Mosques, marathons, and martinis

October has been a month of accomplishments.  After returning from my month of travels I tired to make sure to get right back into my community.  It wasn't easy and I realized just how long a month is and how I don't want to leave again for that long.  To help my transition I decided spending a lot of time with my host family was important so I went there almost every day for a week.  They are always so welcoming and greeted me with open arms and lots of food.  Their response when I walked through the door... "We thought you died". Well at least they were thinking of me, but they have my number a simple call to make sure I was still alive would have been nice. I guess they saw the accident on the Tishka on TV and thought I was on that bus.  Thanks guys! 

They always have a way of helping me remember why I’m here, and always help me feel like part of the family, including group naps, sibling fighting, and of course my host mom ready to feed the baby whenever needed (if you catch my drift). 

Since we were back in site and ready to work we met with our mudir, and the head of the women’s association in town and made some schedules for classes.  We got right into work and started having our exercise class three times a week.  Though only one person showed up at the first one, at our most recent class four people showed up, so we are growing.  It’s not easy to get women excited about exercise and fit our class into their schedule but we are working on it.  Along with that we have had English classes for women at the association who are interested in learning.  They are very motivated learners and though it’s very challenging at times, it’s been a great experience so far.  As for work at our youth center, that’s not going as smoothly.  Though we have made countless schedules and told many kids to come somehow we cannot seem to connect with the kids who are interested.  They come when we aren’t there and when we are there the kids are nowhere to be found.  On top of that, though very exciting, our mudir informed us that they are closing the youth center for a month and a half for renovations.  Though it is deeply needed and will make the youth center much more appealing, it’s hard to be excited when work there will probably not really start until the beginning of next year.  Even with this it’s hard not to be excited at the prospect of students and starting clubs, classes, and activities with them.  It also gives us more time to plan program for the future. Writing letters for donations and grants for education on AIDS, and a 5k race with a health program at the end. 

Besides that I’ve still been able to travel a bit.  I spent a weekend in Marrakesh working with our mudir, and other mudirs on projects we would like to hold and how we can get them done.  The hostel was nice enough to allow us to spend an extra night and we were able to get to see the city a little.  Besides that I was also able to travel to Casablanca to compete in a half marathon.  It was an amazing experience, and though I don’t think I’m cut out for distance running, now I can say I’ve run a half in Casa.  

Rock Stars / olympians

In Casa we spent the few nights we were there treating ourselves.  We went to Rick’s Café and ate steak and drank martinis.  

Classy lady

Though it seems like it would be touristy, Rick’s had terrific food, great service, and was very classy, though they do have the movie Casablanca playing on repeat, but at least it’s on mute.  We went to the Morocco Mall and did a little too much shopping.  It was overall a terrific experience.  The Morocco Mall is huge.  It is three floors of stores including some very pricy shops like Prada, Louis Vuitton, and many more stores we didn’t even try to go in.  It also had some of my favorites like Gap, Banana Republic, and H&M.  It was impossible to not feel homesick sitting there drinking real Starbucks surrounded by bags.  While there we also visited the mosque.  It is absolutely huge and amazingly beautiful.  The details in the structure are breathtaking, and pretty amazing to see.

Rockin Out infront of the mosque

Mosque Hessan Tanny

Since I’ve been back from the marathon there hasn’t been much going on in site.  The big holiday is coming and many people are traveling or getting prepared which has made us cancel our classes for the week.  I am currently preparing myself for Friday, when I will be going to my host family’s house to celebrate by watching them slaughter a sheep or goat and eating almost the entire thing.  Hopefully my host sister won’t mind me passing on my portion of brain and stomach to her.