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After swearing in with my training group. My friend made my dress!Disclaimer: The following content is solely my opinion and is not intended to represent the view of the Peace Corps.
Once things settle down a bit I would like to do a day in the life blog, but since it is starting to get real, a lot has happened. I graduated so to speak and moved to my final work site. The feelings associated with this move have come and gone and have been replaced with the adjustment of leaving behind the English language.
My site is gorgeous. I haven’t quite wrapped my head around it yet, no matter how much I hike. Unlike in my training site, the people are a little bit more standoffish and trust is earned. I have come to appreciate this quality because it makes the friendships that I have gained more meaningful. There have been 2 female volunteers here before me and i overlapped with the last women for the first few weeks in May. It is weird we are both funny, unphotogenic Iowa girls so we got along famously! She is gone now and I have been making more of an effort to get to know people. Any given day I am
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This a picture of the fields in my duwar. working in a field or drinking tea with someone, but more on that in the next installment.
Seems like I have been out of my site a lot lately and very busy. It all started a few weeks ago. My tutor lives about an hour bike ride up the mountain from me so I planned a trip after tutoring (just Darija for now, but hoping to learn FosHa, script, and French while I am here) to climb the highest peak here, Mount Tazeka. This included another 2 hour bike ride to another volunteer’s site. This person lives in what soon will be a mosque so this is as close as I will ever be to being allowed inside I think. They made their house feel like home so it was inspiring, I can’t wait to live on my own! The next day a bunch of us started the hike. Now granted it was no Mount Whitney it still kicked my ass! The whole time I was wondering why I was walking so slow since there would be no altitude effects, but as you can see from the pic of the GPS unit for every step forward we were taking
2 steps up! I have never in my life of living in Yosemite hiked such a steep trail. The view was well worth it, it always is. It is from these experiences that I understand the land. I got to see my water source and that of Fes, I learned soil structure and the different clines of plant life. It was even worse going down! The bike ride back was awesome because I rarely had to peddle. I just sat back, listened to Woody Guthrie (because I am such a hard workin’ women), and watched the landscape go by…
A few days later my friend and tutor, LahCen was engaged and married in about 2 weeks. These people know how to celebrate! Especially Berbers! A big group of us, about 8 Americans in all are walking the long dirt road to his house and as soon as we get close the band strikes up. There is 2 guys on some kind of horn and 2 guys on the drums. Really middle eastern sounding stuff. And then everybody there comes in a parade down the hill to meet us led by LahCen who has the biggest smile on his face,
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This is my homestay family with the apple pie I tired to make. ear to ear. The music didn’t stop for the rest of the night. A group of men wearing white jellabas would dance one of them would twirl this old rifle and the dance they did was somewhat like a series of tribal history re-enactments. The women would have their own little dance party which I would participate in and every now and again you would here a “you-youie”. I was pretty sick to my stomach from before so I didn’t partake in the feast too much, but there was couscous, goat with prunes (so good!), and chicken. After about midnight they would do the “hadoos” which is a dance where everybody crosses hands in a big line and do this shoulder shimmy dance and LahCen’s mother would wave the Moroccan flag.
Last week we had a practice of sorts in Fes. Free overnight trip to one of the cultural, historic centers of the country! We stayed in the Old Medina which has these big fortress walls around it and high on a hill there are the tombs of old sultans. The rest is a series of mazes that inevitably you get lost in. After lunch another girl and I
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This is the GPS reading of our insane hike. went to try to find the tanneries were they produce the beautifully dyed leather pieces. They smell awful so that is what helped us find our way when we were lost…just follow your nose. Along the way there are different areas, like the metal workers stands and the incense/small gifts areas. Deep in the medina I start talking to someone and they tell me they can get me on the roof to see the pools of dye were people work. I was able to understand and talk quite a bit so we didn’t have to pay for the tour. It was fantastic to see all the little alley ways and the old mosques peaking up. I helped the girl I was with get this dyno-mite purse and even got a free wallet out of the whole deal! It smells horrible so you know it’s good.
This month should continue to be busy. I already am starting some small projects and hope to find more time to study. I never thought reading would be my way to procrastinate on studying. Thanks for the messages. Take care.
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