America, OHH how I miss thee... let me count the ways...

It's official! A visit home this summer is happening people! And I hope you can tell from all the exclamation points I'm using, that I'm very excited!

**Side note... how funny is it that before coming to Morocco, I was so certain I wouldn't be or want to visit home once over the two years. Silly Ali, you were so wrong...

I feel like a blog just listing the things I'm most excited for is in order...

These are all the things that Morocco has taught me to appreciate more or maybe even for the first time... like I definitely took carpeting for granted and being able to run outside in shorts.

Let's do this people....

WHY I MISS AMERICA

1. Family! It's been almost 15 months since a hug from my mom and I don't care if I'm almost 24... I feel like I'm 13 most of the time and mom hugs help in any situation...

2. Friends! There are too many of you to count that I'd give anything to just be able to pick up the phone and easily call when things are at their worst (and best).

3. Driving... So much wasted time waiting on public transportation... ugh. Not to mention the hassle it is if I want to visit someone more than an hour away.

4. Sliced bread... I miss sandwiches. Ham and cheese, Turkey with tomato, not to mention all the fancy ones from the many sandwich places in the states. I appreciate a good sandwich now. Oh the convenience, oh the deliciousness...

5. Beer and other adult beverages. Is it true that in America, you can walk to almost any gas station, corner store, super market, um BAR, and buy a drink? Wow... I miss that.

6. Bacon and other pork products. I hope my family greets me at the airport with a plate of bacon or maybe one of those fabulous BLT sandwiches I remember eating once...

7. Music, movies, news! I feel very disconnected from American culture and who knew I'd miss that so much. Granted I still am able to download Glee and 30 Rock every week, but it's just not the same!

8. Dates... Dating in this country is one of the more trickier things I've attempted. I miss the days where going on a date just meant taking an hour to get ready, boy comes to door, out to a good meal, movie, drinks, and then back to my comfy bed. Here it means almost 8 hours of traveling by taxi, bus, and train...

9. Working! I miss working more hours than I spend doing nothing.... the ratio of work (job, school, volunteering, etc.) to down time is almost unbearable. Give me a job Peace Corps, any job!

10. Feeling comfortable in my own skin... Sorry to get serious on you folks, but it's hard being a foreigner here and on top of that.... harder still to be a woman. I have a thick skin, but some days all the stares and the cat calls and the Bonjours are too much. Also feeling on guard all the time can be really tiring... I'll be glad to walk around my hometown and feel comfortable and protected again.

Well I'll limit it to 10, because honestly I could keep going and going.... wearing tank tops, effortless communication, meetings that start on time, parks, concerts, football games and tailgating, going to classes, feeling challenged, jogging... yeah I better stop myself there. ha

Alright America it will be nice to see you in less than 2 months! Huzzah! USA. : )

One year of service down, one more to go…

May 5^th this year was not only a day to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but more importantly, my one year anniversary of becoming a Peace Corps volunteer. I haven’t written in a while and feel like now is the perfect time to reflect back on this past year and share some experiences, thoughts. Of course a short update of my life in Morocco at the present moment is in order, although to be honest… there isn’t much to report. Sigh.

Where to begin… where to begin…

This time last year I was living in Tagleft, Morocco with a Moroccan family. I was enthusiastic about my service even while enduring a two month long struggle with digestive problems, cockroaches, and a less than helpful home stay experience. I looked forward to teaching when school started again in the fall and working with a particular association in my village.

Then as the summer turned into fall my enthusiasm had all but disappeared. Unfortunately, I was having trouble obtaining permission to teach in the schools, the association I wanted to work with never met and weren’t very active in my community, and I was having trouble with my land lord. So after six months in Tagleft, off I went to In Service Training (IST) feeling pretty down, desperate, and unsure of my role here in Morocco. I was looking forward to seeing other volunteers and hoping for a morale boost.

What I got at IST was more than a morale boost, but a whole new site to focus on. After sitting down with my program assistant, he suggested that I move sites and start working in the nearby town of Ouaouizert. I left that meeting so excited and happy that I almost cried from relief when telling my closest friends. I had been struggling in Tagleft and I saw this move as a fresh start and another chance to make my service seem meaningful.

The next month and a half I spent time in Ouaouizert, meeting with a few officials, teachers, and just feeling things out. It seemed like finding work wouldn’t be a problem and that the youth center was looking forward to working with me. I had a lot of hope when I left for my Christmas vacation in England.

I spent two weeks in England with a great friend and her family. This was my second time visiting her and we were able to travel to London, Bristol, Brighton and few other towns. It was a much needed break, but also reminded me of how much I missed home and all the luxuries that I took for granted (washing machines, driving, speaking ENGLISH!).

Upon returning in January, I was stressed and feeling the winter blues. A week after returning I moved sites (with less support from PC than I had hoped for) and if you think moving in the States is stressful, just try moving in a country where you don’t speak the language, but need to find a moving truck (no UHaul here). Oh yeah and paying two rents was really hurting my wallet.

Needless to say things started off slow in the new site. I didn’t have a host family to visit and practice my language with. I was now in a town twice the size of my old site and felt even more foreign than before. I didn’t feel like trying to start work until I was introduced to hospital staff by my Peace Corps manager and that didn’t happen for a couple weeks after the move. All in all… January, February were very slow months.

March was the turn-around month. It started with getting everything in order and planning a trip to Paris. Then March 10^th, I ran off to Paris with a boy and had an amazing time. Who knew that spending five days in Paris was just the pick me up I needed. I came back (reluctantly) but with a new attitude. For the first time that year, I felt determined to try getting work started in site and wanted to branch out and meet my community.

I connected with my tutor, who is a teacher at a school outside of town, and started discussions of establishing a weekly health lesson with his classroom and eventually the other classes at the school. At the end of the month, I taught my first health lesson on brushing teeth and it went really well. I was excited and felt like I was putting my time here to good use.

Then I started meeting with the principal of the youth center almost every week, trying to establish when I could start teaching English classes. He was helpful in the beginning and seemed like he really wanted my help in the youth center. My starting classes, however, depended on meeting with the delegue of youth and sport in Azilal to obtain permission.

April was a busy month starting off with spring camp. I traveled up north to Taza and helped at an English language emersion camp that is run by the youth and sport delegue and Peace Corps. The camp was a great experience. Since I know very little Arabic, I was given the advanced students and was really impressed by their proficiency in English. I tried to make the week as fun as possible for them.

The last day I wanted to focus on American culture and decided to play musical chairs, but exposed the kids to all types of music and mixed in a little bit of grammar practice too. Not only did we listen to everything from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Lady Gaga, but I also taught them a few sweet old school dance moves. I think the kids got a kick out of learning the “Lawn Mower”, the “Sprinkler”, and a few disco style moves. We ended the day with a cultural talk that encompassed everything from how important do you think money is, to how do you value education as opposed to marriage. It was refreshing to talk to enlightened, ambitious, Moroccan teens in a language I understand!

After the spring camp, I spent a few days in another volunteer’s site hiking and helping with some projects. This was another set of projects funded by a group of British teens who came to hike and do development work. This was similar to the project I helped with in October just bigger. It was a nice week away from site and a reminder of what life is like when you’re busy with “work”.

April ended with a visit from my bestest English friend! We only had a week in Morocco and so I tried to pack it in as best I could. We visited Essaouria, Marrakesh, Ouzoud, Azilal, and spent a day in my site. Unfortunately, I was sick and feeling down on Morocco and didn’t feel like I was as an enthusiastic host as my friend deserved. Somehow she managed to put up with me and we still had a good time.

Our last day was spent together in Marrakesh, the day of the bombing in the Djemma el Fna square. I was supposed to spend the weekend in Rome with her, but for safety reasons and the fact that Peace Corps was checking up on all us, I didn’t go. Huge disappointment!!

Now we’re caught up to this month. This month has been full of… reflecting. I have not done another health class, because soon after my first class the teachers were on strike, what felt like every week. Also my tutor never got back to me after the first initial strikes were over and in a way it felt like the enthusiasm I had for starting health classes wasn’t shared like I first thought.

Then the situation with the youth center has been anything but easy. Here’s a red tape, there’s a red tape… everywhere red tape and no help. I tried meeting with the delegue in Azilal on two different occasions and both times he was out of town. Then I asked the principal for the delegue’s number so that I could call ahead. It took him two weeks to get it to me. When I finally called to confirm the delegue was in the office, I had a very awkward conversation in Arabic (my Arabic skills are on par with two year olds by the way). After that I decided to put my foot down and asked my principal to call the delegue for me, explain the situation, and see what he needed from me. I got no response from my principal until I finally tracked him down at the youth center a few days after making the request.

He had failed to inform me that he decided to go Azilal to meet with the delegue himself. He explained our situation and the delegue was 100% fine with letting me work at the youth center. All he wanted was my basic information; he didn’t need to meet with me. So finally everything had worked itself out after a month and a half of trying to start classes…

So I did my first English class last week and the only way to describe how it went is to say it wasn’t a disaster. Was it a good thing? Successful? Um not quite… The time was changed, the kids came late, the language barrier proved to be painfully apparent and frustrating (all the kids are beginner level and only half speak Berber), and before the school year is over I only have maybe two more chances to teach the class again.

So again I put my foot down. I talked it over with the principal (with the help of my English speaking friend) and we decided to cancel the class. Unfortunately, with the timing of the school year and the problems in scheduling, it just didn’t feel beneficial to the kids or me.

Now time for reflection. These last few paragraphs I know it sounds that I’m really down on Morocco right now and honestly yes, I’m disappointed with how my efforts at trying to establish work have gone. BUT over this past year, my patience has grown tremendously and my understanding and acceptance of Moroccan culture puts all these disappointments into a different light. Yes, I would have liked to start the English classes much earlier, but life just moves slower here. Yes, I was disappointed that the principal couldn’t have met with the delegue weeks earlier, but he wasn’t as concerned with the English classes as I was and was in no rush. We all have our different priorities and the timing for starting the English classes wasn’t ideal to begin with.

I’ve come to learn to just expect less here. Set your expectations low and be pleasantly surprised if things turn out well. Now I know that may seem backwards or sad to some people back home, but in reality it’s just a fact of life here. That getting “work” done in the Peace Corps can be frustrating and difficult. Sometimes the greatest part of a volunteer’s service is the cultural exchange and connection they make with their community and host family. With the site change, I haven’t found a way to connect again, to find my place, and feel comfortable, which unfortunately is for me a huge part of being a “successful” volunteer (quotation marks because that can mean so many different things from person to person).

So now that I’m not a wide eyed naïve volunteer, what do I think of this experience and how this year has gone? I came in with low expectations to start projects, but hopeful that I would be teaching and just enjoying the time off from academia to work on myself. I should have set my expectations even lower and been more mindful that Peace Corps is a government run program, with its problems like any other government program. This has been one of the most mentally and physically challenging (dysentery, diarrhea, fasting) years of my life and I’ve had some rough ones… I’ve learned a lot about myself and where I hope to end up in the future. While I mentioned gaining patience, I’ve also gained enormous amounts of confidence. Not as much new technical knowledge as I would have liked, but you can’t have it all.

The bottom line is that as hard and at times frustrating my own experience has been with Peace Corps and Morocco, I wouldn’t change it for anything. When Peace Corps recruits volunteers, they’re right in saying this is a life changing experience. Indeed I would say I have grown. I’ve met some amazing people that hopefully will be a part of my life for years to come. I have a new outlook on the future after this past year. I feel like my need for adventure has only increased and that while life and time are precious, I’m in no rush to start a career, but have a burning desire to experience more parts of the world (just maybe in shorter doses).

Wow this is a long blog, but it does encompass a whole year. Now, my thoughts are consumed with planning for my visit home this summer… they’re so all consuming that I feel like a blog just listing my favorite things about home is in order…

Paris, Peace Corps, and Productivity

Only two weeks ago from today, I was flying out of Fez to Paris. My expectations were high and so I was somewhat nervous that Paris would not be all that I had dreamed of. Turns out… I had no reason to worry. Paris was amazing.

I thought I’d be able to write this wonderful story of Paris and my adventure there, but I’m finding it quite difficult. Maybe it’s partly because it feels like a dream and those are always hard to recount in much detail or maybe because I want to be selfish and keep it all to myself. Either way… I’ll do my best to do Paris justice, but it just might be a place you need to see for yourself.

This trip all started with a spontaneous decision by another volunteer and myself. We had less than a month to plan and we hadn’t spent more than a few days together, so in retrospect it was a crazy, romantic decision with a lot of potential for disaster. **Side note… It turns out we travel pretty well together and no major disasters occurred, except for a stressful emotional re-entry to Morocco, which is another story and to be expected.

We had four full days in Paris and hardly wasted a minute of it. The first night we got in late, found our hotel, and wandered out looking for food. My first meal in Paris was this wonderful sirloin steak with fries and amazing sauce. Oh yeah and a nice cold beer. AC ordered steak tartare and I remember thinking “wow” so gutsy, raw steak. It was both of our first times trying steak tartare and who would have guessed that I’d like it so much. Parisian pub food isn’t quite like the fish and chips I’m used to in the UK or our bacon cheeseburgers at home, but it was delicious.

The next days were filled with tons of walking and lots of sightseeing. The first day we saw the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery, botanical garden, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomph, walked along the Champs Elysees, outside of the Louvre, and the Eiffel tower. Then the next two days we took advantage of the Paris museum pass and saw Centre pompidou, Saint Chapelle, Notre Dame towers, Musee D’Orsay, Louvre (saw the Mona Lisa… kinda had to right?), Tropical Aquarium (Sort of a bust, but they did have two jelly fish!), and more. It was so nice skipping entry lines, ticket lines…

The last day we checked out of our hotel and had our bags to lug around. We saved the Montmarte district for this day and when we had to climb to the highest point in Paris to see
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur … it wasn’t the smartest idea since we had our heavy bags. The reality of going back to Morocco finally set in for me and made me stress out a little. After spending a full five days together, I was pleasantly surprised at how we dealt with each other’s tiredness and end of the trip moodiness. I admit I’m not the easiest person to travel with…

So I’m keeping it short… the trip was filled with wonderful sights, food, wine, and I will never forget it.

Now for the rest of the title of this blog…. Peace Corps…. It’s a changin! Like the wonderful David Bowie song… Cha, Cha, Changes. We recently found out that Peace Corps in Washington has decided to streamline all the PC countries. They want to have less sectors in the countries, so that I’m guessing it can be more organized, efficient?

In Morocco, there are four sectors; health, environment, youth development, and small business development. However! Big news! Listen up! They will no longer be continuing health, environment, and small business. This new group that came in two weeks ago will be the last health and environment volunteers for quite a long time or ever in Morocco.

The news is starting to sink in for all of us. It really only concerns my training group in that, we now know next year when we leave… no one will be replacing us. NO ONE! So any major projects that we get going that take more than a year to complete (which is a lot here, since work pace is slower) won’t be continued. Many people’s projects could just stop or fall apart. It’s a sad reality to think about, but at the same time I’m in total support of the new direction our country is taking.

The youth development program has the most structure, support from the government, and results of any sector here. They have an actual place to work, job description, and are held accountable for what they do and don’t do. The healthies are just sorta thrown out there to sink or swim with so many factors contributing to “success”. It’s hard for most people at home to wrap their heads around… but we don’t really have a “job”.

Now the last part… Productivity. Yep… I’m finally feeling productive or at least want to be productive. I couldn’t say the same before this month. I was ready to be done, throw in the towel, and say peace out Morocco. Now with the changing weather, I’m finding my stride. Everything I have planned are still in the very early stages and could possibly fall apart (cross your fingers they don’t), but I’m optimistic. I have a health class this Saturday and will start a series of topics at one school and then hopefully branch out. Also I’ll be working at the youth center soon doing a weekly English class and tutoring. I have grand ideas for a poster campaign on pregnancy to do at the hospital in my town and possibly outlying towns. I’m crossing my fingers on all of this and hoping that my spirits continue to stay lifted.

I miss home like crazy and can’t wait for the visit this summer. Take care dear readers.

Oh the places you'll go!

So here is a really quick update about my life in Morocco!

A week ago a fellow PCV and I decided to visit our first host families we had during training. The new group comes in only one week and we wanted to remind them of how awesome we are before they got a brand new volunteer.

We went a really long way and basically did a lap around the Atlas mountains. Being down south reminded us both of how lucky we are to be north of the mountains in Azilal province. Greenery is very rare south...

Our host families were incredibly excited to see us. It was nice being able to actually understand more of the conversation unlike in the beginning when I knew nothing. Also it was crazy to see baby Omar walking and talking!

In a few days I'll be flying off to Paris. I'm incredibly excited to see the city. I could talk about all the amazing sites I plan on visiting... but I can't! It'll be better when I have tons of pictures to go with all my site descriptions.

Next month my bestest bud Chloe will be visiting me in Morocco for a week and then we're off to Rome!

So progress has been slow in my new site, but I have these few trips to look forward too. One amazing opportunity Peace Corps allows a volunteer is to travel... and I'm taking advantage of it for sure! Until next time...

Deja Vu

It's after 4am here in Morocco and I can't fall asleep. After trying my numerous tricks such as reading, watching tv, counting sheep, etc.... I gave up and started browsing the web.

I've been online doing the mundane, boring, pointless web surfing for almost 2 hours, when I realized! This situation is all too familiar. Why it was just last February that my sleeping patterns were all off and I was so anxious about leaving for Morocco that sleep almost never came. So I figured why not write a blog while sleep deprived! Let's see what my brain can come up with at this hour...

So here it is... a short update/random ruminations....

1. We recently found out that the new group coming in March will have their training in the same area as we did. My community based training site is being used again and I'm determined to visit my first host family before they get a new volunteer. I want to remind them of how awesome I am and they were pretty darn amazing too. I could use a Moroccan family style pick me up.... lots of tea, nice words about my language, and hopefully lots of hugs from the kids.

2. Progress in my new site is going slllloooooooow, very slow. As hard as it was to live with a host family for almost 2 months... I'm now truly seeing the benefits by realizing how hard it is in the new site without one... Oops! But even so... still don't think I could do the tagine everyday for lunch thing again. No thanks.

3. My charade skills failed me at the pharmacy when I tried to ask for a receipt... why is it so hard to get a receipt in this country? And it still blows my mind that you don't need prescriptions to pick up almost any drug you want in this country. Craziness!

4. I'm not proud to admit this but it's part of my reality here... I'm on bi-weekly bucket baths. Meaning once every week and halfish (or more) I muster up the courage to take a bath while it's freezing in my apartment. I wash my hair wearing all my clothes and hope that I don't splash too much. It helps that I have so many hats in country. I never leave home without one.

5. I'm not alone in this... but I'm constantly re-evaluating my service and my commitment here. Why'd I come here again? What am I doing here again? Um... hello Peace Corps a little help please? ha Well you really got to help yourself out here in the bl3d (country). Easier said than done...

6. Egypt is going nuts! Everyone staying on top of the situation in Egypt?! I'm not visiting the pyramids anytime soon.

7. Sporcle.com is addicting... if you ever get bored dear reader, check it out.

8. Made home made sweet and sour sauce... not half bad. I can not wait to cook for family. I have gained points in the kitchen.

9. Every Wednesday there is souk (weekly market) in my town... This is my weekly shopping list.... half kilo onion, peas, green beans, peppers, potatoes, zucchini.... kilo tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers, cauliflower, lentils, chick peas. So that's not every week, but almost... All of that probably costs me less than 10 dollars. I can only hope that I live near a farmers market or have my own garden someday. There is nothing better than fresh, (mostly) locally grown food.

10. I have the travel bug and it's taking me to Italy and either France or Spain soon. My first solo traveling trips... I'm excited, nervous, but mostly excited.

So it's about time to try a second round of falling asleep tricks... maybe the soothing sound of a British accent talking about mountains or forests will put me to sleep... I'm talking about Planet Earth people. It's amazing.

Hope all is well at home.

Been too long!

It’s been a long time since my last entry. So much has happened since then I’ll try to cram it all in now. Let me see… what is the easiest way to do this? I know! Poor grammar and incomplete sentences!

December started with a trip to Fes. One of the oldest cities in Morocco. It was nice, but I’m still partial to Marrakesh. Decided to travel from Fes to Marrakesh on a souk bus (the kind that stops like a taxi)… I was on the bus for 12 and half hours. Never again! NEVER will I do that trip on a souk bus.

I found out that I would be getting a site change. My program staff and I discussed at In-service training about me switching sites due to lack of work in site. So when I found out everything was approved, I was super excited. After Fes… it was packing time! Yuck… and soon being in site became really awkward. Knowing I would be leaving soon for England and then be moving after that. I wasn’t very social with my community in the last week or two before leaving for my trip. Also I was way too distracted and excited to leave, I couldn’t even try to think about work or studying language.

Left for England the 22^nd! The snow did not ruin my plans, thank goodness! I flew out of Marrakesh into Gatwick, where my bestest bud Chloe met me. My whole visit to England and staying with Chloe and her family was great. If Illinois is “home” and Morocco is my “2^nd home” then I’d have to say Durrington is my “home away from home”. Chloe and I were busy almost every day and it was so nice having plans and work. Sigh. It was a nice taste of what life used to be like…

So what did I do in the UK? So much! I was able to volunteer at a day camp for special needs kids where Chloe works. Then peel vegetables for a Christmas lunch for the homeless and then help serve food. All of my good deeds were because of Chloe! Had an amazing Christmas dinner with the Ellis family. They made me feel like part of the family. Shopping, Harry Potter, London, Science Museum, Pubs, Mexican food, New Years in Bristol, clubbing in Brighton… It was a much needed break from Morocco. I’m in love with the UK and hope to someday be there for longer than just a few weeks.

I flew back to Morocco on the 4^th and was a little less than excited. As I waited for the bus to come to the airport, I met an American about my same age. Her story was pretty fantastic. She had been living in Southern Spain and traveling around Portugal for the past three months. She was going to spend about three weeks in Morocco, traveling around on her own. It was like looking into a mirror if I had worked my butt off the year after I graduated instead of just waiting for Peace Corps. Her plans were to travel for about a year until her money ran out. Needless to say I was envious of her. It also got my wheels spinning… who says I still can’t do something similar? Right?

I stayed in Marrakech for a few days before heading back to site. I needed to slowly, mentally prepare myself for the move and make sure all was in order.

The stress I experienced up until the move was pretty intense. I had less help from Peace Corps than I was hoping for and had to rely completely on my tutor in Ouaouizerth. I was really nervous and worried that my truck driver wouldn’t show up, because the concept of time and meetings in Moroccan culture is not quite what Americans are used to. They are much more relaxed when it comes to times and getting things done.

With all my worry, the move went rather smoothly! It turned out my truck guy’s job is actually to move people! And I thought my tutor said it was an old guy who was a friend of the family. But he knew what he was doing, so he brought a friend and with the few volunteers that helped we had my apartment cleared out in less than 20 minutes. The whole move was finished before 10 in the morning! I did feel bad that my first time back to site was the time I was clearing everything out and leaving, but we did it early enough that most people didn’t even know. Also unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see my host family, but alas… we never had the best relationship. I’m sure I’ll be visiting my old site at some point…

So now what? Now I’m moved and unpacked…. And! Before I left for the UK I had the hopes of starting health classes at the youth center or teaching English. But… now… I’m finding my transition a little harder than expected. I haven’t been able to find the motivation I was hoping this move would give me.

My head is in the clouds… dreaming of other countries… of other possible plans for the future. For now… I’m in Morocco working my way through my 1TB hard drive full of movies and TV… still crossing my fingers that lightning will strike and my purpose here will reveal itself. In the meantime… I’ve planned a few long weekend excursions, Madrid at the end of March! (only $60 round trip) and Rome at the end of April. Who knows where I’ll be in May and June? Time will tell.

My very first L'Eid Kbir! Yay Meat!

Last Wednesday was the Islamic holiday of L’Eid Kbir (Big Celebration). This is the holiday in which they remember Abraham’s sacrifice and they too slaughter sheep! It’s one long, fun, filled day of killing and eating sheep or goats. Reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving in that family travels to be together and most of the day is spent eating, talking, napping, and sometimes watching football (soccer!). Sound familiar?

Let me recap how I spent my first L’Eid. It started the day before when one of my friends in town came over to do henna on my hands. I was in the middle of making the best pasta/cheesy dish and told her I’d head over after I was done eating. After I get to her house, she meant business. She had the henna, her needle, and everything set. I love getting henna done by her, because she’s pretty creative and she had the English movie channel on… I got to watch an hour of Two Weeks Notice and felt right at home.

Afterwards I headed to my host family’s house to ask what time to show up the next morning. My host dad said oh 7:30 is a good time, but you have to eat dinner tonight! I ask my host mom… her answer 6:30. I was like Whoa whoa…. That’s early, Dad said 7:30! She compromised and decided on 7. The nice thing about Moroccans and setting times… usually you can get away with coming later, earlier… whenever you want. So 7 meant I was coming at 7:30. Ha

I had dinner that night with my host family and it proved to be a preview of the day to come. Dinner was tagine. Tagine usually has meat, potatoes, onion, and other various veggies sitting in a pool of oil and spices. This tagine was basically just meat. A purely meat tagine, with one little onion cooked on top of it. How my household divides the meat is… every veggie is eaten first (we eat everything using bread, no forks, no knives, NO) and then the meat is divided equally by someone at the table (usually my host mom or aunt). That night we divided the tagine by 8 people and I had enough meat that I couldn’t hold it all in one hand. Times that much by 8 and that’s how much meat was in that tagine. It was probably half a small goat (that’s an exaggeration for sure).

The next day I woke up at 6:30. I was dragging, but threw on my awesome tejlabit (check out flickr pics, it’s like a big one piece w/ a hood), put in the contacts (lots of pictures were to be taken, must look fancy for family events), and made myself a cup of instant coffee.

As I walked to my host family’s house, I was greeted with many hellos and Mbruk Laweshk. (which is just a way of saying happy celebration, it’d be like saying Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas). I also got tons of funny looks, smiles, confused faces, because every time I throw on the traditional Moroccan dress I get even more attention. Look at the crazy foreign lady wearing the tejlabit! Silly foreigner. Indeed, I am that.

When I got to the host family’s at 7:20… of course no one was ready or even started thinking about breakfast yet. And to think my host mom thought 6:30 was a good time! Ha! I sat around for a while watching the morning news and decided to head over to the friends who did my henna. There I had another cup of coffee, amazing cake/bread, and more plain bread with oil. That was my first breakfast of the day… My second was cookies, tea, and more bread at my host family’s. They also had rice, but I have become very skilled in refusing food.

After breakfast, the family photo shoot started. I knew I’d be taking lots of pictures that day and would be taking tons of requests from my family and other friends. This is when the attempted matchmaking by my cousins began! I had one time! ONE TIME! Asked about where this older guy cousin of mine was and ever since his sister brings him up every time I see her. It was pretty cute and funny… at first. So this guy had come to town for the holiday and the sister was insisting that he and I take a picture together. I was like “uh… okay… but hey you get in” and I’d grab another cousin or someone. Well they managed to get a picture of just the two of us and I look frustrated and he looks a little annoyed himself. We may not speak the same language, but we were certainly on the same page. Stupid little sisters/cousins!

Finally we all started walking to where the town gathers to pray together for these holidays. We kinda, sorta, missed it. Oops. As we made it through town everyone was already walking back. I did observe the community prayer for L’Eid Sgir, so it wasn’t such a big deal.

Back at the house I started getting antsy waiting for the actual slaughter. I heard that people will wait until the King slaughters his goat/ram and it’s broadcasted on television. I went with a cousin down to where our family keeps its animals and my uncle had already started on his family’s huge goat! The first thing I noticed was how incredibly red and bright the goat’s blood was and the poor thing’s tongue was sticking out.

Here’s a basic how to slaughter a sheep/goat:

1. Don’t let them eat for at least 24 hours. Have to make sure the inner piping is as clean as you can... this reduces the chances of bacteria infecting the meat SIDENOTE** (there was still A LOT of digested food/ crap in the stomach/intestines)

2. Pose for pictures with the animal.

3. Pin animal to the ground, facing Mecca, and slit throat.

4. Keep animal pinned down while it bleeds and kicks around, pose for more pictures.

5. After animal has finally gone to the other side, make a small slit near the ankle of one hind leg.

6. Use bike pump to pump air into slit thus separating the skin from the meat.

7. After bike pump breaks, use your mouth! The animal is like a balloon!

8. When you are satisfied with the amount of air between skin and meat start removing the hide using a knife.

9. Break the hind leg and hang the animal up by its tendon. Oof.

10. Little by little remove the hide. Oh and head on or off at this point is optional… (uncle left the head on.. host family removed it right away)

11. After hide is completely off… pose for pictures! Insist the crazy American touches the animal in one picture.

12. Slit underside of animal… watch intestines and other inside bits fall out.

13. Throw water all over the animal and try to keep the insides clean as the intestine is removed first.

14. Remove all inside bits, wash stomachs out, and get ready to start making kebabs!

So I watched two animals meet their ends and I was surprised by how little the gore fazed me. Sure there was a lot of blood and watching them break the hind legs was a little rough, but all in all I enjoyed being a part of the process. I felt like part of the family and was happy that I could take pictures for the family. Also the nerdy biology part of me was really excited about seeing the different organs and how they’re all connected. Where’s the heart?! Lungs?! What is that?!!! I had fun.

When it came down to eating our ram and goat… the insides are eaten first. This means liver, lungs, heart, stomach, and all that fat. They cooked everything over coals and seasoned with salt and cumin. I already knew that I hate liver! Stomach! Yuck! And I’m not a huge fan of eating just a hunk of fat either. My host dad read my mind, because he made me kebabs of just meat. I was very grateful. I did try the heart, which was rather tasty. At one point I did eat something that took me almost 5 minutes of chewing before I had to swallow it whole. That was rough.

After the first round of meat with the host family, I walked around town to other families. I was lucky enough to only have to drink two cups of tea and eat one piece of liver. Again, I’ve gotten good at the food refusal dance.

When I headed back to my host family’s for dinner… I knocked on the door... No answer. Again... nothing. The neighbor lady across the street yells at me... Just go in! It’s your house too! And so yeah, she’s right... I head in. I walk down the stairs and go to the back room. I walk in and everyone in my family is sleeping. The room is completely full with sleeping people. It was 7:30pm… I was so confused. Why are they all sleeping right now? I shrug to myself and make a “Well, now what do I do face”. One of the little girls pops her head up and starts bursting with laughter. Every one of my family members starts popping up from under blankets, laughing hysterically. Yes! My Moroccan family played a prank on me. For a half hour, my host mom kept making impressions of my face and laughing to herself. It was a pretty great moment… you know you’re part of the family when they start playing jokes on you. Least I hope so… ha.

Later that night was round two of inside kebabs. My uncle and host dad had their respective stations and had a rhythm going. They used the all-purpose tables and had the meat just sitting there. The liver and lungs were slightly cooked and then wrapped in fat and cooked again. As kebabs were finished my host mom would go from person to person and they would grab a piece of meat of the skewer using bread. If a lot were done at once, everyone got their own. I think for lunch I had 3 full skewers and 2 for dinner.

The next day I spent both lunch and dinner with my host family. I tried brains… almost puked brains. Not a texture I would call appetizing.

All in all it was a really good experience that I won’t forget. I was afraid of getting sick, because of the less than sanitary meat handling practices. We were warned that a lot of volunteers have digestive issues after L’Eid, but L’hamdullah I did not get sick.

Now I’m looking forward to our own Turkey day. I will be heading to the gorgeous Bougamez valley and excited to eat the turkey that the volunteers bought. I wonder how close to a Butterball it is. Hope everyone at home as a wonderful holiday. Words cannot express how much I wish I were in Illinois for the holidays, but the nice thing about Peace Corps is that we’re a family too. So don’t worry about me… I’ll be with family.

The Many Colorful Backgrounds of Peace Corps Volunteers

Since I finally bought a modem and the first month is free… I’ve been on a lot lately. Too much time I say! And usually the internet works in spurts of a half hour here, half hour there. Other times I’m walking in circles on my roof looking for the sweet spot. Why do I bring this up? Well after my last post, I got bored… read one of my very first posts.

The post was about things I thought I might miss and what I was looking forward to the most. The part of that post that really made me chuckle was I said I was looking forward to meeting the other volunteers and I wondered if any would be crazy like me… I could not have guessed then the amount of characters I’ve met through this whole process. I say characters in a very endearing way.

I’m trying to remember before I joined the Peace Corps what I thought actual volunteers must be like, in a very general, stereotyping way. Well Peace Corps is competitive… and before I came I thought this process was cut throat. So I assumed volunteers here must have an open mind, sense of adventure, smart, hard workers, nailed the interviews, and specifically to health I thought… well no way you’re in health without having some sort of background in health. I mean they should have volunteered in some way before right? Well let’s just say our health staj (training group) was so much more hodge podge, out of left field, group of people than I expected. Like I said we’ve got some characters.

Also I’m writing this just to be some sort of support to people who want to join Peace Corps, but might think they haven’t done enough or taken a language or any reason you might doubt being accepted. It’s amazing the diversity that Peace Corps has and Morocco has it all.

I’ll start in Azilal province, because we definitely have a lot of diversity. First off we have the oldest volunteer ever in the Peace Corps (86 I think?) and the youngest volunteer for Morocco (Just turned 21 or 22 I forget…?)! So the age range right there says a lot. There are quite a few of us straight out of college, but more than I expected in the late 20’s early 30’s range. One guy in health was a history major and sold insurance in a mall before coming! One health girl studied forensics and for a time volunteered in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. We have a civil engineer in Azilal and an officer in the Air Force turned journalist. The small business development volunteer left a job in the banking/the money industry (I’m so bad with economics, I have no idea what she did. Financial advisor? Something that made lots of money). One youth development volunteer has a masters in War Studies from a college in London.

Our crew comes from all over the States. West coast has a strong showing, throw some Texas in there, Midwest represents with Illinois and Wisconsin, then head out to Philadelphia and Boston. We’re from all over!

So even just in Azilal we all have pretty interesting, diverse backgrounds. A few other stand outs in our health training group… There is a veterinarian, a retired couple who decided to join later in life, because their son joined and had such a good experience, a lot of people with backgrounds working with HIV/Aids either in clinics or outreach, a few who studied classical Arabic in either Jordan or Lebanon, people who have lived all over the world, Singapore, Italy, France, and some like me who have barely made it out of their state.

Just like the differences in our backgrounds, a lot of us come for so many different reasons. Sometimes with us newbies out of college… It’s a I have no idea what else to do now sort of thing. Sometimes Peace Corps is the stepping stone to working in the Foreign Service. A lot of times, it’s an adventure, I’ve always wanted to try this thing. So so many reasons.

I like to think I came here for the right reasons and I will stay for the right reasons. I struggled a lot with my reasons for coming and how those reasons have changed and evolved. Some of them… like the big one… I have no idea what I’m doing in life, so I’ll take 2 years to try and figure that out… Well I figured that out. The big one and after you figure out the big one… well now I feel like I should be doing, what I just figured out. Getting closer to that ultimate goal. And so I had to re-evaluate my experience here and what I wanted from it.

I mentioned to a friend that I thought about leaving early after a year of service, if my current situation hadn’t changed at all. This friend’s response was “So you can do that. You can leave? I had no idea.”. And I write that because I think a lot of people at home might think similarly. This is a volunteer program and yeah for many different reasons volunteers may choose to or have to leave early. I gave myself such a hard time, because I didn’t want to feel like I was giving up or quitting. But honestly with all the different reasons for joining Peace Corps, I say if ever a volunteer’s reasons become resolved or change or they’re just plain unhappy… then you should have all the support in the world from Peace Corps and home on making the decision to return early or not.

In Azilal province, there was a health volunteer who ended his service early and I only got to know him for a month or two. He explained that he had gotten from this experience all he had come for and had hoped for. He didn’t need the two years to accomplish what he wanted and had some great oppurtunities and relationships waiting at home. At the time I didn’t think badly of this person, but I’m not sure I fully understood, until I started having similar feelings. It’s amazing the ups and downs of this experience.

But! Again I write all this to be a support to other volunteers, other hopefuls, and to myself when I have a bad day and am too tired or frustrated to remember all this. Also isn’t it pretty cool we have a 80 something volunteer in Morocco! That’s like saying hey Mom wanna join the Peace Corps when I’m older than you are now! Shoot! I can’t imagine my 80 year old self thinking learning a new language is a good idea… No sir. Even if I’m only in my 60’s and retired… no thanks. So we’re a pretty cool bunch and I hope that this short post paints a picture of Peace Corps Morocco for you all.

Adventures with the Brits

It has been a busy month and a half and hence I haven’t written in a while. I apologize, but I’ll try to make these next updates worth the wait. I left off with how Operation Smile went and I just want to say again how great of an experience it was.

So what happened after Operation Smile? Oh you know… just helped host a group of British teens and helped them build a bathroom. Very random, fun experience, which I wasn’t even going to be a part of until the day before. Such is my life in Morocco. The best adventures so far are the ones not planned for. But let me explain how I got involved with this bathroom project…

An environment volunteer about 2 hours away from my site, texted saying she had a group of British people coming to build a bathroom and wanted to know if I could help her translate between the kids and the builder. I had been working out of site a lot lately, but decided to go for. **Side note: Pretty sure landlord was/is taking advantage of my foreigner status and getting me to pay wayyyy too much for electricity. So I reduced my usage to almost nothing… I was desperate to leave site. **

When I got to her site, she gave me the full scoop on what we were doing, since I basically said yes having no real idea of what was going on. Good times. She had met a Scottish guy who owns a rafting company in Morocco, who has a friend in London who works for an adventure company. This guy’s company takes British teens/young adults to developing countries where they first do a development project, which they fund, and then do a hike or some other outdoorsy wilderness type of adventure. So through the wonders of networking, this PCV got a bathroom project funded in one of her outlying villages. The kids would be coming to her site and would help build a bathroom at a two room school.

Believe me I was excited. A SUV and a mini-bus pulled into this tiny mountain village and they drew a crowd. I think every village boy was around the bus trying to discover what was going on. It was a weird feeling of being in a huge crowd of non-Moroccans. Once in a while I would approach one of the boys and start speaking Tamazight. They were quite surprised by that little trick.

The first day on the bathroom project went well. The walls went up, half of the pit was dug, a door was painted, and kids were entertained by a Frisbee. The next day rained and threw a kink into the groups plan. I left the kids later that day and last I heard they all decided to head back to Marrakech. They were great group of kids, but not quite what I would call the mountain hiking types. I mean they were from London. True city kids.

Random right? Well it gets even crazier, because that wasn’t my last adventure with Brits. Nope! The month ended with my best experience in Morocco! Thank you Scottish guy with the rafting company and environment PCV.

So our In-Service Training started November 1^st and so we had to be at the hotel on Halloween. I decided to go to Marrakech a day early to hang out with friends, relax, and just enjoy city life (i.e. McDonalds and adult beverages). I was waiting in Ouaouizerth around noonish and going to head north to the big town of Beni Mellal, take a bus, the usual. As I was waiting, the environment volunteer I had just helped out pulls into the taxi stand and is also heading to Marrakech, but going a different way. We catch up about how the rest of the bathroom project is going and she convinces me to head to Azilal and so we can travel with another guy volunteer in our province. I say… Why not!

It turns out we had to buy out the whole cab the three of us… but so worth it. Then she convinces me to come see the Riad (nice house/hotel) she always stays at, who is owned by the Scottish rafting guy. It didn’t take much convincing, I’d heard a lot about it and he was also nice enough to host a Halloween party for PCV’s the next day. I was hoping to join this party, so of course I wanted to see where it would be.

It was tucked into the medina and souk area. The souk in Marrakech is a wonderful maze and this guy did good finding a great place. His riad has…. A flat screen! What? Comforters on the beds? Three levels? What luxury for a PCV like myself and I was handed a beer when I walked in the door. It doesn’t get much better than that.

After hanging out a bit, the Scottish guy brings up to the environment volunteer that tomorrow he is going to be hosting two British celebrities for their television show. They wanted to do an adventure themed show and would be featuring his company. Now this is really cool in itself, but it gets better… For the filming they needed four extras! Just turns out that there were four of us PCVs staying at his place that night.

Yep people! I went white water tubing (nope, not rafting) for free and will be on British television in April or May on a show called Location, Location, Location with Kristi and Phil. It was amazing! We went an hour outside of Marrakech to Ourika Valley and got to go tubing. I had a wet suit, helmet, and the whole nine-yards. The river was a little low, because November is just the beginning of the season, but there was still quite a bit of white water.

It’s official… I’m an adrenaline junky. There were always hints of this… sky diving, driving too fast... oops, and well yeah other things. But whenever I have money to blow on vacations, my vacations will probably have some sort of adventure element. I really want to go white water rafting now and tubing is even more intense I think.

So those were my October adventures with the Brits and when I visit Chloe in December I’m sure there will be plenty more. I mean I’ll be in their backyard and New Years in the UK again! Adventures will be had.

Not quite half a health hike, Operation Smile, and Adventure planning

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.

Counting down the last week and a half of Ramadan...

I have my very first Ramadan almost under my belt and I think that’s sufficient enough time to write about my observations, adventures (or lack thereof), and miscellaneous musings. So here are the very basics of Ramadan and how I thought it would pertain to me and my site…

Ramadan! Muslim holiday characterized by a month of fasting! Goes by the Islamic calendar and this year it was August 13thish to September 10thish (Moon decides when it starts and stops). Next year it will be earlier! HOLY COW, even hotter then. Fasting starts from where there is only a line of light on the horizon until sunset. Around 4 in the morning to 7:30ish at night. No water! No food! Nothing!

Who fasts? Not kids, until they become teenagers. Pregnant women, women who are nursing, sick people, very old people are not required to fast by the Koran. The Koran says these individuals (minus the old dudes, pretty sure I’m right on this) will make up for it later in the year, but not just fast for one month… 2 or 3 months are required? Or by giving alms and it’s a lot. I think you have to feed 30 people for every DAY you miss fasting. I dunno there are so many ways to get around actually fasting and making it up later.

But! Just because the Koran says these people are exempt doesn’t mean that they actually forego fasting. Unfortunately there are a lot of older individuals who still fast and even quite a few nursing women (yet to see a pregnant woman who is fasting, but I’ve heard it happens). Ramadan during a hot month such as this year’s can be dangerous for these individuals. This is a time when some older folk tend to kick the bucket, but the nice thing is the Koran says if you die during Ramadan it is a straight ticket to heaven. So hey! Not such a bad time to go. All that aside, Ramadan is a month of denying the body and being closer to God.

So those are the very very short basics. How did I think this would affect me exactly or what was I expecting to happen in my site? Well first off through different training sessions and talks with other volunteers, I sort of had a lot of expectations for Ramadan. Most of them weren’t great either, but just like everything in Peace Corps everyone’s experience is so different and my Ramadan so far hasn’t been quite what I expected. Since no one eats during the day, cafes are closed and I kept hearing that basically everything just comes to a standstill during Ramadan. Especially since this one was going to be hard, because of the weather, I expected everyone to be sleeping most of the time. I didn’t figure I’d see many people out or see many people traveling. I thought I’d be walking around a ghost town with little tumble weeds blowing in the wind. Well that definitely wasn’t the case in my site. Almost all the stores where open for a good portion of the day, men still gathered around the cafes (just not inside them or drinking tea), and kids are everywhere! Those boogers don’t have to fast so they’re out and playing for a good portion of the day. Still the level of activity was definitely less, but it wasn’t the stand still I thought it’d be. There were men still working construction ( don’t know how they do it), men working at the metal shops, and most other labor jobs in town. So that was a bit of a surprise.

From our last training in Ouarzazate, our staff were super supportive of us about to experience our first Ramadan. They said things like… “Sure you’ll be bored, but this is a great time to get invitations to meet families. During Ramadan people tend to be more giving, etc.” I was determined to be more sociable and go out, break fast with families and work on language. I thought I’d be walking down the streets and people would be waving and smiling (very miss guided, I know. I mean who’s going to be all smiley when they haven’t ate or drank in 13 hours). But I was hoping for the best. Families that would draw me in and make me talk to them. That and I had heard from different places that while the day may be slow, it’s a party at night when people hit the streets and mingle and eat and talk. Almost like a block party, just sort of town wide.

Well folks, I have managed to break fast with…. Drum roll…..still rolling…. TWO families. Hahaha Yep… I managed to get drawn in by two families, my host family and the family of a friend (who I’d had coffee and ate with numerous times). My experience will not put me on a list for super star volunteer, but my experience was my own and I don’t really regret it. I strayed out of my house around the invite time and was unsuccessful on a number of occasions. There just weren’t the smiley faces and the waving like I’d hoped. I even fasted for two days (haha I know that’s not much at all, but good for me considering I wasn’t going to even try), but still walking past houses looking thirsty and tired didn’t get me any random invites. There must be something about this face that just doesn’t look desperate or friendly enough. That or the more likely reason was that actually many of the women were already in the houses cooking when I wandered around and they’re tough cookies to crack anyway. I mean I don’t blame them. Who wants some awkward foreigner eating up all the figs or soup, pssh not me. Also I’m really beginning to enjoy experiementing with cooking and I prefer eating at home.

So what was breaking fast like with my two families? Both very different, so that’s been nice. **Side note.. I’ve still got a week or so to branch out… haha** My host family is a bit more serious? Everyone prayed right after the call to prayer announcing the time to break fast. Even the 9 year old did and I’d never seen my host mom pray before Ramadan. They had a variety of things to eat. Fresh figs and grapes are in season now. That’s been my favorite. The weirdest was probably stuffed bread, but it had chunks of fat mixed with the onions and peppers. Not pleasant.

The other family I fasted with didn’t pray or read from the Koran. They just dug into the food and in general joked around a lot more. They also have more kids and older ones, so the family dynamics are pretty different already between the two. Also some really interesting foods and juices served. The best was an eggplant, onion, pepper, tomato stew that we ate with bread. Weirdest was some chicken insides mixed with peppers. I heard crunching while people ate… I have no idea what it was. That’s the fun about Moroccan families and food, you never know what it’s going to be. Just plan on tea, Harira (hearty soup almost always served at break fast), and bread.

Ramadan has been going by faster than I thought, been in general better than I expected (even if I haven’t been that social… oops). I’ve read 4 books since the start of Ramadan, started composting (how do I find a way to get bags of dirt in my house, without being the weird American who’s stealing dirt from around town? Haven’t figured that out yet), attempted to haul rocks on a hike for the chicken coop (wasn’t fasting but got super sick, never again. I only have one rock for the coop), devoted one wall to putting up Tam, Arabic, and French lessons, so I can more easily study just by staring at the wall, and I’ve spent 3 full weeks in site. A new record. Oh and I can’t forget that I’ve made homemade pancakes, learned to love lentils, and finally posted a few pictures of my apartment.

All in all a relatively productive Ramadan thus far. It’s all about those little goals. I mean I talked about posting pictures of my apartment before Ouarzazate. Thanks for reading… hope you’re looking forward to the blog about the Little and Big Eid (Celebration). The little one happens the last day of Ramadan and the big one is in November (when everyone goes meat crazy and kills and eats everything). Well that last part was an exaggeration, but it’s a huge deal so be sure to follow up. The Muslim holidays are just beginning my friends!

Lounging on Leather Couches

I just returned back to site after being in Post Pre-Service Training (PPST) for about two weeks.  The health group was back in our old stomping ground of Ouarzazate, while environment spent their time in Azrou up north near Fez and Meknes.  Let’s just say a lot of our group was pretty jealous of the environment’s PPST location.  

Ouarzazate:  Also known as the gateway to the desert. Also known as cinema city.  HOT!!! Close to no other major city!!! 

Azrou: Relaxed bigger town, at the base of the mountains.  Within 2 hours of Fez and Meknes. (Have the best old roman ruins!) Great hiking. 

So yeah… we were a little jealous. Although we stayed at pretty swanky hotel with pool, air conditioning, and great beds.  I spent most of time lounging around in lobby using the free Wi-Fi.  The connection was all over the place, but that didn’t keep me from trying to download the numerous movies, music, etc. that I thought I’d need for my next 3 months in site.

But the point of this past two weeks wasn’t to download the whole It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia series (great show on FX), rather we all came together to learn about projects! Finally! Who’s done what, what can be done, where to start… all that jazz.

We had meetings from 8:30 each day till about 5:30ish with a decent sized lunch break in the middle.  It was like a normal person’s work day.  Quite exciting and new compared to the one hour shift I make for myself at the sbitar once a week when I decide to go… My definition of “work” is greatly redefined, but doesn’t mean I still don’t miss the old American mentality of what a “work day” really is.  Sure having conversations in Tamazight is mentally exhausting, just like some jobs and sure having tea with families could be considered like having meetings with potential project partners, but sometimes I still miss rolling out of bed at 7am to go work in the catering kitchen or maybe I just miss being accountable to other people besides myself.  Yeah that’s it. 

Well okay that’s not quite true.  I have some “bosses”.  I can’t just go AWOL and no one notice.  I occasionally have a meeting or two to make, for example these past two weeks.  Anyway that was quite the tangent….

So what did I learn from PPST?  First and foremost, it got me excited to be here again.  Really gave me a boost in confidence and fellow PCV’s and staff are all cheerleaders for each other.  It’s a time where we can all share the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I think like a lot of PCV’s, the whole reality of being here for two years sets in and PPST was a nice reminder of why I came in the first place.  

Personally for my site I got quite a few good potential project ideas and pet project ideas.  I don’t want to go into too many details, because the most important idea that was hammered home for me was that without finding motivated, trustworthy community counterparts no project can be truly sustainable and these counterparts can be a make it or break it for projects.  Which is another way of saying… if your community isn’t ready for change or the help, there isn’t much even the most motivated PCV can do.  This is especially true for volunteers in a new site like… wait for it……….. ME.  So I’m going to do my best to come out of my shell even more, make my identity just as present as my site mate’s, and work building the relationships.    

My pet project ideas on the other hand I’m pretty darn excited about sharing.  

1. Build a chicken coop? Buy and raise 3 chickens?

2. Start composting and figuring out how that all works.

3. Collect pictures of different foods and food groups for a potential project?

4. Start writing a book? So sure I barely write in my journal, but I’m trying to change that.

5. Raise rabbits?

Well that’s just a few of them and since Ramadan is coming up…  I have high hopes for at least the chicken coop.  Next I’ll try to start writing about my Ramadan experiences and if anyone doesn’t know about Ramadan, I suggest googling it.  I didn’t know all that much before I came here either.  I just know I’m not fasting and I won’t lie about it.  I can barely keep it together if I skip lunch, let alone not eat or drink from sunup to sundown in the summer! Also gorging myself at night to make up for not eating all day, doesn’t sound like much fun…I will hopefully be invited in to homes for breaking fast, so I’m excited to see what it’s like.  

Hope all is well in the states! I’ll have pictures up of the apartment soon.  It’s all coming together nicely.  Oh and I do have electricity and water all the time (well when it storms that’s different, just like home).  I use a Turkish toilet, I take bucket baths, I do my laundry by hand, and my refrigerator is the size of what most college kids use in the dorms (maybe smaller).  I still watch too much TV (on my laptop) and procrastinate way too much, but on the other hand I have read 6 books so far (maybe more), I’ve watched quite a few documentaries, oh and learned another language (sort of).  So it’s all balancing out and I’m hoping to kick my productivity into gear (notice how I didn’t say back into gear, not sure it ever was in gear… haha).  The above for mentioned pet projects and enthusiasm to become more social will hopefully satisfy my definition of “productive”.