First off I want to give a giant shout out to M'Hammed, our Peace Corps librarian, for being a generally all-around good guy. His response time to book requests is fantastic as I received the book I desired the very next day!(granted he did come to Azrou to give us a lecture). But still, the services provided by the IRC(in-country resource center) will keep me well supplied with reading materials well into the two years of service here. So far the books I've eagerly devoured have centered around Muslim culture and include the following: Three Cups of Tea, The Caliphs House, and Secret Trespass(the one brought to me). Also a non-partisan political book which I have just started dipping into. Needless to say the stereotype of PCVs reading more during their service than the previous span of life leading up to that point is so far turning out to be true. I can only imagine what it is going be to like once we get placed in our final sites(which we find out in twenty short days!).
Yesterday we were measured up for our Trek mountain bikes which we should be issued shortly after arriving at our sites. This is something that I have been waiting for since arriving in country. The freedom of movement that mountain bikes will afford us is excitement I can barely contain. Interesting side note: apparently Morocco is the only PC country to issue bikes to their volunteers. Many people have speculated on the reasons but the prevailing one has to do with the history of the country. Earlier volunteers to Morocco used to be issued motorcycles(can you believe it!) and issuing mountain bikes is a way to somewhat stick to that tradition and offer us a cheap and healthy mode of transportation. I for one will be utilizing this perk to its fullest, hopefully my site is not in the steepest of the steep High Atlas Mountains, Inshallah.
So winds down our week back in Azrou. A week filled with story exchanges, mind-numbing lectures, and even more vaccinations(the flu shot knocked many people on their ass, myself included). In a way it is refreshing to be returning to our sites for a few more weeks. It gives us a chance to enter back into the life we had grown to enjoy during our previous foray. A life that ticks away at a slower pace, in a place where everyone knows your face and their fall over themselves to offer you a meal, a life that I have missed. I wish everyone well and cannot wait to tell you of the time we have had during this second phase. Be well!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Back from the Bled
So I have just returned from our first foray into a Moroccan village and face-to-face experience living with a host family. To say the time spent there was fulfilling would be an understatement, a readjustment of my preconceptions about what village life would be like is more on the mark. The beautiful town of Ben Smim is what I called home for two weeks and will be again soon for another three weeks. The town of 1,500 inhabitants is situated on the slope of a hill that spills into a valley containing the farms and lively-hood of the local population. The town is known for its wild blackberries, pomegranates, honey, and natural spring water was a wonderful introduction into beld(rural) life.
The greatest highlight of the first phase of our CBT was the warmness and generosity of the community which embraced us from the first moment we arrived. Everyone we met wanted to come say hello and see who the new foreigners were. This was nothing new to them though as there is a Peace Corps volunteer currently stationed in the village. Shortly after arrival we were introduced to our host families who cheerily took us in as new members of their families. The family I was placed with was very small in comparison to most and gave me a different dynamic and thus experience from others in my staging group. My family consisted of a mother named Fatima, a grandmother named Azizi, and a son named Abduliyah (I still have trouble with that one). Fatima had been divorced for about 23 years, very unusual for a Moroccan woman to do but apparently her ex-husband was an ass who beat her and they are much better off because of it. You may be wondering how does a single mother in a little village support herself and family? Well, they ran the towns hemmam (public bathhouse) which was wonderful for me since I was allowed to have all of the free baths my dirtied body could handle (about every three days). Their house was a bit above the center of town on the hill and had a great view of the mosque and valley below. The house itself is something I never imagine staying in; It was a very, very rustic mud and stone hovel with a dirt roof which floods water during the many storms which passed through the valley. As shocking as it looked on the outside it was surprisingly comfortable inside. It consisted of four rooms: a kitchen, bedroom, living room(where the mother and grandmother slept), and a salon(sitting room) which is my bedroom.
The past month on the Islamic calendar was Ramadan where the days are spent fasting and praying from sunup to sundown. I did not take this opportunity to fast but was more than happy to take part in the break-fast which occurred at the setting of the sun. This meal consists of a flaky bread which is dipped in honey, boiled eggs, this deep-friend, honey-soaked wonderful creation called shebekia, a almond and flour mixture called zmita, and plenty of overly sweet mint tea. In reality Muslims do not forgo their three meals a day, they are just eaten throughout the evening instead. First, the break-fast I mentioned around 6:20ish; Then a dinner around 10 or 11; Last but not least a meal at 3 AM before the fast begins again at 4:30 AM. What do people do in between these meals? Sleep, watch T.V., and for the women: prepare the meals. One aspect of this joyous month is the mosque which starts blaring Koranic verses at 3 in the morning to make sure people wake up and eat before the fast beings. If that is not enough for you, a man walks though town banging on a drum just to make sure you get the message. It is a great feeling and makes you realize where you are as you drift happily back to sleep.
Well, I am going to wrap this up. I promise to write again before we leave again for the second phase of our CBT training. I hope everyone is well back in the States!
The greatest highlight of the first phase of our CBT was the warmness and generosity of the community which embraced us from the first moment we arrived. Everyone we met wanted to come say hello and see who the new foreigners were. This was nothing new to them though as there is a Peace Corps volunteer currently stationed in the village. Shortly after arrival we were introduced to our host families who cheerily took us in as new members of their families. The family I was placed with was very small in comparison to most and gave me a different dynamic and thus experience from others in my staging group. My family consisted of a mother named Fatima, a grandmother named Azizi, and a son named Abduliyah (I still have trouble with that one). Fatima had been divorced for about 23 years, very unusual for a Moroccan woman to do but apparently her ex-husband was an ass who beat her and they are much better off because of it. You may be wondering how does a single mother in a little village support herself and family? Well, they ran the towns hemmam (public bathhouse) which was wonderful for me since I was allowed to have all of the free baths my dirtied body could handle (about every three days). Their house was a bit above the center of town on the hill and had a great view of the mosque and valley below. The house itself is something I never imagine staying in; It was a very, very rustic mud and stone hovel with a dirt roof which floods water during the many storms which passed through the valley. As shocking as it looked on the outside it was surprisingly comfortable inside. It consisted of four rooms: a kitchen, bedroom, living room(where the mother and grandmother slept), and a salon(sitting room) which is my bedroom.
The past month on the Islamic calendar was Ramadan where the days are spent fasting and praying from sunup to sundown. I did not take this opportunity to fast but was more than happy to take part in the break-fast which occurred at the setting of the sun. This meal consists of a flaky bread which is dipped in honey, boiled eggs, this deep-friend, honey-soaked wonderful creation called shebekia, a almond and flour mixture called zmita, and plenty of overly sweet mint tea. In reality Muslims do not forgo their three meals a day, they are just eaten throughout the evening instead. First, the break-fast I mentioned around 6:20ish; Then a dinner around 10 or 11; Last but not least a meal at 3 AM before the fast begins again at 4:30 AM. What do people do in between these meals? Sleep, watch T.V., and for the women: prepare the meals. One aspect of this joyous month is the mosque which starts blaring Koranic verses at 3 in the morning to make sure people wake up and eat before the fast beings. If that is not enough for you, a man walks though town banging on a drum just to make sure you get the message. It is a great feeling and makes you realize where you are as you drift happily back to sleep.
Well, I am going to wrap this up. I promise to write again before we leave again for the second phase of our CBT training. I hope everyone is well back in the States!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Electrical experience
Wow! Just returned from the roof of the inn we are staying at after watching the most amazing lightening storm. It all began in the distance lighting up the entire sky and over an hour rolled past the hills towards our little sanctuary as bodies peered over the walls in amazement. It was fantastic.
Anyway, tomorrow is a big day for everyone in our stage. Big how you ask? Well, it is the beginning of our CBT (community based training) and introduction to our first host families. This all came about yesterday with the revealing of the languages (I was assigned to Darija, yesss!) and placement in our CBT sites. This was a mighty moment as it confirmed the language which I was hoping for all along. The CBT is done in two phases, the first lasting two weeks and the second for three weeks, with a week hiatus back at our little inn in between. The purpose of this is to help us begin to integrate into Moroccan society, improve our language ability, and familiarize ourselves with the technical aspect of our job. The family I was placed with had six members: one father (a mason), a mother (housewife), three daughters (aged 20,21,23) and one son (aged 26). The had requested a male PCV (seems like they are trying to marry off one of their daughters, right?), but this evening, the night before we are to arrive I find out they have guests and can no longer host me. So, a last minute recommendation from a current PCV stationed at the site has provided me with an emergency family half the size of the original one. It will all work out in the end, inshallah.
There is one more experience I wanted to share with those of you out there, and that is the experience of going to a hemmam. To begin with a hemmam is a bath house and gathering point which is quintessential of the Moroccan social interaction. Six of us went: Two of our LCF's, J.L., S.S., C.H., and myself. The hemmam, separated by sex, is where one goes when they want to relax or, more likely, clean themselves. There is a whole ritual behind the process of a hemmam visit and it is well advised to go with a local to fill you in on the details the first time you go. It begins by undressing down to you underwear and grabbing yourself a bucket before disappearing into the steam. There are three rooms: warm, warmer, and warmest. You begin by choosing an open piece of ground and washing it off with EXTREMELY HOT water. Next you lay on the ground and stretch out while switching positions from back to side to stomach. The whole while you are doing little exercises and sweating out all the dirt and impurities. Then, once nice and relaxed, you lather up with soap and then continue to sit there while the soap seeps into your pores. Now the fun part comes. You pick a partner who proceeds to scrub the top layers of skin from your entire body with a sandpaper like glove while continuing to stretch you out. This routine can be taken as a bit homoerotic in the States but here it is just another way that people bond and spend time together. Emerging red as a lobster and clean as a whistle you return to balance in the changing room while soaking your feet in a cool bucket of water. I can see this becoming a regular thing as showers become few and far between.
So those were a few of the great experiences over the past week which have forever been burned into my memory. I am sure there is more to come. Talk to you in two weeks after we get back from CBT. Be well!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pre-service training
What a week!
Things have been shooting by from the moment we stepped off the plane. After a drawn-out three days of informational sessions cooped up in a hotel in Rabat we were off to our Pre-service training site (PST). Now, due to security risks I am unable to list locations and names of places so you will have to make due with geographically descriptions. But, I can tell you how beautiful our surrounds are right now located in the Middle Atlas mountain range nestled next to a national forest reserve offering wonderful hiking.
Upon leaving Rabat we were separated from from everyone from the Youth Development group that contained many people whom I am grown close with and miss very much. Even though they are in the same town as us right now they are the furthest away possible and it feels like I haven't seen them for a lifetime every time our paths cross. On the first day at our PST site we were took on a city walking tour in smaller groups with our LCF's (language & cultural facilitator) to get feel for the place. Our group made our way up into the hills where the YD group is housed up and stopped by to say hi. The YD location which is without a doubt located in a better area than the inn in which the SBD (Small Business Development) group is located, the amenities are lacking by far compared to ours. Their location reminded me of an rundown college dormitory with people packed into rooms with bunk beds, drab looking walls, and only one western sit-down toilet in the whole place! The SBD lodging stands in stark contrast with the place covered wall to wall with tiles that have beautiful designs on them, couches with pillows, a roof terrace with couches, and last but definitely not least WiFi!
The time here has been grueling with our days filled with all sorts of classes covering subjects such as safety and security, cross-culture, health, and plenty of language study. A typical day is as follows:
7:30 Wake up
8:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:30 Language lessons
10:30-10:45 Tea break
11:00-12:30 Cross-culture
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 Safety & Security/Health
3:00-3:15 Tea Break
3:15-5:15 Language lessons
5:15-5:45 Tea talk (about random subjects:Turkish toilets, music, etc.)
6:45 Dinner
7:45-Bedtime Free time (walk around town, study, write emails, workout, etc.)
Their is little change with this schedule and it is followed 6-days a week, quite exhausting really. Many people are showing fatigue from such a grueling schedule and falling asleep during some of these sessions. Don't let me confuse you, even though we are buried in work there is plenty of time to enjoy ourselves and everyone seems to be loving every minute of it. It is kind of hard not to being in such an interesting place and learning such cool things.
Back to the town itself. It has a population of about 40,000 people and is situated near some good hiking trails. On our first free day (Sundays, considered Self-directed learning days) a group of us trekked up to a bluff overlooking the valley and had a blast. You could see the entire town and all of the smaller villages lining the valley floor. Our intent was to search for the Barbary apes which are famous in the region but to no avail. Great hike nonetheless.
The first night spent in town was met with a surprise early in the morning. Around 4:30 I was awoken by the call to prayer emanating from every mosque in the town. "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar" (god is great, god is great) called all of the local population to the first of their five daily prayers. These calls lasted for about a minute and was promptly followed by what it seemed like every dog in the city erupting in a barking match. It wasn't long before the roosters joined in and not wanting to be left out donkeys yee-hawed in steady chorus. This is Morocco and I love it.
Things have been shooting by from the moment we stepped off the plane. After a drawn-out three days of informational sessions cooped up in a hotel in Rabat we were off to our Pre-service training site (PST). Now, due to security risks I am unable to list locations and names of places so you will have to make due with geographically descriptions. But, I can tell you how beautiful our surrounds are right now located in the Middle Atlas mountain range nestled next to a national forest reserve offering wonderful hiking.
Upon leaving Rabat we were separated from from everyone from the Youth Development group that contained many people whom I am grown close with and miss very much. Even though they are in the same town as us right now they are the furthest away possible and it feels like I haven't seen them for a lifetime every time our paths cross. On the first day at our PST site we were took on a city walking tour in smaller groups with our LCF's (language & cultural facilitator) to get feel for the place. Our group made our way up into the hills where the YD group is housed up and stopped by to say hi. The YD location which is without a doubt located in a better area than the inn in which the SBD (Small Business Development) group is located, the amenities are lacking by far compared to ours. Their location reminded me of an rundown college dormitory with people packed into rooms with bunk beds, drab looking walls, and only one western sit-down toilet in the whole place! The SBD lodging stands in stark contrast with the place covered wall to wall with tiles that have beautiful designs on them, couches with pillows, a roof terrace with couches, and last but definitely not least WiFi!
The time here has been grueling with our days filled with all sorts of classes covering subjects such as safety and security, cross-culture, health, and plenty of language study. A typical day is as follows:
7:30 Wake up
8:00 Breakfast
9:00-10:30 Language lessons
10:30-10:45 Tea break
11:00-12:30 Cross-culture
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-3:00 Safety & Security/Health
3:00-3:15 Tea Break
3:15-5:15 Language lessons
5:15-5:45 Tea talk (about random subjects:Turkish toilets, music, etc.)
6:45 Dinner
7:45-Bedtime Free time (walk around town, study, write emails, workout, etc.)
Their is little change with this schedule and it is followed 6-days a week, quite exhausting really. Many people are showing fatigue from such a grueling schedule and falling asleep during some of these sessions. Don't let me confuse you, even though we are buried in work there is plenty of time to enjoy ourselves and everyone seems to be loving every minute of it. It is kind of hard not to being in such an interesting place and learning such cool things.
Back to the town itself. It has a population of about 40,000 people and is situated near some good hiking trails. On our first free day (Sundays, considered Self-directed learning days) a group of us trekked up to a bluff overlooking the valley and had a blast. You could see the entire town and all of the smaller villages lining the valley floor. Our intent was to search for the Barbary apes which are famous in the region but to no avail. Great hike nonetheless.
The first night spent in town was met with a surprise early in the morning. Around 4:30 I was awoken by the call to prayer emanating from every mosque in the town. "Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar" (god is great, god is great) called all of the local population to the first of their five daily prayers. These calls lasted for about a minute and was promptly followed by what it seemed like every dog in the city erupting in a barking match. It wasn't long before the roosters joined in and not wanting to be left out donkeys yee-hawed in steady chorus. This is Morocco and I love it.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Intro/Staging: Philly
S-salam Alyikum!
Welcome to the first of hopefully many blog posts spanning my Peace Corps experience. Let me introduce myself: I am a new college graduate who decided to do the unconventional and join up for 2 years and 3 months of Peace Corps service. The country of service is Morocco, which is one that carries with it a rich history spanning thousands of years of foreign dominance and cultural influence. To say the least I think I got pretty lucky being placed into such a wonderful place with such inviting people and great food!
The experience began on Friday September 5th with a three day staging in Philadelphia. This consisted of informational sessions about the Peace Corps and a meet 'n greet of the people we will be serving with. Everyone is of topnotch quality and range in age from the green college graduate to the end-of-career, seasoned elder. We were put up at a Sheraton on the end of U Penn campus and surround with a wide-range of eateries and bars which we of course took advantage of (We will be in a country which bans alcohol so needed to get our fill!). After a great weekend we hopped on a plane to our new home for the next 2 years, inshallah (god willing).
Below is an address to which letters, and only letters (no packages!), can be sent during the first three months of training. After training I will receive another address when finally settling down in my final site. Please do not send letters after Oct. 20th since they may not arrive in time before the change of address.
Tim Michetti
S/C Corps de la paix
2 Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi
Rabat 10100 Morocco
I look forward to sharing this experience with everyone back home and any questions you may have please do not hesitate to ask. Also, I wanted to let people know a big motivation in writing a blog is the invaluable info I received when reading other PCV blogs and now wish to pay it forward. Stay tuned for the experience in Rabat!
Welcome to the first of hopefully many blog posts spanning my Peace Corps experience. Let me introduce myself: I am a new college graduate who decided to do the unconventional and join up for 2 years and 3 months of Peace Corps service. The country of service is Morocco, which is one that carries with it a rich history spanning thousands of years of foreign dominance and cultural influence. To say the least I think I got pretty lucky being placed into such a wonderful place with such inviting people and great food!
The experience began on Friday September 5th with a three day staging in Philadelphia. This consisted of informational sessions about the Peace Corps and a meet 'n greet of the people we will be serving with. Everyone is of topnotch quality and range in age from the green college graduate to the end-of-career, seasoned elder. We were put up at a Sheraton on the end of U Penn campus and surround with a wide-range of eateries and bars which we of course took advantage of (We will be in a country which bans alcohol so needed to get our fill!). After a great weekend we hopped on a plane to our new home for the next 2 years, inshallah (god willing).
Below is an address to which letters, and only letters (no packages!), can be sent during the first three months of training. After training I will receive another address when finally settling down in my final site. Please do not send letters after Oct. 20th since they may not arrive in time before the change of address.
Tim Michetti
S/C Corps de la paix
2 Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi
Rabat 10100 Morocco
I look forward to sharing this experience with everyone back home and any questions you may have please do not hesitate to ask. Also, I wanted to let people know a big motivation in writing a blog is the invaluable info I received when reading other PCV blogs and now wish to pay it forward. Stay tuned for the experience in Rabat!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)