Two weeks later…
Wow okay, a blink of the eye later and two weeks have flown by. Here are a couple of thoughts on the last two weeks, some from the beginning, some from today, in chronological order but unnumbered…. Sorry!
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Sometimes, the people you meet are further above where you stand than the halls of heaven themselves. Today, I hope that I met such a person. One of the language facilitators at the Moroccan Peace Corps office is named Yousef, and he seems to be a rather incredible artist, linguist, and programmer.
He is fluent in several languages, a brilliant communicator and quite the artist as well. That is not to mention the hacking competition he has won, or his black belt in Karate. It is difficult, or course, to properly assess his skills, given the context of Morocco. The country does not seem to have the nicest amenities and is not blessed with the amazing access to facilities that his hobbies enjoy in the United States. However, it does seem that he is confident in his abilities and skills, however untested some of them truly are.
Nevertheless, I was very impressed, and I hope to learn more about and from him in the following months. He seems like a very intelligent and discerning individual, and his skill with drawing was apparent immediately. I still wonder, however, to what reasonable extent he could expect to amplify these skills, within his current geographical context. While I can certainly guarantee his candor, I could not truly verify his relative potential. There seems to be a kind of mysticism in the way he presents himself, which is not totally forthcoming. Much to consider.
In other news, I have been studying Arabic extensively, making a phrasebook and several alphabets. I have been trying to practice speaking as well; however, I am worried that I am not in the proper mindset to truly improve at the rate I need to. Maybe I will spend some time humbling myself each day…. Or whatever helps me with this awkwardness.
If God wills it, I will learn this language…
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Whew, it’s been a rough few days. Some kind of sickness absolutely knocked me off my feet. I had to spend a full day in recovery, and within literally 24 hours I had been scratched by a cat and sent an hour and a half away to the city of Rabat.
Rabat is a beautiful city, but I am afraid I did not get to appreciate it fully in all of it’s splendor. I was in and out of the city within just a few hours, 12 in total, 7 of which I spent asleep, 2 of which I spent in a hospital, and the remaining 3 were driving around to get to said city and said hospital. I will hopefully have more to write about later on about the cities here.
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It wasn’t long until the Pre-Service Training we were undergoing had ended and we left our hotel for CBT. Let me break these terms and the timeline down for you so it is a bit easier to understand.
Staging: 2 days in DC before leaving for Morocco, mostly training and expectations.
PST: Pre-Service Training: 10 days in a Moroccan hotel, lots of language and cultural lessons, a good amount of free time at the hotel
CBT: Community-Based Training: 2 months of homestay learning in an immersive Darijan (Moroccan Arabic) household. All other volunteers are in this region.
Final Site: 2-year site, 1 month of which is with a new host family.
I am currently, as of 4 days ago, at my CBT site, where I have been quickly learning the Darijan dialect and have been getting to know my host family. There is honestly WAY too much to talk about here, but I will break down a bit about the site as well as a few pieces of information on my host family.
The site: I am in a suburb of a Moroccan city, about 20 – 30 minutes from the down-town area. This doesn’t mean there is all of the amenities of an American city, or even town, but it is quite comfortable. The home I am living in has goats, a yard, a common room, a dining space, a kitchen, 2 toilets, a bath, and a roof for laundry to dry. I am spending my days mostly studying and going to class with 5 other Peace Corps Volunteers and our language facilitator.
My host family is an exceptional collection of people. I will go into more detail later, but for now I will say that of the 4 permanent members of the house, not even one is a day under 58, and only one spends any time at a traditional job. They all care for one another, with each doing household tasks such as the cooking and the cleaning and the laundry, and when the grandchildren come over, they seem to light up. It is a truly humbling experience, to be able to eat and live alongside them and to break bread with them. It must be… I wouldn’t be able to learn the language if they didn’t humble me!
Sorry for the long wait, this is supposedly the busiest time of the entire 2 years though, so it shouldn’t be worse than that.
Lots of love!
