Site Announcements!

Leaving CBT for Azrou for Site Visits

Site announcements were torture! They made us wait all day until they told us. Cruel. They announced them by pointing out the site location on a giant map of Morocco and then announcing which person was going there.  I went into a little bit of shock at first as I found out I will be 5+ hours from most of the 30 people in my staaj who I have come to go get to know over the past month. I slept on things though, and woke up feeling excited about the challenges ahead, rather than sad. I should make it clear that I will not be completely alone, there are 3 other PCV's in/near my site. They are all males and have been in the site for 1 1/2 years. The downside is that they will close service in six months. So I will have to make the most of their expertise for the six months I have them. Two of the guys are health volunteers and one is an environment volunteer. 


My site info:
It is a rural village situated in the Eastern most portion of the High Atlas Mountains. It is 1900 meters above sea level, mountainous, and has a 'hostile' climate during the winter months. Uh-oh! On average it receives steady to moderate snowfall from November to March, guess I better get ready for cold cold cold!!! Approximately 8-10 thousand residents live in the five dours that make up my regional area and the majority of residents are farmers. The women I will work with are weavers, and it is up to me to develop my work and projects. I am excited for my site visit tomorrow which will last until Friday. It takes two taxis to get there from Azrou and it about 3.5 hours south of Azrou. 


Info about my new host family:
I will live with my second host family for the month of December and this week while I am on my site visit. My host mom's name is Hayat and my dad's name is Sassi. I have been told that they are a young couple (which is the same situation for my CBT host family and I like it). They have a one and a half year old little boy called Yassine. Sassi owns a cyber cafe in my village. 


I am absolutely exhausted! It has been an emotionally trying couple of days, not to mention the past month! 


I am so excited though and cannot wait to leave for my site visit tomorrow morning. I am replacing a girl called Kristen who has 12 days of service left. Tonight, I will brainstorm all the many many questions I need to ask her over the next week in regards to housing, souk, what projects she worked on, what the women of the co-op are like, and the list goes on! I only have her for 4 1/2 days so must make the absolute best use of her while I can! 


I will return to Azrou for a debriefing sometime in the afternoon on Friday and will be here until Saturday afternoon. So hoping to get a few pictures of my new village posted on here then :)


Until next weekend,

Your Moroccan Miriam xxx

Possibly the strangest advertisement ever.
And it is all over the place.
It is for the mobile/cell phone recharge cards which I buy on a weekly basis. I laugh every time I see it. 

Having tea with Jeff, Marisa, and a Moroccan after Souk

Grocery Shopping with Marisa at Souk