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.

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.

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...

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.