Celebration

Celebrating my 23rd birthday in Morocco and a few observations…

I’ve never been a big birthday person.  I don’t mind doing something small or nothing at all.  So my 23rd was perfect according to my standards.  My closest friend here in Morocco decided to surprise me and came the four hour trip to my site.  But if that wasn’t nice enough, she went out of her way to go the nearest big city and bought all the fixins for really good cold cut sandwiches and a bottle of wine. The last time I ate white bread slices was probably before I left the states.  

Any who my site mate, friend, and I spent the day hiking to the river and later we made spaghetti with homemade sauce.  Enjoyed a few drinks and spent the night talking on my roof.  The next day was spent recovering, per usual.  All in all it was a great birthday.  

Before we came to our final sites, we were all given a timeline of the usual emotions that volunteers face.  So that 3-6 month period is known to be the hardest.  We’re thrust into the culture without our LCF safety net and CBT site mates to rely on.  We’re in the limbo period.  

The only expectations the Peace Corps have of us now is to work on language, start building meaningful relationships, and look for potential counterparts and just integrate.  Easier said than done, believe me. So this is the time where homesickness starts to hit, feel a little lost and unsure of role in community.  

How does this pertain to me… let’s see… homesickness… check.  Uncertainty of what the heck I’m doing here… check.  Emotions everywhere… check.  This place is a roller coaster.  One day I might have a great conversation and feel somewhat confident about language, the next I might not be able to understand the easiest questions. But then there are times when I feel like skipping down the road and hugging strangers on the road.  I want to say “Can you believe I’m here?! This is so hard and I’m here, doing it!”.  

So folks, now is an up period and it was all set off by my birthday.  What a great birthday.  I’m looking forward to gathering in a month for Post Pre-service Training.  Hopefully get some really helpful technically training.

Observations and thoughts…. 

1. With the Fourth of July coming up, I wish I brought a thing of sparklers. 

2. Usually after you move into a new place, then you start to notice the things needing fixed.  My bathroom sink is leaking like crazy and I have noooo idea how to turn the water off. Where do people turn the water off to their faucets or anything if say… their hallway is flooding.  Hopefully the landlord fixes it soon… 

3. Almost all 500 GB of my external hard drive is being used up by movies, tv series, and music that has been swapped between volunteers.  Who knew the amount of free movies I’d end up with.

4. I encountered my first man who would not shake my hand because of his religious beliefs. 

5. Had a guy ask me where my brother was (my site mate), I corrected him and then later 

that same day he asked me where my son was (meaning my site mate). Hahah I got a real kick outta that.  He was thoroughly confused. 

6. 8 adorable mutt puppies are living in my neighbor’s yard.  It takes every ounce of strength I have to not take at least one in.  Tagulefte has a lot of wild dogs and cats.  The other day I counted 10 just in the souk area on my walk home.  

7. Still not quite sure how Turkish toilets work… so it’s a pit underneath the house, apartment, etc. but what happens when they fill? Hm… I must investigate further, that and HOW DO I TURN THE WATER OFF? Haha 

8. I miss grass. Mowing in the summer and smelling fresh cut grass.  Walking around barefoot.

9. I’ve eaten more watermelon in one month then all my previous 23 years combined. 

10. So babies eat normal food as soon as they can… no puree baby food, just some bread soaked in oil or super mushy potatoes, or anything really. Just got me thinking I really don’t know anything about maternal and child health… Any website articles are welcome. What can hurt a kid that age? How much is too much of something for babies? And popcorn definitely a bad idea right? (I didn’t feed the baby popcorn, I even tried to convince him he had no teeth to chew it… it didn’t work). 

But that will do it for now… hope everyone is enjoying my rollercoaster with me.   

Apartment Found!

I haven’t written a blog in while and so here we go… what’s new?

First and most importantly… I found an apartment! Technically we are supposed to live with our host families for 2 months and it’s been one month, one week, but I am so ready to move out and I have been slowly putting together my apartment. I have a good host family and they give me space and the food is really good most of the time, but I’m so ready to not eat dinner at 11 and not eat bread and oil for breakfast. I’m ready to take my bucket baths indoors instead of outside…. Ha and I’m ready to blare my music while I hand wash all my clothes. Also I’m ready to go to the bathroom in peace, (the lock on our bathroom doesn’t work and it’s right by the front door…). Also the bugs that keep eating me up everynight are not my favorite… All those things aside, I’ve enjoyed staying with my host family and look forward to still eating meals with them and seeing them very often. It’s amazing what we get used to and honestly if it weren’t for the new bug bites everyday, I wouldn’t be in such a rush to move out.

But let me see… my apartment is 2 bedrooms, a salon, big kitchen, and I have roof access! The roof access was the most important to me. I can do laundry up there (I already made my clothes line). I can grow plants. I can sunbathe if the mood strikes me. I can read. I can enjoy the stars and even sleep up there if the weather really does get sweltering. Speaking of the heat… we’re probably about the same as Illinois now. 90’s ish most the time, but wow I forgot how much I am able to sweat. No fancy smanshy air conditioning here. So if I’m sweating and so unwilling to go outside here when it’s the 90’s… I can’t imagine what my fellow pcvs are going through to the south where it can get almost 145 degrees. Seriously… I’d be a puddle in that sort of weather. I’d have to sit in a little baby pool and constantly drinking water, because it’ll all come right out through my pores, as quickly as I drink it, I sweat it out. Gross… I know that’s exactly what everyone wanted to know… haha

So just in case if anyone is wondering what I actually am up to everyday now that I’m out here on my own. I don’t do a whole lot…. But the days fly by. On a good day… I go to the health clinic, study, talk to a few people. Do some laundry? Read? Nap? Lately I’ve been cleaning my apartment a lot. Um… have tea with families and I have a few friends. Sometimes we go on walks. Oh yeah… hang out with the site mate. He’s got me into dominoes and watching the Wire. Good stuff.

So yeah… so far very laid back. Soon I hope to go swimming in the river and um… start on my community analysis in depth. It depends on the day, but yeah sometimes I definitely wonder what I’m doing here. I can say that for the most part I’m really happy and enjoying myself. It’s only been 3 months, but so far this whole thing has been a huge confidence booster. I mean I found an apartment without really being able to speak the language well. There are no classified ads or realtors to go through. You find friends and community members to help you connect with the people who have an extra house or empty downstairs. Anyways I hope to start being more consistent with my writing soon and I’ll do my best to get more pictures up soon. I think my pictures speak louder than my words. Hope all is well in the States.