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Published: April 30th 2006
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Pour la version française regardez la blogue de Marie sur http://momaroc.canalblog.com/
I went into Marrakech today to meet Marie, a French woman who is a very close friend of my friend Michèle Lafuste and who I knew briefly when I was in France. She is here for three weeks backpacking around on vacation and also a scouting mission. Next year when her granddaughters are 7 and 8 she is planning on bringing them to Morocco. I am very impressed not only with the way that she is traveling around alone, but also with her granddaughter project. She says that though she takes them camping, they are quite prissy and don’t even like to eat with their hands. That will have to change when they come here. I was recently presented with a fork at a restaurant and don’t really know what to do with one anymore. I am used to eating with my hands now like everybody else here.
After seeing a little bit of Marrakech together we went to Tazert to visit another volunteer who lives there. Marie wants to take her granddaughters not only to another country, but to show them another way of living. She was
looking for a small rustic village where she might stay with a family for a few days with the girls. I thought immediately of Tazert, where I had celebrated Christmas last year, so off we went.
Cybèle was not only excited about the idea, she has been trying to open up some sort of tourism in her village, so introducing the two of them worked out perfectly for me. What worked out perfectly for Cybèle was that she has been searching for a home for one of her kittens since she wasn’t quick enough to get her cat spayed before the neighborhood toms got to her. Another volunteer has promised to take the other.
So, all of a sudden my home has not only a real refrigerator and a guest, but a cat, too. Maybe leaving here won’t be as easy as I had thought. I’m really settling in.
What excites me is having visitors, though. I consider my home put together enough now to be able to host family. I think all Peace Corps volunteers try their hardest to convince their family to come and visit, partly to share the experience and partly because a trip
back home is so difficult. I know I’m lucky in that respect, since Morocco is much more accessible than some other Peace Corps countries. A fair amount of volunteers here actually go home halfway through service. I think the shock would be too much for me, but I am considering a break out of Morocco either to France to visit my host family there, or to Togo to see my friend Jesselynn who is serving in Peace Corps there.
Having Marie here has been wonderful, and not only because she helped me get over my cold. She brought some of France with her, I had somebody to talk to about my friends there. I also got to show off my town and introduce her to my friends. Watching her I experienced seeing things here for the first time, again. It was refreshing and fun to take her around like a tour guide, though she is so well-traveled she really doesn’t need a guide. She only stayed a few days before taking off for Ouarzazate and the Sahara, but promised to return before she leaves the country in a couple weeks.
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