Tuesday was a Long Day

Amazing, 2 updates in 2 days, :P. So... My plan yesterday was to drop off my laptop to have all the information transferred to my external harddrive (much thanks to my friend john for bringing it to me), to call the Apple store in Casablanca and walk to Marjane. Well, life wasn't so simple as that for me, of course.

First...the info from My Documents transferred just fine within an hour, hymdullah, but he was unable to transfer the documents on my desktop. But he explained he would try using a different operating system and I was to stop by tomorrow (which is now today). Then I called the Casa Apple Store. Mushkil (problem) 1: they were out of MacBooks and would not get another shipment in for 2 weeks and were unable to give me an idea of price. Mushkil 2: the laptop would be French manufactured meaning parts may or not be available in America. Of course this was upsetting to me as this was my plan of attack considering price and quality of PC's here. So I decide to walk to Marjane to cool off and think. Several friends received uninspiring texts from me which I have now apoligized for being so crazy. Well... I started my trek by the beach, but went a mile in the wrong direction. So I backtracked and then walked about another mile further and started following signs which said "Marjane" and pointing me in the correct direction. Or so I thought. Well, I started on the wrong side of the road and then ended up having to go down to a lower road and in completely the wrong direction. So I gave up for the day as my feet were accumilating nice painful blisters from wearing my Chacos sans socks. And of course there were zero taxis the entire way back to my hotel. Hence to say I 'meandered' for about 5 hours. Definitely got my workout for the day! I finished my evening eating a Big Tasty from McDonalds and watching Jerry Maguire before reading part of a really great book I am currently making my way through called Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. If anyone has the ability to get their hands on a copy of this book, it is an amazing and awe inspiring story of how one man, Greg Mortenson, began a journey to gather funding in order to build a school in an impoverished village near K2 in Balistan Pakistan and is continueing to accumulate funding to continue building schools in this part of the world in an attempt to stop terrorism by allowing both boys and girls to attend non-extremist schools.

Now for today... I woke up fairly early, for me, and took a taxi to Marjane this time. Now I know the way there. Bought a few needed and desired items, checked out DVD player prices and then had lunch at my hotel before stopping at the computer technician's place who was getting my information for me. Turns out he had a chance to look at my computer, found the issue, fixed it, and now I have a working PC again. I was so shocked. He told me it would take him 2 weeks to look at it and it sounded unlikely he could fix it. Hence to say I am a very happy volunteer now, :).

Now this evening I plan to eat some delicious sushi and meander the medina for movies and TV series.

Also after starting Three Cups of Tea I am inspired afresh to help my village. As all of you who follow my blog know, I have been having trouble getting my women a building. Either there is a place and no money, or the option of possibly getting funding only to find out there is no longer a place. I plan to bug my commune to donate land and my delegate to allocate the funds and have a building built. Where there is a will there is a way.

May/June Shinanigans

So... In May we had our Regional meeting, was good. I had 4 of the new volunteers stay at my house that night and made really yummy buffalo chicken pizza. Otherwise not too much happened the rest of May. I had a wonderful 3 weeks in site where I relaxed and met with my counterpart/friend a few times to discuss building options. Currently no possibilities as of yet. Still trying. I rode my bike into Errachidia one day and hiked up a plateau about 6km out of Errachidia with a friend of mine. Was nice. Knee ached a few days afterwards, but it's getting stronger. Did really well and worked out for the last 2 weeks everyday in May and was even eating healthier, :). For those of who know me I know that sounds very shocking, :P.

Then at the end of May my laptop died, again. Same problem. Just stopped charging. Lasted 3 weeks after being "repaired". Memorial day weekend I went to Errachidia where we had a small BBQ prepared by 2 amazing cooks. Lots of food and all very delicious. Then the day after 2 of the same people who had stayed with me after the regional meeting asked if they could again as they were in town for a meeting, they had enjoyed my previous cooking, :). So made a very cheesey quiche and lemon bars.

Later on in June I tried to bike to a village 6km from me to help them with basic business skills for the new beef cattle cooperative. The wind that came up suddenly was terrible. I got about 5km before I had to give up and turn back home. There was visibility maybe a mile in any direction due to the dust and such strong winds I couldn't peddle forwards. The wind honestly pushed me the entire 5km back to my site without my need to peddle it was that strong. The road is almost completely flat. That was a fun adventure. I arrived home right before the rain hit.

Then the following weekend I visited some friends in the mountains. Was nice and cool and much needed. Ate really amazing food and had great company, :). After I arrived back home I relaxed and visited people. Then a couple saturdays ago I was finally able to visit the cow coop 6km from me. Was a really nice day. I taxied it this time and stayed for about 4hours. I saw their head of 12 bulls, discussed a few basic accounting terms and had really yummy couscous with 2 of the women and their family. They had rabbit as the meat. I must say it was the first time I have had the chance to eat rabbit. Before lunch I relaxed in their beautiful garden. They had grapevines overhead with date and pomegranite trees in the garden. They have a german shepard looking dog named Rocky who is afraid of water, haha. I also got to hold one of their cats, Mushid, for awhile. He was a very pretty, healthy tom cat. I really miss my cat that ran off, so it was nice. I never did manage to find a stray to take in. Most run away when you come near them. There are a few cats near my house that will randomly come in, but run away as soon as I try to go near them.

Currently I am on vacation. I stayed the night with a friend in Errachidia saturday night and we made steak with a red wine, onion and mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. So delicious. Sunday I traveled up to Khemisset to visit a friend for a couple days. Monday I went to Volubilus, near Meknes, on a day trip. Was amazing. I'll post photos as soon as I have a laptop to transfer them to. Then I went back to Khemisset where my friend and I made lemon/pepper marinated roasted chicken with a tomato/balsamic vinagarett salad and watermelon for dessert. Then today I traveled to Rabat and will be here for about 3 days before traveling onto Essaouaira for the Gnaoua music festival, then inchallah Tingrir for a day or two before making my way up the mountain near Riche for 4th of July celebrations at a volunteer's site. A very nice vacation and much needed. Errachidia is getting quite warm, but not too bad yet. Around 100F.

Also, my laptop died one last final time, lasted 3 days this time after the "repairs". Then the person tried to get to work over the course of 2 weeks with no luck. So I hope to travel to Casablanca tomorrow to visit the Mosque there as well as to purchase a new laptop. I have decided to purchase a MacBook. I hope all goes well. There are a few stores in Rabat I hope to look at as well. I was hoping my laptop would last a final 5 months, but unfortunately it will not, :(.

RIP faithful laptop.

Yay!

A friend of mine texted me today to let me know my laptop was done! So excited, :). I charged my internet USB and can now happily sit on my roof and surg the net, :). I went the past 18 months internetless, but it will be very nice to have in my final 6 months. A friend of mine visiting the states is also going to bring me back a 500GB external hard drive which will be very nice. Music, movies and shows take up some space and unfortunately I can only burn things onto 700MB CDs as I haven't found a DVD brand that works yet... Inchallah.

Otherwise this past weekend I did a lot of baking. Finally found a good white bread recipe that turned out well and made myself a nice turkey sandwich with some of the chedder cheese I'd made. Which by the way turned out ok. Taste is a bit off, but I am used to sharp chedder. It's also crumbly so a bit difficult to work with but makes a great pizza. Also found a very yummy cheesecake recipe that I really like so far. Just something basic that I can play around with. And of course my now infamous cheesecake dark chocolate brownies. Very yummy.

The grand thing about me now having daily access to internet, or nearly daily anyway, is that I will now be able to update my blog more often! Or, I will try anyway, haha.

No update on a building for my women yet, haven't had a chance to bug the delegate again. I am excited that we just received a bunch of new health and environment volunteers in the region, though it had increased our numbers significantly. Never dreamed I would be near so many other Americans during my service. It is nice to have other people to collaborate with, but it's also nice to just stay in site and be around my Moroccan friends. Though I haven't visited my host family in a long time and feel terrible about that. It's been a busy couple of months. I have every plan to see them tomorrow as well as my neighbor. She has invited me to tea so many times and I adore her. I hope to spend more time in site these next 6 months and get several projects up and away. Lots to do.

Been awhile...

So...I went to the health run in Midelt the weekend of May 1-2. I had a good time, lots of volunteers helping. Even had 3 of us volunteers from Iowa. I spent Sunday making shishkabobs for about 5 hours with 2 other volunteers and 2 moroccan women. My sinus infection had unfortunately returned full force so I went back home that night. I had a great night's sleep and awoke with a bit of a fever and was dizzy and out of it. So the plan was to watch movies and TV shows on my laptop all day. This happened for about 2 hours as at one point I swung my keyboard cord around my laptop, caught the back of it and it flopped onto the floor backwards off of it's stool, :(. At the time I just put it back up and it was still functioning fine, but what I didn't realize was that it has stopped charging...big mushkil (problem). I noticed this fact when the computer died while watching a movie. I checked the cord and outlet and electricity but alas it was something internal, :(. I took it to a cyber guy who fixes laptops and really hope he can fix it. I finally got wireless internet in my site and use my laptop for many things. Moroccans are very good at fixing electronics so I am hoping. I won't know until Monday.

Otherwise I had fun working at Spring Camp end of March/early April. Of course they wanted a wedding again this year and as I was the only female volunteer I was the one married off again, this time to a Moroccan. I have been to 0 weddings and in 2 now. Always the bride and never the bridesmaid, haha. Spring Camp was so much fun. Me and 9 other male volunteers from around the region. A good group. There were quite a few trouble maker campers, but some really sweet ones as well. I taught hand arts of course, :). We also did an American games night, an american movie night where we watched Wall-E, the Moroccan wedding, a talent show night and then final good byes night where they played a Moroccan game similar to Jeopardy. I also got very little sleep and began a sinus infection.

Then later on in April I went to Rabat for a warden conference where the wardens of each province meet and discuss what we would do in the case of an emergency or evacuation situation. Learned several useful things and had fun getting to know new people and enjoy some time in Rabat.

The day before the Midelt run my region had out going away party for those ending their service and returning home soon. Am very sad to see many of them leave. I have known the ones in my region for the last 18 months. I am excited to meet the new volunteers and they will be great, but life will be a little different without these familiar faces. It also marks my final 6 months mark of service. It feels like such a short amount of time considering I have been living in Morocco for the past 21 months.

Then these past couple of days I have been in Kalaat-Mgouna at the yearly rose festival attending a SIDA training of trainers (AIDS) and helping with a booth at the festival where Moroccans and volunteers are explaining different health information and what AIDS is. It has been a good couple of days. I am looking forward to returning to my site today for some rest and to do a few things with my site. I have been out of it for a bit of time now.

I need to speak with the Delegate again about getting land and a building built for my women. They are not able to share the elementary school anymore and there are no buildings currently available to buy or rent even if my women had the money which they don't to buy a building. The Artisana has funds to build a building for a cooperative if the community donates a piece of land, so that is the current direction I am trying to pursue. Inchallah.

Overall a busy month. Had internet in my house, well, on my roof, for about 3 days before I killed my lap top. Unfortunately all of my photos are on that, so I will be unable to share any until it is either fixed or I am able to retrieve the information off of the harddrive. I am hoping it can be fixed. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Photos

Here are some of the photos I was able to take with my semi-working camera:

Errachidia to Oaurzazate Bike Ride (End of February)

Looking back towards home. Bike Ride Day 1 (15km)

Traveling to Errachidia from site. Bike Ride Day 1 (15km)

Traveling to Errachidia. Bike Ride Day 1 (15km)

On the way to Tinjdad. Bike Ride Day 2 (80km)


On route to Tinjdad. Only 267km to go!

Then camera broke after this photo, :(

Errachidia Spring Camp (End of March/Early April)

Me and a camper


Me and several campers on final day

Our wonderful American volunteers minus 1


Yummy Friday couscous


Cheesemaking Workshop (February)

Testing the curd to see if it is ready to cut.

Cooking the cheese curds.

Draining the cheesecurds.

Draining the cheese curds.

This is how you drain the cheese curds, by hanging them from something.

Yummy sushi (cooked) that I made for a participant's birthday celebration.

And of course the birthday cake, :)

Cheese Making and Biking

This month started off really crazy with the GRE and my asthma testing. I finally returned to site and hung out for awhile and then held a cheese making workshop for volunteers around the area. One of my friends came down to lead the majority of it. Was a lot of fun. One night we held a birthday celebration for a fellow pcv. I made sushi and cheesecake. Was so yummy. The workshop was very successful. Every fellow SBD volunteer in the region were able to come for at least one day of the workshop as well as several YP and a few JICA volunteers. JIPCA is Japanese Peace Corps. They do many of the same things that we do and there are several in the area. We did several cheeses using materials found only here in Morocco. We made several cheeses, each day being about 6 hours of making one cheese or another. We did Neufchatel, Yogurt, Gouda, Monterey Jack, Cheese Curds, Yogurt Cheese, and Feta.

After the workshop we got paid for March and I finally had some extra dirhams to finally get a nice 2 gallon cheese making pot, wooden cutting board and a nice floor length mirror. Still a few things on the list, but little by little.

Went on an awesome bike ride this past weekend, :). There were several of us who took about 3 days to bike from Errahidia to Ouarzazate. It was amazing other than day 2. Day one we biked from Errachidia to Tinjdad, about 75km. It was a nice ride, a little windy here and there but overall not bad. Pollution was a bit much for my asthma, but the last 20km weren’t too bad. My camera stopped working though so the only photos I have are the ones my friends put on facebook. Day 2 we had planned to go all the way to Boulman Dades… Yeah. The wind was so strong, at one point I was peddling and barely moving. We got into Tingrir and decided to call it a day and then got the great idea to reverse our trip. So we took a taxi to Oaurzazate and biked from there to Skoura. Such a great idea, the wind was at our backs and so much nicer. Then on Day 3 we finished out our trip by going all the way to Tingrir and then taking a bus back to site. Final day was tough as I managed to pull a muscle near my near, made peddling painful, but feeling better. Stairs are still an issue but I don’t have too many of those in my site. Though, the trek from Bouleman Dades to Tingrir was us going into a headwind again, no luck on that piece of ground. Feeling in such great shape now and we’re hoping to do a second trek around May to the coast from Bouarfa. Still working out details but would be so much fun.

Currently just resting up from everything. Made a Chedder cheese and attempted to make a Mozzarella. Cheddar looks good, Mozzarella tastes fine but didn’t stretch like it was supposed to. I really do need citric acid to make that one. But going to try again with a few changes and see how it works out.

Flies are coming out. Annoying buggers. So that’s the current update. A pretty busy month for me, this one should be more relaxing. Just letting the knee heal up so I can start biking again. Been lounging in site visiting people I haven't had a chance to see in awhile and thinking up new projects to do with my women and on how I can help them get their own building.

GRE, Medical and Rabat

This month has only recently begun and yet so much seems to have happened. I was in site a few days and then I traveled up to Rabat via Azrou and Khemisset for the GRE. I studied as much as I could these past 2 weeks and hoped for the best. I was supposed to room and meet up with a friend and then she decided to cancel taking the GRE. The travel up was good though and ended up rooming with another friend so it all worked out. I stopped in Azrou on Wednesday night after a crazy morning of getting everything ready. I was able to meet many of the new business and youth development volunteers that just came in about 6 months ago. It was a good time and great to meet new people and see ones I’ve already met. It was very rainy though so all my clothes got damp. Then I stayed in Khemisset with a friend of mine the next night, always good to see CBT mates. Ate yummy pasta for dinner and pancakes for breakfast. Then I came up to Rabat on Friday and hung out with fellow volunteers also taking the test. Went to bed around 11pm, had planned to go to sleep earlier but you all know me and my night owl ways. Then woke up very early at 6am, took a shower and made my way to the test center. We then had to change locations due to construction or something. The first 2 writing sections I thought went well but then the verbal and math were more difficult than I thought they would be after all the pretests. I really hope that I did ok. That night was crazy, we celebrated and went to the German Institute, really good pizza. Unfortunately I wasn't able to eat and enjoy myself.

Then Sunday I just relaxed. I went to Marjane to get some desired items and just hung out downtown. Ate at a cheap burger place for lunch and had soup for dinner. Just a relaxing destress day.

Yesterday I had my asthma testing appointment and learned that I really do have asthma. It was interesting to breathe into the machine and took about 2 hours. Was a bit crazed. Went to Peace Corps headquarters in the morning to get all the info and was late in leaving for my appointment, then I ate a quick lunch at McDonalds before rushing back to headquarters to use internet and get reimbursed for my last medical trip and this one. Was very low on cash. With our new monthly payment system it is very difficult for me to afford to come up to Rabat now. Later that night I met up with some volunteers and ate at the German Institute, it was so yummy. Overall a good night. After dinner we all walked down to the beach and on the pier and watched the waves crash against it. Was so beautiful and nice to be near the ocean for a bit of time.

Woke up early this morning to have my lung xrays deciphered. All good, just need to be put on an inhaler. Only minor asthma. At least it wasn't my imagination, haha. They also think it may help with decreasing the ear pain, inchallah. So I had lunch at McDonalds again because it was quick then made my way back to headquarters.

Currently there is a transportation strike going on, so was glad to be able to get a ride to Azrou from a staff member. Going to check the bus schedule in the morning but really hope I am able to get back to my site tomorrow. So tired and just want to spend a few days recouperating back at home.

This weekend I will be cooking many chinese dishes to celebrate Chinese New Year, very excited, :). Then there is my cheese making workshop later this month and inchallah the 300km bike trip the final weekend. Another busy month ahead of me, but good. Haven't given up on trying to get my women their own building yet, still looking for ways to get funding.

Otherwise life is good, :).