Latrine Update

 

Progress has continued on the latrine and the electrical wiring has been hooked up. The main builder, my counterpart Aziz and I have recently trying to figure out what color to paint the building. Traditionally, the color of most buildings in my area of Morocco are painted a burnt orange color. Though I want to keep with tradition, I also think that it is important (while being respectful to tradition and customs) to paint the building a different color. Though just a color, the uniqueness of the building would ideally, fuel a sense of pride in the school and provide more motivation for the community to maintain the school and the teachers to give all they can to the students. It would stand out to the community and to people passing by the school that this place is different and there is something special going on here.

            This past Tuesday Aziz and I went for our second round of training with the teachers at the school. In this round of training we reviewed what we had learned in the last session which were different facts about the risks associated with not washing your hands and some statistics. After going over that I taught them a simple way to teach a health lesson to their students. The activity was called “Glitter Germs” and in it I first tried to explain how germs can travel from person to person with ease and how proper hand washing can stop the problem. In this case the “germs” were glitter. First I poured some glitter into my hand and spread it around, rubbing my hands together. Next, I shook hands and said Salaam to my counter part Aziz. Thus the germs were transferred! We went around the room repeating the process until all parties were infected. Oh boy, what to do?! Why wash your hands of course. We then proceeded to walk around the school showing off our germ-infested hands to the kids and goofing around. We went over the proper way to wash hands and then went back and wrapped up.

 

Some clean hands!

            As I went down to Marrakech to see some friends who are completing their service this spring, the builders were bringing in the plumbing piping and the large rocks were being excavated.  I hope to go back this week and see what else has progressed. To culminate the project, we are planning on having a big party and health day. I hope to get some of the community members to come out and celebrate and to also talk with them about why we are doing the project. In the past we talked with the officials of the Association about why we did the work but having the parents there would be great. Who knows it could even lead to more work there and maybe a different project.

Aziz and his Moped

January

January.

The start of the new year and the prospects of beginning new endeavors in Morocco. 2015 kicked off with myself and my friend also named Jake heading to Europe for a week. After Xmas we hit up Berlin and Prague and back to Berlin before heading back to Morocco. The break was much needed and was only the second time I had been out of the country since my service started last year. Berlin was great. Super grungy, yet efficient as can be. Pretty funny to think about in that the city of Berlin is famous for its alternative subcultures which don't like the status-quo or rules yet everything related to the transport of people, logistics and transactions is organized to the second. Trains leave on the minute, crosswalks are respected and all of the other small things one can think of are in place and working fluidly. It was equally jarring to come from Morocco, a country where virtually everything does not run on time to one of the most organized countries in the world. This is not to say that one way is better than the other, Morocco's different way of doing things has lent itself to abundant random run-ins on the street with friends, work opportunities, dinner invites and other random acts of kindness.

In Berlin, we took walking tours of the city, partied hard, and ate GREAT food. I can't begin to explain how comforting a curried pork wurst with french fries ketchup and mayo  and a cold one was coming off the plane. It was a treat. After touring the city for a few days making friends and seeing sites we cruised to Prague. Prague was only a 4 hour train ride but definitely felt like a different place. Everything in the old town was pristine, the building looked like they had been borrowed from a Disney Studio's set and the orange hue of the lamp-posts created an aura around the city. Prague is a town that seems split. On the one hand you have ornate buildings in the Old Town and then just ten minutes on the tram away, the impressions of Soviet Russia remain.  We were in Prague for 3 days which in my opinion is enough to see the city. We all want to be locals when we travel and get the ins to all the hip spots but if you are traveling on a time constraint like most people do, 3 days in Prague will suffice. We we to the old castle, cruised around the squares, chilled in some funky bars and rung in the New Year in style with a bar crawl which was being organized by one of my good friends I have grown up with, Sarah. Because we were hostel-less on NYE we cruised to the train station back to Berlin where we flew out the next day.

Back in Morocco, it was back to reality and work. With the Dar Chebab still closed I have been going to Timoulit which is a small mountain town 6km from me. I may have mentioned it in a earlier post but the kids there are so nice and eager to learn that they deserve a second shout out.

The second Monday back was my first meeting with the teachers at the school where we are building the latrines. Albeit a little skeptical at first, the teachers agreed to sit and learn about the need to educate their students on proper hand sanitation techniques and how we can help them live healthier lifestyles. The first thing we did was a pre-test. Pre-tests are super important to the success of the overall accountability of the project because if we don't measure what the instructors already know versus what they will be learning there will be no way to record a positive change in behavior or, no change which would signal partial failure of the project. I find these pre-tests interesting because one it gives me a lot of work to do in terms of preparation and two, it has potential for reward if I do my job properly and the teachers and students learn.

Tomorrow I am headed to the Latrine site to see a machine dig up some of the rocks in order to create a septic tank in for the latrine run-off. Should be a grand time! Pictures and re-cap to follow...

Thanksgiving and New Work: Part 1

These past few weeks have seen the largest mood and psyche changes to date in my Peace Corps service. After the instillation of the computers at the Dar Chebab as described in my last blog post, the Ministry I work for decided to close my youth center for repairs. Though completely necessary, these repairs come at probably the most inopportune time. Not only did the computers just get installed, but the summer season had just ended and I was anticipating beginning classes. Some things just don’t compute for me such as, why couldn’t the work be done over the summer when there was nothing going on and the center was closed? This unfortunate event put me down a little bit and threw me my first real curveball in my Peace Corps service. Up until then my service had been mostly smooth with but cultural differences and feelings of language inadequacies my only gripes. The closure of the center was unforeseen and now after being able to process the experience, I have come out the other side stronger for it.

            I have cultivated a small class in the neighboring town where I head over every Friday and Saturday and chill out with some kids there and do activities. One activity we did a couple weeks back was a PACA or participatory analysis activity. First, we split up into groups of 5-6 and also divided into male and female groups. The goal of the activity was for the students to draw a map of their town. I asked them to label different places and also to point out any bad spots of town that they don’t go to. The use of separating the groups in to male and female is that, especially in this country, you receive very different examples of what the town means to them. For the boys, it was a map where the soccer fields and coffee shops were focal and for the girls, the souk and small stores were prevalent. Additionally, the scope of the maps were very different with kids who either live outside the center of town of have family outside of town having a larger impression of the village than kids who live right in the center and don’t frequent the mountains much.

            I really enjoy this activity for a couple of reasons. One, I get to learn about the town from the perspective of the kids and two, the kids really take to the activity for it combines art and the places they live which always invokes pride. Seeing some of the reactions to some of the questions, which come with the activity, makes all of the frustration of things not going your way with the Dar Chebab worth it.

            After the weekend of work in Timoulilt it was time for Warden Training in Rabat. A Peace Corps Warden is someone who works with the safety and security office as their point of contact with volunteers in different regions. In total there are 4 “super regions” with smaller consolidation points in central locations for volunteers to consolidate to in the event of an emergency such as civil unrest, political unrest or natural disaster. The job of the warden is to be responsible for the well being of volunteers in the event of a consolidation as well as assist Safety and Security with regional matters. During the training, we learned about how to check a house and make sure it fits in the PC guidelines, learned about the current status of security in Morocco and came up with ways for Wardens to become more involved as advisors for SS in the field.

Thanksgiving!

In the states, I would usually go to my grandparents house in Manhattan and have turkey with the family. Although I am from Pittsburgh, I don’t think I have been back for thanksgiving for many years. This coupled with the fact that my grandparents had moved buildings made Thanksgiving easier in terms of feeling homesick. I was slightly homesick on the day but that was all washed away by the festivities at the Peace Corps office. For the past couple of years the new country director has put aside funds for having a Thanksgiving lunch for all volunteers at the office. This year 10 turkeys were cooked as well as mounds of mashed potatoes and stuffing. Volunteers brought salads and deserts as well as drinks. I contributed a cooked sheep’s head. It was a bit of a joke but a lot of the Moroccan staff at PC were into it and even the Ambassador had some. It was pretty funny to see his body-guards reactions but I was happy he was into it. After the lunch/dinner some friends and I went out to a local ex-pat haunt where I skyped with my family. The night continued with us going to a nightclub and over 25 PCV’s showed up. It was a great way to round out the day.

The next day was rough but I had time to kill in Rabat and hung around before picking my parents up at the airport! More to follow in Part 2…

Kids on Computers Lab Set up in Ouled Moussa

These past couple of days have been the most busy days of my Peace Corps service thus far. Beginning last Sunday, I have consistently gotten up at 8am and been finished with work at 8pm with only a lunch break in between. Now this may sound trivial to the average American schedule but in PCV and Moroccan terms this is intense

(Here we are working on the set up of the Lab)

For the past seven months I have been working with an American organization called Kids on Computers. Back in May I submitted a proposal to receive 8-10 computers in order to help jumpstart my Dar Chebab as well as provide tools to underprivileged youth to access information, learn Math Science and English and have a more advanced grasp on technology. Kids on Computers is a completely volunteer based organization in which American software developers, and IT specialists bring donated computers and funds to critical needs areas and help in the assistance and set-up of computer labs. Their members are from across the United States and they take time out of their ordinary schedules to help. 

So, last Sunday, I went to the airport in Marrakech with a RPCV named Sasa who had previously served in Ouaouzeight which is a town just over the mountains from me. We were going to meet up with 4 Americans from the organization, Randy, Fareeda, Avni and Chase. After waiting around in the airport a while for everything to get cleared through customs we started on our trip back up to Beni Mellal and my site to purchase the computers for my site.

Driving us were some of the staff from Sasa's towns' boarding school. This bus was such a time warp; with huge glass windows all around the vehicle it must have been from the 1970's at least. None the less, it ran well and we all got up to Beni Mellal just fine. 

In Beni Mellal, we ran into our first challenge. The owners of the computer store didn't have everything arranged so we had to redo the prices on everything being bought and do a new tally. This essentially negated all of the bargaining and haggling I had done for the past six months but at least they had all the equipment. Finally ironing out a price, we headed out and I got dropped off at home while they went up the mountain to town. Despite the fact that it was late at night, this was a great experience to know that after just 9 months in country, I can handle myself in a professional business situation and make sure all parties are satisfied. It was a lot of fun doing this and is something I think I excel in.

                                                                        Class!

The next day we set-up the computer lab arranging the tables and chairs, installing the software and wiring the system. In the middle of the day though we went to my host mothers cooperative where we had a HUGE lunch. My favorite lunch here is this chicken they make by first boiling the chicken in the pressure cooker and then somehow, someway browning the thing to perfection. I genuinely think it is sorcery due to the juicy, crispy super-seasoned nature of the chicken. So amongst 5 people we split 3 chickens, french fries, salad and desert. Needless to stay we were stuffed and could barely walk back to the house and then to work. Unfortunately we had to go back into Beni Mellal to exchange some things but my friend Jake was with me and all of the volunteers were super nice so we all had a good time piling into the mudir's car and running errands in town. The fact that lunch was so good definitely outweighed the tedious nature of Moroccan business dealings.

Tuesday was the last day for the KoC volunteers in Ouled Moussa. We finished the wiring of the network, installed the new software on a couple more machines and fired the room up. Kids began to trickle in and by evening we had a packed house for me to lead my first class in the new center. It was a bit of chaos but thats Morocco for you. Kids were so excited to checkout all of the new programs on the computers and play the different typing and math games. I left the session feeling exhausted yet really happy because this was the first real class I have held in my site so far!

The KoC folks just left the region today and as I have been able to reflect on the experience I have to say I am really happy with the result. Indeed there were major bureaucratic hurdles in the process of getting these computers to Ouled Moussa and at times I didn’t think it was going to work out. Only now do I realize how much energy, effort and emotion I have put into this project over the past 7 months and how great it feels now. I have never actively worked towards giving something away and to see the reactions of all parties involvedmade it all worth it. This is Peace Corps. Not the bringing of materials to a community, rather, the full investment of emotion into a community you had no previous connection to and working your hardest for them just because.

                           

Post-Summer, Pre-Fall

Summer has come and gone and the days I thought would be long, hot and unbearable were merely

long and hot. I anticipated this summer to be something of mythological proportions where I would be constantly at the brink of melting under the sweltering heat of Morocco. My premonitions of heat came true yet I am still here and solid.

Ramadan, during the month of July was a time of hardship for me but as the days wore on I adapted. I fasted this Ramadan 21 of 30 days and I will be the first to tell you it was difficult. Not only can you not drink water or eat from 3:30am until 7:43pm but it was also was consistently 110 degrees. This month was definitely some of the longest sustained mental hardship I have gone through in recent memory. Sure there have been run-ins with a snow-storm at 9:30pm on the side of a mountain where your physical and mental fortitude is tried, but this was 30 days of body-altering hunger and thirst. Now it is not nearly as dramatic as it sounds but going one day from being able to eat/drink whenever to being restrict the next for 16 hours is tough. Ramadan was a great lesson in cultural understanding and empathy, both of which are my job here. I think the hunger and thirst might have made me a more patient person which is a positive! I also learned about why Muslims love Ramadan so much. Every night at the breakfast there were great dishes reserved for the holiday and it was a time when everyone became even more inclusive of one another in an already hospitable country. It is serious family bonding time and never have I felt more included in a foreign culture with relatively random people than I have during Ramadan here. Random encounters on the street would lead to Lftor (Breakfast) invites. This was a great time to work on my integration and I definitely feel as though I got closer with my community over that month. 

During Ramadan I was able to travel to my friend Andy's site to help him with a Grassroots Soccer Camp. Grassroots Soccer is an organization which teaches HIV/AIDS education via the worlds game, soccer. The camp was held at Andy's site in the city of Kenitra, home to more than 800,000 people. The kids that came to camp were so different than the kids in my small town. Many of them knew english well and had advanced ideas and thoughts for their ages of 10-17. It is a liberal city just north of the capital and was really striking to see the differences. The camp went well and the kids definitely came away from it with new ideas but at the end of the camp we concluded that Grassroots Soccer in Morocco must be designed differently than Sub-Saharan Africa's program. Due to cultural limitations, and a language barrier the curriculum was tough to navigate through in a culturally appropriate way. We also concluded that a very educated/liberal, english speaking counterpart was necessary in order to convey the message appropriately. This is a common factor in our work here as PCV's how to teach somewhat radical ideas to a conservative Muslim culture. The motivation for social change is not high yet there are often glimmers of promise which make it all worth it.

After Ramadan I did some more traveling around the country and worked another camp for English Immersion at the costal city of El Jadida. The camp went well and we had many opportunities to go to the beach and swim and play with the campers. We also did some teaching. 

A week after the camp I was faced with a tough decision. My grandfather John had, for the past couple of years, been increasingly ill. I had known that he was approaching the end of his life and was faced with the tough decision whether or not to go back for the event. It wasn't until the third week in July that I got a call from my father telling me of the news. After much internal deliberation and the weighing of the pros and cons I booked a flight. It was a weird feeling getting on the plane in Casablanca, heading for Paris and then NYC. It was even weirder to step out of the B train on 79th street in Manhattan. Just 12 hours before I was a world away, somewhere I was used to. A place where everything has got just a little more wear, a little more tear. Where people move slowly. 

Being in New York and Philadelphia was like a dream. 5 days of action, drinking real beer, eating pork and being in a place where every car is seemingly new and everyone speaks your language. It was a sad event to go home for and while at home I did have some hard moments explaining myself and what I do here in Morocco to family and friends. At the same time the wide-eyed, drop-jawed reactions by family-friends made me feel really proud to be taking on this challenge of Peace Corps. 

As I rode back to the airport in Radoune, my Moroccan Uber driver's car, talking all things Morocco in the middle of Queens I knew it was time to go back.

IST and the Beginning of Ramadan

I have never been much of a writer. I like to talk with other people either on the phone or in person to express how I am feeling. Yet I trudge on with the blog! For those who are all wondering what the heck I have been doing in the past couple of months, it has been a lot. I do not know if I can properly articulate all that has gone on. Everyday feels both the same and totally different all at the same time. Sometimes the monotony is painful. Other times, the smallest thing like sitting under a tree talking about American holidays can be the best part of the day. 

Some of the work I have been doing has been thinking of different creative ways to help bring resources to my town. I have been talking with a few different organizations on how to bring books, computers and classroom materials to the D.C. Additionally, and more recently, I have had some solid conversations with the youth in town as to why they think the D.C isn't active and running. Knowing the issues of your town is one of the most important parts of Peace Corps service and it really allows you to see behind the shades and get at the root problems which need to be addressed.

Recently, I have been traveling. I went to Marrakech for 10 days with the rest of my Staj to relax by the pool, hang out with friends and attend Youth Development meetings about projects and ideas as well as more mundane topics such as Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation. It was a great time to see other Volunteers as well as relax a bit.

We went to the main square called Jemma El Fna where there are snake charmers-, monkeys, acrobats, etc. .. I didn't really care for the animals because many of them were obviously drugged and or had a leash on and it just did not feel right. I think this coincides with my feelings on zoos and circuses. The high point of my trip to the square was eating all the different street meat sandwiches and breads and juices. A glass of fresh orange juice here costs 50 cents and a meat sandwich costs $ 1.50 its a great bargain.  I would not suggest diving into street meat sandwiches though until you've had a couple of days to get acclimated! Then there was this amazing juice stand down one of the corridors. Imagine a literal hole in the wall booth with 3 guys blending juices and outside, a ring of 3-4 people deep out into the alley. People were begging the guy to take their money and most impressively, whenever he was out of one type of juice his helpers would have a whole new pitcher waiting for him to scoop up and keep pouring. At .40 cents a glass this was by far the best deal of the night.  

Marrakech tourist also really really heavy. I have not seen So Many forigeners in one place! This May sound a bit jaded goal Effective living in site for months at a time only seeing 8-10 of your fellow Volunteers it can be overwhelming. The Guilez neighborhood is spotless, fancy, rich and white. It is a stark contrast to the conservative, fully veiled women who float around Kech. These contrasts have seemingly been getting bigger and more obvious as I am in country longer. 

There is also a big elephant in the room. Ramadan. Ramadan is a time once a year where Muslims fast during the day, not eating, drinking or smoking and then at night, they breakfast in grand style and the towns and streets come alive. I have beens struggling with whether or not I want to fast. I think it would be a hard challenge. It also has the potential to bring me closer to my community, something I have been looking for.  On the other hand, it quickly provokes conversionist harassment . This form of harassment affects me most so I'm not totally sure how to proceed, though I think I will give fasting my best shot. I am looking forward to breaking fast though with different families and inshallah getting my integration on! 

Finally I am headed up to my first homestay to hang out with the family there. The two host families are pretty opposite so it will be good to get a change of pace!

Finally, Finally, it has been 6 MONTHS IN COUNTRY. Crazy. Time is flying by.

First Month In Site

These past twenty-something days have been some of the most unique, challenging and exciting days thus far in Morocco. As I sit on the roof of my house listening to Steel Pulse with the mountains in the background and the sun in my face, I finally have a house to call my own. This will be the first time in my life living alone. In college for two years I lived in a house but had roommates and was constantly surrounded by friends. Now being alone, I think there will be some challenges of loneliness but also some relief that I can waltz around the house with out a care because no one is there to judge or laugh!

My site, Ouled Moussa is a teeny tiny site outside of a fairly large city in Beni Mellal. Every Thursday there is a Souq or farmers market on steroids. My host mother and I have made a habit of going and it is really fun to ride on the back of a horse drawn cart to buy vegetables for 3dh a kilo or approximately 40 cents for 2 pounds. In town there are many coffee shops and little general stores or hanouts but besides that there isn't a whole lot going on. There is great nature just 5km away but people dont seem to go to the mountain much. People long for the bustle of Beni Mellal and a place to hang out. 

In site there is a great women's cooperative who makes cookies and bread and also sells olive oil and spices. My aforementioned host mother is the secretary of the co-op so whenever I go I am sure to get at least 5 cookies to eat whether I like it or not. They are tasty and all the women there want to treat me as their son. I don't object. They have recently been making trips to spring fairs called mousems to sell their goods and have had some foreign NGO's come in to possibly provide funds for different items they need to be more successful. This will be one of my jobs there, helping them to write grants for an oven or help them to become more profitable

Also in the town there is a Dar Chebab. It is quite sad and shabby but there is a great association which goes there every Saturday and Sunday to hangout, sing and play games. At least it is getting used and just last week I had a total of 3 kids show up for an hour of English teaching! I consider that a success and something to build on. Just the other week I had a solid two day whine session with my parents about how I didnt feel like I was working at all and now I have stuff going on. This is Morocco. One day you're up, the next you're down.

I have a great sitemate named Bernice who has helped me out a lot since I've come to little ol' Moussa with introducing me to counterparts, laying down the law to annoying Moroc Telecom ladies and generally being a hospitable friend. Unfortunately she is leaving in a few days to COS.

Finally, I was put in touch with a former LCF turned farmer who has his own organic farm just a few km's away from my site, he apparently produces top-quality olive oil and wheat and wants to work with the community to become better and more productive. SCORE! awesome counterpart material and hopefully a really valueable connection for the future! If anyone needs some organic Moroccan olive oil holler at me.

For now, I am looking forward to fully furnishing the house, doing some projects and keep meeting people around town to work with. The summer is fast approaching which means work dies and people hang out and try and beat the heat which I have heard is brutal. We shall see.