A sore man's perspective

Well, it has been a while and I thought that rather than send out an email to all I would try this again and see how it goes. First I shall say, I am sore as can be from having played soccer three days in a row and not stretching pre or post game and I am just getting too old for all this running around. Nonetheless, it remains fun and a way to meet and talk with some of the local teens and practice my language. I just came from having a somewhat rough 15 minute conversation in a language i didn't know 2 months ago, which thankfully is getting easier and easier. Only sometimes do people look directly at me and laugh. Other volunteers have had it much worse. One for example has been told numerous times that she knows walu which means nothing. That might get discouraging after a while.

Anyways, on to the trip to Tata. As Jana mentioned, it was overall an incredible trip. We spent our first night in Agadir which is quite a tourist town. From our training site it took us pretty much all day, so we had the evening for walking around. Jana had been before but for me it was all new. That will most likely be our relaxation town when we need a break. The next day we took the long bus to our site. Silly us, it took 10 hrs whereas the direct bus will only take about 4 to 4.5 if all goes well. Of course part of the ten hrs were the one hour lunch taken by the driver and the other two 25 or so minute breaks for no real reason but to try and drum up more people to travel to the wonderful region of Tata. Slowly we are learning flexibility and adaptability. Key words in PC.

At our site we had a bit of trouble finding our family becuase our family was moving to a bigger house that day. No problem, (another key mike phrase) we eventually found them and met the whole family. there are only four, so only two children. Mohammed, who is 3 or so though, is quite a musharib, (trouble maker) so he kind of makes up for the lack of children. Elias is 10 and you hardly know he is there.
The entire village is way more friendly than I could have ever imagined. We met both our association president and the commune president that same night and both offered many times that if we needed anything they were ready and willing to help. We met with our sbitar (clinic) nurse who is our official counterpart and he seems very knowledgeable and hard working. We were able to visit our souq which is pretty close. That is the market where we will buy most of our food for the week. Oh, I nearly forgot, we will it appears have both electricity and running water in our house when we get our own place. I don't think hot showers will be an issue. There are rumors of the water in the piping being so hot during summer sometimes that you can't even touch it. I have not validated that yet. I do know it get to about 130 -140 F at times which basically sounds terrible.

Our douar (village) is just one in the commune. I believe there are 6 or so but am not sure yet. It is an oasis town with a natural spring. There are many palm trees and lizards that are about as big as my arm below my elbow, and we eat them. well, i haven't yet but i imagine i will at some point and i will like it. I imagine it is better than intestines wrapped in a thin sheet of fat. however, I have had neither yet, but there is still time.

Tata, the nearest large town seems to have all the things we would ever really need, just not some of the stuff we may want. So far, we haven't had any major cravings so those wanting to send stuff, just wait, your time will undoubtedly come. Well, this is turning into quite an entry but the last thing i wanted to write about was the tea experience. So first off, it takes about 30 minutes to have 2 3oz glasses of tea becuase it is made in a small tea pot with a very special method. first the water is heated in a kettle, then the tea is rinsed with warm water. about a cups worth of water for that. Then the water is added to the tea pot, and the tea is boiled for 5 or so minutes, then sugar is added, usually a lot of sugar, then tea is poured into everyone's cup if it is a small enough group. becuase tea in the south is super bubbly, one needs to pour from far above the glass to accomplish this. The final piece to the tea puzzle for us was my host father yelling atay saharaweed, meaning tea of the sahara. And this was every time, I started yelling it back becuase I thought maybe he thought I didn't know it but it didn't matter. We just ended up yelling it back and forth for a few times and then would laugh, 2-3 times a day. I made it once and the first batch was a little sweet. They thought it was funny to call it honey, but the second batch had mint in it and it was delicious, if i do say so myself.
well, i written quite a bit and said quite a little but in case you couldn't tell, we love our town and can't wait to get started. I know, punctuation and capitalization go much worse towards the end, the shift is a bit sticky and my energy is low, poor me, poor me.