You Are Lonely Here?

I met a girl on a train once, and like everyone else that I meet she was very surprised that I wasn't Moroccan. But you have the face of a Moroccan... I know, everyone tells me that. Anyways, she began asking about what I am doing here. I told her about my work with peace corps and where I live. She then asked me if I was lonely here. Yes, I live alone. She wasn't asking if I was lonely but rather if I had family here or if I lived alone. People often tell me that in Arabic there is no word for privacy; the closest equivalent is lonely. Haha. I guess most of us peace corps volunteers are "lonely."
Just to keep your minds at peace, no I am not lonely. In fact, I feel quite at home here. There is never a lack of lunch or kaskrew (snack) invitations. For the lack of anything better to say, I am going to tell you about what I have been doing in the past couple of months.
I hope you all don't think that I am constantly working. One of the hardest things for volunteers is usually dealing with the lack of work and the overabundance of free time. Anyhow, right now the bulk of my work consists of health lessons at the elementary school. I wrote about this previously, but I thought I would mention the latest lesson that I taught. My sitemate always helps so she helped as I told the kids about the bad effects of tobacco or smoking in general. Surprisingly (or maybe not) most men here smoke. Cigarettes are sold individually anywhere you go in this country, so its rather easy to just buy a single or two if one is low on cash and can't afford the pack. This makes it easier for many more people to smoke. I showed the kids pictures of cancerous lungs and of the way smokers age. I hope that had some sot of impact on them. The school year is actually just ending so this summer I will just be improving my lessons for the next school year. I also want to start doing exercise with women. Some women in the weaving co-operative have asked me to show them some exercises. I want to accompany these exercises with talks about health topics that affect them, such as: high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, etc.
Apart from work I have just been hanging out in town and learning bzzaf(a lot)! I have been cooking and baking a lot :) Also, recently I witnessed local elections here. A woman whom I highly respect ran for a position in the commune and she won! There was a lot of celebrating at her place and I was really glad to be around to witness all of it. I have also been to a wedding or two in the past few months. Those are always a lot of fun though tiring at times. Also, recently all the volunteers in my stage had to go to Rabat for medical exams. It was great seeing people who I never get to see because we live so far from each other. After medicals, i took a side trip as I made my way home. I went to Asilah (beach town near tangier) and to Chefchaouen. Both are beautiful towns that I hope to see again before I leave Morocco. I can't think of what else I have been up to but I'm sure theres more. I'll put some photos up too. :)



A wedding in my town. We're watching from the balcony of a neighboring house. The row of men are the haydus performers.

Look I can bake! Haha. My family thought I wouldn't survive here because I didn't know how to cook when I first left the states, but look I'm doing just fine.


My sitemate and I teaching children about the bad effects of tobacco. My sitemate is holding up giant cigarettes that we made for the lesson.


A Rifi woman selling vegetables outside the entrance to the Chefchaouen meedina. This is from my recent trip to Chefchaouen, a beautiful town nestled in the Rif mountains of northern Morocco.


This is Asilah, a beauiful beachtown about an hour south of Tangier.