I just wanted to say a few quick words about my communication in Morocco. Now that I am finally settled in my lovely site, I have been able to establish a more routine schedule. As many of you know, I do have a Moroccan cell phone, which was basically mandated by Peace Corps so that I can get in touch with them/vice versa in the case of a medical emergency, if an important message needs to be sent, or if someone is just checking in with me. The cell phone coverage in country is very good…about 95% of Morocco is covered by a cell phone network. Although cell phone companies often offer internet services in areas where they are covered, I have not looked into potential internet access in my site (for several reasons).
1.) I don’t have a yearning to check my email or the web everyday. It has been a huge relief to be able to spend more time having personal interactions with people or receiving snail mail from family/loved ones.
2.) I am afraid that internet access (if it is possible at my future house) may hinder my community integration…forcing me to spend more time on gchat or downloading tv shows…then working on my language or learning about the everday lives of my neighbors and friends
3.) Internet is expensive and I make enough to live, but not enough for the luxuries I am accustomed to in the States (which is fine by me)
Although I don’t have regular access to internet, I am in the closest town (it would be a stretch to call it a city) every Wednesday for my language tutoring sessions. There are internet cafes here and I am able to send emails, get updates, etc. So I hope to be able to update the blog on a more regular basis and respond to emails and mail (since there is a post office in this town) on a more regular basis.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
A New Site, A New Life
This week marks the end of my second full week at my final site. On May 6th, I left the city of Ouarzazate to travel to my final site. In Ouarzazate, I left many comforts behind, including…the comfort of my fellow trainees (who I can share experiences with and relate to, the comfort of having a language/cultural coordinator (who could always translate for me if and when I got into a bind)…and (most importantly) I left behind the comfort of being a novice to this language and culture.
I’m now officially a volunteer, on my own, and am expected to act as a representative of the Peace Corps and our country. The time for making mistakes (language mess-ups and cultural faux pas) has come and gone. Although, there are still many mistakes that I have yet to make (and surely will in the future), it’s up to me to live with the consequences of those mistakes (whether it is accidentally drinking un-treated water or miscommunicating a meeting time because of my lack of language skills). I’ve found that I have to be on my ‘A’ game all of the time. I have to pay close attention to every word that is said to, always think about what I’m doing/wearing and what impression that gives to other people in my community, and I have to try to look through the lense of another culture. I often ask myself, what would I do if I were a child that had never left the mountain top before and I saw someone from another country, who speaks a different language, and looks nothing like me. I would probably stare in silence as well. The same goes for adults, if I had only ever heard my native tongue and I meet an adult who is only able to talk at a fifth grade level, I would probably expect them to know more and would become frustrated easily.
I’ve never had to think quicker or react calmer than I have in the past two weeks. It’s tough, but the rewards are immeasurable. I live by the motto that everyday has its downs, but they can never outweigh the ‘ups’. I have learned to value the small successes and to try and put the failures/frustrations into perspective. For every person that I meet who is unwilling to listen to my broken Tamazirght, there are three people who are more than happy to welcome me into their home, drink tea with me, and help me learn more about their town, culture, and language. These past two weeks have been a delight. For the next three months, my job will be to perform a community assessment and learn what the health concerns, needs, and resources of the community so that I can formulate a plan (along with the sbitar staff and other community members) on how to address some of these needs. It’s hard to think about what my everyday life will be like after I have performed the community assessment…I imagine that my language will be much better, I will know all of the bike routes between towns (like the back of my hand), and that I will have a much better bearing than I do now. But it’s hard to look that far ahead in the future because everyday poses a new challenge and a new lesson…so I try to stay near-sighted and focus on the here and the now.
I’m now officially a volunteer, on my own, and am expected to act as a representative of the Peace Corps and our country. The time for making mistakes (language mess-ups and cultural faux pas) has come and gone. Although, there are still many mistakes that I have yet to make (and surely will in the future), it’s up to me to live with the consequences of those mistakes (whether it is accidentally drinking un-treated water or miscommunicating a meeting time because of my lack of language skills). I’ve found that I have to be on my ‘A’ game all of the time. I have to pay close attention to every word that is said to, always think about what I’m doing/wearing and what impression that gives to other people in my community, and I have to try to look through the lense of another culture. I often ask myself, what would I do if I were a child that had never left the mountain top before and I saw someone from another country, who speaks a different language, and looks nothing like me. I would probably stare in silence as well. The same goes for adults, if I had only ever heard my native tongue and I meet an adult who is only able to talk at a fifth grade level, I would probably expect them to know more and would become frustrated easily.
I’ve never had to think quicker or react calmer than I have in the past two weeks. It’s tough, but the rewards are immeasurable. I live by the motto that everyday has its downs, but they can never outweigh the ‘ups’. I have learned to value the small successes and to try and put the failures/frustrations into perspective. For every person that I meet who is unwilling to listen to my broken Tamazirght, there are three people who are more than happy to welcome me into their home, drink tea with me, and help me learn more about their town, culture, and language. These past two weeks have been a delight. For the next three months, my job will be to perform a community assessment and learn what the health concerns, needs, and resources of the community so that I can formulate a plan (along with the sbitar staff and other community members) on how to address some of these needs. It’s hard to think about what my everyday life will be like after I have performed the community assessment…I imagine that my language will be much better, I will know all of the bike routes between towns (like the back of my hand), and that I will have a much better bearing than I do now. But it’s hard to look that far ahead in the future because everyday poses a new challenge and a new lesson…so I try to stay near-sighted and focus on the here and the now.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Re-learning how to ride a bike
Two weeks ago I spent a week in my new home in Ouarzazate. It was nice to have a time during our training to visit the site that we will spend our two years of service at. Luckily, I have been placed in the same province that I trained in, so once I am on my own I feel like I have somewhat confident traveling through the region by myself. Also, my final placement site is not far past the site that I have trained in so I ended up pick up the Peace Corps bike that was at my training site and taking it to my final site.
Although my final site is not far from my training site, I was amazed by the change in climate and geography as I traveled an hour past my training village into the mountains and into one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited, lived, or worked. It was amazing. Half way up the mountain, the main road turns into an unpaved word that is twisting and turning throughout the mountains. I was squished into the back seat of the transit with four other people so I wasn’t able to understand take in the full beauty of my site OR to see the edge of the cliff that we were driving on. (Side note: A transit is a small bus that is commonly used to transport people from rural areas to big cities.) I was able to steal a few peaks out of the window, but I was not able to discover the beauty of my sight until the first full day that I spent in my bike.
After I arrived at my site and met my host family. I spent the night meeting my family, talking about my life in the States, enjoying a lot of mint tea (a Moroccan delicacy), and take a few strolls through town to get familiar with the place.
The next morning the first duty of business, after breakfast and second breakfast (at 7am and then 10am), I went for an introductory bike ride of the community. This is when I first realized the beauty and vastness of my new hometown. As I traveled from village to village, I would find myself in a different ecosystem with every time. My town is a combination of grasslands and desert-like climate. My town is littered with fields (corn, wheat, walnut trees, apple trees, and so much more), however if you travel along the main road, which is a dirt road, in 2 km in any direction….the fields and lush green nature disappears and you are surrounded by nothing but rocks, sand, and probably some snacks and scorpions hiding under the many rocks. When you are in between the towns, you feel as if you are in the middle of nowhere and there is no one around. However, as you travel down a hill, around a mountain, or through a field…another town mysteriously appears. The next town with a unique, yet beautiful climate. Some towns are surrounded by nothing but rocks, others are carved into the sides of cliffs, and others are surrounded by the a dense forest. Although my mountain top, which covers 70km, is extremely diverse…every duwar (town) in my area shares one important quality…it has a beautiful view of the mountains that surround our gorge, especially the snow covered mountains of the nearby Atlas Mountains. I could not have dreamed of a more breath-taking place to spend my service.
Although the towns are spread by (mostly) main roads…the fastest way to get to a place is a straight line. Unfortunately, the fastest way isn’t always the paved way…well, there aren’t any “paved” paths. So I have learned how to “re-ride” a bicycle through irrigation ditches, through rock scattered fields, around the fields, through a field of sheep, and many other obstacles. I have never rode my bicycle so much in one week.
Although my legs and arms were sore by the time I returned to our training hub…I am so excited to get back to this beautiful place that I will call home starting on May 6th! In addition to the amazing climate…the people are ten times more welcoming and amazing than the scenery is…but I will save that story for another day.
Although my final site is not far from my training site, I was amazed by the change in climate and geography as I traveled an hour past my training village into the mountains and into one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited, lived, or worked. It was amazing. Half way up the mountain, the main road turns into an unpaved word that is twisting and turning throughout the mountains. I was squished into the back seat of the transit with four other people so I wasn’t able to understand take in the full beauty of my site OR to see the edge of the cliff that we were driving on. (Side note: A transit is a small bus that is commonly used to transport people from rural areas to big cities.) I was able to steal a few peaks out of the window, but I was not able to discover the beauty of my sight until the first full day that I spent in my bike.
After I arrived at my site and met my host family. I spent the night meeting my family, talking about my life in the States, enjoying a lot of mint tea (a Moroccan delicacy), and take a few strolls through town to get familiar with the place.
The next morning the first duty of business, after breakfast and second breakfast (at 7am and then 10am), I went for an introductory bike ride of the community. This is when I first realized the beauty and vastness of my new hometown. As I traveled from village to village, I would find myself in a different ecosystem with every time. My town is a combination of grasslands and desert-like climate. My town is littered with fields (corn, wheat, walnut trees, apple trees, and so much more), however if you travel along the main road, which is a dirt road, in 2 km in any direction….the fields and lush green nature disappears and you are surrounded by nothing but rocks, sand, and probably some snacks and scorpions hiding under the many rocks. When you are in between the towns, you feel as if you are in the middle of nowhere and there is no one around. However, as you travel down a hill, around a mountain, or through a field…another town mysteriously appears. The next town with a unique, yet beautiful climate. Some towns are surrounded by nothing but rocks, others are carved into the sides of cliffs, and others are surrounded by the a dense forest. Although my mountain top, which covers 70km, is extremely diverse…every duwar (town) in my area shares one important quality…it has a beautiful view of the mountains that surround our gorge, especially the snow covered mountains of the nearby Atlas Mountains. I could not have dreamed of a more breath-taking place to spend my service.
Although the towns are spread by (mostly) main roads…the fastest way to get to a place is a straight line. Unfortunately, the fastest way isn’t always the paved way…well, there aren’t any “paved” paths. So I have learned how to “re-ride” a bicycle through irrigation ditches, through rock scattered fields, around the fields, through a field of sheep, and many other obstacles. I have never rode my bicycle so much in one week.
Although my legs and arms were sore by the time I returned to our training hub…I am so excited to get back to this beautiful place that I will call home starting on May 6th! In addition to the amazing climate…the people are ten times more welcoming and amazing than the scenery is…but I will save that story for another day.
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