Ana maghribia

I have arrived in Morocco. After a few days of staging in Philadelphia which led to more questions than it answered, three days in a hotel in Rabat packed with introductory sessions to our service, I have made it to Fes which will be my home base for the next 10 weeks.

My Peace Corps group consists of 67 people, 38 in the small business development program and 29 with me in the youth development program. We were all together for the pre service training in Rabat where we had our introductions to the Peace Corps, to Morocco, to policies, to health, to the ambassador and to our programs.

We did not get too much time to look around the city while we were there because we had so many other things to do, but I did get a chance to walk briefly around the medina and have a look at the water. It is hard for me to look at Morocco in any way other than through comparison to Egypt, and I think I need to break myself of the habit. But for now, Rabat is not like Cairo. The dress is much less conservative. The streets and cafes seem more French than anything else. The driving appears to have a little more order than in Cairo, meaning that most stoplights appear to be there for stopping, rather than decoration.

We were in Rabat for the first night of Ramadan. I was lucky to be up on the roof of our hotel for a long series of beautiful prayers from a nearby mosque. The youth development group left for Fes the next morning, right after the small business group, which will do the rest of their training in and around a city called Ouarzazate. The only news I have heard from them so far is that they have made it (they had an 8 hour bus ride over and through the mountains compared to our easy 2.5 hour trip).

We started language classes yesterday. It is really nice to actually be learning again. For now I am in a group with people who have done some Arabic before, but at times I think our Egyptian, Jordanian, and Classical minds get in the way with learning the Moroccan Darija. We are also beginning our cross culture training, and we have chances to ask the PC staff all sorts of questions about life in Morocco. Our first lesson was how to properly use a turkish toilet.

Friday will be our first homestay. For the next 10 weeks we will be moving back and forth between our center in Fes and 6 community based training sites where 5 or 6 volunteers live in a neighborhood, each in a different family. I will definitely have to work a lot on the language before I am going to feel comfortable doing that, but I suppose that it is also necessary to feel a bit uncomfortable to learn a new language.

I must go so I can have my first experience in the medina in Fes, supposed to be one of the most incredible places in Morocco.

I have a cell phone now, if anyone ever wants to get in touch with me: (011)(212) 42561928

I hope everyone is well!