finally, I have time to post again

May 11, 2009

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve last posted, but for good reasons. I was pretty busy. Let’s see if I can remember what I have been doing the last month or so. I found out where I’ll be living about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I received a new site (no other American had been placed there before), so I received about 5 pages of information on the town, compared to the 15-20 pages other trainees received who are going to replace other volunteers. About 10 of us in the environment sector received new sites. It was kind of daunting, not knowing what to expect for the next two years. A week after getting the news on site placement, I took an oral test on my language skills. I think I’ve determined that I am a pretty horrible test taker. I am especially bad at oral exams. I thought I knew a lot, but found out I got the minimum needed. I’m fine with that, because it showed me what I needed to work on, namely everything. I’ve got the greeting down, sort of, but I only was comfortable using about 5 verbs. That day I was filled in on what my project would be. What a relief that was, because apparently there are a lot of possible projects in my new town. The following week we had a party for our host families, which was fun, and my wonderful family got me what my fellow trainee dubbed a “muscle djalaba”. It’s really awesome, it’s a djalaba with no hood and no sleeves. Basically I will wear it when I want to flash the pythons: or at weddings and special events. Kif Kif (same, same in Tamazight). Leaving the training town and my host family was hard, because in a short period of time I really grew to love them a lot. We spent 4 days in a bigger town at a hotel before swearing in as volunteers. The swearing in was fun, and I got to show off my muscle djalaba and my tagia, which is the berber skull cap (another present from my wonderful host family), and of course, my pointy yellow elf shoe-slipper thingies.
The day we all headed off to our new sites was again, pretty sad. I was one of three new volunteers that were within 2 or 3 hours of our new sites, so I got to see everyone off. I thought I new the quickest way to get to my site: catch a ride from Peace Corps to the nearest grand taxi stand, ride 45 minutes north, catch another cab east an hour and a half, safi (enough), mashi mushily (no problem). It didn’t work out quite like that. I caught a ride to the taxi stand, but found out it was only for taxis going south, so a nice teenage boy helped me carry one of my bags about 4 kilometers to the other taxi stand. Oh yeah, I had everything I will need for the next two years with me at that time. I don’t think I would have made it if it weren’t for that kid, or I could have caught a city taxi and told the driver where I wanted to go (North!!!!! Allah(move fast)). In retrospect, the latter would have been the better idea, but I guess the kid wanted some exercise, or to torture me, I have no idea. I waited for a bus north, which is what the kid told me was the best option, in the sweltering afternoon heat, before I decided to look for a taxi. Once I found a taxi, I had no problems. Once I got to my new town, I was instantly surprised about the size of it. It’s a pretty decent sized town, and puts my training town to shame. I called my new host family, who I will be staying with for 2 months, at least (more on that later), and told them I was at the taxi stand near the mosque. I then waited for about an hour before calling again. It was a Thursday, and I realized that I had made a little mistake when calling them the first time. The word for Friday is very similar to the word for Mosque, so when I mispronounced the word, they thought I was saying that I was near the Friday. The word for Friday and Mosque is also really close to the words for university and association. It’s probably a good thing I said Friday instead of the others, because they probably would have thought I was crazy. After sorting out the problem, my host father came down to greet me.
My host family is pretty great. My host father owns and operates a café in the center of town, so I hang out there every day and people come in to talk with me and help me learn the language. My host aunt lives right behind the café, so I go there often for lunch or a nap. These first few months I am going to try to learn as much Tam as I can. I found two tutors that are teachers of Tamazight at the local primary schools. They are pretty awesome guys. One speaks English fluently, and the other knows enough to help explain things to me. My host father is pretty well known around town, so he introduced me to many of the people that will be a huge part of my life the next two years. There is a group of 5 guys that escorts me everywhere and that show me around town. Everyone is very helpful and welcoming. There are also an alarmingly large number of people that speak English. Someone at the local government office was nice enough to translate for me when I went to talk to my counterpart at the local Water and Forest Department. About 3 or 4 days in I met a Spanish PhD student who has lived here for about a year now, and will be staying for another year and a half possibly. He speaks 5 languages, English being one of his better languages, so we have had many long conversations. It helps that he’s studying wildlife, which was my undergrad degree.
So now that I have been here for a week and a half, I’m really looking forward to the next two years. I’ve visited with 4 volunteers that are within 2 hours of me, and I finally got to eat a meal without bread!!!!!! Oh yeah, I’ve learned the Tamazight alphabet, which is about 33 letters long. It has only taken me about 4 days to do it. There are several letters that are the same as English. I, Q, X, N (which is backwards, and is actually an L sound), and L (which is actually an N sound), are in the alphabet. It makes complete sense, since Tamazight is a very, very old language, and it spread north to Europe. There are 29 consonants and 4 vowels.
I will have to break the news to my host family that I will need to move out on my own at the end of June. I don’t think they want me to leave, but I need some privacy. It’s pretty exhausting to be constantly bombarded with new words and phrases. I’m eager to learn, though, and think I am doing a decent job of improving every day. I want to learn how to cook, which I feel I can only do if I’m forced to cook for myself or starve. I also feel bad that I am taking up one of the two main rooms as my bedroom, which forces the 7 year old daughter to stay at my host father’s sister’s house. I’m probably going to have to have someone translate for me that I love it at their house, but to get the full Moroccan experience I will need to live on my own. I need to learn how to deal with the lack of running water, washing my own clothes by hand, cleaning my own house, and how to cook with butane gas. I think they may be disappointed at first, but they should get over it. Other volunteers have told me their host families got over it when they moved out, eventually. I will still probably see them every day.
You all can look forward to more regular posts from now on. There are 5 cyber cafes in my town, and I’ve already found the one I’ll use for the next two years. I’m going to try to figure out how to post more pictures on Picasaweb, so I promise to post some more pictures soon.