New Years

Christmas in Tafraout was actually a lot more fun than expected, surrounded by friends, good food, and drinks we celebrated the only way we could.  On Christmas eve we went hiking out to the painted rocks.

Then we went back and made a feast of chili and guacamole.  Later that night we made about 5 dozen sugar cookies, but with only knives to work with our cookies were a little, let's say, creative.

Christmas day we went out shopping for our feast, we cooked (not me) all day and by the evening we had a great spread of food to devour.  Though it was very unorthodox it was a Christmas to remember.  The next morning everyone left except the people going to Germany.  We stayed around and went for another hike.  We went up to this amazing ledge that looked over a small village next to Tafraout.  We even got to do some rock climbing at the top.  It was amazing.

 
Thursday morning started our BIG trip.  We made it about 2 hours down the mountain when I freaked out about forgetting my passports and had to rip through my bags on the bus, oops.  They were there the whole time and we continued on to Agadir.  We spent the night there and the next morning took the 'cheaper' rout to Marrakesh, which included a rickety old bus that could barley make it up a hill that took about 2 hours longer than needed.  We bargained for a 'taxi' to the airport only to get in a decrepit van thing that took us almost the whole way there but kicked us to the curb saying he wasn't allowed in the airport parking lot.  Oh well we made it on time.  The second we crossed out of Morocco we high-fived, we made it!
When we landed in Berlin we all looked at each other, we had no idea where our hostel was.  Oops, we had to pay a few euros to use the internet in the airport and google the hostel.  We finally made it there and found food.  The next day we set out to explore the city.  We ended up at a Christmas market and found mulled wine, it wasn't delicious, but it did warmed us up nicely.

That night we ate some of the most delicious mexican food I've ever had, after our first dinner of street sausages.
On our second day we were determined to see some of the history of Berlin and made it to the Berlin wall, and the Holocaust museum that is there.

There was so much to see there, that's all we could accomplish.  It was quite an amazing museum that left us all a little despondent.  We called it an early night after some delicious burgers and headed back to the hostel for some baileys and hot coco and sleep.
The next day was New Years Eve, we got an 'early' start and headed to the DDR museum.  It was all about the Berlin Wall and what life was like on the Socialism side of the wall.  It was a really interesting museum and I learned a lot about the wall, Berlin's history, and life in socialism.  Then we walked around an area called museum island.  We didn't go into any of the museums there but the buildings were beautiful.

On our way back from there we walked through everyone setting up for New Years.  It was crazy and it was only 3.
New years was a blast.  We went to some local's house where we met a ton of people from all over.  They took us to a park with a hill that overlooks the city.  We climbed the hill and watched the fireworks go off at midnight from there.  It was incredible.  It was pretty surreal to see all the fireworks over Berlin.  We all made it back to the hostel in one piece, though I'm not sure how and passed out.
The next day, not so ready to face the world, we made the trek to the train station where we caught a train to Prague.  We arrived pretty late and went straight out to a late night dinner of crappy but delicious chinese food.
The next day we were off to explore the city.  After getting more turned around than we thought possible we took a taxi to the old city.  Everything there was beautiful.  All the buildings and architecture were fascinating and we walked around all day, over the Charles Bridge and up to a castle and cathedral.

Prague was extremely cold and a little rainy so we headed back early.  The hostel in Prague had a ton of people from all over and we stayed there talking to people from Sweden, Australia, Finland, and more for a long time.
The next day was our last full day of vacation.  We were all pretty tired and spent a good portion of the morning eating subway and already missing not having it in Morocco.  We took a late bus back to Berlin and stumbled back to the hostel dead on our feet.
After a leisurely morning we quickly realized we may miss our flight and had to run from the subway stop to the check in counter.  Somehow after a small miscommunication I ended up in the wrong area of security and had to wait over 40 minutes for security.  I ended up running through the airport (again) to the flight showing up only 2 minutes after the gate closed, they were luckily still checking passports and I slipped in.  It can never just be easy.
The transition back to Morocco has been interesting.  It has a lot less excitement landing when you've already been here for 9 months.  It's easy to forget what being under constant observation is like but I'm readjusting quickly.  And remembering that I need to wash my clothes in a bucket, dress in many layers to go to bed, and heat my water on the stove for a bath.
Next stop, London in June.
 

Feelin like a little kid

There is no where that I have felt more like a little kid since I was one than being here.  It's not just that I communicate like a 6 year old either.  People in town make a big deal about seeing me, still.  I see them almost every day and each time and it's like a small party is thrown that I've made it.  Recently I made the 13 hour trip to Rabat for a meeting for the AIDS committee that I'm on, they put my bag in a special compartment of the bus that locked, the driver knew where I was sitting and where I was getting off to make sure I didn't miss it.  You may never realize just how invisible you are in everyday life until you aren't.  It's a lot more tiring than you may imagine.
In Rabat I got to revisit some of my favorite places, and see the ocean again!  Walking around hasn't been this hard and tiring since I was a kid.  Three hours seems like an entire day as I drag my body back to the hotel to plop down and not move again.  A mid afternoon nap time seems like the only way to get through the day and make it past 8 o'clock that night.  Only difference now, if I leave my town there is a 99 percent chance I'm consuming one or more alcoholic beverages.

No change here though, I haven't lost my childlike excitement for Christmas.  My apartment is decorated with garland, a small tree, and a wreath (thanks mom).  Christmas music is on constant flow, and each night I sit with my dinner and watch one of the many Christmas movies I downloaded.  And don't forget, lots of Christmas baking!
Last weekend I traveled down the mountain to a town outside Agadir for a volunteer Christmas party.  On the way down not only did I have to request a stop because I still don't know my own bladder, and a two hour trip is too much for me to handle, but I had to spend most of the 2 hours focusing on not throwing up.  I great christmas past time for me, car sickness.  Since I spend of my childhood throwing up on the car ride home from our Christmas celebrations.  Reasons that even though I'm 23 almost 24, and living alone in Africa, I feel like this January I'll be turing 7.

Christmas won't be the same without all my favorite traditions and I'll be missing the pierogi party, Christmas eve, and Christmas day with my family!!

I'll be back in 3 weeks to tell you how I didn't feel like a 6 year old in Berlin and try to tell the craziness that was my New Years!
And for anyone wondering, it's about 80 degrees here today...

November as I remember it

As November comes to an end I realize just how bad I am at keeping a blog.  A lot has happened in the past month and I haven't kept very good record of most of it, either in this blog or on my own.  I sit here trying to recall all the noteworthy moments since my last post.  To start where I left off the holiday I spent with my family was one of my favorite times here in Morocco.  I got there a little after 9:30 and by some miracle missed the slaughtering of the sheep.  They were cleaning each part when I arrived and I spent most of the time watching in awe and trying to help.  Usually I just goof around with my two host sisters until they get in trouble for not working.  As the day progressed I was slowly stuffed with more and more food, including liver kabobs wrapped in fat from the heart of the sheep, then a tagine with things like intestine, stomach, and heart.  It was quite the experience and was for the first time in country grateful for the amount of bread served with meals as I wrapped each thing in bread then washed it down with some more.  The next day I went over and had couscous prepared with the head of the sheep, though I'm not sure what I ate I know I ate the face of the sheep.  Mostly though it was amazing to be with my host family during their holiday.  They always treat me like part of the family and this was no different.  They are so warm and welcoming I am truly blessed they allowed me to become part of their family.

That catches us up to the beginning of November when I got to take a trip with the association I work with to a VERY small town about and hour and half from Tafraout.  The association had been collecting used clothes and shoes from people in town, and brought pens, paper, and colored pencils, to hand out to this town.  It was quite the trip with a bus ride then a small mountain dirt road in someones car down to what I can only describe as a forest of cacti.  We handed out clothes to the families there and schools supplies to the kids.  Then we had a small fire and they played drums and we danced around with the women.  That was one of the longest days I've had in country besides the wedding.  We left Tafraout at 8 and we didn't get back until after 9.  After handing out clothes we went to another small town to someones friends house and they fed us snack consisting of cookies, pastries, nuts, and dates, and then not 10 minutes later we had a 3 course meal.  I was beyond full and ready to crawl into bed and we still had an hour drive ahead of us.

Since then I've been staying in Tafraout for the most part just trying to get some classes started for real and get some projects rolling.  Lately I've been pretty busy and it's been very nice.  I have been teaching in a neighboring town at the women's center there.  Once a week Sarah and I teach a 2 hour english class.  These women are so amazing.  Most of them have never been to school so not only do they not have any idea about english but they have no idea how to learn.  That doesn't stop them though, and after 3 classes we are finally moving on from Hello, How are you? What is your name? the ABC's and 1-10 are still a work in progress.  I've also started coaching the girls soccer team.  They are a very spirited group, my nice way of saying teenage girls are HARD.  They don't really do what I say, though I'm never sure if they just don't understand my broken arabic or they just don't want to do it.  They mostly want to scrimmage and when I try to run drills and they get bored they just go sit until I tell them it's 'match' time.  I'm working on some ways to entice them to learn the skills I'm teaching and come on time, and behave.  It's slow going but it's really fun and the challenge is pretty rewarding.  Hopefully since the youth center is closed when it reopens I will have more english classes there with more kids and then from there I can start some clubs for the kids.  Sarah and I are still trying to make our health day and 5k run happen in town.  It's slow going, as are most things, but we are very excited about it and trying our hardest to find donations, talk to the people in town, and will soon start working on the grant.

I held my very own Thanksgiving in Tafraout.  Some friends came up from around my region and we cooked a turkey and all the Thanksgiving staples and had a feast.  Though I'm sure we all missed home it was pretty delicious and we had a great time.  Starting with us having to get the turkey slaughtered in town to the 11 pm decision to devour all the leftovers as we laid around watching Bridesmaids.

That's all I have for now.  As I continue all my hard work... today I taught my girls in english class "close your mouth" and "he is good looking" haha, I will try to keep a better update,

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.

An emotional roller coaster

I’ve been traveling for the last month and been able to see some amazing new places, have some incredibly meaning experiences, and spend some much needed time with friends, new and old.  From all of this I have quickly come to realize the emotional roller coaster I have been riding and will be riding for the next 20 months.  

The start of my journey took me to Agadir where I indulged in some delicious pizza (not 2 words often used in this country).  I continued to spend 3 days in a town just outside of Agadir for training for the volunteer support network. The VSN is a group of trained volunteers who are available for other volunteers to call to help them talk through problems they are having be it in site, at home, with friends, or anything.  The training was a great experience, with great food, great company, and we all were able to talk about issues we were having and work through them.  

Training ended too quickly and off Sarah and I were to Marrakech where we were staying for the night before heading to Ourzazate.  Most of that time was spent relaxing and mentally preparing for our trip over the tishka.  The tishka (if you didn't see on the news) is a quite twisty, winding, steep road that passes through the mid atlas mountain range dividing the two cities, Merrakesh and Ourzazate.  After some debate and taking into account sensitive stomachs we chose to take a grand taxi.  This means there were 4 people squashed into the back and 3 in the front (including the driver) though it's not a more comfortable ride, there is much less chance for car sickness in a car compared to a bus.  This didn't stop me from taking Dramamine, which reminds me I'm out... The drive was absolutely beautiful! Beyond anything I could have imagined and the pictures don't do it justice.  After a short half an hour break, from what I can tell something needed to be welded back onto the bottom of the car, and another 4 and a half hours we arrived in Ourzazate. 

Berber IST was held is a hotel right in the public 'garden' or square of Ourzazate. So far Ourzazate has to be one of my favorite cites in Morocco.  Though every time I go somewhere here I decide it's my new favorite place.  Ourzazate has more of a desert feel than many of the other cities I have visited lately, though that's probably because they were on the beach.  The people there were terrific and it didn't hurt that they had delicious fruit smoothies available for 12 dh.  Berber IST was a lot of hard work and information in a 6 hours a day for 5 days time period.  It was a good basis for getting to understand how the language works and for simple communication in site.   

Since there was only 1 week in between going to real IST in Marrakesh I decided to visit my friend Jared's site with with some friends, Zaana and Jon.  He lives about a half an hour past Zagora which is 3 hours south east of Ourzazate.  His site was absolutely beautiful, it was the first time I had seen an oasis, or palmery, which are areas of dense palm trees, grass, and sometimes water, usually a river.  Since his site was so far away from a large city and his site was so rural the stars were incredible.  Every night we slept on the roof under the stars.  While we were there we also got to go to pottery co-ops.  The people were so nice, they gave us tea, and we all played drums and guitar together and talk about morocco and America and Mali, where many of the people's family's are from in that area.  It was a constant reminder of just how lucky I am and how grateful I am for the opportunities I am given. 

With just a few days left until IST a friend and I stayed in Ourzazate for a few nights and met with some other PCVs and explore the area.  This led us to the discovery if Fint oasis.  We walked 10 km down a half paved, half dirt, half gravel road with nothing around until we finally arrived at the little oasis.  It's a small Berber town just outside of Ourzazate, it was absolutely beautiful.  Since we decided not to carry a camera we have no evidence of the running water, turtles, frogs, and fish that were there.  The people there were amazing, giving us water and food for free and allowing us to take a little nap on their ponj.  After we walked back to the road and our Moroccan escort picked dates fresh off of palms and gave them to us as we waded to our ankles in the cool water.  It was quite a magical day and just another day that helped me realize how lucky I really am. 

This led us into IST.  Joelle, Zanna and I braved the souk bus back over the tishka and safely arrived in Marrakesh ready to take on IST!  Though there were more rumors than I could keep track of about the hotel we were staying in for IST I was pleasantly surprised when upon arrival I was hit with COLD air conditioning, a huge beautiful pool, and apartment sized bungalows for us and our friends.  IST was filled with workshops about how to make the best of our service and 100 ideas that we could take into our dar chebabs.  What IST really was though was a great reunion after being separated for 4 month, we were all ready to be ‘American’ again for the week, and that’s what we did.  We wore t-shirts, shorts, and bathing suits, we spoke barley any Arabic, and everyone understood our English, and we spent time hearing each others battle stories gaining the courage to return to our new homes throughout the country. 

After a week of IST I was staring to feel the effects of traveling for so long and I ready to head home.  But first I took a small detour to Agadir to stay in a VERY posh hotel for a conference on healthy community living and how to implement public health classes into our work.  This was three days of the most helpful and useful information I had received to yet.  I learned so much about the youth in Morocco and have a better understand of where I stand in my community.  And I can’t complain about the hotel either, hot showers with real water pressure, ocean view, pools, and amazing food including omelets with cheese!  To bring all my travels full circle on my last full day in Agadir I devoured a pizza from the same pizza place my travels started from one-month prior. 

On my travels back to Tafraout I completely forgot that once again Morocco had observed a time change.  With this said I was an hour ahead of my schedule the whole morning making it much easier to get a cab from Tiznit back to Tafraout.  I was lucky enough to find on right away and had the pleasure of sharing the front seat with a woman from Venezuela.  She spoke English well and we were able to talk the whole way home mostly about religion.  She is a journalist studying religion and has traveled all over the world living in the culture of many different religions; she had such a new and interesting way to look at Islam.  It made for a very interesting and exciting taxi ride home, our side view mirror getting taken off by another car did hurt either, oh Morocco.    

Ramadan

The last month has been a whirlwind of travel, teaching, Ramadan, utter boredom, 

learning, and fun.  While challenges and unpredictability of live have shown me my own strengths and weaknesses since I have arrived. 

Most recently I have had the chance to travel to El Jadida and work at a summer camp teaching English to kids ages 10-17.  It was an awesome experience and I loved every second of it.  El Jadida was like going on a tropical vacation compared to Tafraout.  It was 75 and humid every day, compared to 110 and dry as a bone I’ll take it.  Camp was a blast, not only was I teaching but spending time with the kids and learning about them.  We introduced them to Halloween, and put on quite a scary haunted house, did American trivia, and had a pretty intense soccer game.  The kids were so happy to be there, even though it was Ramadan and they were very tired and many times just wanted to go back to bed.  Camp was just like summer camp in America though, we shared two rooms for 14 volunteers, there were 4 bunk beds in each room and one bathroom.  By the end, the 4 shirts I brought smelled like camping and everything was just a little wet. Needless to say I was happy to get back and do laundry.  The other Peace Corps volunteers I got to work with were amazing as well.  We did a lot of playing Frisbee on the beach and riding waves.  It was hard to consider this work.  After this I was lucky enough to have some good friends invite me to stay at their place in Essaouira, which quickly became one of my favorite places in Morocco.  It’s a very touristy beach town, but their Medina (city) was beautiful and the shops there were incredible.  It was a great stay and hard for me to leave.  The first time I went to catch my bus I was easily convinced to stay just one more night. 

Though life here hasn’t been all beaches and fun.  The ups and downs felt here come on quickly and can last for 2 second or can drag on for what feels like 2 years.  These moments don’t happen often but when they do they can flatten you.  Like waiting with baited breath for each e-mail update about my grandfather after his surgery, and my heart sinking each time my phone rang, just hoping it wasn’t from home with bad news.  These moments can feel like a lifetime when you’re so far away.  On top of that many of my friends in country have gone though so much more than I can ever image and it’s hard not to be able to be there with them.  We are all so spread out now that it makes it impossible to be there when people need you most. 

El Jadida at night

Being away did make me realize how much I love Tafraout.  With the amount of harassment that I got in El Jadida I can understand why it drives people crazy.  After arriving back in site I was instantly invited over to my friends house for wedding chicken (my favorite meal).  The next day I met with the rest of my friends from town.  A much-needed reunion was had for Sarah and I as well, with some homemade peach wine (video to follow, not very delicious but did the job), a pretty epic puzzle, and the Emperors New Groove we were happy to both be in Tafraout again.  And once again we can ask the question, old time or new time? Morocco has undergone another time change now that Ramadan is over.  Though I’m not sure people know.  Meeting times, store hours, I have no idea what they really are anymore.  This will all happen again in about a month then we have another time change.   

Dealing with the heat

Life in Tafraout has finally settled down and life has returned to a normal routine.  Over the past month I have found a house, filled it up (kind of), decorated, and started to cook for myself.  It wasn't an easy transition though.  When my host mom finally had her baby, about 3 weeks ago now, I needed to leave their house immediately because so much family was coming to visit there was no more room for me.  This left me pretty much homeless.  I was all packed, keeping a suitcase at my host family's, another bag at Sarah's host family's, and carrying thing around in my backpack to live with.  We had thought we were getting an apartment so we weren't looking very hard, but quickly came to realize though the landlord said he would bring us the key, he was never coming.  This lead to a mad dash around Tafraout talking to anyone who would listen about where to find a house and how much it would cost. Luckily my host dad stepped in and within just a few days we had homes.  Now if I thought that was hard now I had to try to fill up my new house with the things I needed to make it a home, including water and electricity, all on a pretty tight budget.  It took about a week to finally get electricity, and I slowly moved in my bed frame and mattress, a bedside table, stove and gas, shelves and fridge, and tables, and my host family kindly gave me two ponjs for my living room.  About 3 days later my fridge broke and I was back on the streets looking for another one.  It wan't too hard of a search and I found one quickly in my price range.  I had some pictures printed off the other day and now my house is filled up and starting to resemble a home.
       Besides all that I've been working a bit at the youth center having some conversation classes with some advanced students who are very good at english and just want to practice and learn new words.  As of recently about 10 to 20 small boys show up everyday now, they don't really want to learn english just play games so we play frisbee, pingpong, and cards with them.  Tomorrow we are starting a summer camp for them, it's going to resemble the olympics and they will have to pick countries and make flags, but the games are like water balloon fights, and some english games.  It should be fun and as long as they don't fight too much I think it will go well.  I also work at the women's association here, 3 times a week I teach an aerobics class and twice a week I teach an english class to whoever shows up.  Attendance isn't the best and sometimes we have 2 women and sometimes we have 10.  In September that should change because right now people are traveling and it's very very hot.
       More on the heat, it's hot here.  Like can't leave the house because the sun is out kind of hot.  Sadly it makes for pretty boring days, and since there are snakes we can't hike until after the heat is gone, hopefully that will be sometime in September.  To beat the heat I shower a lot, though it's not extremely helpful because the ground water gets really hot from the sun, so my showers are usually warm.  Most of the time during the day I lay around in a sport bra and sweat.  There isn't much else to do now that I don't need to shop everyday.  Sometimes Sarah and I get invited for meals at our friends houses, I won't turn down free food, it gives us something to do during the day and means we still get to eat Moroccan food, which now that I don't have to eat it every day I'm starting to like again.  Lately everyday it thunders all day, and sometimes it gets really windy, rains for about a minute if that, and then gets sunny again.  There are no real storms just a lot of thunder.

Me modeling my traditional Berber clothing

Homemade eggplant and squash burgers 

     In celebration of the 4th of July Sarah and I made hamburgers and pasta salad, and had watermelon.  We had some of our friends over and gave them their first hamburgers.  They loved them. We told them all about the 4th of July and how we celebrate it in America.  It was a lot of fun and everyone had a good time.  Our friend even made us little American flags and another friend brought us a 4th of July cake.
     This weekend there has been a festival here.  There is a huge stage in the park, and park looks beautiful, and everyone from town and a lot of tourists are here to enjoy.  It's been fun, and we have been able to hang out with a lot of our friends there.  The music is all traditions Berber music.  It's definitely a cultural experience.  Sarah and I even dressed in traditional Berber clothing.  In black almulhof's and red Tafraout shoes.

Traditional shoes

Sleeping on the roof!