20th May 12
I went to Naima’s house today to celebrate Myriam’s, her daughter’s first birthday today. Funny how old Myriam has gotten to be, when I first came to this place her mother was only just announcing her pregnancy. Everyone else around me, host-mother, father, uncles and aunts seem to still stay the same.
It’s been six months since my last post and so much seemed to have happened, but at the same time not much seemed to have changed. The holidays came and went and all of sudden I found myself home in America for a short stint, and then back again. In late January, we had a craft fair in Marrakech and Tyler ran the Marrakech Marathon to raise money for materials for local preschools. February came and so did the snow. This year I managed to avoid most of the really cold days. It helped that by now I’ve learned how to make a killer fire to keep this cold house warm.
I started teaching English lessons at the Artisanat Ensemble in January as well. As opposed to my former students in my village, these students and artisans are really on top of studying and are eager to learn. Finally— a project that seems to keep me on the clock. My artisans at the cooperative actually were working during this past winter despite the cold. Work seemed to dwindle after the craft fair in January, but I didn’t mind staying inside on wintery days. The months of March and April were full of craft-fair planning or me running around like a chicken without a head looking for my artisans. At this point, my artisans still don’t have a local space to weave in, therefore I have to run across town and up and down mountains to get in touch with them. Prepping for fairs can be unnecessarily stressful. Fez in Spring is a good opportunity for us to catch early tourists, luckily everything turned out swell by the end of it. We just returned from the fair in Rabat as well. From here, no more fairs to see in the near future – a nice break is much needed.
We received our Closing Of Service (COS) conference dates and check-out dates last week. The COS conference usually happens three months before COS check-out, and ours is happening this August. Has it really been a year and half? More. No everyone is stressing out about what the plans are afterwards and so and so. I have not taken my GRE/GMAT/LSATs, or Foreign Service Exam, no job lined up, no 3rd year extension, not even travel plans. Six months seem to be so far away at this point, but at the same time I feel like I have been here in Morocco for just that amount of time. Has time really flown THAT quickly?
I am starting up English classes again in my site. This time I’m bringing in students who seem to be a bit more eager in learning. We shall see.
It’s June, yet it’s still cold in my site. Even thought the fields are beginning to bloom, it seems Spring won’t come at all and summer was here by this time last year. We shall see…
22nd November 11
I should probably also mention that I chopped my hair off. I like my hair, but over the summer I felt like I had a monster nest on my head. I swear it tried to suffocate me in my sleep. Well Locks of Love, hope you enjoy the hair - all 24” of it.
(Sorry about the dreadlocks.)
22nd November 11
My younger sister, Julia and her boyfriend, Chris came to visit in late July, which was such a treat because I was so ready to take a break. I met up with them Madrid, then we took off to Rome, afterwards to Munich, Nunberg, Frankfurt and we all flew back to Morocco landing in Fez. In Morocco, we made our way from Fez to my site, and from my site to Marrakech. It was sad to see them go, but I was more than delighted to see them! Hopefully these photos explain to you better than words what a trip we had!
21st November 11
After a long two weeks of craft fair–venturing, I came home to my village, anticipating something to be wrong with my crumbling house. Something is always wrong with the house. First it was a ridiculous leak that cost me a fortune; the front door falling into my hallway; the front door getting jammed not once, but twice, of course with me stuck inside; and not to mention the broken windows and the leaks in the ceilings that are irreparable. It makes coming home so much easier than you think.
My ceiling caved in. Yep – that’s it. Apparently, back in the day they don’t install drainage systems on roofs, therefore the water from the rainstorms that I had occurred while I was gone, seeped right through my house causing water damage, causing my ceiling to fall in. That is my theory, it’s pretty evident. No one else in this town seems to care about how this happened.
As result to all this chaos, Peace Corps suggested quite strongly that I find a new house to live in. Well, I told my landlord, who is also my host father, who is also the shix (the security warden or something of a sort in town) which gives him some power, and who also owns half of the real estate in this village. Which then, in my condition, the shix has stupid amounts of power = I am not in a good situation to be looking for a house.
I expressed to him the Peace Corps safety and security policy in the simplest terms (literally with my version of Darija), but it was unacceptable to him and was furious with the decision. He was going to lose a tenant without any likelihood of finding a replacement, so from his perspective I guess I would be pretty pissed, I guess. However, it wasn’t the easiest task for me to find another house that was in a safe location and that wasn’t in worse condition than my current situation. A few weeks later I discovered that not one landlord wanted to give me an option that would offend my current landlord. No one wanted to help me find a place because the of very same reason. I also discovered that some of the other authority figures wanted me to stay put because of the location and that it is the ideal spot for a volunteer, so they weren’t helpful either. I was sticking my nose in small town politics and it was not intentional.
A month later, restless and about to give up, I finally found a place that had just freed up right around the corner. I went to take a look, everything was ideal, and then I met my upstairs neighbor… not ideal. He wasn’t so bad at first and 20 minutes later, I couldn’t stand him. He is obnoxiously annoying and quite creepy.
So I didn’t take the place. By then I had accepted the fact that I was most likely going to stay in my crumbling house, so I could stay in good standing with my host family, keep at peace with the authoritative figures in town, and stay out of the politics. I knew before joining Peace Corps I was going to anticipate some form of corruption, here’s a little a dose for me. Not to worry, my landlord had someone come patch the ceiling. Since then, I haven’t been able to sleep in the back half of the house. It’s where my bedroom is, and the ceiling caved in my salon (living room) next to it. So I moved everything into front of the house, consolidated my bedroom and the front living room, and I use the back of the house for storage. Since then, nothing has happened that’s on par with the ceiling incident - lucky for me so far. Let’s just hope it stays that way for the remaining year. I never did really post previous photos, but here are some recent photos of the house/things in house, mostly post-ceiling tragedy.
My House - minus the paved walkway and paint job done back in Dec. It’s uglier now.
Hallway - it is always this gloomy.
Kitchen - I do some heavy duty burning.
Blackboard - my prescription to early on-set Alzheimer’s.
Desk - this is my desk.
Wall - just a few photos to keep my attention span within a certain range.
Sleeping Quarters - that bed is actually only comprised of a stand, a rug, and a few blankets. Very proud of the DIY bed.
Bedroom/Laundry Room - there is no dirty underwear in this photo.
21st November 11
So back in during training in October/November of 2010, there was word going around Peace Corps staff that the coming year we were to expect some changes. Changes were said would reflect in Peace Corps budget, Peace Corps structure, and the way things were handled. Welp, shortly after we were settled into our new sites word was out. Peace Corps D.C. decided to cut sectors in Morocco including Environment, Health, and Small Business Development sectors. As of March 2011, there are no longer new volunteers working in these fields – all that’s left is the Youth Development sector. But why focus on Youth? Because in Morocco, it is the Ministry’s highest priority and for Peace Corps, it provides structure to volunteers and their work. Along with this news came the diminishing of our Program Managers and the need for regional development, etc. and etc. But that means, our stage/our group of volunteers aren’t going to have a new group to replace us. There won’t be volunteers to follow up on our projects, meaning our projects will and must be absolutely self-sustained by the time we end our service here. WHAT?!???!! !!!!! Yeah, that was my reaction. I am the third volunteer in my village. The first volunteer in 2006 put together the weaving cooperative that I am working with now, the second volunteer continued working with the artisans, and now it is my responsibility that they learn everything and do it all on their own. !!!!!!!!!
The development processes that they use, the use of the marketing medium and tactics, the method of targeting sales, accounting and bookkeeping, knowing what the customer wants – all needs to be sustained by the artisans. Self-sustainable, sustained, sustainability, sustain, sus sus STOPPP!! I had to ban it from my vocabulary for a little while. It was ridiculous how many times it surfaced in my head, it was definitely brought up in conversations with other volunteers, and conversations with family and friends back at home. Anyhow, what’s come of it is the utmost effort to provide what we can in order for our cooperatives and associations to survive on their own. This includes a series of trainings, development of organizations and networks specifically for Moroccan artisans.
One of the largest initiatives is to continue Peace Corps craft fairs, which to many of our artisans is the only outlet to sales, so we are in the process of training Moroccan artisans how to put on their own craft fair. Please do note that these fairs were solely organized by Peace Corps Volunteers before, and organizing a craft fair isn’t easy and takes months of planning. Peace Corp also alleviated financial burdens by providing grants for these projects, and of course the grants will all go away after we leave. So getting to point – the kids definitely have a lot of work to do. This brings us to the next mention, the craft fair that was put on in July in Essaouira. It was the first fair to be held in a location that never housed a Peace Corps fair before, we provided plenty of useful trainings and workshops relevant to sustainability, and made sure that artisans shadowed volunteers during the fair. It was also the first fair in which artisans had to provide at least half or their own travel costs. This was our first attempt in one of the goals of the sustainability initiative. And guess what? It went really well! We had a great amount of support from the community of Essaouria, all the trainings and workshops went well, sales went well, and it came together in a rather fine way. We are well under way of planning the next fair in January, but until then enjoy the photos!
21st November 11
Marche Maroc Craft Fair in Essaouria organized by Peace Corps (Sponsored by USAid) - July 2011
20th November 11
20th November 11
June 2011— There were still remnants of snow not to far in the distance as I left town for In-Service Training (IST). It was the half-year mark of being in-service and also the last time everyone in our stage were going to be rounded up together until the end of our service. It was an exciting time. Our proposed meeting spot was in Marrakech, but because of the terrorist bombing in late April in Djemaa El Fna square, they moved us to Mehidya, the little surf/beach town outside of Rabat which greeted us once before during our first arrival. Six months in and IST was the perfect opportunity to help us realize how far we’ve come and how time flew during service.
Following IST, a group of six of us visited Porto, Portugal for a few days. We all decided it was about time to get out of the country, and didn’t know why we didn’t do so earlier. Traveling on the Eastern part of the world, we are gifted/cursed with Ryanair and Easyjet flights, and for less than $100RT and no more than a few hours, we can be anywhere in Europe. So Porto – land of cheap beer and coffee, PORT, fresh seafood, and many other European things, we went. Some of us ate until we got sick – including me. Some of us drank until we got sick – not me. Correction, some of us drank until we misbehaved – maybe me. And some of us went to Ryan Adams live solo show – ME! There’s the posh in Posh Corps.
My return to Morocco landed me right back to work. From landing in Marrakech, we took off to Essaouira (a beach town off the coast of southern Morocco) were I had some craft fair business to take care of. Did I mention that it was about 120 degrees in the southern half of the country during this time. “Ana moot,” that’s how you usually respond to that, or literal translation equals “I die.” We went to Josh’s site, which is supposed to be 15-20 minutes outside of Essa, but – because of transport issues, he need to take two different cabs, one out of way to his souk town and then another cab to his site. Sometimes there are no cabs. Josh is out the bled – the cuts, the boonies, the middle of nowhere, the most remote, the dirty south, more than any other volunteer I know. I don’t want to visit any other volunteer’s site more remote than this. He has no running water and there are big bugs, and big snakes, and scorpions, and I don’t know what else.
The view from another PC volunteer’s window in a little village outside of Essaouira.
Okay fine, his site’s not really that bad, except for the hunting spiders – those are BIG. Anyhow, it was 120 °F and I had to keep one eye open for gi-normic spiders when I slept at night – fun times. Work was ahead of us and Essaouira was a great town to work in; beaches, wind, good food, cheap good food, and good company.
20th November 11
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Ryan Adams - Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.
20th November 11
Porto, Portugal - June 2011
19th November 11
May rolled around and the cooperative attended a craft fair in Rabat at the American Club. It was a private craft fair held for expatriates and foreign embassy staff. The Ambassador and his wife came and checked out the event and awarded certificates to the artisans participating. The weather was great, Rabat was great, and my artisans sold rugs. Not bad of a start to May.
I also started working on some marketing in the Artisanat Complex, one of the Ministry of Artisanat buildings in Azrou. I finally met my other counterpart, who heads the Artisanat and works for the head delegate in Meknes on projects in the province. My artisans participated in the Ministry sponsored workshops this month. Because the workshops were held in Azrou and close to home, all my artisans were able to participate. It was my first time seeing all of them in one room together, working and learning something new. It was pretty awesome. A few volunteers near Azrou and I started this marketing project for the reopening of it’s building late this year. The building has been closed for nearly three years now and waiting patiently for it finally come back to it’s community. Here are some pre-opening photos of the complex. I also should mention that my counterpart in Azrou (who speaks amazing English), has been an amazing individual to work with. He understands his work and Peace Corps work, and seems to enjoy working with us tremendously. With corruption and what seems to be a lack of work ethic in this country, it is extremely difficult to come across individuals who are willing to work with you. And as volunteers we run into so many other challenges on top of work, I feel that we are lucky to be working with someone that acknowledges this fact and who tries to make things a little easier for us.
19th November 11
Rabat Craft Fair at the American Club - May 2011
19th November 11
Azrou Artisana Ensemble - still under renovation, but almost there!
19th November 11
April came. Post-Chinese New Year’s, post-Peace Corps trainings, post-Spring Camp, post-fair planning, post-getting snowed-out of site – ahh… April. Best thing about April the temperature was finally on a rise, +.5 °F at time, but you know – that meant my house was defrosting!
April – My cooperative and I attended our first craft fair. We had the opportunity to retreat from the cold in site to sunny Fez. The two artisans that I brought with me were fantastic company, and the craft fair went substantially well. Please enjoy the photos!
I started teaching English. The director of the naddi, the community center of my town, asked me to teach English to a group of women. Funny enough, I knew nothing about teaching. As a matter a fact, I don’t recall being a great teacher. It went well however. I started off at two days a week, then painfully dwindled down to a whatever I have left of my time. Between my absence due to craft fair planning, guests visiting, Ramadan, and now, snow – it has been rather difficult finding the perfect time. However, I am still optimistic about working with these women – it’s been a breathe of fresh air surrounding myself around curious and vivacious young ladies. And most importantly, they are willing to learn.
A treat—My best friend, Julia and her friend, Ben COSed (Closing Of Service) Peace Corps Thailand in April. Following their travels in Southeast Asia, they made it to visit lil o’ me in here in Morocco. I had not seen Julia in over two years since she had left for Peace Corps in early 2009, so I was ever-so content to see that lovely face of hers again. Or course, we traveled a bit around Morocco, and during our trip ran into quite the chain of events including various modes of transport problems (i.e. buses breaking down), weather problems, and well, the terrorist attack in Marrakech. Julia and Ben had cut their trip short, but Josh arrived not shortly before they had left. Josh is an old friend of mine that was visiting from San Francisco. Together, we continued the journey of seeing the country. We took a lot of photos. Those of will be uploaded for your viewing pleasure, at some point.
19th November 11
Marche Maroc Craft Fair Fez (sponsored by USAid, organized by Peace Corps) - April 2011
