Field Trip!

One month ago, I arrived in Morocco……and its amazing that so much has happened in one month!  On one hand, I still feel so new to everything, but on the other hand, I feel like I have known the other trainees for a long time.

Last Wednesday we went on a “field trip.”  Various Health Volunteers throughout the country agreed to host 2-3 trainees for three days.  Some ended up in Tata and Zagora in the South, where the temperature got up to 100 degrees (and it isn’t even summer yet).  I went to the Errachidia region, which is the coldest in the country.  Two days prior to my arrival, it snowed.  Kathleen and I stayed with Anna, a First-Year Health Volunteer.  Because her site is so remote, we had to spend the night in Rich before heading to her site the next day.  We had a fun evening in Rich, shopping for food to cook over our three-day field trip.  It was my first experience walking down the meat aisle of a market, and nearly running into a lamb head hanging by a string.  

The next morning we hopped on a transit to Anna’s village.  3 ½ hours of windy roads later (at least they were paved) we arrived at one of the most remote PC sites in the country.  No running water, and electricity arrived less than one year ago.  We stayed in Anna’s lovely mud house, which her host family made for her since there was not any other housing available in the village.  It was great to see what “real” volunteers do. 

We visited Anna’s sbitar, and met her counterpart, a male nurse.  He is really nice, but since he is a single male, a lot of the village women do not feel comfortable going to him for health issues.  Therefore, they try to take care of things in their homes, alone, including giving birth.  Also, approximately 70% of homes in her village do not have bathrooms…..at all, inside or out.

We had a great time shadowing Anna, from walking from Douar (cluster of homes) to Douar, which can be a few miles apart, talking to Traditional Birth Attendants about the upcoming training Anna organized, to helping out with a dental health lesson at the girls’ association Anna started, to participating in an English lesson for the local schoolteachers.  We also went on quite a hike, in the mountains, where there are tons of fish and shell fossils…..supposedly the High Atlas Mountains used to be connected to Nova Scotia.

Anna made us some delicious food, including peanut butter brownies and fresh fruit smoothies, so it is nice to know we will be able to cook “American” food for ourselves once we move out on our own. 

On Saturday morning, we took a different transit to get back to Ouarzazate.  It was 4 ½ hours, and when I say transit, I should probably describe it a little better.  This “transit” was basically a gutted out large van.  There were no seats besides the driver’s.  Where the front set of seats usually would be there was a wood sort of platform, with room underneath for livestock.  We were stuck in the back half, on the metal floor, leaning against the rusted sides of the van, which had a rather large piece of metal jutting out horizontally around the perimeter of the van.  There were quite a few people sitting on the platform when we boarded, so we piled in the back.  Unfortunately the chosen road was not paved….at all.  We we went along on our bumpy path.  After a few minutes we stopped and picked up a nice little old Berber lady; however, it was not so nice when she started throwing up.  There she was, with her little clear plastic bag, puking as we groaned and tried to suppress the desire to gag. 

As we went along, the transit stopped, the side door opened, and two little boys started puking off the side of the transit.  Lovely.  And I didn’t think I handled carsickness well.  I offered them some of the cookies I had brought along to keep me from getting sick.

3 hours later, we were almost to our destination, when a little school girl boarded.  She was sitting directly in front of me, very very close.  As we went on, she looked like she was about to get sick…….I would have none of it, so I shoved a cookie in her face, hoping it would calm her stomach.  It worked, and fortunately she got off after a few minutes. 

We eventually arrived, and I still have a bruise on my back from that metal on the side of the transit.  Good times.

Everything else is going well…..lots of language training, and some technical training seminars.  We leave Saturday for our CBT sites again.  I can’t wait!