7-20
So I finally got to Marakesh this past weekend! I met up with my family for a wedding and got to see lots of he city too afterwords since the wedding was only the first night. I also got some beautiful hena done for the wedding by one of the neighbors right before I left. So I only saw the last night of the wedding on Friday and it was winding down so it was nice but very low key. I did get to wear my traditional Moroccan dress which was fun. I got lots of stares and “look at the tarameet (foreigner) in the Kaftan!” Once the wedding was over and we made into the actual city of Marakesh I got a tour, did some shopping, and just walked around since there are always things to see; whether it’s a snake charmer, a street performer, or just the architecture and the city itself. I made it back Sunday but I have a week before I leave for a training up in Azrou (by Fez) for two weeks. It's up north in the mountains so it'll be nice to get away from the heat here in Tiznit at least for a little bit.
Alright, take care and I’ll keep you posted!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
New Apartment...Hamdillilah! :)
6/23
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun and productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright… well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.
7/1
So it’s been quite an ordeal getting moved into the apartment but things are in place and I have finally moved in. Things came together last minute since we had some delays. The main delay was a last minute congratulations on getting elected party for Jamila which was planned during when we had already planned to go into Tiznit together to do some apartment shopping. This is typical life here in Morocco though…plan on being patient and flexible because Moroccan time is definitely very different than American time.
Besides moving though, Nicole came and got to see my site which was fun! There was no down time when we arrived at my site since there was a end of the school year party in full swing for the preschool my family runs below the house. Once things died down though we hung out with my host family for a bit and then went on a tour of my town (during which she got to experience first hand my town’s scream to prayer …yes it’s not a call, but a scream done but a Iman probably in his 90s). It was definitely a good time and just nice just to hang out since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. The day after Nicole came though was my first official day in my own apartment. Hallelujah! ...what a relief! I love my host family but after four months of staying with a host families I was ready. So far I’ve been enjoying having some privacy and once I get a chance to catch up on posting pixs I’ll post some of the apartment.
7/15
So I’ve been in the apartment for two weeks now and it continues to be great! I’ve also had some visitors. Whitney, another Health volunteer down south in Tata was the first. Then Marj and Nicole came. I went to Marj’s for the 4th and that was fun. We found some real hot dogs, got some watermelon, and had our selves a cookout Moroccan style since we had to cook the hot dogs in a Tagine hahha. It was a nice low key fourth. After the fourth Whitney came, I went to Agadir for a little house shopping, and then Nicole and Marj came since we all had a meeting with the Ministry of health last Friday. Unfortunately the meeting was pretty counterproductive since it was basically the ministry coming down on the older volunteers for silly reasons but we worked thru it. After the meeting we were all a little tense so we went to Sidi Ifni again and Goulmine for the weekend. Both were nice and relaxating. Goulmine is supposed to be the gate to the Sahara so that was neat.
That’s really all the excitement for now, but I’ll post more soon!
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun and productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright… well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.
7/1
So it’s been quite an ordeal getting moved into the apartment but things are in place and I have finally moved in. Things came together last minute since we had some delays. The main delay was a last minute congratulations on getting elected party for Jamila which was planned during when we had already planned to go into Tiznit together to do some apartment shopping. This is typical life here in Morocco though…plan on being patient and flexible because Moroccan time is definitely very different than American time.
Besides moving though, Nicole came and got to see my site which was fun! There was no down time when we arrived at my site since there was a end of the school year party in full swing for the preschool my family runs below the house. Once things died down though we hung out with my host family for a bit and then went on a tour of my town (during which she got to experience first hand my town’s scream to prayer …yes it’s not a call, but a scream done but a Iman probably in his 90s). It was definitely a good time and just nice just to hang out since we hadn’t seen each other in a while. The day after Nicole came though was my first official day in my own apartment. Hallelujah! ...what a relief! I love my host family but after four months of staying with a host families I was ready. So far I’ve been enjoying having some privacy and once I get a chance to catch up on posting pixs I’ll post some of the apartment.
7/15
So I’ve been in the apartment for two weeks now and it continues to be great! I’ve also had some visitors. Whitney, another Health volunteer down south in Tata was the first. Then Marj and Nicole came. I went to Marj’s for the 4th and that was fun. We found some real hot dogs, got some watermelon, and had our selves a cookout Moroccan style since we had to cook the hot dogs in a Tagine hahha. It was a nice low key fourth. After the fourth Whitney came, I went to Agadir for a little house shopping, and then Nicole and Marj came since we all had a meeting with the Ministry of health last Friday. Unfortunately the meeting was pretty counterproductive since it was basically the ministry coming down on the older volunteers for silly reasons but we worked thru it. After the meeting we were all a little tense so we went to Sidi Ifni again and Goulmine for the weekend. Both were nice and relaxating. Goulmine is supposed to be the gate to the Sahara so that was neat.
That’s really all the excitement for now, but I’ll post more soon!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Life the last couple wks...
6/19
Not much to mention but my apartment is finally on its way to being ready for me to move into which is exciting! Also I had my first tea with a group of male leaders in the community at a café on the main road in Bounaamane on Wednesday so that was exciting! It’s really nice automatically being gender neutral as an American here. The last big highlight from this past week was having the Moroccan version of Chef Boyerdee. It was amazing! Imagine chef boyardee without the chemicals and with lentals done well. That’s what it was!..a more exotic form I guess. Alright…on that note I’ll stop but tomorrow I’m going to Sidi Ifni for the weekend so I’m sure I’ll have more to write soon!
6/23
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun but productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright….well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.
Not much to mention but my apartment is finally on its way to being ready for me to move into which is exciting! Also I had my first tea with a group of male leaders in the community at a café on the main road in Bounaamane on Wednesday so that was exciting! It’s really nice automatically being gender neutral as an American here. The last big highlight from this past week was having the Moroccan version of Chef Boyerdee. It was amazing! Imagine chef boyardee without the chemicals and with lentals done well. That’s what it was!..a more exotic form I guess. Alright…on that note I’ll stop but tomorrow I’m going to Sidi Ifni for the weekend so I’m sure I’ll have more to write soon!
6/23
After a relaxing weekend in a bungalow on the beach in Sidi Ifni with four other girls from the Tiznit convent (there are literally no boys placed in Tiznit province since it’s too conservative), my batteries have been recharged. We lied on the beach, ate some really good fresh fish, and played cards. There was also some wifi so that was a HUGE treat! Already though, it’s been a busy week. I meet with my counterpart at the local clinic and then I had a site visit with my assistant program manager Rachid. Both went well. Rachid is always hilarious and full of good info so it was a fun but productive site visit. He also brought me my mountain bike which I’m really really excited about! Since I’m in a valley surrounded by mountains it’s flat and perfect for biking. Alright….well this is all the exciting news I have for now but I move into my apartment next Wednesday and I’m doing some furniture/appliance shopping tomorrow so I’ll keep you updated on how all that goes.
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