Frisbee in Fes

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Hello everybody
Sorry there's no photos for this blog. Many technical issues going on over here.
The good news is: I can't say enough how awesome the other people in my group are. Training is a bit like summer camp; but even better. It's a diverse group. Besides being from all over the US and with different backgrounds we're not all recent college graduates. Our youngest is 21 and our oldest is somewhere in his 40s. I can't remember exactly. We lost the oldest of the group we started out with in Philadelphia. Barbara is 77 and she went with the other half when we split in Rabat. It's a fun community of volunteers. Last night somebody got out a laptop and others found DVDs and we borrowed a screan and projector from the PC staff and watched Conan O'Brian and some movies. There's a musical exchange going on here too with everybody sharing CDs and IPODs. We even have a couple guitar players and some harmonica attempts going on.
Of course the best parts of the group have to be the skill sharing. We have Ultimate Frisbee hour and pilates class and meditation and charades and all sorts of other stuff going on. It's nice to be in a city where we can go out and are actually encouraged to go out. In Rabat the downtown area was considered "dangerous" and we had a curfew. In Fes the staff tells us to go out and explore the city. The place we're staying is more comfortable too - though it has fewer creature comforts. We can play frisbee in the courtyard and go into the kitchen to chat with the staff or grab a snack but the toilet and shower situation is very different. (For those of you interested in logistics) It's a sort of youth hostel building and the bathrooms are shared. The toilets are what the French call turkish toilets - a hole in the ground. The way to flush is to pour a bucket of water down the hole and the way to clean without paper is to splash off with water from the bucket. Basically it means that I wash my hands at least 10 times what I do in the US and I'm keeping my fingernails as short as possible. And I'm very careful about the left / right hand thing. (i would put an exclamation point if I could find it on this keyboard)
As for the Peace Corps (PC) I have learned that they use a lot of acronyms. I am now a PCT (trainee) and after I am sworn in Nov 25 I will be a PCV (volunteer) which I have already said out loud in front of the group as PVC. It's the outdoor maintenance worker in me. Or perhaps the dyslexic in me.Either way it's interesting trying to remember all their little codes. PCMO is used a lot (Peace Corps Medical Officer) I had to call them today because I had a little cold and lost my voice. It was very hard to communicate over the phone and it's making Arabic class complicated.
Saturday I had my first Arabic language class. There is a difference between Classical or Standard Arabic and Moroccan Arabic which is called Dareeja. What we learned Satuday was some of the basic beginner phrases which I'm going to try to transcribe into out alphabet. We started learning Arabic script on Monday and it's not very hard so far since I've been working on it all summer. So we learned the basic greeting S-salam a alaykum and the response wa alaykum s-salam. Then we learned how to ask a person's name: shnu smitk. Smiti Heather. and the pleased to meet you phrase "mtshrrfin". In case you can't tell learning Dareeja has been my favorite part of training so far. We've learned quite a bit more in class and it's easy to pick up words and phrases by talking to the staff during the rest of the day.
This is as good a time as any to let youknow where I expect to be over the next couple of months. Sept 13-15 I was in Rabat. Sept 16-24 I am in Fes. Sept 25-Octé I should be at my Community BAsed Training site (CBT) working in a Dar Shabab (Youth House kind of like a Third World YMCA) with four other volunteers and an LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator). I will be living with a Woroccan family during CBT. Ramadan will start either OCT 3 or4. I will be in Immouzzer back with the whole Youth Development (YD) group from Oct 3-5 and then go back to my CBT site Oct 6-12. The 13-20 is back to Immouzzer then out to the CBT October 21- Nov6. The 7th and 8th I'll be in Immouzzer then I'll get to go visit my real community Nov 9-14. We'll get back together with the group I started with in Philadelphia and Rabat in Immouzzer on the 14th and be there until the 25th when we swear in as real PCVs. Then the 26th we leave everybody and go off alone to our site and begin our 24 months of service. Consideringhow much we're moving around I'm not surprised they won't accept packages for us at the Rabat address. Letters will have a hard enough time finding us. When I have a real address in my community - which I ,ight have as early as Nov 9th I'll be able to request anything from the US I can't live without. But I' seem to be doing fine here. There's so many things in the markets here - and they smell even stronger than the Cambodian markets.
More to follow. I'll figure out the photo situation and show you all the cool group I have here and the construction next to our hostel which is using a crane that could only be found in a developing country.
This place deserves to have its photos postes - it really is a beautiful town.

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