...went to Azrou today with my class (Azrou is a larger town about 15 km away).  I got a chance to hang with Ryan, Bre, and a few other buds).  Azrou is our "hub" which means our sub-groups all meet there every so often to cover various cultural and other matters.  We had our "sex talk" which dealt with safe-sex issues, including a pretty sobering video of five former PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) who contracted AIDS while in service.  ...glad I don't do that anymore!

There was also an interesting talk from current volunteers on various harassment issues, including race, gender, sexual preference, etc.  For some reason, I guess Americans of Asian descent get the greatest amount of comments/harassment.  The gal who spoke on that was pretty funny.  She said she traveled something like 16 hours from her site in the south to come up to Azrou and speak to us (although she probably was happy as hell to get the break).

Ryan (Buckley, not Becker, in case there was any confusion), might come up to Ifrane this weekend, and we might have to Hshuma a little bit. "Hshuma" means "shame" or "shame on you," but is used, by us anyway, to include any number of things we're not supposed to do, which is pretty much everything.  For example, Nikki, one of my site mates, had a small rip on the knee of her pants that might possibly show a little skin if it somehow opened.  Her host mother saw her getting ready to leave the house and she yelled "Hshuma, Hshuma," and made her go up and change her pants.  We're not allowed to drink beer while we are in training so that would be Hshuma also, if you're reading between the lines.

...family just got home, so gotta run!