I went without decent internet for more than a month here in Morocco. Now that I have a steady connection, I’m going to try to update on a daily process. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Fes (a pretty big tourist city) for training. We got back yesterday evening. Today, I went back to studying. Our teacher decided to step things up in class because we now have only four weeks of training left before going to our final site. After the first hour, all five of us were thinking the same thing: Oh shit. It’s not like we don’t know the language…it’s that every question or phrase can be worded so many different ways…and it’s difficult to recognize what is being asked sometimes.
I decided to make it one of my personal goals to get to an advanced or better speaking level during my two years here. I know that means a tutor later. But right now, that means an hour or two of studying each night. Since we do 4-6 hours of class, the amount of content we cover requires that of me. I learn a bit differently than how I am taught…although the classes do give me a good overview of how the language works, I need to drill in order to memorize verbs and nouns and adjectives and everything else. It is difficult, but I am getting there. I want to prove myself in these four weeks before we get sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers.
In other news, having the internet is a strange change. My relationships with everyone back home are changing now. I can talk to my girl whenever we are both awake–which is difficult but great. The distance is hard but I didn’t expect any less. With regards to friends, it is much easier to keep in contact with several people. I like being able to talk to everyone rather that figure out who I can talk to in my precious small amount of time on the internet. One of the best parts about having the Internet has turned to out to be staying in contact with family. With aging grandparents parents who are nearing retirement, and a sister with three girls in school, I miss a lot if I’m out of touch for just a weeks. It’s nice to be back in the loops.
Now that I’m in the Peace Corps, I’m going to alternate between uploading old writings and Peace Corps writing. I’m starting with some old writing because I used most of today studying Moroccan Arabic. Today’s update was an assignment from 11th grade. We had to write a horror story that followed a few steps for the genre. I really like what came out. I don’t know if I’ll ever write more than short stories in this category, but it is fun.
Richard T. Reilly 