The countdown has begun.... Sites were announced last week and everyone had a chance to visit. Now we are all counting down the days until we can retun and get to work! I can reach my site with one full day travel from most major cities in Morocco, and have easy access to Marakesh. As luck would have it, I was assigned to the same site as I visited for my field trip. The scenery is beautiful and I am excited about the many project possibilities. You are all welcome to visit anytime.
Since I am replacing a volunteer the groundwork has been laid and I can get right to work. The community has worked with two previous volunteers and is well aware of the peace corps and our goals. There are a few projects in the works that I will be finishing in addition to new projects . Peace Coprs Morocco, in an effort to encourage sustainability, tries to follow a three volunteer cycle for communities
. The first volunteer introduces the community to the program and really lays the foundation for volunteers to come. The second volunteer works on projects identified by the program and the community, and the third continues more of the same. The third volunteer is also responsible for follow up and evaluation of previous projects. Were they sustainable? Has the community gained and does it continue to grow due to the project? And lmst importantly, will the projects be continued once Peace Corps leaves the village? I am excited to follow two great volunteers and hope to start working on projects right away, with the help of a translator of course.
The language continues to be a challenge, but not an unforeseen one. There is actually a written script for Berber , the name escapes me at the moment, but it is rarely used and not widely known. Because of this, the the language varries greatly between regions, and even between villages. My town is in the area where two recognized dialects intermix and as a result the language is mixed. While I have been learning tamazirt, my village uses many words form the tashlahet dialect. And nearby villages with health volunteers speak tashlahet. I know, probably more information than you all care to know, but now you do!
We have one more week at CBT and about a week at seminar then we are off! We have a big ceromony on May 19th where we swear in an become real volunteers. Up until that point I am simply a trainee. I will be glad to get to my site for many reasons, but the one most obvious to me now.... to get away from the heat! You all know i can gret cranky when hot, and its hot. Very hot.
The computers are especially slow today, so no pictures, sorry. Also, many of you have asked about posting comments on my blog. I turned them off when I got a weird one the first week or so, but i will loook into adjusting the setting. I think I may be able to set it to only recognized email addresses. Sarah, can you look into that for me???? Thanks tech support :-)
Thats all for now. Im going to try and find some shade an a breeze. Talk to you all in about a week. Hope everything is going well back at home!
