Correction!

I have to just mention that I was so wrong when I said we only eat couscous on Fridays. No, we eat it allll the time. It's quite delicious and depending on the day I do eat with my hands. Alright just had to make that correction.

Community Based Training So Far....

So I've been in Morocco about 3 1/2 weeks and man has it been intense and wonderful.

First off.... my CBT (community based training) group is really great and we have an amazing language teacher. There are 6 of us and we all have some strong personalities, but balance each other out well.

We're living in a small community of only 350ish people and it's really gorgeous for being sort of a desert town. The town is near a river, so we have some beautiful fields. In the beginning of May, there are tons of bushes that will be blooming a type of Primrose. I hear it's awesome, so I'm looking forward to seeing that.

Maybe the best part of my CBT site is my host family. My host parents are a bit younger (30's) and super patient with me. They have 5 kids, all young. There are 3 girls and 2 boys. My oldest host sister is 12, than a sister who is 7, then 4 year old twins boy and girl, and then the baby boy 5 months. They are such a beautiful and fun family. The host families in my site all seem nice, but so different. I think I lucked out with the kids and the young parents. My host dad and mom also are incredibly nice. They invited everyone over to do a henna party and have tea. Also one night I spent pretending to be a 100 year old woman with the kids and having fake tea time. Such a good way to practice my language. Also when I told them I was going to my hub site this week, the little 4 year old boy kept insisting that I not go, because he'd miss me. I'd heard this every night at dinner. So cute! This family fits me really well and I can already tell it will be hard to leave them in May.

So I suppose I will just walk through a normal training day.

Wake up around 7. Have breakfast (usually bread, jam, scrambled eggs).

Class starts at 8. Language training has been tough, but going well I think?

Tea time at 10. More bread, cheese, sometimes amazing other things from our cook.

More language.

Lunch around 12:30ish or 1 or sometimes later. (The food has been really good!)

After lunch, whoever's turn it is feeds the orange peels to the cow and sheep. haha and yes we do fight over that!

After lunch we have a break. Then one on one tutoring or fun community things.

Tea time!

Go home around 6ish.

Then family time! I either nap or I have more tea or I help with dinner or we watch tv or we dance or we play soccer.

Tea and Dinner is pretty late around 8:30, 9.

Then bed!

So my days are anything but boring and the schedule is the intense part. You have language and then more language and then more time spent with family and mine wants to teach me everything. So it all becomes very intense and overwhelming somedays. My family is really great with understanding I need alone time and naps sometimes to decompress after school. Other days I can't wait to start interacting.

But that's just a typical boringish day.... because we have done some pretty awesome things so far.

-We went to our local health clinic, really interesting and informative.

-We had a meeting with the "mayor" or president of the commune. Then had lunch at his super nice house 2 days later.

-Then he donated a nice soccer ball to us, so we started a 2 hour pickup soccer game with some of the locals. MAN that was fun! Felt good to play again, even if it was on a dirt field, in a skirt and sandals. haha

-We have been to 2 souks (big markets).

-Learned to cook amazing beans and my host mom makes amazing sauce for rice.

-Wandered in the fields learning about the town history

-Had henna done 2 times

-Done a little hiking

-Taught our language teacher, slang and some fun sayings. She loves saying them! She's hilarious.

-Been invited to tea with random families and actually understanding a little!

-Been randomly invited into part of a wedding celebration

-Had host moms dress us up

-Went to the hamam (public bath house). Let's just say it was liberating and I might stick to doing it once in a blue moon. I got super dehydrated and felt like I had a bad hang over, with out the fun. But it was pretty interesting and I did feel super clean.

I just am really enjoying my community and my other group members. Hopefully we'll be going to a wedding this weekend, a relative of the mayor. It's all about connections and networking! We've got the hook up!

The language does still feel so intimidating and to be doing all this on my own soon, seems impossible. But I have a lot of wonderful support and the language just comes in time. I shall end it hear. The sun is about to set and I've been looking forward to a nice hot shower.

Finally here!

I have been in Morocco for a little over 2 days now and I'm in love. We got into Casablanca around 7 in the morning on the 3rd and then they herded all 71 of us on to the super nice charter buses to Marrakesh. It wasn't too bad of a drive only about 2 hours. After we got there, we checked into this hotel with bungalows. Soon after while we are all very jet lagged, we have our first meeting in country. Met the staff, talked to the country director. The staff seem great and just very excited to have us all here.

Anyways I'm trying to keep this short since it's almost time for dinner and it smells wonderful. (I'm using wi-fi in the cafeteria in our hotel, that overlooks the main town square) I'm smelling wonderful food, watching people at the shops along the square, and listening to the busy chatter of other trainees.

A couple of things!

-I saw the mountains for the first time and drove through them. Beautiful!

-Found out the only really eat couscous on Fridays, their holy day.

-Palm trees everywhere?! Had no idea there were palm trees.

-Listened to current volunteers answer questions on a panel today. Awesome and overwhelming.

-Find out what language I have to learn tomorrow. Eek! So the Berber dialects and Moroccan Arabic (Darija) are completely different! Whoof.

-Get along with my roommates wonderfully.

-The food has been good! Interesting for sure. No bad digestion problems yet! (I'm sure it will come soon enough)

-I had the most amazing orange I have ever tasted! Screw Florida oranges. They are growing on trees all over Marrakesh and in season now. Delicious!

-I've dabbled in using my French in a shop. haha It didn't go that well.... haha He was selling canaries and spices. So cool seeing the spices in these huge barrels.

**Hope all is well in the homeland.