Finally...

Hill behind my house..which I climbed to take pics

My new town

November 30, 2010

Well, it’s been raining for three days straight and I’m past my ankles in mud. Literally. Many parts of Morocco are flooded, people’s homes are filled with water, and there are rescue boats where cars used to be. Luckily, there hasn’t been any flooding here, yet. It’s supposed to rain for the next four days though and there are no drainage systems anywhere, so we shall see! I’m off to Marrakech tomorrow morning, for the next six days, with my counterpart Rebha. Marche Maroc, is a nationally recognized craft exhibition, organized by Peace Corps and the Ministry of Artisana. There are three exhibitions each year. Currently, they are the only outlets my Co-op uses for selling their products. It’s all a bit overwhelming to be honest, as I’ve only been here for 5 days. I’m planning on observing as much as possible, taking notes on what works and what doesn’t so that we can improve for the next fair.  Rebha has done this before, so I’m not too worried about things. It just would have been nice to be more prepared and familiar with things.

On the other hand, I know I’ve only been here for five days, but I’m all ready looking forward to the six day ‘break’ that tomorrow brings. My home stay during pre-service training was broken up with school for ten hours each day. This home stay is 24/7. My family is wonderful, don’t get me wrong. And I have a nice big room, but it’s cold. So instead of being able to shut myself in my room to get some work done for a few hours each day. I’m forced to sit in the living room (where there is a furno (woodstove). My host mom, or grandmother, is also in there along with little Yasmine. So not only am I feeling a lack of personal space, but I feel guilty, because they are in the same room and I feel like I should be playing with Yasmine, or talking with whoever is there. I know it’s only a month to go before I have my own place though-so here’s to house hunting! Which will begin as soon as I get back from Marrakech…

December 14, 2010

Shew! Where did the past two weeks go?! Where to begin…Marche Maroc turned out to be a bit of a flop. We only sold one or two things each day for the first three days, which was a real bummer. On the last day, lots of Peace Corps volunteers from the health and environment departments showed up to buy Christmas presents to send back home. Which was great as we sold enough to make the trip to Marrakesh worthwhile for the Co-op, however, in the long run sales to only Peace Corps volunteers isn’t exactly sustainable!

Being in Marrakesh was a real treat, but it certainly put a dent on my monthly living allowance! I pretty much went through the whole allowance in 6 days!

While we were there, the International Film Festival was also taking place, which was a lucky coincidence. Jemma Al Fnna (the main tourist square) which leads to the Medina (market and little shops in a maze of old windy pedestrian and donkey-only narrow paths, had two extremely large movie screens set up and each night films from the festival were shown. On Saturday night, for some crazy reason ‘Speed’ was the first film shown and Keana Reeves himself presented it with a short speech. I managed to get a few snaps of him as he was leaving…

Other than the film festival, medina, and Artisana I didn’t get a chance to do much sightseeing as my days were spent working at the Artisana. Walking through the medina and seeing all of the handicrafts was extremely enjoyable and I will return before I leave Morocco to do some serious shopping.

All in all, Marrakesh is an extremely touristy city, and harassment by the locals was encountered daily for us girls. All the shop owners sit outside their shops and as you walk by they get up and try to coax you in their shops, sometimes in a fairly aggressive manner, grabbing your arms to bring you in or blocking your path to walk past them. It wasn’t so much scary as it was annoying, as you constantly hear sexual remarks, are referred to as Barbie etc…It was however, rewarding on many occasions as I speak Tamazight (Berber) which caught all most every shop owner off guard as they expected me to speak French or English. Speaking Tamazight certainly reaped its benefits resulting in much lower ‘local’ prices rather than the tourist price…I still had to bargain though!

The journey back to site was a long one (8 ½ hours on an old souk bus), but I slept through a large part of it. I had a bit of trouble when I got to Boumia, where I transfer to a taxi for the rest of the journey. As I stood up to get off the bus, I heard an unpleasant ripping noise. I quickly patted my backside, and as suspected the old metal armrest had sliced right through my pants from one side to another, completely. Leaving the rear of my pants to fold down, perfectly exposing my derriere, luckily only to the two women beside me! I quickly sat back down and luckily I had an extra sweater on so I removed that and tied it around my waist appropriately covering the exposed for the rest of the journey. I showed my host mom what happened when I got home (no shame there, c’mon we go to the Hemam together, there are no secrets!) needless to say she laughed her head off! It was pretty comical, even while it was happening .

My days have flown by since I’ve been back. Getting all the appropriate paperwork for my stay in Morocco sorted, house hunting, walking around town getting to know people, organizing my work with the Co-op. Rebha, my counterpart, stayed behind in Marrakesh as her sister lives there and is eight months pregnant so she wanted to spend sometime with her. She invited me to come stay with them for the week, but I politely declined, I’d only been in site for five days before I left and this time is crucial for me to integrate into my new community…That being said, as Rebha was gone, I didn’t meet with my Co-op women as I don’t know where they all live yet.

Locating a house to rent for the next two years is time-consuming and as I’m anxious to have my own place by New Year’s, it’s getting the best of me at times. It’s been my first hard-proof that everything in Morocco takes three times as long as it would anywhere else in the world! I’m off to look at two houses this afternoon though, N’Shalla (God-willing, which is said after almost everything here, and can also be an indirect way of saying no to something). I looked at my first house two nights ago-and loved it…probably because it was 350 dirhams above my price range! I found that out after falling in love with it! Ah well…

Hmmm what else to report…I’ve been on two hikes since getting here. All I can say is I can’t wait for you people to visit me! It’s just gorgeous here. I am truly in the mountains, Dad, I know you will love it too! The people are also very welcoming and accepting of me, although I get called Kristen quite a bit, which is the name of the volunteer I replaced. People seem to think we are all the same person, which is kind of funny.

I’m going to a fellow volunteer’s for Christmas, she lives a three hour taxi ride from here. In America, she was a lawyer, who got tired of being one and started her own catering company…For those of you who know Terri D. in Lovettsville, she is her twin. I mean it, not that anyone could ever replace you Terri, but she is your equivalent for me over here! Her laugh isn’t quite as good as yours, but it’s close! Anyways, she is hosting a handful of us in her new home and hopefully we will have as yummy of a Moroccan Christmas as can be! I will stay with her over the weekend and on Monday the volunteers from our region will go to meet our delegate. We will each speak briefly with him, giving him a copy of our resume (in French) and explain our work plan for the next two months. I have to meet with him once a month, to update him with my progress and plans, etc…

Well that’s it for now, got to go take care of some things in town..and post this. Will be in touch again soon!

Love,

Maryeem xXx

Marche Maroc (Me & Rebha-my counterpart)

Rebha after certificate presentations

That's the roof of my hotel in Marrakesh...and the pretty mountains in the distance!

Jemma Al Fnna 

Jemma Al Fnna