Random things I've seen

Hi Everyone!!!

I have compiled a few pictures as a representation of what I have been up to recently.  It is hard to explain all of the things that I have been doing and seeing so I just decided to show you!!!  

As an update, I am in this town for another three weeks, then I move to my final site.  There, I will be with a second host family for two weeks and hopefully will be able to find my own apt in that time!!! Exciting!!  I know that once I get there I will have too much time on my hands and promise to give more information about different cultural and linguistic details. 

Right now my days consist of about six hours of language and cultural classes with my Moroccan teacher and my evenings are filled with eating and talking with my host family.  I feel like I am becoming integrated slowly and getting a better sense of how things work here.  I will explain more when I actually have time to type! 

Please feel free to ask any questions you have about what I've seen so far!!

~Kelsey

Last weekend I went to Immouzer to see a presentation put on by a current PCV. The PCV was working with Youth in the Small Business sector and had managed to network with an association in the states that gave loans to youth that wanted to become entrepreneurs.  The loans were distributed to the students in the form of supplies for their projects and goal of the loans was to create businesses that would grow and employ more youth in the future.  The PCTs were invited to the event and about 30 or 40 of us (out of 115) went.  It was great to meet up with people that I haven't seen in the last month!  That is because all of us are split up into three groups and only have biweekly meetings with people in our group.  It was really great to see the goals of a volunteer realized and celebrated.  Most of the loans were given to people with Berber heritage and some traditional drum playing and decor was part of the event!

On the way back from Immouzer we stopped at an area that was near a lake and I just had to take a picture because the scenery was so gorgeous!  Also its a good reminder that the landscapes in Morocco are extremely diverse and not everything looks like the Sahara.  With that being said, I wonder what my final site will look like.  Will I be in the north? or south?  Or somewhere in between?  I am exciting at the idea of traveling throughout the next two years and seeing how diverse Morocco truly is. 

This group of pictures are also scenes in El Hajeb.  The other day a few of us decided  to go for a walk by the big hill near one of our host families and the scenery was amazing!!!  Its great to be high up and see the whole city before you!

The following pictures are also from our walk around the countryside of El Hajeb.  I am lucky to be in such a beautiful town!

Here is a picture of me and two of my CBTmates.  

I also had one of the neighbors come over this week and do henna on me, my host sister and my host mom.  The Henna happened very quickly, then we let it dry for about an hour and a half and then scrapped off the dried dye with a knife.  It was a very interesting process and will supposedly take about a week to come off.  The only bad thing is that when I get my hands wet, it seems to come off a little bit so I unable to wear contacts or cook at the moment!!