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!