If you're interested in an AWESOME Moroccan getaway check out this place...
www.surfmaroc.co.uk

looks pretty amazing, and close to us too!

Tomorrow marks one week being in our new home. Quit a bit has been going on to keep us busy. On the way to site (our anniversary) we stayed a night in Essaouira and treated ourselves to a nice seafood dinner and deserts at a local patisserie. We spent most of last week unpacking and beginning the paperwork for our residence cards. I spent Sunday and Monday in Essaouira again for a work meeting while Ben stayed in site (for all the excitement!) Since arriving at our site, the grandmother of the family has been staying with us and we have been unsure why. During the night on Sunday, Ben was awoken by noises and talking from the next room…the next day our host family had a new baby girl. We knew that a baby was expected but we had no idea when and it was quite surprising! She gave birth in her bedroom with no major complications and the baby seems to be healthy. We’ve had visitors in and out for the past few days and have been eating lots of chickpeas but we’re unsure of their relevance. Next week we’ll get to be part of the naming ceremony which we’re not quite sure about but will know more about next week. Tomorrow is my first ‘real’ day at the health clinic, hopefully things will go smoothly. There isn’t much I can do there yet because of my limited language but it will be a good chance to practice speaking and for people to get used to my face. We will also start tutoring very soon so we’ll have a fairly ‘regular’ schedule. It’s so difficult to put life here into words. A few of us were talking over the weekend and it’s like an experience you can’t describe without seeing first hand. So just a reminder…if anyone wants first hand??? The most difficult part for me has been changing my American mindset of "find problems, fix problems." Things here don’t work that way. Right now it’s sip tea and chat and that’s harder said than done. I feel like it’s a great lesson to learn and will multiply my patience in the end. We don’t have any new pictures yet besides the mug shots we took for our IDs but we’ll get some soon, we’re planning a hike for the weekend. Pray that we’ll have patience.

It's now official, we raised our right hands and became US Peace Corps Volunteers! We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary this week!

Well, we’ve made it through community based training and only have 4 days until we’re officially Peace Corps volunteers! On the last day in our CBT villages, we had parties to thank the families and celebrate finishing training. Our parties turned out really well with lots of cookies, fruit and of course; mint tea. There was plenty of dancing as well. For the next few days we’re doing sessions to finalize training and get us ready to head to our sites NEXT WEEK! Next Tuesday is our swearing in ceremony which is in a swanky hotel in Ouarzazate and is a pretty big deal. They even invited our host families to attend. Before we left our host families we each gave them Kentucky picture books which they seemed to be interested in (although the bourbon barrels and civil war reenactment were a bit hard to explain.) My family gave me a purse which is really pretty and was handmade by family members in the village. Ben’s family gave him a bag of almonds to give to me! We were able to present our health lesson on teeth brushing to a group of women and children before we left. We told them which foods were good/bad for your teeth and how to keep your teeth healthy. We made up a song about tooth brushing which went over pretty well with the kids. We’re excited to see what projects will come up in our site! Our language tests are over and we both passed! Far from fluent but getting better. Hope all is well there.

hello everyone, we're headed off to our last CBT week!!! Only 13 days until swearing in as official PC Volunteers! It's extremely hot in Ouarzazate now, around 100 daily. Our stuffy conference room gets quite hot, luckily our hotel filled up the pool and our actual site isn't quite so hot! Air conditioning? HA, I haven't even seen a fan.
Last night Ben and I wondered into a Moroccan fair complete with bumper cars and soft serve ice cream! It was full of shops selling clothes, household items, and we even found some DVDs that cost us about $1.50 each. We stopped and had a snail snack, they were boiled, not live. Interesting texture but not a bad taste (we paid about 60 cents for a bowl, beat that in the states!)
I've been sick the last few days with a chest cold and on/off stomach issues but I'm starting to feel a little better now.
I went to the post office to mail a letter and the postman said I spoke TashleHeet very well; hopefully the PC thinks the same thing in our language test next week!
The bakery across the street is serving ice cream now; they even put a little chocolate syrup on top; I think they know our names.

If you get a chance pray that our faith will be strengthened and that Christ's love will shine through us.

thinking of you all!

Carrie and I just got back from our first four days at the city which will be our home for the next two years (why don’t we call it Kalamazoo), and we both think that we’ll be quite satisfied. The city sits on a plateau between 4000 and 5000 feet, which makes for good views in all directions. To the east, we can just make out snow-capped peaks in the High Atlas Mountains. For an environment and health Peace Corps site, Kalamazoo is pretty plush. We have electricity, running water, convenient stores, a large market every week, and an internet café. Like most Moroccans, people are friendly and there seems to be little gender division. Men and women work together in the fields, and in the home, men do go into the kitchen although women do the cooking. As for projects that we will be working, we just have to wait and see what our counterparts at the hospital and Department of Water and Forests as well as the townsfolk have to say. From a health and environmental perspective, one of the obvious problems that we saw was a very degraded stream and valley behind the market. Lots of trash gets thrown into the valley, and the water quality looks really bad because of pollution from latrines and the market. There are several active associations in the town and the natural resources are interesting. Kalamazoo is surrounded by thuya and carob forests. The former is used for artisanal wood-working, and the later is an expensive food. Our family couldn’t be more friendly. They have three children (another on the way) and a nephew that lives there. The ages are 2, 4, 9, and 11. The children are real cute (the 4 yr. old told us that we need to go to school with her so that we can learn to talk) and well behaved. There are also about twenty-five other kids in the same age range that hang out by our house after school. We play games with them sometime. Taarabt, the wife, is really nice and an excellent cook. Furthermore, the family has hosted Peace Corps Volunteers before, so they are used to the quirks of Americans. Other volunteers have had mostly positive things to say about their sites. A lot of volunteers have reported caves near their sites, which suggests an opportunity for weekend trips for me. Alex is near a ski resort and Jonathan can see the Mediterranean from his site. We also have plans of visiting some of the small surf villages between Essaouira and Agadir. A word about Essaouira. This major tourist destination on the Atlantic was once known as Mogador (they should change it back). All the buildings are white and blue and there are endless maze-like streets of shops with all kinds of interesting products. The atmosphere is really laid back and you can shop or relax at a café by the ocean without being harassed. You can also get by with only English. If you’re not interested in shopping and a little history, the town offers windsurfing, camel rides, relaxing, and watching people and cats.