Community based training is going really well, my host family is extremely nice and they try to accommodate me the best they can, though I’m learning a lot of language skills every day I’m still struggling to communicate with my family like I would like to. I’m in a tiny town just outside of Fez that can only be defined as rural. With one paved road and a population of about 1500 people we are already local celebrities. The population is by far more than 50% children, and they tend to run to us in the street and follow us around. It’s rather endearing but gets tiring after awhile. Our training group has a lot of fun and we get along really well, though we spend about 10 hours a day together we haven’t gotten too sick of each other yet. We are all hooked on a Turkish soap opera, and we talk about it every morning, trying to figure out what’s going on. Our teacher is already sick of our shenanigans in class and continually makes up new rules for the classroom to keep us in check. It keeps us sane and he loves it though he would never admit it.
Our usual schedule from Monday to Friday is class starting at 8:30-12:30 lunch then back to learning from 2-6, and Saturday we have half days. It’s very tiring but I’m learning the language quickly and enjoying doing it so as tired as I am it’s worth it. We are already forming sentences about what we have done and what we like to do. Though this week has been a bit of a change, we have been helping run a spring camp for the kids in our town while they are on spring break. In the morning we teach small English lessons to a group of about 30 kids, then play games with them. We are there until 12:30 then we go back to school for lunch and a few hours of language lessons. This week has been far more tiring then I thought possible. It’s so much fun though, the kids are great and they are so invested in learning English it makes it easy to teach them. On the other hand, the language barrier does not make it easy.
This weekend we all went to a wedding. It was amazingly long and quite a production. On Friday we had a half day of class, we were all invited to lunch at the grooms house. After that we went to the Hena party. During this we ate cookies and watched the bride get henna. It’s definitely a different experience than a wedding in America. The bride and groom don’t interact with the guests and are there to be looked at more than have a good time. After the Hena party were went back to have dinner and dancing at the grooms house. Most of us left around 11 that night though the party lasted until 3. The next day we went back to the grooms house around 8 to get ready before the wedding. At 10 we went down for dinner, one tradition I love is the wedding chicken, it’s one of the most delicious dishes I’ve had here so far. After dinner it was time to dance, I definitely can’t dance like the Moroccans; we tried to bring some American moves to the floor. The wedding that night went until 5 in the morning. We were exhausted by the time 3 came around and started to go a little crazy around 4. It was quite the experience but I’m not too eager to repeat it in the near future.
Besides that I’ve pretty much just been eating a lot. I don’t get how the people here do it they eat like 6 times a day. There are the three main meals then three ‘snacks’ that are the size of meals but with tea. Most of the time I try to not eat too much but the women always tell you to eat more and it’s hard to say no.
My living accommodations here are pretty great considering I’m in the Peace Corps. I have my own room, electricity, I can drink the tap water, and our bathroom is inside. I do bucket bathe, there is a shower but it’s only cold water, I do my laundry on a wash board but was told the other day that I was no good at it and it was taken over by my much more capable sister. I use a Turkish toilet, which isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It’s a new experience but I’m loving it. The town we are in is absolutely gorgeous, hills and mountains surround it and the town is filled with poppy fields. Every time we go to the Suke for food I can’t believe how different it is from America. The Suke is like a huge farmers market. There is stand after stand of fresh vegetables, fruits, spices, and meats. You can order 2 kilos of chicken pick the live chicken you want and come back in 10 minutes and it will be killed, plucked, and ready for you to take home. The other thing about Morocco that I love is their since of time. No one cares if they wait in line for 10 minutes or an hour. They’re never in a rush. They are never on time, and can spend all day doing the same thing and not care. It’s such a change from our fast pace lifestyle. It’s also a great excuse when we’re late for class, sorry but we’re on Moroccan time.
