It’s been about a month since I last blogged. Quite a bit has happened. First I made it through my first Ramadan. It ended on a Friday with the Eid Sgir, (Little Celebration), which meant I got to enjoy eating tons of carbs in the morning with all the neighbor ladies. After we stuffed ourselves with food, everyone started to walk towards the town gathering point, which was sorta like a field, more like a huge dirt area on the edge of town. It felt like I was going to church. I had on my nicest Moroccan outfit, went with the family, and I watched a lot of towns people pray all together. It felt even more like church seeing all the kids running around, not really paying attention. Some were blowing whistles or running around with popsicles (that part and the heat made it feel like the Fourth of July, just missing the fireworks).
It was a great cultural experience, which is hard to really describe. A combination of many different experiences and holidays at home. I’m looking forward to the Eid Kbir (Big celebration), which is around the 18th of November. This I have a feeling will be similar to Thanksgiving. A day where the whole family tries to be together, no matter how far the travel and gorge themselves on food. In Morocco however, the food part of “Thanksgiving” is mostly meat. Meaning Moroccans will buy and slaughter all the sheep, goats, and other things their families can eat. I’m nervous and intrigued to experience Meat Fest. Also I obviously need/want to learn more about the significance of this holiday in the Islamic faith.
The big event I had been looking forward to after the end of Ramadan was the Health and Environment Hike through the Atlas Mountains. All newbies to the Azilal province had been told about the hike way back in March and I’d been looking forward to it ever since. I mean I’m here in Morocco, in the mountains, and hoping to do some real hiking and some real work. The goal of this hike is to go into schools and do health lessons, which otherwise aren’t easy to access or usually visited by volunteers.
So 6 months later it was finally time for the hike and let’s just say we were all pretty unorganized. Conversations about the hike with other volunteers usually went like this… “Do you know how many schools we’re going to?”. “Nope. You have a lessoned planned?.” “Sorta? Do you know what Volunteer 1 is teaching?”. “Nope”. Azilal providence has some very intelligent, talented, unique individuals, but doesn’t mean we’re the most organized. So I had my reservations. We only had one volunteer with us who had done the hike the previous year, so a lot of the responsibility rested on her shoulders, but we all managed to get our stuff together and put together some good health lessons, including a mini play about germs, a trash game, and a riveting tooth brushing lesson.
The first 3 days were spent in the twin valleys in Azilal providence, Bougamez and Boulli. Gorgeous sites with some very lucky volunteers. But like the title implies, I did not make it through the whole health hike. One previous volunteer who had been on the hike jokingly told me in May that we had all better start working on getting in shape for the hike then. Of course I figured it’d be hard and that I would try to do hiking around my site before the real deal, but because of the heat I never got motivated to work out or hike much. So let’s just say I underestimated my desire or physical ability to do the health hike.
On the second day, we spent half of it doing a 24-26 kilometer (around 15 miles) hike from one valley to the other. The volunteer (guy volunteer who runs a lot) said he usually does it in 4 hours, so I was thinking it’d take me maybe 5? Well maybe 2 of those hours were spent going uphill, up a mountain to be exact. You could compare it to being on a treadmill that’s outside, under the sun, walking at an incline of almost 8 (out of 10) and carrying a pack on your back maybe weighing close to 20 pounds, and like a dummie I wore my Choco sandals, not shoes. My body and feet weren’t prepared. Oh and side note this is after doing a 3 hour hike to and from a school we taught at in the morning.
Most of us were hurting at the end of the hike, but I was really dragging. I never really had hiked before this, I mean Illinois isn’t known for its mountain range or hiking. So at the end of the night I was crabby, tired, hurting beyond belief and pretty sure I was done for. The next morning when I woke up and could barely move I was so stiff and sore was the deciding factor. My feet felt like they did the night before, like I wish they would just fall off so the pain would stop. It’s been almost 4 days since then and I’m still walking with a slight limp. I compare it to having shin splints and it might actually be the same cause… who knows. I just know that no time soon will I be doing a hike from Boulli to Bougamez and if I would have continued I probably would have asked the other volunteers to just leave me somewhere in the mountains. They left the day after we taught in Bougamez at 4 in the morning to start their 2 day hike through the mountains to the next town. Oh and that day was supposed to be much more intense then the first day… haha Yeah I’m glad I didn’t keep going.
One great thing about the hike was having that first glimpse of teaching in the schools. 3 volunteers and I performed a play and the kids got a real quick out of it. At the end we ask questions and it was great seeing the students respond and see that they understood. Our message was simple (Wash your hands before you eat), but it was fun and I enjoyed it. It just made me want to get back to my site, to start working on getting into the schools here. I enjoy teaching, I enjoy being in front of a class, and I’m starting to have enough confidence in my language skills that I think I could be good at it. Getting permission to go into the schools is still a work in progress, we’ll see how it goes…
The next big thing I’m looking forward to is Operation Smile, which is taking place in our province capital. Operation Smile is an non-government organization (NGO) and they are bringing doctors, nurses, and volunteers into Azilal for a week to help children and adults with physical deformities like cleft lips, palates, and burns. They want to perform up to 120 surgeries and they are doing all this for free, providing food and housing for patients. As a volunteer I’ll be helping families with forms the first day and then working with the kids right before they go into surgery. I see this as an opportunity to work with a well known NGO, doctors and nurses, use my language, and get to be part of an important, organized event. It’s a week long and will be tough to be out of site that long, but it’ll be nice to be working.
While all this is going on I have also been doing a lot of adventure planning. At the end of the month all the new health/environment volunteers will be back together in Marrakech for In Service Training. Then for Thanksgiving, I’ll be traveling through part of Europe! Taking a train from Spain to the Czech Republic to visit a college friend, lucky enough to be studying abroad. Then for Christmas, it’s back to the UK for me. Spending Christmas with one of my best friends and her family and hopefully going to the Green Isle (Ireland) for New Years?
A lot of adventuring is planned, but there are still tons of question marks in those plans, which is exciting. One of my reasons for joining the Peace Corps was the opportunity to travel and I’m glad I’m getting to have these experiences now. I’m looking forward to hopefully finding meaningful work in my site, but for now I’ll settle for some amazing adventures I would never have otherwise been able to have time or money for. Thank you Peace Corps for making my travel bug happy. So that’s just a little bit of what’s been going on, hope you enjoyed.
It was a great cultural experience, which is hard to really describe. A combination of many different experiences and holidays at home. I’m looking forward to the Eid Kbir (Big celebration), which is around the 18th of November. This I have a feeling will be similar to Thanksgiving. A day where the whole family tries to be together, no matter how far the travel and gorge themselves on food. In Morocco however, the food part of “Thanksgiving” is mostly meat. Meaning Moroccans will buy and slaughter all the sheep, goats, and other things their families can eat. I’m nervous and intrigued to experience Meat Fest. Also I obviously need/want to learn more about the significance of this holiday in the Islamic faith.
The big event I had been looking forward to after the end of Ramadan was the Health and Environment Hike through the Atlas Mountains. All newbies to the Azilal province had been told about the hike way back in March and I’d been looking forward to it ever since. I mean I’m here in Morocco, in the mountains, and hoping to do some real hiking and some real work. The goal of this hike is to go into schools and do health lessons, which otherwise aren’t easy to access or usually visited by volunteers.
So 6 months later it was finally time for the hike and let’s just say we were all pretty unorganized. Conversations about the hike with other volunteers usually went like this… “Do you know how many schools we’re going to?”. “Nope. You have a lessoned planned?.” “Sorta? Do you know what Volunteer 1 is teaching?”. “Nope”. Azilal providence has some very intelligent, talented, unique individuals, but doesn’t mean we’re the most organized. So I had my reservations. We only had one volunteer with us who had done the hike the previous year, so a lot of the responsibility rested on her shoulders, but we all managed to get our stuff together and put together some good health lessons, including a mini play about germs, a trash game, and a riveting tooth brushing lesson.
The first 3 days were spent in the twin valleys in Azilal providence, Bougamez and Boulli. Gorgeous sites with some very lucky volunteers. But like the title implies, I did not make it through the whole health hike. One previous volunteer who had been on the hike jokingly told me in May that we had all better start working on getting in shape for the hike then. Of course I figured it’d be hard and that I would try to do hiking around my site before the real deal, but because of the heat I never got motivated to work out or hike much. So let’s just say I underestimated my desire or physical ability to do the health hike.
On the second day, we spent half of it doing a 24-26 kilometer (around 15 miles) hike from one valley to the other. The volunteer (guy volunteer who runs a lot) said he usually does it in 4 hours, so I was thinking it’d take me maybe 5? Well maybe 2 of those hours were spent going uphill, up a mountain to be exact. You could compare it to being on a treadmill that’s outside, under the sun, walking at an incline of almost 8 (out of 10) and carrying a pack on your back maybe weighing close to 20 pounds, and like a dummie I wore my Choco sandals, not shoes. My body and feet weren’t prepared. Oh and side note this is after doing a 3 hour hike to and from a school we taught at in the morning.
Most of us were hurting at the end of the hike, but I was really dragging. I never really had hiked before this, I mean Illinois isn’t known for its mountain range or hiking. So at the end of the night I was crabby, tired, hurting beyond belief and pretty sure I was done for. The next morning when I woke up and could barely move I was so stiff and sore was the deciding factor. My feet felt like they did the night before, like I wish they would just fall off so the pain would stop. It’s been almost 4 days since then and I’m still walking with a slight limp. I compare it to having shin splints and it might actually be the same cause… who knows. I just know that no time soon will I be doing a hike from Boulli to Bougamez and if I would have continued I probably would have asked the other volunteers to just leave me somewhere in the mountains. They left the day after we taught in Bougamez at 4 in the morning to start their 2 day hike through the mountains to the next town. Oh and that day was supposed to be much more intense then the first day… haha Yeah I’m glad I didn’t keep going.
One great thing about the hike was having that first glimpse of teaching in the schools. 3 volunteers and I performed a play and the kids got a real quick out of it. At the end we ask questions and it was great seeing the students respond and see that they understood. Our message was simple (Wash your hands before you eat), but it was fun and I enjoyed it. It just made me want to get back to my site, to start working on getting into the schools here. I enjoy teaching, I enjoy being in front of a class, and I’m starting to have enough confidence in my language skills that I think I could be good at it. Getting permission to go into the schools is still a work in progress, we’ll see how it goes…
The next big thing I’m looking forward to is Operation Smile, which is taking place in our province capital. Operation Smile is an non-government organization (NGO) and they are bringing doctors, nurses, and volunteers into Azilal for a week to help children and adults with physical deformities like cleft lips, palates, and burns. They want to perform up to 120 surgeries and they are doing all this for free, providing food and housing for patients. As a volunteer I’ll be helping families with forms the first day and then working with the kids right before they go into surgery. I see this as an opportunity to work with a well known NGO, doctors and nurses, use my language, and get to be part of an important, organized event. It’s a week long and will be tough to be out of site that long, but it’ll be nice to be working.
While all this is going on I have also been doing a lot of adventure planning. At the end of the month all the new health/environment volunteers will be back together in Marrakech for In Service Training. Then for Thanksgiving, I’ll be traveling through part of Europe! Taking a train from Spain to the Czech Republic to visit a college friend, lucky enough to be studying abroad. Then for Christmas, it’s back to the UK for me. Spending Christmas with one of my best friends and her family and hopefully going to the Green Isle (Ireland) for New Years?
A lot of adventuring is planned, but there are still tons of question marks in those plans, which is exciting. One of my reasons for joining the Peace Corps was the opportunity to travel and I’m glad I’m getting to have these experiences now. I’m looking forward to hopefully finding meaningful work in my site, but for now I’ll settle for some amazing adventures I would never have otherwise been able to have time or money for. Thank you Peace Corps for making my travel bug happy. So that’s just a little bit of what’s been going on, hope you enjoyed.
