shwiya b shwiya

So i just had my first purchase using limited Darija, or Moroccan Arabic. It went something like this.

Erin: Salaam waaliykum
Dude at shop: Waaliykum salaam
Erin: bgeet magana (pointing to watch, because i want to buy a cheap one)
Dude at shop: (shows me cheapy watches)
Erin: B ShHal?
Dude at shop: Aashreen Dirham...............djkshdfjkhseoiuhuoihgjkseuihf (off into crazy Darija)
Erin: (uh oh, dont understand...) pardon, je ne comprends pas (alas, i have switched to french once again as my language crutch)

So basically the greetings are getting there, and even though i switched to french in the end, i am pretty proud of my purchase..a watch that works for 3 USD!

So I am here! Day 6 in Morocco, day 2 in Ouarzazate, and things are fabulous!! We spent 4 days in Rabat, under house arrest, waiting to be briefed by the RSO and the US Ambassador on security etc in Morocco. Eventually we got to walk around Rabat, but we only had about 2 free hours in 4 days.

Friday we took a 9 hour bus ride through the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, our seminar training site. We are staying in a hotel, but by hotel i mean hostel-esque for those of you who have stayed in them. Very few of the toilets work consistently, and we had our first turkish toilet experiences. One of the language trainers actually took my roommate and me to show us exactly how it is done...not too bad!!! We will be training in Ouarzazate for a few days before heading to the Community Based Training sites. At that point we will be learning our specific Berber dialects, Tashelheet or Tamazight. For now we are learning "emergency darija" to get around. Technical training also begins this week.

My fellow trainees are a lot of fun and we all have a high level of dedication to the Peace Corps, so it is both motivational and inspirational to be this new world together. Prayer calls are 5 times a day, starting nice and early at 5am, proclaimed over loudspeakers throughout the city. This morning two other trainees and i got up at 630 to run; we ran away from Ouarzazate and into the country. It was beautiful, especially passing by the children walking into town for school, greeting us in French, the women in their elegant djellabas and hijabs, and the men on their little mopeds making me think that walking might be faster.

Tomorrow when we run I figure inshallah (God willing) I will greet the children in Darija, and maybe get through a transaction without any French. shwiya b shwiya is what they are telling us. Little by little.