This Blog was written in MAY as you can see I'm a little behind on my postings....

Well I am happy to be starting a new month. Things were a little crazy last month (April). I have put off writing this blog, why I am not exactly sure. Maybe I thought if there was no account of it, it would be as if it never happend. Haha but we can't run from our past can we now? and why in God's name would I want to deprive all of you of a great story? So get comfortable and enjoy the dramatic comedy that is my life...

It was a cooooooooold and rainy April morning and the call to prayer had just gone off at 5:30am. (Actually sorry I lied it wasn't cold or raining but you have to admit it adds a nice dramatic touch, right?) Most days I wake up to the call to prayer because my apartment is directly next to the Mosque but today I was already awake and... was most of the night. By the time I finally took my temperature it was a 105. My head was throbing and nothing was helping it go down. I made a call to our PC doctor and wasn't to happy with how he was handling the situation (I think I may have to leave the details of this out but I will say that a letter of complaint is being written) . I am happy to say people in my city were very helpful with bringing me food and water as I layed in my apartment doing whatever I could to stay cool.

My temp stayed until the next day. Lucky for me there is an American doctor I befriended in my city who was also concerned about my state and came to look at me. He concluded I had pneumonia and would need an X-ray to be completely sure. The next day I was sent to the hospital in my site to get an x-ray. As I walked out of my apartment I was convinced I was haluscinating. I heard people singing and cheering, and for a second I thought I was walking down an alley near Wrigley. As I got closer to the roar I realized I wasn't going to be seeing peanut vendors or clever T-shirts saying Cuck the Fardinals today. No no... today was the day the King of Morocco would come to Midelt.

To avoid the crowd and bypass all the gated side walks I jumped in a cab and we headed to the hospital. After explaining who I was the doctor pulled me to the xray room. As he set me up for my lung x-ray the doctor was multitasking as he lit his cigarette and I did my best not to laugh at the irony of the situation.

After the xray was finished I heard the doctor talking to my PC doctor on the phone. Saying something about how I was fine but he thought I had an ear infection. I was puzzled by his profound statement because no one actually looked in my ear. The doctor did pull on my ear lobe and asked if it hurt, which indeed it did. But let remind you all I had a temperature that could boil water. Touching any part of my head at that point was much less than pleasing.

Even so everyone concluded I had an ear infection....

(this is where we skip the details of me being sick the following 2 days and fast forward to my visit to a private clinic in Rabat)

And we do an Xray... Go figure I dont have an ear infection. Any guesses... Anyone

"Yeah I'll take Pneumonia for 500"

Bronchial Pneumonia to be exact. So I hung out in a clinic in Rabat for 4 days watched some tv, avoided a sponge bath, was violated by a thermometer, and received roses from the President of the Cooperative I work with... All in a days work folks... Alllllll in a days work

I ended up taking the train out of Rabat. As I sat there thinking about how nothing more could go wrong. I saw some little kids near the tracks playing a game of throw the rock at the train passing by. *Shatter* the window of the train door broke....

"well atleast they didn't break a window of the passenger car" i thought to myself

A train passes by and the wind pressure creates a strong force and *phhhhhhhh CRACK Shatter* I guess they did indeed get a little chip of my window.

After jumping up in my seat, I pulled the window curtain down to stop the glass from possibly falling in. And yet I was still happy because my pants were dry and I was given yet another completely unbelieveable story

Cheers

While many of you were celebrating an Easter weekend finding your Easter baskets and eating marshmellow and chocalate bunny rabits, I was riding camels and climbing endless piles of sand as far as my eyes could see...

It was an experience unlike any other. Sure I have visited the dunes in Michigan and if I remember correctly when I was about 4 or 5 I got to sit on a camel at the zoo... Oh joy... But this recent journey of mine into the Sahara outside of Zagora was something I will never forget. I spent 2 peaceful nights under clear skys lit by a full moon and bright stars. I sat on a mountain of sand looking out over an ocean of the same. It reenergized me to say the least.

The first night we ate our tajine dinner in the food tent and made way into the rolling hills of sand. We stumbled upon some dry brush and the remains of a dead tree. We decided to put it out of it's misery and make a fire. It was GLORIOUS! okay well maybe not glorious but indeed entertaining. We shared good times, sharing stories of our experiences thus far. I hope to make the journey one more time over my next 20 months in Morocco.

Things have been going well for me in Morocco. Sure there is an occasional moment where I miss the good ole US of A but it will be there when I get back. Work is moving along nicely too. I am working with a Cooperative called Toudart Iwsta (translates into Life of Looms) the women hand make rugs. It is quite remarkable how they create the patterns. Right now I am working with the President on creating a business card for them, which will hopefully allow them to create stronger relationships with their clients. Also in hopes of saving them some money I am painting a sign for them to put on the street so people in the city become more aware of the new Cooperative's presence. Later I hope to be able to bring them larger orders internationally or possible funding, but this Cooperative is still new... swiya b swiya (little by little)

Recently, while I was in Rabat, my counterpart (President of the Cooperative) and I met with a company called Mocary. The carpets they had were amazing. They had different styles and patterns from all over the country and my understaning is they sell a large amount internationally. My counterpart and I met with one of the people in charge and things went very well. After a 2 hour meeting over tea, the man from Mocary showed interest in helping the Cooperative. He said he would allow women of the Cooperative to be trained there to make different more complex patterns, as well as possibly giving wool and looms. It was great though I must say. He even had one of his sales people take us out to lunch and drive us back to the bus station. The president of the Cooperative told me on our bus ride back she felt like she was dreaming. Hopefully this relationship with Mocary will continue. I'll keep you updated. Peace out

Coming soon.....

but here are some pictures to hold you over ;-)

this is me in my new apartment

this is the view from the window in my main room

this is the view from my rooftop of the high atlas mountains

this is me in Sefrou

where I went for a natural dye workshop to learn

how to show the artisans I work with how to dye wool

using things such as onion skins or things that

they have easy access to in Morocco

This is one of my two birthday cakes for the weekend celebration

Hopefully soon I will have wireless internet in my apartment and people will be able to contact me whenever they please via my skype phone... and it may mean I will be able to post to this blog more than once a month

Stay tuned...

Most of these pictures are from Fes during the swear in ceremony except for the night time shot of the mosque that is in Rabat. Then there's me with a turkey and me wearing a jalaba with my host dad. Hope you are all happy and well.

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! and if you don't celebrate that then hope you had a wonderful _________!

I celebrated l'Eid Kbir here in Midelt, Morocco. It is a large Muslim holiday celebrated over a 3 day period. Almost all the families sacrificed a lamb the day of l'Eid. You could say I was 'lucky' because my family not only sacrificed the lamb but 3 days earlier sacrificed a goat.

What exactly happens during this sacrifice? If this is a question you are asking then read on, but make sure you have a paper bag near by (I sure wish I did :-) I will tell you that after assisting my host dad with the goat, I randomly disappeared during the lamb sacrifice 3 days later...

It was a cold morning in Midelt and I was laying in my bed staring at the cieling thinking about 7th grade Biology class...

"It can't be that much different", I thought to myself.

"I disected a pig, a frog, a rat, whats a goat?"

"What's a goat!?!"

"A goats frickin huge and it won't be sitting pre-packed in a jar of fermaldyhide"

I began sweating as I paced back and forth in my room trying to decide what I would wear... My host dad said to put on 'old clothes'...

Old clothes? Who packs old clothes when they can only pack 2 bags for 2 years?

I put on some warmups that had a paint stain on them and then I sat on my bed stairing at my shoes... I had white gym shoes, brown timberlands, and sandals. I quickly narrowed it down to the gym shoes and the timberlands. I decided I liked my timberlands too much to risk the blood stains. So I threw on the gym shoes and put on black socks over my shoes. I was ready!?

I walked down stairs into the back room. There he was all happy and goat like, eating goat food, and getting the sheep all riled up. In that moment it all seemed so peaceful... I had thoughts of becoming a vegetarian... Next thing I know my host dad's got him by the horns and tells me to hold him down while he goes and gets the silver ware. The goat got away from me at first or maybe I let him go... I can't remember :-) Anyways my host dad put him back in his place and then all I remember was seeing blood hit the wall next to me, because I didn't want to watch the initial cut. The legs kicked for a good 5 minutes as I directed the blood down the drain with a sqwegie. The goat was soon hung up on a lader, butcher style. The hair/skin was removed and shortly after every organ was removed and cleaned. Seeing my host dad blow out the intestine was the point where I wished I had the barf bag.... and this is where I will stop telling you about my buthcering experience.

I will say my shoes are still white and lunch was still good. I just never thought I would make eye contact with what I was going to eat before. But there's a first time for everything right..... a first time and a last time!

this is me with the ambassador and his wife at swearing in

Hey everyone its been a while. I would apologize but I don't have time to :-P

Seriously things have been pretty busy over here. November 27 was the swear in ceremony and the following day I went to my final site of Midelt. The swear in ceremony was at a beautiful hotel (which of course we didn't stay at because remember this is the Peace Corps people :-). The US ambassador was there who prepared a nice speech making sure to say each one of our names that he had plugged into the story Night Before Christmas which he renamed The Night Before Swearing In (he's a clever one) After a nice 5 days in Fes for swearing in I returned to my final site of Midelt and things are going fairly smoothly but I'll let you in on whats been happening so far...

So I was in my site for about a week and ended up traveling to Rabat. Unfortunately my site mate Linley had a bloody nose for almost all of Thursday (12/6). It wouldn't stop, so the following morning we set off to the PC headquarters in Rabat to meet with the PC doctor. He asked me to accompany Linley in case anything were to happen during the 8 hour bus from our site to Rabat.

Looking back at it now, a week later, it was good I went. When our bus stopped in Meknes (still on the way to Rabat) for some reason we had to change buses about 3 times. It was crazy, we got off one bus got on another and sat in it for about an hour not knowing what was going. Finally the bus took off and we headed to Rabat. I was in deep thought about what I was going to read for the last 3 hours of our trip there, when suddenly the bus stopped right before exiting the bus station. Everyone started getting off the bus and people were arguing about something and among all the commotion Linley's nose started having issues again.

Now keep in mind neither of us are what you would call fluent in arabic, so you should know that neither of us had any idea about what was going on. Luckily I had made a friend on the bus using the moroccan arabic I know. He was nice enough to make sure we got on the right bus heading to Rabat. I thanked him a ton but he still insisted on buying us bananas, I guess we looked hungry who knows... One thing I will say is Moroccans are some of the nicest people I've met. Even in my city every now and then someone will invite me for tea or buy me a coffee. I always try to pay and find out that it has already been paid for most of the time. Anyways back to Rabat.

So we got to Rabat and Linley got some x-rays and blood work and everything is more or less fine. Our first night there we witnessed a moroccan girl fighting another moroccan girl in front of the McDonald's, Linley thought we should try to break it up but my gut was telling me we already had enough bloody noses for one day and I didn't think either of us had the language capacity to explain to any policeman what was going on :-) Returning from Rabat we took a train to Meknes to save some time, and let me say that the trains in this country are fabulous! It was on time and very comfortable. Since we got back on a Saturday I decided to use one of my two vacation weekends to meet some surrounding PCVs and go on a hike in a nearby mountain. We stayed at their house after and enjoyed some good food and we all exchanged stories from our first weeks in our new sites.

Now I am in Midelt and things are going well. Christmas is coming up but the big celebration here is the weekend before Christmas, and is called l'Eid Kbir. My host father informed me that we will be eating lamb and proceeded to show me a room behind his hanut (a small convenient store he owns that is below our house) where the lamb was being fed very well. As I looked at the lamb I tried not to make eye contact because I knew it would making eating him later more difficult. I'm sure I will have much more to write about this later on... beacuse if I understood my host father correctly someone is going to learn how to be a butcher.... uhhhh.... yea so anyways... Merry Christmas everyone!

Enjoy your Ham!

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!!

I think I will have the opportunity to eat some Turkey when I meet up with all the other volunteers in Fes but just incase make sure to eat a little extra for me

Oh and incase you didn't get this in the last blog this is my new address:

Brian Kremer

Midelt B.P. 172

Morocco

I'm dedicating this blog to Ms. Natalie's Social Studies class from Hyde Park Day School in Chicago. They asked me some questions after my last blog and I'm sure everyone would like to know the answers...

Dear Ms. Natalie's Social Studies class,

(Wyatt, Connor, Zalana, Stephanie, Lia, Dominic, Jonathon, Brandon, Elliot, Mr. Phillip, Ms. Kristy & Ms. Natalie)

Will I be traveling to different places?

Yes, I will be traveling all over Morocco. I will no longer be living with the host family you saw in previous blogs because that was only for my two months of training. Five other volunteers and I worked with the potters of that small town. We assessed their skills and knowledge in order to develop plans to better their business. We designed a logo so they could brand their pots as a way of maintaining previous customers and distinguish themselves from their competition. Also we created a brochure that could be placed in the nearby hotel to attract tourists.

So where am I going now? Well, I was placed in a city called Midelt located in the mountains. I went there earlier in the month for about a week to see the city and meet my new host family. It was shocking to find out that I will be seeing snow in Morocco of all places! My previous host family told me that it was going to be cold, but I proudly told them I'm from Chicago. It seems almost impossible for there to be colder winters here then Chicago but then again there is no such thing as a heater in Morocco.

Is there anywhere to swim?

Yes there is! Morocco is in North Africa (south of Spain) and borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. When I first came to Morocco I was in Rabat and was able to walk down to the beach. I hope to be able to see the beach a few times while I am here, but like I said my final site is located in the Atlas Mountains. If I want to swim I will have to go to a lake or travel 10 hours to the coast.

Do they serve dessert there?

Yes, you will be happy to know dessert exists in Morocco. But it is something my host family has had during the day as a snack. Normally after you finish eating dinner a tray of fruit is brought out and people have everything from apples, oranges, melon, and grapes. Oh, by the way my new host family in Midelt grows grapes on their roof and they are delicious.

Do they have any of the same foods we have in America?

Hmmm.... I don't think you are referring to fruit so I won't bother listing all those out. In the larger cities you can find things like Coca Cola, Oreos, Snickers, and Pringles. Oh and Danon yogurt is a big thing here.

As far as Burger King, Taco Bell, and McDonald's there is only about 3 or 4 McDonald's that I know of in this country. One in Rabat, possibly one in Casablanca, there is one in Fes, and that's all I know about. The thing I miss the most is a hot dog from portillos, and there is no way I will be eating a hot dog in Morocco because hot dogs are made from pork and Muslims can not eat pork but I will tell you French Fries exist in Morocco and they are delicious.

Why did you join the Peace Corps?

I joined the Peace Corps because I needed more meaning in my life and I wanted to see more of the world we live in. Sure I graduated from De Paul University and have a business degree and could be working and making a lot of money right now, but money is not my priority in life. I want to live life and not buy it week to week with a pay check from job I probably will dread going to every day. The Peace Corps gives me the opportunity to experience and learn more about the world. For the next two years I will have the opportunity to learn a new language (Darija which is Moroccan Arabic) and work on small business development with the artisans of Morocco.

Do you have any of the same comforts we have in America? For example, do you have air conditioning?

What is air conditioning? Hahaha no there is no air conditioning and as I said earlier the winters will be a little colder in the mountains with out a heater but I may have a wood burning stove.

Things Morocco does have that I am thankful for are beds, couches, cell phones, Internet, TV, and we can't forget about coffee.

Do they party/have festivals often?If so, can you put up with them?

They celebrate religious holidays with a lot of food, music, and sometimes dancing depending what part of the country you are in. I have no problem with parties...

How long are you there for?

I will be in Midelt, Morocco for the next two years and home just in time for Christmas 2009...

Do you get to come home at all?

Maybe if my parents buy me a plane ticket but I would rather travel around Europe when I have time off because it is so cheap to get a flight there. Actually my parents are planning to meet me in Italy sometime this next summer and I can't wait.

Hope that answered the classes questions.

Take care and hope everyone including my family and friends have a good Thanksgiving. I miss you all.... I will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Fes with all the other new volunteers before we get official sworn in to the Peace Corps.

Oh and I have a post office box now in Midelt.

It is:

Brian Kremer

Midelt B.P. 172

Morocco

(the BP is french for Box Postal or something like that)

this is me getting some henna on my arms (normally this is only for women's hands after Ramadan is over but since i'm a foriegner it's all good)

How about that for a sunset huh? This is a picture I took while walking in the fields in our town... it almost looks like paradise

this is one of the artisan potters in our town that we are working with as a training project Hope you all enjoy these pictures I won't be on the internet again until Oct. 31 at which point I should know where I am being placed for the next two years.... hopefully it's a good site and all works out

first picture is me my host mom, bro and the one with the blue is my language instructor

the second picture is my host mom,sister,dad, me, and bro

So Ramadan is done and its back to a normal eating schedule. Here I am with my two host brothers eating some delicious foods as I attempt to sit cross legged on the floor. I am developing flexibility here that I never thought my body was capable of.

I am happy to have this host family they are some good people. Next time i post i will try to get some up of the whole family during the end of Ramadan festivities.

The end of Ramadan is called Leeeeeid and its a large celebration where the drink of choice is tea... It was funny because all the volunteers were talking about who had the most that day. I thought I won with my 10 cups but a fellow volunteer from chicago sent me a text later that day that he had taken down a good 15 cups!!! My favorite part of the day was lunch when I was invited to go outside the Mosque and eat with all the men in our small village. The men from each family brought with them a table, a tajine (a type of casarole cooked in a pot with various vegtables and some type of meat), along with some bread. Once we got to the Mosque we set up the food and after a little discussion we dug in using pieces of bread to grab the food with our right hand (dont use the left hand because in this culture that hand is the cleaning hand, and thats all I'm gonna say about that...but if you read my last post im sure you will understand). After each family finished the meat from there tajine they got up and went around from table to table eating with each family. I was hesitant at first but soon enough i too was swooping in like a seagal.

Thats all I got for now its time for me to go back to the peace corps training hotel we have a 10 o'clock curfue...

Cheers

So some of you may know that I wasn't in the best of moods last week and rightly so.... I had a 101 fever a couple nights and to top it off I had some G.I. issues that I will spare you all the details of. But I will say that Turkish toilets are annoying me so much that I have contemplated different ways to make a toilet that reminds me of home...

If you don't know what a Turkish toilet is I recommend googling it right now...

Okay so now you know. I figure if i can find a chair or a stool of some sort I can solve all my problems with the help of my fancy Swiss army knife that Pat and Beth hooked me up with (thanks to Beth's parents ;-) I guess I never realized how much I appreciated that porcelain seat i have been sitting on all these years. Well enough of that shit, I'm sure you would all like to hear a little about what I am doing huh?

Basically it is a bunch of language training every day which will last up until the end of November at which point we travel to our final site and stay with a new host family. By the way my current host family is really nice I have 2 brothers, a sister, and a mom that worries about my health 24/7. Anytime I go into the main room she is offering me tea or some other delicious meal. I finally communicated that I am not fasting (its Ramadan here) therefore I do not need to eat their 3 meals in addition to my 3 meals. Regardless I am still forced to eat them because if I dont i think my host mom would cry. But its all good, people are friendly and the town is beautiful.

sorry i havent wrote much but come December i should have more Internet access

Bis lama!!

Brian

We made it to Oz safely. The scenery was amazing. Lots of the people on the bus had to take Dramamine because the route was extremely winding and hilly.

I'm headed to Ouarzazate region of Morocco. I'm calling it Oz because it's just easier.

They speak a language called Berber in the Oz region. Yes, I realize that berber is also a carpet. In fact, berber carpet and the Berber language get their name from the Berber tribe of Northwestern Africa.The Peace Corps gives us money for language tutors so I might end up knowing 3 languages: Berber, Moroccan Arabic (a.k.a Darija), and French. I'm not giving you a link to French because if you don't already know what French is, you should feel shame.

I don't know what internet access is like out there but I'll get on as soon as I can find a place.

I would have used an exclamation point but dont really know how to, on this strange French style keyboard.

Currently it is 7 16pm in Rabat.

Clark (my roomate at the hotel in philly) and I walked into the city and stumbled upon this internet cafe.

Earlier the prayer alarms went off in the town and the medinah cleared so we felt obliged to stroll through.(the medinah is acrazy crowded market place). Surprisingly people are very westernized here. Except wi fi (in french its pronounced weee feee) is hard to come by after 7pm incase you are unaware wi fi is for wireless internet also for that fancy phone pat hooked me up with.

Yesterday was my first day in morocco and I was so tired and not in the best of moods. I had a nice aisle seat on theplane but switched with the guy sitting between me and another volunteer upon his request ........................ok no time for this story I gotta finish up and get back to the hotel says Clark and my time running out on the internet here SOOOOOOO wanted to let you all know I'm safe happy and now rested.

We met the Ambassador of the US to Morocco today nice guy named Tom Riley coool guy funny he read all our resumes before he came on the way to our hotel so he knew how amazing we all were in advance (at least thats what he said hahaha).

Love to all (exclamation point)

Hello everyone

Currently I have 10 min before we start our orientation back up, so i'll make this fast.

THE PEOPLE I WILL BE WORKING WITH ARE SOME OF THE COOLEST, MOST AMAZING people I have ever met. Everyone has so much to talk about and so much to share. There are 4 people from Chicago land area that I have met so far, all of them really nice and all of us agree that we will not be eating any Pizza while in Philly because we know it would never compare :-)

The guy I am rooming is from Chicago (evanston area) We have a similar interest in running and tonight we are gonna make a run to the world famous Rocky Steps. Hopefully I can get a picture of that to post as I'm sure it will be quite amusing

Peace all gota go