Dresses, kittens, and elections...

6/13


It’s been a productive week! This is surprising since it also hit over 100 degrees in the shade and usually nothing gets done when it’s that hot. The main highlights were going to Agadir to go shopping for wedding outfits for Jamila’s wedding, getting my kitten, and the elections.


I’ll start with Agadir on Wednesday. Marj and I were going to go originally so I could get cat stuff and so Marj could pick up a Banjo for her Berber Banjo lessons but I found out my host dad gave Jamila and my host mom the ok to go to Agadir only on Wednesday to do shopping for wedding stuff. So, Marj and I went ahead and went without them in the morning and got our stuff done. After that we went to the soq and met up with my host mom, Jamila, and a host cousin. We found my dress pretty quick and painlessly. Mine is a lavender color and has three layers. The 1st is a satin and then there’s a layer on op of that that is lacey with silver accents. The final layer is a shear shall which even has a hood which makes me look like something out of Star Wars. The man selling the dress was from our town so we got a better deal on it so that was nice. After dress shopping we got lunch and walked around some more. The soq basically is a giant Moroccan version of a Mall so it provides a lot of entertainment. It’s comprised of little cubby hole shops under a giant plastic and tin roof. Everything you would ever want or need is there from furniture and clothes to bootleg DVDs and antiques. It’s quite the experience going and at first a little overwhelming but lots of fun once you get a feel for it.


Now, on to my kitten! My friend Whitney brought her on a bus all the way from the Tata region further south on Thursday. She is 7 weeks old and really really tiny with black and grey stripes. She didn’t really appreciate the bus ride but she made it. After much dispute her name is Raja. My host family didn’t like it because it’s the name of Casablanca’s soccer team and a Moroccan name but she’s definitely a Raja so the name stayed. My host family also took her brother (Tommy) so she has a playmate. The only problem is that my host family has lots of fabric and curtains in the house so it’s not very kitten proof and I think it’s only a matter of time before things start to get shredded. We’ll see….


And lastly, we had local elections here on Friday. This doesn’t sound too exciting except for the fact that Jamila was running for a position and won. This is significant because she is the first women in the region to hold any type of elected office. She ran along with four other women for various positions and was the only successful one. She also ran under her own party that she created and which was named after the group that kicked the French out. She really didn’t know if she had a chance or not especially since campaigning is only allowed for the week before the elections. The night before the elections there were all kinds of rallies and parades around town for the various parties. We went on the roof and since we live in the center of town and watched everything that was going on. She found out that she won around midnight along with two other family members in different areas. It was exciting but a long night followed by a day packed with visitors. It was fun though and I got to meet a lot of neat people. One of the other winners in town was a guy named Obama so when he came over to congratulate Jamila we had a good laugh about that. It was funny too because I heard people chanting his name on election night and I was really confused but then my family explained to me there was also an Moroccan Obama too hahah.



Alright I’ll end here until the next post, take care!

Emeek smeek (Little by little...)

6/8

It’s been a busy week and little by little I'm becoming more and more integrated. I went to the Sbitar waiting room on Monday and Tuesday to hang out with the women waiting to get vaccinations. I met some of women in town and got some practice with my tash so that was good. I also tried to get a hold of the moudir (principle) of the lycée (high school) because I need to get started (since it takes awhile) on getting approval so I can get into the schools and teach health lessons in the fall. They had the bac (the baccalauréat is French equivalent of the SATs only much more intense) last week though so I had to put that off for another week. On Wednesday I was in Tiznit for some furniture shopping. Thursday I was in Tiznit again for some more cyber time and tutoring….

I also lost my computer charger there which was funny because I wasn’t really worried…who would want to steal my computer charger especially since it’s American and they can’t use it anyways right?!.. However when I told my host family they were determined that we were going to locate it. I did have the number for the cyber cafe so I gave it to Jamila and the plan was for her to call and see if they had it. The plan would have worked if the number was actually the number for the cyber. It ended up being the home number for one of three of the guys who worked there. Two of guys who help run the cyber are younger more modern looking guys, and then there’s the guys who owns it. He looks a little older and is definitely a fundamentalist (he never looks at or talks to any of the PCVs when we go in). The home number ended up being Emr’s, the fundamentalist. Luckily his mom picked up though (hahahahah…) and told us to keep calling back. I told Jamila not to worry about it because I could get another volunteer that lives in Tiznit to go by and check for it in the morning. Seven, yes seven, phone calls she located the charger. Moral of the story: Don’t lose things! Hey, at least they helped me find it though and that matters.

Anywayysssss.....so that was Thursday evening, Friday I went over to my friend Neijma’s for cascrut (tea time) which was fun because I also got to help her crack Argan nuts. Argan trees are only found in my region in Morocco. A lot of the women collect the nuts and make Argan oil which is hard work but it brings in decent money because it’s so expensive. I actually got to taste some of the oil and it is unlike anything else I’ve tasted. It’s really good but also really different from anything we have in the US. When from I came home from Neijma’s we had family visiting so I spent the rest of the day hang out with them and helping in the kitchen. Saturday and Sunday, Marj and I went to visit Nicole near Tafrout. Tafrout is up the mountains and absolutely beautiful. We met her host family and had cascrut with them which was nice then we got a tour of her town and relaxed some so that was nice. Sunday morning we caught a taxi back home in time to catch the finals of the French Open and get ready for next week.

Alright…that’s it for now but also check out Marj’s blog (easternedge.wordpress.com) because she’s given me my own section on it called “Thoughts by Jess” which I think you’ll enjoy! :) Take care and I’ll post soon!

On the run!

So after several sedentary months I finally started running again this week! It’s been a battle since my family doesn’t understand why a woman would want to do anything physical like that and because they insist I always take my 14y/o host niece with me who hates running. I finally convinced her though and let me tell you!...the scenery is beautiful! I’m in the foothills of the Anti-Atlas and its pretty deserty so there’s lots of cacti and palm trees but there’s also lots of geraniums and other beautiful flowering plants. The area where I run is also neat because there are lots of little adobe structures all around. It’s beautiful but I do have to be very careful since the heat can be brutal and I can’t run near where the men congregate. It’s funny when we do pass people though the different responses we get. We’ve gotten everything from scornful disbelief to people joining in with us which is pretty funny when they’re wearing their jalabas and sandals. Whatever works I guess…as long as you’re getting the exercise right?! ? :)

Finally at my Site!

5/6/09

So I have sworn in and arrived at my final site where I’ll be for the next two years. We had a nice swearing in ceremony during which the Ambassador spoke and we took our oath of service. After that we had a reception and packed our bags to leave for our sites. It took a day to get to Agadir, which included a stop in Marrakesh for lunch and a taxi transfer, and then the following morning we went to Tiznit. I was soo nervous about meeting another host family but again they are so wonderful and welcoming. The town is beautiful and has pretty much all the amenities I need besides a cyber cafe and maybe a weekly soq market. I can’t complain though because some people have to travel hours for a cyber and I only have about a 20 minute taxi ride to my nearest town with everything I can’t find at my site. The people at my site are also really great. Everyone is friendly and wants to be helpful which is neat. Thanks to Jess, the volunteer I’m replacing everyone knows why I’m here and respects my mission. This is good since there’s a lot of work to be done here. This week I have been shadowing Jess and getting all the info I can before she leaves at the end of May…she’s been a wonderful resource and great about introducing me to everyone around town. So far what I have learned is that Trash, an ambulance for the nearest clinic, and training for the traditional birth attendants should be top priorities. Once things settle and I have integrated more I’ll start trying to tackle these things a long with other projects which I’m sure will pop up.

Alright that’s all for now but I’ll post soon! : )

5/10

I just came back from my first out of site project! Me and five other girls went and helped out at a SIDA (AIDS in French) day event at another PCV’s (Meredith’s) site that lives in the region. There were 100 kids and they only seven of us but it worked out. They made SIDA bracelets, learned a song bringing awareness to the topic, watched a video on it, and then we had a question and answer session which was interesting. It was a big success and then afterwards we had a girl’s night at Meredith’s complete with pudding cake and American Idol. Before, I went to Meredith’s though I also had a great experience with an English class nearby which helped prepare me for the kids at Meredith’s site. Me and the other Jess went to my soon to be tutor’s English class to do a Q&A session and then teach a health lesson. The kids are high school aged and amazing for only having a year of English. They asked some intense questions too like what do you think about Gaza, What do you think about terrorism, and how is America going to fix the world economy. Luckily their teacher stepped in and let the class know we are not politicians whenever we did get questions like that so that was helpful. Alright…These are the main updates but I’ll continue to keep you updated!

5/18

It’s been quite a week or so. To start I’ve been busy mostly with meeting with people in my community, brain storming project ideas, and getting my carte de sejour (which is basically a work visa). The peace corps thankfully gives a tutoring allowance so I also started tutoring in Tashlaheit this week also.

It’s also been a hard week because I found out Lucy, my dog back home, passed away at 17, and it’s also Jess’s last week here before she goes back. Our overlap is almost over so I’m trying to get all the information I can from her before I’m completely on my own. Luckily though she was here to be supportive when I found out Lucy was going to be put down. Also my family from CBT called and texted me when they found out through Marj so it was nice to have that support also. What made it even more difficult though was that most Moroccans don’t understand the concept of having pets. Because of this my host family could not understand why I was so upset. My host dad offered to go to Taradant though (the next Province over to the East) to find a puppy for me since there are a lot of strays there. A sweet offer and it made me feel a little better that he kind of understood but I said no.

So those are the biggest bits of news for now but I hope everyone is doing well back home and I’ll post again soon.

Jess

5/29

The other Jess left on Monday morning so I have officially almost finished my first week alone at my site. Before Jess left we had a going away lunch for her last Friday with other volunteers and then with my host family last Sunday. We also walked to her village earlier last week where she started out her service and met some really neat people she needed to say goodbye to. It took about a week but she finally said all her goodbyes and headed to 72 hour checkout in Rabat before heading to the States. Now that I’m on my own I have been trying to set a schedule for myself so I’m integrating and getting to know the community. After meeting with my counterpart this week at the clinic and with my tutor I think I have one. On Mondays and Tuesdays the Clinic is full since they’re vaccination days so I’ll try to spend part of both days each week in the waiting room meeting people and practicing language skills. I also am going to start taking daily walks hopefully more than once a day as another way to meet people and hopefully get invited to tea. I’m going to spend Wednesdays investigating new associations. Thursdays are dedicated to going to Tiznit for Tutoring, soq (farmers market that is usually only one day a week), and for time at the cyber cafe plus if I have any other errands. Fridays are going to be a day to brainstorm ideas, investigate more associations and to catch up on reading. Until I move into my apartment the weekends are going to be dedicated to getting appliances and furniture for my apartment, writing, and planning for the next week. Of course this is the ideal schedule but won’t always happen. This week is a good example of this. On Wednesday I had to go to Agadir since I found out around 9am we had an emergency consolidation exercise. So I dropped my plans for the day to get to and from Agadir for the drill. At least I got a good burger on the beach while I was there which is rare over here so I guess it was worth it! :)

I’ll end here for now but just a little side note because I’ve gotten some questions about how to comment on posts, if you want to comment click on the little pencil icon at the end of each post. It should prompt you and be pretty simple from there.

Thanks again everyone for following so far and I’ll post again soon!