August 22, 2001
First things first, if any of you get tired of hearing about Morocco, or just tired of hearing from me, send me an email and I will take you off the list (and maybe not even be offended!). Also, due in large part to Morocco's colonial history, I am typing this on a French keyboard and many, though not all, of the keys are in the "wrong" position, including the a, w, and m, as well as all of the punctuation marks, so if there are any huge errors I apologize in advance.
Life here is pretty good, well at least for me. The flowers are huge and beautiful and the fresh fruits and vegetables are plentiful. The most difficult aspect at this point is probably school (homesickness not withstanding). We're in class by 8 am with 1/2 hour for Arabic script, 8:30-10:15 for language which is taught in the conversation style (not really the way I learn), 10:30-12:15 for technical training or administrative stuff, 1:45-3:15 for language again, and then 3:30-5 for cross cultural training or health sessions. Peace Corps is incredibly thorough and has meticulously planned the entire training period. We are currently in our first home stay (there will be three in all). My family is very nice, but extremely Western so Meredith (my roommate) and I aren't really getting the "traditional" Moroccan experience. They don't eat with their hands, have a flush toilet (which was very useful on Sunday when I was ill) and a shower. They also don't seem to serve very many traditional dishes. So far we've had pasta, homemade pizza, a really good creamed potato soup and some sort of rice dish. Meredith is a vegetarian and they know I don't like seafood, so I'm sure we're not the easiest people to cook for, but they seem very good about it. My only real complaint is that we're their third set of PCVs (Peace Corps volunteers) and they have the American concept of space and privacy down a little too well.
Rabat itself is very European. There are people in all sorts of dress style, including women in "provocative" clothing, which we were strictly told to avoid. Most of what we learn in cross cultural class isn't even really applicable in Rabat or Casablanca (which I found out, is a corruption of Spanish for "white house"). It will all come in extremely useful in the bled, though.
Everyone (all the volunteers) is in the process of getting sick (really intense stomach cramps) and going through the required breakdown. I had mine on Monday and was lucky enough for it to be in public. (Actually it was during a safely lecture within my "sector" which is health.) No one has left yet, and at this point it doesn't look as though anyone will, although last year there were 93 trainees (there are 80 of us now) and now there are only 59 from that group. Sorry, that all probably sounds really pessimistic, but we're all really interested! No one wants it to happen to them.
I can't really think of anything else that you all might be dying to know so I'll sign off. Internet cafes are all over the place here, and even in Azilal, my next site starting Sept. 1, I should have very regular access, so if you, feel free to send messages.
I miss you all! Hope all is going well for everyone.
