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