English Mass

You know how you never really appreciate something until it is gone? I had such a moment today in Rabat. I knew there was a church in Rabat, and I decided to attend mass this weekend. Yesterday, I went to the church to check out mass times, and I was interested in the asterisk next to Saturday mass times. It said, “Messe en anglais un samedi sur deux.” Mass in English? What? When? So I called the church and sure enough there is mass in English every other Saturday! Today I arrived at the church a little early, and a nice gentleman escorted me to the sacristy, where the priest was speaking with a parishioner. In English. In American English. Now, to fully understand the profundity of this, you need to know that Morocco is full of foreigners. But French foreigners. Or even British foreigners. But Americans? Not so much. Turns out the priest is from Philadelphia, and has worked in Morocco for 17 years now.

Mass was incredible. There were about 15 people in the congregation, and about half were American. One woman is married to a US diplomat, and comes to church each week with her son and daughter. One family is passing on business. 2 other American men work for the govt. in some capacity. The other members of the congregation were African, from Christian English speaking countries. What a great group, and what a lovely mass.

It is hard to describe how meaningful it is not only to attend mass in a country where Christianity is illegal for nationals, but to attend it in English. I could barely hold myself together. I just wish Rabat was closer than 13-15 hours from my site!

On top of having the opportunity to go to church, today was a celebratory day of taking the GRE. This morning I took the GRE with about 10 Peace Corps Volunteers, 1 Peace Corps admin lady, and 15-20 Moroccans. Now the GRE sucks for Americans, but can you even IMAGINE trying to take the GRE when English is not your first language?? YIKES. Every time that I got stressed out during the exam, I thought of how lucky I am to naturally understand at least a portion of what’s on the exam, just from speaking English my whole life. But to be a Moroccan student and have to decipher the GRE? WOW is all I can say.

We celebrated this afternoon by going to TGI Fridays for lunch, where we can enjoy free refills and an American atmosphere.

And now, I have to make the long trek back to site. But it was a good stay in Rabat. Like always.

Valentine's Day

Although this year's Valentine's Day was slightly different than last year's (no flowers, nice dinner, chocolates, and of course, boyfriend), I STILL had a very enjoyable day.

It started on Friday night when I made heart shaped cookies with frosting and pink sprinkles.



then, on Saturday I met up with the local girls to spend the day hiking, hanging out, and having a picnic on top of one of the mountains near our village. We had a lot of fun, and naturally, since it was Valentine's Day, we talked about boys. :)



Unfortunately, I have a train to catch, so I can't write much...time to head up to Rabat for the GRE. How fun. :)

Steph and Adam are coming to visit!

Well, in a surprising and very ecxiting phone call I received from Steph Sunday night, I discovered they were on the search for tickets to Morocco. And on Monday morning I learned that they will visit March 22-28. I CAN'T WAIT. For REAL.


I also thoguht I would post some of my most recent cooking adventures.


A Moroccan food, mismin, that we eat with tea in the afternoon sometimes. My host sister's mismin looks a lot nicer than mine. :)


Homemade tortilla chips. A lot of work, and very fried, but very good! (I made them for the Superbowl

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!