Sunday, November 30, 2008
November 30, 2008
Just because we’re in Morocco doesn’t mean that we cant celebrate Thanksgiving in true American style. Three friends: Alex, Amy, and Emmy and a fourth new friend, Tim cam over Thanksgiving afternoon. Right away we began to cook. By the time that dinner was served, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, green beans, and gravy. About 4 minutes into dinner, the electricity went out, but with candles ready, we didn’t let it ruin the festivities. For desert we had homemade apple pie and homemade pumpkin pie, both of which were delicious. When we looked out across Ait Daoud we though that it was a bit ironic that only our apartment (the only one in which people were celebrating a holiday) was the only one that didn’t have electricity. Our upstairs neighbors had blown the circuit and the circuit box was in the apartment of another neighbor who was out of town. Luckily, however, at about 9 PM, the electrician was able to crawl through a window and turn the power back on…another thing to be thankful for. So, we watched a movie and called it a night.
The next day, Tim had to depart but the rest of us walked out to the overlook for a crystal clear view of snow capped peaks. We had a long game of Frisbee and then settled back down for another movie. We wanted to play a board game but didn’t have any. So, in true Peace Corps fashion, we downloaded a picture of a monopoly board and created one from scratch on some cardboard. Moroccolopoly comes complete with game pieces, dirhams instead of dollars, and our own unique set of chance and community chest cards. Our holiday also consisted of a long hike out to a large hill to look for fossils. We spent several hours poking about and found hundreds of fragments of ammonites, 5 to 10 species of bivalve, crinoids, and as always, some unidentified fossils. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving.
So, not to give the impression that Peace Corps is all fun and games, we have been completed a proposal for a tree planting project and are scheduled to meet with a women’s cooperative down the road to discuss acquiring plants for a middle school garden as well as have one of the women come in to teach the students about the importance of plants. Carrie has been making health lessons to teach at the hospital and is working with Emmy to conduct a refresher course and knowledge assessment for traditional birth attendants in the area. Furthermore, I have been teaching English to a few of the motivated men in town and am working on an environmentally themed mural design competition and festival display for the student environmental club. Our bathroom project is still in the works but may be expanded to include several households in a nearby rural village. Several more meetings and info gathering sessions are planned.
Just because we’re in Morocco doesn’t mean that we cant celebrate Thanksgiving in true American style. Three friends: Alex, Amy, and Emmy and a fourth new friend, Tim cam over Thanksgiving afternoon. Right away we began to cook. By the time that dinner was served, we had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, peas, green beans, and gravy. About 4 minutes into dinner, the electricity went out, but with candles ready, we didn’t let it ruin the festivities. For desert we had homemade apple pie and homemade pumpkin pie, both of which were delicious. When we looked out across Ait Daoud we though that it was a bit ironic that only our apartment (the only one in which people were celebrating a holiday) was the only one that didn’t have electricity. Our upstairs neighbors had blown the circuit and the circuit box was in the apartment of another neighbor who was out of town. Luckily, however, at about 9 PM, the electrician was able to crawl through a window and turn the power back on…another thing to be thankful for. So, we watched a movie and called it a night.
The next day, Tim had to depart but the rest of us walked out to the overlook for a crystal clear view of snow capped peaks. We had a long game of Frisbee and then settled back down for another movie. We wanted to play a board game but didn’t have any. So, in true Peace Corps fashion, we downloaded a picture of a monopoly board and created one from scratch on some cardboard. Moroccolopoly comes complete with game pieces, dirhams instead of dollars, and our own unique set of chance and community chest cards. Our holiday also consisted of a long hike out to a large hill to look for fossils. We spent several hours poking about and found hundreds of fragments of ammonites, 5 to 10 species of bivalve, crinoids, and as always, some unidentified fossils. All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving.
So, not to give the impression that Peace Corps is all fun and games, we have been completed a proposal for a tree planting project and are scheduled to meet with a women’s cooperative down the road to discuss acquiring plants for a middle school garden as well as have one of the women come in to teach the students about the importance of plants. Carrie has been making health lessons to teach at the hospital and is working with Emmy to conduct a refresher course and knowledge assessment for traditional birth attendants in the area. Furthermore, I have been teaching English to a few of the motivated men in town and am working on an environmentally themed mural design competition and festival display for the student environmental club. Our bathroom project is still in the works but may be expanded to include several households in a nearby rural village. Several more meetings and info gathering sessions are planned.
Friday, November 21, 2008
As some of you may know, the past month or so has been difficult for me in finding my role and remembering why it was I agreed to come to a strange country for two years. Well today I was reminded so I thought I should share my awesome Peace Corps day. This morning I had granola, coffee and yogurt for breakfast (ok, so far sounds pretty average). I then went to the health clinic where mothers were bringing in newborn babies for vaccinations and chatted with them about the weather, their health, breastfeeding and family planning. I came home and had some lunch then Ben and I along with a local man biked to another village about 7 km away to look into a possible latrine project there. On the way we stopped to hike up a big hill for a great view and to look at a bunch of fossils: we had to take a big amonite chunk back with us. As soon as we got off our backs at the town, I was greeted by a group of about 15 women who each had to greet my personally with kisses and all. The thing about Moroccan kisses is that there’s no real pattern sometimes it’s once on the left and once on the right, sometimes 2 and 1, you never really know. I’m starting to get the feel for when to switch sides but it never fails that I end up kissing someone on the mouth because I didn’t switch fast enough. Luckily, it’s overlooked and I’m probably the only one that feels awkward and man does it make me feel awkward! We were invited into about 6 or 7 houses, each one wanting to feed us and serve us tea. Luckily, after the first house, we could just say we were full already. After promising to return for future meals, we biked the 7 km back to our town (of course not without being chased by a few really scary dogs, that’s what those rabies shots were all about, right?) Don’t know what tomorrow will bring (well except washing clothes by hand in freezing cold water) but right now I’m feeling pretty good.
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