Rain in Skoura = Leaking Roof

Well Since early this morning I have been stuck inside my house to escape the on going rain fall hitting my site today. I was woken up by dripping noises and then it hit me, a HUGE drop of water from my ceiling got me on my left eye waking me up at 5:00 in the morning. I turned on my bedroom light to find my who bedroom ceiling soaked and around the wall edges water dripping onto my books, clothes, picture, and bed. I went to check out the rest of my house to find every room, except the kitchen, to be dripping a lot of rain water and paint peeling from the ceiling due to the rain and pieces were coming off with the water.

After I figured out how many spots were dripping, I went into my kitchen and took all my pots and pans out and did "Oliver Twist" style collecting of all the water falling from my ceiling. It took about a half hour to get enough pans, pots, and old clothes to collect the water, but it worked. I woke up later to still find it raining, and as I write this blog I can still hear the rain hitting my door, roof, and windows at nine at night.

During the day when I had a moment during downpour periods, I went outside to see the damage. There were rivers everywhere! Living in the south where it NEVER rains and to get the most that I have ever seen these 16 months I have been here in just one day, there were a lot of new rivers popping up due to not enough top soil around here to deal with this much rain. Even though it was depressing and raining all day, the small moments I had to go outside and look around from my roof top area was beautiful when looking at the High Atlas Mountains. They looked like they were almost totally covered in snow! It was an amazing site to see. The clouds were moving fast and were so saturated with rain water that the clouds did a wonderful contrast between the bright color of the white snow on the mountains to the dark clouds moving around, above, and in-between the peaks. I tried to stay as long as I could to take in that memorable view, but sadly the downpours were too consistant for me to stay longer than five minutes outside.

Though it was a very LONG and boring day; in a way it was the most relaxed and content I have felt since arriving back to Skoura from America. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and that it will be nice enough to go outside for a walk or something. I hope my site-mate is dealing with all the rain in her mud house! I was planning on visiting her today, but with the rain and the 3 river-beds (that are usually dry all year) now filled with water up to my knees from what the locals were saying; I sadly could not venture out her way. Maybe tomorrow? Inch Allah.

The photo in this blog is what happens when it rains down south , even if just for a half hour at times.

**Image from: http://www.globosapiens.net/data/gallery/mo/pictures_468/morocco--taroudannt--71372.jpg ***

I Am Back, Morocco :)

I have finally made it back home to my cold concrete house in Skoura and I could not be happier! I enjoyed my time back in Michigan, and am glad that my medical issues have been figured out, but I will admit I had an overwhelming feeling of being home when I got off the plane from JFK and walked onto Moroccan soil. Seeing other PCV's and staff was also a nice way to ease into things back here as well. The train ride down to Kech and the bus to Ozt were not that much fun, but traveling in Morocco is never really a blast when it takes 12 hours to get home. I got in on Monday morning, went to souq, had lunch with my host family who were really happy to see me (my host mom would not stop hugging me),and hung out with my site-mate the rest of the night and watched "I Love You, Man."

I am excited to see what will happen here in Skoura these last 9 months I have of Peace Corps service. Coming back from my medical hold has given me a fresh look at things and I hope I can do some more positive things in my site before I head out on November 12, 2010. It is official! My staj got our COS (close of service) date! Super Excited!

I have been talking to the teachers in the site and they have some great ideas on clubs/classes at the Dar Chabab and I can not wait to see what will be going on once the kids, teachers, and myself make up a schedule for the next two months.

It is crazy how fast time has flown by. I have been in Peace Corps, Morocco for almost 16 months and the next 9 months go as listed:

Late March into early April - spring camp.

April through May- BAC study time.

June- BAC exam and summer break! Also summer camps begin.

July through August- summer camps.

September through October- slowing down class hours to prepare for departure.

November 12, 2010- COSing, Inch Allah.

There are some other things through out those 9 months that are not listed BUT I am just excited to see it written out and how much I have to look forward to before I am done. I hope to go on one more vacation in June or early July to Croatia to see family :) but still things are up in the air.

Well off to clean up my apartment and air it out as well. While I was gone a HUGE rain storm that lasted two days went through my site, which is really really rare, and I have a lot of cleaning up to do. At least the water did not flood my house out this time! Even though I live on the roof does not mean that I am safe from flooding.

(image from http://www.greece-map.net/africa/maps/morocco-map.gif)