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 :)

No Thanks, I'll Pass on the Sheep's Head...

So I spent the last week in what will soon be my home for two years. And I'm still having trouble finding the right words to describe this community. It is a small village nestled into the mountains (and when I say mountains I mean dirt mountains) that seems to run on it's own time. Everyone there is super nice and welcoming, but at the same time I can't help but think- shizer I'm gonna be all alone up here in one month.

So the biggest issue: no running water.

That's right, hug your Brita's and savor your fridge's that dispense water, because I have to walk across town to fill up on well water; to which I have to either bleach or boil just to use. So enjoy that ice cold glass of water that you're sipping on right now.

But in all seriousness, it won't be too bad when I get a routine and am able to figure something out. I hope. 

I am convinced that because I was probably the only person in our entire stage (around 35) that said I didn't mind the cold, they shipped me off to the mountains. Never mind the fact that the only thing I DID ask for was running water. Oh well, it's a challenge to overcome.

My second host family, that I will be staying with for the first month, are super sweet people. I have 5 sisters, ranging from 1-17 years old. A brother, Aunt, and my parents are helpful and anxious. It's their first time hosting a volunteer so everything I do is fascinating. And every sentence I say is hilarious- especially when I don't know what I'm saying. They find daily amusement in asking me questions and me not know the answer, or just not know what they said in general. But overall, they are very genuinely nice and helpful. They've also told me that whenever I don't want to eat something, just to let them know & they'll cook me eggs. This came in handy when sheep's head was served for lunch one day and then intestines the following night for dinner.

I got to hang out with the PCV that had spent her two years there, Mina. She was incredibly helpful and encouraging. She even let me confiscate A LOT of clothing, house amenities, food, etc. She introduced me to a lot of community members, helped me get familiar with the area, took me to get all my paperwork done and let me pick her brain about everything. Bless her soul, because without her, I probably would have had a mental breakdown.

There are some PCVs around me, so I'm not totally exiled in the mountains. All within a reasonable 30-45 minutes taxi ride away. Myself and the current volunteer I'm replacing did take a nice transit (which is a van taxi where they fit as many people as possible in it) ride up the mountain to the bigger town. Dad, now don't get  mad- but when the whole inside of the van is full on the inside, where's a girl to sit?? That's right, on the roof. Nice and spacious and with a great view, one can climb on up and sit on the roof for a chilly ride. Just make sure to hold on when going around the bends.

Before going up to my site I did meet some other PCVs that will be living around me, all of whom are very fun and more than willing to help us newbies figure things out and/or be a shoulder to complain to. It was nice to finally meet people who are out in the field actually doing something. Makes me feel like all this training might actually be put to use. That or I'll just have a sweet two year vacation.

Now I'm back at hub, exchanging stories with all my fellow trainees. Everyone seems to have enjoyed their site and is very excited to go out and start living. Which I agree. 

I'm sorry for no pictures, I actually didn't take any of my site. Figures. But I will be there for two years, so I'll get some up for you guys.

Oh yeah, PS. it snowed at my site after I left. Awesome.

Behavioral Patterns

The other day I found an Arabic proverb that I’ve decided I’m gonna try and live by while I’m here- thought I’d share it, however, don’t ask me to recite it just yet. It says, “kul yawm min Hayaatuk SafHa min tarriikhuk”... every day of your life is a page of your history. Broken down even further; you only live one life, so you should enjoy every single day. And at the end, each day’s experiences are what make up your history. I just really like this quote and the whole significance behind it.

This week is coming to an end and I am not complaining. It’s been tiring, challenging and over all mentally exhausting. The constant language lessons are finally starting to catch up and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. It’s funny though, I become so overwhelmed with learning the new language and frustrated with homework that I give up and go hang out with my family. I think there may be some irony thrown in that, but it is what it is. They bring me back to why I’m here.

I’ve come to find different outlets to redirect my frustration. Whether it be doing an hour of yoga (CaitRy, I got some sweet abdominal moves for us), spending time taking pictures, writing, watching a movie, or talking to someone who brings me back to the bigger picture.  Which ever one it seems to be at the time, it’s definitely a necessity here. Back at home I’d make sure I got some serious Caitlin time at least once a week; here I need it once a day. And I’m not embarrassed about that at all.

This Saturday our final sites are announced. I think that when I put this up, it’ll be Saturday, so... today our final site are being announced! This is the place I’ll be living the next two years, N’Shallah (God willing). After we’re told, the following Monday we’re off to visit the site for a week. During this time we’ll get to see what the community looks like, get to meet our new host family, check out the local clinic; basically get a vibe from the community we’ll be working in. So in the next couple of days, I need to learn to be fluent in Tamazight because I’m off on my own. Awesome. Actually, I’m kinda psyched.. this will be my first time out by myself. If I can do this, the rest is easy.

I had a big picture moment a couple minutes ago. After dinner, while I was washing dishes (yes Mom, I do that here), Mohammed came up and gave me the motion for brushing his teeth. So now, we have a nightly routine of brushing our teeth together. Behavior patterns at their best; aka monkey see, monkey do. It made me all warm and fuzzy inside thinking that, even if he did brush his teeth before, he’s now doing it on a regular [nightly] basis with me. And yes, if you hang out with us, we don’t just brush, we act like zombies with foam coming out of our mouths, but that’s not the point. The point is that he’s  brushing his teeth with me. And the goal is, to get him to do it regularly without me.

 (Mohammed, "our" cousin Mariam, and myself)

Home Cooking

So the past couple of days at Hub were, relaxing and a tad exhilarating. I got to see the people I didn’t even realized I missed and then further other relationships as well. I think we’re all starting realizing there are people here who we still don’t know all that well and we really want to; especially that person who seems to be embodied sunshine, who just opens your mind to so many different reasons for being here and to live every minute of it- which I can’t help but love and try to do my best to live by.

Now I’m back with my host family. Back to no internet, no toilets, and no hot water. Yet, walking in yesterday, to my mom and sister washing clothes and collecting corn kernels was so comforting. Do I have any clue as to what my mom’s going to do with a pound of corn kernels... no, (and I have not seen any popcorn), but for some reason it seemed completely normal to me. And twenty minutes later, I sat around 6 women, helping my mom slice some sort of bean that goes in cous cous, and as they talked and talked (gossiped is more like it, I just know it), in this language I still don’t know, I was strangely quite comfortable.

I sometimes find myself thinking how they would feel if they were in my situation- miles away from home and with no idea what is going on- what they would do. How would we treat them? It boggles my mind. So much to the point, I give up and just decide to make faces at Mohamed.

Today after sleeping in- which is getting up at 9 o’clock- I got up and started helping out around the house. I de-podded about 80ish peas, played with my neighbor Mariam (below, she is SO cute!), and then attempted to study in the blazing hot sun. Then, myself and my CBT mates decided to go on a hike. And then after telling my mom, my sister, my aunt, and then our school cook, they all thought I was crazy because it was so hot out, but we went anyway.

    This was a hike which Uncle Danny would be proud of. We did about a 3ish hour hike across the river, up ‘mountains’ to some make-shift caves. Then we went all the way around through fields and the two communities after ours. I apologize, but the pictures I will post have nothing on the actual places and things which was saw. We really have been blessed with our CBT site placement, it is so beautiful and around every corner there’s something amazing to see. Plus, the people here are so incredibly nice and welcoming it’s hard not to fall in love with a community such as this.

    After this walk, we all went our separate ways because we were all on dinner duty at our houses tonight. My dinner goal: Pizza. So I started the cooking process around 7:15-7:30ish, by having my mom make the bread and soon after I started cutting up my peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc. Now, back in the states I know exactly what to do when making homemade pizza, so I tried to follow that idea. As I cooked I had about 5 pairs of eyes watching me, along with my Uncle’s wife writing down what I was doing. Long story short, I got it all together, threw it in the oven and hoped for the best. Low and behold, it did look like it came out really good when we finally took it out (check out the pictures) and I was very happy with myself. The one downer, and if you know my you’ll know this is one of my pet-peeves, so the pizza didn’t take that long. I’d say it was finished and ready to go once we took it out of the oven. But we didn’t eat for another hour. Um.. hello, pizza should be eaten nice and piping hot. But, by the time we dove into it, it was luke warm. I can’t get upset, I should have taken into account that we eat at 10:30 at night and shouldn’t have started my cooking process so early on in the night, but it is what it is. All in all, out of about the 15 pieces that there were, 2 and a half were left over. I guess I can call that a success. My favorite part was, mid meal, my Uncle asks me if this was American pizza or Italian pizza; I thought about it for a second, and answered, “it’s Zahara pizza.” They all loved that. I apologize, I was going to post a picture of the pizza, but I forgot to upload those pictures from my  camera. So next time!!

Next time, due to Mohamed wanting to use an egg for some reason when we were cooking, it’s breakfast pizza. I’ll keep you posted.

Weekend Away

So this past weekend was a “free weekend” for us trainees. My CBT group, along with another group and some other stragglers headed up to Tinerhir (said most closely to tan-rear, and involving some annoying throat hacking). It was definitely nice to get away from the whole studying every minute of every day lifestyle. And at the same time, we were forced to learn, which was.. oddly enjoyable.

We stayed at a cheaper hotel that was recommended by past and present volunteers, which ended up working out very well. The arabic/french/english speaking hosts were very nice, helpful, and even entertained us on the roof with some live music, (I did at one point get in on the drums, which I don’t know why I never went professional, I was pretty awesome). So the night was just a relaxing, hanging out with everyone, talking about our experiences and getting some food type of ordeal.

The next day we got out to check out the gorges that we were told were spectacular. I can only assume the word got out, because though the gorges themselves were beautiful, they were very commercialized. Which put a damper on the whole walk through. There was a hotel and restaurant in the middle, next to a paved road that ran through the entire length of the gorge. But, all in all, they were beautiful and it was really cool to go see.

So afterwards we headed back to the hotel, and then towards the bus station to head back to our CBT sites. I wish I could insert a funny or interesting story right about now, but it wasn’t too lively of an adventure. Although, when I finally did get home- I was talking to my mom and brother and the word “baby” was brought up. And when my brother told me to come with him, I’m following thinking their neighbor had a baby. My mistake, we went into our make-shift barn and I was introduced to the family’s new baby calf! And then I was laughed at when I asked what it’s name was. Come on, I’d name it- I don’t get why that’s so strange! Unless they plan on eating it and don’t want to get too attached...

Tomorrow we head back to civilization. This means internet, a bed, a hot shower, a most importantly, a toilet. Okay, I take that back, a hot shower definitely beats out a Western toilet these days. My theory is as long as there’s some TP, I’m golden. But no hot water or shower, ugh!!

HOLY CANNOLI I forgot about my LHmmam experience!! Okay. I won’t go into details, because, I honestly don’t think it’s necessary. I can only describe what is the public bath house as, a hardcore girls locker room. And when they say “You get my back, I’ll get yours,” they literally mean it. It was definitely an experience; I would totally do it again (I got the best exfoliation I have ever had- and yes I did it myself, don’t worry), but I am now aware of what goes on and will have a better routine when I head there the next time.

With that being said, I’m off to go socialize. My Grandma just got back from the sbitar (clinic) and there’s a bunch of people here welcoming her home. And I’m being all emo in my room writing a blog, so I’m outtie!