Peace Corps Training

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Rabat is an amazing city, I only wish I had more time to visit it. The Peace Corps is keeping us busy all day with training and such. We have to go through safety and PC policies and learn countless acronyms and names which sound very unpronouncable at first.
I wish I had more exciting news, but for now it's mostly meetings in a windowless room just like in Philadelphia. They're interesting, but they're still meetings. Instead I'd like to leave you with some of my favorite parts of what we've been talking about. The cover of the PC Morocco Pre-Service Training Handbook has a very appropriate poem by Lao-Tsu (6th century BC).
Go to the people
Live with the people
Start with the people
Work with what the people know
Learn by doing
Teach by showing
And with the best of leaders when
The task is done
The people will say
We have done this ourselves
Itùs so much fun to be around so many other enthusiastic, idealistic people. I really am having a great time, but I donùt want to bore you with all the logistics and policies I've been learning. Tomorrow I go to Fès/ Fèz however you want to write it. There I will be with only the Youth Development Trainees. So far it has been a group of YD mixed with Small Business Development (they work with artisans and such). I'll get a week in Fès, then will go to a smaller town near there to train with a few others in an established Dar Chbab (Youth House) and see a Volunteer in action.
I hope to be able to post more soon, but they are keeping me so busy it will probably not be very often. (Dad, don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while)
Love, Heather
PS hopefully I'll get to add some Arabic into my next email. For now I'm speaking French with all the Moroccans.

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Photos

Mohammed V
The main street in Rabat is near the hotel and is fun to walk up and down, though the city is so modern it's not too different from most American cities.

Modern Rabat
People watching is good here, there's everything from fully covered and veiled women to guys in basketball t-shirts and women in tank tops and jean skirts.

Mosque
Moshay (on left) is one of the YD trainees, from California. We've had some time to explore the town and I always orient myself by the mosque minaret which is close to the hotel.