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.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Day Tripper...

My sister in one of her letters asked me what a typical day was like for me... well i am not sure i have had many days that can be described as typical so far, but as time travels I find more and more a routine is settling down upon me.
My day starts at...
5:35am ... Call to prayer from the Mosque about 50yards away from my bedroom window, if I am lucky it will last two minutes... if it is one of those mornings that the imman is unhappy with his flock it could last beyond 6. Over the month his call has become background noise and I pull the blanket in my chilly room over my head and fall blissfully back to sleep
When my day really starts...
7:30- 8:00am ... I wake up and hug the sheets for the next 15-30 minutes before heading to the bit lma and putting the water on for my morning constitutional of coffee (strong). As my water boils I turn on my music as loud as my computer will handle and start my chores... making my bed and my mother will be happy and she has trained her children well...sweep the floors every morning (Morocco is very dusty and dirt is everywhere). My water has boiled and I have my freshly grounded coffee and use one of the two best things I carried across the ocean... my french press that Steve got me. (many a day the first three months I wonder WTF... why did I carry this here... the last month it is the closest thing to real pleasure that I believe I will encounter in Morocco (haha).

8:00 -10:00 ... with coffee in hand Isit down to read any emails I may have received over night... you would not believe how having an email from the states can make my morning just a wee bit better. With music blaring I start thinking about my day, will I draw in the AM or PM, what is needed for the PC and maybe practice my language (yeah right).

(If it is laundry day (once a week or longer) I fill my laundry tub and start a wash... which is my hands and arms, elbow deep in cold water making like a washing machine for a few minutes... then soak for 20-30 minutes bring to the sink and scrub with a small brush rinse and wring out then up to the roof to hang them out).

10:00 -nootime ...Chances are a drawing has been done, emails answered and any BS Peace Corps stuff has been started and around 11:30 I head to the post to check for mail. If there is mail I return home like a child on Christmas morning and revel in what may be inside... candy? faceclothes? books? it is all good. If there is nothing there.... insert a sad face here... I walk the city looking for things to buy or just taking in the sites, then back home around one.

1:00 - 3:30pm ... everything for the most part is closed between these hours, if this was Spain it would be a labled a siesta, shops and people will start to come back out around 3:00 (inshallah) and by the streets are packed and will stay that way for the next 3-4 hours.

3:30 - 5 through7:00... this is the time I shop, visit the artisanat (hopefully twice a week at this point, some weeks I never get there... but there is really nothing to do at this stage). I go to the same man to buy my fruit, another for veggies, still another for beef and yet another for my chicken. I settled on each of these people not because they have the cheapest price, but because they engaged me in conversation and I felt as if I was not being taken advantage of... so they get my business most if not everyday and a relationship is building. As for the meat man I was steered to him from my tutor who runs a sandwich shop... says his meat is the best and so far it is. On my way home from the medina I stop by Snack Ali and hang with my tutor for anywhere from 1 to 3 hours talking (both english and arabic) and meeting many people.

Finall as I head to my busy neighborhood about 5 minutes from Ali's business I stop for my 1Dh fresh popped bag of popcorn and try out a little arabic with the young man who makes the popcorn...usually he is busy, but we exchanges a few words and he now puts me in the front of the line.

my evenings ... when I get in I immediately get my music going, start supper and hit my work for the PC, answer emails and in general "chill". Speakingof chill'in, it has gotten chilly at night inside the homes so while I prepare dinner and get ready to eat I turn on the small heater in the bedroom close the door and around 8 :30 after the food has been eaten and the kitchen is clean I go into my warm room and work, read, skype... until around midnight or until i think the day is done.

That is my daily life in 250 words give or take... there are always changes to the routines but for the most part that is it... maybe I get home early one afternoon and hang on the roof with my ipod drawing or reading, or I head to Fes and take in that city. Right now it is mid-afternoon, and I am writing my blog....change is good sometimes. These last 30 days have been total different than the previous 3 and half months.
Salama.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Why So SSSerious Son...

Self-Portrait No.2
A little birdy upon seeing this portrait mentioned that I "looked so serious", I chuckled and said I get so engrossed that I forget to smile or change my expression... I will show a "softer" side in my next portrait. I am very happy with my easle, so far it was money well spent.
Not much else is going on... working at many projects and gathering information about the local artisans so I can devise a plan over the next couple of months. The Peace Corps I find is report and paperwork happy... I have never been one to fill out reports and do not see me filling out these "busywork" reports, from what I can see it is a bunch of buracratic bullshit.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Man in the Mirror...

What a beautiful Saturday in Sefrou... the sun is shining and the temps hovers aound 60. Word out of Boston is that another storm is about to descend onto my fair city and region and pound an already snowbound populace with another 10-12 inches. I hope the rodent was right and that spring is coming soon.

I have had my easle for a week and finally got to use if for more then just a bulltin board, yesterday I was shown the only printer in Sefrou (he has a heildberg press... actually two) and after I was introduced to him he gave me two large sheets of paper... GOLD, Jerry....GOLD!! So this morning after almost two weeks without drawing I do what I always do when I have been away from it for too long... I did a quick self-portrait. So with mirror in hand and my 2B pencil I attacked the paper and found it to be better than I thought but still not what i like to work on with graphite. 30 plus minutes later I had my first in I hope to be a series of portraits during my stay here.
For all my friends back home... yes I have lost weight (approx. 15+lbs) so my face is thinner than it has been in a long time, and the beard is new and it helps me blended in a little (yeah right). Once I get some oils I will add some color to my portfolio.

Finally I witnessed a small rally in the streets of Sefrou... not sure what the cause as I do not read arabic script (thanks peace corps) but I assume it has to do with everything that is happening in North Africa... or it could have been a "white" sale for the local hanut.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Sweet Home Sefrou...

For those of my friends an who have been wondering what my home in Sefrou looks like... here are some images to give you an idea. So you can take a "virtual tour" of my home, the front door, kitchen, into my bathroom, bedroom and salon/livingarea... I close with a snapshot of my turish toilet, a MAJOR upgrade from the first two bathrooms since my arrival here.
In Peace Corps lingo I am living the "Posh Corps" lifestyle, mainlybecause I have everything a city of 80k can give you, running water, internet, food, store and a roof, yet among my peers I am in the middle, better than some more "rustic" than others. The place is what I wanted but does lack hot water, shower, western toilet and heat (well NOBODY) has heat really. if it is the Posh Corps so be it, I am in Small Business Development and no longer the wide-eyed kid I might have once been... had no interest in haul water from the river, living on dirt floors or in a village of 300. So enjoy and come visit ther is plenty of room...







































































My turkish is as clean as I can get it, if I have to stand over it to take a bucket bath it will be spotless...HAHA. You can figure out what the bucket is there for... but this one will take TP in very small amounts...inshallah!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

February... baby it is cold inside

With what I hear is another 20 inches of snow about to fall in Boston as a thick frosting to the 50-60 inches already on the ground I have no good right to complain about the cold that desended onto Sefrou this morning. In fact the temperature is a steady 40-45 degrees, which is actually quite lovely, it is the 50-55 degrees inside the house that makes my fingers icey cold and my breathe visible... granted Sefrou is no TimHdite... yes I was getting spoiled. Maybe I should have gotten a bigger heater.

Today was one of those days that i think I am getting nothing done until I come to the end of the day and have all these little things started or completed... as I write I am under a heavy blanket and listen to Morphine and have this craving to lose myself in a haze, to dull my brain and float off the edge of reality... but I resist. It must be in part do to this inner urge I have to get up and paint or draw... on paper or canvas (not whiteboard) and I lack materials. Why is the only place to get these things a 3-4 hour train ride (oneway). I feel unfulfilled and need to create, to play with colors, to smell linseed oil, have the sensation of running my fingers through the paint as I move it around the surface to place marks down and watch them come together as I walk a mile in a ten foot space... in and out of the canvas,... oblivous to everything outside of my work!!! I am not sure I can truely convey the what it like to be in the moment... but it is building and I need the release.

I must go to RABAT!!!!