Azrou

So far Azrou is going very well. We arrived on Friday afternoon. I was greeted by everyone in Darija...I had also just woken up, haha. We had an amazing lunch with couscous and the best melon ever. I have no idea what the english name is, but in Darija it is called Birir, or something very similar to that spelling. Then we had a meeting, then wandered the town until our 6:30pm curfew, had "breakfast" at 6:45pm, opted to stay in and then dinner was at 10pm. Due to Ramadan, they have a small breakfast at 6:45pm (after sun-down), then a large dinner at 10pm. I also absolutely love the hostel we are staying in, it is so beautiful and we have western toilets!

Yesterday we started learning Darija…brain overload! I learned many useful phrases and have much much more to learn. Last I walked into the main town (about 30 minutes) and successfully got my French mobile unlocked. We spent about 20 minutes going from shop keeper to shop keeper looking for someone who could unlock my phone. My French has come in very handy since I got here. Then me and a friend took a petit taxi back to the hostel, not too bad. Not too much crazier than any other driver in Europe. I plan on getting a Moroccan SIM card this evening so I can finally be contactable, :). I had learned a few phrases of Darija so that I could ask people about unlocking my phone and then we would lapse into French once my Darija had been tapped. We also learned how to handwash our laundry, the boys have much to learn, haha. Then I stayed up too late listening to some of our language teachers singing moroccan songs.



Today was our free day. At 8:30am I met up with 2 current volunteers and several of my fellow business development peers and we hiked up part of the Atlas mountains. It was so beautiful and a bit steep at times. At one point we had a misunderstanding with a sheep herdsman, but we finally understood. We saw many sheep and goats and a few donkeys. I also finally did my laundry today and checked out a "Cyber Cafe". The owner is the brother of one of our language trainers and very nice. So far all the Moroccans I have met have been very nice and understanding. Some even help teach me how to say things correctly, :). Doing laundry is very labor intensive here.



A bit of interesting information, Morocco is the first country to officially identify the US as a real country and our oldest trading partner. I have found Moroccans thus far to be a very welcoming people. I also love the sunshine! So far it seems to be forever sunny and I love it!