My tutor and her husband in my living room. Last week I broke down and cried because I was so frustrated with trying to learn the language. She is a gem...she hugged me and gave me lots of encouragement. I have become a firm believer in the requirement of foreign langauge before our students graduate from high school. I think it requires different learning techniques or brain cells that aren't otherwise used? And, it is just good to learn another country's language and culture.

Last weekend the neddy had an exposition, where they put up a big tent outside and showed many of their products for sale. An environment association also had an exhibition booth, as did a local book store. The event lasted four days, ending on Saturday, when three vans of "white" tourists pulled over on the highway and headed down the little hill towards the neddy. At that time, the high school students were doing plays out on a big stage, and there were many local people there to watch, as well as be present for the "diplom" ceremony later where many of the women/girls received certificates for their work accomplished at the neddy. I went over and spoke to the guide of the vans and discovered they were all Americans (a surprise, as most tourists are French) and invited them to come down and shop. That was a fun deal, they were very surprised to meet me, and did buy a few things! There are many things that my neddy (as well as many others in Morocco) need to learn about marketing, but then, that is why I am there! But it is walking a fine and delicate line, because cleanliness and quality of product are among the issues, and it is quite diffcult to deliver constructive criticism, however diplomatically! Here is a photo of three of the women at the neddy. The one in the middle is very short, is about 32 and gives me a hard time. It is fun to tease her back and forth, and I tell her she acts like one of my daughters!



Some of you have asked about what this area thinks of US politics/world position, etc. That is quite easy to address. I have yet to meet anyone who has positive thoughts about the American president, which is putting it nicely. Luckily, they don't equate the entire US or Peace Corps with the same feelings they have about our forceful presence in Muslim countries. I refuse to talk politics or religion with any host country nationals...even if the speak very good English and would not misunderstand me. It's just not a very wise thing to do.

Time for more pictures. Here is a tea party on top of a hill near my town, with my tutor, her mother, her teacher friend, and the farm lady who took us up on her land. She picked weeds from the wheat fields (to later feed to the donkey/mules) while we drank tea and ate cookies/pastries.

Finally! I am back at my friend's house again and able to blog. Don't know what the deal is with the cybers outside of Marrakech, but have been unable to get on to blog there, although emailing has worked fine. Here's a couple of photos from my roof. My landlord has kind of a little hardware store and also makes bricks. This guy works for him. He probably weighs 100 pounds soaking wet, which he is a lot, as he works very hard making gravel, and making concrete bricks. The other photo is just one of my most excellent views.

What's new? Cuckoo birds! Hear them while walking in the morning, loud and clear. This morning saw bright pink geraniums and purple iris along the road. Weather has really been transitionary...few days it was rather warm, nice at night, then it got much cooler. Need rain desperately, the gorgeous wheat fields are rapidly yellowing. Still wearing layers and fleece, but coolness is bearable. Flannel sheets and/or electric blanket certainly a must for next winter, now that I know better!

Have been doing some baking, with little success. Made peanut butter cookies an choc.chip cookes (made w/Hershey kisses sent to me for Valentine's day) and they were ok but not good like at home. Their margarine is different...more lardy, and difficult to cream w/sugar in the cool kitchen. Also made banana bread, but it was a low fat recipe I had in a P. C. cookbook, and again, not as good. So I think my Moroccan friends think I'm a pretty poor cook! Or that American food is not so great. Oh well...

I mentioned before how cheap produce was at the souqs, and of course when you have little income, it is pretty important if you can buy a kilo of something for a few cents cheaper at one vendor from another. But meat/poultry/dairy products as well as coffee are not cheap. So little of it is used/eaten. Most of the protein comes from beans/lentils, etc. I believe.

I do enjoy popcorn on a regular basis, (can woman live on popcorn alone?!)along w/diet coke, while I read no-brainer novels in the evenings. Have had tried to use my short wave radio, but since it mostly news, don't listen often. I do find that not being too entrenched in news is not all that bad. I have developed a new appreciation for world awareness through the Newsweek International magazine. Lots more on world politics, leadership etc than I focused on in America.

Have had a real downer of a week, but try to read motivational/inspirational things to get past the little incidents that get me depressed, and to continue to see the big picture. Sure will be happy when it's four months from now and I'll be home for a couple of weeks. Also, I will be in another site next week helping with a youth camp and that will be a great diversion and challenge! Look forward to that. It's quite far from where I live so will have a chance to see an entire different area of this country.

I just learned a dear friend in Billings died, and am glad I have a few friends here who I can find comfort from. It is so important to be able to connect with other volunteers!

Here's my Alchemist quote today: "The future belongs to God, and it is only He who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And if you improve upon the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity."

Strike! I came into my cyber town yesterday for my usual Wednesday outing, and went to the taxi area to go home at 3 p.m. (I have a 4:00 English class I teach at the neddy) and there weren't any taxis to be seen. After a half hour, I realized something was up, and got a text message from my tutor that there was a national taxi and bus strike going on. I knew my friend who lives here was gone to Rabat for a meeting, so I texted her and got the ok to stay at her place. I spent much of the night catching up on emails, reading online, skyped with my daughter Marci in Chicago, did not sleep much. Funny how home is home no matter where you live. It was nice to be able to use the internet a lot, but like my own little nest. If the strike isn't over with this morning, I can likely catch a transit back. That is a large ugly old van in which they pack about 10-20 people. Yes, transporation here is quite an adventure. That's a nice term for it. Like saying, "yes, she/he/that was very 'interesting'."

I am sure I have mentioned before that living here is like camping out. I get a real shower about twice a month, when I go to Marrakech or other cities. Otherwise it is a bucket bath in my house...which means heating up a kettle and/or pan of water to boiling stage, add cold water to it in a big bucket, and that's it! I don't know how women with long hair manage, having enough water to rinse it well when they bathe. Hair only gets washed every 5 or so days at this point in time. When the weather gets hot, I'm sure the bucket baths with cool water will be welcome and often. But it hasn't been warm enough in the house yet for that to happen, although it is warm enough at times to go around slightly clothed. That's the thing I think I miss more than anything...the ability to control inside temperatures. Most towns have a hammam, or public bath, but there is none in my town, which is very unusual. Quite a few people have their own little hut/room where they build a fire underneath for the hot water and create the steam room, in which they sit and scrub on their body for 30-120 minutes straight. I'm not lying. My counterpart (mentor) has one at her house which I used when staying with her son for two months, but it was quite small, and I guess I like my own bucket bathing just as well.

Many people in my area also speak "Berber" which is the language of the rural people. Moroccan Arabic is not like regular Arabic. It is called Darija, and that is the language I am trying to learn. Then there are three dialects besides which are quite different from Darija. One of them is Tashelheit which is spoken in my area. So even when I learn Darija, some of the peopl in the surrounding villages may not be able to understand. However, most do speak both. Children who go to school begin learning the Arabic language/alphabet and French in the first grade. But many current adults did not go to school when that was in the curriculum.

Speaking of schools, my tutor is an English teacher in the high school and started in October. She has yet to be paid. So if we think our government/school systems are full of red tape...! She is very happy to receive compensation from me for her tutoring, I think!

Am I in Montana?! Shut my eyes yesterday/last night/this morning and thought perhaps I was in Gt. Falls or Livingston, MT...the wind was blowing heartily! So, like often in MT, all that good moisture we got in Feb. is getting dried up. Hopefully, the wind will blow in some more rain. I understand that in the summer months, along with extended 120 degree (F) heat, there is lots of wind. Sounds delightful. :(wh Am glad that for at least two weeks of that time I'll be home in much cooler weather conditions. But it is quite gorgeous here now. Wheat fields are lush green along the hill sides...wild flowers in bloom.

Just love getting mail and care packages...but even if your postal people tell you it will only take 5-7 days to get here...which may be true of how long it takes mail to reach Morocco, but I seldom get anything in less than 3 weeks. Don't know where it goes once it gets to the country, but it takes awhile to get to my post office. Also, they usually open and inspect boxes, and opened a bubble envelope I just got from a cousin in CA. They put a special tape over where they have sliced it opened so you know they've been in it.

I get to help with a youth camp the first week of April in a town near the Algerian border. My volunteer friend from WY who works in youth development has asked me to assist. It's school spring break and more Moroccan kids are turning out for it than they had planned. I think the word is getting out on what a great time it is. So am looking forward to that experience and diversion.

I guess the honeymoon is over. I've been suffering from a bit of depression and homesickness...friends ill, my aches and pains seem more pronounced, am missing my family, struggling w/language. There are still more peaks than valleys, but as warned by the Peace Corps staff, some days I wonder if they (the people in my village) really care if I'm here, and if I will be able to make a difference. I know that they do care and I am doing positive things, but as I said, the honeymoon is over. However, I am still glad to be here!

Here's the Alchemist quote for the day, and this one is especially for my friend Martha who faithfully sends a long snail mail letter every month. "We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same Hand."

OK, so I lied!! The souk I went to last week in my town probably had 50 produce vendors, not 20! The number had increased but I know there were more than 20 last time when I reported about 20. Innocent mistake. There are also butchers there, specializing in sheep, beef, or chickens. Only one type of meat per butcher. And fish vendors. And vendors with plastic ware/ hardware stuff, clothing, etc.

My tutor, who is a true delight, found some asparagus as she was walking to school one day, so we went on the lookout for it. It grows in the new growth of bramble bushes, for lack of a better name, and its stalk is quite similar, so you have to really have an eagle eye to see the asparagus spear. We found enough for a good serving each. Most people around here are unaware that it is rather a delicacy and think we're a bit weird for relishing it. My tutor, her mother, her teacher friend, and a neighbor and I walked up in the hills in the afternoon for a tea party. It was a beautiful view, lovely walk, and just a neat deal. Will try to post some picture of it soon. My tutor's husband is a potato farmer who lives between Rabat and Casablanca, and she is very lonely for him, of course. I think we are both glad to have found each other, not only as student/teacher, but for friendship as well.

Oh, we also had a lunar eclipse a week ago. It wasn't totally black, but kind of reddish. Occurred Sat. night about 11 p.m. Usually am much asleep by then, but my houseguest(PCV from WY) knew about it so we got to watch it occur. Pretty neat deal!

Hi friends and family! Yes, I am OK! Have had a lot of problems getting on the blogger at the cyber the past couple of weeks, but today success at a friend's house, so you can now see some pictures as well as a bit of info.

I have two friends that I worked with in the insurance industry who are fighting some pretty serious health issues; I asked your prayers for them: Bill and Cecilia. They are both very special to me and I am much saddened by the challenges they face.

I do a lot of reading, as I don't have a DVD player or TV. I do get International Newsweek gratis as a PC volunteer, and subsribe to several other small monthlies that my sister sends me. One noticeable difference of lifestyles in the homes here in rural Morocco...no one reads! Really. Not adults, nor children. Sad, but true!


Another book recommendation: "Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. It's about Afghanistan, during the Russian takeover and subsequent Taliban rule. It's very moving.

Here's the "Alchemist" quote of the day: "He still had some doubts about the decision he had made. But he was able to understand one thing: making a decision is only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, diving into a strong current will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

Here's the souk in my little town! A picture from the highway, of the area where the souk is held, when it is both empty and when it is full. Then one photo of a couple of vendors vegetables laid out. There are probably about only 20 or so produce vendors at my souk; in my cyber town, which is small but still a lot bigger than my town, there are probably 50.

Here's what I bought for 18DH (about $2) last week. A kilo is about 2#. I got a kilo each of: beets, parsnips, carrots, beans, zuccini, cabbage, and 1/2 k onion. I boiled up some parsnips, carrots, beans, zucc, cabbage, coriander, parsley, then put it in a blender, pureed it, and have been eating on it for several days. Pretty tasty, healthy, and easy. Use a pressure cooker; the Moroccan's answer to microwave. There are the richer people that do have all the conveniences we have, but not out here in the boonies, for sure. A few other prices: for about $1 I can get a couple pounds of apples or bananas...they are the more expensive fruit. Oranges are about $.50 for a couple of pounds. Other than the canned tuna/sardines I buy, hardly anything I eat has preservatives, except of course the goodies I receive from America!

Well, it has been a real problem getting on to blogger the past few weeks at the cyber, and finally today I am at another vounteer's house and using her computer and am able to get on. So here are some photos of my place. The first are of my bedroom; my "closet" and "bureau" are on one end, and that window opens up into the salon in front, which is the living room.
Ponjs are used everywhere in Morocco as furniture. They can be made of various materials, some sit on frames where folks have more money to buy frames, or on the floor. Two of mine are foam rubber, one high and one short, and another little one is of stuffing of some sort. Then you buy covers for them, as well as for pillows that serve as back rests. The bookcase/desk is actually an old china cupboard I bought at a used furniture souk in Marrakech but works well. Just hope that sometime soon we can get internet in town. A British man who is an engineer and works for a French NGO moved to my town recently with his wife who is an American doctor. They have two little girls, and he primarily works to help rural people have/get clean drinking water. He is pretty insistent on getting DSL into his house, so hopefully his presence will expedite that event!


But with my floor covering and table lamp on the end table, it's a very comfortable room. I do use the computer to play some card games, am kind of writing a little autobiography deal, and also do some p.c. work on it which i know will expand as my work does, and it's nice to have a printer as well. Again, if you click on the pictures, you can get more detail, and can see my grandson's fine works of art on the salon windows!