Monday, May 14, 2012

Monkeys in Ifrane!!!!

Hi Everyone!

This weekend I had the chance to go to Ifrane with my family and we went to this park and were able to feed some monkeys. It was really odd seeing them take the bread out of my hand and drink out of a water bottle!  I was really impressed by how expressive their eyes were and how they interacted like tiny people.  I know that many people back home, especially Nicki (my cousin), would have loved to have this experience.  Apparently the area in between Azrou and Ifrane is where most of them live.  While we were driving to the park area we also stopped and saw a bunch of monkeys in the forest right next to the street.  The monkeys really just crawl up next to the car.  






I also had the opportunity to go to a fish farm in Ifrane.  It was really cool to be able to see this type of open facility and see the different types of fish they are raising.  I found one sign (in French) showing the layout of the facility, but am still a little unsure if it was an aquarium just meant for tourists or if the fish are being raised to become food.  Maybe it is a mixture of the two and the extra fish are used for food?  Because we had been walking around with a gendarme (the royal police here) we were able to actually feed the fish as well.  When we threw food on top of the water the fish aggressively jumped to the surface.  Some of them looked more like little sharks with little fins on their backs.  The gendarme was really nice, besides the fact that we had met him when he gave us a ticket earlier in the day.  We had more people in the car than seats and because we were in a personal automobile that was not okay.  He gave us a 300 dirham ticket (about 40 US dollars, which is a decent amount here) and then asked for our phone number so that he could join us on our picnic.  He ended up coming to the picnic with us and then staying the whole day.  I also posted a picture of our picnic.  My family basically brought their whole kitchen with them including a small butagas tank.  We peeled, sliced and fried french fries in the park in addition to the rest of our meal.  I found it pretty funny that we did pack a simple, precooked meal to go on a picnic.  The other thing that struck me was the desire by my family to be out of the sun and off of the ground.  Even though I had put sun block on earlier in the morning, they found that it was important for me to stay out of the sun basically the whole day because it was too hot.  We also sat on two blankets and most of my family sat on top of pillows as well.  There is a common understanding here that if you sit on the ground, cold will come up you and make you infertile.  I like to sit on the floor sometimes in the house or outside which usually sparks a lot of confusing.  Even if it is hot outside (it has been in the 90's this week) most Moroccans would still sit on a pillow to protect themselves from the cold. 





Then for dinner, the gendarme took us out to a restaurant for soup (Herrara) and bread.  Herrara is a very common Moroccan dish and consists of chick peas, little noodles, spices and a tomato base.  Most cafes have it and the one in Ifrane has definately been the best so far.  It is also pretty cheap and can usually be found for about 5-10 dirhams (about a dollar).  This concludes my events for Sunday.  Happy Mother's Day for all those who are in the states!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Farewell CBT

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