Well not really "the far side of the world" but from my perch in America it seem that way. I created this blog, as a place to share my stories, observations and creative impulses that crop up in my day-to-day life during my Peace Corps service.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

It is all about relationships...

Today was a full-court press to find a place to live... I will skip my continuing rant about the Peace Corps "lflus" allotment and talk about what I saw tonight. As you know I have been looking for my final "resting" place that will hold me for two years. Up until now it has been at a pace that was making me wonder if I would find a place by January first. Well tonight my friend and I hit the streets with a mission.

People tell me Morocco is all about relationships and tonight I saw that in all it glory... I believe I am one step closer to having my own home soon, but that is the secondary story, how it happens is the real story...

First, we did stop at a few real estate "commissioner" to see what was available and get his take on the going price for rents, but it really happens on the street and with relationships. Every shop we walked into, every fourth or fifth person we passed we stopped and greeted, kissed and greeted again before the question of "do you know of a place for rent" and if they didn't they thought they might know someone who did and the phones come out or a shout across the street and the process was happening. It is amazing to me that when asked the person will stop and start contacting they friends... and so on. A young man leaves his group of friends to walk us to a place that he knows in empty. From there we talk to the tailor a few doors down, he gives us the name of the owner's brother, who my friend knows we go to his shop and call his sister... and tomorrow I am seeing the place. I can not do justice to what I witnessed.

So tomorrow I am seeing two places for sure, with a few more in holding patterns until I find out more about them. 3alaqat xuya...3alaqat!!!

Sunday Morning

"Sunday morning rain is falling...Steal some covers share some skin... Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable... You twist to fit the mold that I am in.." This is my mood on this dreary, windy and rainy Sunday morning. Words by Maroon 5... mood and feelings supplied by me. I could have hugged the covers all day, but laying alone with things to do drove me out of my drowsy comfort and into the morning wind. I remember many a Sunday morning when I would lay in bed with my love, maybe I will live in that world again someday... n-shallah.

Arhhh, yes it is going to be one of those day when I fight for control from sun raise to sunset... it must be the holiday season, distance and time that brings me to these moments. But control I have and things I must do, so I will move out into the day.

Yesterday I saw nice home (kbir swiya) and the best place I have seen so far, the rent is 1300Dhs and unless I (actually my friend Ali) can negotiate the price down or I convince the Peace Corps that the ceiling they set for rent in Sefrou is out-dated and low by about 200Dhs then I will have to continue looking. Want this search to come to an end so I can put my time to better use.

Christmas is less than a week away it seems like it is a thousand years away, but I will be with new friends in a foreign country on the holiday and will rejoice and give thanks.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Down in a hole...

Why we walk on the street versus the sidewalk?

The reason is that the sidewalks have holes that you could lose a small vehicle in...missing manhole covers and large drainage hole that could swallow you whole and nothing telling you about it or anything around it to guard you from falling to your death. That plus the sidewalks are in total disarray or under constructure. So the people are forced onto the streets and chaos looms as vehicle zip by, people walking 6 abreast. Now growing up in Boston I am use to lousy sidewalks and people crossing the street wherever and whenever and cars daring you to cross, but here we are at a whole new level of danger. I still walk like a Bostonian but there is a hint of fear and pending injury like I never had before.

The continuing saga. of finding a home... Well tonight I took a walk to check out one of the neighborhoods I might choose to live in, it is a hike up hill and not many street lights... first the home needs work but it is livableand a good size...but it is a hike as I mentioned so I wanted to see the walk at night and get a feel. It was ok, pretty steep climb but that part was fine, the bad part was on my way down I had a rock the size of a baseball thrown at me... interesting I thought... some a-hole throw a rock at me. So I stopped and I see the punk kid about 100 feet away, so I turn and start walking toward him... he turns jack rabbit so I turn around and leave, too old to chase a kid. Now I have heard stories of PCV getting rocks thrown at them...but baseball size rocks... cmon!!!

Needless to say this area has fallen down on my list of choices to live to say the least. I have a few places to look at next week. The Peace Corps in it's tight fists methods has somehow picked a rental allowance of 900Dh for my area... so far I have not seen a place for under 1000Dhs and most are 1200Dh and up. I have a problem in principle with having to cough up any rent about the going rate... now if I was living in a "villa" with fountains and such then sure I need to kick in the additional money, but to set a ceiling under the average monthly rent means either they have not done the proper do-deligence or they don't care... I haven't decided yet on which side to choose, neither is a positive.

Now I am home after two large meals and thinking about having a movie night...should have stopped at one of the street vendors and picked up some fresh popcorn... Next time.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

There is a House in Sefrou...

(cue the Animals "House of the Raising Sun) I have been looking for three weeks now and everyone tells me sure there is a house here or there and yet when I try to see it... Poof... it vanishes. Well now I have three on the hook and nshallah, I will get to see one of them. I am trying to figure out the amount that PC will cover in my city... the window is 600Dhs - 1200Dhs but they wouldn't say how they pick a number. The average rent here sounds like it is around the 1000-1200Dhs range but you can't ask the price at the beginning, you have to wait until you see the place then talk price... sound completely ass-backwards but that is how it is done.

I need to be in my own place, with PC approval of my home by January first, the clock is ticking but I think it will happen. I have started to acquire a few things... glasses, plates, a table and chairs... but will need a lot more... nqta b'nqta kay-kHl lwd.

The weather here has been great, sunny, dry and about 65 degrees, Sefrou doesn't get snow often, but this is usually the rainy season and so far it has only rained a small amount. Compared to TinHdite I am now living in Southern California type weather.

Sidebar: I am not sure if I mentioned this in the past, but if for some reason I don't make it home alive from Morocco it will be because I have been hit by one of the friggin drivers here... since I have been back here in Sefrou I have almost been hit by a car at least a half-dozen times and I have seen two crazy accidents. Firstly there are no traffic lights, nobody obeys a stop sign and crosswalks forget it... walking within the crosswalk will almost certainly bring you within inches of get hit by a petite taxi. They make Boston drives look like saints and to describe it would be like a video game,driving on the wrong side of the road, flying through intersections... really i could go on. Oh nobody uses the side walks... for good reason... that will be my next rant.

Lastly working with my tutor almost daily, I stop by his shop and hangout, each night I write a paragraph or two in darija bring it to him to correct. I feel like I am moving forward in my language skills.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Sharp dressed man...?

Here I am at swearing in, who would have thought that the clothes I packed two months before and which had been sitting in a duffle bag all this time would still be pretty wrinkled free. Just goes to show those five years working in the men's department in Sears as a teenager paid some dividends. It was a beautiful day and I will remember it...always. Even though I have lost 11 lbs, it looks I could stand to drop a few more... nshallah, I will while staying healthy.

Vowels... We don't need no stinkin' vowels

Got a message from my friend Jim commenting on the lack of vowels in the darija words I write... well that is because there are no vowels, we place a few here and there to make it a little easier on anyone who is "latin" based in language. Here are a few example of words: fzg, sffr, rbH, tmmn...the list goes on, WTF you say, (see no vowels there either)...haha. Since the language I am learning was not a written language 50 years ago, it is a transliteration from the spoke word into a latin base so us poor souls can wrap our mind around it... did I actually just write that and understand it, yikes. Of course I will want to learn arabic script once I get a handle on the language. I of course want to badly round off the harsh sounds with my even present "ah" at the end of every word. Boston Darija has a scary yet soothing sound to it.

Sidebar What is the story with the F'en rosters here... I thought these creatures only cock-a-doddle-do'd as the sunrise was approaching. Well not here they make that pain in the arse noise ALL morning, day and sometimes at night. Now I know being from a city the only roster I know is from" Loonie Tunes" FogHorn Leghorn and he never crowed outside of sunrise... WTF it is 1:35 in the afternoon as I write this and a damn roster is cock-a-doddling.... ssshit!

Back to writing and studying my language... oh one last thing, a "q" sounds like a "k" deep from the throat, the "x" sounds like the "ch" in yech but even deeper in the voice box... it is just next to impossible to make these sounds in the flow of a sentence, for me anyways.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Arabrenchlish and Sign Language...

Back in Sefrou after a week in Kech, trying to get all the lose ends tied up so I can get comfortable and start getting to know my artisans and what they want and need and try to make a plan. I visited the police to get my cart se jeus, found my tutor and start today and now have the word out on the street that I need a home by the first of January. This will be the most difficult. To get all this done here I have settled on a combination of arabic/french/english (Arabrenchlish) and sign language to communicate what I need. It is clumsy yet effective and so far I have been able to perform., but that will have to slowly stop as I use my tutor to get my pronouncation of the language down. I had to stop him mid lesson to explain what is up with my dialect of english known world-wide as Bostonian English. he was having difficult comprehending what I meant so I gave him the famous "Park the car in Harvard Yard" or Pahak the cahah in Hah'vahad Yahd... and of ofcourse the words mirror or mir'ha. I think he now understands the monumental tutoring job he has before him... nqta b'nqta kay-hml lwd... nshallah I will improve my prouncation of Arabic. That means "drop-by-drop the river get full... god willing". Will I lose my Boston accent after two years of this... I doubt it very much!

The weather here has been beautiful since my return from Marrakech, I asked around and for the most part there will be almost no snow but bzeef sta (much rain)... that sounds go to me.

Lastly I downloaded about a dozen movies from a PCV while in Marrakech (wish I had taken my portable HD to Kech). For the most part I went with action movies. At Christmas I will bring the HD and get some more (100's) ... watch the first Bourne movie last night, part two this weekend. All I need now is a little popcorn, a couch and someone when to snuggle with... hmmm maybe snuggling and the Bourne series are not a good match... on second thought snuggling goes with ALL movies...period.

Heading out soon to practice my Arabic and find a nice place to draw....miss everyone and can't believe I will not "be home for Christmas..."

Thursday, December 9, 2010

They're taking me to Marrakesh...

Traveling the train through clear Moroccan skies... all board the train.
Well it sounds good but for me it was a day after a heavy rain storm, traveling in damp clothes and waiting for the waters to recede so the train can leave from Fez. After an 11 hour train ride, "discussing" religion and western ways with a passenager in the seat next to me for over an hour, we arrived in Kech, exhaust, hungry and needing to pee badly. After getting into a taxi and finding our hotel in the maze within the medina, it was time to get some food. Marrakech is unlike any place in Morocco that I have seen so far, it is a little Rabat, mix in some Fez and throw in lots of tourists... and of course snake charmers, men with monkeys, street eurchins...Bzzef and the smell of urine everywhere.

We stayed in the Place Jemaa El Fina near the mosque, it was packed from the minute we got up until the evening, coming home one night around 2 was the only time I was able to get through without a "fight".

This week was the Marrakech International Film Festival and between see Kneanu Reeves introduce Speed... yeah thats right I said Speed...Whooh!! (Did that for you Steve... had to be there for his speech... speech I give better speeches in Arabic) my friend Jeff yells out during it "San Dimas High School Football Rules... maybe we should youtube the video. A few of us also got passes into the festival to catch some movies. I saw the first showing of Animal Kingdom... a good yet very dark and depressing movie... well at least John Malkovich was in the threater and he liked it... of course he would he is Malkovich, goddamit!

Found a nice hooka bar and sat back with a few friends and smoked some hooka... it was just something you have to do if you are in Marrakech. The room was filledwith men smoking water pipes and playing cards.

I would travel to Kech often if possible but the train ride is much too long an it cost more than a PCV can offer more than once a year. But the vibe is cool, the city is clean and it is Marrakech.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A little Europe in Morocco...

Rabat is a beautiful city, more European than Moroccan. It is on the ocean and it just had a nice feel to it. Thursday (Thanksgiving) was the day all the new PCV's were to travel off to their new sites... breaking up the "Band of Brother/Sisters". Well I just wasn't ready to go... I had seen very little of the city and I needed more I booked the room for another night and spent Thursday roaming the city and eating well with another PCV who felt the same way. We walked the city down to the shore and found a cafe over looking the Atlantic and had an expresso and watched the surfers. From there we walked the Medina and tried our best not to buy anthing as we both had enough to carry. Oh yeah I found an art supply store... he says he is the only one in ALL of Morocco... I think I believe him.
Thanksgiving in Rabat will never match Thanksgiving in Maine, but we had a nice dinner and tried to connect with family during the evening. I was able to call my son and wish him a happy 24th birthday. I finally got skype owork on my computer so I hope to use that more often once I get some privacy.
Now I am in Sefrou, dragged that damn bag all over the place (still had another in Fez)... the weather here is ok, wild winds but better temperature than the last place. Once I get settled here and find an apartment I will start posting some pictures of the city.
Time for my next meal... still haven't gotten use to the amount of food eaten here every day. Lunch is bigger than my dinner back home.

The Long and Winding Road... to Rabat.

Well a lot has happened sinceI last posted... completed my CBT, took my LPI and the traveled to Rabat for swearing in and celebration. I was ready to leave TimHdite, but at the same time it felt as if I was leaving a piece of me behind and taking something with we that will last my lifetime. It was a cold town with a warm heart...

LPI or Language Test... well going into the test I knew there was a good chance I would not get to the minimum, not that I haven't studied or tried it is just I have fallen behind and can't seem to grasp what is being said. Anyways I took the test (verbal) and thought I did pretty good... only to find I did not pass. My ego was bruised and it had been a trying few weeks anyways and I was thinking maybe it is time to leave. I spent most of that night soul-searching if I would EVER get this language down.

Needless to say since I am still writing this blog and I am now a PCV I decided to keep pluging along in hopes that in the next few months I will begin to be able to put complete sentences together and understand what is said to me...nshallah!!

Swearing in... This was a great day for all of us, it has been a long journey to this point and many starts and stops. The weather was outstanding, the speakers were great and the lunch was... mmm not so great. It was with great pride that I stood to take the oath, an I was emotional and that I was not expecting, since coming here I have tried to keep a check on all emotions, to stay level headed. Yet I found myself almost in tears of pride and happiness.

So now I am a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) and I am on my own... almost and tomorrow I travel to Marrakech for a week. Life can be full of surprises.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Pictures of...

Here is a group of images I throw together... the first is me in my bedroom on one of the coldest nights I had, it was about 43 degrees in my room and I usually wear a blanket over my shoulders but it was getting in the way. The thing behind me is a table... my bedroom seconded as a store room for a few weeks while the kusina and lbit-lma were getting a face lift. The next photo is a typical house in TimHdite, the window behind the sat-disks is my bedroom, you should here the animals out there at night, next is the school house (lmdrassa) it is almost as cold as my bedroom if that is possible, but just the other day we got a furnu (woodstove) and now it is so warm we want to sleep... I know complain, complain and finally a view of the down town square and the hill across the way.










I have lots more images but these few give you an idea of where I
have lived for the last 2 months. The town is getting a facelift and when it is done it will be rather quaint... well maybe quaint isn't aword that should be associated with a Moroccan town...drop by sometime and you will see what I mean.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

My Town....


The last week of CBT... it has both the feeling of "thank the Lord" and "Oh Shit". In two weeks we will no longer be small units, but singular vessels adrift in L'Mgrib trying to function and stay sane for the next two years. Now that I am about to leave my little town in the Middle Atlas Mountains I think it is ok to mention the name and post a few images. The town is TimaHdite and honestly I have seen it spelt at least five different ways on signs around Morocco. Outside of the cold and altitude if is a very nice place with a large suq and very friendly people. Looking forward to coming back in a year and taking up one of the locals who said he could "drink me under the table"... it was translated after the fact but I stored it way and once my darija is better Iwill travel back to here in the warm weather of course and sit down and let the challenge begin.
Today we travel out to one of our family farms for a long hikeand then a three mile plus walk back. It is your typical stone one level home... this area is the rockest place I have ever seen and that is saying something for a New Englander. The rocks appear to be lava-like rocks that have the look of being under water at one time. We walked up the mountain ever higher and this is one of the views. It is spectacular and breath taking to see the mountains rising up and up. I will miss this place for sure and I will always have a piece of this place in my soul. I know I have complained about the weather and the language difficulties... but all in all I think it was a great town to be in and my CBT group is outstanding. This is a short post and will talk more about my 2 months here coming to an end and getting ready to be swore in...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

9 Days and counting...

Hard to believe I will finish the first stage of my 27 months in 9 days... it has been one helluva trip so far and I think the next week is going to be even more event filled. Starting tomorrow the women in my host family head out for a weekend weddings... yes wedding ceramonies can last for several days here. So that leave me, Mohamed and Hamid alone for three days, I am looking forward to maybe cooking and wash my own clothes and my guess is that the other two men will be hanging out in the cafes all weekend. The hardest part of CBT as I might have mentioned before is giving up the freedom of living in my own place and the independence that comeswith that... after over thirty years it has been differicult adjustment. So I must say I am looking forward to this weekend. Not invited to the wedding otherwise would love to see that first hand.
The next big event is L'eid Kbira or the Big Feast... sounds like a reason to throw a party but it anything but, it is a very important and holy event... it is based around Abraham, when God asked him to sacrifice his son (the difference is that we believe it was Issac and the Muslims believe it was Ismail)... but God see that Abraham faith was so strong that he told Abraham to sacrifice a sheep... and that leads me to the big event, the slaughtering (for religous and food) of sheeps all over Morocco. Every family should kill a sheep after sunrise on the first day of Kbir... right in the yard or home and then skin it and eat it over the next two days... pretty much every part of the animal. yes we will all be right there and eating or tasting it all... Oh Yeah!!!
So needless to say there are sheep EVERYWHERE and they look very scared... in fact I have noticed many sheep acting a little odd, laying down, acting sickly or insane, because only healthy and clean sheep can be killed, so the word is out in sheepville... the humans are hungry and the only way to get through this week is to pretend to be a dirty, unstable sheep. Sheep are very tricky!! Like genies... that is another topic for another day... love those genies!
After L'eid Kbira ther are only afew days left in "Tllaqa Kbira" for this PCTer, will I miss this place, of course, it has been home and I have delevoped some wonderful friendship that I hope to take with me for the rest of my life. I will not miss the the mind-numbing cold of the last month... invision that useless bag of peas that everyone has in their freezer.... yes the one that has been there for years with frost and oddly shaped.... well that is how I felt all day and night since October, usually those peas get tossed out or become part of the icebox... i wasn't sure what my outcome was going to be there for awhile, but I can see the light and I am heading to a new city.
Random thought... there is a welder around the corner from my home here and I was watching the other day as he was welding and upon a closer look I noticed that his welding mask was made out of card board with two eye hole cutout... it looked like a hockey mask from the 60's. Let me say again... his welding mask was a piece of card (Bosch Spark Plugs) with hole cutout so he could see and tied around his head with a string!!! CARD BOARD, no goggles.

Well that is the latest from my perch in the Middle Atlas Mountains... Oh yeah after swearing in many of the new PCV have been invited to Marrakech for 4-5 days for a craft fair. Marrakech sounds warm to me. Inshallah

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tllaqa Kbira... or the Big Refridgerator

Yeah that is where I have been living the last 2 months in the "big refridge" of Morocco. As I put numbing fingers to keyboard it is 8 degrees C in my room... which for all my US friends that comes out to be 46.4 F ( x 1.8 subtract 32 or something like that). I sleep under 4 heavy blankets in lots of clothes with a stocking cap, what a sight to see, the blankets weigh so much that once I get under them it takes a great effort to roll over... so I just lay there and watch my breath stream out. But enough about the COLD.
Last week at hub site we all got our final sites.... and I thinkI got lucky, I am outside of Fez, I dropped about 1000 meters down the mountains and I got a city of about 70k with a artisana that has many talents artisans that I hopeI can help. I arrived on last Sunday in a raging rain storm taking two grand taxis to get there (each about 45 minutes) those rides in themselves are worth a story, but in Morocco grand taxis are the way of life. So I arrive in town and then have to call my new host family and talk to them in my "limited darija" and she speaking french in return. I knew I should have paid attention back in High School. To complete this story I get a petite taxi and arrive soaken to the bone at their home.... in time for kaskrut (6:00 tea and bread).
Then next 5 days I spend roaming the city and meeting the current volunteer and finding out the lay of the land. My first day I am alone (PCV is out of town) so I sit down and this Moroccan gent slides up and strikes up a conversation in Arabic/French and sign language. I am no fool... I have lived in a city all my life and I know a panhandler when I see one... but he looks and sounds safe and I am thinking... well I can at least use my arabic and see if he understands me. So off we go him showing me the city and me trying to communicate with him for the next few hours... Finally, I think it is time to end my "tour" and I figure I will set the price and offer to buy him a lqhwa (coffee) and he likes the idea and off we go for coffee. Of course during coffee he says he needs smokes, yes this is all still in our arabic/french sign language jargon... I let the first couple of mention of smokes pass, but finally I know I have to answer so I ask him... "bsHal cigarettes" and says 30Dh... I begin laughing out loud and tell him I am not giving him 30Dh and that I am a poor "hay'at salam mutatawie" (peace corps volunteer) and I have NO money either. He has no idea what the Christ I am talking about. So I shake his hand and wish him luck on his search for a butt. God do I love city life and the shit that can just pop up.
What I discovered in my city is a refreshing drink "bgit esrina l'voka, efak" Bring me a avacado milk shake, please. it is soooooo wonderful. I sat down in a tented cafe over looking the mdina just thinking I am in Morocco and if all goes as planned I should be drinking one of these l'vokas everyday for the next 2 years. I think I will like my new city and plan on being in Fez many times if not once a week. It may not be as warm as I would have liked, but I will take the vibe of a city any day of the fishbowl life of a small dwar.
I spent some time meeting the artisans and the delegate and of course the local police who wanted to put a face to my name. The artisans I will be involved with are very talents people and they crossover many different mediums... wood carvers, furniture makers, seamstress and tailors, potters... I believe I can help and stay very busy, only time will tell.
Well finally I got back to the hub, had to deal with some very foolish Peace Cops questionaire (I am getting use to the childish questions they ask) and then hooked up with friends and talked about the pros/cons of our individual sites... and now back into the deep freeze.
One last thing... today the King of Morocco came through the town, in a huge procession of cars he was driving his SUV and waving, doing about 45 miles per hour. Not a fan in general of Monarchy, real or fake, but I figured what the hell why not see him since I am his guest. So now I have seen the King of Morocco and the Queen of England drive by me... would much rather see the Kings of Leon!!
Inshallah when I return to America.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Catching up is hard to do...

Since I have internet access today I have to update this blog and do some catching up. As I mentioned in my last post my CBT group rent two "taxis" for the day and head off to Zaouria Ifran, as small village about 90k for my town that is situated in a valley in high in the Middle Atlas Mountains. We piled into the vehicles and off we traveled, first stop was a town name "Suq on Sunday" why, because that is the day the local outdoor market is held and it is the main reason the town exists. We stopped for atay and lqhwa and picked up some xobs for a picnic (tea, coffee and bread) and head out of town, two cars filled with Americans... came to Suq on Sunday... on Sunday and never went to the Suq, no wonder they stare at us and smile... foolish mirikan's come to town and don't even go to Sug... I digress. We head off and after 30k or so we take a sharp left and start to descend down to the town, now the road is really only wide enough for one and a half cars so we will head down slowly... but no, the driver just continues on as if we are on a normal road that is twisting and turn down to the valley.
Needless to say since I am writing this we arrived safe and sound to a spectacular view of these waterfalls pouring down behind the village. After a view picture off we went to climb to the topand over look the falls and have a picnic.
After the picnic we climbed some more as the weather shifted and the mist and rain came down, so we headed down, but only we decided to head back another way... a quicker way that turned into the scence from "Romancing the Stone" as we slide and slipped down a muddy mountain side, crossing streams and small rivers to get back to our taxis and home. It is a very lovely village and the views from the plateau where the waterfalls drop made we wish I had brought my paints on this Sunday afternoon. Still I took many pictures and will post them someday.
I write this from my freezing bedroom where I cna see my breath... the laptop is my one source of heat and my just leave it on and leave it on my chest for warmth. In-shalla I will get my final hub site this Friday and I want say or wish for anything as I might jinx it. Until my next post.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

No hand... or I should say laptop

I lost my laptop for about 10 days, for whatever reason it just crapped out and I was left to head to the CyberCafe around the corner to read my eamils but was unable to post to the blog. So here I am back and I hope I can keep the connecting. I want to post a few images of my town in Morocco... keeping my fingers crossed. YES it worked, now lets try a few more.

Since my last post we have traveled to the waterfall in city of Ifran (went to the zaourdia ifran valley waterfalls to be posted later) and visted another CBT site and had homemade Mexican food and hungout all night throwing out stories and laughing until the the late hours of the evening. One thing the Peace Corps does not lack is interesting people. It makes for imteresting and fun times when we all get together. We hiked the mountain, or I should say i hiked halfway and I stopped and sat down and started drawing... mainly because I thought my heart was coming through my chest as I could not get my breath in the high altitude. So I stopped overlooking the small village and sketched a few quick landscapes in pencil before the group can back and we headed back to town and hot pumpkin soup and a taxi ride back to our CBT. It wasa great get together.
Now that my computer is back up and running (in-shalla) I hope to post more this wekend with more images. Next Friday we get our final site... can't believe time is beginning to move so quickly. Bye for now.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Still going strong...

7 October
I have been in my CBT site for almost three weeks and I THINK I am beginning to settle into my host family and my community, That is not to say that I don't feel like "The Man Who Fell To Earth". I barely can converse with anyone outside of my PCT (even there they wonder what I am saying if the word ends in "R") and I am still dealing with eating many times a day and some of them are very large meals and at hours that my system just can not deal with day-in-day-out. So I skip meals when I can and my host family is trying to feed at 9:00 versus 10:30-11 and that has helped. Well enough of the mundane (not that there is anything mundane about my life in Morocco).

Since I last logged on and posted an update we have had another wonderful American/Moroccan Saturday lunch, traveled to Azru again, Hmmam and saw the weather change from a beautiful day to a raging hail and rain storm that turned the town streets into a river. And of course during all of this attending the lmdrasa 10 hours a day.

First other wonderful Saturday lunch. we started by going to the "meat district" and purchase some lamb, now this is not Sam the butcher down the street; in a long building that made a "U" around the old suq (market) there are many small shops that slaughter and sell meat of all kinds, the butcher is standing (in sandles) in pools of animal blood, bones, body parts. chopping and slices up the meats. We purchased 2 kilos of lamb, walked past the cow head laying on the counter and headed to the veggie stand and then back to the lmdrasa for a BBQ. Arhhh you say sounds good. except grills are not a household item in my town, nor is charcoal. So how we found a small grill, and I mean small. The previous night LCF spread the word that we need charcoal and we had a few boxes of charred wood to start our cookout. Funny thing is that my town has a place where they make a low-grade charcoal and ship it who knows where. So I guess my reason for telling this story is that things we have taken to granted like having a small BBQ takes more planning and a little ingenuity to get the fantastic meal that we end up devouring. "SO DELICOUS"

L-Hmmam. the Moroccan version of a roman bath, I figured I had to try it al least once and if it wasn't what I wanted it would be a one time experience. A little about the Hmmam, it is three rooms, warm, warmer and the Gates of Hades. The idea is to start in the hottest room and work your way back out. So you strip down to your underwear (the change to dark boxer shorts is looking more and more like one of my better ideas for this adventure).
We headed into the hot room filled our buckets with hot water and one with cold. You douse yourself with the hot and take a very Moroccan soap and lather up and wait for the sweat (not a long wait), once that happens you take a brillo pad like glove and scrub you flesh as if you are cleaning burnt food out of a frying pan and all of a sudden a layer of dead skin starts to come off, and that is when you pour the hot water over your head. Now head is the tricky thing at this point someone will come over and scrub your back like they are using #60 grit sand paper on a beat up piece of wood. From here you move into the next room, get stretched up and do some more cleaning and then finally into the normal room and shave and get ready to get dressed. About an hour and half later I and clean (remember this is the first real shower I have had since I left the states, over three weeks. But in the end I am clean and all my skin is as smooth as a baby's bottom. 5 days later and no duws (shower) yet and I still feel clean. well you know what I mean. I can't wait to go back, hot shave for the first time in weeks. Life is full of little things that make my day.

Every Sunday we are FREE (well Peace Corps free, still on a short leash) and this time four of us decided to explore Azru (our hub-site) and see what is there besides the hub and 40k people. Our plan was to stop in the Cedar Forest and see the monkeys. If nothing else if I told me sons I had a pet monkey I could never do anything wrong in there eyes again...haha. But the weather changed in the morning and the walk from the monkeys to Azru was about 7km so we decided to just head start to the city and visit the monkeys another time.

Azru it turns out is a pretty cool city, we stumbled upon a maze of some great little shops tucked into these tiny streets and alleys. carpets, jewelry, new and used, Moroccan clothing and just a wonderful favor of a thriving Moroccan city, I could be comfortable in a place like that. So we eat, shopped and meet up with another SBD'er from another site and had lots of laughs. The weather cleared and we hoped a Grand Taxi back to town.

Lastly the weather in the Middle Atlas showed itself yesterday, the day started like almost all our days here blue skies, a temperature of around 70 and dry. Around 2:30 we had a meeting the co-op (weavers) and out of nowhere the sky turn black and it started to drop large rain drops. Well the large rain drops quickly turned into a hail storm with hail about the size of chestnuts and the an incredible amount of rain, the town's main road was a raging river of water and water was pour from everywhere. We had to use a taxi to get from one side of the road to the other. INCREDIBLE and then it got cold. The down side is that most of the homes and business had water in then including mine, I had buckets in my room to catch the drips. The reason the home get water is that they are made from a pores block and then skim coated and there is no barrier or sealant, so like an old basement the water is coming in through the walls. I am now believing that it is going to be very cold here very soon getting my winter coat, gloves and more clothes this weekend form my hub. Brrrrrr my room is raw and cold now.. No heat and cold water to wash. oh yeah living large!

Finally until we get better internet access this blog will be spotty in updates. thanks for reading and in-shalla I will get back online soon.

Happy Birthday Carolyn. I miss you as always!!!!!

Monday, September 27, 2010

ABC... as easy as CBT.

Yeah Right... the only think easy about CBT (Community Based Training) is the new friends you make, both in and out of the Peace Corps. Otherwise it is overwhelming at times being thrown into a village that knows nothing about you, speaks a different (and difficult) language and has a vastly different cultural and views of society and the world in general. For the most part everyone thinks we are French and "Bon Jour" come flying from everyones lips at the first site of us. Speaking of us, there are five in my training group plus me. It is a fun group and we have bonded pretty quickly which would make sense being that we are thousands of miles from our shores and any differences become little quirks this far from home.

Let me try to catch you all up on the last week in my new home... first I can't post where I am for reasons the Peace Corps doesn't really explain, but my quess is safety. But I am almost 6000 feet in the Middle Atlas Mountains and let me tell you it will get very cold here in a few weeks. The town center is under construction, so the place is dusty and dirty right now, but based on a "billboard" posted at the enterance to the town the end results will be very nice. We arrived late on Sunday the 19th and after a few minutes we were off with our host families. My family is very nice and they gave me a huge room, but it is very difficult to live in somebody elses home after living in my own for over 25 years and then throw in I can't communicate anything... and one feels like the village idiot after a few days. I won't get into details about the bathroom, but the "bit l-ma" is even worse than I thought it could be... which is hard to imagine. Language class and school in general is my shelter to regroup each day, anyone who knows me would be amazing to hear me equate school with a sancturary... but it is.

Sickness in one form or another has hit my small group, again not a topic I will delve into but who would ever thought that six people who were complete stranger two weeks ago, could be so comfortable discussing very personal body functions. So let me change the topic to some of the adventures we have had... the very first was our first day of school, after an hour or so we were sent out to the town to collect the names for four people using the limited darija. We all came back successful, but it gave us an idea exactly how little we knew and how the Peace Corps was going to put right out there.

The next adventure happend on our way to our Hub-Site... the six of us piled into a "Grand Taxi" and off we went. Well not quite, about 12k into our trip the taxi runs out of gas... we all the proceed to get out of the taxi and PUSH it up hill for about half a mile at an elevation of 5800 feet above sea level. As we push over the crest of the hill we jump in and then coast the next 14k into our hub city... it was like Mr Toads Wild Ride at Disney. Which leads me to describe a grand taxi ride in general out here... if you have ever seen the movie Road Warrior.... well that is what we have here without the post-nuclear vermin driving suped-up cars. Oh yeah the driver still wanted to charge us full fare... NOT!

The last thing I will write about tonight was our Saturday afternoon CBT lunch... we all went out and purchase a nice live chicken, took her home and proceeded to kill, pluck. wash, gut and prepare a nice chicken lunch. The chicken came home around noon and was on the table by 3... and it was Delicious!!! Photos to come.

Well in a few hundred words that was my first week in the CBT... a new week has started and I am sure many more adventures and stories... in-shallaha.

Friday, September 17, 2010

The first week is coming to a close

Friday Evening... where was I last Friday night, all I am going to say was that I had a great night. Now I am sitting in the "conference room" in a Moroccan hotel charging my computer and wondering how the world got so small yet we are all so different. I can email and talk to my friends and family at a moments notice and yet I am living in a country that is very different from the one I was born and raised in. The Moroccan people I have met are a wonderful, friendly people, who have are both funny and serious at the same time, I think it is their reserved nature that makes them appear serious but the few I have engaged are funny, warm and hard working.

Once again I was stuck with a few needles, sat through my medical evaluation, a language class, more doctor (nurse) presentations on how to stay health and the rules of the Peace Corp, then onto another security and safety lecture (yesterday's lecture from the head of security of the Embassy was outstanding if not a little scary for the women in the group). Finally we meet with a group of current volenteers and heard about everything from the "Grand" Taxi and other forms of transportation to the using of one left hand versus the "pink" toilet paper... all of it infromative and very funny.

After a full day I walked down to the beach did a quick sketch and jotted down some thoughts running through my head

Tomorrow we finish you in the town, do a little shopping and then we head out Sunday to our hub-sites and from there to our community-based sites (staying in someones home for 11 weeks). I am an independent sort of person and will have to change my ways a little or a lot to adjust to being a guest in some ones home for the next 2 plus months.

I ahve broken down my luggage once again to one bag of things I will not need for at least the next month or more, another bag that I will pull things out of as the weather changes and finally my backpack which I will live out of from week to week. Form this point forward I will be very busy and not sure how I will keep the blog up-to-date... but in"shalla will do so.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The City By the Ocean...

Today we arrived to the City of Casablanca at approximately 8:05 AM Moroccan time, after waiting like an expectant father for my luggage to appear on the conveyer belt of so many "lost vacations" it finally appeared from the magic hole in the wall. From this point my luggage and I joined 67 other PCVers and passed through customs and boarded the bus for... well actually I am not at liberty to name the place we are staying... more on that later.

The Mystery City is located on the Atlantic Ocean and our hotel room is a softball throw to the sand and waves. That is the good news... the not so good news is that we all must share rooms with anywhere from two to five people. which is not a problem until you try to put 4 adults with 2 years of luggage in a 10 by 15 foot room! So here we are lined up military style without an inch of space between the beds... if this was 1950 television Ricky and Lucy would be banned bedroom would have been banned from the airwaves.

Yet, I am not complaing even if it sounds as if I am... I decided the minute I accepted the invitation to go with what ever was put before me and embrace it... well maybe embrace is the wrong word to use when sleeping with three other men... lets use working with whatever comes my way.

After hours of introductions and a little form filling out in a conference roon without a breath of fresh air and sticking to clothes I had been in for 24 hours we finally broje for he day and headed to the beach. It was a GREAT time to swim..it is the Atlantic and is just like our side of the ocean, same color and very salty taste... the main difference was the camels on the beach, very strange and yet quite cool..."well damn I am in Morocco!"

The last thing I will write is that we are under heavy police and military guard... Iam left wondering why... I know for our protection but it feels like the Corleone compound after the Don gets shot... groups of uniform men every 20 feet. I am grateful that they are here, just wanting to understand why and is there a danger or just precaution.

Time for to go back later...

Saturday, September 4, 2010

And the beat goes on

... my god it is September 4th already, I remember back to a year ago when my recruiter nominated me for this position and we both chuckled that September was 13 months away and who knows what will happen. Yet here I am on the verge of leaving the comforts of my home life and venturing off 3500 miles away to a land I know only from the movies and grade school geography. Even with the Internet and all the information one can gather on any subject I feel as if I know so little about the country I will be calling home for the next 27 months.

Is it cold or hot? It is both I hear.
What is the language I will be learning? Arabic, but from what I have read there are three dialectics and will not know which I will study until I arrive.
Are the people friendly and receptive to Americans and Peace Corps workers? Only by going there and see for myself will I know that answer... these are just a few of the questions that roll around my head as I wait to depart.

Speaking of departing, I am just about done packing, with the help of a few bloggers and including few things I can't live without... I have created the following list of what I intend to bring as of today... it is still influx, I may subtract a shirt or two and add another items such as the ziplock bags that everyone mentions as a must and of course the all important wipes I mentioned in my last posting.

My luggage includes one XL duffel with wheels, one LG duffel and a decent size backpack which will be my carry-on. I purchase these from LL Bean. I have nice luggage but it was heavy and made for traveling where my destination would be a 3+ star hotel.
Clothing:
Underwear 10
Socks 12 (all dark nothing white)
T-Shirts (not underwear) 6
Long-sleeve Shirts (dress) 4
Neck ties (not sure why) 2
Jeans 2
Coveralls 1
Slacks (dress) 2 (plus what i wear on the plane)
Gloves 2 pr
Scarf 1
Long underpants 1
Stocking hat 1
Brim hat 1
Fleece 1
Fleece Vest 1
Lt Jacket 1
Winter Jacket w/fleece pull out lining 1
Casual Shoes 1pr
Boots 1pr
Sneakers/walking shoes 1pr
Crocs 1pr
Sleep wear 2
Bandannas 2
Misc Items:
Sleeping Bag, Blanket, Sheets and pillow case
Towels (Bath and hand)
LED Light
Laptop, Portable HD, USB Flash Drives and iPod w/ headphones
French Press (Thanks Steve)
Duct Tape
Pochade Box w/ watercolor paints, watercolor paper, sketch books, drawing instruments (many)
Harmonica, playing cards
Camera, rack of AA batteries
Sun glass (at least two pair..Cheap)
Small Photo Album
Swiss Army Knife or Leatherman
One or two books

At this point I am closing in on the 80lb limit... I am switching things around from check-in to carry-on.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Hot fun in the summertime

Yesterday my family throw a small party for me and I was very touched. My brother held it at his home and they served a couple of Moroccan dish and if the food taste as good as what I ate yesterday then I will be a happy man living far from home. It was one of those beautiful summer afternoons in New England... with great food, a few cold drinks and hardy laughed with loved ones.

The main topic for discussion was how sick will I get and how many cases of "wipes" I can stuff into the allotted 80 lbs of luggage. The general idea was to forget taking clothes and just bring "arse" wipes, everything else will have to wait. There was much laughter, a few tears, some photo and a wonderful toast... and of course a cake if you stayed long enough to grab a piece.

I have been blessed with a supportive, loving family and many dear, wonderful friends. The count down is on... minus 13 days. The house is painted (almost) work is winding down (not soon enough) packing has commenced (no wipes...yet) and I am on edge and a little agitated as I fight to get everything in order and my life put in a neat package here and ready myself for a new life across the ocean.

In šāʾ Allāh (إن شاء الله)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Making many lists, checking them... endlessly

Today was a busy day... I received an email from the Moroccan Desk containing four attachments to read, had a dumpster dropped off at my home, cleaned out my bureaus and closet and made a list and will be checking it a thousand times. In between all of that I am wrapping up my last week working and training two people.

The email was nice to get because as everyone who has gone through getting an invitation can state firmly... the peace corps really needs to communicate better, but since the invite I find they have stepped up their game. The email came with the following attachments and links to two short surveys.
Desk Letter – a welcome from the Morocco Desk
Letter from Country Director David Lillie – a welcome from your new Country Director!
Letter to Family and Friends – a letter of reference to be distributed to family and friends
Bridge to PST – information regarding your Pre-Service Training


All very interesting, but the Bridge to PST was the most informative... I will post about that later.

Back to my lists... today was clothes day, going through every stitch of clothing I have and made three piles; stuff that should have been discarded years ago, clothing that I will not be taking but will want/need when I return, and the largest pile is of course clothing to pack. Now the "to pack" pile is broken down into two piles (yes I maybe over thinking this)... one pile is clothes I know for sure will be coming with me underwear, socks, gloves... and the other pile is on the wait and see list that will get pared down over the next 10 days. It would be so much easier if I knew where in Morocco I was going to finally be living, but of course that is not to be known for at least a few months after I arrive in Morocco. So it is a battle of long-sleeves versus short-sleeves and from what I have been reading the long-sleeves have the upper hand or arm...

For the most part things are moving along, even during my moments of panic and I have had a few, as each day peels off the calendar and think "there is no way i can get it all done..." I take a step back and think... relax it will all fall in place. Maybe I am delusional and foolish but I do think I will be ready and have a few days to spare to go over my lists again... Inshallah.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Four Years... seems like yesteday

Today is the fourth anniversary of my darling wife Carolyn's death... it seems like yesterday we lived through that horrible day and the aftermath of it all. When I sit back in the quiet of the evening tonight and let my mind drift off and relive our life together and think of the last four of living with out her I find it beyond belief that FOUR years have traveled by...

People have said we were robbed and life has given me a raw deal... but I think to myself... Maybe, but I was blessed to have had a wonderful and powerful love and to have it returned and wish that everyone could have what we had even for a moment... we had it for 30 years and yes I am greedy and wanted 30 more... but that was not to be.

Miss you more than these or any words can describe... and time does heal the wounds, yet the sadness never leaves it just fades into the background.
X

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Christ! Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f#$@ Peace Corps.

Remember that line from Bluto (Belushi) in Animal House... well I have kept my applying, nomination and finally getting invited to a very small group of close friends and my family for many reasons, but mainly because the Peace Corps tells you over and over that until you get the invitation nothing is for certain. So I found I was much more comfortable playing this close to my vest and not have to answer over and over what's happening with the Peace Corps? It has been 18 months and during that time I must have said out loud at least hundred times... "What is happening with the Peace Corps?"

But with my departure date looming over the horizon, I let "slip" on Facebook that I was joining the Peace Corps... well I might just as well taken out an ad on TV, because within 24 hours I was getting emails and calls ranging from are you insane, wish I was going with you, to what a great thing you are doing. Most wanted to know why, how come and how long... Since there is not a simple or concise answer to the why question, I will use the famous line from the movie after Delta House gets expelled from college... "Christ! Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps."

Actually I chose the Peace Corps after much thought and research and believe that at this stage of my life I have the freedom to do whatever I choose... and I have chosen to try to bring a better understand of what we are as Americans to another part of the world and learn about another culture and maybe, just maybe make some one's life a little better or easier. So that along with Bluto's WTF... is as good as any reason.

assalamu alaikum

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Eighty Pounds...

The Peace Corps only allows a person two piece of check-in luggage (80lbs max) for 27 months of service. So today being a "tax-free" Sunday I grabbed my list and headed out to the store and pick up a few things that I may need in Morocco. First was the trek to Best Buy (or the house-of-worship as my brother would say) to pick up a portable hard drive and a few other trinkets. Also while there I purchased a laptop for my parents so I can contact them from overseas... Shhhh I haven't given it to them yet as I was setting it up today. Also I should mention that it was a joint purchase among my siblings.

Next it was on to LL Bean to get a duffel bag and a backpack. I spent more time looking over backpacks than I did buying a laptop... I guess that tells you were my comfort zone is. So now armed with two pieces I can begin the process of trying to figure out what to bring and what to leave behind. I have read much about Morocco and it climate and depending on where I end up stationed, I could be in the Atlas Mountains where the winters are harsh or near the coast or desert and never need more the a hoodie and a bathing suit.

I have been following a few blogs from PCVer in Morocco and I gotten a few tips on what I will need and want to bring and what I can get there or have sent later. Normally I pack hours before a trip, but this is more than a trip and I think I will need the full month to get it down to "Eighty Pounds". Stay tuned for more updates on my list to find out what makes the cut and what stays behind.

assalamu alaikum

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Is it always sunny in Philadelphia?

On Tuesday I received my Peace Corps staging email explaining my next steps toward heading to Morocco in September, but before I board that flight I will be heading to Philadelphia for my staging events on the 13th of September. Then after a very busy orientation day and night I will leave these fair shore for Casablanca, Morocco. Casablanca... conjures up visions of Humphrey Bogart sitting in a darkened room drowning his sorrows in a glass of bourbon and asking Sam to play it again. But I know this is not the Morocco I will encounter, quite honestly I am not sure what I will encounter when I land and most certainly I have no idea what the next 27 months will bring.

Still, I am another step closer to my journey to Morocco, as each day closes and the next one appears I find I have completed another task, battled mentally the idea of moving to another culture and away from all I know and everyone I love and yet at times I have felt the warm glow of knowing this is what I want to do and it feels right.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Peace Corps Invitation... ACCEPTED!

After almost 18 months and many moments of "are they kidding me..." I received a phone call which consisted of a 35 minute question and answer session about my desires, fears and expectations of what the next 27 months would be like in the Peace Corps... at the end of the call I was extended an invitation to join in the Small Business Development Program in Morocco.

The packet arrived two days later with the instructions to read thoroughly and inform the Peace Corps within 10 days of my acceptance or to decline. I took a week to read everything and to talk to my family and closest friends about what had been up to now a possibility was now on the brink of reality... I sent my acceptance in without reservation and with total commitment.

Now almost two weeks since I've accepted, I have been in a whirlwind of activity as I completed all the PC requirements in the first 10 days, informed the companies I do business with of my pending departure and ready my home life to be without me for the next two plus years. My departure date is set for September 13 and the time is whipping by. There is so much to do and I am not sure I can get everything I want done before I leave... but as long as the major things are wrapped up tight I can leave with a clear mind.