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.