Well, as usuall lets begin this post with the weather. Everyone always likes to talk about the weather. Thankfully it cooled off for much of the week, it was only 105 to 110. I never thought that I would use the word only in relation to any temperature above 80, but I guess 120 has changed me. This is also prooven by the fact that when it got down to 80 in my room the other night I considered getting inside my sleeping bag, like it was chilly. Unfortunatly the past 3 days it has been heating up again and Im not looking forward to the hot breeze that awaits me at home. Everyone keeps telling me that I will be glad come winter because they'll be freezing and I'll be fine... I'm not sure... I think I'm going to miss the snow, but we'll see. 
The roof is complete on my house and it looks quite different now. I'm hoping I wont have the same problem with dirt falling from my ceiling because they put two layers of plastic. I think my current room has none. The day they spread the mud on the roof was quite a team effort. I awoke to 20 people in my house eating hirara, a traditional soup, and by lunch the roof was completly covered. Its pretty exciting but there is still alot of work to be done. The rest of the week was spent harvesting almonds and little elso was completed.
My fun of the week came completly unexpected and I unfortunatly have no pictures. But I finally went swimming in one of the pools below the falls! it was amazing. I had gone to town to talk to a few people regarding work and recieved a text message frrm a volunteer who was in town with some friends from america. We explored the falls and they wanted me to join them swimming. I happened to be wearing quick dry pants and shirt so I decided to go for it. It was quite amazing. Since there are so many pools to choose from we had one all to ourselves. The water was cold and refreshing, and I was dry within the hour. Im glad I took the opportunity and think I may do it again soon. I previously did not want to swim alone because I didnt want to be seen bearing so much skin alone. But since swimming in my clothes was so easy I might do that more often. I dont think anyone from my village would have considered what i was wearing indecent.
This is a picture of one the olive gove I walk thru on the path to town. Unfortunatly, I forgot my phone was in my pocket and it came swimming also. I bought the cheepest phone I could find knowing full well that I would likley break it but I didnt expect it to happen so soon. So I didnt have any access to the outside world for 2 days until I made it into town to buy a new one. I guess this is a good opportunity to discuss cell phones in Morocco. First I will say that while I did not expect to have a cell phone during my peace corps service, I absolutly appreciate it and dont know what I would do with out it. Most towns have teleboutiques which are basically buildings with a few payphones, but my village does not have one. We also have no landline telephone access, and without the phone I would be much more isolated. It can be very comforting to send text messages (because they are much cheaper) to other volunteers and know that they are struggling with the same things I am. One thing I do find incrediably interesting is the priority ranking of some items in my village. I know of families who have a cell phone and sattelite dish but no bathroom. This puzzles me, but I guess everyone has their own proprities. 
This is a picture of the entrance to the hymam and mosque (I think the dual entrance is unique to my village). In a discussion with the local development association I discovered that some houses do not have bathrooms as a matter of geography. As Ive said before the village is built on the side of the mountain and directly on the bedrock. With no public sewage lines every bathroom here requires a pit (3 meteres I believe) and some houses just have no place to dig. This is obviously a serious issue and I hope we can find a solution to the problem during my time here. I realize this may be the first time I have mentioned work on the blog and this is for two reasons. First, work is slow in the begining because our main focus is to learn the language. Second, work can sometimes be frustrationg and in an effort not to say the wrong thing to offend the wrong people I figure its better to not discuss it. Im sorry. You will probably not hear much about my daily work life but I will be sure to keep you updated on successful projects and activities.
And lastly, my bed with the wonderful mosquito net. Ive been sick most of the week and Im happy to say that I think I may have finally kicked it. I walked a delicate line all week trying to express to my host mother that I couldnt eat her food because I was sick not because I didnt like it, and certainly not because her food is bad. I made a stupid choice and drank unpastureized milk but didnt know how to explain that it was the different bacteria that made me sick. I just kept having to tell her that my body wasnt used to Morocco yet. Im sure she will be happy to have me eating regularly again so she can tell me, 'zed agroam' (more bread).Guess thats all for this week. Lets hope I luck out and get another cool down and not another heat wave. Talk to you all next week.
