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My first month in the Peace Corps

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I will continue to have extremely spotty internet connection until I am sworn in in late March and (cross you finger) placed in a site that actually has internet.  Until then, we will have to do with these long updates.  Luckily they come with lots of awesome pictures.

1. On warm days, my host dad spends hours basket weaving:

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2. The finished product is incredible:

 

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3. The view from the view reminds me of home.  I miss Colorado:

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4. Me with my host parents:

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5. The gang on a walk to “the lake” (It’s kinda just a river…but their language doesn’t differentiate)

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6. Kids playing by the river to the Darisha version of “Ring Around the Rosy.”  Their version involves brushing your teeth rather than mass death by plague.

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7. Art looking at the beautiful Mid-Atlas Mountains:

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8. People ride donkeys (hamal hashak) here all the time:

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9. A beautiful view from the town over:

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10. When it rains, it gets mighty cold.  No indoor heating means its 10 degrees colder inside.  We’ve already had several nights where we can see our breath as we go to sleep:

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11. A quick view of my small town:

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12. A view that makes this area seem not so poor:

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13. A beautiful sunset over my city:

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14. The Mosque in my town is easily the biggest building around:

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15. My host mother presenting couscous.  It’s a Friday special:

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It’s been a good couple of weeks since my last update.  It may be cold, but I am getting used to the routine that the cold creates.  As for being disconnected…it’s kinda nice to get away for a while.  I got my second shower of homestay today—which was nice.  We get one a week it seems.  The time is kind of flying.  In five weeks, it’ll be my 24th birthday and I will get my final destination—where I’ll spend my entire service.

I’ve been writing sooooo much.  I write at least one letter to America each day.  I’ve gotten to know the postmaster of this town quite well.  His name is Ali and he is intent on getting me to marry a Moroccan Woman (not gonna happen).  I also write in my leather-bound journal once or twice a day (thank you Sofia).  In the first four weeks here, I have covered more than 40 pages.  I honestly think I may fill up this entire (rather large) journal before I reach six month.  It is great writing practice.

I’ll update again the next time I have internet.

~Richard

 

A Week into PCT

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Blog Update for Fes Training One (January 29th)

So my training site has zero internet.  Period.  Even with an internet stick, it would take about an hour to load Google.  So my updates will be few and long until late March when training ends and we are sworn in—finally changing from Peace Corps Trainees to Peace Corps Volunteers.  We have to two months until then.  That time with be jam-packed with Darisha (Moroccan Arabic) lessons, culture lessons, working with kids at the Dalshabob, and the like.

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Our adventure truly started when we left Oscar Hotel in Rabat.  After a week of training, we were truly on our way.  Three bushes took us from Rabat to Fes.  This two hour drive included a 20 minute break in which I got to experience Moroccan candy and impatient Bus drivers who wanted to leave even though there were people going to the bathroom (lucky for us, Peace Corps facilitators are amazing).

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The drive was beautiful.  I became very close with Carrie and Amanda during the drive.  We spent most of our time talking about TV shows (Doctor Who and Breaking Bad).  We frequently stopped to ohh and ahh at the changing scenery.

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We got to the Dalshabob in Fes in the afternoon.  We went out for a nice lunch (I got cheeseburger).  Then we all went back and started saying our goodbyes.  There are so many Peace Corps volunteers in our group that we won’t see a lot of people that we got close too until we are sworn in two months from now.  Our group was the last to leave because it’s hard to get a Taxi on Mohammed’s anniversary—especially when you are going to the middle of nowhere.

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The taxi drive was very exciting.  Apparently the name of my town is the name of a neighborhood in a large town nearby.  The driver thought we were going to neighborhood.  When we got there, our facilitator told him we needed to go to the town.  They all got out of the car and argued for nearly ten minutes.  Lucky for us, our personal facilitator is amazing.  She made it so we weren’t left on the side of the road.  We got into town, divided, up, went with our families, and were shown to our rooms.

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The first few days in this town have been all over the place.  In the end, however, I have become very comfortable.  In just three days I went from feeling like a guest to feeling like a part of a family.  I still can’t speak with them very well (no one knows English).  I live in a house with a father (Hadima), a mother (Fatima), two sons (Sofian and Mstaffa), Mstaffa’s wife (Miriam), and their four month old child (Aness).

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I was not among the lucky PCTs who receives a Western toilet.  Luckily I stocked up on toilet paper in Rabat (I just can’t do the left hand thing…………I just can’t).

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We have language lessons every day at the Dalshabob (and anywhere else we go).  My brain in saturated with Darisha.  I am taking it a little at a time.  The sun even came out a bit the last two days…which allowed us to come out from our classroom for our Saturday lesson).

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On Sunday we explored the village and its surrounding area.  The snow-capped mountains were finally visible.  I honestly feel like I’m back in the Rocky Mountain.  There is no indoor heating, so that does mean these months will be cold.  But I came prepared.  I wear three layers days and night and sleep under four wool blankets.  It is worth it to be somewhere so beautiful.

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I am now 2% done with my Peace Corps service.  I hard to think I was still in America only two weeks ago.  This had already been the experience of a lifetime.  I will keep you—my faithful readers—updated as often as I can.  Make sure to subscribe so you can see every time I update.  If all goes well, there should be 26 months of experience ahead of me.

 

Video Blogging and Heading to Fes

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Tomorrow we head off to Fes for the start of our Pre-Service Training.  From there, I will head to the Atlas mountains to start working with children in a building called the Dalshabob.  It should be amazing.  I am having plenty of up days and couple down days.  It is all culminating on tomorrow when we meet our host family.  Once I get through tomorrow, I think my worries will start to wane.  I’ve been told I will live in a home  owned by a Moroccan solider with two adult sons.

Today I will be uploading one of my most popular pieces from when I was a teenager.  I called it Imminent Death.  I used people I know in short skit crazed situations.  This was a way I got in touch with the side of me I didn’t realize I had until my first really close friends brought it out of me.  Here is the first one.  It is very short.  I am having problems uploading the other nine.  I will try to upload more the next time I am on (I have no idea when that will be).

Imminent Death: Problem With Furbies

 

End of my first Week in the Peace Corps

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The orientation week for the Peace Corps has been tiring.  We have full schedules everyday (except today–that’s how I explored Rabat).  The pictures should be below.  I have three more days in this city until I head off to the Atlas Mountains to start my Pre-Service training….which includes some extreme 4-hours a day language training.  I already got a hold on basic Moroccan Arabic.  I hope I can continue making this kind of progress.

I finally found an Internet Cafe that has stable internet.  I was able to Skype with my whole family plus my girl.  It’s been great to catch up with everyone after a week with sketchy internet.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  I am going to continue posting old writings while I get settled here in Morocco.  In honor of President Obama’s second inauguration  here is a piece about the Presidential Election of 2004.  Enjoy my first attempts at political writing (from back when I was 15).

November 2nd, 2004

 

Beautiful Rabat

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Today has been a good turn around for me.  Yesterday got a bit stressful.  I was extremely tired and lost a vital plug.  Plus the language training was bogging me down.  Today was much better.  I realized I was doing great on the language (for having only three days of training, that is).  Then I went out with a few friends.  We went to a Café, practiced our language skills, and generally enjoyed ourselves.  I also bought a new vital plug.  It doesn’t work….but that doesn’t matter.  It only cost 5 Dirham—which is about 75 cents.  So I’ll try again tomorrow.  I may even shell out 10 or 15 dirham.

Tomorrow is our free day.  Plans include going to the Madid (the walled downtown that was the whole of Rabat before European Colonialization).  Then it sounds like we are off to the beach (Atlantic Ocean).  That sounds like a great way to spend the day.  A few people are even talking about going to an Internet café in the evening—Which sounds great considering how broken the connection is at the hotel.  I would love to check up on the news, work on the blog, talk to a few people, and so forth.

At this point, I must say I am seeing very little that makes me want to go home.  Language and overall anxiety were my biggest fears.  I have gotten past both.  Anxiety seems to fade with every day and every lesson.  With my amazing language instructor and lots of practicing, I do not fear the language.  My only major problem is being away from my girl.  We now have about four days until we go off to our training sites (mine is in the Atlas Mountains off of Fes).  I can’t wait to get there and meet my host family.  I will be there until March 26th with four other volunteers.

Bislama!

 

Day Four

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Casablanca from the airI just practiced my Arabic for a good hour or two.  I can now count from one to ten, introduce myself, go through the basic greeting and say goodbye in the dialect of Arabic that works in Northwest Africa.  I feel like I need to as much or more language practice compared to the other people here.  I have always had a difficult time learning languages.  I just don’t enjoy memorizing.  But I am—slowly—getting it down.  I am going to have to do this every day to keep up with the lesson.  If all goes well, I won’t be kicked out when training ends because I just can’t get by with the language.

I have continued journaling on a daily basis.  This will be my main form of writing while I am here.  During my training, I doubt I will get by fiction writing done.  Once I get into my two year service that may change.  That isn’t until late March.  I still need to master the language to the best of my ability.

Today is my girl’s 21st birthday.  It has been especially hard today being away from here.  Part of me wants to be where she is.  Part of me wants her to be here.  In the end, it honestly does not matter where we are.  I just want to be with her and celebrate with her.  As I complete my fourth day of 800, I can’t help but imagine what the next 796 days will be like without her.

This is going to be hard.  But amazing.

 

Day Three

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I am officially wrapping up Day 3 of 800 on my Peace Corps adventure.  I am starting a new method of blogging.  In this method, I write my updates in a word document…and upload them whenever the internet decides to work.  Sound like a plan?  Good.  Anyway, this will be the first night since Saturday that I have been able to get a true full night’s sleep.  I think I may just faint right now.  Sleep sounds so glorious.

The flight and bus rides went smoothly.  I converted my money over just a few hours ago at 8.17 Dirham per American dollar.  To put that in perspective, we went to a café a little bit later.  I got a pastry for 5 Dirham and my friend got a coffee for 5 Dirham.  The exchange rate is going to heavily favor us.  It’s kinda nice not to worry about buying little things like food.  I can afford it.  At least for now.

We have one week left in Rabat before we break apart into small language groups.  This is going to be a crazy week full of meeting a bunch of people, getting a bunch of shots, learning basic Arabic, and survival skills.  Emotionally I have been all over the place—from wondering why I decided to do this one moment to sitting back and relaxing the next.  This week in Rabat will be a good way to test the waters.

 

Live from Philly

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Philly

The plane ride went smoothly.  When I got to Philadelphia International Airport, I met up with the four others from Colorado.  We split a fun ride into the heart of Philly.  I immediately dropped off my bags and went to orientation.  Fives hours of orientations while hungry and tired…At least I got to meet a lot of new people.  This has been a great start.  Although I still feel like the anti-social one.  That is kind of how I work though.

We leave the hotel at 9:00am tomorrow morning.  We immediatly get on a bus for JFK airport.  The 8 hour flight will bring us into Casablanca overnight.  Then, it’s straight to Rabat–the capital of Morocco.  It is going to be a long day of traveling.  But all I know is: 1 Day Down.  799 to go.