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.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
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.
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 somet
hing 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...
hing 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
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.
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.
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