I almost forgot to put up this picture from Christmas. Look how happy Christian is to be near his Great-Grandfather!

Rain

02-05-09

It is wet and cold and muddy and I miss that sun from last week! It has officially been rainy and cold for a week now. And now the water doesn’t just leak in a few places slowly, it leaks at a constant rate all over my house! Every morning I wake up and hope that today will be the day that the rain stops.

It all started this past weekend on my way to Taroudant, a region 4 hours north of me, where I went to attend a Superbowl party. I arrived a little wet, but it was a great time! We made buffalo chicken wings, homemade tortilla chips, and chili cheese dip. And even better, we actually got to watch the game. The commentary was in German, so there was a lot of ‘das linedrive Pittsburgh Steelers ein draie’ or whatever, but at least we got to see it! And because of loyalty to my dear Poppop, I was very excited in those last couple of minutes when the Steelers won!

Since getting back to my site, I have been very busy with work. This upcoming Sunday was supposed to be an AIDS Skit Competition, in Tiznit, that a Youth Development Volunteer and I were organizing. I met with the director of my middle school on Tuesday and Wednesday to finalize which students were attending and who would be chaperoning them. Everything seemed to be falling into place until this morning when I got word that the students coming from Tafraoute are flooded in and there is no clear road for them to take to Tiznit. Darn that rain! Soooo the other volunteer and I talked, and it looks like we will inshallah have the competition next Saturday. This means the kids will get taken out of school to participate, so I am pretty sure they are not too heartbroken about the delay. ☺

I also taught at the middle school this week, and it was business as usual. The second year students could almost be called angels, the third year students behaved with a couple of warnings, and DO NOT get me started on the first years students. Crazy I tell you. More and more teachers are telling me just to hit the kids, and I know, ‘when in Rome,’ but I just can’t! As I sat there hopelessly giving up on them, I thought, I work for free……I don’t have to teach these monsters if I don’t want to! And that helped me to get through.

And then there is the women’s center and I am about ready, hamdullah, to submit the grant proposal to Peace Corps. It is very exciting to be at this point, and the girls are thrilled! The local community partners are also looking forward to beginning the project.

And that is about it. Like I said, the rain and cold stinks, and my once black gym shoes are now completely coated with mud, since getting to town center includes about a mile of unpaved road. Its amazing how far your foot will sink into the mud when it rains this much. ☺

02-06-09

Now it is Friday morning, and I woke up nice and early (6:30am) to get a ride with my host dad to the town center. It turns out it started raining really hard at around 3am, and everything is flooded! I went to my host family’s for breakfast, and my host dad said that with this much rain, the roads to Tiznit will be completely flooded and impassable. I figured he was exaggerating, that is until our ride to souk. On the 3 mile trip, I saw that places which were completely dry a week ago have now turned into rushing rivers. Like wide, fast rivers. Fortunately, they’ve had winters like this before (not for the past 10 years), so people built bridges where the rain flooded years ago. I even remember thinking over the summer that it was so silly to have these bridges since it is always dry. Ha. Looks like the joke’s on me. So, now a couple of hours later, I really wonder why I even got out of bed this morning. I may try to get to Meredith’s site for some internet connection, but that’s a big inshallah.

Fire, Rain, Sun, Plants, Bangs, and More!

Chandler all curled up in the quilt Nana made for me. Isn't it gorgeous!



My attempt to cut my own bangs



My potted petunias!



Rain Rain Rain

1-24-09

Well, in an exciting moment (exciting as not in a good way….bad exciting), I started an electrical fire in my house last week! Apparently, you are not supposed to plug a heater with a thick cord into a wimpy extension cord. It causes a bit of an explosion, no flames (thank God my electricity shut itself off), but a LOT of smoke. Like a LOT. And it smelled like plastic because I have a plastic extension cord. Chandler and I ran out of the house after I unplugged everything…and hunching down in the only corner of my courtyard with cellphone reception, we proceeded to call Dad. One of those, umm dad, I’m fine, but……moments. I am sure my parents are used to those moments by now, but still. ☺

This little fire coincided with a very cold and rainy time. In fact, it was so rainy for so many days in a row, that my roof leaked consistently for 4 days. There was a lot of “drip drip drip drip” as I tried to fall asleep at night. Fortunately, only one of the leaky spots was over my bed, so I could still sleep.

THEN, this past Thursday, I woke up, and didn’t hear rain….and didn’t hear wind, and I stepped outside to see the sun shining! As of my writing this (Saturday), I haven’t seen a cloud in 3 days. Chandler and I are thoroughly enjoying having breakfast in the sun while watching Ellen episodes. Today my host sister and I are going to another douar (little neighborhood), about a mile away, to talk to one of the girls about potentially teaching at the women’s center. I am looking forward to this walk in the sun.

My petunia plants are also enjoying the sun. While in Agadir last weekend, I purchased petunia seeds, 2 flower pots, and potting soil. I am so excited to hopefully have plants this summer! I think the last time I grew something from a seed was perhaps in 1st grade…but I have a feeling this will go well. A little concerned about them surviving the extreme summer heat…..I may have to consult our resident plant expert, Amy, for some tips.

Last but not least, today is January 24, which means one month has passed since my hair cut in America. At that appointment, my fabulous stylist taught me how to cut my own bangs, and suggested I do it every month. So, this morning, after a lovely bucket bath, I cut my own bangs. I think it turned out well…..see for yourself with the attached picture. My only concerns were the lack of mirror (I have a 2”x2” mirror), and Chandler, who had fun pouncing on me while I attempted to cut. Now, this is the first time I have ever brought scissors to my own head of hair, so I was very freaked out! It is now something I am very proud of being able to do.

My personal deadline for turning in my women’s center grant proposal is in about a week, so I am stepping up hassling the right people for follow up.

1-29-09

So here I am, taking a deep breath after an interesting women’s center meeting with the girls. I am hoping to incorporate the women and girls from both my douar (Talbrjt) and the neighboring douar (Agn Yaseen), but I have never had the Agn Yaseen girls come to one of the meetings. On Sunday I visited Agn Yaseen to talk to the girl who will be teaching handicrafts at the neddi (She used to live in Casablanca and learned a lot at a women’s center there). I thought it would be a good idea for the girls in my douar to meet her, so I invited her to today’s meeting and said she could bring some of the other girls if they wanted. Consequently, there were 20 girls in attendance at the meeting today. Now, I know Dad posted a map of my house, and you can probably tell that it is not very big. 20 girls is a lot to fit in my one little room. Plus, I was expecting about 14, so I made a pancake breakfast…..but only enough for 14. It was pretty entertaining, and I ended up cutting the pancakes into quarters. The girls did enjoy maple syrup, which they have never tried before.

Other than the crowdedness, it was a good meeting, and we visited the land where the women’s center will be built, inshallah. Currently we are just waiting for the technician to come up with an estimate on the cost of the center. I had a meeting with the president of the local association, my host dad (the secretary of the assoc.), the technician, my host dad’s brother (I think he just wanted to be there) and the Caid. So after we finished discussing the women’s center, they just started chatting. So there I was, among 5 men, and it turned into guys hanging out time. It was quite the sight, me sitting there while they sat around and discussed whatever men discuss when they get together. I think they think of me as genderless, so maybe it wasn’t weird for them, but I just didn’t know what to do! Do I get up and excuse myself, even though the reason they were all there was because of me? Or do I pretend to be one of them. After a couple of awkward minutes, I used my host brother as an out and went to tutor him in French. Problem solved. ☺

In other news, it has been warm and sunny for 5 out of the last 7 days! Like we are talking light shirt and maybe a sweater weather. My guess is that it is in the 60’s temperature-wise.


ps I apologize for the lack of photos. I will get them up....blogger is fighting with me :)

Happy Inauguration Day

I hear the weather in Chicago has been, lets say, a bit cold (?) recently? I have complained that living through a winter without any form of heating is difficult but after hearing about the subzero temperatures in Chi-town, I retract any complaints. Yes, my site can get very cold, windy, and rainy, but for the equivalent of $4, I can get to Agadir, where I spent this past weekend. It was about 80 degrees the whole weekend…..I even got sunburned. Not that I am gloating or anything. Just saying. ☺

I was in Agadir for my friend Michelle’s birthday, and we had a great time lying by the beach and catching up with PCV friends who live in other regions.

I had to go late to this get-togethr, due to idurnan, the holiday we celebrated in my site on Friday. Apparently this was neither a national holiday or a regional holiday. It was an Erin’s site holiday. So I spent the day with my host family, cooking, making bghrid and shfinj, a pancake like thing with a million holes, and fried donuts, respectively. Talk about goooood food. We also did henna, so I have a new design on my hands.

Currently I am in Tiznit for inauguration day. We are planning a themed party, with Kenyan food, Chicago-style pizza, and Hawaiian pizza. I also have to make a stop by the Ministry of Education. Last week a couple of the women in my village as well as the local teacher came to me asking if I can use my relative influence to get a teacher sent to my village. Since the beginning of the school year, there has only been one teacher at the school-a French teacher. Therefore, the students are not learning any Arabic and are falling way behind. The idea is that being a foreigner, I will be able to go into the Ministry and talk directly with the delegue. We shall see how this goes.

I wish I could take credit for the pictures of my house, but unfortunately I am not that technologically capable. So kudos to Dad for it! Very cool!

My House

This is the layout of my house. You can click on a thumbnail to see a full size image of that room

My Neighborhood

Here is a 360 degree panorama of my site taken from the roof of my house. Move your mouse below the arrow at the top to pan around.

Click here to view a larger version of "My Neighborhood"

Sun and chocolate chip cookies

After a very very cold weekend (now, Chicago folk no complaining that yours was worse-I have no heating!), I am thrilled to be in Tafraoute where the sun is shining and de-thawing my frozen bones.

I spent an enjoyable weekend with some of my close Peace Corps Volunteer friends, catching up after our varied holiday activities.  Although the cold made doing anything a chore, we still enjoyed using a lot of the supplies I brought from home to cook some delicious meals.  Taco Bell packets, Grillmates, M&Ms!

Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies...real Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies!  A couple of my local girls stopped by and were fascinated by the interesting ingredients.  Vanilla extract, brown sugar, chocolate chips- all new to them.  Thanks to my dear mother, it looks like I have enough supplies to make many batches of cookies in the near future.  A little taste of home.

In the evening I took a very pleasant bucket bath (think literally buckets, water heated on the stove, over a drain) using the new shampoo, conditioner, facewash, and B&BW body wash I brought from America.  Thanks to Stephanie I smell like Midnight Pomegranate today.  :)

Tomorrow I have a meeting with the girls who are participating in the development of the women's center.  Let's hope they completed the various tasks I "assigned" them to do while I was in America.  It is amazing how dedicated they are to getting this accomplished, so I am sure they went above and beyond my suggestions.  And of course, chocolate chip cookies are in order as a snack for the meeting.

Later this week there is some sort of festival- I am not quite clear on what we are celebrating, but according to my friends in the village, Friday will not be a day to miss.  Food, singing, dancing, what more could I ask for?

Oh, and in a glorious moment today I discovered the road from Ait Oafka to my site is complete, and instead of taking 2 1/2 hours to get to Tafraoute by bus, it only took 1!  Yay!