Thursday, April 1, 2010

Mellow

To my dearest family, friends, and other anonymous blog readers:

Hey!

It has been a pretty tame week. More language lessons galore and becoming more involved in the community. There is a really awesome women’s center here. They have sewing machines, embroidery classes, women’s literacy classes, various plays and other events to get people in the area aware of how women are treated in the area and Morocco, and more recently all us PSTs have taught English and a “sport” class. The sport class is mostly some yoga stretches and abs, but it is nice to be a little active. The women that run the center are very motivated and fun people, it has been good to see a functioning women’s center and to have these contacts, because, more than likely I will be starting one in my final site, or at least I hope to!

Last Sunday, I helped Fatima, my host mom, make some stuffed bread and do a bit of laundry. I also swept out my room did a bit of organizing, I needed it. We had some guests over; I think it was one of my Mohammad’s sisters. I ended up having three sets of afternoon tea in a row because we had various guests over, I was so full. I also invited some class mates over to watch Zombieland, which was fun to hang out and just chill with everyone outside the classroom.

I have a new invigoration for the language. This past week was a bit of a plateau week, and I didn’t feel much like studying outside the 7 hours of class a day. The LCF noticed that most of us students have started to plateau, so he gave us some good words of encouragement, along with a whole list of words to memorize, and I feel like I am back on the track for learning way to much for my own good! YAY!

Being at the hub site: Basically it is a time to debrief and hear about everyone’s time out at their CBT site. It is good to see all the other PCTs and to see how the training is going for them. Each site has pros and cons. I feel very fortunate to have a site with running water, electricity, an active women’s center, and a family that is really nice and also understands me getting my personal space (a concept that is mostly lost in morocco), oh yes, and a lush green riverside fields that are amazing for taking walks on. One of the other sites has plumbing, but the water has been out for the past month, so the PCTs have been using irrigation water to bucket bathe in, if they are lucky enough. Another site has a women’s center, but no electricity to the site so the center is unable to use the computers and sewing machines that have been donated. One PCT has had as she describes “pack of women” waiting for her to finish school and they ask her questions and such. Now, I sometimes feel frustrated when it is two or three women that are talking to me and I don’t know what is going on, and I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to have that many women waiting for you.

Well that is all for now, keep in touch and let me know if there is something specific you would like to hear about and I will try my little darndest to touch on the subject.

Pictures to come soon to my facebook… the internet connection is slow so it takes a little while to upload them, sorry J.

1 comment:

  1. I have a question: Are you wearing "western" clothing or are you blending in, wearing clothing Moroccan's wear? It sounds like you are really lucky to be where you are.

    More questions: Does your host family speak any English? You said that the host mother cannot read. Do you think she will want to learn?

    I'm glad you are able to post a blog. This is very interesting.

    ReplyDelete