness and Smithwick's. We ended up staying there all day, but they weren't serving food so we left, I think around 8pm or so to go find something to eat. We couldn't really find a place to sit down (everywhere was packed) but we found a sort of cafeteria-like place and grabbed something, then headed back to the hotel. We hung out in the lobby, got better food and then eventually went to bed. On Friday, we ate more bacon for breakfast (we had it everyday) and then went back to town. Our tickets on the tour bus were still good so we rode around some more, stopped a couple of places and walked around. We went to the Jameson Distillery, but it was packed and I didn't think the tour was all that great last time I did it, so we skipped it and just had Irish coffees in their cute lobby bar and then headed out. After more pub stops, we headed back to the hotel. James and I ate steak for dinner since it was our last night (Lauren ate yummy chocolate cake). We had drinks and hung out in the lobby all night (not drinking all night) because our flight was at 6:25 the next morning. Since we had to be at the airport at 4:30, we decided to save a little money and not to keep our hotel room for Friday night since we'd barely be able to use it anyway. We were all tired on Saturday morning, but dozed on the plane and during our long layover in Madrid. We got back to Fez on Saturday afternoon, and then headed back to Sefrou.

I stayed in Sefrou until Monday, when I decided to go see another PCV, Jo, in her TINY little village (800 people) for a few days. We were bums most of the time and just watched movies and downloaded tv shows. It was nice to relax! Then we went back to Sefrou on Thursday so that we could go to Fez and hand out posters and flyers about our Marche Maroc craft fair in Fez to hotels and other places. We did that on Friday as well. It was cool because I did it in the medina so I got to wander around and check it out for the first time. Then we headed to another bigger town 2 hours away to see our friend Lauren. Then I went back to Sefrou on Sunday.

Marche Maroc was this past Thursday - Sunday so I was in Fez each of those days, plus last Wednesday for that. The fair went fairly well. I had two artisans there - my lady that makes the beautiful wool and silk scarves and a painter, who is actually Juan's friend, but due to budget constraints and the fact that Juan is in Youth Development, not SBD, we considered him "mine" so he could come. They each sold a fair amount of stuff and make enough money to make it worth their time. I always want them to do better though! We also may or may not have booked another quick getaway to Pisa, but more details on that later.

Late Sunday night (early Monday morning at 1:30) another girl and I got on a bus to head to Oujda, which is where I am sitting now. She went on to another city from here because we are both helping out at spring camp. It's a camp put on by PC and the Ministry of Youth. We teach English classes in the morning and then have activity clubs (like dodgeball, capture the flag, paper mache, talking about the environment, etc.) after lunch. I've never taught anything before, especially English, so I have no idea what I'm doing, but I muddle through. The kids talk nonstop so I'm constantly shutting them up and trying not to snap and smack one :) I took a note that a boy and girl were passing today and the boy begged me to give it back to him after class. I didn't, but instead gave it to the 2 other PCVs with me to translate out of French. It was pretty flirty so we got a good laugh out of it. The kids at this camp are SO different than the kids I'm used to. They're from the city and wealthy families. Most of them dress much less conservatively than those in my town. They're shocked by the conditions in which PCVs live. It's kind of funny and surprising that they have no idea how some/most people in this country live. They like to flirt with each other so we're having fun watching and gossiping about them! There are 5 PCVs here, all girls - the "leader" does Youth Development (YD) and there is another girl who does the same, then there's me in SBD, a girl who works in the Health sector, and one in environment - so we have a nice cross-section of personalities and people. There are three Moroccan male counselors that we work with. Tomorrow we're going on field trip, and at one point it was mentioned that we might go the beach, which is about an hour away. Hoping that it happens, but we might end up just going to the forest or something.

Anyways, that brings us to now. I'm sure I've missed some traumatizing thing, but oh well. I'll let you know if I think of it. Camp ends on Saturday so I'm heading back to Sefrou to get my things I left there and then I'm going to Fez on Sunday to meet up with Jess, who is on a tour bus as we speak, making her way from Spain to here! I can't wait to see her - it will the first person I've seen from home in 7 months. It will probably be a little strange too, but that's okay, I'm just looking forward to it :) and joining her tour group for some sightseeing 2 or 3 days. April is turning out to be pretty busy (thank god) so I will be on the move most of the month. And as usual I am not proofreading this out of laziness, so, sorry!

Color Explosion

So I’ve finally slept in my house. The most colorfully painted/tiled/decorated house you could imagine. I will try to take pictures and post them because I can hardly describe the tackiness that is this house. The hallway, living room and dining room have brownish-red and cream tiles from the floor to partway up the wall. (This part isn’t so bad, although there are two different patterns going on. It’s when you add in what they’ve done to the rest of the place.) In the living room the wall above it is teal with an odd pattern that looks like something you might see under a microscope. The ceiling is another color (black and grayish) with another pattern. The wall above the til in the hallway and dining room is gray with the scientific pattern Then in each of those rooms (that are open to each other) there is a lovely floral border across the top. Each one has been painted in a different color scheme: hot pink, yellow, brown, orange, blue, etc. On the ceiling there are decorative elements that have also been hideously ruined with bizarre, totally nonmatching colors, including gold. In the hallway on the ceiling there are several wood beams that are alternately painted blue and pink. There are a couple of archways, under which is brown (with gold accents of course). The floors are all tiled, mostly in semi-coordinating colors with the tiles on the wall, except in the living room there are 2 patches of grey. The kitchen is fully tiled in a couple shades of pink and of yellow/orange. On a couple of tiles there are Greek-related items (columns, vase) and then one has a basket of flowers. My bedroom has been painted gold, but the best part is that Moroccans seem to have a real affection for glitter (you see it fairly often on the outside of houses) – I got lucky and they painted my bedroom wall with it. My spare room has all pink walls. The walls of the shower and the toilet rooms (I did get lucky and they’re separate – nice not to have to clean yourself over the hole where you relieve yourself…) are tiled in the living/dining room tiles, with a few blue ones thrown in for good measure I guess. I got fortunate with windows. There are 3 in the living room plus the door has glass on the top half – and it opens – and there is 1 in the kitchen and 1 in the spare room. I decided to use the room that’s my bedroom because it doesn’t have an outside window (it does have one that opens to the dining area though) since I like to sleep/wake up with it nice and dark. The house is pretty open and the rooms are good size and the ceilings are high. It just could not be any gaudier. Oh and the furniture. I got couch cushions, called ponges (they rarely buy actual couches), from my sitemate (thanks Juan!) and they’re TU blue and yellow. There’s also a plastic floor mat in coordinating blue and yellow, and then a rug that goes on top of that in blue, brown and cream that doesn’t exactly match, but god bless Juan for finding something that at least was blue! I also got from him another plastic mat that’s brown and a rug that’s darker red with a nice pattern in a few colors that are in my bedroom. It’s definitely a site to see. I’ve still got to buy quite a few things, but with what I have and my sleeping bag (and a borrowed pillow from Juan), I can at least start staying there. I also got a fridge, small table and a few plates, silverware and glasses from the girl I replaced so that’s super helpful.

My language skills have taken a nosedive since we stopped going to class. I didn’t speak enough with my host family and community members and practice like I should. But it really gets old having people just laugh and rarely understand you whenever you talk. It was definitely a lot more comfortable (a lot being a relative term) talking with my first host family and community in my training site. I’m sure it helped that my first host father spoke pretty good English so we could use that when we needed to (which was really often). They also made a lot of effort with me in simple ways – like taking me to the kitchen and saying the names of items. My second host mom will just go on and on and on even when I ask her to slow down and repeat a little at a time. Super frustrating. In the last few days I was getting more and more tempted to just start rattling on in English just so she could maybe understand how I was feeling. I didn’t, I just kept nodding, laughing sometimes just because (usually when she did) and then making a confused face when it seemed she was actually asking me something or wanted some sort of response. It was painful. It is nice to be out of the situation. The family is nice, don’t get me wrong, just overwhelming, especially when you haven’t spent a single night by yourself in over 4 months. Just needed some space. Moroccans don’t really have a concept of privacy or why anyone would want it. Families often all sleep in the living area together. And there are always at least two of them together, talking away. It’s sort of funny (irritating) when you try to explain that you have lived alone. ‘In America, I lived by myself before I came here.’ ‘Oh, so just you and your parents?’ ‘No, alone, by myself, just me.’ ‘So your mom and dad lived with you, no one else?’ ‘Sure.’

I’m also happy to be able to start cooking what I want to eat. We ate the same meal for lunch and dinner every day and I was definitely over it. A long time ago. A lot of the food is way over spiced and overcooked (they also serve rice and pasta still sitting in the water – it’s just mushy and not pleasant!).

The weather in my town has been unusually warm. We were expecting tons of rain like they got last year and haven’t seen any of it. It was also cooler last year and this year it’s pretty hot in the sun during the day. Nights are chilly but not bad. Often it’s cooler in the house than outside – there’s that disbelieve in central air shining through. Summers are already miserable (120 degrees) so I’m really scared to see what this summer is going to bring. I plan to travel a lot, even if it’s just to other people’s sites that are not too far away, but at high elevation and therefore much cooler.

At the end of next month we have training/meetings for a week. I’m really looking forward to our whole group (all 63 of the people I came in with – called our staj) being together again. It will be fun to see everyone and catch up. One of the girls is having a Chinese New Year Celebration the weekend before and cooking a bunch of Chinese food (she’s even having ingredients sent from the US). Pretty sure I’m going to have to make my way there. No way am I passing up a Chinese feast.

I have to quickly mention that I cannot believe how many people are engaged or pregnant right now (only one is both, love you Mols!). And several close friends at that. With all the happenings, including the death I mentioned in the last post, and a BFF with a cancer scare, it makes me wonder if this is really the time I should be away from home. Not thinking of doing anything irrational like leaving, but it definitely has me thinking (and hoping I can get home for at least one of the occasions).

I should also probably mention the 20/20 program. In hindsight I should never had told you to watch it. I see that it scared a lot of you and I’m sorry. I just had no idea what it was going to be and our Country Director (head of the Peace Corps Morocco) texted us that morning saying it was going to be on. I feel safe here and take all precautions I can. I’m already pretty paranoid and therefore very aware, I think. Things can always happen, but they can also happen in the US just as easily. I’m never alone outside at night (which is weird and sometimes frustrating because it’s totally different from the US and I feel like I’ve given up a freedom I’m quite accustomed to). I keep my door and windows locked and watch out for weird things and people. Everyone in town knows about the Americans so there are many eyes and ears watching us (which is good and bad I suppose). Anyways, bottom line – don’t worry. Morocco was one of the first PC countries and we have a strong relationship here. It’s a stable country despite the weirdness and drama that seems to be occurring in other North African countries. And the PC is always monitoring things going on in the country and world and they take our Safety & Security very seriously.

I’m looking forward to the travel that’s coming up (maybe even every weekend until March – whoa). I like getting things on the calendar to look forward to. I plan to eat sparingly when in site so that I can save as much money to put towards travel. Seeing people reenergizes me and reminds me that I can do this!

I Have My Own House!

So I totally skipped posting in December. Fail. Oh well, no point in worrying about it now. Time to catch you up. And thanks to those that have been posting comments - they're fun to read!

So I've now been in my site for about a month. Last time I left off it was just before Marche Maroc Marrakech, our Peace Corps artisan craft fair, that was the first weekend of December. Basically any artisan working with a PCV can come to the fair. It's a good opportunity for them to sell things and meet other artisans. We have workshops for them to learn various business-related things and time for them to see to tourists. There was a lot of walking involved for some of us as we were putting up posters and handing out flyers all over town. A good way to see the city but exhausting! It was also fun to meet some other PCVs from various places and of course see the PCVs that I already know. This is an event that I will probably take on some planning role in this year because I'm pretty close to Kech. We also have these fairs in Fez and Rabat so those will be fun to go to this year.

After the fair I went back to site to settle in with my new host family. Things have been fairly uneventful at site. My language has taken a nosedive since not being in class all day and not feeling super comfortable speaking that much. It's much different living in a house with no other English speaker around and trying to gesture and fumble around for basic conversation. I'm sure they think I'm this quiet, timid person who doesn't say much. Which is true in Darija. If only they knew me ;) I haven't been able to find a tutor so I've been trying to do a little studying on my own, although that doesn't happen as often as it should.

December was honestly a tough month. On Friday, Dec. 17th Sammy Hesselberg had a brain aneurysm and never returned to us. For those of you who don't know him he was 17 and I've known him that whole time. He and his brothers went to Ruth Washburn (our preschool). His brother Matt is a year behind me, his brother Brad is a year behind Jackson and Sammy is a year behind Anna. Our moms worked together at Ruth Washburn and I have memories of Matty and I babysitting him (with his big head and blond hair!), Anna and all the kids of the teachers during work days. More recently my mom and his dad were working in the same school and for several years his family has lived 2 doors down from my best friend Lilly's family. My fondest memory is every time I went to Lilly's, he would see me coming and take off, often to the confusion of whichever friend he was with. Running, biking, whatever transportation he had at hand, he would use to escape while screaming and laughing. I don't know why this ever started in the first place (probably because when he was little enough I liked grabbing him and tickling him) but it went until literally the last 2 or so years (the first time he didn't take off was quite sad for me, I'll admit - I guess since he was finally taller than me and quite the athlete, he had to start looking cooler ;) or maybe just face his fear). Anyways, he was one of the best kids you could ever meet, with a smile that could get him in trouble, and his funeral was attended by around 1,500 people, including many rival hockey players from schools around town - a true testament to him and his family. His funeral was on my birthday (the 22nd) and it was tough not being there. It still doesn't feel real and I know I'll expect to see him when I get back to town. We'll always love you, Sammy.

My birthday also sucked for a couple of other reasons. a. It was the same day as the Debutante Ball, and my sister was a Deb and I missed out on going. b. They don't celebrate birthdays here so I didn't bother even telling my host family. It was just weird walking around and the day being no different than any other day here aside from the multiple facebook postings and emails telling me happy birthday (thanks by the way!).

Moving on from being Debbie Downer... Christmas was weird but good. I went to a site about 4-5 hours away where there are 2 PCVs. It's a bigger town so it was nice to be in more of a city setting for a few days. There were about 20 of us and we cooked amazing food (Zena, my CBT mate and our host for the weekend, owned a catering company before coming here so the food was one of the best parts of the weekend!) and had a white elephant gift exchange (although all the gifts were basically things we all need for our houses). It was great to see other Americans, although it still doesn't really feel like Christmas ever happened having not been in the hustle and bustle or seeing decorations and hearing xmas music.

It's still quite hot around here during the day. The nights are cool, but we haven't gotten rain aside for a couple of days. The plants seem to think it's spring and are flowering. If it's this hot now, I'm pretty sure the summer will be unbearable. Will definitely be traveling as much as possible then.

It's dinnertime (fried sardines - ick) and my computer is going to die so I will post this and try to add some more later tonight!

I'm Officially a Peace Corps Volunteer Now!

Wow, it's been a month since my last post! Lots of things have happened since then and I'm sorry I haven't updated you all. Let's see if I can remember everything....

On Oct. 30th we all got our final site assignments (I'm in the Azilal province, in the foothills of the High Atlas Mountains, but per PC guidelines I can't tell you specifically where - email me if you want to know). On Halloween, we all each traveled to our sites to stay for 5 days with our new host families and meet our new counterparts/the people we'll be working with. I was GREATLY relieved to learn that I will have a sitemate (named Juan - he does Youth Development). I also am replacing someone so the local folks are semi familiar with PC and why we're there. Rebecca, my predeccessor, and sometimes Juan as well, took me around and introduced me to everyone. I am going to work with 5 cooperatives of women weavers. They make this really expensive material out of combos of wool, silk & cotton. The material is then sold to people who make jillabas out of it. It's very thin and takes around a month to weave so it's super expensive and exclusive (the King & government ministers wear it). My job is to see if they can branch out and make some products that will reach a wider audience. Like making scarves that American or European or other tourists would buy. There's been a recent push by the Minister of Artisana to get back to natural dyeing in Morocco so that will be something else I will work on with them. Rebecca has already gotten these things started there so I will continue her work. I will also work with an association that focuses on things like health, sports and the environment in the community. It will be nice to have a few things going on - hopefully will keep me busy!

The site visit was interesting (read: traumatizing!) and it left me with a weird feeling I can't put my finger on. I live with a nice family. Actually, nice lady - I only have 1 other "family" member as my host mom's husband is deceased. She does have 2 grown and married daughters who live very close to us. One has 1 daughter and 2 sons and the other has 4 sons. I only met "my sisters" (we'll call them for convenience sake) and the husband and 2 sons of one of them and (their daughter goes to school in Tangier). I'm sure I'll meet the other kids in due time. The house is set up fairly strange - the bathroom is an outhouse outside of the front door (opposite where the chickens mostly hang out - yes we have chickens). Not such a fan of this feature (I'll explain even more later - but I'm sure you can imagine why it sucks not having your bathroom INSIDE of the house). Anyways, after you come in the gate and pass the bathroom on your right and the chickens' home (not an enclosed, which is why I won't call it a coop - they have free range pretty much) on your left, you enter the front door. On your immediate left is a cold water faucet (oh yeah, the only one in the house, and there's no hot water) over a bucket and then just past that is a kitchen. On your right is a salon, or living room area lined with "ponges" or the Moroccan equivalent of a couch/bed. They're basically long couch-like cushions that some people put on wooden bases. If you come in the front door and don't turn one or the other, but just head a little to the left, you come to an doorway (missing the door) that is sometimes covered with a curtain. If you walk out, you'll be in courtyard. If you cross the courtyard to the right, there is another kitchen (don't start getting ideas this is luxurious - I can't figure out why there are 2 kitchens when neither is anything to write home about. Oh wait.) Anyways, if you cross said courtyard to the left there is my bedroom. The small double doors are missing some pieces and it's only secured with a slidy lock (oh and nothing on the inside to secure them, hmmm). My bedroom has a window, except that there are 2 tvs stacked on top of each other in front of it (neither appear to have worked in some years) so it's pretty much blocked. Fortunately I don't like to wake up to brightness so this should be okay. In the courtyard in a upside-down, beehive-like object. Inside there was a bucket. So I asked what it was. Oh that's right, it's our shower. Oh good. Guess we boil water and stick it in there. And wrap the "mini-hammam" with plastic tarp and blankets to keep the heat in. I now fully understand why Peace Corps Volunteers do not shower on a regular basis. It's not because we're all dirty hippies (because there are surprisingly few that actually are), but because showering is such a freaking hassle it's just easier not to do it. And it's not as if we're in a place where b.o. is given a second thought, but... Back to the house, let's see, the roosters start crowing at 10:10pm and there are 2 - one seems to be "special" because his crow is pretty weird but he tries to compete with the other one. Yay. So the distance between my room, the fact that my host mom was sleeping in the salon in the "main" part of the house & there's no door to close it off, the darkness, the loudness of the metal front door with its squeeking lock and the fact that I often wasn't ready to start my day off as early I woke up, meant that I got very little sleep because I needed to go the bathroom more than once at night, but I refused. I'm sure I'll have to get over all of those issues because I won't be able to live like that for 3 weeks, but we'll see.

After the site visit we went back to our CBTs to finish up training. Things got a little crazy because on the 13th the brother of my host mom passed away in Rabat so my host family took off unexpectedly without really saying goodbye (they called my LCF and told him they were leaving and that my house key was with the Gendarme - basically the Police - Chief and his family. This turned into a bit of a mess but was worked out with Joe's help. Oh the joys of a language barrier. Anyways, I ended up staying at Zena's house with her and her family for the remaining days in TimHdit. They were very welcoming and so nice to take me in!

The Following Semi-Graphically Talks About Killing Sheep - Consider Yourself Warned...
L'Eid Kbir (The Big Feast) was on the 17th. During this holiday every family slaughters at least 1 sheep. The kids (and adults) get as excited as we do about Santa coming. They love to tell you all about it and never fail to do the finger slicing across the neck motion to show you what's going to happen to the sheep (my final site 8 year old host "nephew" went through the entire process by acting it out - pretty funny actually). It's quite a sight, to walk through the streets and seeing blood running everywhere, sheepskins hanging off of roofs and look into garages at just the moment a super sharp knife slices across a neck. I watched at least 3. The most disturbing part to me is watching the poor guy try to get up and run and basically convulse even when it's brain dead. After it bleeds out, the cut a spot in the leg so they can blow in it (yes, they but their mouth to it) so they can puff it up which evidently makes the skinning easier. Once the skinning is complete, it's time to hang that sucker up by its crossed feet, slit it down the middle and remove its innerds. At some point they remove the head (and then stick 'er on the grill to burn away the hair so it can be eaten - blech - the whole town smells like burning hair and blood). Let's get to the eating part. They eat the whole dang thing. Then they start right away cutting up the liver into bite-sized pieces and then wrapping it in fat, putting it on a kabob and then grilling it. They also pushed the intestines inside out and grilled that too. Oh and by the way, the grilling is often done in the kitchen or garage so it gets pretty rough inside. They eat the head & feet that night (including eye balls and sucking on even the teeth - I ate some cheek, or so I think it was, but they were nice enough to cook me some "meat" - yes, by name they realize that these other parts are not what one would consider meat). Then there's basically meat for every meal from there on out until we left town that weekend - and they were definitely not even close to done when we left. I helped cut up some of the body so I did my part (oh and I took pictures which they couldn't get enough of looking at). I'd love for any of you to experience this holiday next year so feel free to come then - I'll let you know what the date will be as the time gets closer, although you may have to book a ticket to be here for the timeframe in which the correct moon might be sighted since religious holidays are based on that and it can change last minute or not be on the same day in every place. Don't ask.

The weekend after L'Eid we went back to Mehidia, the beach town where we spent our first days in country. It was nice to have the entire group back together for a few days. We took our Language Proficiency Interview (exam) and I scored Intermediate Low - a level above the minimum which I was quite frankly shocked about. Maybe my teacher paid of the interviewer or maybe she was just tired because I went midday, but either way, that was way better than I expected to do. And I barely studied thank you very much. We'll get tested again in February or March so we'll see if in the meantime I can find a tutor and then improve my score.

We spent the Thanksgiving Eve Day in Rabat for Swearing-in which means there are 63 new official Peace Corps Volunteers (and yes I'm one of them). The Ambassador did the official ceremony, along with our outgoing Country Director (we'll miss you David!) and the Minister of Youth & Sports and the Director of the Artisana. It was a nice enough ceremony with a small reception to follow. Then we went back to the Peace Corps headquarters for a "Thanksgiving" meal. Let's use the word Thanksgiving very loosely here as the only thing that related it to the holiday was the fact that they served turkey. It's nice that they tried though... That night we went to the American Club and I had my first alcoholic beverage since I was in Philly before we left the U.S. Mmm, beer. We had french fries and onion rings as well. Then we went out to a Thai restaurant. Good times. On Thanksgiving we all started the journey to our sites. I took the train with some people to Marrakech. Getting on the train was a freaking nightmare. I had my 2 huge rolling duffel bags, plus my backpack, a smaller duffel, my purse and another bag. Thank god one guy was nice enough to help me out by lifting the bags into the train for me, but from there it got messy. I was too wide to fit down the hallway, so finding a seat was a huge pain and then people would just step over us/our things to get by. Could you just wait until I move, please? Oh no, oh okay, just knock my bag over so it falls to the side and becomes even more unmanagable. Appreciate it. The rest of the ride was okay and then our stay in kesh was nice. It was great being in Rabat and Marrakech - big cities - where no one really cares you're there because it's not the first time in their whole life that they've seen a non-Moroccan person. People still stare a little, but it's nothing like in the small towns. Plus it's nice to be in what feels like civilization - showers with water overhead! Western toilets! Hot & cold water in the faucet/sink! In kech we went to a pizza place for Thanksgiving dinner. Not exactly ideal but good to be with friends eating good food. We wandered through the medina and just hung out. We went to a vegetarian restaurant that had really good food (and they love PCVs so they give us a discount and free bread). Then I went to Azilal for our Welcome to the Province Party. It was fun to meet some of the Health and Environment Volunteers.

I'm looking forward to seeing the SBD Volunteers again on Wednesday for a craft fair - we'll be together until Monday. But then the real life in my site begins so stay posted...

I now know my permanent address (I'm sharing with Juan) so when you want to send packages and Christmas & Birthday cards, message me and I'll give it to you! Or look on facebook - it's posted there too.

P.s. I'm too lazy to proof this so my apologies as always for typos - I hate them but more than I hate them, I want to get this posted!

Shiny and Soft

Two Sundays ago we went hiking in Zouia d'Ifrane. We hired two drivers/cars to take us there as it's about 70km from our village. They have pretty waterfalls so we spent the day hiking up to the top of them and having a picnic and then up further. It was a pretty cool, rainy day - maybe this is what fall is like here (wet!) or maybe we're skipping straight to winter (it's supposed to be cold and wet - miserable - this year). We're planning for snow before we leave here for our permanent sites on Thanksgiving. Definitely going to appreciate the stack of blankets at my house that is literally taller than me - I will try to take a picture of it. Joe, our Moroccan teacher, didn't believe me about how many blankets they have so I had to show him when everyone came over for kaskrut (the coffee/tea/snack break at 6:30ish). He was shocked to see so many (and scared to think about what winter is going to bring)!

Last Saturday we went to Ait Hamza, a village of 300 people, that’s just a short taxi ride away from us. We went to visit another group of trainees there. Some people from two of the other groups came as well. We were able to be away from our site overnight so 19 of us stayed at the home of a current PCV that lives there. She made Mexican food, but unfortunately I was too sick to take even a bite. I was puking and ______. So pleasant – I spent the evening lying on Emily’s bed, but it was fun to see everyone and have such a big group. The next day the group was going hiking but I was not up to it and Zena (from my group) wanted to go back and study so she and I got a cab to the next town where we then got another cab back to our town.

We find out our permanent sites this Friday and we're all pretty excited/nervous to find out where we'll be spending the next two years. We talked to the program director last weekend to let him know if we had any requests or information for him regarding our site, but from everything we've heard, no matter what we say, they put you where they need you, SO - who knows and why bother!

Yesterday the 3 other girls in my group, our cook and I went to the hammam, which is the public bath. I liked the after result – silky smooth skin, but sitting there in only my underwear – no top on – with a bunch of other women was totally awkward. There are basically 3 rooms and a changing “lobby” in the place. You go in, strip down and then go in to the next room and then the next. The first room is cool, then the middle room is warm and then the last room, depending on the number of people, is hotter. There are faucets around the room and you fill a bucket and wet-down and then put this argon oil soap on, wash it off and then start scrubbing with this weird mitt thing. After awhile your skin starts coming off in small spaghetti-like strands. Talk about gross. Oh, and since you can’t really scrub your own back to death, someone does it for you. And lucky me, before I knew what was happening, the lady that works there had me thrown on the ground and twisted in all sorts of weird positions and was scrubbing the s*** out of me. I’m pretty sure I was supposed to pay her, but I only took enough money to get in (since your clothes and shoes just hang out in an open room). I think my host mom wants me to go pay her tomorrow but due to the language barrier, I’m not totally sure. I didn’t want this “service” in the first place – I thought the lady was just asking about my host mom and telling me there was hot water over there – ugh. She had a couple of mats I laid on – gross – and they smelled like a barnyard. Many thanks to my “friends” who didn’t save me!! Anyways, once you’re done scrubbing (which goes on for quite some time) you rinse off and wash with real soap and shampoo and then rinse off and then leave. Some people stay for hours, especially the men who evidently in addition to scrubbing each other also assist each other in stretching. I’m sure it’s nice in the winter since they don’t believe in actually heating their houses, but then the cold reminder that you have to go outside will set in and yikes that will be rough. I’m sure I’ll go from time to time but will try to avoid being pinned to the ground. That night 3 of us made our own kaskrut (the evening coffee break, but ours consisted of Coke, chocolate pudding, french bread and some soft cheese stuff - we get it how we can. Then we had a girls movie night (watched Fargo on Jamila's computer) - we huddled together on Nora's bed to keep warm. It was relaxing and quiet with no one talking (i.e. yelling because they talk so loud) in arabic.

Today was the first day we didn’t go anywhere or do anything out of our site. I slept in (well didn’t sleep, but stayed in bed) and then did most of my homework before the family came in to tell me they were all going different places for awhile. It was nice to have the place to myself for a bit. When my host mom came back we did my laundry and then she showed me the unfinished apartment upstairs from ours where we hang clothes to dry. She was also drying seeds to make into bread (okay, they weren’t seeds, but my English these days is diminishing so I don’t know what to call them). Tonight for dinner I was really excited that we were going to have pizza. Until I learned that it was fish pizza. Can’t anything be the same?! Yesterday we made Chinese food and it was quite delicious. Actually tasted like Chinese food and unlike anything we eat here – we even left the cumin and turmeric out of it (they cook with an overabundance of those here and I’ve learned I don’t like them – not good!). Thanks to Jamila for whipping up chicken fried rice and stir-fried (well, steamed) veggies chicken and thanks to Zena for buying soy sauce when she had to make an unplanned trip to Rabat a couple of weeks ago.

In a Mercedes Built for Five

Last week we finally met with the women weavers we’re supposed to be doing our project with during this first phase. They were the ones that wanted us here, yet the president was not responding to any of our calls or even visits to her house (here’s that patience thing coming into play again that is required from the moment you apply to the Peace Corps). We finally tracked down the president’s sister, who is conveniently the treasurer, and then managed to plan a meeting. We saw their rugs and other weaving work and it’s quite impressive. They make very nice, high quality things. It sounds like they are relying completely on us to sell their goods so we’re going to have to do a little “expectation management” and fix that! We’re here to help, not do it all! Flash forward: after 2 meetings with the weavers, it’s pretty shocking where the priorities lay. They had a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) here a few years ago and we’ve discovered that she basically sold their rugs to her family and friends in the States. She totally set them up for failure in not giving them any type of sustainable plan, but they see her as a hero as now pretty much they equate PCV with sales and international marketing. When we were discussing the things they need to be successful, they basically bypassed starting at the local level and attempting to get some of them literate (things that we definitely see as starting off points) and went straight for the aforementioned things. Oh boy…

On Saturday we cooked lamb kabobs and many veggies over the smallest grill you’ve ever seen. (Technically it was a brazier, but since we giggled so much when Joe*, our LCF - Language & Culture Facilitator - said the word, he had to call it something else. He of course didn’t understand our laughing like 12 year old boys at the word, so we had to explain it was another word for bra. Not that funny, but you gotta find the humor however you can I guess.) The food was yet again delicious and we had a ton of it. This time no animals were killed in front of us in order to prepare the meal (we did see a cow’s head, a goat’s head – under the foot of the butcher, mind you – and many chicken heads when purchasing the lamb). Jamila’s host sister was visiting for the weekend (she goes to school in Azrou) so she did henna for us that night. *He is Moroccan – his name is of course not Joe – but from here on out, the names will be changed to protect the guilty. Either from Moroccan to American or vice versa. We’ve all be given Moroccan names so those will be used. In case you’re wondering, mine is Dunya, which I guess is as close to Adrienne as they can come up with. It means “the life” or “the road” – guess it could be worse!

Speaking of food, I will take this opportunity to tell you that we have 3 meals a day, plus 3 coffee breaks that typically include some sort of snack. During all of these, food is shoved down our throats. Even if you are chewing, have food in your hand and on the table immediately in front of you, they are telling you to eat. Thanks for the hospitality, but I am full/eating at a normal pace. They pretty much laugh when you say you’re full and think you’re ridiculous. It does not go unnoticed, however, that during most of these times, they are not eating themselves. And sugar makes its way into basically everything. Including spaghetti. Yeah that’s right – Xena was having spaghetti and her host sister sprinkled something on top. She got really excited thinking cheese – finally! Nope, it was sugar. And for dinner or whatever meal it was a couple of nights ago, I had cake and orange Fanta. Ask us in a couple of years what we got out of the Peace Corps and we’re pretty sure we’re all going to say diabetes. Super.

On Sunday, 4 of my CBT (Community Based Training) group went to Azrou to meet up with someone from another CBT. We had coffee and tasty pastries at a café and then walked around and looked at the shops selling a huge variety of goods. We found places to have a jilaba (the long outfits they wear) custom made and/or buy shoes, gaudy jewelry and a whole bunch of other random stuff. We had lunch, walked around some more and then had another coffee break. Then we left.

Getting and riding in a grande taxi (the kind that take you from town to town vs. a petite taxi that only takes you around town) is quite a production. They take 6 passengers so unless you have 6 people in your group wanting to go to the same place, you have to wait until enough people show up wanting to go to the same destination as you (or you can pay for the empty spots yourself if you don’t want to wait). Normally our whole group of 6 goes places together but Tariq was going hiking with another one of the groups and Jamila has been sick so she stayed home. The waiting game can take awhile (the guy we were meeting had to wait for over 2 hours to fill his taxi to come meet us). Nothing like cramming 4 adults in the backseat and 3 in the front of a car designed for 5! It’s cozy to say the least. Oh, and somehow all of the handles are removed from the windows so you have to ask the driver to hand you the handle so you can roll down your window. What? Is it cheaper to buy that Mercedes (which they all are) without the handles? Pretty sure it isn’t. We’re quite curious where all of those handles go. Such a weird thing to remove.

On Wednesday we had a crazy rain storm that included giant hail coming down for quite some time and causing a river to form outside of the house we were visiting for a meeting. Massive amounts of rain in a town torn up for construction does not equal something good. We managed to cross a huge mud pit but were confused when we saw Tariq’s host dad was waiting for us with a car to take us across the street. Then we realized the sidewalk was a rushing waterfall/stream. Many of our houses had water coming in because they’re ground-level (I realized how lucky I am to live on the 2nd floor). The journey back to my house that night was quite a dark, muddy adventure to say the least.

On Friday (now) the whole business group (28 of us) are back in Azrou for our last rabies shot and some sessions on harassment and medical issues and to do presentations on our sites so far. It's great to be with the big group. We even went out for pizza and cheeseburgers for dinner. They definitely left a lot to be desired, but still, we had pizza! We met with the director of SBD (Small Business Development) today to discuss anything we wanted to share about our potential future sites. We all answered with a grain of salt knowing that no matter what you say, they are going to place you where they need you. We find out at the end of this month where we're going so we're all waiting anxiously for the news! Tomorrow we're doing more sessions on random stuff and then heading back to our sites. On Sunday we're doing a day trip somewhere so that should be fun.

Okay, much love, time to get back to the group! Oh and apologies for any and all spelling and grammar mistakes in all posts. And a shoutout to Alyssa for mentioning me in her blog and even posting a picture :) and to Natalie and my family for mailing cards - nothing beats getting stuff on mail delivery day!