Home Sweet Hotel...

Hey! We’re back!

First, the news. Before we left, we learned we’ll be learning Moroccan Arabic, or Darija, as opposed to one of two regional Berber dialects. There are pros and cons to all of the language assignments, but we’re excited about learning the language that is spoken throughout Morocco (along with French in more urban areas). Many times when people learn a Berber dialect, they also learn some Darija to assist in travelling, etc. so they get the benefit of picking up a couple of languages! We’re excited about our assignment though and ready to get to intense language learning.

We found out about our language assignments, and based on our languages, went to visit a current health volunteer who worked in a site utilizing that language. We left Sunday and got back this past Saturday. It was great to see more of Morocco! They broke us into pairs to travel, and Michael and I went to see different volunteers (which we were open to to get the advantage of two perspectives). I ended up heading to a site south of Agadir, and Michael went to a site near Essaouira….so we both spent the night on Sunday night in beach towns before travelling on. My group waded in the ocean and watched the sun go down and I remember saying, “Wow…this Peace Corps gig is rough!” But, the next day it was on to reality. ;)

My pair spent the week with our volunteer and she introduced us to resources around town at the health clinic, local government, school, and more and helped us to get a feel for what the structure was like and who we could potentially help or look to for information and assistance. It was VERY valuable! We also spent two nights with host families in the area and boy, oh boy was that nerve-wracking. We have so little language yet and here we were going to spend multiple hours with a family – let alone worrying about making a cultural mistake and offending someone. Our worries were groundless because our families were so kind and very generous. My travelling partner and I had different experiences in terms of activities, but we both really enjoyed the family’s willingness to share their language and daily lives with us. I experienced some Moroccan dancing lessons, my first real family meals, where they think you are being shy about eating, so if you stop they encourage you with choruses of “Kuli! Kuli!” (Eat! Eat!), and being dressed up in the traditional women’s dress of the area.

We were escorted down by Peace Corps staff and our volunteer, and once our week was over we were to travel back alone --- help! We were a little nervous, but we got good instructions from our volunteer and it was very empowering to make it! To realize what you can do and communicate, even with just a little language was cool, and we know it will only get easier from here the more we learn! It was a confidence builder for sure and just plain fun to have an adventure.

Here’s some pictures from the week…

Our first ever camel head...


Cacti were EVERYWHERE in the site we visited. So much so that Oxfam came and set up a cooperative for the women to make jam from the fruit, as well as pickled cactus leaves and date jam.





We were lucky enough to have henna done by one of the host families. Here is a picture of them hard at work!



This computer is only choosing to upload some of my pictures, so just one more. This is the traditional dress of the women in the village we visited!

Okay, so now I've tried two computers and it still isn't working!! I'll try and stop back at the internet cafe before we take off on Thursday and put up the last couple of pictures...


This week we are learning some technical aspects of our jobs here, and Thursday afternoon we’re off again! We are going to our Community Based Training sites, where there are 5 or 6 of us in a small town, and we live with separate families in the evenings and overnight, and meet together during the day for language training and with our Language and Cultural Facilitator. We also do some survival training and learn more about community life and how we’ll go about working with people to do our health projects. We found out some info about our host family yesterday, and in addition to the Mom and Dad, there is a 25 year old daughter, a 10 year old son, and a grandmother. Word on the street is that they are a really nice family, and we’re pretty excited (though a little nervous!). We sort of bop back and forth for much of the rest of training between here (our seminar site where we are all together) and CBT, until, I think the last couple of weeks where we’ll meet up with the environment kids and do some last training before we swear-in as real volunteers!!

One more thing, a HUGE congratulations to Stephanie and Chad King, who got married on the 18th. Woo hoo!

Jana :)

Well hello hello all,

First the important stuff. I am in mourning for my Golden Gopher Men’s hockey team who plummeted out of the NCAA tournament and my favourite Liverpool Football Club who failed to repeat as Champions of European football’s top championship. Probably about 2 people care who may be reading this but oh well, it is my blog, and you don’t have to read it.

Nonetheless, we were gone the past week and I also had a “site seeing” experience on the ocean. It was lovely. The toughest part was definitely tearing the little heads off the shrimp that we had to eat when we got to Essa. There were three PCT’s and our Volunteer so we were a good crew, filling up grand taxis quickly and bringing the fun with us wherever we went. We had a makeup session, guys included, well, except for me cause I’m a coward and didn’t want a little coal stick jabbed in my eyes but my pal houman did and I think he looks pretty good, don’t you,





We did all the work stuff but that isn’t too fun but we did teach a lesson IN DARIJA!!! We weren’t that great but the nice nurse helped explain and translate for us. Hey I’m pretty proud that we even tried after 1.5 days of official language training. My lesson was on the D’s and the importance of clean water and hand washing for preventing said D’s.

I spent a night with a “family” that turned out to be a single dude of 26 and his cousin who was helping him with building on to his house. We ate 2 meals of bread and argon which is pretty special here but isn’t my favorite yet. In the A.M I did get up early and assist in taking the donkey’s out to pasture if you will. (Jana thought this meant I killed him, which I by no means did) Then I got recruited for a couple of wheelbarrow loads of sand moving for their project. It was okay but I haven’t worked so hard in ohh, like 4 weeks. All I’ve been doing here is getting up, eating breakfast then class then eating snack, then class, then lunch, then class, then snack, then class, then personal reading time or football then eating. I can’t complain since it is totally sweet food but it’s probably not healthy for my heart.

Like jana said we are going to be going to a great house with HOT showers we can use like 2 times a week!!! I really don’t mind cold bucket showers since it is nice and toasty in the middle of the day when I try to take them but warm showers are totally worth bragging about to the other people in my group since none of the rest of them have them. HA!

I noticed I have been using a ton of exclamations and caps and that is not my style normally but it is me, just a little bit more exuberant than normal. My week apart from my lovely wife made me appreciate her more than I imagined and I am so glad to have someone here to share all this with. It will make it so many times easier I think in every aspect like integrating into the community because we will have access to both men and women where if we were single we would be limited by our gender. Obviously to have each other to lean on and bounce ideas off of will be pretty neat too. I know there will be tough times but I also know we’ll be okay.

Well this is a lot of writing for us and a ton of reading for all ya’ll. Thanks for checkin’ in.

Michael