Can I just say... Oh my fucking god!!!  There is nothing in all my years that could begin to prepare me for the first moment of meeting the family I'm going to stay with for two months, and see their dar (home).

I will start at the end, and say that this is very likely going to be an incredible experience, one I will always remember and cherish, but there are probably only a handful of people my age perhaps any age) that can say that.

We rode in nice car (bus) to our "hub" and then took a Grand Taxi to our LCF's (teacher's) villa.  ...which was pretty nice.  There was our ustadda (teacher), and the 6 trainees, with all our crap loaded to the gills in two taxis.  Our LCF (Nadia) has an upper level, large home with relatively modern conveniences.  Then it was right out of a scene from an orphanage as host families showed up to pick up their children (we're all called children or "my son," even my host family, whose about my age :)  ...anyway, one host family after another came and scooped up my fellow trainees, with hugs and warmth.

...and finally there was but one trainee left.  ...hmmm ME, because I am a man and the husband works and so it was inappropriate for the wife to pick me up.  ...so my ustadda and I walked (thank GOD for wheeled luggage and a rare, smooth road) a couple of miles to my dar.  As we walked Nadia showed me the homes of the families where my fellow trainees are staying.  One after the other was increasingly more impressive.  This part of Morocco is known as "the Switzerland of Morocco"  with gorgeous villas with the peaked roofs/A frames, all nestled together with white buildings and red roofs.  Nadia pointed to a 4 story villa where the married trainees are staying, complete with maid, and all the amenities.  Each trainee home seemed to surpass the next, as we traveled down the road to my dar.

My first hint that mine might be a little different was when Nadia pointed out my place in the distance: "See that pink, tin roof"?  "Yes" I said, "is it one of the ones next to it"?
"No, no, that's it."  "Oh," I said.  As we got closer the beautiful paved road became a dirt road, than a track, then a rut.  Now I'm carrying my bags with my pants rolled up.  As we approach the door, I have to duck under the electrical wires (okay; that's good; there ARE electrical wires so that means electricity).  It is NOT a bad house.  And the mother, father, daughter (21) (no comments) and son (16) are extremely nice.

...but it is a house that none of us (or few of us have ever even seen, let alone geared up to spend the next 8 weeks).  It is cold in Ifran, and they have a homemade Franklin stove that sits in the middle of the room, and seems to work just fine.  They have given me my own room, that looks to have been the living room or perhaps the children's bedroom (although there isn't a bed in here).  There is just a squatty potty and a bigger bucket for bathing.

It is so incredible only because it is nothing like I've ever seen.  But the mother and daughter are busily cooking up what looks to be an incredible meal and I already had my kaskrot (mid-day coffee/tea/bread/jam/cheese snack).  The son is out playing, the women are in the kitchen (where they won't let me even come in because for the first 3 days I'm considered a guest, and after that, I'm going to have to insist in order to be part of anything), and the dad is napping (which is what I should be doing).

I'm living in f***ing Africa, in a village, in a home that has no toilet, shower, and no bed for me, with people I've never met and have nothing in common with, including the language.  YAHOO!!!  Welcome to the Peace Corps!!!  We resume our formal language studies tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoons, we get to learn the culture by doing walking tours, etc.  The town is supposed to be simply off the hook.  I'll try to post some pictures but check it out online if you get the chance.

I hope (actually I know they will) the family warms up enough for everyone to try to speak to me.  The very length of this post just two hours after I got here tells you that I'm not in the mix of a million questions and the center of curiosity.  Perhaps they expected someone 22 instead of 52, but what the hell!  Its going to be an experience like nothing I've ever experienced before!!!

More later.

Victory!!!  My first venture with the squatty potty was a success! ...well, sort of. ...any landing you can walk away from, right?    I won't go into any details, but if that's what you call a successfully landing, there are a number of passengers who sure as hell aren't flying that airline again!


It's fricking snowing here, so so much for Africa.  We are very close to what everyone says is a great ski resort, but its not really working for me.  I'm sure I will be begging for this weather come August, but give me the heat!!!

...it was awesome.  The PC staff guy laid a piece of paper on the ground with a drawing of two footprints and a hole, and then showed us how to use a "Turkish toilet," also known as a "squatty potty."  ...complete with how to hand off water from right hand to left, to give a good cleansing.  The "eat with the right, wipe with the left" saying is much more than a saying here!  It is considered a huge faux pax to eat with the left hand (having been left handed my whole life, I'm shit out of luck, pardon the pun).

I meet my host family tomorrow.  I know that I will be living with a family of 4, father works as a school teacher, mom is a house wife, daughter 21 is married and out of the house, and son is 16 and lives at home.  I am very fortunate to have my own room (many of the trainees are sharing a room with one or more host family members).  Although my daughter would prefer the squatty potty, I'm hoping for a real toilet.  Possible because of the area where I'm going.  Showers are even less likely, but hey... ya never know.

The hammam is the public bath that most everyone in the community uses, and is like a series of three large sauna/bath rooms where you relax and an attendant scrubs you (for the outrageous price of 10-20 dirham, which is about a buck and a half).  It sounds pretty awesome!

There are five other trainees in my CBT ("culturally-based training") Site.  A married couple, and three other girls (all 5 are under 24 years old :)  We 6 trained here in Rabat and then jump on the bus tomorrow to go to Ifran and continue our training.  We each live with a different host family and actually go with our LCF ("language and cultural facilitator, Nadia) (did I mention that acronyms are HUGE here).  Then we meet every morning at our LCF's place and resume our language and cultural training, go back to our host families for lunch, and then back to our LCF's place for more of the same.  Then its back to the host family, who are dying to talk to us, help us learn, and learn about us.  Dinners in Rabat are later than at my Dad and Mom's, typically taking place between 10 and midnight.  ...brutal when we have to get up at 6:00am and go right back to it.  But... We get Sundays off.  Woo hoo!

Okay... midnight and bus leaves at 8:00am tomorrow (and its a clusterf*** moving that many people in any direction).  Even though only 6 of us comprise our group, there are 112 trainees leaving tomorrow for different places.  Pretty exciting!!!

OMG... We just spent 45 minutes learning how to shit in a hole...

Well... Life hasn't gotten an slower!  I do more in a day than I used to do in a week!  Lots of language learning, learning about cultural differences, safety and security, food and health, etc., etc.  

But had Sunday off (did I blog this already; losing track of time?) and my roommates are surf rats, and so we went to the beach and they rented boards and suits and hit the bHr (beach).  The muja (waves) were overhead and up to 8 feet (kbira bzef is very big), and they had a ball.  I hung with a couple of female volunteers and we walked the pier and the beach.  (Really sucking it up in the Peace Corps, eh?).  Then we went to the Medina and the Casbah and walked around and had lunch.  [I'll post a few pics if I can figure out how to do it.]

We leave in 36 hours for our "10 week" sites, where we'll spend... yep; 10 weeks with a host family, and continue our training, the idea being that we'll be in groups of 5 or 6 and "on location" so we'll learn in a natural setting rather than strictly a classroom.  I'm going to  the Azrou region and staying in Ifrane, which is supposed to be off the hook.  It is one the wealthiest area in Morocco, and I guess, pretty swanky.  There is a private American University and the King's summer home is there, so it sounds pretty nice.  Of course, my permanent site (after the 10 weeks) will be some village of 25 people in the middle of nowhere :)  Actually, I have no idea where I'll end up, but we do get input on that topic.

There are towns and urban centers, close to the ocean and far away, cold, mountainous regions and hot desert regions, so I'm trying to figure out what's important to me.

One interesting thing I learned is that once I go to my permanent site, I will be working/running the "dar chabab" in my area (wherever that is).  That's the youth center in my area (and of course, every PCV is going to an area that has a dar chabab, because that's what we do :)  ...anyway...  I knew that part.  What's interesting is that I figured I showed up there and started teaching English.  The reality is that I show up and there might be absolutely nothing going on vis-a-vis any organized activities, and it is up to me to "integrate myself" into the community and start not only English classes (if that's what I determine might be helpful), but also any other activities that I feel might serve the youth of the community.  I am "the man" when it comes to deciding what my community needs, and how to service those needs.  Pretty heady stuff!

...I'm so glad I spent a bunch of time getting up to speed on my Darija (Moroccan Arabic) because it goes pretty fast, and I know I would be struggling if I was learning it for the first time (I found the PC Moroccan text book online and had learned it cover to cover before I got here).  On the other hand, I had butchered the pronunciation when I repeated the words to myself, because I had no one to talk to , and now I have as much problem as everyone else actually communicating, because of no practice.

Alright... One of the PCT's (trainees) is organizing a Chinese dinner, so I'm heading out. Last night, one of the hospitality guys at the hotel took us to a swanky restaurant in the posh area of Rabat and we had a beer (which we're not supposed to do)  Damn that was good!  Don't tell!

Catch you soon.

Ambassador to Morocco addressing the PCV's

Bussin' to Rabat

My roomies

Nightlife in Rabat

Our "9 days in Rabat" hotel

The palatial suite

Ryan performing to the PCV masses at the airport

Our cyber-cafe

view from the hotel room 

Well… lots of news, but no Internet, so here I type in Word, but it won’t post until I finally get a connection.  There is WiFi at the hotel, but it seems that if more than a half dozen people try to get on at the same time, it overloads and so no one can use it.  …so this morning, I got up at 5:00am in hopes of being one of the first, but alas, the Internet is actually down, so no luck again.

Since last I posted, much has happened.  Meeting in Philadelphia was interesting.  We spent Sunday in orientation, and even though it was a little dorky (skits and other goofy interactive activities), it was successful in that we got to know each other quite well in a single day.

There were 120 of us, but by the evening before orientation, we were down to 114, and then at the time of orientation, we were down to 113.  I’m assuming people freaked at the last minute and just didn’t show up (and perhaps in one case, showed up and skidaddled at the last minute).

We all woke up to a fire alarm the EARLY morning after orientation, but the scuttlebutt was that the PC was behind it, making sure everyone got up in time to get packed and catch the bus to New York.  In any event, it was successful, and all 113 of us piled onto 3 busses and headed to JFK to catch our evening flight to Casa Blanca.  Traffic was light and we got to JFK about 6 hours before our flight.  Woohoo… another hurry up and wait experience.

…but all went well (my bags weighed under the limit), and off we went at 6:45 am, non-stop to Casa Blanca, Morocco!!!  No one really slept on the plane (too energized) and so we were all up a good 24 hours by the time we landed.  …but no rest for the wicked, so we went through customs and boarded 3 more busses to Rabat.  Two hours later, we were in the capital, and unloading our stuff into a pretty decent hotel (5 star by Moroccan standards). 

My room?  Picture the smallest hotel room you’ve ever been in, halve it, and then put 3 twin beds in there, two other “roommates” and all 3 of us with enough baggage to last us 27 months.  Slave ships had more room!  But my roommates are cool, we packed crap in every nook and cranny, and are functioning just fine.

Of course, now everyone has been up close to 30 hours, but again, no rest, as our first day of training begins!  That first day was mostly administrative (paperwork, meeting our Moroccan staff, getting shots, etc.), but it still went all day, with dinner at 7:30.  EVERYONE, was in bed by 9:00 (some even skipping dinner to go to bed early), which was 5:00pm New York time and 2:00pm San Diego time.  …so I think we were up about 36 hours!

The next day (which was yesterday, I think, which was Wednesday, I think) was awesome, with everyone rested.  We started language training, and spent the day in our newly divided groups, with each group assigned to a different hub in the “sticks” surrounding Rabat, where we’ll begin our “CBT” (community-based training) in sub-groups of 5 or 6, when we’re finished with our “9 Days in Rabat.” My group is assigned to Azrou, which is in the lower Atlas mountains, and so still pretty cold this time of year.

…but back to “Day 3 in Rabat.”  We’re full-on into the language training (although only a couple of hours a week), learning more about what we’ll be doing at CBT and at our permanent site at the conclusion of CBT (which lasts 10 weeks).  The idea seems to be that the 9 days in Rabat prepares us for our intensive CBT language and cultural training, which in turn prepares us for our permanent site (ie, where we’ll be for two years). 

Language training is a little slow, because I (unlike pretty much all my PSV’s) diligently spent hours learning Darija (Moroccan Arabic), and now I’m relearning what I already learned.  PSV’s by the way, are “pre-service volunteers” which are all of us until we get sworn in after CBT.   As you can see, acronyms are huge in the PC! J

But don’t get me wrong!  Its awesome and incredible to be living in Africa, for crying out loud.  …and the weather and scenery are absolutely awesome (being on the western Atlantic).

I can see I’m bouncing all over because I only got about 4 hours of sleep, and people are slowing filing past, to breakfast.  …so I will go join them and begin another action-packed day!  Bsalama!

…now it’s the next day, and still no Internet.  …and I was wrong on the day I thought it was above. It was Thursday, not Friday, and today is Saturday (I’m pretty sure).

I went to the Cyber-café across the street from the hotel, because of the wi-fi problems at the hotel, but of course, the Internet isn’t working here as well.  …I skipped my lunch in order to try to connect, so a disappointment,  but it is certainly helping me get used to the fact that I can’t count on being technologically connected all the time.

Its been busy as hell, with every day starting at 7:30 and ending at about 9:00 (although there is a break from 5:30 until dinner at 7:00.  We went for a run yesterday, in groups, and ended up at the Medina (the old, walled part of the city) which is next to the beach.  Both my roommates are HUGE surfers and so are stoked because the surf in Morocco is supposed to be awesome.

Speaking of roommates, both Ryan and Lee are AWESOME!  Hopefully, I post a picture of our room, which is the size of a small dorm room, with 3 beds separated by about 3 inches.  With all our luggage, it is funny as hell to even try to move around.  We say where we want to go in the room so the others can climb on the bed or back out into the hall!

My roommates are just generally awesome, but an example was yesterday.  We walked over to a little park after our run and there were a bunch of boys (of course, girls can’t be outside) of varying ages hanging out with a soccer ball.  We ended up getting up a game and had a riot.  I somehow forgot I was an old man (actually, the field was rife with potholes, etc.) and I went down on my knee and thought I blew out my ACL (still limping, but am more optimistic than yesterday).  My boys helped support me back to the louteel (hotel) and Lee ended up taking a taxi over a mile to get me a bag of ice (and we have NO idea how to get around in taxis, so he braved all kinds of potential craziness to accomplish that).  …so I laid on my bed watching “Arab Idol” (hugely funny) and Ryan brought me up a big plate of food from the restaurant (which is down 7 flights of stairs, and then up another flight of stairs).

…went over Lesson Planning today, and heard from some current volunteers on their experiences when they first arrived at their permanent site.  Pretty interesting in that pretty much everyone said/says that we just arrive there and talk to the people about what they might want to see happen or get accomplished, and we wing it from there.  Some/most sites have “Dar Chababs” (youth centers) where teaching does in fact occur, but the students also have English instruction at their traditional school, so I might focus on “after-school” help, teach areas more interesting but not covered in their traditional classroom, focus on sports, or a myriad of other, non-traditional community activities.  The idea is truly “community development” that is so much broader than simply teaching English to children. 

…okay.  Maybe I can still steal a bite of lunch before I resume my instruction.  Plus, everybody in this cyber-café is smoking and I’m dying!

I’m already sorry this is so long!  I don’t know when I will get a chance to post it!

Philly!  Arrived at about 10:30 and met my roommate, Ryan, who is a recent graduate of Fordham University, and a pretty awesome guy.  He brought about 1/10 of the crap I did, and I'm already feeling that I brought WAY too much stuff.  Whatever, right?  Its 1/2 way here now.

I arrived late, so haven't met but a couple of PCV's, but tomorrow at noon, all 114 are meeting in one of the hotel conference rooms for "staging" (there were 120 but rumor has it that 6 already dropped out).

Energy and anticipation are high, and I'm excited to get started tomorrow.