FEAR AND LOATHING IN MOROCCO: Or, why I’m slightly terrified of “Big Eid”

Ok, y'all may be surprised that I am posting again so quickly after my last post, but I had some complaints that I wasn't posting often enough  and found out that some of my readers (*cough, Dad, cough*) have started reading blogs of other PCVs to keep up to date on what's going on here...and we can't have that!  So, with no further ado, I present you a new post:

            Rumor has it that the “Big Eid” celebration will begin on November 7, less than a week from now.  For those of you who don’t know (and I’m gonna just make the jump and decide that most of you), this is the second Eid festival that comes after Ramadan.  And let me tell you, the first one was freaking awesome.  Definitely my new favorite holiday (at least in Morocco).  First of all, you get to eat again during the day because Ramadan is over, and that’s always a good thing.  Secondly, everyone gets all dressed up really nicely.  Thirdly, lots of extended family comes (so basically it’s a lot like Christmas in the States…lots of food and family).  But best of all, you get to eat cake and cookies for breakfast.  Ok, so I really loved that day. 

            And now the time has come for the big one…yes, I really mean that-this holiday is a huge deal, everyone has been talking about it for weeks.  Each family, if they can afford it, buys a sheep.  On the morning of Eid, we will all watch TV and wait for the King to slaughter his sheep (before TV people listened to the radio for this news and before that, I think they just estimated or something…it’s supposed to be around 10 AM).  Once he does this, mass sheep slaughtering will begin across the country.  A person can only slaughter if they have been trained how to do so correctly (this includes making sure the sheep dies right away); if there is no man in the family who knows how to do it, the family will ask a neighbor or hire a local butcher to come and do it.  So far so good.

            Now comes the scary part.  I have been a vegetarian since I was sixteen years old.  In Morocco, I eat meat from time to time (always when I’m with Moroccans and always in order to avoid offending anyone terribly); my host family kind of gets it…but also kind of not.  I always figure that, hey, if I don’t eat this, more for you guys.  But I’m pretty sure that’s not how Moroccans analyze things (at least in terms of food and meals…they just assume something is wrong with the food, etc if I don’t eat it).  So I usually just suck it up and have a little.  However, my one exception to this is stuff inside animals (heart, liver, etc); I just can’t do it, it literally makes me feel sick even thinking about it…something about the lingering taste of blood maybe.  Anyway, enough grossing my readers out.  I’m really not bothered by the general killing of sheep at Eid; I’ve seen these sheep and they are happy and carefree (there are two in my backyard who just eat grass all day) and are killed in a quick and humane way and then all (and I mean all) the meat is eaten.  That’s all fine and dandy (especially after reading a lot about factory farming in the US recently), I just kind of really don’t want to eat what will be a big part of the meal on the first day of the festival…and then continue to eat meat for every meal for the next two days afterwards.

            Eid is a three day event; the first day is the slaughtering and then eating of innards (thankfully there is a big cous-cous or tagine meal later in the day with lots of veggies).  Day two is tongue and brain.  Day three is the rest of it, though afterwards people will preserve the meat by salting it or freezing it.  I’m pretty sure everyone is eating sheep for months after this.  I guess if I can make it through day one, the next two shouldn’t be too hard.  Sure, I could just say I don’t want to eat it, but this holiday and sheep thing is a big deal.  A friend described it in the following way: it’s as if Thanksgiving were the biggest holiday in America and all that was served for the meal was turkey…and then everyone just talked about turkey and how awesome and wonderful it is for the rest of the year.  So I could say no…but I won’t.  I think it’s worth repressing my gag reflex to keep everyone happy.  I’ll post again after the event to let everyone I know that I survived (and hey, maybe I’ll really love the food, who knows), but until then, I await the holiday with some fear and loathing…

Outstandingly Out-of-sight Olive Oil Opinion

            Fall has reached my site and it’s absolutely beautiful; the leaves don’t change color here but the weather is as fall-like as any I’ve experienced (not that I have much need for relief from summer since the heat here isn’t too bad).  Students are back in school now, everyone is back from summer vacations and the nights are getting cool.  However, there is a major difference between fall here and any fall I’ve ever seen: olive season. 

            There are a ton of olive trees in this area, a wonderful aspect of the place since they make everything look green for miles around.  Now, it is clear they are here for more than just aesthetic appeal.  Olive oil is a big export for Morocco and much of the production occurs in the south of the country, where I am so lucky to reside.  And this olive oil thing is no small potatoes.  Almost everyone in the area seems to be somehow involved in its production, whether it be picking, transporting or pressing the olives.  As I write this, there is a man in my backyard up in an olive tree hitting the branches with a stick to get them to fall off and down onto the tarps he has laid under the trees.  He will later take these olives to one of the many scales that have appeared recently to have his olives weighed and purchased.  Pickup trucks weighed down with thousands of olives make their way from out in the bled to town everyday to sell their loads.  There is a flurry of activity in town that was so non-existent during the summer months, and it’s all thanks to olives. 

            Ok, so olives are picked, trucked and sold.  Now what?  Well, to me, this is the most exciting part: the olive press.  Olive presses are these large machines with huge round stone wheels that squish all the olives up into this sort of olive mush and then another machine presses that mush to extract the oil.  Lucky for me, my host father owns one of these presses to I’ve gotten to see firsthand how it functions.  My host dad’s machine has a modern touch: it runs by electricity instead of by the power of horses and camels (and yes, there are still plenty of these old-school machines around).  My host family doesn’t have many olive trees of their own so when my host dad needs olives, he just flags down one of those pickups and buys a load.  He and his brothers (this olive oil thing is definitely a family affair) have connections in Agadir, Casablanca and in other parts of the country where they sell the oil that they press.  Olive oil season last 2-3 months and my host dad informs me that they usually produce about 600 liters during that time (pretty amazing considering how many olives it takes to get a little oil).  Always the entrepreneur, my host father and his brothers also allow others from the neighborhood to come use the machine to press oil (though I’m sure the use comes with a small fee).  It is a lot of work, but the end product is worth it.  I may be biased of course but it is definitely the best olive oil I’ve ever had…so if anyone is in the market for some delicious, freshly pressed oil, my house is always open to visitors!

 Olive Oil Machine at work...the big stones spin vertically while the machine pushes them around the basin

 Olive mush coming out of the machine

 It's then pressed down and the oil is stored here

 Host uncle with the machine

Some neighbors pouring the oil into a bottle.  The basket-looking things on the right are filled with the oil mush

then put between the poles in the background and are pushed down

The (sort of) glorious time of Ramadan

Ramadan is a time many with which many of you may be unfamiliar.  It is the time during which Muslims believe that the Koran was revealed and in celebration, millions of Muslims around the world do not allow food or drink of any kind pass their lips during the daylight hours for a month's time.  However, life goes on (almost) normally-people go to work and do their daily tasks.  Not everyone fasts though; children who have not reached puberty, people who need medicine to make it through the day (such as diabetics), pregnant women and those traveling are exempt.  The timing of this month changes one month every year (based on the lunar calendar), and obviously it is easier in the winter months because the days are shorter and going without water is not as difficult as it is in the heat of the summer.  This year, Ramadan falls during the month of August, one of the harder months during which to fast, especially in the heat of the Moroccan summer.  Thankfully (and awesome for me), Morocco has been having a relatively mild summer and the part in which I live especially so.

I decided to try the whole "fasting" thing for my first Ramadan in Morocco.  I wanted to see what it was like and wanted to work on my community integration, something which I do feel has been improved with my fasting.  Truthfully, the first week of Ramadan was hard.  However, instead of being really thirsty, which is what I was expecting, I was mostly just really tired.  But that's pretty much in the past (or maybe I'm just used to it now).  I have my Ramadan schedule down now and it definitely includes a long nap in the middle of the day.  I wake up in the morning and go to the sbitar (clinic) until about 11 or so-after that there are very few people that want to walk in from the surrounding villages in the heat of the day without drinking any water.  Then, I go home and go about my days tasks, which usually include painting some part of a window or door and listening to Harry Potter audio books.  At 7 pm or so I head out to break fast...

I'm sure Ramadan varies from country to country and even from family to family.  During this month I have been able to enjoy breaking fast (lftur, pronounced looftur, which incidentally also means "breakfast" in Darija...perhaps an Arabic influence on the English idea).  Each family does it a little differently and eats different foods for this meal.  In the town in general though, this meal is a substantial meal, whereas in other communities it is just a big tea time with a much larger meal later in the evening.  Here though, each family usually serves dates, figs, milk and milk-based fruit smoothies, harira (the general name for soup....during Ramadan this soup is very hearty and the tomato-based version contains chick peas, pasta, lentils, beans, eggs and various spices and the milk-based version has a whole grain in it, similar to oatmeal) tea, bread, some kind of fish, and my favorite, shbekia (a delicious, deep-fried sugary pastry-type food drenched in honey (see attached picture).  Some families also have various  People do not drink nearly as much water as I would expect, and in fact, many families do not drink any water at all during lftur.  The meal usually lasts an hour or so and the men in the family will go to the mosque for evening prayer between 9 and 9:30 (there is no section of the mosque for women in my town, though I know women go to mosque as well during this time in many bigger cities).  As far as I can tell, people then go to bed at a normal time (between 10 and 12) and then the women wake up at 2:30 in order to prepare sHur, or the early morning breakfast, which is eaten at about 3:30am so that everyone can eat before the early call to prayer which happens about 4:30.  Even though I am not participating in the prayer aspect of Ramadan, I have still been getting up and cooking breakfast at 3...it's necessary to eat this meal if I want to get through the day without being too hungry.

So Ramadan is almost over (and I will get to go back to getting a full night's sleep, yay!).  This Saturday is called the Night of Power and many people will stay awake all night praying because they believe this is the night that is especially holy and that God is more likely to hear their prayers on this night.  Many read the Koran aloud during this night.  I do not plan on staying awake all night this Saturday, but it will be interesting to see the preparations for people to do so.   And next week (either Wednesday or Thursday) is what is known as "small 3id," or the end of Ramadan.  It involves a big morning meal with a lot of cakes and other sweet things and everyone gets very dressed up-basically just a celebration of the month of fasting and its end.  I am planning to make a cake (yes, I have practiced this and didn't fail miserably) and enjoy 3id with my host family.

                                                                             harira

                                                 lftur meal

                                                          bag of sbekia...yes I bought a bag for myself

My house in the middle of my street

I have accomplished a lot today (unpacked most of my stuff, took a shower, wrote some letters and emails) and therefore feel in the mood for a celebratory posting.  So here are a few of the good things that have happened to me in the last few weeks:

            -moved into my new house

            -got water in said house

            -house was cleaned (and not by me, thankfully)

            -went to the beach

-was greeted in Darija (not French) by a shop keeper I walk by a lot in Essaouira…he also had a big smile on his face when he did it and it totally made my day

-after the greeting, another man asked me if I was from Rabat…why no sir, but thank you for mistaking me for a Moroccan

            -have fed myself for like 4 days on sandwiches and cereal

-will be getting the rest of the furniture for my house in the next week from a volunteer near me who is going back to the States

-the weather here is wonderful…not as hot as the rest of the country, so I can feel bad for all my friends while being quite comfortable …yes, feel free to hate me because of it

Crazy story of the day:

So I decided to get a little exercise today and went on a bike ride.  I got to a place which I thought would be a good place to turn around.  Then, I saw this goat on the side of this hill…but the hill had a sheer drop off of like 25 ft. and the goat was stuck on the side of the drop off standing on some roots and a rock.  Looking at this goat, I thought there was a very real possibility that this goat was going to fall so I put my bike down and started to climb up the other side of the hill with the intention (I guess) of like picking this goat up and putting him back on the flat top of the hill.  However, as I was walking over, the goat totally did fall (and now I have to diverge a little to explain how animal roaming works in my site-the animals have their 2 front feet tied close together often or just one of their feet is tied and then the other end is attached to a tree or rock or something else to keep them from going far).  This goat fit into the second category, so when he fell he was just hanging on this side of this hill from his one foot screaming.  I ran over and I think I was maybe going to try to like hold the goat so he wouldn’t be hanging by his foot but then he freaked me out and I thought he might bite me so I sort of freaked out and started yelling just like the goat.  Then this pickup drove by so I flagged them down and the guy backed up and I pointed at the goat.  He got out with a knife (yes, I think kitchen knives are common accessories in cars in Morocco…and for good reason apparently) and walked over to the goat and cut the rope that was attached to the goat’s foot.  The goat landed and then got up and walked back up the hill.  The guy just kind of laughed at me and got back in his truck and drove away.  Yes, clearly, just cut the goat down…that was literally probably the last thing I would have thought of and this guy knew totally what to do.  Perhaps I will take my knife on future bike rides for such occasions… 

And Here We Are...

            Since I’m feeling in a ‘list’ kind of mood these days, I will include one about my new awesome site.  Just for a little preface, I have been here a little more than a week.  Things have been good so far, it’s beautiful here and I’m getting to know a lot about the community and have been meetings lots of people.  My family is good and it’s still a little difficult getting used to having at least 6 kids in the house (but usually more), but I think we’re adjusting pretty well to each other.  In about 3 weeks I will move into a place of my own, which I have still yet to find, but inshallah, it won’t be so hard…so anyway, enough chatter, here’s my list:

1.       My site is between 4 and 7 km of the ocean (and I’m leading towards 7 but I’ll let y’all know as soon as I can make it out there)

2.      We have a clinic, it’s open when it’s supposed to be and people come to it…yay!

3.      There are a ton of little stores (called ‘Hanuts’) which sell a large variety of cookies, candy and yogurts…aka I’m set for life

4.      My site is actually a sort of business center and there is a market (souq) every day of the week except Sunday.  On Thursday, there is a souq for women only (I haven’t gone to that one yet, but maybe this week)

5.      There are apparently both scorpions and all sizes and colors of snakes here (however, only the scorpions have been confirmed, though not by me personally…my sisters might have been embellishing on the snake thing to scare me…or so I hope)

6.      I will eventually have internet at my site…there aren’t any internet cafes but it is possible to get mobile internet here

7.      The weather reminds me a lot of Berkeley…hot during the day and cool at night…but there are a lot more donkeys and camels here than I ever saw during my college days

8.      (this is about Morocco in general) fleecy animal prints, brightly colored crushed velvet and pajama sets are always in style, and yes this is for everyday wear….so if anyone has any extras lying around, I know a few ladies/my whole town who’d love to have them ;)

9.      They are definitely still rolling with the old/new time division here…but what I know is that the schools and clinic are on new time and my family on old time…even though half the family has to go to places operating on new time…ok, done with talking about this silliness, but it’s just so absurd I had to mention it one last time

10.  Justin Bieber is just as popular with middle school girls in Morocco as in the States…some girls came into the clinic for shots the other day and the first thing they asked me was if I had seen his movie…unfortunately I had to disappoint them

11.  My site is awesome, you are all welcome to come visit any time!!

oops

ok everyone I promise that I really did have a blog post written and ready to go but I saved it in a format that this computer at the cyber cafedoesnt read so you will have to wait a few more days and I will need to make it more awesome to be worth your while. that is all. I am well and miss everyone a whole bunch!

Things I have learned so far in Morocco (Part 1)

1) Just because there is an official government time change, it does not ensure that people will follow it (and in fact, you and your CBT mates may be the only people that choose to do so….don’t worry, it switches back to “old time” in July I hear…)

2)   If you sleep outside, you can see the stars really well but a windstorm may come up and just because you are close to the ground does not mean you will avoid having things land on you in the night

3)   You probably cannot convince your Moroccan family to eat raw tomatoes with the peel still on just by putting them in your awesome “American food” macaroni and cheese dish

4)   There are a wide variety of good Moroccan candy/chocolate desserts for a great price (note: just because there is a commercial for a cake with a really cuddly bear that hugs you when you eat sad cake, this will not happen in real life and that cake is actually really bad…hence them having to use the cuddly hug bear to convince you to buy it)

5)    Weddings last for days (literally)…but no one will be offended if you leave “early” one of the nights (aka at midnight) to go home and sleep.  Also, Moroccans have sweet dance moves.

6)   Discussing, interpreting and elaborating on the lives and goings-on of your host family may become your replacement for entertaining television in your CBT group

7)    Having a cold Coke after spending a long morning shopping at Souq (market) may just be the best part of your week (and is in fact comparable to enjoying another cold, carbonated beverage after a long day in the States…well, almost comparable…)

8)  1.5 liter water bottles make a great substitute for washing machines (no really! but you can only fit small items through the hole at the top)

9)   You may look forward to walking the 7km to souq every week because it’s the only exercise you’ve had since the last 7km walk to souq…

10) CBT mates, LCFs and Moroccan host families are some of the nicest, most supportive, best people you’ll ever encounter!

some random comments about the end of CBT

Alright everyone, headed into the final stretch of CBT here.  It’s been a crazy, sometimes wonderful, sometimes difficult journey.  Once I head back to CBT site on Thursday, I will have 7 days left with my host family.  It is a very bittersweet time. I swear in (aka become an official Peace Corps Volunteer) on May 25 (inshallah) and will head to my final site on May 26. I’m excited for these new things and to finally get to move to where I will live for the next two years, but of course, I will be very sad to leave this wonderful family that  have become rather attached to.  We have all gotten our routine down-I play cards with my brothers and sister every night, we all eat breakfast together in the morning and dinner together at night.  I help my sister in the kitchen either with cooking or cleaning up after the meals.  My brothers and I have secret handshakes and I’ve taught them lots of American games.  They put up with my rough language skills and are nothing but patient and caring.  And on top of that, I have learned to embrace the wonderful support of my fellow CBT mates and I know that I will miss them greatly when we all head our separate ways (and yes, I totally started singing the Journey song after I wrote that, thank you Cal Band).

I know that I have not been able to keep in touch with you all as much as I would like to.  Feel free to write me letters anytime (just email me and ask for the address!) and I will try to update this regularly when I’m in my final site.  However, if I fall behind or something of the sort and you want to catch up, please write an email (and yes, I think all of your lives and what you do everyday is interesting, even if you don’t)!  And, as always, let me know if you’re rollin’ through Morocco anytime in the future and you will have a couch or bed or floor/whatever I can offer at your beck and call!

new site, yeah!

Hi all. So I had my site visit these last few days, met my family and counterpart and all that jazz. Things went pretty well, did a lot of napping and sitting around but that's ok.  My family is nice though requested that I not post pictures on the internet of them, so you'll just have to guess what they look like or something. However, I was able to take some pictures of my site as well as the beautiful sunset in Essaouira.  I also have a real address now and if I forget to include you in the email and you want it, let me know!


sunset at essaouira

view from my bedroom

another beach view near my site

my site on a rainy morning

Yes, zucc is a bad word in darija

And I use it all the time by accident. oops.



Well, everyone, i have officially found out my site for the next two years. in the interest of my personal security/to keeep the creepers from knowing too much about me, I won't say the town exactly, but I am in Essauoria province.  () It's definitely in a beach town. I'm very excited (as many of you know, i do love my beaches). my town is about 15,000 people and seems pretty well equiped. there is a souq (market) daily and even a women's only souq two days per week. there seems to be a lot of other ammenities. it is a very touristy place (from what i have heard) so that will definitely provide an interesting experience. i leave monday to do a week-long site visit during which i will stay with a second host family. there are 6 children under the age of 13 (should be exciting, to say the least). another volunteer and i will be escorted tomorrow to our sites and then will spend the week finding out information about the town, clinic, etc. 


funny story of the week:
so, even though it's been about 80 degrees at site, i've been wearing long sleeves and long pants (hard to get used to at first, but it's been getting easier...i have just come to the realization that i will sweat a lot and not shower much at all and it will be just fine). but that is not the funny part of the story. so we are all sweating through our one layers and the people in our town/host families are wearing 2-3 layers on both top and bottom. ashley's sister consistently has three shirts on. sydney's brothers always wear two pairs of pants on top of one another. the other night, my brothers came home from visitng some other family. they were wearing some new clothes...and i was teasing them a little about wearing a bunch of shirts. then my host mom started in and we figured out that my little 6 year old brother was wearing 5 shirts. yes, 5. even his grandma was cracking up and teasing him for having so many on. it's nice to be able to laugh with my family and have a good time. we have started to play card games before dinner at night. the favorite is "tajin," a game where the cards are in a big circle (a lot like a tajin) and you make pairs. i've been teaching the boys the names of the cards in english, sharing culture, woo! all in all, things are good here, i'm ready for the next part of the adventure.


i tried to add pictures, no dice. maybe next time!

CBT pictures, yes!

team Blue Ice 2 (well some of them at least) outside our hostel

one of my costume changes from the photo shoot my family made me do; yes, it's velvet, love it

me and my host sister Miriam, photo shoot

lunch tajine...mmm....

casbah and surrounding landscape...picture doesn't capture it so well, but it was beautiful!

More pictures from CBT

my host brother Jamal

my host brothers/grandchildren of my host parents and their baller Moroccan hipster bike

Zacharia and Mohammed 

Get Your PACA On

            Well, here I am at the Hub in Ouarzazate again.  We just spent ten days with our host families- I think it’s good that I can say it definitely didn’t feel like it was that long.  Granted, we did take a mini vacation this past weekend, but in some ways, that was more tiring than being with my host family.

            Since I last posted, we (as a CBT group) practiced using our PACA tools (participatory analysis and community assessment) that are basically one of the main ways that Peace Corps has us assess our community.  It was a pretty cool exercise-we had two groups, one of girls age 16-24 and one of guys, same age.  We learned a lot about our community (in terms of how each groups sees the community and what is important to them there, what they do every day and how the seasons change what they do.  We also learned about what each group would like to have in the community.

            Language learning has been very intensive, but pretty good.  We just learned the past tense.  I understand more of what my family says, but still feel pretty clueless.  It may very well be that we got a lot of information in the past few days and I have yet to fully absorb it.

            Our mini-vaca was nice.  All seven of us went to a duwar (town) to the north of our CBT and stayed at a hostel overnight.  It was really beautiful and had an old casba overlooking an oasis that we were able to walk around.  The hardest part of the trip was trying to get A) a taxi that wouldn’t mind breaking the law and take all seven of us in one car and B) the correct price for the trip.  We did make it there and back, though not without adventure.  On the last leg of the trip the one guy in our group took a taxi with some other Moroccans going to our destination while the six girls took another.  Of course, we got the driver that almost hit our friend’s taxi and then proceeded to yell at their driver.  As we sped away, the driver started to blast Lady Gaga and the cab turned into a dance party.  We listened to crappy American ghetto fab/club songs for the whole trip, while simultaneously almost rear-ending and then passing every car we came upon (including our friend’s taxi which had left a good ten minutes before we did…we ended up at the destination and waited for him for another ten mins), and all of this a crazy fast speed (of course)  A great adventure…sort of…

            All the health volunteers will be at the hub here for a few days, then we head back to our CBTs and will be cooking some sort of American food for our families on Saturday.  I have decided to go with pancakes, scrambled eggs and hashbrowns.  I’ll write more about the success (or lack thereof) of that experiment next time.  More pictures of my host family and CBT site to come (Inshallah)!

pictures from CBT

 outside of our teacher's house

my room

 part of our CBT group-me, Ashley, Jonathan, Grace and our teacher Mohammed

part of my host family-dad, mom and the two grandkids that sometimes come to visit

1st CBT post

            I am struggling with how to begin this post.  “I moved in with my host family.”  “I am finally at my CBT site.”  “I have started language classes.”  All of these statements are true, but I don’t feel as if they very accurate describe what I have experienced in the past 3 days with my host family and at our CBT site.

             I suppose that I can begin with a description of my family (and yes, this did take me the full three days to fully figure out).  I have a host mom and dad and they have 5 children, one of whom lives with them (youngest son Jamal) and one of whom lives really close and is actually the host dad of another volunteer.  There is Jamal’s wife Mireem.  There are also two boys Mohammed (age 12) and Zacharia (age 5-7, not sure at this point)-these boys are the grandchildren of my host parents and my understanding is that their parents died and that’s why they live there.  Often another grandchild or two will come and stay for dinner and then sleep over.  As far as I know, my host dad (Brahim) is a potter (but I haven’t really been able to ask him much about this).  My host mom (Fatima) is a housewife, though Mireem seems to do a lot of work around the house (and most of the cooking as far as I can tell).   Mireem is 21 and I think she and Jamal just recently got married.  She is from Casablanca originally, though her mom and brother come over a lot so they may live close now.  Jamal has some sort of job that he leaves to on his motorbike but I’m not sure what it is. 

            Mireem is very nice to me and lets me help in the kitchen (but I’m pretty sure she thinks I am very silly…it takes me as long to peel one potato as it does for her to peel four or five).  I think she really wants a friend and someone to talk to so I have a lot of hope that we will be able to develop a close relationship.  She even did henna on my hands the other night (I think she sometimes does this for money in the bigger town nearby, she is very talented).  The older boy, Mohammed, helps me the most with language.  He is very patient and lets me write things down.  The rest of the family has caught on though and they are getting really good about pointing things out and testing me on different words.  The language is still very difficult but it is amazing how much we have learned in only 2 days of school.  I can now greet people correctly, say what I am doing in Morocco and have learned lot of food and other household words from my family.  I am also helping Mireem, Jamal and Mohammed with their English.

            The adjustment to the Moroccan way of life has gone well for me so far.  I think I have the hang of the Turkish toilet (or so I hope), haven’t stepped on any carpets (zerbia) with my shoes on, haven’t spilled the tea yet and have so far committed only a few faux-pas, though I’m sure I will commit many more.  School is going really well.  We have a wonderful language teacher and I think that our group has a great dynamic.  I am hoping we are able to go out in the community a little more this next week, meet more people and see some more things.  I also hope that I am able to have more meaningful conversations with my host family.  My language will improve I know, shwiya b shwiya (little by little, as we say in Darija).  I have taken some pictures of my host family and community but the internet may be too slow to load them today.  Check back in ten days and hopefully I will be able to get them up (Inshallah)!

And...I'm in Morocco!

            On Wednesday we left the luxury of our hotel compound in Marakech where we had been since we arrived in country Monday for a windy trip through the Atlas Mountains.  We had a police escort for the entire 4 hour trip on twisty, skinny roads.  The terrain reminded me a lot of Southern California-scrub brush, mountains, and even snow, as well as palm and fruit trees.  The two buses pulled up to Ouarzazate and through the main square to our hotel.  Up until then, it had been a whirlwind of information, people and things to remember.  Since we arrived in Ouarzazate it has been some of the same, but has calmed down a lot.

            Since Wednesday we have been doing a lot of training and have begun to learn a little bit more about our specific roles as either Health Education or Environment volunteers (which has made everyone less restless and more directed).  And today, we finally learned our CBT (community based training) sites and the groups we will be with, as well as the language we will be learning for the next two months.  Drum Roll please…Arabic (Darija)!  I’m very excited.  I did some work before I left for Morocco on learning some simple phrases along with the Modern Standard alphabet.  I have a large(ish) CBT group of 7 which I think is nice-a good chance to get to know a lot of people and if I ever get tired of someone there will be others to talk to. 

            Tomorrow morning we all leave each other and head off to the CBTs.  It will be sad to leave everyone (we all have become close over the last week and I really feel that I have bonded with almost everyone here) and I know I will miss being able to eat meals and speak with lots of different people.  We have a truly wonderful group of people from many different backgrounds and I have really enjoyed getting to know them.  But tomorrow is the big day.  I will meet my host family and learn a little bit about my community and begin our language lessons with Mohammed, our language and culture facilitator.  On Thursday we all return to our hub in Ouarzazate with all the other health volunteers to do more training (and get a second rabies shot, woo) and I will likely have more to post then (or will try to since I won’t have access to internet at the CBT)….lots more impressions and things to talk about then!  I will also do my best to put some pictures up either on here or the Facebook.

And the procrastination sets in

Ok, well sort of.  The email we just got from the Peace Corps today was very informative: I'll be in Ouarzazate for at least the first few days, but then I also need to have a bag ready for the first 10 days in country...this is where the procrastination hits.  I have pretty much packed my bags so now I need to go through and decide what's essential for the first 10 days.  Not such a big deal, but I'd really just rather not.  So I'm blogging instead. Go Bears.

It's a super nice day out so I might go for a bike ride in a little bit.

Oh yes, I was actually mostly writing this post to provide you all with my address (good until May 25).  Don't send any packages, but letters would be much appreciated.

Molly Green

s/c Corps de la Paix

2, Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi, Agdal,

Rabat 10080, MOROCCO

The terror of packing reigns supreme

Well, actually, I'm handling the packing situation far better than I would have imagined myself to (it's far better than the Ghana '09 or Europe '10 packing extravaganza, which were terrible for me and everyone around me).  Perhaps it's because I started packing/thinking about packing/laying stuff out and thinking about it some more for a week or so before I started putting stuff in bags.  However, I'm still convinced that I'll start freaking out about the whole thing in a day or two, but I'll try to spare you all the gory details.

Although I feel more ready to leave than I did before I went to Ukraine, I think it still sort of hasn't hit me fully (hence why I predict a freak out sometime soon).  Maybe it won't until I'm on the plane to Philly, or hell, the plane to Morocco for that matter.  As of now, I'm just still trying to get all my stuff together, make last minute runs to Target, hope really hard that I don't have any cavities when I visit the dentist today and hope even harder that all the stuff I ordered (everything from a new power cord for my laptop to a cover for my kindle) make it here before 6 am on Friday when I head to the Burbank airport to embark on my journey.

Alright, that's all I really feel inspired to say right now...perhaps I'll put up another post when I'm procrastinatig (which is sure to happen) in the next few days.

Pre-Morocco Preparation

    So....I'm finishing up with my students this week and will have next week to start packing before my epic adventure to New Orleans/Boston/Ukraine-that will leave me about 2 weeks when I get back before I leave for staging.  I am feeling pretty good about packing, I've started buying and organizing already.  However, I have a feeling that when it comes to the last few weeks, packing for the next two years of my life might freak me out a little bit more.  And I've finally started the Arabic lessons that the Peace Corps provided...harder than I would like, but not as terrible as I expected.  I also reviewed some French today and it's coming back to me pretty well.

I'm trying to watch as much TV and as many movies as I can before I leave (I wanna get my fill, though from what I'm hearing from current and returned PCV, that's what I'll end up spending a lot of my doing in the next couple of years).  I've also really been enjoying the weather-I've gotten to do all my lessons outside for the last few weeks.  It's been between 70 and 80 degrees for a couple of weeks and I literally couldn't be happier because of it.  It will make the trip to the Ukraine a bigger shock, but at least I get a stop over in Boston to get more used to some cold weather.

Well, this blog post isn't super exciting, but there are a lot of things I have to do before I really really start getting myself ready.  Maybe I'll have more interesting insights or things to say as the time draws closer...until then, au revior!