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!

WeStErN SaHaRa!!!!

I FINALLY MADE IT DOWN TO THE WESTERN SAHARA! and it was one of the most memorbale moments in my Peace Corps service in Morocco. I left spring camp and headed down to Merzuga where my Western Sahara camel adventure began! A group of people came along with me on this little adventure. We started at a hotel at the edge of the desert, went by camel for two hours to our camping site where I stayed overnight under the stars, saw a shooting star through clouds, and woke up to the moon slowly disappearing into the sunrise. I walked to the top of the largest san dune that I was camping next to. The view from the top was breathtaking and with how the wind was blowing the sand around me and the dunes; I can not put into words how amazing nature can create such wonderful works of beauty just by breathing :)

After a very fun trek up the dunes I headed back to camp, ate breakfast, and got back on my camel to head back

to the hotel to finish out this awesome desert trek adventure. Whoever comes to Morocco has to do this trip!

One of the best times I have ever had! camels+desert+good friends= awesome time!

Missour Spring Camp

I spent one wonderful week up north in the small in the middle of no where town called Missour. It is about 70 km from Midelt and about a 11 hour drive north-east from my site here in Skoura. I got to teach a group of 16 kids in a beginner English class at Spring Camp Missour. My class was great and very excited about being in my class and at camp. It was a long week, but totally worth the hard work :) I have never worked with such appreciative and happy kids before at a camp. It got me excited about what great things can be done during this coming Summer camps in El Jadida! Now I am back in my site and back to work. Cross your fingers that these last 9 weeks will go well and that my last summer here in Morocco is a memorable one.

Sustainable Development Presentaion

Last weekend two of my BAC students and myself put together a power point presentation and open discussion at the local library about sustainable development internationally and locally. There were speakers from different associations, the BAC students spoke English very well, and I even had a few minutes to talk about Peace Corps, my job, and how the local communi

ty could help with sustainability within Skoura, itself. We had a wonderful turn out and what was even more impressive was that the whole presentation was in English. I was very proud of my BAC students. It was refreshing to be able to meet new people from associations I have never heard of in my site, and now I have more places to go and volunteer at!

Now I am heading to Spring camp in Missour! I am so excited to travel and meet new students and

hang out with some old PCV pals of mine that I have not seen in months! until next blog, Baslama.

<-- I am the one with the green hat:)

The British Are Coming!!!

The British came to Skoura High School for a random last minute cross cultural morning presentation with the first and second year BAC students in my site. There were about 20 British students and teachers that came to the high school to participate in some cross cultural activities and English speaking.

The BAC students prepared two presentations; one on the city of Skoura, and the second on the Moroccan educational system, all in English. The British group that visited us was part of a Geography Class, so the information that was given to them by the BAC students was helpful for the visiting students.

After the presentations we then showed the British students and teachers the high school grounds, showed them the English classrooms, and ended the morning with tea and one last cross cultural activity. At the end of the morning activities both Moroccan and British students were exchanging emails so they could keep in touch.

It was just a short morning meeting with those students from East London, but it has left a lasting impact and possible new friendships formed here in Skoura.

I was so proud of the BAC students for using their English, interacting with the visiting students, and being open and very friendly towards them. I could see all of them enjoying their conversations and the new friendships they were forming.

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)