Rabat

So, word to the wise. If you live in Morocco, and your sister is coming to visit, and you want to clean your cat, DO NOT try to blow-dry him too. Last week, I successfully bathed Chandler. Although he didn’t exactly love it, he put up with the water and being shampooed and everything. But then I thought, he might get cold with wet fur. So I turned on my hairdryer. Not the best idea ever. Actually, probably one of the worst ideas ever. Chandler became very afraid and tried to get away. I tried to restrain him, so he responded by biting my arm, and then my hand. Needless to say, he did not get blow-dried.

I didn’t think this was at all a big deal…I mean Chandler was vaccinated against everything in December. SO I went about my business until that night when I noticed that my hand had swollen to twice its normal size. The next morning, I called my PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer), thinking that he might suggest I get antibiotics or something. Instead, he told me to come to Rabat! Rabat!??! Being 13-15ish hours away, that’s not exactly an easy trip to make. So I told him no. I said I could go to Tiznit or Agadir for medical attention, but Rabat???

Well I lost the argument. I promptly left for Rabat. 30 hours later, I arrived in Rabat. Now, I need to make it clear that I love Rabat. It is a great, modern city that offers a blend of much-appreciated luxuries, and traditional Moroccan culture. However, this was not the most convenient time to go.

Since there is a 48 hour gap between the 2 post-exposure prophylaxis injections, I had almost 3 days to spend in Rabat. Turns out one of my other Peace Corps friends was bitten by her cat too, so we spent the time together. The highlight of my time was St. Patrick’s Day. When packing I didn’t realize I would be in Rabat for St. Patrick’s Day, so I didn’t have anything green, but we were able to celebrate nonetheless.

The US Embassy has a restaurant called the American Club, where Americans can go and enjoy food and drinks not found elsewhere in Morocco. We called the restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day, and it turned out they were having a party! So I got to spend this St. Patrick’s Day eating corned beef, drinking green beer, and hanging out with about 50 Americans, 1 Irish family, and a British couple. It was a great time, complete with “Kiss me, I’m Irish” necklaces and St. Patrick’s Day napkins. We ended the night by singing Irish folk songs led by the Irish family.

This morning I was lucky enough to finally get in touch with my Tashelhit language instructor from training, Doha. She is currently working in Rabat, so we had lunch together today. Who would have thought my surprise trip to Rabat would go so well!

Now, I am heading back down to site, and should arrive tomorrow. I am counting down the days until Steph and Adam’s visit…….4 days!!!!

One Year

Happy one year in country to me! ☺ March 4, 2008, I arrived in Morocco. This week, 60 new trainees arrived, beginning the journey I began a year ago. It is crazy how fast time flies! I haven’t had much time to celebrate, but I hope to do so this weekend with my PCV friends in the region. In fact, we are planning a 24 Season 2 marathon, complete with salsa and nacho cheese from America. ☺ I know everyone back home was hooked on 24, so I thought I might as well give it a shot. Dad sent me Seasons 1 and 2. This week when the weather was too awful for me to walk to the town center, I stayed at home, watching hours upon hours of Season 1. It literally stole my life from me for 3 days. As much as I tried to convince Chandler to make me stop watching, he just wasn’t very persuasive.

With regard to the Women’s Center, I am waiting approval from my office in Rabat. According to my programming staff, it has been approved by one of the two people whose approval I need. As soon as I have PC Rabat approval, it will be sent to Washington, where it will be posted on the Peace Corps website. At that point anyone back home can go online and donate. The girls in my village are extremely excited that things are moving along, and we can’t wait to start construction!

This past Sunday was our region’s AIDS Skit Competition. Brooke, a Youth Development volunteer had been organizing the event since November, but unfortunately it kept being postponed. Finally, we decided to have the event on Sunday March 1st. On Thursday, my local nurse came to “play practice” with my students, and helped them make their skit more accurate and informative. On Friday, I confirmed travel arrangements with the teacher and guardian who would accompany the students to Tiznit. There is a mailman who travels between Tiznit and Tafraoute every day delivering mail to the post offices along the way. Brooke sent travel money for my students with the mailman, to drop off at my site on the way to Tiznit. So Friday I went to the post office early in the morning to wait for Ahmed. Unfortunately, he passed right by me and kept on going. I had to get up and run down the street chasing him and calling to him before he stopped and remembered to give me the money. I must have been quite the sight, running down the street.

Saturday, Brooke, Brian (a volunteer from another province who helped out), and I met in Tiznit to confirm arrangements with the people there. Things were looking good until Saturday night at 7pm, when we got a call from the doctor who was supposed to judge the competition. Apparently he wasn’t going to be able to make it. And then at 9pm the principal of Brooke’s youth center called to say that the students from her site weren’t coming. As we went to bed Saturday night, none of us was expecting a successful event. In fact, there was talk of just not showing up and going to the beach instead.

Well, Sunday morning I got a call from the doctor who bailed. Apparently he felt bad and had called another doctor to take his place. Thank goodness! So, although we didn’t have Brooke’s students, we still had a phenomenal event. I was so proud of my students I thought I would burst!!! These kids rarely get the chance to leave the mountains and spend time in the city. They also don’t usually have the opportunity to hang out with kids from Tiznit. Overall, the day was extremely successful, with plays by students from my site and Tiznit, dance numbers, an AIDS talk by the doctor, AIDS discussions, AIDS activities, and an awards ceremony.


Here is the stage with our banner advertising the event


Brooke leading a true/false activity about AIDS


Me, the teachers, and the students from my site who attended. I may get in trouble with PC for posting this picture.....but we'll see :)


And then we went to Agadir and celebrated our success, American style. :)

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.