Fun, new, and IMPORTANT project!

Having just been back to visit home, I had many people asking me if I needed anything. Well, I think I'm finally taking you all up on that offer.

Drumroll.....

The East of Morocco is about to experience its Very First Science Fair Competition!

A little background: Education here is completely based on rote memorization. This has some value but the education system here seriously lacks in 1. Critical Thinking and 2. Hands-on learning. I have realized through my time teaching English here that the ability to ask the question "Why?" does not come naturally to all people. Open ended questions where there is no "right" answer are taken to be very difficult. [An example: we did essay writing for my upper level English class. I asked the class "Do you think its better for a youth of Morocco to grow up in a small town or a big city?" The room was silent. Why? Because they weren't sure of the right answer and nobody wanted to be wrong.]

Also:

Environmental Education is only just beginning in Morocco. Some people are aware that littering is not Ok, but everyone still does it. Daily I'll walk behind a crowd of people and watch them throw gum wrappers or empty potato chip bags on the ground with no thought at all that it is causing OUR city to look disgusting and junky... and having an effect on the environment they live in.

THIS PROJECT WILL INFLUENCE A CHILD'S ABILITY TO THINK CRITICALLY AND TO DO IT IN A WAY THAT THEIR OWN ENVIRONMENT IS AFFECTED POSITIVELY.

Here's what's happening:

About 7 cities in Eastern Morocco are going to have a regional Science Fair Competition.

Theme: "Environmental Problems in Morocco and Ways to Combat Them."

My city will be having its first ever Science Fair! It will be in small groups (3 or fewer) of middle school and high school-aged students. They will research to identify the environmental problems of the region and devise a way to combat them. They will then present their findings and ideas to local judges. They can do this with an oral presentation, a video, a powerpoint, a play, a display, a live demonstration...etc. etc. They are, for the first time, being encouraged to be Creative! The winning group from the middle school division and the winning group of the high school division will get to compete in the final competition, which will take place in Oujda in April, near Earth Day 2012.

How this Benefits Our Youth!
- Develops Critical Thinking Skills
- Develops problem solving skills
- Will help students gain a consciousness about the environment
- Will help adults in the community (like parents, teachers, and other local adults) gain a consciousness about the environment. (This is a new concept to everyone- not just kids!)
- Will have students learn through a hands-on technique, possibly for the first time
- Will provide the winning students with an opportunity to travel, where most of them likely have never left our town.
- It's not just hands-on, but they have the ability to get CREATIVE with it; something not generally encouraged in school.
- Will give students an opportunity to meet other students from all over the Eastern region and network with them and share experiences.
- Will help students hone their public speaking skills, since they must present their projects to the judges and audience.

But How is This Sustainable?!
Some of the money that we are raising will go to translation and printing of the actual Manual of "How to put on a science fair" that has been written as a result of this project. An important component of Peace Corps is Sustainability. We must ask ourselves "Can this project be duplicated and carried out again, once the Peace Corps volunteer has left?" And the answer is YES! This one can! So far people here seem very motivated and excited about this project and, Inchallah, it can become a yearly tradition and perhaps spread to other regions of the country, without the help of Peace Corps volunteers in the future.

The total amount we need to raise is $1,332. (about 10,660 dirhams) and what's left to raise is still $1,092 (8,750 dirhams). Dollars go a very long way here and if you are inspired by what we are doing, then I would love for you to visit the donation page on the Peace Corps Website and donate whatever you are able. (For $6.25 you're paying for one of the students from my city's transport to Oujda, which is about 5 hours away, by bus.It really doesn't take much to make a difference out here.)

Things to know:
- The type of grant you are donating to is called "Peace Corps Partnership Project Grant" or PCPP. Why? Because, as always with Peace Corps, it's a partnership. As a rule, the host community has donated a full 25% of the budget! That has been mostly in contributions of lodgini for the participants. (not the volunteers!! We will pay for that ourselves) The money donated will go to provide 3 meals a day/tea break for two days for 100+ people.
- 100% of the contributions of PCPP goes to the project. There is not a single cent tied up in administrative fees. Once all the money has been raised, it'll be transferred to an account where Socorra Camposanto (The leader of this whole project) will have access to it and it can be spent as allocated.

I'll keep you updated!! Here's the link again where you can read about the project and donate: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=378-178

And here is the facebook page for our main Moroccan counterparts: The Oujda American Corner

Gender Relations/Site Mate

***DISCLAIMER: This entry is NOT politically correct, although I tried. It could be perceived as insulting to Moroccan men of my city.... my response? This is what I have experienced and understood. If it's a reality not appreciated by Moroccan men when reading, then CHANGE IT.***

It has been a while since I posted because I've been in America and just got back to my wonderful little apartment this morning. I'll blog on that experience when I have had a few days to know how I feel about leaving and then coming back.

What is a site mate? A site mate is the term we use for a Peace Corps volunteer who lives in the same city as another Peace Corps volunteer.

Why do I have one now? At first I told Peace Corps, when I arrived, that I did not want a site mate. This was for a number of reasons but mainly because I wanted to blaze my own trail and do my own thing. I worried that having a site mate would kill my independence. I was fine with being alone. What Changed? Essentially, I figured out how Morocco and I work together, and I discovered, that pairs are better.

Verbal Harassment
When I first arrived here, in my permanent placement in Eastern Morocco, I knew that the verbal harassment would be bad. From the moment I step out of my apartment in the morning until the moment I come back inside at night I cannot go five minutes on the street without being whispered to creepily, kissing and/or hissing sounds made at me, sincere/insincere marriage proposals, etc. etc. In addition to that being a daily nuisance, periodically I am hit on/proposed to by men I thought respected me/wanted to work with me/take English class with me, etc. Now, of course, there are GOOD men here too. And I've met them. But they are not the ones hanging out on the street corners yelling at me, or professional men who have my phone number for business purposes and call/beep me constantly for, I assume, non business purposes. Is all of this tolerable? Yes, it's tolerable but tiring.

Basically, what I realized is that my Peace Corps service in rural Morocco will be more effective and productive with a male site mate. As I usually put it: It's difficult for me to be proactive when I'm constantly being defensive.. I'll give you a hypothetical example: Let's say I had an idea about a project to do with an agricultural association. I'd probably pass by the doors of the association 15 times before actually going in to introduce myself...that is if I ever worked up the courage. Why? Because, simply, I walk in expecting either 1. To be disregarded as a woman/foreigner (re: unfriendly response) or 2. To be welcomed extremely cheerfully and later in the conversation be inquired as to whether I "live alone" (the opening discreet question to find out whether I'd be down to have an illicit romance.) (re: overly friendly/insincere response). That creates a kind of anxiety leading to me draggin my feet when seeking out projects/networking opportunities.

So as the reader you're probably thinking "So What, Abby?? Go in there! Show them that you're serious and want to work and make them see you as a human being and not just as the opposite sex!" But, I'm telling you-- it's not that easy. Sure, I would have said the same thing but after a year of enduring the same behavior from so many men here over and over again it really does wear a person down. It bears repeating: It's difficult for me to be proactive, when I'm constantly being defensive. So when I finally admitted to myself that I had been defeated, so to speak, was when I sent peace Corps an email requesting that with the new cohort of trainees, I be assigned a male site mate. They responded positively and after much searching for a host family, we found one and at the end of November, my beautiful new site mate arrived.

INTRODUCING!
Hubbell M.!

Name: Hubbell M.
Age: 27, days away from 28
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn
Profession prior to Peace Corps: ESL teacher
Hobbies: Kung Fu, runnning
Likes long walks on the beach


I only got to know him for about 3 days before I left to Miami for my brother's wedding but my impression is that he is an up-beat, positive, and ambitious guy who is ready to get his feet wet. That is the best attitude to take in to a situation like Peace Corps/Morocco.

It's not all about me: How does our site benefit from having Hubbell here?? The better question is how does our site NOT benefit from having Hubbell!? For 10 years now PC volunteers in this city have been girls. So the girls of Bouarfa have certainly benefited! We get to create special friendships and relationships with so many girls and their families. The culture of Morocco is incredibly guest-oriented and not a day goes by that I don't have a standing lunch/tea invitation from many of my lovely female students and neighbors. The relationships I've been able to make with women here have been worth the disappointment of not being able to make equal friendships with men (tried...failed... ) But, while this is wonderful and important, that leaves a whole half of the population here neglected. The "chebab" or teenage/early20s males do not have the same opportunity, which is truly a shame. The cross-culture opportunities created by the "chebab" being friends with a male volunteer are endless.

Our site is now more complete, having both a female and a male volunteer. I also believe that this should be a standard practice for Peace Corps/Morocco, if they have the personnel to fulfill it.

Hubbell and I are going to have a wonderful year together full of independent activities and hopefully some collaborative "GAD" activities ("Gender And Development" formerly known as "WAD" "Women And Development." Changed for good reason!) And, inchallah, some collaborative activities that are not GAD related.

"Borders" or lack thereof

"In the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia (March 18, 1845), which set the border between French Algeria and Morocco, it is stipulated that 'a territory without water is uninhabitable and its boundaries are superfluous' the border is delineated over only 165 km.Beyond that there is only one border area, without limit, punctuated by tribal territories attached to Morocco or Algeria."

I think that every map I've seen here in Morocco of Morocco shows the southern and eastern borders with Algeria as a dotted line that just abruptly stops or no line at all. It always amused me and I thought to myself "well, that's just about how 'exact' everything is around here..." I didn't give too much thought as to WHY all these Moroccan maps lacked clear and concise border demarcations.

Today! I stumbled on the answer.... at least more of an answer than I have ever had before. I found out about something called the "Sand War," which was a border war in 1963. Amazingly, I didn't even know that this war took place practically in my own backyard, specifically with the city of Figuig. (I spent last new years in Figuig, see photos below)

A border conflict was inevitable because the French, when they occupied both Morocco and Algeria, didn't do a good job of defining the borders. To them, this was not an international border issue- it was all basically the same-- desert and oases and desert again. Or as is quoted above, an area "uninhabitable and superfluous" (You'd be surprised!) Then they found Magnesium and other phosphates and the land became a bit more important. (My city has a large old Magnesium mine, abandoned by the French) Their lack of creating a solid border led to conflicts after both Morocco and Algeria became independent, in 1956 and 1962 respectively.

I invite you to look at the following maps of Morocco: (unfortunately only one actually has the dotted line I referred to. I'm not surprised that all the disappearing-border maps of Morocco I see around here--including the map on my wall-- are not to be found in google inquiries.)
- Keep an eye on Erfoud, in Maps 1, 2, and 4. And look at the town of Tata (Southern Morocco, before the W. Sahara) in maps 3 and 4.

Though I couldn't find much information on the borders and their placements, (Someone needs to apply for a Fulbright and figure this out...) Here's an Economist article from 2010 talking about the opening of the border, closed since 1994. Now, you didn't hear it from me, but it is quite a porous border and I have personally experienced benefits from that (No, I didn't jump over there) but I won't name them here. http://www.economist.com/node/16219845


And now, a few photos from my trip to Figuig, the border land, over New Years 2010/2011. I can't believe these are already almost a year old!

Algeria lies between those two mountains in the distance.

That's the border. We rode our bikes all the way up to it. There was guard tower a few hundred yards to the right of this shot.

Hanging over the border (maybe?) and a dry river bed. I was really high up and this took some guts.

Here's a link to the rest of my Figuig photos from last New Years
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.669639889319.2227855.18806879&type=1&l=727aef6f46

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! NO, scratch that... Eid Kbir!

Monday marks The biggest holiday of the year for Moroccan Muslims. It is the Eid al-Adha, or "Festival of the Sacrifice" or as it is better know, Eid Kbir, or "The Big Festival" (The Eid Sghir, small festival, being the celebration at the end of Ramandan)

It has to do with the story of Ibrahim being told by God to sacrifice his son Ishmael, and Ibrahim, being ever obedient, agrees. At the last second, God sends a ram for him to slaughter instead, his faithfulness having been proven. Recently I have been quizzed about Eid Kbir's roots. When I explain the story, people are impressed I know it, but when I tell them it's because we have a nearly identical story in the Bible with Abraham's son Isaac instead, they don't seem to hear me. (We can talk some other time at the cultural differences in "listening" here).

If you want to know more about the general Eid Kbir, here's the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

How is Eid Kbir celebrated in Morocco?
With a slaughter, of course! Here are the rules: (I have no idea what of this is attributed to Islam,and what is just cultural traditions. I don't have the ability to make a distinction)
- The ideal slaughter is a ram.
- If you can't afford a ram, a sheep or pretty much anything in that family will do.
- Every household must slaughter one, so if a son and his wife travel to visit his mother for the Eid, they need to slaughter two rams. Frequently, a cow can be substituted for big families, and then they only have to slaughter that one animal. If it's a big family all those rams add up to even more than a cow would cost.

The morning of the Eid the healthy ram is taken outside (out of site of any other animals! This is a must!) and the head of the family, or at least a man (women aren't allowed) stands behind the animal, and says "Bismillah" (In the name of God) and, hopefully in just one strike, slice the throat of the ram. Then the ram grotesquely rolls onto its side and kicks as blood squirts violently from the severed artery in his neck. It makes gurgling noises as every bit of blood is squeezed out. It's over in a few minutes. For the meat to be halal (like Kosher, but in Islam) all the blood has to be drained.

Then it's skinned and gutted and the women get to work cleaning out the organs. Before you know it there is a late breakfast of liver shish kabobs.

No More gorey details for now! These are all memories from last year's Eid Kbir with my host family. I plan on taking a video of the slaughter this year and I will post it here.

Meanwhile-- I spotted the rams a few days ago minding their own business on the road. I knew then that the Eid was getting close. (I was trying to be sneaky sticking the camera out my kitchen window without the shepherds seeing.)

ageing in Peace Corps

I have dreams of a beautiful blog entry on a wedding I went to, including documenting every bit of it with photos....but that remains a dream for now because when I think about actually sitting down and doing it I get a little overwhelmed and say to myself that I must have something more important to be doing...

So in the meantime here's a mini-blog:

I have come to the conclusion that I must have really aged in the last year. I was at a friends house this afternoon for Friday couscous and we were looking at photos from my facebook of last year's Eid LKbir (where we slaughtered the ram) and she said "Well you've fattened up a little from last year, haven't you." To which, as always, I respond "yeah a little." That is not considered a rude comment in this country. I've gained about 10lbs, although since Ramadan I've started exercising diligently and I bet I've almost lost that ten pounds.... but even so.... 10lbs on my frame shouldn't be enough to warrant the number of comments I've gotten about it...and I have certainly gotten comments. I've moved from a size 4 to a 6. That's not that big a jump!

So my conclusion is that I actually just look a lot older than last year and some of that comes from wearing my hair up more than down. I know that sounds a little ridiculous but I think that really changes the look of a person. Plus, it's a common fact that going from 23 to 24 years old is a turning point (kidding).

I have also had comments from local kids who've seen my facebook pictures about how "good you looked in the states and how you look 'different' here." well yes, I don't flip my hair around and prance in short shorts on the streets of Morocco.

So I don't know what to make of all these endless comments on my physical appearance. In just over a month I will be back in the states and we'll see if anyone says that the Sahara Sun has aged me. Let's call it "maturity."

All Publicity is good Publicity!!

On July 6th I posted a blog about traveling within Morocco for Peace Corps. One of the projects I participated in was doing a project design and management workshop for a hip hop group in Goulmima called S7rawa Boys. The PCV there has worked really hard with them and their story got picked up my MTV, in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps and International Day of Peace.

So they have an article on MTV's website!!

http://act.mtv.com/posts/peace-corps-volunteer-uses-hip-hop-to-spread-love/#more-22488

Also, a film crew came from USA and filmed them for a short documentary. The film hasn't been posted yet, but when it is, I will definitely post it here!

I have made it one year!!

I arrived in Morocco on September 15th, 2010, one year ago exactly! On this special occasion I thought that I'd revisit how I packed, having no idea what I was getting into at the time. I've broken it into three fun lists, with notes at the end.

Things I'm so happy I brought:
-A set of sheets! They're hard to find here and I have never seen fitted sheets. This is definitely at the VERY top of the list, plus it doesn't take up much space. *********
-Good nail clippers/tweezers (Mother- I've managed not to lose these for an entire year! Aren't you proud?!)
-Lots of floss. It's good for a whole lot of things, not just teeth. (hotel room clothes lines, etc.)
-Hair brush. They don't have them here. They have little no-handled, bristled things that look like they're for my cat.
-Lots of deodorant. They sell it here, but not a wide selection, and only at the supermarkets. -I don't live anywhere near any supermarket.
-One of those travel soap cases!!!******
-Tons and tons of hair elastics and bobby pins.
-This is a “Happy I Didn't bring it” one: Books! The Peace Corps library is stocked! No sense wasting space on them. M'Hamed the librarian will send you anything your heart desires.
-A bath towel and a hand towel. I actually forgot these at first but got one from Sally from her's and my dad's apt in DC right before leaving.
-A sewing kit
-Duct tape! I actually didn't bring it, though I was advised to, because I thought it was too heavy, but the volunteer I replaced left a roll and I don't know what I'd do without it. White medical tape is also really sticky and won't take paint off.

Things I wish I hadn't wasted luggage space on:
-Shampoo. There's shampoo readily available here of fine brands
-Sleeping bag. It takes up so much space and sure, it's useful when visiting cold places, but so far in a year it hasn't made itself useful enough to make me forget how annoying it was to drag across the Atlantic and then across the country. I'll leave it here when I leave, for sure.
-Hand sanitizer. I brought 3 big bottles and don't ever use it. I know I probably should take little bottles with me when I'm out but I don't. I wash with soap, if available.
-AA Batteries. I don't know what I was thinking not bringing rechargeables.
-Sunscreen. It's in the med kit. You really don't need to bring any medicine, including vitamins.
-Baby wipes. Sure they're convenient when bathing isn't an option, but once they're gone, they're gone and you learn to live without them. Plus they're wasteful.

Things I wish I'd brought (or brought more of):
-Hair Shears. My home hair cuts are great but would be better with proper scissors
-Conditioner. People don't use it and I guess I'm high maintenance and have to use hair conditioner.
-Scotch tape dispenser. I know this is a weird one but it would make my life with scotch tape a lot easier. I use tape at the Dar Chebab for sticking stuff on the walls.
-Winter clothes! Or at least a proper coat. 30 degrees is cold, especially without heat and I don't know that I would have made it through the winter without the stuff my predecessor, Melanie, left behind.
-Jeans!! I have been going through them like crazy! One volunteer who's been here longer told me it's because all the squatting for the squat toilets wears out the fabric faster. I don't know, but I currently don't have ANY casual jeans left.
-Travel size bottles of shampoo/conditioner/moisturizer that I can refill. It's a pain lugging full size bottles around.
-A bathing suit. I figured I wouldn't need it, being in a Muslim country where I have to remain pretty covered, but those tourists are dressed all trashy on the coast and I could be one of them if I had a bathing suit.
-Outlet converters. They get lost pretty easily.
-A little photo album with family pictures. People would love to see what my family looks like.

I sort of wish I'd brought more clothes in general. I spent a lot of my luggage space on mountains of toiletries- soaps, shampoo, etc. and really could have used some more clothes.

Winner of Best Travel Item
A fancy fluffy only-for-the-guest-bathroom!-hand towel that your mother probably wouldn't want you to take out of the house. Why? It's great for short term traveling because it's small, but, believe it or not, can and will dry your whole body and hair and still not be soaking wet. By now I don't think my mother would permit it in any bathroom, especially not the guest bathroom because it's been so heavily used that it's kind of gray and dirty looking...but it still fluffs up even being dried on a clothes line. I don't have a camp towel and while all the all volunteers talk about how 'fast drying' they are, every single one I've encountered smells AWFUL. When you pack a wet towel, “camp” or otherwise, it's going to smell. Plus this towel makes a great pillow against the window on bus rides.

Forget bringing any kind of water purification device. If it's necessary for your region, PC will provide it. If it's not and you're getting sick, man up or boil your water.

Long Term/short Term bag:
So Peace Corps asks us to pack two bags for traveling: a short term bag for the period when we're in training, living with host families; and a long term bag that will be kept in storage until we travel to our final sites. What do I need for the first three months and not the rest of the time!? I had no idea. I basically packed all my clothes in the short term and some of my toiletries and put the rest in storage. I was pretty accurate, I think. The only thing I would change is that even if I like to sleep in little shorts and a tank top, while living with a host family all I wore was one conservative set of pajamas. Never assume that people won't bust into your room at all hours of the night. Privacy is not a Moroccan concept as I understand it. All my tank top/undershirt kind of things plus cotton shorts should have gone in the long term bag. So short term bag should have clothes and toothbrush, one tube of toothpaste, bottles of shampoo/conditioner, 2 bars of soap, deodorant, and bath towel. That's it.

1 year down, 14.5 Months To Go!!

Mabruk L'Eid!

Yesterday was the first day of Eid Alfitr, or Feast of Breakfast, marking the end of Ramadan. Apparently, it lasts about three days. During these festivities everyone dresses in new clothes and parades around the neighborhood telling everyone Mabruk L'Eid! (Happy L'Eid!) and eats lots of sweets.

Most people really celebrate heavily the first day of L'Eid which was yesterday. I don't know what I was thinking rousing myself at 11am and getting dressed (which involves me covering from the neck down) and forging into 100+ degree heat to go to the post office thinking it was probably open. Of course it wasn't open! It must have been delirium from all the cookies I'd eaten.

I'm just happy it's over and a normal schedule can begin again. I hate waking up late, so I'm changing my internal clock little by little. (Waking up at 11 is much better than at 3!) and hopefully on Tuesday the Dar Chebab will be open again and REAL LIFE will begin.

Yesterday's l'Eid weather was terrible! We had so much La3jaj (dusty sand storm) that in about 15 minutes my entire western room was layered in orange sand. So I went up on my roof and recorded the sand moving in from the desert. It's kind of a long video, unnecessarily. Sorry there's no sound. My digital camera doesn't have a sound card or it's broken. But at about 2mins you can really see a shift in the coloring of the air. (it's embedded at the bottom of the page)

Here are some pictures to compare: (there are no rain clouds here. It is literally just sand that's been lifted by the wind, coming from the southwest.)

VS.

The next set it not quite the same shot, but close. You can use the yellow/red striped building on the bottom for reference;

vs.

You get the picture. And now for my first youtube upload! Sorry for the grainy quality-- my camera is not very good for video.

Typical....

I've never considered myself the super "peace corps"y type, (re: low maintenance hippie) but I think I might be...at least more so than I thought.

Evidence:

1. I just sharpened my eyeliner with a knife

2. Felt bugs in my bed last night. (didn't turn on the light to see what they were because I didn't want to know.) Solution? I wore long sleeve/pant pajamas.

3.Calculated my daily water usage based on "buckets" per day. (running water has worsened as the summer has progressed.)
- can successfully wash dishes and laundry with no running water... I mean, it's running at some point. It's all about timing and water storage.

4. And just between you and me, I haven't bought TP since May. (except for traveling).

I don't think cutting my own hair should count. Lots of people do that in the first world. Though I do know one guy who gave himself a pretty nice trim with his pocket knife.

Also, that fact that I'm still wearing eyeliner once in a while is proof that I'm not way over the hippie-edge. Although, I will admit I'm wearing it because I was told by my good friend, Radia, "THella fik!" or "Take care of yourself!"

The girls here really glam it out when they go out on the town. Now that it's Ramadan, evenings are popping. From about 10pm - 1am the streets are FULL. People are out wandering around to look at other people primarily and secondarily to buy a new outfit to wear on "L'Eid Sghrir" (meaning "small feast day." Actually called L'Eid Lftar, which means "Breakfast Feast Day").

Tonight, I'm going to go wander around the streets with my friend, Soumaya. So I'm trying to look my best, I guess. I was recently asked why the girls that are sent to my town as Peace Corps volunteers "don't dress as well as the Americans we see on T.V." I really didn't have a good answer because what I wanted to say was, "Well if you notice, the American girls on TV are perhaps showing a little calf/knee action and don't have their rear-end covered by long, baggy shirts." Instead I told her that I couldn't speak for the other volunteers that preceded me but that I wasn't very fashion conscious because it didn't really matter. We were not on the same page with that and she really didn't understand.

Oh well. I'm trying to meet their American expectations, while still dressing conservatively and avoiding using "kohl" (the THICK traditional eyeliner used by people all across Mid-East/North Africa for thousands of years) Here's a photo I found on the internet of a pretty standard bride in a Moroccan wedding. Check out that makeup!

Ramadan Packages!

Today is August 23rd. I have been fasting during daylight hours for 21 days now! And thank goodness Ramadan is almost over! Through this experience I have solidified that I am a morning person and that just does not suit Ramadan. In any case, one of the best things about this time is that people are even more welcoming than usual and I have daily invitations to break fast, or "lftor" with a family in my community. That is the main reason why I am fasting anyway. Sure, I could just eat and drink in my house, but then what fun would it be to break fast if I'd been eating all day? Plus, I wanted to experience it and be able to say I did it the whole month.

I doubt I will fully fast next year. From food? Probably. But not from water. It is well over 100 degrees here and there's over 15 hours of daylight. Next year Ramadan will begin in the middle of July. I have changed my schedule so I'm literally up all night, and rarely asleep before 6am (a full 1.5hrs after the call to prayer that begins the fast.) And I am generally not out of bed until 3pm.

Ok, ok, so maybe waking up at 3pm is kind of cheating but technically I am playing by the rules. I know for a fact that the teenage boys are not waking up before that either because they're outside my window playing soccer until they have to go home to eat SHHor at around 3am. The women/girls I've talked with who are not married/mothers also don't get up before 2 or so either.

Today! I roused myself at NOON! (which was difficult because there was a solitary fly in my room attempting to go up my nose until 8 IN THE MORNING)But I got up because I knew there would be a package waiting for me at the post office.

Surprise! There were TWO packages! One from the Peace Corps librarian and one from my mother. The PC librarian is my favorite staff member by far. Every so often, out of the blue, I'll get a package with some lesson plans, random magazines, and books that he thinks might interest me. It's such a sweet surprise. Recently he sent me the book "'Tis" by Frank McCourt; a sequel to "Angela's Ashes." I was talking about "Angela's Ashes" with my friend who said that it was one of his favorite books and I absolutely could not read the sequel without reading the first. I shot off an email to the librarian and today I found "Angela's Ashes" in my mail box!

Now for my mother's WONDERFUL package: It was so beautiful, I had to photograph it.(click to enlarge)

List of its precious contents:
- Socks and underwear! (So important! Hand washing really does a number on clothes.)
- SMU alumni magazine!
- Chewy Granola bars!
- Crystal light packets!
- A few issues of the local paper! (including comics, of course)
- EIGHT spools of dark colored thread! (as requested! Thank you mom and Charity!)
- High school graduation announcement of my God sister, Krista!
- My brother's new business card for his new job!
- Letter from a little girl we sponsor in Colombia!

And last but not least....

- A beautiful little note from my mother!

Thank you!!

Angela's Ashes is on the right side of the photo next to the envelop in which it arrived. I love that it just says "Seibel, Abby/ Dar Chebab" and it finds its way to my box.

I love everything here, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Granola bars. So delicious and simple and not available here...plus they don't melt!

I want to do a post on the breakfast cuisine of Ramadan but I need to remember to take my camera along to my next lftor!

SUMMER CAMP!

I recently got back from a Summer Camp in El Jadida, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. This summer camp is sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and is an English Immersion Camp. This camp is generally for the more privileged kids in Morocco; it is very expensive and not far from Casablanca and Rabat. It is for high school kids ages 13-17.

Because it is supposed to be an English immersion camp, the ministry called on Peace Corps to provide access to native English speakers. In exchange for us volunteering as counselors, the ministry graciously provides each volunteer three scholarship spots to bring kids from our own towns/villages. This is a two-fold benefit: 1. two out of three of my scholarship kids, have never traveled outside our town, and none of them have gotten to go to a cool camp like this. I imagine this is true for almost all the kids brought by PCVolunteers. 2. The kids from the "big city" learn about their fellow countrymen who may come from towns and villages the Rabat/Casa kids have never heard of and live lives so different that it's difficult to imagine they're from they same country.

After the photos are a few stories of things I witnessed that made me laugh and warmed my heart.

These are the three kids I brought: Zakaria, Mehdi, and Hicham. (Don't worry, they're happy- it's just not customary to smile in photos)

I lead a Journalism club with 11 of the most advanced English speakers in the camp. At the end of the 10 day camp they had produced a newsletter and distributed a copy to every child at camp.

The U.S. Ambassador to Morocco and his wife, came and visited our camp one morning.

Brahim, the "gentle giant" referenced in the story below.

Miriam at the Supermarket: Erika and I are the only Youth Development PCVs in our province, so together we had six kids. Because our province is just about as far away as you can get from El Jadida, our six rode an overnight bus and were some of the first kids to arrive the first morning of camp. Erika and I decided that we had time to kill so we took them to the LaBel Vie supermarket to get some snacks. Not only was it probably their first time in a grocery story, but LaBel Vie is a really fancy store. Miriam, one of Erika's, took one look at the escalator we were about to get on and a look of “WHAT THE HECK IS THIS THING?!” flashed in her eyes. She didn't say a word, likely just to save face, but as soon as she stepped onto the escalator, she stumbled a little and then held on with two hands, nervously giggling the whole way down. The way back up we took the elevator. She didn't know where we were going when we stepped into this strange little room and pushed some buttons. She didn't seem to like when it moved because she didn't know what was happening but no word other than shock could describe the look on her face when the elevator doors opened and she was standing in front of a scene completely different from where we'd left. I felt like we were showing her the future.

Brahim and the Ocean: Brahim, dubbed as the “gentle giant” by the PCVolunteers who were at camp that session, is a participant that PCV Yusuf brought to camp with him. A luxury of the camp being in El Jadida is that the kids get to go to the beach everyday. Brahim, like most of the kids who were brought by PCVs, had never been to the ocean. The majority of them were scared of the water and almost none knew how to swim. Brahim, in particular, was adamant that the ocean water was unhealthy and would give you skin diseases. He refused to get in. At least on day one. Day two came along and somehow he had silently made the decision to “get in.” He stood there with his feet in the water and would go no further. Day three: Brahim jumped in the water, splashing and swimming in the waves with the rest of the kids! Every day after that you would never have been able to tell that Brahim had once been convinced that the ocean would make him, and everyone else, sick.

If I told you all the wonderful stories of minds being opened and friendships formed during camp, this blog would never end. Each volunteer could tell you stories of their own kids' transformations and joys from camp. I'll leave you with a picture of me and my friend Mohammed VI. I am looking forward to camp again next year and hopefully by then I'll be able to find some girls whose fathers will let them attend with me.

traveling and PC.

This past weekend was Independence day! I was able to get away for the weekend and visit a beautiful city outside Errachidia where a fellow volunteer lives. I spent the weekend there and we celebrated our nation's founding wearing Red, White, and Blue and reminiscing on what our lives were like back in the states. On my way back home, my dad called me and expressed concern that I seem to be gone a lot. I thought about it and I realized that there is quite a bit of traveling associated with Peace Corps; whether for trainings, national events, or other happenings. He (semi-jokingly) wanted to make sure I wasn't wasting tax payer dollars. I assured him I was not. I LOVE being in my city and am happy to stay here. Traveling in Morocco, especially from where I live, is Hard Work! So I thought it would be a good blog entry to document, photographically, the different places I have traveled since April.

(Click the photos to enlarge them!)

April: We had Spring Camp- an English Language Immersion camp hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. I co-coordinated this camp with a number of Moroccan staff and had the unending help of 4 other PCVs to put on a fun camp in the city of Oujda for high school kids between 13 and 17 years old. It was a sleep-away camp that lasted the entire week of their spring break. There were tears at the end.(not the most flattering photo but I wasn't in too many of them.)

Early May: I went to a city called Goulmima (300km from where I live) to do Project Design and Management for a hip hop group who work with a volunteer. This particular group is talented and really wanted to finish producing their CD. I am all for supporting the arts so I agreed to come and help them focus their energy on actually getting it DONE as opposed to just talking about it. While the other PCV who works with them is 100% capable, I think it helped them take it seriously when they found out that "outside resources" were being brought in. It also did some good in the realm of gender development- the leader of the hip hop group asked where the Goulmima Volunteer's "business man" was, when I was right there. They did, indeed, get their CD finished! Visit their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/S7rawa-boys/144435102263982 . All their songs are in Moroccan Arabic with a little English worked in and very wholesome- about respecting your mother, quitting smoking, etc.

Late May: I went to Tanger to work with the Moroccan Special Olympics. These are Olympic Games for the mentally handicapped- particularly, Moroccans under 30. 23 other volunteers and I were selected to act as "coaches" in the games. (Personally, I timed the track and field events!) Apparently, this is a rough place to have a disabled person in your family because there is a social stigma associated with it along the lines of how disability is a "punishment from God." (not my words.) This was the first year that Peace Corps participated on an official level with the Special Olympics and both parties loved it so much we'll most likely participate with bigger numbers next year!

June: In-Service Training. For a week and a half in June I traveled to our In-Service Training (IST) that all PC volunteers participate in after six months of service-meaning after about 8.5 months in country, including training time. It was held in the beach town of Mehdia. Most of what I got out of training was the opportunity to brain storm and share ideas about projects and activities and hear what other PCVolunteers are up to. This photo was taken on the beach outside our training facility. Despite that training can be boring- when 67 PCVs get together there is always fun to be had- this was our highly organized beach dodgeball game. We played with brackets. My team lost, but then the losers played a losers bracket and we won!! (yay?) I'm in the white tank top in the photo- a little taste of clothing freedom- just about the only place in Morocco I could get away with it! (btw, YES, two days after training ended was the Shakira concert in Rabat, just a taxi ride away from Mehdia. So I did stay a little extra to attend. I was already on the other side of the country for goodness' sake!)

Last weekend: I went to a village called Beni Tajjit (it's on google maps!). THIS was an all business weekend- exhausting! (no other PCVs participated) The president of a women's weaving association invited me to help her do a workshop in Beni Tajjit. This workshop was to teach the (mostly illiterate) Berber women the Berber alphabet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_languages ) Now, don't get me wrong- this was not so much a literacy workshop as a business workshop. These women weave traditional carpets and sell their carpets to tourists. They traditionally weave the berber letter "zaid" into them. This workshop was to teach them weaving techniques to incorporate these letters into their designs. The president of the weaving association has generally worked with the Small Business Development volunteer but the previous two volunteers sent to her Early Terminated. (it can be tough out here...) So we've formed our relationship and I went along with her to help as another hand, photographer, and personal assistant. It was very rewarding culturally and I have lots to say about it that will probably be another entry. I got VERY very sick and threw up on a moving bus. Attractive. (I'm in the second group photo, next to the woman with bright yellow hijab.)

So that's all for now in terms of my traveling adventures. Yes, my weekends here and there, when I'm with other PCVolunteers, are VERY fun and entertaining and we do a great job of turning business trips into working vacations. (Take them where you can get them, right?) I can't even describe how wonderful it is to get together after a month or so of little English and being in the countryside. To make my point- no, Dad, I'm not constantly running around frolicking away my time and hopefully these visual representations helped convince you!! :)

(rode my bike 13km outside my city, turned around, and snapped this photo. Crazy how fast it disappears into the desert!)

By the way

This is an addendum to the blog just posted below:

I added new photos to my daily life album on facebook.

Copy/paste the link below to view them!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.729125095489.2240060.18806879&l=990f60e4a6

(you don't have to be a facebook member to view them.)

oh yes, I'm in Morocco.

Tuesday was a day of 3 of those “oh yes, I am in Morocco” moments.

1. While I was at Naima's house (president of a women's weaving cooperative), a neighbor brought over some fresh “Leben” (fermented milk- in this case goat's milk) that had been made just the day before by Naima's neighbor's family who are nomadic herders and live in tents in the desert outside my town. As fermented milk goes, you can't get much fresher (or unpasteurized) than that! I'll say that this particular Leben tasted a lot like feta cheese...most definitely an acquired taste.

2. Again, while at Naima's she went up on the roof to adjust the satellite dish that the goshdarned chickens always screw with. She came downstairs with a gooey egg and said “well say congratulations to me because I saw this one pop right out of her! Here put it in your pocket and take it home!” So that night for dinner I had possibly the freshest egg I've ever eaten in my life. It didn't look fertilized, not that I would know, but there is a rooster up there. The yolk was almost orange, as opposed to yellow, and it was delicious. Who says I need a fridge when the food barely even makes it to room temperature after “production”!?

3. (this one is longer) The last two small business volunteers who were in my site terminated their service early (known as 'ET'ing, or as I like to call it 'quitting.') I don't know why they quit but one particular co-operative of artisans sought me out to help them since they no longer had a volunteer. Naima, the president of the weaving cooperative had been trying to communicate shipping a spinning wheel from my city, to Ourzazate, a city about 700km away, where another volunteer is working with another weaving co-op. Why so difficult? I can't really answer that. It shouldn't have been but it was. Part of the problem is that to co-op in Ourzazate who wanted Naima's spinning machine wanted her to escort it out there to show them how to use it properly. You may recall from a previous entry that it is Hshuma for a woman to travel alone and Naima just wouldn't do it and the cooperative in Ourzazate didn't have the money to send Naima and someone else.

That lead to some difficulties but after weeks and weeks of negotiations (my role in this was as translator because the Peace Corps volunteer outside Ourzazate doesn't speak Arabic- I believe she speaks Tashelheit, a berber language, which Naima does not speak, but I could be wrong about that. And it helps to have someone on hand) We finally decided that the best thing to do would be to ship the spinning wheel by a bus, under the seats, where the luggage goes. So to work all this out of course I had to go over to Naima's for lunch. I arrived about 12:30, early for lunch considering daylight savings time. I helped her knead some dough for bread, then we ate lunch and then we had tea and chitchatted. Finally....at about 3pm I was putting on my shoes and Casually mentioned that we might possibly ship the machine that night, on the overnight bus from my city that goes all the way to Agadir but would arrive in Ourzazate at around 6am. And she said “oh sure, Inchallah. Come back over around 6:30 or 7pm and we'll see.” So that was it- a 2.5hr lunch date for a three second conversation. Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVED having lunch with them and appreciate them very much but it is funny to me how absolutely necessary it was to spend that time talking about nothing in order to get business done.

In the end, we did get the sewing machine sent that night. Naima is a young newly wed who's husband lives in the next town over and said it would be a problem if she went to the bus station with me so her young nephew and I carried a Sleeping Beauty-esque spinning wheel across town and got it shipped off!

Developments!

It's been a month since I last posted and a TON has gone on both in my town in Morocco and within Peace Corps.

The day after my last post there was civil unrest here in my very own town here in eastern Morocco. Did it make the news? No, but it was definitely news-worthy. There is no reporting agency out here. I don't want to put a lot of info about it on here, but if you'd like an account, I wrote a long document on it for Peace Corps Safety and Security department, and I can forward it to you.

Let me just put it this way: following the unrest, Oujda, the nearest big city and kind of an eastern "hub" sent in dozens, if not hundreds, of police here- and they were lodged at my Dar Chebab (youth center)

So this was a month ago and the police are still occupying my Dar Chebab. This has really messed with my routine because that's the building I work out of. To occupy my time I decided to visit the Dar Taliba-- a girls' residence hall-- for children of nomads who are here to go to middle or high school, or girls who are studying computers or accounting at the "tquin" (vocational school). I went a few times and they were quite welcoming but were honest in saying that they were done with school and didn't want to get started with any activities until the Fall.

Conveniently, after that I went to Tangier and worked with the Moroccan Special Olympics. I was hoping the police would be gone by the time I came back...but no, they weren't. Then I just had a week in Bouarfa before leaving for "IST" or In-Service Training that every volunteer does throughout every Peace Corps country after six months in country.

I just got back from IST and my regional meeting yesterday to find the police STILL occupying my Dar Chebab, citing some more unrest last week while I was gone. These are new police too- it appears they've had a personnel change- all from Oujda though.

So I had quite an overwhelming feeling of guilt because I was traveling so much and many of my students are about to sit the baccalaureate exam next week. Now that I know the Dar Chebab has essentially been closed for a month though, I do not feel as guilty.

Today I was brought by three of my Dar Chebab kids to the local Dar Taqafa (House of Culture- like a theater center) which has just opened to give kids a place to study for exams, since they're not in school. It's set up a bit like a school cafeteria, with large tables and chairs and I was able to help kids with a sample bac exam that I had photocopied.

-----------------------

Basically, what I'm figuring out is that summer is kind of a dead time. It's VERY hot and people don't seem to want to do much. I plan on staying here as much as a can for the summer, including Ramadan which begins August 1st. I will be gone two weeks in July or August for the Ministry of Youth and Sport's summer camp in El Jadida. It's a very expensive summer camp for wealthy Rabat kids and the ministry allows each Youth Development volunteer to bring 3 kids to camp from our towns on scholarship.

Because summer is not a real "action" time, I plan on using it as a time of planning so when Fall kicks off and productivity shoots up, I can move straight into activities and projects. These are some of my ideas, many of which were inspired/borrowed through brainstorming and collaboration with other volunteers at IST.

- Job Skills workshop
- Misc. activities with girls at Dar Taliba (including yoga or aerobics, inchallah)
- Women's Wellness weekend- possibly coupled with a "Spa day" of sorts- with treatments made of natural ingredients. The women here work their hands and feet to the bone daily and never seem to get a break- they would really enjoy and deserve some pampering...plus a health lesson!
- Pen pal-ling my students from the Dar Chebab with an American classroom for a letters exchange
- Newsletter publication for Dar Chebab and its happenings
- Study skills weekly workshops- the concepts of flash cards and mnemonic devices are totally foreign here.

I also need to look at the UN's millenium development goals and see how they fit into my possibilities here- plus continue brainstorming ideas.

One thing I realize is REALLY lacking in the education system here (that I never realized was so valuable before) is CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS! The ability to think outside a given structure and formula is KEY to Development. How can one possibly think outside one's situation and then go on to achieve those goals/dreams if one lacks critical thinking abilities?

I vow to work this into as many activities and projects as I can from now on.

I look forward to seeing how many of these materialize. Feel free to hold me accountable and ask me about them or give me any suggestions you may have.

Points for Morocco today

Somewhere between walking out of the Nedi Neswi this afternoon (women's center) and walking to go buy some lemons, I dropped my purse- which is just a small blue clutch. I didn't realize it until I was buying the lemons. Most of what was in there was not too important-- my carte se jour (residency card), which would be a pain to replace, but still possible. 100 Dirhams- which is a solid amount, but nothing worth losing my mind over. But I was very worried because my house keys were in there.


So I went frantically back to the Nedi Neswi, back to the lemon vendor, walked the streets... It turns out I'd dropped it on the sidewalk outside the Nedi Neswi. Some kids had picked it up and given it to some adults who were working construction by the Nedi Neswi.

When the construction workers saw me on the street, my eyes scanning the pavement, They approached me and pulled out my purse. They emptied all the contents and said "we found it- it's all still here, we didn't take anything!"

I was immediately so relieved. I showered them with a million "Thank You"s and "God Bless Your Parents" plus some other common phrases and I gave the kids a little reward.

As I was walking away, the main guy who'd been explaining that nothing had been taken just kept saying "You see, we didn't take anything- we are good people. We fear God. We are true Muslims- NOT terrorists. A true Muslim wouldn't take anything- we are not terrorists." And I acknowledged that I knew that, and I love Moroccans, etc. etc. he continued that if he hadn't seen me on the street, he would have taken it to the police and turned it in.


What is worthy of note is that everywhere I go in Morocco, people feel the need to explain/prove/swear by the fact that true Muslims are NOT terrorists. It's like they have collective guilt for the things that terrorists do. I hope that one day there will be no more violent Islamic extremism and Muslims will not feel they need constantly defend their religion- which, in my experience has been nothing but peaceful.

"guidance regarding recent events"

This is a piece of an email I received from a Peace Corps staff member:

In light of the bombing and the killing of Osama Bin Laden, here is some guidance for you:


· You may receive questions and/or pressure from members of your community to discuss the circumstances of Bin Laden’s death or your reaction to it. Please avoid engaging in discussing this issue. Appropriate responses include: “I don’t have enough information to discuss this issue.” and/or “I am never happy to hear of anyone’s death.” If you experience pressure from your community or are otherwise concerned please contact me immediately.


The bombing s/he's talking about are the bombs that were detonated by a tourist cafe in Marrakech last week.

Personally, in regards to this request by Peace Corps, it's a little unachievable since it's the only thing people want to talk about and they are genuinely curious as to what I think about it. I mean, if you think about it- I am the one and only foreigner in this small Moroccan town near the Algerian border, the only foreigners most of them interact with are Peace Corps volunteers (so that's one new one every two years). They see all this chaos on T.V. "caused" by this far away nation called America and here's their chance to know what a real live American thinks of it all.

Goal 2 of Peace Corps is: "Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people s served." Goal 3 is "helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans."

But at the same time, there exists a blanket rule that we are not to talk about religion and politics.

One of the most common questions I'm asked by people of all age groups is "What do Americans think of Muslims?" which is generally followed by the request that I tell Americans that Islam is a peaceful religion and to make sure I tell them that "we're not terrorists. Terrorism isn't Islam." Serving in a country that is a Islamic monarchy where the vast majority of Moroccans are Muslim presents a new dynamic to goals 2 and 3- that, unfortunately, Peace Corps wants us to ignore. (for your own security. which I can understand.) America may be able to ignore religion most of the time through political correctness but it's impossible here.

So.... I'd like to talk about the Marrakech bombings and Osama Bin Laden's death but....I don't have enough information to discuss this issue?

Water, Agua, al-ma....

After a cold snap this weekend we're back to being warm. It's 26 degrees c today (79F) and so I took a celebratory 20km bike ride. I am so thankful the weather is warm and will be excited when I turn on the (solar powered short-wave)radio (Thanks Dad!) and hear that we're up to 32C (90F!). I don't know how I'm going to feel when that radio tells me it's 45C (113F...). I really don't think I'll mind.

With warm weather comes good moods and me feeling very productive. It also helps me feel very "Peace Corps"-y because my hours-per-day of running water is dwindling. In the last 48 hours, I've probably had about 2 hours of running water. It's not that there isn't any water, it's that there isn't enough to go 'round. I live "foq" which means "high" like, on an incline, and other households who are more "tHt" (low) use the water and there isn't enough pressure to get the water up to me-- it just can't quite make it to my tap.

On days where I decide to take 20km bike rides, it would be really nice to have some running water for a shower. But, this is not all negative. I have learned to be resourceful in a way that would make my mother proud-- when I have water, I make sure I get all the household-water oriented tasks down, like dishes and vegetable washing. I had a trickle of water last night and got all the dishes done. I have a number of buckets and a 20-liter barrel that I keep full for toilet flushing and, if necessary, cooking. I have 11 liters worth of water bottles full under the sink for drinking. I was warned that once summer hits, my running water becomes very unreliable, though I don't know what the seasons have to do with it. I may invest in another 20liter barrel.

I could go to the Hammam (public baths) to bathe but it's a very social event and well, being social is probably the last thing I want to do while bathing.

This past weekend was Earth Day and Erika (the volunteer 70km north of me) and I held a two day conference with about 30 kids from all over the country. They slept at the auberge, or dormitory, that's next to the Dar Chebab. We went hiking and we talked about the flora and fauna and all kinds of environmental problems in the region. The main "youth development" aspect of it was that on the second day they learned "project design and management" and planned environmental projects that they will then implement in their home cities. And these projects will be led by the youth (youth empowerment!) and involve other youth (volunteerism!). Despite how easy this project might sound it's actually very complicated and time consuming to get something like this going. Moroccan counterparts must be found, and Erika wrote a grant for $500 to pay for food and transportation. Grant writing in itself is time consuming. Plus, government approval is needed for everything, which takes time. (I think the level of importance of people is judged by how many rubber stamps they have on their desk- literally. And they will by stingy with their stamps just because they can!) Also, as much time as these things take, people don't tend to commit to things too far in advance because they have no idea what life will throw at them before that. So it's a big juggling act and this act was a success, lHamdullah.

Sunday I'm going to travel an hour and a half for an environmental-themed theater competition- just to watch and act as a supporter. This competition was started last year by the PCV I replaced. So this year the kids organized it by themselves with the help of a French teacher. That's sustainability!

Homesickness

I have been here for about seven months and have about 19 more months to go and have officially felt my first pangs of homesickness. The fact that it took seven months is probably pretty good.

Officially, my record of being away from home is 8 months, from December to August, two years in a row. By "home" I mean Miami.

According to the Peace Corps emotional chart they give us, there is a "sixth month crisis." 1) I've been here longer than six months and 2) this is FAR from crisis! (The next major dip on the chart is at the one year mark.)

What sparked this? Last week I went and visited another volunteer, Xavier, at his site. Whenever I spend significant time around other Americans I sort of get this way because we speak in comfortable English, using terms like "chill" and "brosky" and reminisce about things from back home. I've also been listening to country music which could make someone in America homesick for America. Being around a male volunteer is even more homesickness-inducing than a female volunteer because it causes me to remember how in Dallas/Miami I had lots of guy friends and that was normal. I also thoroughly enjoy hanging out with guy volunteers in public because the number of youth or men who yell at me drops to almost nothing. Only the most bold will say something when I'm walking with Xavier or any other American guy.

What exactly do I miss?
It wouldn't be what you would think, necessarily.
People? Not really. I could count the number of people I truly miss on one hand...maybe half a hand.
"Basic" amenities? Not much. I don't miss having a refrigerator.
Unpredictable running water can be annoying but not something to write home about.
A/C? I missed heat during winter but it's hot now and I have no problem with no A/C.
Washer/Dryer? whatever.

I miss:
The Bar Scene: The freedom to go to a bar and play some pool and hang with friends and not be judged for it. This includes dancing to bad pop music on a crowded dance floor.
Mixed gender company
Being able to wear tank tops and shorts.
Being able to go running in the middle of the day (or whenever I want)
Being able to go to a cafe without being self conscience (not the woman's realm here.)
I admit that I do miss cereal and skim milk. If I get a fridge I can make this happen.

Snap out of it
When I get a little down on my "situation." I just try to remind myself of the reasons that I was attracted to Peace Corps and why I'm here: I knew there would be "sacrifices." I don't actually WANT my normal life back-- I'm on an adventure! InchAllah, I will have about 75 more years to dance to bad pop music in bars beginning around Christmas season 2012. I'm reminded of how especially lucky I am to be here every time I'm on the trek from Errachidia to my town in the desert and I pass nomads herding hundreds of camels and sand blowing around from every direction. And to be honest, I would probably feel the same way in small-town America since the big city brings more of the freedoms that I miss.

Remedies:
- Keeping my socializing with other volunteers to a minimum
- Remind myself that I'm not a wimp. period.

Lunch!

I have officially been in Morocco a little over six months now and about three months of them living on my own.

So after three months I have finally gotten the right seasoning/ingredients and proportions to make a good tajine!

First of all, you're probably wondering what a tajeen is. Notice I have spelled it a few different ways. That's because it doesn't really matter how it's spelled. Moheem- (the point:) A tajine is a traditional Moroccan dish, but not traditional in that it's only for tourists and people don't really eat it, but it is a very common lunch here.

It is made in a round dish, usually clay, but my tajeen, for example, is metal. And the lid is conical. It's a bunch of vegetables, oil, water, and spices. There are different kinds of tajeens here depending on personal preference. The most common one has a potato base. Now, most people put meat in the tajeen, commonly chicken but any meat or fish will work. Since I rarely buy meat because I don't have a refrigerator, all my tagines thus far have been all vegetables.

How I made my tagine: first I put a few dollops of vegetable oil in the dish and then some water. Then I added a good seasoning I call "yellow stuff" and then a seasoning called "knorr" but pronounced KAH-nor. It's kind of like a bouillon cube...

[An aside about spices: Now, when I first started experimenting with tajeen making, I just added this-and-that spices that Melanie, the previous volunteer, had left in the kitchen- anything that looked right. One thing I thought was really making the flavor of the tajines was this brownish/whitish "spice." I added it every time. One day Erika, the closest (by far!) volunteer to me and a cooking expert, visited me. I showed her my tajine method including that special seasoning and she looked at me and said,
"Abby, are you being serious?"
"yeah....why?"
"because that's bread yeast."]

Soon after adding the spices, oil, and water. I add a sliced onion and some garlic. I covered it and let it stay there boiling over the flame while I chopped up the other vegetables. The great thing about the tajine is you really can add whatever you want. I added carrots and potatoes first (since they take longer to cook) then I added zucchini and tomatoes. You can also add in whatever portions you want. I prefer to make enough that it will be dinner as well as lunch. I really like adding bell peppers too if I have any in the kitchen. It's kind of an-everything-except-the-kitchen-sink dish.

Then you leave it burning over a low flame for as long as it takes until the vegetables are soft. Covered the whole time, preferably. How long? Who knows. I am not a slave to the clock as I was in the states. All I know is I have at least a two hour lunch break and that is enough time.

Then you take the tajeen to the table, tear your bread (khobs), and dig in. We do not eat with forks and knives here. Just with bread. While I'm American and own forks and knives, the tajine tastes much better eaten with bread and my own two hands. Generally then I'll sit in the living room and watch the previous night's Daily Show, one of the few networks that will permit someone outside the U.S. to watch their show.

The reason I'm being so wishy-washy about the measurements is because it is really up to personal taste. Most people would probably add some salt but I'm a purist and like my vegetables to taste like vegetables. Plus, here you don't really measure exactly; it's all about eye-balling it. Besides, it'd be metric anyway.

Is this post going to allow you to make your own tajine/tajeen/tagine? No, but at least you'll understand the process more or less.

Here are some visual aids!! Good Photos with captions: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2232930&id=18806879&l=6c9081c7da

little Arabic, ya'll!

One thing I'm really loving about Arabic is that they have a you-plural tense. Like vosotros in Spanish or vous in French. In Moroccan Arabic the subject pronoun is Ntuma and the Object pronoun ending is 'kum.

The reason I love it is because my general use of ya'll (or y'all, depending on personal preference) which I picked up in Texas, is generally rejected by my non-ya'll using friends. Most preference just "you" or "you guys." But here I can use this pronoun freely and receive no criticism.

For example, when I greet a group of people I may say "Labas 3likum?" or "Ki rakum?" (how are you?) which sounds perfectly normal and not something to be criticized, but what I'm thinking in my head is "How ya'll doin'?!" and I'm thinking it with a big hillbilly accent. I even think this in the greeting when I say "Salam 3leikum" I'm thinking "Peace be upon ya'll!"

I suppose when you spend days and days alone with no one to joke with in English, one has to start humoring herself some how.

Why I joined Peace Corps

My mornings generally work like this:

I wake up about 7:30 or so, make coffee/breakfast, and then get back in bed where the sun is pouring in from the window and I sit and eat breakfast and drink my coffee while reading until about 10. (don't think me lazy! Things start later around here, and work lasts until later in the evening)

So currently I'm reading a book called "The Assassins Gate" loaned and recommended to me by my good friend and fellow Moroccan PCV, Xavier. It's written by a journalist named George Packer. It's about the lead up to the war in Iraq. I'm probably about 90% finished with it and from what I gather it is this reporter basically trying to dissect the war and make sense of the whole thing because all the details he has gathered make the entire war seem illogical. In the beginning he states that after extensive research and coverage he will still go to his grave not really understanding it. (There's a point I'm getting to, I swear.)

[He is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) who served in Togo]

HERE IS MY POINT: Originally when Xavier loaned me the book, he had mentioned that a particular passage captured well why he joined the Peace Corps. While reading some of it this morning during my coffee/breakfast/book/bed/sunshine ritual I, by coincidence, picked out the same passage that had a resounding truth as to why I joined Peace Corps as well, though for different reasons.

Here's the particular passage from the chapter titled "Memorial Day":

"After years of sustained assault on the idea of collective action, there was no ideological foundation left on which Bush could have stood up and asked what Americans could do for their country. We weren't urged to study Arabic, to join the foreign service or international aid groups, to develop alternative sources of energy, to form a national civil reserve for emergencies.... Perhaps it was a shrewd political read on Bush's part-- a recognition that Americans, for all their passion after September 11, would inevitably slouch back on their sofas. It seemed fair to ask, though, how a body politic as out of shape as ours was likely to make it over the long, hard slog of wartime... So the months after September 11 were a lost opportunity- to harness the surge of civic energy."


So this says that post 9/11 Americans weren't urged to do all these collective pursuits for their country, but what I see in this is that, although it's not the norm, we (me and other like minded PCVolunteers)are doing these things. why? To take some kind of action-- to do something that may actually mean something. Although our generation seems to manifest senses of self-entitlement and egotism, these give us the confidence to actually enter the world and try to do something meaningful because we believe we are actually capable of having an effect on it all.

So, we will continue to try and call it Thriving (not just surviving*) because we hope that's what it is. And we will reflect when we're ancient (our 40s...just kidding!) and a little jaded-- and hope that we were right.



*Thrive-- do more more than just survive was the tagline Xavier assigned to his Peace Corps Service and I have absolutely stolen it to use as my own because I like it so much.

What am I even doing out here?

I suppose that you Americans, as tax payers, are entitled to know what I am doing out here living in Morocco off government money. (a whole $250 a month!)

This blog will, hopefully, enlighten you to the fact that I am actually WORKING-- quite a lot too.

Well, I teach English about 15 hours a week. Only 9 of that is in class, the rest is private sessions that I schedule when requested. I teach at the Dar Chebab, which is the youth center. The kids who attend those classes are mostly boys, though some girls and at the high school-ish level. I teach there in the afternoon/early evening- after school. (hopefully more girls will come once the sun starts setting later and it's actually light outside when they get out of school.) They are generally between the ages of 15 and 30. When I first knew I would be doing "Youth Development" what I thought "youth" were is different from the Moroccan concept of youth. Here, youth are high school-aged people or young, unemployed, unmarried adults. They are referred to as "Chebbab." (pronounced Sheh-BAB with a flat "a" as in cat) I also teach at the Nedi Neswi, which is the women's center. Those women are just coming to get out of their house for a few hours and generally are not learning English for any practical purpose. Those women are their twenties and have kids at home and households to maintain, so I teach them when their kids are at school. It's not very serious and we mostly just have fun.

So WHY am I teaching English? This is not the main goal of Peace Corps, especially considering that I'm not in the education sector-- and this is a Francophone country. The point of it is to meet people and get integrated into my community. The idea is that from meeting people through teaching English I can get my hands in other local development work, partnering with local associations/clubs. One of the goals of Peace Corps is sustainability-- meaning, after a volunteer has left, the work s/he did will continue on with local people. So to do that, that means that we have to collaborate with other associations/clubs and work with local resources-- not just pumping money or outside resources in, like donations. The good news is that this technique is working! I actually have projects and activities coming up. This whole concept was intimidating at first because they send you off into the middle of nowhere and tell you to find projects when you don't know the language or the people. And what kept coming through my mind is "WHAT projects? HOW?" But lo and behold, they are coming full speed. So on Friday I'm actually doing a tree planting project at the lycee (which is the high school). This particular local association called, Al Manar, is a group of well-educated but mostly unemployed men who mainly do informal education classes. By informal, I mean, they hold evening classes for kids who have left school already. By law, you can't leave school until 15 but that rule tends to be ignored out here in L'Arobeya (the countryside). Nobody gets in trouble if your kid leaves school early to work, especially if you are nomadic tent people. So this association works with those kids. They collaborate with the high school too to encourage people to stay in school. So I think the tree planting thing on Friday is just a way to be visible in the community.

I also have been meeting with an environmental club. I haven't quite figured out what they want to do, but I've been attending their meetings and they seem to be pretty organized. They are about my age.

Another club I've been meeting with at the Dar Chebab is made up of younger kids (like, early high school age) and they have said they want to be a club of "environment, theater, and sports." WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? So what I've gathered is that most of the clubs (as opposed to the associations, which are documented and official) are really unfocused. And this serves as a microcosm to their lives. Like, they have dreams and ideas and goals, but they have zero skills in actualizing these goals. This club is an example because they want to do all these things and then, because it's so unfocused, they end up doing nothing. So I feel like my role in this is to encourage them and say "ok you want to do x activity? Great. What's the first step we need to take to make this happen?" While this may seem logical, apparently it is not. This will probably be my main influence in the community. Sure, it's not as tangible as installing a water tower or something like that, but it is surely important and surely "youth development." Which, inchAllah, will translate into "adult development."

The youth I'm working with are so idle. And it's not completely their fault. A beautiful thing about the Arab culture here is that family is So important. People put family before everything else and they are intensely close and protective. One consequence of this is that people are not generally willing to leave their home town to find work. They will take whatever they can find to be home with their families. Yes, many emigrate if given the opportunity, but this is a huge and painful sacrifice for the one who emigrates. So, when these young 20-somethings can't find work, they tend to wallow around and hang out in cafes complaining about it. Or they get grand ideas and become really excited about them....and then they sit in the cafes talking about it, because how does one even go about making one's dreams come true? Where are the examples that they can follow?

So this is the feel I've gotten from my city since arriving the first week of December. Over the remaining 1 year and 10 months, I will really push my effort into teaching, both formally and by example, how to have an idea, a goal, and follow through with it, step by step. Melanie, the volunteer I replaced, has already started paving the way for this. Right before she left she had a conference called "learning to serve: multiplying the power of volunteerism" that was basically a leadership conference for "youth" where they learned these leadership/goal actualizing skills I've been referring to. So, hopefully, as the new volunteer, I will be able to build off of what Melanie began and create some empowered young adults.

Good use of your tax dollars?