My village is very small, as I said, and housing is limited. After living with my host family for a little over 2 months I will be allowed to move into my own house. The previous volunteers rented the only avialable 'house' in the village, but the landlord has decided not to rent to Peace Corps anymore. The village is near the waterfalls and frequented by tourists. The landlord, rightfully so, wants to rent for more money to tourist. One of my biggest accomplishments last week was explaining the situation to my host father and asking him to help me look for another house. My host dad understood me (yeah!) and told me he would look. A few days later my host dad was trying to tell me something about a house for me but I couldn't really understand him and I thought he was saying he had found a place. I asked if we could go look at it and he said nshalla, which means god willing. I was a little confused but figured it would work itself out. I would see the place eventually. So the next morning after breakfast my host mom had me look out the window where my host dad and another man were working and told me that they are going to build me a house! My host father couldn't find anything else so they decided to build a place on the other side of the path...for me! I was so suprised.
So.... I will now have the opportunity to watch a house be built in the bled. The 'road' into the village is very bad and basically any builing materials must be brought in by donkey. So cinder blocks are out of the question. My house will be constructed of mud, in the traditional fassion, like all the other houses in the village.
This is a picture of the first segments of wall being built. The first few days was digging and hauling water, by donkey, from the spring to start making mud. Two days ago the action really started. The set up two pieces of wood, that resemble doors, put large rocks in the bottom, and then fill it with mud. Its not soupy mud, really more like wet dirt, and then pound it down. Yesterday they completed 4 segments. I thought this picture was funny because it is so similar to construction sites in the US. One guy working really hard and four guys watching him. The other guys were actually working too, but this is just how it looks in the picture.On a side note, did you know that there is a place in Morocco called Timbuctoo?! No joke. You can take a desert tour there from Marakesh. Maybe I'll get the opportunity to visit while I'm here.
This is is a picture of my village from the roof of my host families house. Because the village is on the side of the mountian space is pretty tight and there is basically no unused land. In drawing my map of the community there are just a handful of large house areas, which are really several houses. But its very difficult to tell where one house ends and another begins.Only a few other things worth noting this week. I officially began my tutoring, and am now fluent... not really but hopefully one day. Also, on Sunday I happend to run into some very important people and got invited to have lunch with them. Now I didnt really have much to contribute, since I can't speak arabic (and prob won't since I'm learing berber) but I got to meet them. They invited me to participate in a festival they are planning and even if that doesn't work out I will hopefully have the chance to work with them at another time during my two years here.
Guess thats all for now. I hope you are all doing well and planning thoes summer vacations. Talk to you all in a week.
