turning over a new leaf

So I just arrived back in Morocco after a glorious 2 week vacation in Chicago.  After i stepped off the plane and got hugs from my dear family, and before any catching up began, my lovely sister told me she had a problem.  Apparently she is offended (and not the only one) that I do not update my blog more often.  So here we go.  I am ready to turn over a new leaf.  

I have spent 3 nights in country so far.  One in Agadir at my favorite hotel (with my 150lbs of luggage.  Two hours at Target can do that to you).  Fortunately a nice lady in the Paris airport waived the 300Euro ($500!!!!) fee I should have paid for all of the extra weight.

My second night was my reunion with Chandler, who was more than thrilled to see me.  Usually he sleeps on my neck, on my side.  That night he literally slept on my head.  :)  It was a tough night, jet lag and missing home.  Finally at 3:30am I decided to get up, make macaroni and cheese, eat Oreos, and watch Friends.  

I decided the next day not to be lonely anymore so I went to visit my friend Meredith.  This weekend will be spent with my close volunteer friends in the region in order to help with the transition back.

ps My host family was thrilled by the gifts from America.  Who knew a little nail polish and some perfume could bring so much joy to their lives!

Happy December, Happy Thanksgiving, and Mbruk L’Eid Kbir!

It is quite the festive time for me here in Morocco, for I’ve found I get to celebrate both Moroccan and American holidays.  How fun!

 

Regarding Thanksgiving-

How can I even begin to express how thankful I am for so many blessings in my life.  I am thankful that I woke up Thanksgiving morning to see snow falling in my village.  It didn’t stick, but it was nice to see.  I am thankful for Rachid, my Program Assistant, who was passing through the area for site development, and stopped by, picking up not only me, but my next door neighbor and her baby, and taking them to the clinic for a vaccination before we headed off.  I am thankful for the students at the middle school where I taught on Thanksgiving, but even MORE thankful for the principal who came in to make sure the students were behaving themselves. 

I am thankful that after my electricity went out Thanksgiving evening, it came on again.  J  And I am so very thankful for my family who called on Thanksgiving, and recorded me a message on Facebook (although they all seemed to be a bit unsure of the video?).  I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family who takes care of me and thinks of me, even when I am a million miles away.  I am thankful for those letters and packages that always brighten up my day, even if it is just a short note saying hello.

I am thankful to live so close to such wonderful Peace Corps Volunteers.  On Friday I headed to Tiznit for a meeting with all of the volunteers in the area, and our new Country Director, David Lillie.  David arrived in September, and has made numerous positive impressions on us already.

 

We had a very productive and enjoyable meeting on Friday in Tiznit, and then a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday.  At 7am Saturday morning, Meredith, Hanneke, and I woke up to start cooking our portion of the meal.  At 2pm we brought green bean casserole, sweet potato somosas, fresh oat rolls, persimmon pudding, roasted chestnuts, and baked camembert, to Amelia’s.  Thanks to one of the American PC staff members, we had pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.  Thanks to a friendly butcher, we had a nice big turkey, and thanks to Amelia’s neighbor, we had an oven to cook it in.  We had 12 volunteers, 3 Moroccans, 1 American ex-pat, and 1 Canadian ex-pat present for an unforgettable celebration.  We ended the evening with an enjoyable musical session, listening and singing along to the various guitar players and singers in the group.

 

I am also thankful for the many people here in my community and in my region that are in the process of working with me to build a women’s center for the girls and women in my village.  It all started when I did a “needs assessment” with the women and girls in June.  They unanimously said they wanted a neddi (women’s center) in the community.  Recently, with the support of Peace Corps staff, I have been able to get the ball rolling.

 

For the past month, I have been meeting weekly with the girls from my community.  There are 14 girls (not in school, unmarried) participating.  Their ages range from 14-26, and education levels range from 0 years of schooling to 6 years of schooling.  And I love them!  They are ready to put forth a lot of work and effort to make this neddi happen.

 

Fortunately, we have gotten a commitment from the local association to donate the land for the neddi, and an architect and technician to design.  Recently I got a commitment from the Ministry of Social Development to donate various sewing machines, tables, chairs, and blackboards once the neddi construction has begun.  In addition, I am working with the Ministry of Health to include a Health Room in the neddi, where women could take their children to see the doctor a few times a month.  A lot is still in the air on this, but I am very excited to be working on a project about which the women care so deeply.

 

….a week later…..

 

So here I am, Monday evening, listening to Christmas music, heating up water for a bath, waiting for the dough of the cinnamon rolls I am making to finish rising, and getting ready to head over to my host family’s house for some Eid lKbir bread-making.  Eid lKbir is tomorrow!  This is the most important holiday in Islam.  Each Muslim family slaughters a sheep, like Abrahim did instead of sacrificing his son, Isaac.  Families get together and celebrate by eating the sheep (organs first!) over a period of 3 or more days.  Overall, the festivities remind me a lot of Christmas preparation.  In souk (town center), the past 2 days have been busier than I’ve EVER seen!  Family in from Casablanca, Rabat, France, all making their final holiday purchases.  The only difference (well, one of the differences) is that there is no gift giving.  The holiday (like most Muslim holidays) has a complete lack of materialism (except for dressing up), and focuses on family and the religious implications of the holiday.   

 

I am guessing tonight’s bread-making will be reminiscent of  the Eid after Ramadan.  Hopefully this time we won’t be up until 3am!  Today I gave in to something I have been avoiding a long time as well, in preparation for Eid.  I bought a pom-pom skirt and pom-pom shoes!  This is the traditional dress of the women from my village, and I usually borrow a skirt for special occasions, but I decided it is about time I buy one myself.  The skirt honestly makes me laugh out loud.  To the women here, it is absolutely normal to wear a black skirt decorated with colorful pom-poms.  The shoes are quite comfortable, and decorated with those same pom-poms.  I have been resisting because they are quite expensive.  However, thinking about it in USD, the shoes and skirt together come out to about $35, so I can’t complain too much. 

 

Today’s shopping trip came after a lovely weekend with 3 of my fellow Volunteer friends.  We spent the weekend together, baking Christmas cookies, listening to Christmas music, and watching Christmas movies!  We even found a garland-like thing to hang in my house.  And glitter to decorate homemade ornaments.  It was a great time, getting us all into the holiday spirit. 

 

The past week went well, with successful health lessons in the middle school.  December 1 is World AIDS Day, so I taught about AIDS in each of the middle school classes, and each student got an AIDS ribbon.  The days I wasn’t teaching I spent meeting with various people concerning the neddi (women’s center) project.  It turns out the Ministry of Social Development will be very helpful in supplying equipment.  I spent a good few hours at the Ministry one day, enjoying the company of like-minded Moroccan professionals.

 

The rest of this week will be spent enjoying the holiday festivities, and then taking my poor kitten to get fixed.  Poor little Chandler.  He has no idea what is coming!

 

….3 days later…..

 

Well, Eid is over, and all I can say is that I have, in the past 3 days, eaten organ kebabs, stomach tagine, and sheep head couscous.  And I am still alive.  J       

Fall in Morocco

11/14/08

 

This afternoon, as I was hiking around with two of the girls from my douar, laughing and joking around, talking about the potential community center/neddi we want to build in the douar, I had a moment, the type of moment that are increasingly few and far between, where I could take myself out of the reality of the present and assume a birds-eye view.  I started laughing, and could barely stop.  It just AMAZES me that this little rural Moroccan village, with its covered women, traditional food, donkeys, sheep, dirt roads, and mud houses, THIS village is my temporary home!  I no longer think twice about sitting on the floor to eat, eating with my hands, shooting out the rapid-fire greetings that are used every time I see someone, walking around like a sore thumb among girls wearing matching black skirts and white veils.  It just seems so normal now, when I remember how ludicrous this situation is, I burst into a fit of giggles. 

 

It is also refreshing to have those moments, because along with being integrated into a completely different lifestyle comes the necessity to deal with that lifestyle’s problems.  Their problems are my problems.  Like the 26 year old girl who hasn’t found a husband and is close to the “too old to marry” age, like the neighbor’s cow that is about to give birth, like the fact that the tomatoes available in souk are getting more and more pathetic looking, like the wedding that will take place in a neighboring douar next week.  Who will attend?  What will everyone wear?  Is the bride really 20 years younger than the groom? 

 

And then there’s the newest biiiiig problem.  My disclaimer is that this is probably a bigger problem for me than any other person in my douar.  Last week (while I was at in-service training), it rained for 5 days, and someone forgot to close the lid to the community well.  Consequently, a muddy river formed and flowed right into our drinking water.  So now there is murky brown water coming out of my tap.  Now, some people can just take their donkeys half a mile down the way to the nearest clean well, but unfortunately I do not have a donkey.  I asked a couple of women what to do, and they suggested buying my water (and dragging it 3 miles up the mountain to my house?!?)  So……I’m on this no bathing, no laundry, cooking little kick.  I am hoping someone will take pity on my and share some of that donkey water.  Some people estimate it will take a week for the “water people” to fix this.  Others estimate a month or more.  Hm.

 

Who could forget that yes I have not updated my blog in about 30 million years, and I apologize.  Some of it is the feeling too normal here, nothing seems worth writing about.  Also, I have spent a lot of time working on the beginnings of some of the projects I plan on organizing. 

 

As a short recap, in October, I stayed in my site for the majority of the month, leaving one weekend for an HIV/AIDS training of trainers in Essaouira (look it up, on the coast, GORGEOUS town that I fell in love with).  In my time in my site, I successfully obtained official Ministry permission to work in the local schools, so I taught health lessons at each of three schools in October.  All but one went very well (10 lessons total).  The kids were very participatory and seemed to have fun.  The primary school kids learned about dental health, and the middle school kids learned about disease transmission.  The one that didn’t go well?  Well, let me just say I have never been so close to hitting someone!  Middle school kids can be a bit of a handful, and this was a class of 30 boys.  Yikes. 

The first week of November began our sixth month in site, and a week-long in-service training in Azrou (up in the mountains, between Fes and Meknes).  On the way to Azrou a couple of my friends and I stopped in Rabat for the night, where we ate at TGI Fridays (oh, it is so good, a reall American hamburger!  But no bacon allowed) and ended up chatting with a former NFL player, Rusty Russell, who now owns part of TGI Fridays Morocco.  Any FREE REFILLS!!!  Fridays is the only venue in the ENTIRE COUNTRY where there are free refills.  Ahhhhhhh. 

 

Training went very well, and was very informational.  We received a lot of site-specific help, and preparation for our pending projects.  It was also great to see all 54 volunteers from our stage once again.  And MOST importantly, I experienced the happiest moment of my life thus far (no joke) on Weds morning around 4 am (Morocco time), when our room of 54 volunteers, and a few American staff members saw Wolf Blitzer in all his glory, come on with a CNN Projection, stating that Barack Obama was elected the next president of the United States of America.  It still gives me chills to think about that moment.  I could barely participate in the excitement around me, as I tried, unsuccessfully, to fight back large quantities of tears of joy.  From that point on,  all week, anywhere we went, we would hear “American?  Yah?  OBAMA!  YEAH!”  It is the greatest feeling, to be in a foreign country, and to be sought out as an American for a positive reason.  Even my barely literate host sister sent me a text message, just saying “OBAMA.” 

 

After training was over, a bunch of volunteers and I went to Fes, where we spent 2 days enjoying each other’s company and exploring the ancient city of Fes.  Along with trying many foods unique to Fes, I ate a camel burger for the first time since arriving to Morocco.  We also saw the tanneries of Fes, which smell absolutely rancid, but are very interesting to watch.  It is amazing that in this day in age, when so much is done by machines, there are still tanneries hand-working animal skin to make leather, and dying that leather with crushed plants and berries.  Very interesting indeed.

 

After being gone for 12 days, it was wonderful to be back in site.  I think Chandler (my cat) missed me, but he seemed to have a good time with my neighbor/friend, Najma, who came over to feed him and play with him every day.  Now, I am focused on keeping up with the various events/projects/lessons I am working on before Weds when I have to go to Rabat for a vaccination at the Peace Corps Office.

 

The first of December is World AIDS Day, so I had Peace Corps send me a World AIDS Day kit, consisting of information in Arabic, solidarity ribbons, and various other resources.  My plan is to have World AIDS Day themed lessons in my middle school the first week of December.  This is still a maybe, because it is generally unacceptable to discuss HIV/AIDS in co-ed classrooms.  We shall see.

This week I am meeting with the “girls” in my village, defined as not in school and un-married, to talk about the community center/neddi they want.  First, I will hunt down the local association.  Without their buy-in, this won’t be possible.  Any grants obtained through Peace Corps must have the partnership of a local organization, and at least 25% contribution (monetary or in-kind).  Unfortunately, my local girls do not have the power to help sponsor a grant, so a lot of this rests on some local men who don’ particularly care if the girls have a neddi.  We shall see.  J

More long term, my region is looking into sponsoring a HIV/AIDS candlelight vigil in May, and organizing a GGLOW (Guys and Girls Leading Our World) Camp over the summer for the youth of the area.

Even more exciting is that I recently found out my elementary school from home is going to do a fundraiser to potentially send over First Aid Kits for the families in my community.  I hope to organize a field day in the spring, where the students will learn about First Aid and safety, and have First Aid Kits to take home to their families.

 

Needless to say, I am being kept busy, and happy!     

EID!

Eid Mubarak Saaid! Happy Eid.  So it is 10:15am, on Eid lftr day.   I would like to still be sleeping now, due to circumstances I will explain in a bit; however, I just woke up to someone banging on my door, yelling “IMANEEEEE NKRRRR!!!” (Erin, wake up!).  It was Hajja, my host dad’s brother’s wife, who came to our douar early this morning to celebrate Leid.  What I learned from this is that different holiday rules in apply in the US versus here.  At least in our family, waking people up Christmas morning was perfectly acceptable until Stephanie and I reached a certain age.  Now it is quite forbidden; one must wait until the whole family has naturally woken up.  Well here it isn’t quite like that.  Yesterday when I was leaving (at 3am), I said I will sleep in tomorrow, and my host mom said I couldn’t because it is Leid.  Hmm.  Interesting. 

 

It really is fun celebrating a holiday in another country, a holiday I have never celebrated before.  This is the end of Ramadan holiday, and it depends on the presence of the new moon, so the date is not set ahead of time.  Yesterday afternoon I went over to my host family’s and we broke fast and watched the news to see if today would be the end of Ramadan.  We found out at about 9pm, and I figured that meant, oh, fun, and let’s go to bed soon.  Oh no, not for the women at least.  It meant, pull out the 30kilos of flour, giant box of yeast, and make some Eid bread!  Yikes!  So my host sister Fadma and I spent a couple hours kneading this giant mass of soon-to-be bread.  We literally had to stand up and keep punching it it was so big.  Then, at about 11pm, we went with Ijjoi (host mom) to the neighbor’s house, where they have an oven made for this very occasion.  It is a giant mud oven, and the loaves of bread cook in just 3 or 4 minutes on hot coals covered with clay pieces.  The oven holds about 10 loaves at once, and that giant mass of bread of ours made about 30 loaves of bread.  The problem is, the whole surrounding area of houses had to use this one oven, so there was a very long line of bread mass when we arrived.  Needless to say, everyone helps everyone when her bread, and all of us had finished at about 3am. 

 

Meanwhile, we kept running the finished loaves back to the house, and at one point we heard a car.  Fadma’s brother, Brahim, was driving in from Rabat (13 hours) for Laid, so we went to go say hello to him.  Earlier in the day, her other brother, Saaid arrived from Casablanca.  So we went into the house, and what did we see?  Well, Brahim, but also Arquia, Khadija, and Arquia’s two children, Sana and Omar.  They all live up north and although they told their mom they couldn’t make it down for Laid, they surprised her!!!  How sweet!!  It is funny, it isn’t even my family, and I was so excited for the surprise.  

Rain, VSN, Work

 9/18/08

So today is a good day.  We had our first big rain since I arrived in site; it has been raining all day long!  (Apparently it hasn't rained like this in 3 years!) The best part is….I only have 2 leaks in my whole house!  I had pictured buckets everywhere, catching the rain coming into my house….but so far so good.  There is a leak under my front door, and then one in the hall ceiling.  But we are talking slow drips…nothing a little bucket can’t take care of!  So that’s good. 

 

This morning was actually my first time back at my site in an entire week!  This past week I had VSN (Volunteer Support Network) training about 12 hours away, near Taznakht.  VSN is a volunteer-based peer support group for Morocco PCVs.  We had a great time, 6 of us being trained in basic counseling skills.  We had 3 great trainers, and had a lot of fun altogether.  The training was at a Small Business Development Volunteer’s house, a sprawling traditional house that made a great training site.  Her women’s association weaves carpets…..absolutely gorgeous!  I plan on saving for one to buy before I finish my service here.  It is sad though, because the women do not get a lot of foot traffic through their association, so like in many places in Morocco, they give these incredible carpets to store owners who sell them in Marrakech for absurd amounts of money.  In exchange, the women receive goods like flour or sugar….but NOTHING compared to the price the store owners get in ‘Kech. 

 

Pardon my digression…..so yes, we had a great week, with some great food.  Turns out our hosting volunteer is an amazing cook so we had Penne a la Vodka, Lasagna, Coconut curry, and stir fry as dinners.  DELICIOUS.  Of course I, along with 3 other volunteers, had to miss out on some delicious lunches (Ramadan is half way over!), but the dinners were phenomenal. 

 

So on my way back to site yesterday I stopped in Tiznit to meet with some Ministry people, and had a very successful day.  After meeting with the Ministry of Health rep, and the Ministry of Education Health Education rep, I am officially approved to begin teaching in the schools here.  I will be working in 5 schools, 4 primary schools of about 25-30 kids each, and a junior high with 150 kids (only 22 girls L ).  It took some badgering, but I got the Ministry of Education rep to send out my authorization this week so I can meet the kids in the next 2 weeks and begin teaching in October.  I will be doing lessons ranging from dental hygiene, to nutrition, to first aid, to reproductive health. 

 

In addition, a Youth Development Volunteer in my region and I have been discussing the plans for an HIV/AIDS awareness event with the youth of the region.  There will be an AIDS skit competition, which will be videotaped and compiled to make a video for PCVs to use throughout the country.  The YD Volunteer has secured the venue and met with the local AIDS organization in Tiznit, and I got a commitment from the Ministry of Health to participate in the event.  We are shooting for 2 days in November…..we’ll see…inshallah all will work out.      

 

 

Me and little Chandler watching Friends during Ramadan :) Guess who his favorite character is?

Chandler!

Blog 9/4/08

 

Well here I am, sitting in my house typing up a long overdue blog entry, listening to my stomach growling, with little Chandler Tamast Bing lying in my lap.  My hunger is due to today being Day 3 of Ramadan.  Although as a foreigner and Christian, I am not required by any means to fast for Ramadan, many of my fellow PCVs and I decided to fast with the people of our communities.  I am fasting in solidarity with my Moroccan counterparts; however, I also support the concept of forcing oneself to take a small glimpse into the lives of those who do not have food and water easily accessible to them.  It has been interesting so far! 

 

This past weekend I accompanied the midwife from my health clinic to visit her family in Taroudant (5-6 hours away).  We spent a couple of days with her family, where I obtained a new family member, a 12 week old kitten.  Ever since Chandler was born, I have been waiting for him to be old enough to bring home with me.  Regarding his name, he acts a lot like Chandler Bing, from Friends, but he was born in a douar named Tamast, hence Chandler Tamast Bing.  Seriously, I cannot even describe how cute this kitten is!  He is very cuddly, and our favorite game is what I like to call “lovefest,” where he curls up on me purring while I pet him for infinite periods of time.  Makes both of us happy!  I am proud of how he has held up over the traumatizing experiences the past few days.  First, I separated the poor guy from his mom, brought him in this big scary plastic cat carrier, squished him in multiple taxis in the scorching heat to my site.  We spent the first night at my site at my midwife’s house, so little Chandler was getting settled when I uprooted him again yesterday to take him to my house.  And then I tortured him a bit more by giving him a bath and picking off lots of icky fleas.  Needless to say, I think he has forgiven me, although he gets nervous at loud sounds.  And he picked up the litter box thing in less than a day!  My smart little kitty!

 

I feel like a parent bragging about her child!  J So back to Ramadan.  Day 1 was the travel day from Taroudant to my site, and wow, that was tough!  Fasting means nothing can pass your lips from the morning prayer (4:30am) until the 2^nd to last prayer (7pm).  This includes food, water, even brushing your teeth.  So my first waterless day was horrible, but it has gotten progressively easier.  You break fast as soon as you hear the evening prayer call.  Traditionally here, people break fast with dates and a glass of water.  Then they eat harira (a light soup), figs, bread, and shebekia (a DELICIOUS pastry made especially during Ramadan).  After 15 hours, all I wanted to do is drink 20 liters of water, but I was warned that I could get very sick very easily that way. 

 

A little later in the evening, people make dinner (10pm-ish), usually a filling tajine.  Then its off to bed!  4am is wakeup time, to eat before another day of fasting begins.  I think most people eat tajine or couscous in the morning, but so far I’ve avoided too much heavy food.  Its hard to force meat and vegetables at 4am!  And then its back to bed and fasting begins.  And people are so generous and welcoming during Ramadan.  I mean, Morocco is generally a very hospitable country, but during Ramadan, families and friends come together to break fast together.  I broke fast the first day with my midwife, I will today at my host family’s house, and tomorrow at some extended family’s in souk.  It truly is a great experience.  

 

It is just so interesting, because the whole country changes for Ramadan.  Work hours change to 9-3, since there is no lunch break, cafes are closed, and people are just a little calmer and move a little slower.  And stores stock up on dates, figs, and shebekia.  It makes me think of my muslim friends back home who fast.  It is hard enough to fast when everyone around you is doing the same thing, but if the person next to you is chowing down on Taco Bell while you are fasting?  Can’t even imagine!

 

In other news, I am sure word has gotten around, my wristlet was stolen a few weeks ago in Agadir.  Of course, it happened to not only have all of my money and my credit cards, but my passport too.  Now, I welcome any lectures regarding the wisdom of my friend and I walking to our hotel at 5am instead of taking a taxi.  Fortunately, she was able to lend me some money, and my parents were able to wire me some more, so the following week I headed up to Casablanca (its far!!) to apply for a new passport.  Ironically, a friend who accompanied me to Casa and I had to spend an extra night since the US Consulate took longer than we expected, and we ended up in a hotel with TVs in room.  Which meant I got to see the first night of the Democratic National Convention.  We stayed up until 4:00am in order to watch Michelle Obama give her fabulous speech.  There was so little drama surrounding the DNC, and it seems I can’t say the same about the RNC……..

 

Well I am off to do some lesson planning, since I will be starting health lessons in the local primary schools and junior high in October.  And hey, only 6 ½ hours until I can break fast!