Six months!

Six months ago today, I landed in Casablanca, along with sixty-seven (?) other trainees, all tired and confused and still not really sure what the hell youth development is. Six months seems like an appropriate time for reflection, so here goes.

Things I've learned in the last six months:

-If you smile and nod a lot, people will like you. They'll think you're an idiot, but they'll still like you.

-If you can't tell what're you eating, don't ask.

-It really is possible to have stuff coming out of you at both ends at the same time. 

-Even when there's nothing in your stomach, it's still possible to have diarrhea.

-Anyone under the age of 7 doesn't care that you don't speak their language. In fact, one of my best relationships in this country was with a 4-year-old who, for almost a month, didn't seem to notice that I don't speak Arabic.

-People here are insanely generous. Seriously. Like I can't sit down next to someone on a train without them offering me half a sandwich or walk by someone's house around kaskrut time without being offered some tea or bread. Also, ever since they found out I don't have an oven, my neighbors got together and worked out amongst themselves a schedule for who is supposed to bring me bread on a given day. 

-Winnie the Pooh lied. Donkeys are not adorable. They are awful and loud, and they get way too close to my house and then won't shut up.

-Apparently you can bargain with the electric company about your electric bill. (Still not sure I actually believe this one, but my neighbor swears it's true.)

-Everything really does happen little by little.

I've been having some Internet troubles, so I guess that's the end of my reflections. Later days!

Blah, blah, blah ...Girl Power!

Ever since we got back from Post Pre-Service Training, I've been trying to set a personal and professional goal for myself each week. This week's personal goal was to work on the blog. After all, getting this blog turned into a book/movie a la Julie and Julia is one of my potential roads to fame following the Peace Corps. Theoretically, my life in Morocco should be more interesting than stories about a woman learning how to dress a chicken and what-not, so I feel fairly confident that this blog will eventually be somehow transformed into a bestseller. Anyway, I bring up this whole blog thing so that you'll notice that I've added a list of things you can send me. I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life, but I'm sure sending things to a lonely, bored Peace Corps Volunteer is good karma. And before you complain that I haven't given you my address, it's on Facebook. Or you could just ask me. I'm online like all the time.

Anyhoo, on to an actual story. Today is International Women's Day, and though my plans to do a larger event for the day fell through (don't ask), I resolved that I would make today's English lesson be about IWD. As I so often do here, I walked in there thinking everything would be easy and people would be excited about whatever I'm talking about just because I'm excited about. Unfortunately, my English class is comprised of solely 15-year-old boys - perhaps the demographic group least likely to care about discussing International Women's Day. Getting them to read the short paragraph I had written was like pulling teeth. During a particularly frustrating 10 minutes, they pretended to be thoroughly confused by words which are cognates in French. "Yes, boys,  the English word 'access' is the same as the French word 'acces,' 'international' in English is 'international' in French, etc." And yet I consider today's class a success. While I doubt the boys will remember much of what we talked about today, they are, at least, aware that today is some sort of holiday for women. And what's more, we made it through a whole hour of class with no one making strange body sounds, which is a rare accomplishment. As they say here in Morocco, "chwiya b chwiya" (little by little).

I've never been good at wrapping up blog posts with some great philosophical statement (something I need to work on before I get my book deal.....) But I leave you with this thought today: I ate SO MANY French fries today, because I'm a woman and today is my holiday and I couldn't think of any other way to celebrate. And yeah, it was kinda a lame way to celebrate something, but it was also kinda an awesome lunch. I have no regrets.