A.R.M. update

The Art Resource Manual is almost finished! Lisa and I have started the layout and putting information that was submitted by PCVs along with our own research for this manual. I am so excited to finish A.R.M. once I return from summer camp in mid August. Our due date for this manual is the first week of September, when the new PCVs come into Morocco to start their training to replace me and my staj! WOW, I can not believe it is almost time to meet those who will be replacing me and my staj I came in with. These past 23 months have just flown by! In a blink of an eye I will find myself stamping and signing that little red book to officially become an RPCV (retired peace corps volunteer).

SouTherN VacaTioN- July 2010

I just returned from my very hot, but wonderful time back down in the orginial site, Skoura, to see my old site-mate, April, and my host family in the Bled. The trip was great and being able to catch up with old family and friends in the Skoura area was wonderful. When I at souq and walking around in the Bled, people remembered me and came up welcoming me back to Skoura with open arms and a lot of hugs. It was a heart warming. The only bummer to the trip was that I feel asleep in front of a fan when I first got into Ouarzazate and, as always, I got a head cold that lasted most of my vacation down south. I think I am the only person that gets a head cold from a fan in the face.

Even though I was sick most of my vacation, I still had a blast just chilling in April’s site, seeing her women and the products they have been making, and spending some quality time with my host family, but now I am back in site preparing for my next and finale vacation as a PCV in Morocco. I will be heading to CROATIA on Saturday July 24^th and will return in early August just in time to make it to El Jadida for the last English summer camp. Starting on the 24^th until the middle of August, I will be out of site and off seeing the world, well at least a little portion of it.

I can not wait to make it to Croatia and see the country where my grandfather came from, and my family on my father’s side . I have contacted a couple of possible “cousins” in Croatia and hope to see them at some point throughout my journey.

Well, I must be off to finish up some last minute plans for Croatia. Hope all is well back state side or where ever you all are reading my blog.

Peace N Love.

4th of July in Khemisset, Morocco

Happy 4^th of July, everyone back in the good ole USA (I know kinda late). I got to spend my last 4^th of July in Moroco in my new site with my fellow Khemisset region-mates. We spent the whole day cooking, grilling, baking, and chilling on my roof listening to some American music. The weather was wonderful, the company was great, and even some Moroccans came along to enjoy this American holiday and awesome spread J I was happy to of spent some time with my new region-mates and celebrate a little bit of America with them on this day. Happy Birthday USA!!!!

Mount Jebel Toubkal

Well when thought it was a smart idea for me to start my mountain climbing career in Morocco on Mt. Jebel Toubkal, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I mean, I have hiked a lot while in the states, but not a mountain, and nothing like what I experienced while getting to the peak of Mt. Jebel Toubkal.

The peak is almost 14, 00 feet above sea level. The clmib up was nothing I could of prepared myself for and my body was in a little bit of pain afterwards, but WOW, all the photos, all the beauty that I saw going up, at the peack, and climbing (more like scooting down) Mt. Jebel Toubkal was worth all the mental and physical ups and downs I experienced, and I would do it again in a heart beat just to experience that all over again.

I went on this trek with a couple of PCVs in my staj, but my true trekking partner was my girl, Marrisa, one of my roomies while in PST, and now my hiking soul mate for life. We started out trek at 6:00am and what should of taken a pro climber maybe 4 hours to go up and back down to base camp to do, with two newbies trying to hike this mountain like all the pros… it took a bit longer than expected. Let’s just say that Marrisa and I started at 6am and everyone from the base camp hostel that left after us, even climbers leaving at 3 in the afternoon, beat us down the mountain. When Marissa and I finally got down the mountain back to base camp, we found everyone at the hostel outside cheering us into camp. Kind of embarssing and supportive at the same time.

Even though I was not prepared for this journey, I am so happy that I pushed myself and made it to the peak and back down. When returning back to the states, I hope to keep up with more intense climbing, but next time around, I think I will work my way up to a Mt. Jebel Toubkal level instead of going head first into something like that again.

Here are some fun facts about Mt. Jebel Toubkal, if you are intested J

* Highest mountain peak in North Africa, 2nd highest after Mount Kilaminjaro in all of Africa

* Takes 3.5 hours by mule to get from base camp to the village of Imlil where everyone starts off their trek to Toubkal, so just think about that on foot.

* Mount Jebel Toubkal is one of those freaking mountains that you do not see any sign of the peak until WAY into your trek. Every time I thought I was near the peak, there was another set of mountains OR valley OR cliff you have to climb up before you see a light at the end of this hiking tunnel.

check out this website for further information on this mountain:

http://www.addictedtotravel.com/travel-guides/places-to-visit/jebel-toubkal_morocco-travel-guide

6 Months In Counting

Well on the 12th of this month marked all my fellow staj-mates official 6 month countdown to finishing up our service in Peace Corps, Morocco. I can not believe that 21 months have already past, and that there are only 6 more months of work to be done! This means my last summer camp, my last Ramadan, and my last summer/fall here in Morocco. I am both excited to be almost done, but sad to realize that in 6 months, I shall have to say goodbye to the life that I have made for myself here these last (almost) 2 years. I mean I am almost ready/prepared to do so since my site change, but there is a difference between leaving a site and leaving a country.

I have to keep in mind that 6 months is still a long time, but from all the RPCVs (Retired Peace Corps Volunteers) I have spoken to, time flies by in a blind of an eye your last 6 months, and then you are signing that pretty red book and officially becoming an RPCV.

My goals for the next 6 months are a bit different than my other staj-mates due to the new situation I am in by being a new YD volunteer in Khemisset so late in the YD game, but I am looking forward to what these next/last 6 months of my service will be bringing me. I hope to start up a world map project, to do some sort of SIDA activities, start up an art class along with a couple hours dedicated towards English classes, and maybe some Yoga/Pilate's classes, if the students are interested:) But most importantly I am wanting to prepare as much as I can for the PCV that will be replacing me since he/she will have the time to really get things started in this site. I am just laying down the ground work, getting to know the community, and giving this town an idea of what a YD volunteer is/does, and hopefully I will be as helpful as can be with whoever is going to be taking over this site in November.

Bring on the last 6 months! I am ready and very excited to see what will be going on!!!!

Khemisset. A Place To Call Home.

It is official. After two weeks of being homeless, and Peace Corps working as hard as they could to find a proper site for me, I have a new site for the rest of my service in Khemisset. My new site is in northern Morocco, located 80 km from the capital, Rabat, and about an hour away from Meknes.

It is nothing like Skoura.Skoura was beautiful in its own dessert like way with palm trees, kasbahs, donkeys, mountains, and welcoming people. Khemisset is green, has horses, a lot of farm land, and forests! Its weekly souq is as big as my old sites "downtown" area. The medina is huge, it has week long veggie souq, two main square areas, cafes at every corner, and even a tennis court/rec. area including a swimming pool. Khemisset is known for their horses and you see them on every street either working as a taxi service around the city or hulling local produce to souq. I went from a very rural area to a very urban area, which is something that I need to get used to. Even with Ouarzazate 45 km away from me back in the south, Khemisset is almost as big, and even more busier than Oz.

I am Khemisset's first Youth Development volunteer, but I am not the first PCV in Khemisset. I have an awesome site-mate and best pal, Lisa, that has been here her whole service. She sworn in with me 21 months ago, but works in a different sector of Peace Corps. Her job is to work with the local artisans in Khemisset. There are other PCVs in the region and I look forward to meeting them all and hopefully collaborating with them and Lisa throughout the rest of my service.

The new dar chabab that I will be working in is HUGE! seriously, HUGE! It has a theatre, three huge classrooms with many windows (very open space), a long hallway that connects to the other part of the dar chabab where there is room for computers, a music room, and art room. It has been under construction for 7 months now because it is becoming what we call here in Morocco, a model dar chabab. This means that this building is the ideal dar chabab that the Ministry of Youth and Sports (the ministry is the reason why YD works in Morocco, PC YD works under this umbrella of the ministry). It is colorful, has a small courtyard, open, and with plenty of space for big projects and events. I got to meet my new moudir and delegate and they are very welcoming and open to ideas, which is perfect.

My moudir and I seem like we will work well together. He is on personal leave because he is putting together his very own art exhibition that will be going on over the summer in Tanger! His work is impressive and I am thrilled to have a real counterpart that is my moudir, and someone who is also passionate about the arts.

Since there has not been any kind of real activities inside the dar chabab in some time, and starting next month the BIG high school exam happens and school will be over for the summer (starting June 10th), which means the dar chabab will be closed until after Ramadan (end of August). This means that I will be focusing in on helping the students in the dar chabab with homework, doing activities/some clubs, and just getting to know them since I have less than a month before the students disappear for their summer fun. After Ramadan though, it is going to be super busy and exciting at the dar chabab in Khemisset,:)

I will be honest that only having 6 months left before I COS (humdullah), I am being challenged with the short time i have left. To integrate into a community, it takes about 6 months, then the real work begins. I only have time to integrate, then I am finished with my service. Though that is going to be a challenge, I am taking this new site by the "horns" or maybe I should be "hooves" :) and getting this dar chabab up and running again. I am going to focus on letting the local youth get to know the me, gain their trust, do some classes and activities, and research/prepare this site for the PCV that will be replacing me in November. That is my amazing game plan and I have my work cut out for me, but I am excited about it.

I can not get into detail over why I was site changed, and I would like to leave that in the past, but I can at least say this, I am finally in a site that I feel happy and healthy to be working in. Skoura will always be home to me in Morocco. My family and friends are there, but I am ready for the next task at hand, which is Khemisset and the youth here.

To learn more about my new home, check out these websites. Just copy and paste them onto your URL. EnJoY.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/316584/Khemisset

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khemisset

Wanted: A Site To Call Home

HEY EVERYONE!

I am just writing to keep you posted on what is going on with me here in Morocco. Currently I am writing from a nice hotel in Rabat that I have been staying in for a week now. This hotel is currently my new home until the meeting on Friday with the whole Peace Corps staff about where I am going to be living these last 6 months and what I will be doing. It has been a little bit on the stressful side, but I know that things will work out. Also it has been nice to be in Rabat and catch up on things and focus on my life here in Morocco and what I want to do before I COS. I will keep you posted on what is going on when I find out more information. I might be going to El Jadida or another city... we shall see where fate and the Peace Corps staff takes me :)

POSTAL HOLD!

HEY everyone out there in cyber space! I am writing to tell all my friends and family that at this moment I am asking everyone to put on hold any letters or packages you are wanting to send to me. I am having postal issues (nothing serious like stealing) and until further notice, please wait on anything you want to send to me to Morocco and I will keep you posted on when you can start sending me cool things :) MISS YOU ALL!