April 27, 2009

I hate seeing the date these days. It reminds me of how little time I
have left. I don't know where to start blogging, so I'll start with
this: I decided not to extend and pulled my proposal about a month
ago. I think it was the best decision I could have made, though at
times I really do wish I was staying. That being said, the reasons I'd
stay were really pretty selfish when it comes down to it, and I think
I needed to go through the process of seriously considering it in
order to not regret it while I'm sitting at home and joining the
millions of Americans looking for jobs in this economy.

I hope I won't regret it, at least.

What I certainly don't regret is taking cash-in-lieu of a plane ticket
home and buying tickets to spend a week in Tanzania and Kenya. I feel
really unprepared, especially since after a day of studying, I can
only count, say "I don't understand," and several words that come
straight from Arabic (like Thursday, Friday, cold, hour, and good
night) in Swahili.

But the language geek in me is fascinated by the Arabic influence. For
example (and I'm talking Darija: Moroccan Arabic, not modern
standard):

Arabic Kiswahili
6- stta sita
7- sb3a saba
9- tsa3d tisa
20 ashrin ishrini
30 tletin thelathini
40 rb3in arobaini
50 khamsin hamsini
60 stin sitini
70 sba3in sabini
80 tmenin themanini
90 ts3ain tisini
100 miya mia
1000 alf elfu
Thursday lkhamis alhamsini
Friday ljum3a ljumaa
Cold brrd baridi
Good night Layla saida Lala salama

Etc…

In any case, it's been a very busy month. In short: Spring Camp in the
provincial capital, Training (or not) at the training site, COS (close
of service) medical exams in Rabat, site visit in a nearby site, and
this last week of being in-site and trying not to cry about having to
leave this incredible community.

Spring camp:

I went to the same place as last year for spring camp, hoping to see
some of the same students that had been there before. I was rewarded
with probably a fifth of the camp as repeat campers, and it was great
seeing them and hanging out with them. Unlike last year, I was able to
be there the whole time this year, which was great.

In short, there were nine American PCV counselors, five Moroccan
counselors, and 65 campers who spent a week in a sports and cultural
center for English classes and camp fun. I taught beginning English
with a new volunteer who I really like and got to know well, and led a
journalism club with another new volunteer. It was really less
stressful co-leading than it is teaching alone, and I feel like this
year we were a lot more involved in camp as an American staff than
last year.

There was the same city kid/country kid (also Arab/Berber) divide that
we found last year, but all in all it was a fantastic time with a few
hard moments.

Oh, our second or third day of camp was April Fool's, which was
interesting. Here's an article from the journalism club about it:

April fools
By Safae and Fatime Zahra (Team Freedom of Expression)
The first of April was an exceptional day because it is a holiday
called April Fool's. In our camp, we had many jokes happen. For
exemple we wished Amy happy birthday and it wasn't true. It was so
embarrassing to Amy because she didn't know it. then Moroccan
counselors told us that we're going to visit Ait Ben Haddou and maybe
some campers will participate in Moroccan movie produced by 2m. This
was another joke. We think that April fools is a great day because
there were a lot of funny events.

There were more jokes that the campers weren't aware of, like when one
of the male PCVs came in and stacked our beds 3-high, when we
retaliated by calling him and another PCV up in front of the whole
camp to sing "My Heart Will Go On," and when he then came back by
having a PC staff member call the camp coordinator, telling her that
she owed Peace Corps 9000 dirhams because of a problem with banking
($1050).

I love the article by Safae and Fatime Zahra though, because they are
the type of students that every teacher/counselor would want to have.
They picked the assignment of interviewing all the counselors, and, in
their free time, painstakingly interviewed all nine Americans, asking
them pretty insightful questions. One of them had only studied English
for a year. They wanted to spend lots of time outside club time
working on it, and at the end had become best friends, despite the
fact that one is Arab, one is Berber, one from the countryside and one
from the city.

I thought on the way back from Spring Camp that I'd spend the night in
Marrakech. Little did I know that a twelve-day transportation strike
was dawning. Luckily, there were a few of us who had to go in the next
few days from Marrakech to Azilal, so they sent a Peace Corps car out
for us and we rode in style, after waiting three hours in the
Marrakech bus station. The plan had been to present a workshop on
maternal and child health in Morocco to the trainees. Unfortunately,
after three nights in the hotel, the same hotel that I stayed at for
three months during training two years before, the transportation
strike prohibited everyone from coming to the site, so a friend and I
had come up to training essentially for no reason. That being said, it
was fun getting to know some of the other volunteers better, and
hanging around what was our old stomping ground for three months. I
also went on a wild-goose-chase to try to find some examples of
documentation that are used at clinics for pregnant women which was
rather entertaining, and tried (knowing it was futile, but worth a
shot) to buy an IUD at a pharmacy. Good times, especially singing
Juanes in the hotel room at the top of my lungs with someone else who
understands how much fun it is to belt out French and Spanish music.

I had a choice: get stuck in Azilal (a small cute mountain town, but
without much there) or Rabat, the capitol with western food and lots
of other PCVs, with a free ride. So, a few days early, I left for COS
medicals. This meant a rather entertaining ride up, and a couple days
to do the touristy things that I'd never done up there: a mausoleum,
the Chellah: old ruins with beautiful gardens and a stunning view,
several visits to the American club (my wallet felt that one, but
Mexican salads with bacon and Root Beer floats?!).

It also meant that, for the first time since I've been in-country, I
was able to go to church, on Easter, no less! It was fantastic and I
had shivers as we sang traditional Easter songs and West African
music… the church has a very diverse population. After the service, a
few of us had traditional Easter lunch at the American club: it cost a
fortune to me, but was well worth it: stuffing, cranberry sauce, ham
and turkey, iced tea, salad, fruit salad, mashed potatoes and gravy…
and coffee… for $8.

I was fortunate enough to get all my exams done the first day of
medicals and switched appointments with people who had been stuck
because of the still ongoing strike. Unfortunately, the strike made it
impossible