11 days away from Assoul was definitely my longest departure in 6 months. It was a busy week and a half of travelling and site seeing in places that made me feel like I had almost left Morocco. The majority of my trip was spent in Agadir, a well known beach town that is quite modern. We stayed in one of the nicest hotels in Agadir, and this was our lovely beach front view from our balcony.

Regardless of the fact that we basically had to spend every day indoors for meetings, we did take advantage of exploring the city in the evening. It was a lot of good food, good people, and good drinks, but nothing too crazy. Below is a picture of Bri and me eating what we believed to be the most hilarious thing… a very phallic way to get two scoops of ice cream, and yes we were laughing uncontrollably about it.

That’s what being here does to you; it makes you crack up over ridiculous things that really shouldn’t be that funny.

After Agadir, Bri, Mia and me went to another beach town for a slight extension on work related vacation. We went to a town called Essaouira, a town which will forever more be considered my favorite place in Morocco. It’s hard to say what it is about Essa, maybe it’s that the Moroccans are more relaxed, or the lovely breeze off the ocean, but it’s truly a wonderful place. In our 24 hours there we found a great cheap hotel, ate amazing food, and shopped… we shopped like there was no tomorrow. After 9 months of not shopping even a person who doesn’t like shopping (like me) will embrace the wonderful feeling of finally scoring good deals on presents for family, friends, and of course me.

From Essa we travelled to Marrakech. It was my first time there also; a group of us volunteers spent one night there before departing on our different paths to return to our sites. Marrakech was about like I expected (even though I saw very little of the actual city). We stayed in the Medina there and had a great time bargaining our hearts out… I got a coral necklace down from 700DH to 150DH! That’s huge! Marakech was a spectacle all its own, it was hot, and the Medina was crowded with thousands of people.

This picture was of an alley just off the Medina, and it stayed packed with people roaming around well into the late hour of the night. Of course the pitfall of Marrakech is the obscene amount of harassment, I can’t really even remember how many times my ass was grabbed. Sometimes I just want to wear a sign around my neck that says, “I am not a tourist, I live here!” Ahh, but it was all a great experience… all except for the 14hour bus ride I did the following day to get to Rich and then the next day a couple more hour to Assoul. I think I’ve said it before but travelling in this country is exhausting and as it gets warmer the busses just get harder to travel on.

So, I’m back to Assoul now and taking a little respite from everything. I’ve had a nagging little cold since I got back and have started reading a lot again. I go to babysit my site mate’s cat and kittens for the past couple days, so of course I have to include a couple pictures of the adorable little monsters.

At 5 weeks old now, I’ll only need to wait another week to claim my kitten. His name is BuPastis ,which means the owner of Pastis (Pastis is a caramel colored liquor that turns white when you drink it with water… it seemed perfect for his coloring but also because I had never had it before Morocco). He is the larger of the two kittens and although they’re both cute I’m totally bias to him. He is so social, has so much personality and is a little plump… just like I like my kitties.

I guess it’s worth mentioning that apparently Assoul has invisible mosquitoes. I have yet to see any mosquitoes but they sure do like me. I have taken to hiding under my mosquito net which I just hung up a couple days ago. Hard to tell if it’s working yet but sure hope so since my body is already basically covered in bites and it’s only the beginning of summer (and yes it is quite warm, probably mid 90s most days and I’m fully covered with long sleeved shirts and pants). Eek. If nothing else, the mosquito net keeps the flies off me… and that is always a welcome relief.

Well, it seems like it’s been quite a while since I’ve done this whole blogging thing. Sometimes I wish I actually had something profound or interesting to write but when the majority of your days are spent in solitary confinement it’s difficult to say the least. Actually I have been rather busy the past couple of weeks. I spent the earlier part of the month attending a GGLOW Camp, aka, guys and girls lead our world. It’s a camp that a bunch of volunteers in my area coordinated to bring up issues of gender development with kids between the age of 12 and 18. While I was not actually apart of the coordinating of the events I was there to offer a helping hand. So, about 11 of us volunteers from around here went up north to a town called Imilchil. The camp was great and the Moroccan staff that were there to help us were amazing. I think the kids had a great time doing both outside activities (like a hike to a nearby Lake Tislit), along with classroom discussion and games.

As for me, it was a great opportunity to work with the kids in their school environment- it made me realize how severe their living conditions are. It was also nice just to see another volunteer’s site, even if it was unexpectedly freezing the week we were there. So I returned from the camp in Imilchil to then rush off a couple days later to get my carte sejour, or in other words my residency card. It’s a very momentous event to get this laminated piece of paper- it means I am finally legal to live in Morocco and that I can come and go in and out of this country anytime I want for the next year. It generally takes volunteers anywhere from a couple months to a full 2 years to get this document and I got mine in about 4 months- probably a record for my province and gendarmerie (quasi police officials). Oh, and I also had my site visit- my program manager came out to my village for a couple hours to check on my living conditions and to see how well I am integrating into my community. I was slightly worried about this event since I have struggled a lot with being happy here, but to my surprise everything went swimmingly. We met with the women’s cooperative and they basically reiterated everything that I had already told my Manager in terms of what they needed. First thing on the list: materials, sewing machines, and new metal looms. I began the process of filling out the paperwork for assistance from a Moroccan organization this week, it’ll be sent off next week and then we’ll just have to wait- who knows how long : ) Long term goal: new working space for the cooperative, ideally we can get funding for actually building a new place. In other news, not related to work- I recently acquired an old refrigerator from one the volunteers that is leaving. It’s getting pretty warm pretty quickly here and a fridge seems like a dream come true already. On the down side, it’s sucking the life out of the my electricity- generally it takes me about 3 to 4 months to go through 100DH of electricity (that’s about $15), now were going through 100DH in about a month, eek. Also, Peter’s cat, Han Shush finally had her babies.

I was so excited that I’d finally get to see a cat give birth but of course she decided to do it while Peter and I were both gone at the camp in Imilchil. Luckily my former host father, Sid, arrived to help her out as she successfully delivered 2 adorable kittens. The two kittens have basically identical markings; all white with a couple orange spots, the only difference is that one of them is about twice the size of the other. So we of course end up calling them the little one and the big one, not so creative. They’re about 2 weeks old now and they just opened their eyes, both appear to have blue eyes who knows if those will change. 4 more weeks to go and then I’ll finally get to claim my little kitty! Anyway, next up on the agenda is IST (In-Service Training) in Agadir. I’ll be leaving next week to spend a week at this lovely beach town in a 4 star hotel with the other 60+ volunteers that I started my service with. Needless to say it’s a big landmark for all of us; it’s our official celebration for lasting 6 months in our sites, 9 months in country. And aside from the daily presentations we will have to sit through, we will be having a lot of fun doing “other” activities in the evening time. So, with all that said, it’s also the week that I have to say goodbye to some wonderful people who have definitely colored my life for the past 6 months. Yup, some of my favorite volunteers are finishing their service this week. Of course I applaud them for lasting this long here (since I’m still questioning how much longer I can take it), but it will be sad not to have them around. And as I say hello to their new replacements in the coming weeks, I know that I will miss these volunteers very much.

Dancing women, camels, and cats, oh my. Actually, nothing really new to write about, just wanted to put something up though. The first image is of some women dancing at a party I attended last week. It was basically a harvest party, the women went out to the mountains at 6 am and came back around noon with large bundles of wood. Later we ate and the women danced and sang, it was a rather typical Berber party.

The next image of lovely camels walking relatively near where I live. The nomads generally don't bring them this far north but there is no water in the Sahara (go figure) this year.

And last but not least the adorable and very pregnant Han Shush (Peter's cat) She looks like she'll have the kittens any day now, trust me if you could see that belly in real life you'd understand. In her pregnancy days she has slowed down immensely and basically sleeps all day and night now. Can't wait to claim one of her kittens.

Here we have the new bio dome in Assoul, a space invader and a newly tiled kitchen. In other words, the first image is of the new bee keeping cooperative which my former host father has started. It’s pretty exciting to watch this group of people actually working on a small business project to make honey. Then there is Peter, dressed in the lovely space suit as he walked near the boxes or bees. I of course neglected to “suit up” and moments after taking this image I was stung by 2 bees fighting in my hair. My head is a little swollen and sore, but oh well. And last but not least is the picture of me in my newly tiled kitchen, before the counters were rough cement. So, I tiled them… the guys in my town thought it was a little crazy that this American girl was tiling her kitchen by herself. It was 4 days of labor intensive work, and I loved almost every minute of it.

So, that’s what’s been going on around here. The women’s cooperative has been open very rarely, if at all in the past month. This of course is a good and a bad thing- good because I have free time to tile my kitchen- bad because I am bored out of my mind and the women aren’t going to be able to produce any more products to sell.

I did have my first official visitor in Assoul this past week. My good friend Bri from stage came all the way to my town… far off the beaten path. We had a great time hanging out and enjoying some lovely pesto pasta and salad. Of course the pesto came from a package my mother sent me… and let me tell you, those packages are the best (I love you mom!). Anyway, in the midst of Bri’s visit we also had the arrival of spring storm madness. Basically all week it has been so windy you can barely walk outside. Seriously, gale force winds here in the mountains which have been followed by rain and rather cold temperatures in the past two days. Oh Morocco- can’t wait to see what next week will bring.

Perhaps I just need to get out more. After almost 3 weeks straight in Assoul, I was going crazy. We had a Moroccan holiday which meant a 4 day weekend without taking actual vacation time. So, my friend Bri and I decided to get out of our towns. Only one problem, I could not get out of town on the actual holiday which was a Thursday… no transits running on the holiday. Of course I didn’t know this until the night before I was supposed to leave. I was irate to say the least and in protest of not being able to get out of town I stayed in bed all day and watched movies. So, the following day I was sure to be on the 6am transit out of town, except that when I opened my front door I realized it had been snowing all night. I waited for a while in the snow and sure enough my transit showed up… it was a scary ride into rich through a blizzard. Take in mind that it had been quite warm here up until then, and sure enough on the first day of spring we’re covered in snow. Bri and I met up along the way and went straight to Rabat.

Rabat is one of those places in Morocco where you feel like you’ve left the country, or at least the country that Bri and I live in (aka rural Morocco). Life is so very different between the urban and rural areas; it’s more extreme than anything I’ve ever seen. We ate amazing food, drank “good” beverages, did a little shopping, and spent some time at the beach (even if it was chilly). The last night we were there, granted we were only there for two nights, we went to the German Institute. A tip from another volunteer, as it has a great atmosphere and great food. Indeed the atmosphere and food were amazing. Bri and I finally found the perfect four cheese pizza (comparable to my favorite in Italy and LA), and an ambiance that magically transported us to Europe. Towards the end of our evening there the people sitting as the table next to us asked if we could join tables as their group kept getting larger. It turned out these were incredibly funny and cool people. Most of them spoke English fluently… we found ourselves in the middle of a social scene unlike anything we had experienced in months. Our new friends were from everywhere, Spain, Chad, Belgium, Mexico, and Morocco, all living and working in Rabat. And although Bri and I were quite tired we decided to join the group to another bar and then to a nightclub. It was quite the experience in Rabat; we had an amazing time and met some great people. It reminded me how fun going out can be… and how much I miss it.

Coming back from Rabat was hard… I couldn’t help but think about how great it would be to be living there instead of all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. But being back in Assoul has its own comforts, most of which are my own house, but it’s been a little lonely here lately. Peter, my site mate was gone for the week and a half before I left for Rabat (to travel with his parents), and now he’s gone again for another week for a youth camp that volunteers are putting on. So, I’ve done what anyone would do… stolen his cat Han Shush and claimed her as my own because I’m lonely. I think she’s rather happy living with auntie linsey. And along the lines of cat’s, I’ve been planning on getting my own for a while but it’s just now kitten season here and I’ve been looking with little luck. I was at my friend, Najat’s house today and told her that I needed a kitten and she says they have one. Seriously this kitten was maybe 4 days old… so tiny and cute with its eyes still closed and all. I told them if it was a boy I’d take it, it’s a little too small for us to determine gender yet. We shall see… I might have a kitten within the next month!

Main Street in Assoul, also known as "the only paved road in town".

The past week has been about as eventful as you can get here. I went to a training in a town about two hours away from my site last weekend, at another volunteer’s house. Although the training was interesting the excitement revolved around the rain. It rained last week, and in even though I’m out in the mountains, rain is very rare. It rained on and off all last week, which was absolutely beautiful… something about dark grey clouds really helps to soften the harsh terrain of Morocco. The only problem is that houses and bridges in Morocco aren’t really designed to handle the rain. The first problem was trying to get out of the town I had the training in. The nearby river flooded and no one could cross the river to get out of town. Transit vans, and trucks all stood by as the water gushed over the bridge. By the second day the water level had gone down slightly so we decided to hop in a transit van and get out of town. We drove through probably three feet of moving water on a bridge. It was a little scary but I was laughing the whole way across the river. Later that day I got back to my town to find a very wet ceiling. Although there was no water damage in my house it was quite evident that had there been any more rain it would have been a problem. My site mate’s house on the other hand was far worse… water leaking in from everywhere.

The rain has stopped now. My ceiling is almost dry, and we’ve been enjoying several days of a much warmer sun. It is still quite cool, but sitting out in the sun in the afternoon is almost perfect (I only have to wear two or three shirts). So, that’s the big excitement here… the weather. Haha. The two little peach trees in my garden have started to bloom, proving that spring is right around the corner after a very long and cold winter. I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to be warm without wearing five layers of clothes.

Finally, pictures of my house. I think they are fairly self explanitory but I'll give a quick run down. The first picture is of my garden. Also known as the place I spend the most time in because the sun is nice and warm during the day... and my house of cement is freezing all the time. I have two peach trees and a couple lovely grape vines, I'm hoping to add some more things like basil and tomatoes pretty soon.

This of course is my lovely trukish toilet and my showering room. Having both is a privledge and although it is still cold here I try to bath at least once every 3 or 4 days. The buckets in my toilet room store water since I only have running water for an hour a day.

My bedroom, it's great. I decided to sew the lovely curtain, not too bad considering I did it by hand. It's a small cozy room and I have come to enjoy it very much... having a real bed is sooo nice.

This is a big open hallway really, we decided to move one of Peter's rugs he wasn't using and call it an additional lounge area.

My kitchen area is great. I have more counter space than most Moroccan kitchens, in the process of trying to find tiles to finish it though. And yes that's the garden which connects to the kitchen.

The hall way from my front door to the kitchen. On the right is a door to the room pictured below, to the left is my open hallway and bedroom.

The entertainment room which has gotten very little use yet, but hopefully soon. It's hard to show how big my place really is in pictures. The rooms are all pretty open and there are a considerable amount of windows which means my place has a nice amount of natural light through the day, yet another rarity in most Moroccan homes. I have pretty high ceilings which I just think makes the place look even bigger too. Among the things I didnt photograph, a second bedroom I use for storage, an indoor cement courtyard, and a second entrance. Oh how nice it is to finally settle into my own place. A place I'm loving more and more as I make it my own.

This probably isn't the best picture to put with this blog entry but I'll do it anyway. Just an image of the land of rocks that i live in, and yes that is the literal translation of my town's name.

There are times here when all I want to do is run away… times when all I want to do is leave and return to everything that I used to know. There are days when I wake up and I really can’t figure out what I’m doing in a small town in the middle of the mountains in Morocco. Sometimes I feel like my life is more consumed with frustration than boredom. I get tired of being absolutely freezing cold every day, of wearing so many layers I can hardly move, of shivering to death when I try to take a bucket bath. I get tired of the language and knowing that I should know more than I do (I mean I’ve been here for over 5 months!). I get tired of only having running water for an hour a day. Washing clothes here can be unbelievably challenging with ice cold water- and for whatever reason my clothes have taken more wear and tear here in 5 months than most clothes would in 5 years. Haggling over prices to buy anything in this country is enough to exhaust anyone (not to mention prices are quoted in terms of ryals, a form of currency that has not been used for decades- the current form of currency is dirham, there are 20 ryals to 1 dirham, so the math and numbers get ridiculously confusing). Oh, and I think I have spiders attacking me in my new house; I have icky red bites all over me. Sometimes it’s all just too much; it’s just a different conception of life that can be so frustrating at times.

But then I look outside and I see this beautiful little community with people walking around in jellabas and women draped with the traditional black sheet around them. I look at the little kids playing marbles in the dirt streets, the older kids walking to and from school, and the men sitting at the cafes drinking tea. And when I walk just outside of town the hills are covered with sheep and goats grazing. I guess that’s when I realize that I do love it here. Sometimes the frustrations become so overwhelming that I forget the beauty of it all. I suppose if it wasn’t a challenge I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. Sure I miss the conveniences of life in the US… but I’m not there now, and those conveniences will still be there when I return. Right now I’m learning to get into my life here; to start making a habit of being here and getting to know the people better. I’m settling into my house quite nicely even if it is really cold inside. I love having my own space again after being a nomad for 5 months- my suitcases have moved into my storage room so I no longer have to look at them daily. I must say that I do miss living with my host family, their routine became my routine and it was a nice way to live.

So, here I am for another internet session in Rich, something I’ve only been doing about once every two weeks. Mainly that’s just because it’s exhausting to come to town every weekend. Regardless, it’s always good to check in with the rest of the world especially since we’ve been losing cell phone reception on and off for the past 3 weeks.

Work has been pretty consistent lately. I’ve been going to the women’s cooperative at least four times a week (when it’s open) and trying to bring some new ideas to the women for how they can make some extra money. Right now I’m trying to get them to make cookies on a weekly basis just to bring in a little extra money to buy supplies for larger projects like weavings, etc. The women seem interested but who knows how long it will take for things to actually start happening. I’m also trying to get things set up to start trying to make cheese here. It seems like it could be a rather time-intensive project and I guess if anyone who’s reading this has experience, any information would be great! I’m currently trying to figure out how I can get Rennet and Starter Cultures for making cow and goat cheeses; I’m not sure where I can find them in this country so I might need to order them from the US. There are other volunteers here who might know about cheese-making so I’ll be giving that a try too.

Well, my new house is great despite my previously mentioned frustrations. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to take pics before I came here. So, you’ll all have to wait for a couple more weeks to see the inside of my lovely cement house. It still needs some decorating as there is nothing on the walls currently, so it’s probably better that I haven’t taken pics yet. I’ve also recently become a pretty good cook; most nights of week I make dinner for me and my site mate Peter. Sometimes cooking here can be challenging given the resources but things seem to be getting easier as I adjust my methods and patience.

So, I guess that’s what I need to work on currently; delving deeper into my ability to have patience. I feel like I’ve been through the hardest part already, or have I? Is the hardest part being a nomad for 5 months, or learning how to be still for 22 months?

Some images of the women that i work with... in the process of weaving and dying wool for yarn. Yay! They are working! Ok, another month down here in Morocco… 22 more months to go. The first weekend of the month I went to Rabat for a couple days. I found myself in the middle of a very busy metropolitan area for the first time in a long time. While Rabat is still a very Moroccan city it is also a world apart from the small town I live in. It took me exactly 12 hours to travel there on transit vans and buses. It’s amazing that as you head north in this country, at least from where I’m at, everything changes- the roads have 2 lanes, there are paved sidewalks, people wear less jellabas and more jeans, and women walk the streets without their hair covered by a scarf. It still amazes me how diverse this country is between the rural villages and the urban cities. Needless to say I had a great time in Rabat even if my real reason there was to meet with the Peace Corps medical office. There were a few other volunteers there and they were kind enough to show me to the American Club where I was free to sit and drink a Guinness and eat an amazing salad. Did I need to mention that both of those things are rare here? I even lived it up and went to McDonald’s, trust me… after eating bread and tajine for 5 months you’d kill for McDonald’s too. The last night in Rabat I went out to the Tapas bar across from the hotel and drank Sangria; at that point I really did think I had left Morocco. It was a night respite.

The following weekend we had free vacation days here for the Moroccan New Year which also happened to fall on the weekend of my birthday. Me and three of my friends decided to head up north to Meknes. It was sort of a whirlwind of big cities one weekend after the other and of course we had a great time. Meknes is the nearest metropolitan area to me, although it takes about 7 hours for me to get there. It’s a great city, there are a lot of college age students there and it’s pretty infrequently travelled by tourists so you can really just go there and hang out. There are scads of bars and pizzerias, and of course a Marjan… the amazing Walmart-like store that you can buy anything at. I took the opportunity to begin buying spices and whatnot for my new house. On the way back to my site we stayed in Azrou for a night which I must say is an adorable town. It’s a ridiculously high town, situated in the mountains with forests and hills all around it. They have vineyards near there too, all of which looked strikingly similar to Southern Oregon.

And then on my birthday I returned to my town. I made some pasta and enjoyed the night quietly and my site mate’s house. Another volunteer near here made me a cake so we had a nice little celebration. It was actually a great birthday, quiet and no fuss, just pleasant. After my two weekends of travel I’ve been at my site which is of course the reason for no blog entries in a long while. I’ve been quite busy here. The women’s Coop has been open almost every day of the week now which means every afternoon I’m there. In addition to that I’ve been tutoring in Tamazight (the Berber dialect here) and trying to find my own house to move into on February 1st. The good news is that I found the most amazing house, it’s a pretty large house since they don’t really make houses for single people here (for the most part everyone lives with their family). It has 3 rooms, a garden, a courtyard, a large kitchen, a bathroom and shower room. Needless to say I have plenty of room for anyone who wants to come visit me.

Currently, I’m just trying to figure out what I need for my house. I’m pretty lucky because the volunteer I replaced left me a lot of stuff which means I might be able to use my money to buy luxury items… like a small fridge. It’s all just really exciting right now to think that in a couple more days I’ll have my own place.

Pictures galore. I'm not exactly sure what order these will post as so here's a general recap. The first image is of my site mate Peter with his adorable and slightly crazy cat HanShush, a very Merry Christmas picture complete with the teddy bear my mom sent to me. The next image is of my other site mate Alex putting a cigarette bud out on Peter's heal because it's so calloused. Needless to say it was hilarious. Then there's the image of me taking off the top of my apple off because it caught on fire in the stupid Moroccan oven. Hmm, i'm going to have to rethink my hopes of becoming an excellent baker here.

And then there was L3id. Here are a few of the many gorey pictures I have. Alex and Peter decided to buy a sheep and slaughter it in honor of the holiday, yummy. And L3id wouldn't have been complete without a lovely group picture by the freshly slaughtered sheep (as it's still getting skinned). But really it was all pretty fun. I ate lots of strange sheep organs which included heart, liver, intestines, lungs, stomach and balls (yup the balls). My stomach however did not agree with most of this, let's just say a week later I am still sort of in recovery. Christmas was better than I expected I got to hang out at Peter's house and cook and watch "A Christmas Story" (thank you mom!) I got my Christmas package from my mother exactly on Christmas day which was quite possibly one of the nicest surprises ever. Other than all that all I have to say is it's been cold, very cold. It snowed last week, the day before L3id which was beautiful but it only lasted until the afternoon... and even though the sun comes out everyday here it doesn't get very warm. Ok, well I'm off to Rabat for some Peace Corps stuff on Thursday and on Saturday I get to hang out with my bestest friend from stage in Azrou! Yay! Happy New Year everyone!

Currently, I am learning how to waste a lot of time. No, I mean it… the women I’m working with are meeting twice a week which means I have a lot of time to fill. I spend a lot of time at my family’s house reading and trying to learn more of the language, and in the mornings I generally go on 2 to 3 hour walks. I currently have blisters on my feet from walking too much, which should mean that I’m walking less but I’m not. I just try to tough it out and hope that eventually I’ll get tough skin like the Moroccan womenJ Anyway, I’m pretty much just settling into a simple life here. I’m trying to figure out ways to use my time and be productive but there’s a lot of time and space to fill out here. I mean the town is beautiful but there’s only so much exploring of bare land you can do each day. And general conversation with the locals is still difficult at best, I have a lot of work to do on the language and I’m not really sure how to do it. I guess something will just come in time.

Well, not really much to report simply because there isn’t a lot going on. Just adjusting to my new life and trying to imagine the next 2 years. Also imagining what it will be like to live in my own place here in 2 months. I mean I really enjoy the family I’m staying with but it will be nice to be at my own place too come February 1st. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll have internet again until after Christmas, so Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it. It should be an interesting day for me, not only will I be apart from my family for the first time but I guess I won’t be celebrating the holiday at all this year. Instead I’ll be celebrating L3id Akbar, and slaughtering a sheep around the 23rd of December. Let’s hope I can stomach it in more than one way.

Fez!

It’s official, I am Peace Corps Volunteer. I spent the last week in Fez to swear in as a Volunteer which of course was great. It was great to be in a big city for a few days. The medina there is amazing, the oldest and largest in the world I believe. We somehow found our way to the tanneries in the medina and of coursed managed to get lost for a while afterwards. It was all very good though, we tried to go out and enjoy the city. It was great to just roam around and feel the pace of the environment. It was also good to have McDonanald’s… yeah, I went there and it was damn good. I also went to Marjan (a chain of stores only in very large towns in Morocco). I experienced just a little culture shock when I walked in there… it’s huge, and you can get everything there, it’s a giant supermarket meets Walmart. I suppose Fez was really a good break from everything, for a second I almost felt like I had left Morocco, you know minus the constant catcalls and all.

The bad thing about swearing in was simply saying good bye to everyone. We were a group of 67 in Fez, no I’m down to a group of 1, me. Well, not exactly since I do have two site mates who are really cool. I am currently in Rich, I’ll travel to my town tomorrow morning. Finally, I can unpack my bags and call a place home. I’m very happy to be done with hauling it all around but it comes with the sadness of no longer being in training with my friends. So it goes.

Thanksgiving was great the other trainees made us a fabulous meal. We were all very impressed; everything from turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and green beans to apple crisp and pumpkin pie. It was cold and rainy in Fez the whole time we were there which just made it feel all the more like it was really Thanksgiving… or fall or winter or whatever.

So I stayed in Errachidia last night, when we arrived there it was a complete downpour. People say it hasn’t rained there like that in years. It was crazy; just imagine 10 or 15 volunteers getting off this bus right as it’s getting dark, being absolutely soaked from the rain which is just beating down, and then trying to carry all their baggage to the hotel 2 blocks away. I dragged my bags through huge puddles of mud and managed to get soaking wet. I was freezing all night long, this of course didn’t help my efforts to get over my current cold… yup it’s the second one since I’ve been here. It’s definitely pretty cold here and apparently it has already begun to snow at my site. Brrrrr.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Getting Berber with it. Or at least my hands would say so. Here they are covered with Henna in the typical Berber way, you place a blob of gooey Henna in the middle of your hand and cover it with plastic bags overnight. I however, took it off after about 3 hours… it’s really hard to do anything when you have bags tied over your hands and all you have is little numbs. Anyway, I did the Henna as part of our going away party in Hdida. Yup that’s right, I’m done with training in Hdida… and I’m very happy to move on to my final site, Assoul.

But first there’s Fez for swearing in as an official Volunteer and Thanksgiving. Nothing much to report other than I had a language proficiency test today, which I guess I survived. I basically know just enough to get by, which is sad but the dialect I’ve been learning and what I will have to learn in my new site are pretty different. So I get to learn the whole language over again. But what can you do?

Anyway, not much else is going on. Just finishing packing all my stuff to take to Fez, it will be my second to last time that I have to pack it all up, amen. I can’t even count how many times I’ve packed and unpacked in this country, ugh. So, that’s it for now… tomorrow I’ll travel 12 hours to Fez!

Pictures:- Spreading the corn on the roof of my new house in Assoul to dry it for use in the winter.- The kids in the house playing on the chalk board- The view of Assoul from my window, not too bad huh?

In the bled… or at least that’s what they call it around here. The bled basically translates to the sticks, the far off places that people rarely travel to. The funny thing is that I actually really like it. I was afraid that Assoul might be too far out, too far away from my comfort zone but it isn’t. I remind myself that I really had no idea what to expect when I got to Morocco, so here I find myself about two and half hours from the closest internet service. The good news is that I have cell phone reception and electricity. The only glitch is that running water is limited. Some houses have running water for several hours, some for only an hour. Of course there are ways to deal with this and I will make it work even if it is a little difficult at times. The other good news is that I am allowed to travel to my nearest internet site once a week which means that I will stay there, a town called Rich one night a week at a hotel with a hot shower.

I have a new host family in my site; I will be living with them for my first two months here. I officially move to Assoul the end of November and will live with this family until the first of February. My family is great; they have hosted Peace Corps Volunteers before and seem to be accustomed to Americans. My host father speaks English almost fluently which is great for my lack of language in the Berber dialect I’ve been learning. His wife tries to speak to me but the dialect here is different than what I have been studying which is challenging to say the least. She is convinced I know nothing… which is sometimes true. Regardless, they are very nice people and the food here is really good (even if I am still having some stomach issues). Anyway, my host family also has 3 children, 2 girls and 1 boy. They are really sweet, and I can’t wait until I can speak with them more. Overall, the family is calm and respectful and I enjoy them very much.

I am replacing a volunteer at my site; she has been here helping me everyday find my way and introducing me to everyone. I don’t know what I’d do without her. She has been my translator and friend through this whole process. It will be strange to come back in a couple weeks and she will have left. Still, I am so thankful that she has been here to help me figure out what I’ll be doing for the next two years.

A little about what I’ll be doing…I am assigned to work with a women’s weaving cooperative. They are in fairly preliminary stages which means I can hopefully help them with product development (color & design), organization, and marketing as well as funding for a building and looms. It sounds like a lot but really it’s just little steps (many of which have been paved for me by the previous volunteer). Really those descriptions are wide open and just ideas that I’ve had since I’ve been here. It’ll be interesting to see how it all works out or if anything works out. Inshallah.

So, only about two more weeks until I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer. We’ll go up to Fez to swear in and have a smashing thanksgiving. I honestly can’t wait to move to my site. I’ve been moving around so much the past couple of months that I feel like I’m a gypsy… Oh wait a minute, I am a gypsy (just for a little while longer though).

The camera is up and running again... so, if everything works accordingly:The first picture of the map has push pins with each of us trainee's pictures on them. This is how we found out our location for the next 2 years. The next one is me with my training group in Hdida. My teacher is the woman in front with the skirt on. Next is a picture of my trainig group again, inside our artist's association with their new sign we made for them. Next is our classroom in Hdida, yeah we're freezing, and yeah that's me and Briana under a blanket because we can see our breath. Finally, our lovely Halloween picture, that's Briana, me, Kristian and Blake... we were all kitties with booties (it's a long story and honestly a stupid inside joke) but hey we had fun:) So, two weeks later…I’m currently back in my luxurious life in Ouarzazate. However, I leave tomorrow for my first site visit to where I will be living for the next 2 years.

First a recap on my last 2 weeks… and some dirty details. I showered once in 12 days. Here’s the problem, it’s either ice cold bucket baths or nothing. I’m sure in due time I will get use to the bucket bathing system but for now it’s definitely difficult. Another dirty detail, my stomach just keeps going to the dark side. I don’t know if it’s the excessive amount of bread I eat (because really that’s all they eat here) or the vast amount of oil that everything sits. Regardless I’m trying to tell myself that in a couple more months I can make my own food and solve a lot of my g.i. problems. Oh yeah, and to top it all off, I’ve been sick for the past 2 weeks. Really it’s just a cold but colds are never really fun. I’m going to make an educated guess and say that maybe the reason why I’ve been sick is because my classroom stays at about 48 to 50 degrees all day. While that may not sound too cold, when you are sitting for 10 hours a day in it wrapped in blankets and every article of clothing you own, you know it’s cold. For this reason I hope I get a mud house at my site, my current classroom is made of cement which is supposed to be hot in the summer and cold in the winter, mud houses are the opposite. Who knew I’d ever ask for a mud house?

Anyway, we are almost done with training, my group has more of less finished our project and when we return to our training site in 2 weeks it will only be for 4 days. Kind of crazy when things are suddenly coming to a very quick end with group activities. It’s scary because of the language also. I try hard but this language is ridiculously difficult. And little by little I hope to understand more of it.

So, we’re here in Ouarzazate again, we got here on Halloween which meant me and couple others went “out” and then came back to the hotel for a little Peace Corps party. Needless to say we had a good time, definitely not my craziest Halloween but it was good.

Drum roll please, tomorrow I leave for the very small town of Assoul in the middle of nowhere (you might be able to find it on a really big map of Morocco). My nearest town with internet is 3 hours away. I think it’s a dirt road to get from there to Rich, my nearest town for internet. I’m trying to stay positive about my situation even though the one thing I requested for my site placement was to be in or near a large town. It’s ironic that I am the one person in my sector (small business development) that is the furthest from anything. The up side is that I will have a couple other volunteers near me from different sectors (health and environment I think), can’t wait to meet them. Also, I have met the volunteer that I am replacing and am very excited to meet up with her again before she leaves in a couple weeks… of course to talk about all the ins and outs of the community.

Enough for now, I’ll try to post something as soon as I can about my official site.

Back in Ouarzazate for a couple more days. It’s always nice to come back here. We just returned from 4 days in Hdida which was actually really good. Saturday, the 13th was the L3id, a big celebration for the end of Ramadan. We all got dressed up… my family adorned me in a giant dress with a wonderful 80’s style print… the shoulder pads were the best part. Then a huge piece of black lace fabric went on over the dress. To top it off I had to wear a lovely neon yellow scarf in my hair. We all looked pretty ridiculous as our families dressed each of us in a similar fashion. Oh, and the big news is that my 13 year old host sister decided I was cool enough to hang out with. I guess she finally decided I wasn’t such a threat after all. I currently don’t have any pics because my camera has been out of service but I will eventually get them from some of my friends and post them. Anyway, for the big celebration we got dressed up, I got henna done again (which I am obsessed with, by the way) and walked through town, going to each house and greeting everyone. I think I kissed more people’s hands that day than I ever have (as is the tradition… it’s a little more friendly than just shaking hands). Anyway, we ate lots of rice with buttermilk, cookies and tea. That evening I had my first tagine with my family, by 2am my stomach was in hell- enough said. The following day we had a free day to integrate with our community (this was also the first time since I‘ve have been in Morocco that I have had 2 days off in a row). I went to the Hammam in a near by town with a couple other trainees and their host sisters. A Hammam is a public bathhouse which includes 3 steam rooms of varying temperature. I was a little worried about going but it was actually a really good experience… and my skin still feels amazing. The only problem was that the one we went to was a little on the dirty side… with that said I would definitely do it again but in a cleaner place. I must say there is something absolutely wonderful about being in the hottest steam room and pouring a bucket of cold water over you… it feels soooo good. So, in a couple days I leave for Hdida again, this time for 12 days which is our longest time period we will spend there. It’s a little weird to pack and unpack your life every couple of days. When I return from my 12 days in Hdida I will find out my official site for the next 2 years. I will then go to this site the next day and live with my future host family for 9 days. It’s crazy to think that I will know my location for the next two years in exactly 2 weeks. Once we return from our site visit we come back to Ouarzazate and then return to Hdida for the last time for 4 days or so. We will then presumably being traveling up north to Fez for our official swearing in, and thanksgivingJ. So, there’s the crazy schedule. My class/lecture days are significantly longer now that Ramadan is finished, we start at 8am and go until 6pm. We do have breaks but it’s still a long day. Sometimes I feel like there’s so much information being shoved in my head I just cant think anymore. But really it’s ok, I mean it’s good and the language is getting better. At least now I have basic communication down and I can generally understand what my family members are trying to say to me. And perhaps as my final point I should add that after being here for a little over 5 weeks I now feel like it’s all so much more comfortable. What I mean to say is that I have been having a great time here since the beginning (for the majority of the time)… but now it all just feels a lot more comfortable, like I can actually see myself here for 2 years.

My house in Hdida. Trust me... looks are

The ladies in the village painted our hands as a welcoming into out new community... here I'm letting the henna dry, it now looks pale orange. And here's the details:Just got back to Ouarzazate after my 9 days in the very small town of Hdida (about 200 people). Coming back to Ouarzazate is wonderful to say the least… a few of the good things: western toilet, food, hot showers, and laundry facilities. Hdida put a lot of things into perspective which is only made more extreme by the fact that it’s Ramadan still. I feel like I’ve been starving for the past week just because no one eats during the day and the stores are generally always closed during Ramadan. I can only imagine what these places that I’ve been living in will actually be like in a couple weeks when Ramadan is over. Some notes about Hdida…I live with a husband and wife who are significantly older. The man is called the Haj, which means he is the most respected older man, and probably the richest too. The only problem is that he doesn’t really move around, he is basically tied to sitting in one room all day. His wife spins wool for most of the day. So one of their sister’s lives with them, she too is older but manages to run the house. She has become my go to person but the language barrier is still huge. The sister has a daughter of 13 and she too helps run the house. Together they take care of the husband and wife and prepares the meals. The daughter is well, how do I say?... a little cold towards me most days of the week. In fact, the family seems difficult to read in general just because there is no communication there. Of course I am trying to communicate what I learn in my language classes but more often than not they have no idea what I am saying… and let’s be honest no one can learn a language in 6 days. So yes, there have been a lot of difficulties in the past week. I thought I’d share some other details on what life here is like, through my perspective at least. I wanted to mention that Ouarzazate and the area around here does in fact look exactly like the Morocco seen in the movie Babel. It’s unbelievably dry here, I really have never experienced anything like it… and the sandy dust accumulates everywhere within about 5 minutes. I guess I should be honest and say that it is more of a third world country than I thought it would be. Oh, and having running water and electricity doesn’t mean that much, Morocco is still pretty much in it’s own world. There’s a sense of dirtiness in the streets that I love in the cities but somehow dislike strongly in the villages. The women in my village are tougher than any that I’ve seen. Their hands are about twice the size of mine and their feet look like they could tell the stories of a thousand lives. Anyway, I am currently covered in about 40 bug bites… they’re definitely not mosquito bites so who knows what they actually are. In all honesty it’s not that bad… it’s just a lot of adjustments that happen in really quick spurts. I’ve been in Morocco for exactly 3 weeks and it really feels like I’ve been here for about 6 months. Time moves slowly here, slower than I’ve ever known before… sometimes I love it (and well, other times… you get the idea).

Off to a small mountain village tomorrow called Hdida, dont bother looking for it on a map becuase the chances of finding it are slim to none. If you do want to know where I'll be... look up Kalaa Mgouna... Hdida is about 6 km up the mountain from there. Anyway, it's supposed to be a beautiful mountain village with lots of greenery and it's supposed to be cold (a very welcome releif from the heat of Ouarzazate). So, tomorrow I finally get to meet my first host family the family I will be staying with on and off for the next 3 months. All I know is that the father is retired, the mother is a housewife(of course), they have a 13 year old daughter and the grandmother of 56 lives with them too. Can't wait to meet them! So i will be in this town for the next 9 days, then back in Ouarzazate for a few ,then back with them, and so forth for the next 3 months. I will have running water and electricity there but I do not think there will be internet since there is only one store in town... and it's ramadam which means hours for everything is a little screwy. The good news is that I will be there with 4 other trainee volunteers plus a volunteer who has been living there for a year and of course my teacher. In addition to this I do have a cell phone here now. It's ridiculous for me to call anyone living on what I have because it's so expensive but if you want my number I'll be happy to give it to you, just send me an email.

and now onto Hdida... here comes the real test... sounds good to me.

pictures f ouarzazate... i have no idea how to make these look better because i am using a french and arabic computer that does not say anything in english. anyway, just wanted to give everyone an idea of what it looks like from the view of my hotel here. on saturday i will leave this beautiful place to live with a family in a village somewhere nearby. and then we do a back and forth routine between the hotel and our families for 11 weeks. anyway... i am very exited to meet my family even though i can only say about 5 things in arabic. i guess i will be adding to that this week with more classess. so, yes all is well and good and nothing else to really report other than this keyboard is really hard to type on. more details when i can figure out how to connect my computer.

here!

well, almost here... still in rabat doing more training details. it has been good, but it's a lot of information each day and i feel ridiculously tired all the time.

i'm not really sure how to describe anything right now, it just feels right. from the moment the plane landed i knew this is where i am supposed to be and as we walked through the madness of the medina (huge outdoor shopping market) i felt it even more. let me tell you how good that feels after months of not really know that this was the right decision.

and then i think, wow... i'm in africa.

well, i move to ouarzazate on friday... i'm of course really excited to see how that turns out. we will be living in a hotel and with a family in the surrounding area on and off for the next three months of language training. which is a slightly different picture than i had imagined but it's still good.

ok, that's all for now, i must get sleep... oh, and is anyone hooked up with skype? i'm still figuring this out but apparently i can call people for free and talk to them online using my built in mic. anyway let me know if anyone is using that or would like to?

I leave for Morocco tomorrow...

We fly into Casablanca and then take a bus to Rabat. When we get to Rabat we get to sleep, eat and relax for three days (sigh).

The exciting news is that I found out where I will be doing my training for the next 3 months! I'll be in Ouarzazate which is described as the Hollywood of Morocco... not so much because of the size of the town but because it is the center for films which are shot in Morocco. If anyone saw Babel, it was filmed in the area of Ouarzazate. Although this area looks bleak in the film, the actual town is an oasis.

The down side of all this... I will not be learning Arabic but rather, a Berber dialect. Although, if I want to learn Arabic the Peace Corps will pay for a personal tutor. (I guess it's a good thing I didn't get a chance to learn Arabic before I left?)

Anyway, all is well- the people going to Morocco all seem cool and interesting- and with the exception of a maybe 5 people, everyone is in their mid-twenties.

Oh, and if you want to know how to say Ouarzazate, it sounds a lot like "where's it at" with some "z" infections in there. It's become a dumb joke that we laugh at relentlessly between me and a couple of other people here.

Ok, well I'm off to have my 'last supper' here in the US... & maybe my last martini for a very long while too.

Ok, here we go... as many of you know I'm a little hesitant about this blog thing, I mean do people actually want to know what I'm doing? Well, whether or not you do... I'm putting it out there.

I leave for Philadelphia tomorrow morning at 6am for 3 days of "staging" as the Peace Corps calls it. Then, I leave for Morocco on Monday the 10th.

At this point I have no idea what to expect... I'm assigned to do Small Business Development for Artists (whatever that means, right?).

Anyway, the packing is all done... I guess this means I'm ready?!?...