Swearing 2 Years of Our Lives Away

So today was the Big Day- Swearing In.

What we trainees had heard when it came to swearing in was nice hotels, awesome food, and just an all around good time.

What we experienced was our same hotel, a tent above that hotel for the ceremony, and then cookies and meat pastries afterwards.

However, you won't hear any complaints from me. I enjoyed the quick ceremony (unlike college graduation which is just drawn out), with three trainees speaking in the three languages we've learned. A quick talk from the Country Director and then safi (done). Then afterwards was tea, a variety of cookies, a delectable meat pastry and sodas in the glass bottle. 

Here's two pictures from the ceremony.

FATIMA AND MYSELF

My CBT group and our fearless leader

So last night the hotel put on a little show for our goodbye. A few of us think it was more of a celebration that we were finally leaving, but who really knows. 

So after I cram everything I own here into the least amount of bags that I can, I'm off to my home. Way up in the mountains. I will try and update this when I can, however, I'm not sure the next time I'll have internet. So until next time...

Day Before The Big Day

Tomorrow we swear in. Swear in for two years. Two years of service to whichever project we decide on. For some of us, projects are already planned out and ready to go. The other half of us have no idea what we’ll be doing. It’s up to figure out what our community needs and what we think we can accomplish there.

I remember the first questions some of us asked when we met current volunteers: What did you do your first day in site? When the taxi dropped you off with all of your things, what did you do? And while all of us were terrified about what we were going to do with ourselves, I think that now, the majority of us could tell you how excited we are. Or at least I think we are.

What I think us trainees are mostly nervous about is the fact that we’ll be alone, really alone, for the first time here. This will be the moment that all the emotions rush and the realization that we’re not going home hits. It’ll consume us in a matter of seconds. And the next thought will be- holy crap thank goodness I have a phone plan.

I think we’re at the point where we’ve really started to get close with certain people and find all of our little nooks. It’s kind of funny how when a bunch of people are thrown into an intense circumstance how we lean so much on each other. We rely on another for support, for advice, for sanity. And I think that a lot of us will further our friendships because of the situation we’re in. Plus, who else can you you call up at 3 am and complain about explosive diarrhea? A PCV, that’s who.

Bittersweet Goodbyes

I still stand by believing that it’s the little things in life that make it worth it. Like, home made french toast (Moroccan style), baking a cake from scratch (pumpkin cake no less), saying ‘hello’ to everyone on the street and having them say ‘hello’ back, or finally finding that one tahanut (a little store) that sells decent chocolate. It really does make living life, especially here, more bearable.

My week’s been... nothing more exciting that usual. Studying the language every day, trying to cram 2 semesters worth of information into 2 months. I learned how to make “stuffed bread”; which is a greasy delight, bread stuffed with peppers, onions, tomatoes.. ahh, it’s great. I’m gonna try and do my own twist on it and add an egg or something! Our cook at school impressed us yet again with a cross between a donut and bagel- which was awesome. We had a goodbye party today, which was a lot of fun and bittersweet also. It was nice to have everyone’s families together and to see every body. Whether we know them well or not, they all know us and are more than happy to talk. It’s especially fun to watch the local girls squirm over the PC boys in my CBT group. The boy’s are such heartbreakers.

It’s bittersweet having to leave here in two days. I’m just starting to be able to communicate with my family and the local people in the town and I have to go. Go off to another town, where they’re language is slightly different and they probably won’t believe me that I’ve been speaking this language for the past two months. But, I’ll get to the point I’m at now when I’m up there, so it’ll all work out. Plus, I’ll be able to come back and visit my family here where I’ve trained.

On a side note, our group went to a local authority’s house for tea and after he asked the rest of my group if there were married- I replied with saying “always” because I thought he was asking if I was tired. The afternoon continued with the mix up of the words “fresh butter” and “vagina”; this was not me, but was quite hilarious.

What else. I’m happy Kurt won prom queen- though it was a mean joke. I still miss pizza. I can’t wait to live in my own apartment so I can blast my music. The Alchemist was a great way to start off this adventure (thank you again Uncle Kerry). Oh, I forgot to put “MOROCCO” on my mailing address- for any of you who noticed that (MOM). I’ve read how to give birth, so if I ever need to, I’m golden.

Oh and for all of you planning your summers already with BBQs and trips to Claudios and The Drift- I hate you; I’m lying, I’m just jealous. Take this though- I’m planning to go to the South of France in August and then Ireland for Christmas. So while you’re all drinking the Drift dry, I’ll be drinking wine and eating cheese in France. Yeah, enjoy that thought- because I know I will.

Eating With Your Hands

I thank you all for being patient with me as I go 10 days without posting and then put up about 4 different entries.

I wanted to write one last night, but decided I wanted to sleep more. I wanted to let all of you know, that I have mastered eating cous cous with my hand- and it was my first time. Mom, I know what you're thinking, that I probably got it ALL OVER ME, but you'd be so wrong. Okay, a little wrong. But I did it. My Grandma and Aunt gave me a cautious stare when I ignored the spoon and dipped my hand into the dish, but I did it. I rolled that cous cous in my hand like a champ, and even added some vegetables in it.

The best part was at the end, with my hand covered in cous cous, I was trying to wipe it off, and I look at my Aunt and she just does the motion of licking her hand. And I just blurt out "REALLY??!?!?!!!??" and she just nods her head, so I decided to dive in. Go big or go home.

So though I rather of had a nice slice of sicilian from Bella Gusto, a cous cous covered hand had to do. And it was... satisfying. At least the accomplishment of it was.

May I have a Bacon, Egg, & Cheese on a Toasted Everything? Thanks.

So this past weekend was the annual Rose Festival in Kelaa M’gouna. Because my CBT site is just up the road, myself and my site mates decided to stay around here on our free weekend. And we tried to convince as many other trainees that we could to come and hang out. Which turned out to be quite a success.

Now due to certain recent events here in Morocco, the Rose Festival was downplayed a lot. Usually there is a parade, a rose “bride”, a concert, and a few other jaw dropping events. But what we experienced was basically a huge outdoor thrift shop. Which, don’t get me wrong- it was awesome, however I didn’t really see any roses. So Morocco has me stumped yet again.

I got to meet at lot of new volunteers and see some familiar faces, which was nice and definitely a breath of fresh air. A couple of us tried a street treat, which we thought was fudge- but not to much. It was more a combination of fudge and taffy. Not horrible, however not quite the best snack I’ve indulged in. Ice cream was then tried. I’m not even going to dedicate another sentence to how that went- take it as you will. After all this, however, about 6 of us did sit down and get some delicious chicken sandwiches. Now, they were no GrillMaster from the WR Deli (I mean what is??), but they were pretty tasty little things.

After our Rose festival experience and a very crammed taxi ride back to our site, my friend Ali came to help me figure out my hard drive. BECAUSE MRS. LOGGIA- it has somehow locked up on me and due to my magnificent computer skills, I am unable to figure it out. So after getting about 50 movies from trainees, I can’t access any of it. But, the more exciting part of him coming over was I was translating between him and my Aunt, because he’s learning Darisha (Arabic) while I’m learning a Berber dialect and it was AWESOME. She understood (I think) what I was saying and I could actually, sorta, formulate sentences. It’s the little moments for me.

Okay okay, so after all this I went to our local volunteer’s house (we are lucky enough to have a volunteer in our training site) and spent the night there with about 20 other trainees and volunteers. Which was great. I got to meet some really cool people, share some sweet stories, play some games, ate some great food- beans, guacamole, salsa-ish stuff, in bread. Then crashed in the courtyard, under the stars (there was no way I was sleeping in a room with 15 other people, it smelt like feet). Check out some pictures from the night...

And then after waking up nice and early, I begged my CBT mate Bassu to go get me an everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese from Bagel Buddies. He looked at me, cursed at me for bringing up such things, and proceeded to walk away. I then made due by making 36 eggs for breakfast for everyone and then thoroughly enjoyed the fact that I finally made scrambled eggs- even if they didn’t have cheese. So all of enjoyed home made egg sandwiches.

So after breakfast I took Ali and another guy (I don’t remember his Moroccan name) on a walk through my CBT town. It was a beautiful day and the roses are all in bloom, so it was perfect. Here’s some other pictures of the fields and river in my village...

So now I’m just resting, I should be studying for my assessment in two days, but frankly I don’t want to. So I’m blogging and listening to the new Britney Spears album. I got to talk to my parentals earlier, which was always enjoyable. I asked about everyone, so I haven’t forgotten you all just yet. Oh, yes.. shout out to Baby C and the Madre- HAPPY BIRTHDAY to BOTH of you! Wish I could be stateside, however I’m busy saving the world. But I hope you guys enjoy (or enjoyed) yourselves!

Oh!! The other day I was blessed with the excitement of our cook wanting to dress myself and Fatima up in traditional bridal wear. Check it out, it was pretty cool. Except for when it was my turn and I walked outside, all the women just happened to be walking by and I got so many comments. Don’t worry, I told them my for now, my husband is in my dreams... but if I’m good, he’ll come to me soon. Here’s some pictures:

Now we have one week left in our training sites. This time flew by and I am in no way fluent. Whatever, I know the basics, the rest will come... I hope.

Home Economics

Put your snicker doodles down, home ec. has actually come in handy for me. I’ve just finished sewing my pants back together. Yes, I know, it’s trivial and a lot of people do it. But shut up. And yes, they’re black pants and the thread I used is a light blue and it’s probably not the best cross stitch, but whatever- I did it. Now I feel accomplished and have a serious craving for snicker doodles, which I just may be able to make...

My second household chore I accomplished this morning was- I MADE BREAD! Okay, so I helped make bread. But I basically did a lot of it. And it is a lot more of a work out than I anticipated. But, the end product was amazing. A little thank you to our CBT cook, who is such a sweetheart and amazing cook. So add making bread and sewing my pants back together to the list of things I’ve accomplished so far. I’ve made tea all by myself (it’t not just a tea bag over here), but I need to tweak it a bit.

We now have total of 12 “school” days left. Holy raspberries on ice (that’s right), that is not a lot at all. I still feel like a first grader on the first day of school- who color’s outside the lines by accident. Actually, that’s basically my life, so there’s really nothing different. There’s a few things that are running through my head right now:

• One day I will actually understand Tamazight
• One day, Moroccans will actually understand me speaking Tamazight
• I’ve eaten more fruit in the past month than I have in the last 2 years of my life
• I hate the Turkish toilet
• I miss my shower in Wading River, so so so so so so so incredibly bad
• Will I get to watch True Blood somehow
• WHEN WILL MOM SEND ME MY ROBINS EGGS
• How cold will it get in my site
• A week on a boat in the Mediterranean
• What the heck am I gonna do as my project
• The lemon tang here taste like crystal light lemonade and I love it
• I really hate the Turkish toilet

That’s just a few thoughts, but imagine them all popping into my head every 5-10 seconds. Then something shiny goes by and I’m distracted; please, I may have moved to a different country, but some things don’t change.

While I’m starting to become insanely exhausted, and watching a butt load of movies, I am learning how to cook more, which is nice. When I’m all on my own I’m gonna have to learn some serious cooking for one skills and I’m trying to collect as much knowledge of cooking with butane that I can. If anyone has any easy recipes that they would like to share, please.. indulge! I’ll have plenty of time to try them.

This upcoming weekend is the Rose Festival. I am currently living in the Valley of the Roses, so everyone is frantically running around getting everything together to sell- such as rose water, rose oil, figs, nuts, and the lists goes on. It’s suppose to be this big intense festival, so I’m really excited to go check it out. Below is a picture of a room in my house, all hand picked roses laid out to dry. My Aunt will then either use these herself at the local Association to make rose water, or will sell them to another for rose water use. For those of you who are not familiar with rose water (to which I’m still becoming) they use it here for a lot of purposes. It is very good for your skin, eyes, and stomach; it is also used for cooking. I will admit I have been using a bottle on my skin... I don’t sense much change, but I’ll keep you updated.

And on this note, I’m off to help my Auntie in the kitchen. Well, probably just stand there and watch the cous cous get steamed. Man, if they knew we cooked our cous cous in 5 minutes- it would blow their minds.

Baby Girl

Dear Dad,

I hate to admit these things, but in the last couple of days, I’ve done some things that as a child (or even now) you would yell at me for. But I can explain myself, I promise. Here are my confessions:

• I took a candy from a stranger
• I rode on the top of a taxi van for 30 minutes & it was totally my idea
• I talked to a lot of strange men on the street
• I almost died on public transportation (weather related, not because I was on top of it)
• I the pet stray kittens (the ones that didn’t look like they had cancer)
• Have eaten so much sugar in everything it’s possible I’ll get diabetes
• I chopped a girl’s hair off

and my favorite:

• I cut vegetables using my palm as the cutting board (it’s okay the knife was dull, but I do have little cuts)

But Dad, I promise, all these things I’ve done have had their reasons behind it. Okay except the petting of wild animals and holding the tomato while cutting it. So let me explain my actions a bit. The drink I took was a smoothie from the owner (I think) of the fruit smoothie place where I had been relaxing for about 2 hours. He offered it to my friend and I after we paid, (...I paid). And it was so good! It was an avocado, fig, papaya and all sorts of stuff in it; plus he said it would make us strong!

I think I mentioned riding on top of the taxi, but it was so cool- chilly, but really cool. On talking to strangers, frankly it’s impolite here not to say something. Although I don’t really say hello to older men (if that makes you feel a little better!). As for almost dying on the bus. Well, that wasn’t my fault. The engineer genius's here build bridges so that water flows OVER them, and because it was raining heavily, the current was so strong. Our daring bus driver decided to push through the elements and in doing so, we almost flipped over into the river. NOT MY FAULT! If I had been driving in Ella, (for those who don’t know, she was my awesome Jeep), I would never have had her do that.. I don’t think.

On the chopping off a fellow trainee’s hair... well, she wanted to shave her head and a few of us thought it better if she just cut it really short, so... I totally jumped at the chance to cut it all off. I told her that I use to cut my dad’s hair all the time, it was great. However, another friend of mine wouldn’t let me buzz her hair because I made the mistake of mentioning  I gave Conor lightening bolts one time.

As for cutting vegetables and using my hand for a cutting board, umm.. my Aunt was watching and she does it like that, so I couldn’t disappoint. Plus, I don’t believe we own a cutting board.

However, on a different note, there have been some things you’d be proud of me for. Such as these (though I’m sure it’ll take me a while to think of a list):

• Helped one of the local girls pick roses
• Have been drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate when I can
• Taught some friends how to play rummy 500 (thank you Grandma)
• Found some awesome cookies for about 10 cents (6 pack thank you!)
• Learned how to make tea
• Cleaned out the pool at the hotel
• Almost mastered the Turkish toilet
• Helped my sister haul water back to the house
• Ignored the creepier strangers
• Made purchases all by myself in my target language
• Went swimming on Easter
• Didn’t take home the kitten
• I’ve come to realize I know way more Spanish than I thought I did
• I’m still here

So Dad, I hope the good cancel out the bad. One day I’ll get in a run, I promise. I’m just still hesitant about it at the moment. For now it’s just yoga and hikes, which will suffice. But don’t get the spare bedroom ready just yet. For yet another “ahh-haaa” moment came to my on my walk today. This thing’s only for two years and it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Miss you & Love you,

Cait

PS- I told you that you’d like this entry :)