HEY! I just got back from ‘field trip.’ It’s a chance for groups of 2-4 to stay with a volunteer to see what peace corps life is really like. We had a really good time. I got to sit in on an English lesson class, a family planning seminar at the clinic and a dental hygiene/nutrition course with a group of preschoolers. Today’s a day off for the health group (environment gets back later today.) I slept LATE, ate breakfast and washed laundry. Who new laundry buckets would suddenly become a hot commodity. I even went and bought my own so I wouldn’t have to wait in the 15 person line. I really need to get some rubber gloves for laundry, my hands are torn up. It’s pretty deserty where we are and my field trip was even more deserty so my skin is super dry. I got to do a little shopping while on field trip and got a new pair of sandals and pants. They were about 10 bucks total. It was nice to be with a volunteer and cook our own food! We made tacos and omelets (I’m getting a little burnt out on the hotel food.) It’s weird to have a whole day off! I need to buy a few things including a sewing kit but otherwise I think I’ll sit in the sun and read. EMAIL ME!!! I MISS YOU ALL!

Ben's 1st week in a little town

About an hour north of Ouarzazate is my town. It has mountains behind it and a the town is built in a river valley. The river is dry most of the time. People in the town grow almonds, barley, figs. The women also weave rugs. Women work on a rug between 7AM and 2AM the next day for up to fifteen days. That's about 250+ hours. Most of rugs stay in the town because they dont make enough to sell them regularly. My family is really cool. They have satellite and good food. They have running water. There is a mother and father, a sister and brother. They are all friendly although I cant talk with them very much. The mother has a traditional Berber tattoo on her chin: a tradition that is dying out.

We made it!!! Through our first week of home stay in CBT (community based training). Actually it went really well. My family is really friendly… The Mom, Aisha is a teacher at the primary school, The dad, Mohammed is a carpenter and there are three kids, Salima-13, Abduh-11, Abdullah-9. Tashlheet is coming along… although I spend a lot of my time with my shoulders shrugged. There is a PC volunteer and a French volunteer in our village which is neat to get an idea of some of the things we will be doing and how we will be living. We got the chance to attend a wedding reception this week. First we all got henna on our hands to look our best and then we went to the party. It was all women-maybe 100, everyone chanting, singing, playing drums, dancing, eating, drinking tea. It was one of the neatest things I’ve ever seen. At my house I have my own room, indoor bathroom, but no hot water or shower. It was really cold the last few days and we all huddled under a blanket for language training. Carrie

We just found out which language we’ll be learning and have narrowed our final site down to 3 choices. We’ll be learning Tashlheet, which is a berber language spoken in south-western Morocco. It looks like we’re clear of the zero degree high atlas mountains and may even end up near to the coast!!! I learned how to make a compost toilet and handmade ‘sink’ today, pretty interesting. I think we’ll get a chicken when we have a house for fresh eggs…We had our 2nd rabies shot today and have typhoid and hep A tomorrow, then no shots for a few months. We had a Moroccan version of spaghetti last night…not bad. We learned about common health problems and how to deal with them today i.e. athletes foot, scorpion sting, boils, sunburn, dog bites, allergic reactions, ingrown nails, strep throat, pink eye… Good to know. It’s neat to have to worry about scorpion stings and sand storms, not something I’ve thought much about. There’s a bakery across the street with amazing little cakes, candies and cookies which I visited today. I went to the souk (outdoor market) last night and got two new shirts. I know, I know. That’s all for now though, and besides I needed longer shirts as to not let my backend show. I did my first load of bucket laundry today and our hotel has a big roof with clotheslines for drying. The weather is still beautiful, not a cloud to be seen since we got here. It’s about 75-80 during the day and very sunny and then it’s chilly at night and in the morning. (hopefully your snow is melting J) We are having difficulty with uplouding pics...

Ouarzazate

We are in Ouarzazate until the weekend which is when we head to our first CBT (community based training.) Ouarzazate is a medium sized ‘city’ with plenty of shops etc. and even diet coke (I had to spurge and buy one yesterday, my first in a week.) The hotel Gazelle is nice but also has some personality. Ben and I are allowed to stay here together and he walks to another hotel where the environment group meets for training, then he comes back around dinner time. Each room has it’s own bathroom with HOT water and western toilet. There is an enclosed courtyard where we can all hang out during breaks and in the evening. Our schedule for now is classes (varies from culture to language to what we will be doing…) from 8 or 830-1230 with one coffee/tea/snack break, lunch from 1230 to 230 and classes again from 230-6, then dinner is 730. The hotel provides all of our meals which are very good including fresh tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, bread, lentils, fruit and tangine (stew.) So we’re eating very well! This weekend we will leave for our CBTs in groups of 5ish. Ben and I will be in different groups but these stays only last about 4-5 days at a time and then several days back at the hotel, so it won’t be bad at all. We’ve been learning and using darija (Moroccan Arabic) this week and are pretty impressed at how quickly it’s clicking. Once we get to our CBTs we will start learning a berber dialect that we will use at our final placements. The CBT sites are rural and we may or may not have running water or electricity. We will have our own bedrooms though. We’re excited to get there and see what living in Morocco is really all about. We’re already learning how to wash clothes in buckets and we’ll get to experience a holiday during our first CBT. Some interesting stuff…
One current volunteer bought a donkey to haul water to his home, supposedly you can buy a donkey for 300 dirhams (about $40.00.)
One of our trainers said that we should be careful about our jaws hurting because we’re smiling too much.
I met several small children yesterday who really wanted my empty coke can and were extremely excited to get it. I think they were going to use it for soccer after they sucked the last few drops out.
Mustafa, our health director, personally visits each site and said that he wouldn't put us anywhere that he wouldn't put his own daughter.
The people here are amazingly helpful and beautiful, I can’t wait to get to my village and start making a difference!
Baslama

Greetings from Rabat

Things have been going very smoothly in Rabat for the last three days. Tomorrow, we leave for Ouarzazate (sounds a little like Where's it at). Training has been, to a large extent, review. Rabat is a nice city, similar to many European cities (except for the Muslim differences) with many white buildings and some classical architecture although the parts that we have seen so far are mostly modern. We have been learning a lot about the structure of the Peqce Corps in Morocco, and yesterday, we met the ambassador for the US, Tom Riley.

Staging in Philadelphia

Today marks the end of staging: our pre-service training before leaving for Morocco. These last two days went by fast. It was mostly a lot of fun meeting the other trainees: a great cross section of idealistic Americans. Much of the information during sessions was a repetition of information included in documents that we had recieved previously, but staging is a useful stepping stone to ease tension and get comfortable with the adjustments to come. We are both feeling good about tomorrow: the plane ride to Casablanca. Of importance, we have realized that we will need to be selective in what we include in the blog. Specifically, locations where we and other volunteers are stationed cannot be listed. Furthermore, we have to be careful not to write unfairly negative comments out of frustration and anger. At all times, we will be describing Morocco and our experiences with cultural sensitivity. Not that it would be possible to have a negative experience in Morocco or anything. Tonight, we plan on spending some time in Philly with some of the other trainees, and checking out the Triumph Brewery restaurant because they have good burgers. We may also decide to make this blog a private one, so if it dissappears or requires a password, email us at hutchbt2@yahoo.com.