Moving on to Azrou

So far Rabat has been really fun, exhausting of course, but it's been so great to hang out and get to know the other volunteers. I am sad to be seperated from the Youth Development (YD) sector in Azrou for training, but I am sure we will find ways to meet up within the next 2 years. It is hard to believe it has been a week already since flying to Philadelphia and arriving in Rabat.

For the past 2 days we have been free to wonder the city, visiting the Medina (market area) has been really cool as well as wondering a little of the streets and seeing all the stores. So far I am falling in love with Morocco and am very excited to be heading on to Azrou and beginning my language training. I am hoping to learn Darija, but there is a good chance I will be learning the Berber language as nearly 40% of us will be placed in Berber villages. I did learn that Berber has an acient writing system that is being re-taught in schools which is really cool.

I like walking down the street and seeing the arabian women in their headscarves and long djebellahs. I hope to have the opportunity to purchase one soon in Azrou. So far the food in the hotel has been very good. Out teachers have been very kind and wonderful as well. I hope to post photos soon. I am unsure how much connection to internet I will have in Azrou, but the free wireless in our Rabat hotel has been amazing.

I packed for Azrou earlier this evening and the zipper on my large suitcase is already defective, haha. Good news is I can zip it all the way as long as I don't use a single zipper to do so. I am also very thankful for my hiking backpack, so far it has been awesome. Everyone recognizes my matching brown and pink luggage as well, :). I am of course already thinking of what could have been left behind (very few things) and what I will want to be sent to me in care packages. Books are very expenseive here (at least the ones in french were and english is very difficult to find). It will definitely be nice to settle down in one place for awhile so I can stop living out of my suitcase. For the next 2 months we will be moving between Azrou, our training village where we stay with host families, and other field trip areas.

Next time I write I will have more stories of another city, :). And hopefully we will have played more moroccan poker and moroccan 31, haha. Basically moroccan poker is chinese poker in which we say all the numbers in moroccan darija, same thing that makes moroccan 31 moroccan. It has been an amazing way to learn numbers and other random phrases.

Well, I shall write more another time! Bslama!