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.)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, June 17, 2011
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.
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.
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