Hi Everyone!
I only have about one more week left of CBT and am very excited to be moving to my new city soon. I am anxious to find out if it is rural or urban, hot or modern, if the dar chebab has established programs or if it is just starting, plus a million other questions! I am not going to find out until Saturday the 19th when I am in Rabat. After that, I leave on the 24th to go to my site for two years. Luckily I will be living with my 2nd host family for the first two weeks and hopefully they will help me find an apartment and get settled in the community. My darija skills are limited to saying things like "I want to sit in that chair" and "I will live in Morocco for two years". Haggling and negotiating everything associated with renting an apartment for two years is going to be pretty interesting!
This week and last week we have worked a little bit at the dar chebab. Its a really great opportunity for me to work with teens and develop my skills as a teacher while helping them with their english. Some of them are almost fluent and others have no English at all. It has been great to just be able to sit and talk to them about questions they have about America or global environmental issues or even problems they are having with friends or family. I can't wait to be able to work with the same students consistently for two years and be able to see them regularly. Right now it is hard knowing that I am leaving in a week and might never see these teens again.
I am also eager to begin assessing the needs of my future community and seeing what organizations might be there that I could work with. I hope to work with other organizations in addition to my dar chebab. Sometimes there are places for women to meet, or those who are impoverished and can't go to school regularly.
I am pretty nervous to be leaving the safety net of CBT, but know that I will still have some resources around. Right now I am living a very structured life and see 5 other Americans every day. I am also surrounded by people that can speak some English. All of that is going to change and it is going to be up to me to find work, make a schedule and live completely immersed without any other Americans to share it with besides on our cellphones. (Luckily Morocco has a great cell phone grid and I am able to call other PCVs in Morocco on their cell phones for free!)
I have only been in Morocco for about six weeks but have already learned so much. I can tell you which mul-Henuits (shop keepers) in my town have the most diverse groceries and that if you want to eat chicken (luckily I don't) all you have to do is pick out the one you want and the chicken butcher will kill it, pluck out the feathers and have it ready in about ten minutes. I can also tell you that lack of privacy and lack of independence are the two hardest things for most PCTs to endure during CBT. I can also tell you that I miss things from America just because they are familiar and am excited to see a heinz ketchup bottle or a hear a word like Tide pronounced like teed and used to describe all laundry detergent. Slowly things here are becoming normal and it doesn't seem abnormal to shower from a bucket or eat warm yogurt. I know that I have only started to integrate and over the next two years I will learn so much more about Morocco and about myself.
Once I actually get to my site I will have lots of free time and will be able to give much more consistent updates on things here. If anyone has questions feel free to ask!
Love,
Kelsey
I only have about one more week left of CBT and am very excited to be moving to my new city soon. I am anxious to find out if it is rural or urban, hot or modern, if the dar chebab has established programs or if it is just starting, plus a million other questions! I am not going to find out until Saturday the 19th when I am in Rabat. After that, I leave on the 24th to go to my site for two years. Luckily I will be living with my 2nd host family for the first two weeks and hopefully they will help me find an apartment and get settled in the community. My darija skills are limited to saying things like "I want to sit in that chair" and "I will live in Morocco for two years". Haggling and negotiating everything associated with renting an apartment for two years is going to be pretty interesting!
This week and last week we have worked a little bit at the dar chebab. Its a really great opportunity for me to work with teens and develop my skills as a teacher while helping them with their english. Some of them are almost fluent and others have no English at all. It has been great to just be able to sit and talk to them about questions they have about America or global environmental issues or even problems they are having with friends or family. I can't wait to be able to work with the same students consistently for two years and be able to see them regularly. Right now it is hard knowing that I am leaving in a week and might never see these teens again.
I am also eager to begin assessing the needs of my future community and seeing what organizations might be there that I could work with. I hope to work with other organizations in addition to my dar chebab. Sometimes there are places for women to meet, or those who are impoverished and can't go to school regularly.
I am pretty nervous to be leaving the safety net of CBT, but know that I will still have some resources around. Right now I am living a very structured life and see 5 other Americans every day. I am also surrounded by people that can speak some English. All of that is going to change and it is going to be up to me to find work, make a schedule and live completely immersed without any other Americans to share it with besides on our cellphones. (Luckily Morocco has a great cell phone grid and I am able to call other PCVs in Morocco on their cell phones for free!)
I have only been in Morocco for about six weeks but have already learned so much. I can tell you which mul-Henuits (shop keepers) in my town have the most diverse groceries and that if you want to eat chicken (luckily I don't) all you have to do is pick out the one you want and the chicken butcher will kill it, pluck out the feathers and have it ready in about ten minutes. I can also tell you that lack of privacy and lack of independence are the two hardest things for most PCTs to endure during CBT. I can also tell you that I miss things from America just because they are familiar and am excited to see a heinz ketchup bottle or a hear a word like Tide pronounced like teed and used to describe all laundry detergent. Slowly things here are becoming normal and it doesn't seem abnormal to shower from a bucket or eat warm yogurt. I know that I have only started to integrate and over the next two years I will learn so much more about Morocco and about myself.
Once I actually get to my site I will have lots of free time and will be able to give much more consistent updates on things here. If anyone has questions feel free to ask!
Love,
Kelsey
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