Morocco 6 month update

produce at the souk in el Hajeb

street near my host fame's house

I am finally able to update my blog after being here almost 6 months.  I'm sorry it has taken so long!

Here is an extremely brief update of things that happened since I've been here:

January:
Arrived in Morocco on Jan. 16th.  We had our original training in Rabat for about a week before heading to our training sites.  It was rainy but I walked over to the ocean a few times to see the waves in-between sessions.  A week after trainings in Rabat, everyone moved to their CBT (community based training) sites.  My training site was in a town called El Hajeb.  There I lived with a Moroccan host family of a mom, dad and two year old baby girl.  Daily, I met with my class group (6 of us) and our LCF (language and cultural facilitator) We learned Darija for around 8 hours per day, almost like a full time job.

Food at a birthday party for the 2 year old

February:

I got some henna and they painted an eye picture on my palm

February was more training in El Hajeb.  We continued to learn Darija and also try to connect with the youth in the community at the youth center, working on teaching English.  We also had a "hub" training in Mekness with other training groups.  The last week of February we had a "spring camp" at the youth center in El Hajeb.  This camp was to teach the local youth english in a day camp setting.

vegetables at the souk in El Hajeb

March:
We had two more "hub" meetings in Mekness for a few days to have a large group trainings.  In between the hubs we still had our language classes every day.  Each person spent time with their own host family and tried to learn about the culture and customs of Morocco.
The last week of March we completed our training and traveled to Rabat to have more training and get ready for the swearing in ceremony.

April:
On April 4th we had our swearing in Ceremony and were privileged to be sworn in by John Kerry!  The next day, April 5th, each person traveled to his or her final site.  My site is in the south.  Some people have site mates and some people are the only PCV in their site.  I have a site mate who has already been here for 1 year.  However, when I arrived in site he was gone on a trip.  So it was a few weeks before I met the site mate in my town.

main street in el hajeb

There I lived with a new host family for a little over 3 weeks.  This host family was older with 5 children, the youngest being about 14.  Plus two of the son's wives.  So it was a large contrast from my first host family with only 1 small child.  The new family also speaks a berber language around the home, but still will understand and respond in Darija when I speak to them.  I also helped out at another "spring camp" at the youth center here near the end of the month.

May:
Moved out of the host family's home on May first.  I lived in another pcv's home for a week or so (they were out of town at the time)  Until my own house was available.  I took over the home of another PCV who served his full term and closed his service.  On May 11th I moved in to the house ( on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex)  The rest of the month I spent trying get settled in a little bit.  I had been going to the youth center almost daily to try to connect with the youth there but ut seems that this time of year there is not much for me to do there.  I am hoping in the future I will have more work there…..The last week of May my boyfriend came to visit!




June:

souk in my town

a lizard climbed into my room- which was made of mud- at my host family's house

youth center-eating lunch at spring camp

 Alan stayed until the first week of June and it was nice to have a wonderful visitor here in Morocco.  After Alan left, I continued to settle into the house and keep trying to integrate.  The last two weeks of June we had a 2 week training in Marrakesh.  Then on June 28th Ramadan started.

July:
Now it is July and Ramadan.  Things move at a much slower pace.  It is very hot and people are fasting during daylight hours (also not even drinking water).  This is the longest daylight hours fasting period during Ramadan in several decades so it takes extra dedication to fast during this Ramadan time.


I will try to continue with updates and I'm sorry this one was so brief…..please ask me any questions and I will answer them on here.  If there are specific blog post topics you would like me to write about, please let me know.  Now that I am getting settled into my final site, and actually have regular internet access (at the moment)  I hope I can be more diligent about blogging my experience.

Last hours in the USA

In the New York airport now!  There are 103 volunteers going together to morocco- it's a very large group!  Yesterday was spent at the hotel in Philadelphia.  We went through a sort of oeace corps orientation and tried to meet all of the other volunteers.   After our session was over we went out for dinner and some drinks to celebrate our last night in the USA for the next two years...   Now were waiting  for our flight to morocco at the airport.

Peace Corps- Morocco- here I come

This is the beginning stages of packing, even though I am leaving in less then 2 days…I hope I can finish it all in time!