Village Update

Been awhile since I updated this. Hmm…still not too much happening in the community at the moment. I went to the coop one Thursday afternoon and met a few more women, but have been unable to go to the coop yet again since then. I tried going a couple Thursday afternoons but school was still in session. One Sunday I had planned to go but the weather was terrible, rainy and windy, but the following Sunday I fought my way through the wind only to find it was closed. I greeted two women that were also there. I am hoping there will be women at the coop this Sunday. I had planned to work on interviewing all the women about their daily routines, what products they make, and what some of their goals are except everyone has been working out in the fields, so I have been unable to meet with any of the women this month. I met with my counterpart a few times and learned that they do have a treasurer. I tried to visit my friend Khadija, but she was still out in the fields. I am hoping next year to be able to help in the fields. It would have been a good idea this year as well except that between tutoring and random other meetings and things during the week, I have been unable to go out to the fields with any of my host family. This month has also been very crazy for me as I am trying to ready my house to move into it.

Today I had the experience of telling my current tutor that I had found a new tutor. I have been wanting a female tutor and I’ve also wanted to have one on one tutoring sessions. I have been sharing Tim’s tutor for the time being and I should have been completely honest and upfront with him about my search for a female tutor. So I told him today and paid him half for the month since I went to half the month’s lessons. Well, he suddenly brought up that I had not paid him for a previous lesson the earlier month and that I was supposed to have been paying him 400dh for the whole month up front. Well, he never told me any of this, otherwise I would have. I got very angry with him about the whole situation, especially when he began lecturing me on how I should be spending my tutoring allowance. I think I know a little bit about how to use my tutoring allowance. Hence to say that is now over and I will be tutoring with a female from now on.

So far I have painted my bedroom and bought a few things, I still have many things left to buy. My main needs before I move in are a table, stove, and heater. Heater very important as it is still fairly cold here at night. It’s been getting down into the low 30’s lately. Even though I don’t get snow, I tend to get the cold off of the mountains. The day tends to be very nice, but the night tends to be very very cold.

My host family made me pillows to match the ponge covers I am still working on sewing, J. When I visited a friend in Skoura, they offered to make my pillows for me which was awesome. So I have pillows now, J.

Been doing a fair amount of travelling as well. I went to Tinjdad this past weekend and hung out with some friends there. I discussed a few possible projects and about beginning to offer English lessons to women in my village soon. There are a few that the previous volunteer had begun teaching English to. Otherwise just hoping to meet more women once the olive harvesting season is over. Then I got to watch the inauguration speech of Obama with some other volunteers in a village near Riche. It was amazing. It was also really nice to hang out with other Americans for a bit.

Lately I feel my darija has been getting worse as I hide a bit more. I did really well at first and not sure what happened. Part of it is the cold and my ear. My ear has been causing me issues since I arrived in site. I will be making my 3rd trip to Rabat this next week to have it looked at again. It started out being completely clogged round 1, then only slightly clogged round 2, now it has pain. Hoping it’s nothing. But between the cold and fatigue and pain, I tend to sleep a bit more and hide out under my covers a lot. I would try to visit people more, but as they have all been out in the fields, so there have not very many people in site to visit. I should just braven up and go out to the fields and wander around. I’m sure to come across someone that I know or knows me. I also had the flu for a couple days last week, not fun. And just dealing with a lot in general at the moment. Having a bit of a friend situation at the moment, so stressing over that a lot. I just haven’t been very sociable lately.

So that’s life for me in Morocco at the moment. Just working on creating a schedule, getting my house ready and getting my ear sorted out.