Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Hi everyone! It's been a really long time since I posted here (over a month!). I've been in touch with many of you by email and telephone but most of you have probably been wondering what I've been doing, or maybe you've just forgotten about me 😉 Frankly I can't remember every detail of the past month so I'm just going to hit you with the highlights, and there have been many!
When our story left off I was still residing with the family Zahar and gorging on sheep guts. The last two weeks of homestay were filled with excitement as I prepared to move into my own house. This would be the first time I have ever lived alone and I was very excited about the prospect of having a place all to my self. Unfortunately attendance at my classes dropped off greatly with the holiday, subsequent school vacations, and the 3 week long Cup d'Afrique which is a major soccer tournament involving every country in Africa. Somehow all of the important games seemed to be played during my classes so the Dar Chebab was usually closed. Happily, however, this meant I got to watch all the games, giving
me my professional sports fix after the Patriots were out of the playoffs and with baseball still a few weeks away. Morocco was eliminated fairly quickly and Eygpt eventually won the tournament on their home turf, much to the dismay of the people of Ouaouizarht, most of whom favor non-Arab teams, but at least kids are becoming interested in learning English again!
I spent many happy hours in souk during those two weeks, picking out furniture and other necessary items to purchase for my house. My friend Brahim and my host mother M'laid, both of whom are excellent bargainers, helped me get resonable prices for everything. I still have a few things to pick up, but my house is looking pretty good now! The pictures here are of what it looked like on the first day I moved in. Once I get everything settled I'll post some more so you can see the finished product.
Also during this period I was approached by members of Jamayat Tawasul, a local community organization, with the request to start teaching English in their classrooms. Since Dar Chebab attendance was pretty light I quickly agreed to take a look at their place.
It's much smaller than the Dar Chebab but there's a really nice staff and it's always full of kids of both genders, something which the DC currently lacks. I met with the staff and we agreed that classes would begin in February, giving me time to focus on moving.
When I arrived for my first class I was greatly surprised to discover that I was going to be teaching the staff, not the kids! Obviously there was some sort of miscommunication (surprise, surprise), but I was just happy to be working again. I have about 12 students there, all in their mid-twenties. None of them are married so, technically by Moroccan standards, they are still considered "youth" 😊 They've been really receptive to my style of teaching, which is more geared towards kids, and we've had lots of fun singing songs, yelling out new vocab words, and playing bingo for chocolate. Hopefully I be able to start a kids class there in the future, but for now I'm content with my progress.
Still, I am a long way from abandoning the Dar Chebab, despite my difficulties there. I posted about 50 more signs advertising my classes, emphasizing that
they are free, and very slowly kids are starting to come back. No girls yet, but the boys are really nice. One of them, a newcomer named Aziz, promptly invited me to his house for dinner right after attending my class for the first time!
Life at home has been exciting too. The day after I moved in, Alyson, one of the Health volunteers I spent Christmas with, stayed at my house on her way to meet up with her boyfriend to go visit another PCV in Albania. Alyson's a creative cook so we made chicken fajitas with some random stuff that we found in the souk. Apparently sugarless yogurt makes great sour cream! The next day, Andy, an enviroment volunteer who was also on hand for Christmas stayed over and we had dinner with my family, which they loved since he speaks Tamazirght. The next night Brahim and Hicham brought Dawn, an Englishwoman who was visiting Morocco, over to meet me, and then a few days later Andy was back again. The next day we were visited by Emme, a nearby YD volunteer, and Dr.'s Hamid and Imame from the Peace Corps staff. Last weekend I went to
visit John and Amanda in their new place, as well as Christine, a Small Business volunteer who lives in the apartment next to them. This weekend John and Amanda are coming to see me, so it's been a whirlwind of visitors, which is nice. As much as I love living alone, it's great to have people come to visit me (hint hint to you all).
The party in this town never stops even when my friends aren't around. Last week we celebrated 3shura, which, as far as I can tell, is Morocco's (maybe Islam's in general) version of Christmas. It falls on the tenth day of the Islamic new year and is a big party for kids. The night before, everybody lights big fires and the kids get sticks which, when you stick them into the flames, shoot sparks out in every direction. They run around the bonfires swinging these things around in circles so basically the whole area is full of fire and running children. Sounds great, huh? The parents hang out in the background playing drums and singing songs, and in the morning all the kids get presents (hence the Christmas part). Hearing all the noise near
my house I ran down the hill and joined in the fray. The instant I took my first picture I was mobbed by about 30 kids with burning sticks in their hands, all desperate to get in the pictures. Fortunately an older boy managed to extract me from the press, how I still don't know, and I was able to watch the rest of the festivities in relative peace.
My house is small, but it's much bigger than anything I'd anticipated when I signed up for the Peace Corps. I have a living room, bedroom, kitchen, storage room, bathroom, and my own walk-on roof with a great view of the town and the mountains! Ah, life in the Posh Corps is good 😊 Of course you are all welcome at anytime! Just let me know when you pull into to the taxi stand, and PLEASE bring me some Frosted Flakes!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 59; dbt: 0.051s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb