So I thought I would write a final blog post for my Morocco blog. I have been home now for almost a month, after a week and a half in Egypt. It is hard to believe I left Morocco so long ago. Sometimes I have pangs of sadness, missing the people, the beauty, the life, the smells, the food...everything, but at the same time, I am thrilled to be home. I am enjoying every moment with my mom and dad, my sister, my soon to be brother-in-law, my friends, my favorite city in the world...Chi-town!

Thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to learn a little about a culture so different from our own over the past two years, and thank you for all the support for the women's center! I am blessed to have so many supportive people in my life!

One of the last pictures I took in Morocco, on the drive from my site to Tiznit.

Here are some pictures from the neddi opening! We had a great time, and leaving my site was incredibly difficult. While I am currently in Rabat running around like a chicken with my head cut off (what a horrible idiom....) trying to accomplish many tasks in my last few days here, I promise a good run of nice long descriptive updates upon my departure from Morocco.

Enjoy!

So 3 weeks before i complete my service in Morocco, my internet modem broke! Unfortunately I don't have time to write an update, but you can make up your own story with the pictures! :)

Oh, and Health Room equipment is being delivered on Monday, and the opening party is on Thursday!

Ok, so it is Tuesday, yes. And I missed last Wednesday, yes. But give me a break, I only have a month and a half left in Morocco and there is a lot to do.

I have often been in Tiznit over the past few weeks, organizing and planning the 2nd Annual AIDS Skit Competition in Tiznit. We had a great event last year, and the students involved learned a lot. This year we are hoping to have six different groups participating. It should be a fun event. I'm spending this week working with the group of students from my site, helping them to prepare their skit. The event is on Sunday.

I also received 125 pieces of artwork from eight different countries in the mail last week. This is the second half of the art exchange program my middle school participated in. In my classes this week, the students are learning about the countries where the artwork originated. Next week each student will receive a piece of artwork from another student somewhere in the world!

In Women's Center news, my association president and I handed over another 30% of the total project cost to our contractor yesterday. While construction has been delayed due to chronic bath weather, we are hoping to see the center completed sometime within the next three weeks. At that point we will hold the official opening, just in time for my departure from Morocco!

We are still getting paperwork in order for the delivery of supplies to the literacy and handicraft rooms. While the sewing machines won't arrive before the summer, we are hoping to have the literacy room equipped for the opening. Keep your fingers crossed! Fortunately, we are working with the Ministry of Social Development on this, and their representative in Tiznit is wonderful and easy to work with.

The Ministry of Health has equipment ready to deliver upon the completion of construction. While I won't be around to witness health lessons, vaccination drives, sewing seminars, and literacy classes taking place in the center, I look forward to being in contact with both the girls of my community, and the volunteer who is replacing me in May. And of course, coming back to visit Morocco!

The roof! It looks a lot more like a building these days....

The front entrance to the center. This is on the main road passing through my village.

While not a picture of the center, when Maggie came to visit last week, we went on a hike in my site and found this lovely stream! 4 months ago there was no water, and definitely no green!

On February 20, 18 volunteers, 2 Peace Corps staff members, 1 wife, and 1 baby participated in a 5km to help raise money for disaster relief through Partners in Health in Haiti.

We had a great time. I don't have all of the pictures from the event, but I will post more if I can get a hold of them!

Only a couple of pictures from the past two weeks. I spent last week in Rabat for my Close of Service Conference.

More to come this Weds!

If you are still paying attention to the situation in Haiti, you will see that many aid workers have a particular concern. As with any devastating natural disaster, a lot of money comes rushing in right after the event. While this is great, sustained financial support is critical. In order to successfully bring relief to the earthquake victims, the flow of money cannot stop.

A close volunteer friend of mine, Hanneke, recognized this and decided that although we, as Peace Corps Volunteers, cannot help financially, we should do something. For this reason, my fellow '08-'10 Health Volunteers and I will participate in a 5km for Haiti on February 20.

We will be in Rabat the week prior for a Close of Service Conference, and will participate in the 5km at the end of our conference. We will be running/walking at a park in Rabat, next to the Sofitel hotel at 9am. Both Volunteers and Peace Corps staff will be involved, and we are looking for support from family and friends.

I understand that I've been asking for a lot over the past year........lots and lots of requests for women's center donations, so now I only ask for $5 to support my fellow volunteers and I running to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. You can donate at the Partners in Health (I blogged about this wonderful organization here) website, here, under our group's donation page.

Just in case you just missed the link, here it is again:

Peace Corps Volunteers in Morocco Haiti Earthquake Relief 5km

Thank you!

"There are three things that last: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love" 1 Corinthians 13:13

This past week Wael received some very difficult news. His mom, Nagwa, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. This came as a shock for a woman who seems healthy and full of life. While Wael and his family are showing a lot of strength and support for Nagwa, the waiting and not knowing is hard to deal with. As you say your prayers today and over the next while, please remember to say a special prayer for Wael's mom.

Trying to deal with such news alone here in Morocco has been a challenge. I traveled to Agadir on Sunday to go to mass, hoping that praying in a church would help me reach some semblance of peace. The first reading was from 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Faith, Hope, and Love. As I listened, it struck me. Faith, hope and love are what I'm going to need to get through this time.

Faith. Every moment, every time I hear more bad news and want to just collapse with depression, I have to remember to have faith. Whatever happens is not in my hands. Its not in Waels hands, and it isn't in the doctor's hands. It is in God's hands, and He alone knows what will happen. I will pray, and pray, and pray, but ultimately, I am not in control. While I don't understand why this is happening, God does, and faith will help me to accept that.

Hope. While I can't change anything by my own efforts, I can hope. I can hope that Wael's mom will be ok, that she will heal and be here with her loving family for a long time, full of love and life. Instead of letting myself get frustrated and always thinking of the negative, I must be full of hope. Hope breeds positivity, and positivity will help me to be strong for Wael and his mom.

Love. As 1 Corinthians 13:13 expresses, the greatest of all is love. So I will love. I will continue to be full of love for Wael, his mom, and his whole family. I will love them with everything I have, because what else can I give?

So as you pray before bed, before dinner, or just in a passing glance toward the sky, please say an extra few words for Nagwa and her family.

Here's the women's center this week. I've had two of my close volunteer friends visiting, so Felisa and Michelle are featured in this week's Women's Center Wednesdays!

Michelle and Felisa!And last but not least....per Lissa's request...Chandler and Erin in the literacy room! :)

Ok, so I know it is Thursday. But cut me some slack! :)

Last week the cement was poured for the floor of the women's center, and since then the workers have started laying the cement bricks for the walls. Anyone who knows how we build houses in the US might be interested in all the differences!

Today I accompanied the local association president to Tiznit to run a few errands. We picked up the next 30% installment of women's center funds to pass along to the contractor. We also had a meeting with the Ministry of Social Development representative. We are hoping to pass along our equipment request next week. While the sewing machines may arrive after I finish my service here, the representative said we can try to make sure the literacy room is fully equipped by May.

On a completely random note, 35 degrees and raining is annoying. I think, and this is just the opinion of one girl, that I would MUCH rather deal with 30 degrees and snow than 35 degrees and rain. But really, who am I to say??

Mixing cement and pouring it to make the floor.Wall constructingMore wall constructingInside the women's centerMore inside the center

After a lovely week of sunshine, I am happy to report significant progress on the women's center. I enjoy waking up every morning and sneaking a look at the center before I make breakfast. Now that the workers know who I am, I don't feel as bad traipsing all over the construction site to take pictures.

While the association president and I decided to wait until next week for a meeting in Tiznit with the Ministry of Social Development and for a trip to the bank for the next monetary installment, we did have a chance to meet with the commune's technician last night. He had some great feedback for the workers, including ways to make the structure more stable.

Everywhere I go these days, someone mentions the women's center. People are always quick to share their awe at such generosity on the part of Americans. Thank you again to everyone who helped make this happen!

Another plea to those who want to help the thousands of Haitians in need!

Petition to President Obama: Let Haitian Refugees Stay- Catholics United

As I'm sure everyone is aware, Haiti experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday, affecting most significantly the capital, Port-au-Prince, and its surrounding areas. If the magnitude of this disaster isn't enough to cause us to pause, even more foreboding is the infrastructure and systems that were lost on Tuesday. While an earthquake of this size is not unheard of, it occurred in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti has a history of political instability and harsh living conditions. Currently, Haitians in the capital have no access to electricity, cellphone coverage, and limited access to clean drinking water.

While it is difficult for us to do anything but reflect on this tragedy, it is important to remember than monetary donations to the relief efforts can go a long way. Roads need clearing, doctors need supplies, and organizations need a means to transport aid. Many organizations are accepting donations for relief efforts in Haiti, including the Red Cross.

I also urge you to consider checking out Partners in Health, a medical NGO with many hospitals in Haiti that are still functioning. Partners in Health was founded by someone for whom I have infinite respect, and whose work played a significant role in my decision to join Peace Corps. Paul Farmer has worked to improve healthcare in Haiti since 1983.

Donating to Partners in Health will allow these local functioning hospitals to provide immediate support to the thousands of victims stranded in Port-au-Prince. Like my friend Hanneke said in a recent email to her friends and family about the earthquake, if you can just give up your Starbucks or your trip to Panera for the day, every $5 or $10 will help.

Partners in Health

And a random fact. If you are a fan of Roald Dahl's works, including James and the Giant Peach, you should be even more excited to donate, since Dahl's daughter, Ophelia Dahl is Partners in Health's President and Executive Director. She and Paul Farmer founded PIH in 1987.

Another random fact. Many in the Catholic Church (including Liberation Theologians) have made an effort in the past half a century to promote the idea of a preferential option for the poor, based on Jesus' teachings, and more specifically, The Beatitudes. While PIH is not a religiously affiliated organization, their mission is "to provide a preferential option for the poor in healthcare."

So, in order to keep myself on the ball with women's center updates, I decided to initiate Women's Center Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, I will post new pictures of the Women's Center. This also gives people the opportunity to just read about the center's progress if they don't feel like knowing what I thank God for.

After a lovely vacation in Egypt, I arrived back to Morocco on Thursday. I called my association president the minute I stepped off the plane to hear any women's center news. He said, "Shoof, lmushkil iga is illa anzar bzzaf. Ur bahara xdmn." Which is roughly translated as "Look, the problem is there is a lot of rain. They aren't working too much." Now, hearing that scared me just a wee bit. Would I arrive home to see the same pile of rocks as when I left?

Thank goodness he was airing on the side of caution. I am VERY impressed with construction so far! It actually looks like a building. Also, I can hear the workers laying cement and stacking bricks from inside my house. This is a very pleasant sound to wake up to in the morning. Progress!!!

We are still waiting to hear from the Ministry of Social Development on exactly how many sewing machines and other equipment they will be donating. However, the Ministry of Health has confirmed that they will deliver their equipment as soon as the center is complete!

Now let's pray to the sun gods that we have more sunny days than rainy days over the next month and a half!

I thank God.....

....for having such a wonderful family who supports me in my crazy decisions and adventures and who loves me in spite of my wanderlust tendencies.

.....for Wael, who knows exactly what to do to make me smile, and who is truly the most thoughtful person I know.

.....for my host sister Khadija, who greeted me back to my site yesterday with a squeal of joy and a big hug that was much needed.

.....for my Peace Corps friends who knew it would be hard for me to come back to Morocco and who have been awesome since my plane landed in Agadir.

.....for Lissa and Tara and Amy for talking to me on Skype for hours yesterday!

.....for the Beckers and the Vitos and the Rudds and my mom who sent such wonderful packages that I opened upon my arrival back in site. Turned a really bad day into a good one!

.....for everyone who sent me Christmas cards. Your kind words brightened up my day and have left a smile on my face ever since! I especially love the cards with pictures! Richie and Christian are getting so big!

.....for my friend Najma's mom, who moved all of the furniture in my house while I was gone so that it wouldn't get ruined as rain leaked (and is still leaking) into every room of my house.

.....for my buta gas, that heats up lots of ice cold tap water for me.

.....for Cairo, a city that treated me very well, and gave me wonderful people, hot showers, Starbucks, and delicious food every day I was there.

.....for Chandler, who acted so incredibly happy to see me he wrapped his paws around my leg and wouldn't let go. What would i do without him?

.....for the workers who worked hard on the women's center in spite of the miserable weather. Pictures to come!

and I thank God for a lot of other things too, but I think this is enough for now. :)

Christmas 2009 has been a unique celebration for me. For the first time in 23 years, I had to spend Christmas away from my family. Maybe I like living abroad, maybe I don't mind spending birthdays away, but CHRISTMAS is supposed to be spent at home with Mom and Dad and Steph!!!! I was worried that I would be miserable all of Christmas, and let me tell you, I was miserable for a good chunk of Christmas Eve morning. However, thanks to the friendships I have in Morocco, the love I have in Egypt, the wonderfulness of my family, and my inability to stay depressed, I had a great Christmas.

Last week three of my very close Peace Corps friends and I celebrated Christmas together at my house. Since this is the second year in a row, perhaps I can say it is tradition! Here are a couple of our attempts to get a Santa hat on Chandler's head.

All of our moms sent some kind of fun Christmas surprise that we thoroughly enjoyed. Here we are opening our stockings from Mom!!

Now I am in Egypt, and I feel so lucky to be in such great company. Wael knew that it would be hard for me to spend Christmas away from my family, so he got a Christmas tree and lots of decorations that we put up the day I arrived.

Wael decorating his first Christmas tree.

Wearing one of the lovely sweater sets Mom and Dad sent me for Christmas! That night we went to a jazz club and enjoyed some live music.

I don't look at all awkward here...... :)

On Christmas Eve, Wael accompanied me to mass. We went early for Caroling, and by the time mass began, the church was packed. We are talking maybe 50-60 people outside listening because there was no more room in the church. It was a nice mass (in English) and it meant so much to me that Wael wanted to come with. After church, we went to the Nile Hilton to see The Rebound. It was a cute movie, and I was happy to go to a movie theater for the first time in 2 years!

On Christmas morning, Wael, his mom and I had a very pleasant gift exchange. Here is the Azza Fahmy ring that Wael gave me. She is a very famous Middle Eastern jewelry designer. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but it is a white gold band with yellow gold arabic calligraphy. I love arabic calligraphy and I love my ring!

In the afternoon, Wael and i met some of his cousins for coffee. We enjoyed the great weather and hung out at this outdoor mall area all afternoon. Wael's cousins are all incredibly nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with them! Santa Claus even made an appearance!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Since it has been a while, I think I will update everyone on the women's center! Things are moving along very nicely, albeit slowly, and construction is just around the corner. (Inshallah!) After a couple of weeks trying to choose a contractor, which were interrupted by Eid festivities, we have a contractor, a contract, a pile of rocks, and a down payment!

This past Wednesday my association president, the contractor and I signed a contract, which included the stipulation that the center must be completed by March 10, 2010. I hope we are able to stay within that timeframe!

It is raining today, but as soon as the sun comes out, construction will begin. Unfortunately, I won't be here to see the first stage of construction because I will be on vacation in Egypt. Thank goodness for my association president, who is going to take pictures and email them to me periodically!

Right now our women's center consists of a pile of rocks. Here is the pile of rocks (where the center will be). In the background is a pickup truck with the contractor and the association president. This was just after I handed over 35,600 dirhams as a down payment to get the project started. I left them and ran up my stairs onto my roof so I could take a picture before they drove away! I don't think they saw me! :)

So my mom just rocks. So much. She sends me some great packages with some great things in them! Recently, she sent me a package that had individual-sized fabric softener.

I haven't used it for some reason......not really sure what the reason is anymore, because I decided yesterday that I want fresh-smelling clothes, and I had an AWESOME fabric softener experience.

Now, I don't think my clothes here usually smell baaad necessarily. Perhaps the write adjective to describe the smell of my clothes is nuetral. But Hanneke just took a trip back to America, and washed all her clothes in a machine. And I spent too long smelling her clothes, wishing mine smelled the same.

So yes. Yesterday I put a little bit of fabric softener in my rinse water, and VOILA my clothes smell SO FRESH and WONDERFUL. It is truly incredible. I keep smelling them over and over and over again.

So YAY for my awesome mom, and YAY for fresh-smelling clothes!

The magical elixir also known as Downy.Can you just SEE the freshness permeating the air?

A while back I received an email from a program called "OneWorld Classrooms" regarding an art exchange they host every year. Basically they collect art projects from kids around the world, and send that art out to other kids around the world. For example, a classroom in America might send in 25 pieces of artwork, which will end up in 25 different participating classrooms around the world. Those 25 classrooms will have sent artwork from their students which will end up in other classrooms etc etc.

I thought, COOL. I LOVE cultural exchange. SO much. So I signed up all 5 of my middle school classes to participate in the exchange. We spent 3 weeks creating rough drafts and making art! The kids were able to use crayons (thanks to my mom!), glitter, paint, yarn, and fun do-dads to decorate their artwork. I had the support of some great fellow volunteers who came to my site to help supervise art days.

The theme was really open, so my kids drew everything from mosques to mountains to flags to Moroccan food and animals. The idea is to let kids of other cultures catch a glimpse of Moroccan culture. Here are some of their designs!

Starting top left, a letter from the Berber alphabet called Tifinaghe, a Moroccan carpet, a Berber henna design, a mosque, a piece of Berber jewelry called "tazerzit," and a Moroccan woman.A mosque, the Berber alphabet, a Moroccan tajine, a rural town, different rural symbols (tazerzit, jug of water, carpet), and a kasbah (old-fashioned castle)A Moroccan town, a tazerzit, a page on cultural exchange (see below. This student did 2), a Moroccan road, more cultural exchange, and the mountains in our region (although the school principal thought they looked like the pyramids of Egypt...)A forest, a flying horse (?????), women in Moroccan caftans, and a plate of couscous with "agho" or buttermilk.A Moroccan girl with the flag (this student said she is proud to be a girl and proud to be Moroccan), a Moroccan village, a henna design, a village, a woman milking a cow, and another mountain scene.

This student drew and wrote about how women and men are equal, and different countries are equal to each other even if they are different, and how people in different countries have different religions and that is okay.

This is one of my favorites. The student was very creative in coloring and painting different parts of the hand.

I sent all 125 pieces of art to the US on Friday, and will receive our exchange artwork (inshallah) sometime in January or February. To be continued.....

So I recently sent an email to my immediate family, in a fit of rage (ok so maybe not a fit of rage, but with a tinge of sadness).

It said, "If people don't start commenting on my blog I will stop updating. Yes I will."

Now, I don't want to be so arrogant that I assume the entire world hangs on my every word on this blog, but a couple comments would be nice! Thanks to those of you who DO comment sometimes, but if you read my updates and don't comment....pppllleeeeaaassseee comment. It makes this lonely girl all the way out in the Anti-Atlas mountains of Morocco SO happy.

And here is a picture of my lonely mountain to remind of you how how LONELY I can get and how HAPPY comments make me!

How did I live for almost 2 years in Morocco without my super-awesome-spill proof-amazing-Starbucks travel mug?

I truly do not know.

Mom sent it in the mail last month, and since then, it has changed my life.

My long, cold, walks to souk in the morning are just a little bit nicer when I am sipping a nice hot mug of coffee.

My 9am class on Wednesday mornings, 7th graders with a lot of energy, is just a little less trying after a finishing a Starbucks travel mug full of coffee.

Many people here don't quite get it. What is that? Some sort of machine? Does it hold pencils? Is there whiskey in there?

They will learn, and I will continue to bring my wonderful Starbucks travel mug everywhere I go this winter.

Here is the latest on the progress of the women's center.

Eid happened, and the world basically stopped. And the world will stay stopped for just a few more days. At that point we (association president and I) hope to sign with a contractor, and start building.

However, before Eid, we were lucky enough to make some great progress!

1. The "neddi girls" and I met about a week and a half ago to discuss women's center funds. While more money will go to the actual construction than we originally thought (blame it on the bad USD exchange rate!), thanks to the extra donations from wonderful people at home, we have an additional $2,000 for the girls to spend. Everyone agreed that we will use some of this money to buy crochet needles, yarn, fabric and thread for the handicraft room. The girls had the opportunity to throw out any ideas regarding the use of the funds, and we will make decisions as the completion of the center draws near.

2. 2 members of my local association and I met to discuss the contract we will need for the center. We are looking locally (in my site) for a contractor, and my association president is currently taking bids. While the contractor will be employed to make the construction happen, the association president and I will make all purchases and handle the finances ourselves. I hope to have a more thorough update on the contractor later this week.

3. I spent a morning in Tiznit, meeting with the Ministry of Social Development delegue, and the Ministry of Health. Both are pleased to hear that construction is to begin on the women's center. Sometime in the next 2 weeks I will bring an official request from the association to the Ministry of Social Development for equipment and machines. At that point, the delegue will schedule a meeting to discuss exactly what their donation will be. The Ministry of Health is sending equipment to my local health clinic to be stored for use in the health room of the women's center.

More to come!

What a holiday filled weekend this was!

It all started, of course, with Thanksgiving on Thursday. Because Eid Al-Adha was on Saturday, Peace Corps put a travel restriction in place for all volunteers from Wednesday to Wednesday (which means I am still under house arrest). During Eid, people are traveling all over the country to go home for the holiday. Consequently, traffic is bad and there are many car accidents. Peace Corps (rightly so) seems to think it is better if volunteers stay home for the week. This travel restriction meant no chance of spending Thanksgiving with other volunteer friends. So, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my wonderful host family. Tuesday and Wednesday I went shopping in Tiznit and my souk for all the Thanksgiving ingredients I could find.

Thursday morning Najma came to my house, arms full of pots, pans, utensils, plates, and casserole dishes. My 2 saucepans and 4 plates were not going to cut it for our Thanksgiving feast. My wonderful host sister stayed in my kitchen with me from 9:30 until 2:30, chopping, peeling, cutting, mashing, cooking, frying, sauteing, and baking.

We started by making an apple pie. Then, we prepared the 5lbs of turkey I found in Tiznit, the green bean casserole, the stuffing, and last but not least, the mashed potatoes. I was a little nervous about everything being ready by 2:30 when my guests were expected; however, with Najma's expert ability to work incredibly efficiently in the kitchen, we had all the food ready a few minutes early.

While I forgot to take pictures of the finished products, here is the stuffing and turkey cooking!

My recipes and cooking schedule, posted in the kitchen.

My 8 guests and I thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal, and I honestly believe they really liked the food.

Friday, after sleeping in to recover from Thursday's cooking extravaganza, I spent 5 hours baking Eid bread with Ijjou, Najma, and a few of my neighbors. My host family has this awesome outdoor oven used to make mass amounts of bread. The oven (heated by fire and clay) holds about 8-9 rounds of bread at a time, which is very convenient when each family makes 20 or more rounds of bread for Eid. I had a really nice time with them (as usual), even though I was told that no one will want to marry me if I don't learn to make bread faster. :)

As we finished up the last batch of bread, we made tea and bsis*, which we ate with hot fresh bread. It is hard to believe that this was the last Eid I will spend with my host family. I am definitely going to miss making bread with them!

*bsis. Anyone trying to gain wait? Yes? If so, make bsis. Bsis consists of flour, butter, a little salt, and eggs. It is DELICIOUS, and probably the best weight-gaining food out there.

Saturday morning, my host family slaughtered a sheep and 2 goats for the Eid celebration. This is done in honor of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his son for God, before God told him to sacrifice a sheep instead. Although Muslim families all over the world practice this tradition, people celebrate in very different ways. Some families give all the meat to those in need, while some (like my host family) eat every last organ, and have enough meat to last them for 2 or more months.

Here's the poor guy a few minutes before sacrificing time. He had no idea what was coming.And here are his intestines. Yummy!

While the animals were being gutted and all that jazz, Najma and I started making liver and fat kebabs. Mmmm good.

I had a very enjoyable day with my host family; however, I can safely say I will not mind if that was the last sheep stomach I ever eat again in my life.

Now that Thanksgiving and Eid are over, Advent begins! Last week I decided it would be nice to have an Advent wreath this year. Unfortunately those aren't exactly readily available in rural Morocco. So I decided to make one! It isn't so much an Advent wreath as it is an Advent row...but I think it gets the point across. Plus I did my Christmas decorating! Too bad there was no eggnog and homemade Mom cookies.

So. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I bathe with buckets of water. I use a turkish toilet. I sleep wherever....floor, ponj, bed, anywhere. I wash all my clothes by hand. I don't wear make-up.But I am NOT an REI girl.It has taken me almost a year and a half to realize this. When I was packing for Peace Corps almost 2 years ago, I felt the need to leave all my cute clothes and jewelry and everything at home...and go shopping at REI. Since I've been here, I've felt bad painting my nails and blow drying my hair from time to time. REI girls don't paint their nails and blow dry their hair after pouring buckets of water over their heads to bathe. They suck it up and leave the girly stuff behind.But, I am not an REI girl.So I've decided to stop feeling bad. Now I paint my nails with no shame, I wear jewelry all the time, I trim my bangs, I blow dry my hair, I wear mascara when I teach, I always put lotion on my hands so they stay soft, I wear perfume once in a blue moon, and I try to look cute sometimes.

Is that so bad?????Today, I even bought a purse!

I was on a hunt for Q-tips, and what did I find instead? A store with an honest to God purse display! Like a real purse wall. Stuffed with tissue to look nice and all. Now, I would say this store owner did a LOT with what he has to work with, which is knock off brand purses. I was just shocked. Absolutely blown away. This is the first time I have seen such a display in anything but a fancy rich-people boutique since arriving in Morocco.

I just showered the store owner with compliments, explaining to him that i worked for a "tahanut lli iznza lsac irghlan" (a store that sells expensive purses ie Coach) in America and that I am extremely impressed by his marketing and visuals.

I looked about about 50 purses, and I swear, if I still worked at Coach, I would hire this guy on the spot. He kept bringing out similar purses in new colors and styles for me to look at, and led me to a, get this, FULL LENGTH MIRROR so I could check them out. He even tried to "add-on" by showing me small luggage. I mean, we are talking all out phenomenal salesmanship. Almost brought a tear to my eye!

My purse ended up costing 100 dirhams (Like $13). And it is just SO cute.

Did I mention, I am not an REI girl?

And here is what happened last week. (Besides fully funding the women's center!)

In order to appreciate this story, it necessary to understand how money works here. Basically, credit cards are useless. Even in a big city like Agadir, I can't use my credit card....well, anywhere. So when I need money I need to use my Peace Corps bank card in Tiznit, and make sure to take out enough to last me until my next trip to Tiznit.

So I took out 400 dirhams about 2 1/2 weeks ago (approx. $50), thinking that this would definitely last me until my next trip to Tiznit. Well, then I ended up spending a bunch on art supplies for my middle schoolers, buying a lot of food to host some Peace Corps friends at my house, and paying for my water bill etc. Then, last Weds, i realized I had just 25 dirhams (enough for my taxi ride to Tiznit), and 10 dirhams to last me until I make that trip. We are talking about $1.25 to last me oohhhhh, about a week and a half.

Now, I had some vegetables and milk and dry grains in my house, so I wasn't too worried about food. But then I was heating water to bathe, and 'lo and behold my buta gas ran out. And it was cold-ish and almost dark. That meant no hope of getting my host dad to bring a new buta up from souk that evening.

So I went to my host family's house and they, being the kind folk they are, gave me a mini-buta gas to use that night until my host dad could bring a new buta up from souk the next day.

The only problem is, buta gas tanks cost 40 dirhams, and I had only 10!!!! So the next morning, I went to my fav. store guy, who also happens to be my buta gas guy. And I was like, "OK, so here's the deal....." and basically told him I have no buta and no money to pay for a new one.

And that ultra nice guy told me, "No problem, pay whenever you can."

Isn't that tooooo nice!?!?!?

So I got my buta gas. Yay! And I'm going to Tiznit tomorrow and will be able to pay him back. Later I was in another store looking at hand cream, but it was too expensive for my 10 dirham budget. The store guy immediately told me to take it, and pay for it whenever I can.

Can you even IMAGINE that in Chicago or Schaumburg? I walk into a Walgreens, and um, I'd like this lotion, but I don't have any money.............the clerk would laugh in my face!!!

It is times like this that I appreciate being in rural Morocco SO much.

Last year, I received word from my dear mother that a great group at my elementary School, called the Make a Difference Club, wanted to choose my community in which to help make a difference!

Over the course of the summer, I received box after box of first aid supplies and toothbrushes. I have been saving them to use with the neddi (women's center) girls and the school children. Over the past 2 weeks I have had the opportunity to put the toothbrushes to good use.

First, at a neddi meeting, I gave a short toothbrushing lesson to the girls, and gave each of them a toothbrush and toothpaste. Some of them have old toothbrushes at home, but no one has toothpaste, and few of them have the motivation to brush!

We talked about the short and long term effects of brushing teeth, and the optimal way to brush teeth. "Snat twal kraygat as!" (Two times a day). They are very excited about their new toothbrushes, and wanted to send a letter to my Elementary School, thanking the students for sending such a useful gift.

The next week, I began my dental unit at the middle school. The first week we discussed the importance of toothbrushing. The local nurse came to give a talk to the students about dental hygiene. The next week, we did an experiment with Tums and vinegar to demonstrate the long-term effects of not brushing teeth. Each student also received a toothbrush and toothpaste thanks to my elementary school!

Here is one class with their new toothbrushes and toothpaste.

It is with great sadness that I write this post. And I don't mean to bring everyone down; to the contrary, I believe that all of your thoughts and prayers can benefit the many people going through such a difficult time right now.

On Monday, Peace Corps Morocco lost a cherished volunteer. Soyoun was a Youth Development Volunteer in the Zagora region of southern Morocco. She had been serving in Morocco since September 2008, and was loved by her fellow volunteers and Moroccan friends.

While I didn't know Soyoun personally, she was a member of our Peace Corps community, and left a family mourning at home, and a country mourning in Morocco.

Please, add Soyoun's family and friends to your prayers today, and keep them on your mind.

FULLY FUNDED

You know what that means? FULLY FUNDED? It means that some amazing people, some family, some friends, some acquaintances, some colleagues, some former professors, some friends of friends, some great organizations, and some people I don't even know saw the value of constructing a women's community center for my village, and donated over $7000 in ONE WEEK.

That brings the total donations to $16,902! It is ABSOLUTELY incredible.

On Saturday, one AMAZING woman from church and her family hosted a great fundraiser for the women's center, collecting even more by providing henna tattoos, hand massages, and manicures! My host sister and host aunt and I had the opportunity to talk to folks at the fundraiser, and it sounded like everyone had a great time!

Sandy, my mom, and Sister-Steph cooked some great Moroccan food to share at the fundraiser. I'm so impressed, and so were my host aunt and host sister!!!! Pictures to follow.

In addition to all this, we have $3,500 from USAID to make the women's center even BETTER.

So, BASICALLY, what I'm trying to say is that PEOPLE ARE AMAZING.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE WOMEN'S CENTER IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! You leave me and the girls of my community absolutely speechless. Or maybe not quite speechless, because clearly I have a lot to say. :)

Well I'm just happy as can be this morning. I woke up at 6am this morning singing "tea, tea with jam, jam and bread. dun dun. tea, tea with jam, jam and bread...." Who can identify where THAT is from???

So I made myself some tea, tea with jam, jam and bread, and continued on my merry way. Earl Grey tea from home, apricot jam, and great homemade wheat bread from my host aunt!

Ok, so maybe I didn't drink my tea out of a china tea cup, and have berries sprinkled around me...but you get the idea!

So in my happy state, I thought I would take a second to thank everyone who is making this women's center a reality. The women in my community and I appreciate your generosity more than you can possible imagine.

Just think. Close your eyes and think that you are a 40-something year old woman. You have 4 kids.....2 of which never got to go to school because they had to help shepherd the sheep as they grew up. The other 2 are in school now, but you can't help them with their homework because, unfortunately, YOU never had the opportunity to learn to read and write. So you watch them struggle, helpless to relieve their frustrations.

You watch TV, but don't understand the language of the newscasters....you want to read the Bible (or in this case the Quran), but you don't know how to read. And you want more than anything to help sustain your family economically, but how?

Maybe you have a baby who needs to go to the doctor for vaccinations. But maybe you hurt your back from 40 years of labor in the fields, so it is too hard for you to walk the 3 miles to the doctor. And you don't have a car. And your husband is off in a big city trying to earn a living for you and your children. So the vaccination will just have to wait.

But thanks to the immense generosity of my wonderful family, friends, collegues, acquaintances, and people I don't even know, this will all change.

This morning, I received word from Peace Corps that USAID has approved my grant request for $3,500. This means we are $3,500 closer to being ready to build the Women's Center. This also means we have $4,300 left to raise. And 10 days to do it!!!

After 10 days, the project will be taken off the Peace Corps website, and will be considered closed for funding. We have decided to take whatever funds we have when these 10 days are up. This is to ensure project completion before I finish my service here in May.

HOWEVER, if we don't raise the $4,300 over the next week and a half, we will have to reduce some of the services we are planning on offering to the girls when the Women's Center is built.

For example, $4,300 could be the amount that funds the construction of the literacy room. Or the health room. If we don't raise these funds, one of the services of the Women's Center will have to go.

Please, share this need with friends and family and co workers and anyone who might want to donate in the next 10 days. Also, a wonderful family from CHS is hosting a Henna Party next Saturday (the 14th) to help raise some last minute funds. Contact my mom or sister for details!

Here it is, one more time, the link to Donate to the Women's Center.

The website will not reflect the $3,500 grant that was just approved. This is because it is a grant through USAID and not Peace Corps. Remember, $4,300 is the magic number to have a complete Women's Center!

Here are the girls standing on the land that will soon be the Talbrjte Women's Center!Blueprint for the Women's Center

A few random things today.

#1 Our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is in Morocco. She is here for a peace conference ending a week-long trip in the Middle East. Yesterday, the new group of Health Volunteers had the opportunity to meet her during their In-Service Training in Marrakech. I clearly left for Peace Corps a year too early. I could have met her!!

While she was meeting the volunteers, she acknowledged Muriel, the oldest volunteer serving in Peace Corps. Read about it at CNN.com!

#2. I miss Pumpkin Spice Lattes. This is my second year missing Pumpkin Spice Latte season and I just cannot believe it. FORTUNATELY, I can recreate other Starbucks lattes in my house. A certain guy named Wael sent me these Starbucks syrups.

The folks at Starbucks made sure to tell him that I have a month to finish the bottle of syrup after it is opened. Clearly, this is not an issue for me. I took this picture 2 weeks after opening the caramel syrup!!!

#3 I really enjoy trouble maker students. I can say this now that I'm done teaching for the day. Perhaps when this certain boy was acting up I wasn't as appreciative as I am now. But really. This certain boy brought a rubber bloody hand to class and tried to shake my hand with it. How clever! I mean, I had to confiscate the thing, but really I was impressed with this certain boy. In fact, that may be something I would have done in middle school........

#4 Chandler is getting very good at playing fetch. In fact, that is about all he ever wants to do these days. Recently I've been waking up at 6:30am to Chandler throwing his favorite fetch toy (one of my scrunchies!) at my face over and over again. I will make a video and post it soon! My cat thinks he is a dog!!!!

So I teach at the middle school every Wednesday at 9am. Therefore, I leave my house at 8 in order to have enough time to walk the 5km. Sometimes I walk with one of my neighbor kids, who is on his way to the middle school, sometimes I run into some women and walk with them. Sometimes I walk alone. Today I walked with a donkey.

Well, kind of.

As I made my way down to the road from my house, I ran into some ladies and as we greeted each other, a donkey ran in front of us! Not a donkey with the bu-donkey (donkey owner).......just a donkey. And really, although he was alone, he seemed to know where he was going. One of the ladies ran out trying to grab him, but the donkey would have none of it. He just started trotting along the road to souk. I mean, we are talking a donkey walking down the road, as if it is the most normal thing in the world. As if he was tired of living on the mountain and wanted to go shopping in souk. He clearly knew what he wanted, and that was to get to souk. He didn't deviate from the road once. The ladies and I just laughed and laughed as we walked behind the donkey making his way along the road.

I wish I had a picture! We were really wondering if the runaway donkey had a plan for once he got to souk.

Finally when we were just about a kilometer from souk, a car trapped the donkey and caught a hold of him. We turned around and the poor bu-donkey was running toward us. Apparently his donkey was not satisfied with his life on the mountain and wanted to look for a new home. Ah well. His escape attempt was foiled.

But it provided me with an entertaining morning!!

So my SisterSteph tagged me in a photo memory blog dealio and I think that is just too fun! You have to open your first photo folder, and choose the 10th picture and post it. And tell about it. Stephanie's was too funny: her and her college friends in their tanning phase. I have to admit I adopted the tanning thing for a while too. I mean, what Sophomore in High School doesn't want to be like her cool college-aged sister?? Thank God that's over!

So here is my photo memory picture.....

Senior Prom!!! It was May 2004, right before we graduated from High School. Cathy and Keiko, two of my best high school friends (who are still important to me today!) and I went in a group together to the Prom. I miss dressing up like that. :)

So I am reading a book, called "No god but God," by Reza Aslan. It is about the "origins, evolution, and future of Islam." My friend Meredith read it in one of her Islamic Studies classes in college and she passed it along to me here in Morocco.

I DEFINITELY recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about Islam. But I have to warn, it can be pretty dense at times. Right now, I'm reading about Sufism, a sect of Islam practiced mostly in South Asia

This passage from the book is supposed to be an explanation of Sufism, but I think it is something nice for people of all religions to read and keep in mind.

A Persion, a Turk, an Arab, and a Greek were traveling to a distant land when they began arguing over how to spend the single coin they possessed among themselves. All four craved food, but the Persian wanted to spend the coin on "angur;" the Turk, on "uzum;" the Arab, on "inab;" and the Greek, on "stafil." THe argument became heated as each man insisted on having what he desired.

A linguist passing by overheard their quarrel. "Give the coin to me," he said. "I undertake to satisfy the desires of all of you."

Taking the coin, the linguist went to a nearby shop and bought four small bunches of grapes. He then returned to the men and gave them each a bunch.

"This is my "angur!!" cried the Persian."But this is what I call "uzum," replied the Turk."You have brought me my "inab," the Arab said."No! This iin my language is "stafil."

All of a sudden, the men realized that what each of them had desired was in fact the same thing, only they did not know how to express themselves to each other.- Jalal ad-Din Rumi

Over the past 2 weeks, I have attended 3 weddings here. The first was my friend, and women's center participant, Fadma. She had a traditional Berber wedding, as do all of the girls in my site. The night of the wedding party, all of the guests eat and sing and dance (of course separated by gender), but the bride sits alone in a room. The next morning everyone accompanies the bride to her husband's home, where people from his village throw another party.

The first night, the groom's family brings a sack full of shoes, candy, henna, dates, etc to the bride's family

The second day. The women from the bride's side are bringing the bride to the groom's family's house.

Last Saturday, my boss' daughter got married in Rabat. Traveling up to Rabat for less than 24 hours was quite a hassle and very tiring, but DEFINITELY worth it to attend such a lovely wedding. We had a great time dancing and spending time with various Peace Corps staff....such a great time that we left the wedding at 4:30am. Just in time for me to meet my 5:00am train in order to travel back down to my site for Najma's wedding.

Emmy and I getting ready for the wedding at the Peace Corps office. Meredith was nice enough to lend me her beautiful takshita for the occasion.

The bride is brought in on this throne carried by 4 men.

She also changes her dress a lot. Every hour at some Moroccan weddings!

The bride and groom with the volunteers, the brides father, Mostafa, and our other boss, Rachid. Note the dress change.Our first course. AMAZING seafood pastilla. It may be the best food I've ever had in Morocco.

Second course. Lots and lots of amazingly flavored chicken. Most tables put chicken on their plates and ate it with knives an forks. As volunteers who live out in the country, we used the communal dish.

Another dress change! Layla's husband looked more than a little overwhelmed.

Last dress of the evening. This is the one she wore for their wedding in France.

So after rushing from the train to the bus to a taxi to another taxi, I made it back to my site in one day. Just in time to celebrate my best friend in site, Najma's, wedding. Same type of wedding as Fadma's, but I was very sad to see my best friend leave!

"Ahwach" or singing and music at Najma's wedding

Same deal as before. Sack full of shoes and things. Oh, and I forgot there are always cones of sugar as well!

The next day I had to teach....but I tell you after one heck of a weekend, I slept 13 hours Monday night.

After Ramadan, I was lucky enough have Wael visit. Egypt is close enough to Morocco, but most Egyptians have never been out here. However, Moroccans watch Egyptian TV and listen to Egyptian music, so almost everyone understands and can speak Egyptian Arabic (even though it is completely different than Moroccan Arabic!).

We got a huge charge out of various people's reactions to us. Wael looks Moroccan, like he should speak Moroccan Arabic. And I look pretty foreign, like I shouldn't. On MANY occasions people spoke to Wael in Moroccan Arabic and when he turned to me confused, I answered. And then we would move on, leaving that person scratching his head.

In EssaouiraEssaouiraLunch with everyone in EssaouiraWe rented a car to be more comfortable and save money. Neither of which happened!The Marina in Agadir

Because we had the car we got to do cool things like go to Agadir Oufalla at night!

The road from my house to Tiznit. The first time I've been able to take pictures along the way!

Wael and Chandler bonding at my house for lunch.

So remember how I said it was cold? Well its not. I mean, it was then, but now it is hot again. Very hot. In fact, it got up to 110 degrees this week. 90 overnight. I have mixed feelings about this because the cold is pretty unpleasant, but at the same time the heat means bugs. And I thought bug season was over.

I wanted a picture to go along with this post. But I couldn't find one of the sun. So here is a picture of the drive from my site to Tiznit.

So I called up Mom yesterday to tell her how cold I am.  She didn't have too much sympathy for me.  The high yesterday was 80!  I was so chilly I had to wear a sweatshirt.  And then it got down to 60 at night and that was just too much.

I guess winter is making its way here.

Ramadan is now coming to an end, with Eid (End of Ramadan holiday) falling on either Saturday or Sunday of next week.  We all get to go out and watch the moon to find out.

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of some ftar meals I've made recently.

Starting with the teapot, we've got milk with a little tinsy bit of coffee, cinnamon and a lot of sugar.  Traditionally people break fast with dates and milk.  Harira is the soup, then chebekia, dates, tomato-basil biscuits, slou and bread!

This is a ftar I made for just me.  Still got the dates and chebekia and slou, but this time with skillet biscuits and anis rolls.  Oh, and the soup is a traditional breakfast soup made from couscous.  

Amazingly, Ramadan is already 1/4 of the way over.  And a great week it has been!  Since Ramadan began, I've:

....had Najma-host sister and Mostafa over to break fast.  I cooked them Moroccan food which scared the bajeebies out of me, but they claim they liked it!  They did, however, make fun of me for using rotini noodles in the soup instead of vermicelli noodles. Oops.   

....helped 3 different girls in my community make chebekia (special Ramadan pastry).  It takes all day to make, and quite labor intensive!

....spent the night with my host sister Najma at her aunt's house in souk.  Her aunt is French/Moroccan and we had a blast together cooking, and after fasting, eating!  The next day my host brother and I taught their aunt, this little old Berber lady, the words to "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas.  Too cute!

....spent 3 lovely days with Meredith, watching Ellen and Friends in the morning, cooking in the afternoon, and eating in the evening!

....made my own chebekia!  Meredith and I were fortunate enough to have Najma-friend, Najma-host sister, and Aicha-neighbor come help out.  It turned out delicious!

....broken fast 2 times at my host family's house.  I made cinnamon rolls which went over very well.  I was lucky enough to be escorted back to my house both times by 3 host siblings.  Quite the entourage! 

....spent a few mornings teaching French to the women's center girls in my community.  I've been focusing on the girls who don't know any French.  We are currently working on the alphabet.  Especially vowels! a, e, i, o, u! 

....had Najma-friend and her mom over to break fast....another attempt at Moroccan food, but this time I made soft pretzels as well!  Najma's mom loves Chandler, and definitely paid more attention to my cat than to my cooking.  :)

And here are some chebekia pictures.....

Making the dough was pretty intense, but rolling it out and shaping the chebekia was fun!

Then you fry it, and dunk the fried chebekia in honey.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds, and enjoy! Or rather, wait until it's time to break fast.  Then enjoy! :)

Now, I don’t know too much about blogging etiquette, but I must warn you that my next few posts will be out of order. Tara came to visit a month ago, and I will post that after I post this, which occurred before Ramadan began.  Sorry for any confusion.    Last week was al-muggar (saint festival) at Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa, aka Tazerwalt.  Tazerwalt is a town 12km from Meredith’s site, and each year they host a huge festival in honor of Sidi Ahmed ou Moussa……a saint from a long long time ago.  He was a good person.  Allah blesses him.  And that is all I know.  I tried to get specifics on this guy to no avail.    Anyway, Tazerwalt has a shrine to the saint, and each year thousands and thousands of people come from all over Morocco to visit the shrine and enjoy the festival.  Two years ago, there was a volunteer in Tazerwalt, and she set up a health booth at the festival to disseminate basic health information to the thousands of visitors.  This year, Meredith decided to do the same.    Meredith spent the week leading up to the festival in communication with the local government of Tazerwalt as well as their health staff.  We were fortunate to receive support from both entities, which made setting up a booth much easier.    Over a three-day period, we had 11 volunteers working at our health booth.  We spent our afternoons and evenings talking about dental health, sanitation, hygiene, and washing kid’s hands for candy.  Generally we had a good time and felt like we were getting our point across.  We also enjoyed walking around the festival after dark, eating camel tagine and sugar-coated chickpeas.  Delicious!    11 volunteers working the health booth meant 11 volunteers staying at Meredith’s house.  It was quite the experience.  When we cooked I felt like I was in the movie Yours, Mine, and Ours, making food for that many people!  And sleeping…there were volunteers sleeping everywhere!  On the ponjs, on the bed, on the floor, on the roof.  It was also ridiculously hot, so I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I returned to my much more temperate mountain on Thursday.  But it was a great week, and we all loved having a chance to get some work done in summer!         Pictures to come!!

Well here we are again, almost a year since my first encounter with Ramadan.  And it’s back.  In some Arab countries, the start date of Ramadan is fixed; people know ahead of time when to begin fasting.  In Morocco, the beginning of Ramadan is decided the traditional way, by the moon.  We knew that Ramadan would start today (Saturday) or tomorrow.  So last night people all over Morocco went outside at dusk to see if they could spot the moon.  If the slightest crescent can be seen, Ramadan begins.  If not, one more day.    Najma (host sister) and I went outside and spent a good 45 minutes looking for the moon, and nothing.  So, I went home, assuming Ramadan would not start until Sunday.  However, a couple of hours later, I received texts from 3 different people letting me know that the important people did in fact see the moon.  So Ramadan began today.   Fortunately I was prepared.  When Meredith and I were in my souk yesterday I stocked up on dates, chebekia (delicious Ramadan pastry), and the makings of harira (Ramadan soup).  So I made myself a few snacks in anticipation of my early morning meal and went to sleep.  At 4:00am this morning I had sahoor, the meal people eat before fasting begins for the day.    You may ask, why in the world is Catholic Erin fasting again this year?  There are so many reasons!!!!   I LOVE Ramadan.  The food is phenomenal.  I could seriously eat Ramadan food every day of my life.  I appreciate food and water so much more.  For anyone who has never fasted before, I recommend it, even just for a day.  The feeling you get after fasting is indescribable.  After basically being deprived of food and water all day, to be able to eat and drink whatever you want is just unbelievably amazing.  It shows how much we take easy access to food and water for granted.  I’ve never enjoyed food as much as I do after fasting.  Did you know that 900 million people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water?  Fasting gives those of use who have access to whatever we want a chance to be in solidarity with the less fortunate.  It helps us to begin to understand their pain, instead of just feeling bad for them. Living in a Muslim country, fasting lets the people in my community know that I respect them, their culture and their religion.  Every day people ask if I am fasting, and when I answer affirmatively, they get so excited!  I feel honored that they always include me in Ramadan activities, even though they know I am not Muslim. It is fun!  I especially like breaking fast at my host family’s house.  We get all of our ftar (breakfast) meal ready a few minutes before the dusk prayer call, and sit quietly waiting for the sound of the prayer call.  And then we all smile, sit back, and enjoy the exquisite food before us. I just need to reiterate the delicious food we make for Ramadan.  Today, I helped Najma make slou, an almondy-buttery-spicy-flour thing that is just so delicious!  Tomorrow morning I am going over to make chebekia.  And the dates, OH the dates!  It is date season so they are fresh off the trees of Zagora (a southern province).   Last year my first day of Ramadan was spent carrying a cat on 5 hours of public transportation and I was miserable.  I made a much better decision today, and stayed at home for most of the day.  I made an apple cinnamon cake to take to my host family, and started reading parts of the Quran (how can we respect a religion if we don’t understand it?).    Two hours before breaking fast, Ijjou (host mom) and I went outside to pick prickly pears and figs off the trees.  We both just wanted to keep busy until we could eat.  I had a great ftar with my lovely host family, and now I am back home, thoroughly enjoying liter after liter of water.    Ramadan Mubarak Said!    

So I've been thinking about this for a while.  In America, most coffee drinkers use a drip coffee machine, right?  Well, here in Morocco, I have a French Press.  I absolutely love it.  It makes great coffee, and is easy to use.  Or so I thought.  All I need to do is scoop 2 spoons full of ground coffee into the press, pour in boiling, wait 5 minutes, and voila!  Delicious coffee.  Even Starbucks personnel claim that French Press coffee is the best.  So why then had I never heard of, let alone seen anyone use a French Press before i came here?  

So then I started thinking about tea drinkers.  As far as I am aware, tea drinkers don't generally use some sort of drip tea machine.  They boil water, and wait for their tea to steep.  Sounds like the same process as my French Press to me.  Why not coffee drinkers?  The only thing I can possibly think of is that coffee drinkers are lazier than tea drinkers.  Or maybe they are just more rushed.  

Anyway, I woke up with these thoughts this morning.  Now I will finish my French Press coffee and make the trek down to souk before it gets too hot.

Summer in Southern Morocco means a lot of things.  Not one of those things, however, is work.  It means long boring days, it means talking about the heat with the neighborhood women, it means trying to stay cool by wearing soaking wet clothes, it means an overflowing toilet……….ok maybe I am getting a head of myself here.

The highlight of summer in Morocco this year for me was a visit by my dear friend Tara.  It was such a highlight, that I will blog about it separately.

Some summer events and happenings: Going to bathe, and discovering that my tap water is almost boiling.  Not bathing.  Going back at try again after dark, when the water has cooled off. Unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep in the heat.  Soaking my clothes in cold water and hoping I fall asleep before they dry. Going to souk at 6:30am in order to beat the heat.  Getting caught up in running errands, delaying my return.  Walking back up my mountain in the 10am heat, soaked in sweat. Excitedly checking my email to get updates from Steph, Megan, and Lissa on their weddin preparations!  Walking slowly to my host family’s in the afternoon, trying not to break a sweat.  Drinking tea and watching Arabic music videos with my host sister. Staying up WAY too late, trying to take advantage of the cool weather after 10pm. Teaching French to the Women’s Center girls starting at 6pm when the sun starts to think about maybe going down.  My house smelling a lot like sweat after they leave. Perfecting the art of iced coffee. Drinking the perfect iced coffee in the morning as I check email and see if Steph or Kristin have updated their blogs.  I love pictures of little Layla! Heading home the second I hear the Maghrib prayer call (indicating the sun is going down).  Don’t want to be caught outside when all the bugs and dogs and wild boars are around!   Last week, however, I had an event a little out of the ordinary.  As my most recent visitors can tell you, my toilet has not been, lets say functioning, as it should.  Having heard horror stories from other volunteers about toilet pits being drained in town, I was avoiding calling my landlord until it became absolutely necessary.   Finally on Thursday, I called and told my landlord, that “illa lmushkil d bitlma.  Ur i3dl.  Ur sngh ma tiyagn.” (There is a problem with my toilet.  It doesn’t work.  I don’t know what is ailing it).  He told me he would come check it out the next day.   So Friday afternoon he did some tinkering (smelly tinkering!) and told me that the pit is full.  Now, these pits last around 7 years, so I felt VERY unlucky to be here for the 7th and final year of this pit’s capacity.  So, he told me, he would return the next day with a worker and they would dig a new pit.  Oh, and by the way, he told me I would have to provide tea and lunch for them.  And none of that crazy American food I eat.  Real Moroccan food.   Now, after my landlord left I was very concerned.  And really, I’m not sure if I was more concerned about the whole digging of pits process, or the fact that I had absolutely no food in my house, and no time to get food to make a Moroccan meal.  Literally, I had 2 carrots and half a cucumber.  So I headed to my host family’s to ask what to do.  My host mom offered vegetables, but didn’t have any meat.  She suggested I get up super early to go to souk the next morning and come back with food to make a Moroccan meal.  And they would even come over and help me if I couldn’t.   So Saturday morning I went to souk at 6:30am, and bought lots of vegetables and chicken for this Moroccan tagine.  Oh, and sugar, because Moroccans generally like LOTS of sugar in their tea, and I was worried I didn’t have enough.  By the time I got back to my house, the worker and my landlord were chilling in the shade.  Apparently the pit WASN’T full. (HAMDULLILAH).  It was just clogged.  When I travel for weeks at a time, and no water goes down the toilet, it becomes a problem.  BUT, a problem I can fix.  So I happily made them some sweet Moroccan tea, and they left on their merry ways.  But then I had all this chicken.  So I brought the chicken to my host family’s and we had a good laugh over my toilet story.   Needless to say, I now have a fully-functioning toilet, without the public embarrassment!  

So I don’t know if I blogged about my new host-niece yet, but my host sister Fadma gave birth to the tiniest sweetest little girl a few weeks ago.  I am so proud of her so far for various reasons.  She gave birth in a clinic (instead of at home), she already took Maria for vaccinations, and she is only breast-feeding her.  So this past Sunday was the Baby Party!  I’m not exactly sure if the party is for the naming of the baby, or a religious event, or just to celebrate that the baby was born.  Anyway, I got all dressed up like the girls here, and celebrated with my village!  Although I am still not a fan of parties here that last past 4am, this one wasn’t too bad.  The actual celebration was the same (as far as I could tell) as a wedding celebration.  Fadma came onto the roof to say hello to the guests once, but no one ever saw the baby.

At 4am, as I was nodding off and dreaming of my house (only like 100 meters away!), my host mom, Ijjou, asked if I wanted to go home.  I was planning on staying until the end, since it was a party thrown by my host family, but sleep sounded like a great idea.  Right away, Ijjou called down to Omar and Mustafa (2 of my host brothers) asking them to walk me home.  And as I started to leave my host sister, Najma told me the same thing.  Make sure Omar or Mustafa walks you home.  Both host brothers offered to leave the party and walk me home without complaint.  Really, that simple act of kindness meant a lot to me.  No matter how long I live in my village, I will never truly be a member of my host family.  But they treat me as one anyway.  And living so many thousands of miles from my family really stinks sometimes, so knowing that I have a loving family here makes life a lot easier.  Congratulations Fadma!

This year for Independence Day/my birthday, my friends and I decided to do our best to recreate what an American 4th of July celebration.  So my region-mates and 2 close friends from other regions came down to celebrate.  Friday night we stayed at Hanneke’s and made raspberry vinaigrette goat cheese salad and pizza rolls (from scratch…even the wrapper).   The next morning we headed out to the road to wait for transportation to Mirleft, a beachtown in our region.  We spent the day at the beach...

some of us building sandcastles.... some of us digging holes in the sand.... and some of us swimming fully clothed.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the beach; we are truly blessed in this region to be near water.  Once the sun got too hot, we returned to Hanneke’s for our 4th of July barbeque. We made (well Hanneke did most of the cooking) potato salad, pasta salad, guacamole, burgers on the grill, and wine spritzers.   Meredith and I spent quite some time decorating the wonderful cookie cake she made for me.  Pink frosting with pink icing roses!!!!  She did a great job teaching me how to make the roses, but I don’t think I quite have it yet.

We had a great time and I had a fabulous birthday!  

So last week Meredith and I realized that our Moroccan ID Cards (carte de sejours) were going to expire.  Being such law-abiding girls, we headed to Anezi (near Meredith’s site) to stop by the gendarmes and apply for new ones.  Usually visiting the gendarmes means a full day of waiting; therefore, when we were in and out in 30 minutes, Meredith and I were extremely impressed.  In fact, I believe we decided it was the single most efficient bureaucratic moment we’ve had in Morocco so far. So we found a car to take us back to Meredith’s house where we were going to make lunch.  And then I left my phone in the car.  Ooops.  After lunch I went to Meredith’s souk to find transportation to my site, and put the word out that I’d lost my phone.  So Ali at the post office knew, and one of the butahanoots (store owners) knew, and an Anezi taxi driver knew.  All three said they would keep calling my phone to see if someone answered as well as hunt down the driver.  I went back to my site hopeful that the wonderful people of Meredith’s site would pull through with this phone business.  But everyone I talked to seem to think that my phone was long gone.  So I prepared to buy a new phone and number that weekend. 2 days later, I went to my post office, and Hassan, my postman, told me that although I didn’t have any mail, my phone was waiting for me in Meredith’s site!!!!  Hamdullilah! So after I left my phone in a random car, and three days passed, I got it back!  It is a true testament to the kind of life I’m living here in Morocco.  I mean, first of all, if that happened in a city, I probably wouldn’t even TRY to find it.  But people here know Meredith and me, and made a conscious effort to find my phone.  I’m just tickled pink by the kindness of people!!!!

As a side-note, my phone broke two days later and I had to get a new one anyway.  I think the phone gods were trying to tell me something. 

Since it is July, I believe I can safely say summer is in full swing here in Morocco.  Today, the temperature is 110 degrees in the shade; I have been moving as little as possible since I woke up this morning.  I’ve had frozen yogurt, iced crystal lite, iced karkaday (Egyptian hibiscus tea), and iced coffee (Raspberry chocolate! Thanks to Aunt Judy).  Needless to say my friends down here in Tiznit and I are handling the situation pretty well.  Two weeks ago we went to Sidi Ifni, a beach town south of Tiznit.  This weekend we will go to Mirleft, another beach town in our region.  Although we still have to dress like nuns on the beach, the breeze is great!

 

Our weekend in Sidi Ifni was wonderful.  We went with 2 of the new health volunteers in our region, who are still living with host families.  So the 5 of us (Meredith, Hanneke, Jess, Marjorie, me) rented an apartment on the beach.  Here is our view.  

Since we were still in our region, we dressed as we normally would in our sites….just rolled up the pants a little.  J  And went to the beach!   

A few days later, our Peace Corps Program Assistant, Rachid, came to Tiznt to visit the new volunteers.  In the morning, he picked up Meredith and drove her to my house, and while he was off visiting one of the new volunteers, Nicole, Meredith and I proceeded to cook a relatively Chinese lunch for him.   Chicken egg rolls (we even made the wrappers), Vegetable stir-fry, and Egg Drop Soup.  We diverged from the theme a bit with Egyptian tea to drink and apple pie for dessert.  Meredith and I had a lot of fun cooking and overall the meal was a success!   Oh, and Mer brought her kitten, Toni Almeida (she’s a girl, hence the “i”) over for a play date with Chandler while we cooked.  They didn’t exactly love each other, but Toni had fun in my fridge. 

  I was going to continue with the beach-on-the-weekends theme this past weekend by going to Agadir, until I was recruited to help my host family on Sunday.  I was told to show up at their house Sunday morning, to help prepare food for a bunch of men.  Well, it turns out “a bunch of men” means 40 men and later, 50 women.  We were cooking tajine and couscous like mad-people!  And making tea until it was coming out of our ears.  It was crazy.  Still not clear on why this all happened, but I believe it is something related to the mosque, since the men were reciting the Quran in between meals.  Anyway, I had fun-ish.  I mean, hanging out with some of my favorite women is always fun, but cooking and cleaning for 90 is not how I will choose to spend every Sunday.  I have renewed respect for those in the catering business!!     

On May 4 I received another visitor from America!  My high school friend Amanda and I hadn’t seen each other since high school (she went to college in Pennsylvania), but facebook brought us together once again.  J  A few months back, she expressed an interest in stopping by Morocco on her way to Egypt (she is Egyptian-American) for the summer, and I expressed an interest in accompanying her to Egypt after Morocco.  So we spent a week together in Morocco, seeing some of the typical sites in my area (Marrakech, Agadir, Tiznit), and also making a trip to Tafroaute, where Brooke (a Youth Development Volunteer) escorted us to the painted rocks of Tafraoute.  

My host family LOVED Amanda, especially since she knows Arabic and is Muslim.  Having her visit just renewed their thought that I too should be Muslim.  I think they’ve given up again….for now at least. 

On May 12, Amanda and I made the trek from Agadir to Casablanca in order to catch our flight to Cairo.  Here is a bit of a picture story of my trip to Egypt.

Old Cairo, where we visited my first night in Egypt.  There are some pretty cool mosques.

Starbucks in Egypt.  I went 6 times!!!

The gardens in our hotel compound.

Our hotel-usually reserved for military families.  We had connections. 

 Delicious Turkish coffee.Another trip to Starbucks  :)

On our private boat trip on the Nile.

Us with our wonderful hosts.

The boat!

The next day, at a desert resort near CairoWe got to ride dune buggies!

The Nile

Hanging out at a cafe on the Nile.

The Citadel

Inside the Mohammed Ali mosque in The Citadel

Amanda and her lovely mother at The Citadel

Al Aharamat! (The pyramids)

They were way cool.  And way old.

After trying to figure out how to do this on our own, we had a vendor take the pictures for us.

The Sphynx!At the Egyptian Museum.  Because we were with military officers, we were escorted to a room not open to the public that has Hatchepsut's mummy.  How cool is that?

Cairo Tower

View of Cairo from the Cairo Tower

And I got to drive!  Some people in Egypt actually have automatic cars.  It had been so long, driving made me SO happy.

We got to have an amazing seafood dinner with some of Amanda's family

Some of Amanda's wonderful family

Amanda and I got all dressed up to see a belly-dancer..I haven't been this dressed up in a LONG time.  Guess there's not too much of an opportunity in Peace Corps!

Dinner at the Belly-dancer show

Bdour, the Raqasa (belly-dancer)

Bdour!

A big market in Cairo, Khan al Khalili, with some friends of Amanda's family

We went to the Red Sea (the town is Ain alSoukhna) and stayed at a beachside resort.

My feet in the Red Sea.  

The next day we went to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean.  Way cool.

At our delicious seafood dinner in Alexandria

MMMMMM crabs.  I impressed everyone with my crab-eating skills.  Thanks to Maryland!

Another trip to Starbucks.  :)

While we were in Alex, we watched the European Soccer Championship.  People got WAY into it.

At the beach in Alex

Amanda eating some delicious Egyptian foodHalf-way through my time in Cairo, I received word from my family in America that my sister is engaged!!!!  It was so exciting to talk to Steph and Adam about the engagement, and start talking about the wedding right away.  And can I just say I did a darn good job of keeping the secret since March!  Yes, when Steph and Adam visited, Adam told me the approximate date of his proposal.  And I didn’t even tell anyone!  Whew, that was a hard secret to keep!  So July 10, 2010 look out, Erin is getting a brother-in-law!  

Well apparently it has been a while since I updated this blog of mine.  It amazes me how time flies here in Morocco.  I have been in country now for over 15 ½ months, with only 11 ½ months until I finish my service.  Yikes!After the taxi strike in April I returned to my site to finish up the semester at the middle school.  Thanks to a generous donation from the Church of the Holy Spirit Vacation Bible School program, I supplied the physical education department (and by physical education department, I mean the one part-time PE teacher) of the middle school with a dozen new soccer balls.  For kids who don’t often see new supplies and equipment come their way, it was a very exciting event.  Here are pictures of the kids playing with the balls.

My last lessons of the year revolved around trash education.  Although my community is very lucky to have a trash collection system in souk (a man in an open back pick-up comes around every Friday to collect trash from the old oil barrels placed throughout the community), trash awareness leaves much to be desired.  Before I decided to dedicate my last two weeks at the schools to trash, I consulted the commune, who is in charge of trash collection.  In doing so, I met a member of the commune who, 3 years ago, arranged a community-wide trash collection day to inaugurate the trash collection system.  He provided me with large trash bags and a place for the students to dispose of trash collected during my lessons.  The students were slightly horrified that I made them walk around town collecting trash, but had an overall good time, especially while learning how long it takes for different types of trash to decompose (or as I like to explain in tashelhit, how long it takes for the earth to eat the trash).    The end of the school year coincided with the arrival of a new group of health volunteers to Peace Corps Morocco.  My region, Tiznit, is blessed with 3 new health volunteers, and 1 new environment volunteer.  Although it was very sad to say good-bye to some of my close friends who have now completed their service, meeting the new volunteers is so exciting!!  This weekend we are taking them to the beach at Sidi Ifni to enjoy a relaxing break away from their host families.    The 1st of May and 2nd of May became two very important days for us girls down in Tiznit, Primero de Mayo, and Kentucky Derby!  I hosted a weekend at my house filled with margaritas, Mexican food, mint juleps and Derby Pie.  We sure know how to have fun out here in the country!