First Post

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. Herein I'll be able to communicate whats really going down in the Peace Corps in Morocco and how my immersion into Moroccan culture is going. The point of my 2 years here in Morocco is to help promote world peace and friendship while helping Moroccan youth develop into valuable members of society.

Is the idea of world peace and friendship idealistic and grandiose? Yes. But in spite of my occasional cynicism, I truly believe these ideals will make me a better person and also enable me to radiate this in Morocco and back in the states once I COS (Complete Service) inshallah (God willing/ i.e hopefully, maybe, possibly, or any other way to be vague and non-committal).

The Peace Corps has three goals:

     1: to help the people of interested countries (Morocco) in meeting their need for trained men and women.

     2: to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

     3: to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Through cultural exchange and creative projects I hope to be able to accomplish these three goals and fulfil my commitment of service to the people of Morocco and the people of the United States.

My Peace Corps adventure started in the Moroccan capital of Rabat where we had 10, exhaustive days of training, sessions, bad food and dogs barking. Seriously, at all hours of the day there was a German Shepard howling. Oh well. Rabat is a dense city with a new vibe about it. It feels a lot like Washington D.C with loads of government buildings and offices walled off to the public. Although my friend Jake and I did manage to shmooze our way in and had a nice chat in English/Darija/French about America. We tried to get into the Department of Defenses' building which was a ornate complex but didn't have too much luck.

Admittedly, Rabat was a bit of a blurr. We were tired at all hours of the day and were constantly being herded into meetings or rooms with sugary pastries.

After getting the lowdown on such things as, "How to use a Turkish Toilet" Our next step was to receive our placements for CBT. CBT stands for Community Based Training. This consists of 3 months where we are placed in a community around the cities of Fez and Meknes. In this time, we learn Darija and learn how to integrate into a community and begin to work with the youth. Because we are a group of 6 Americans here we get a LOT of attention. This comes in many forms. Stares, chides, questions and love. I don't know if I can accurately describe how incredible nice and generous our host families are. I think every woman over like 20 years old thinks she is my mother. If I don't have food in my hand, on its way to my mouth or in my mouth, I'm instructed to eat. If I walk on the tile without sandals? I'm told to put shoes on so my toes don't get cold. My host mom Fatima tucks me in for a nap on the couch after lunch. Does this sound overbearing and smothering? Yes. But in the same token its remarkably loving and affectionate.

My site is called Mhaya which is a town smack-dab between the two larger cities with about 4,000 people living in it. There is one main road and a highway which runs through the town. There are beautiful foothills around and some bigger mountains in the distance. Tiny hanoots or corner-stores sell everything you could need while living on 25 Dirham or 3 Dollars a day. Cats, Dogs, Sheep, Cows, Goats, and Donkeys all roam around the town some shepherded, some not. The cats are hard to shepherd.

The host family I am staying with, the Elyachi family, has a great big house with 12 people from the family living in it. I have 4 host brothers, 2 host sisters, 2 host mothers, 2 host fathers its craziness all the time but I dig it and they are super nice. We have about 15 or so chickens out back and a couple of rabbits which are all delicious. I was having breakfast one morning and heard a chicken squaking. It was a little bizarre to hear a chicken be butchered at 7:45 in the morning but lunch was really good.




As the first post I hope you've got a relatively solid overview of what my time here has been like.  I'll definitely go into more depth in the coming posts but for now its bed time.

Shukran Bizef!! (thanks a lot!)

-J