New home Inshallah

Yesterday my Host lady Aicha pulled me out the door to go see an apartment owned by a relative of hers. It is affordable, and having the landlord (whose family I met) in the building is a plus;  It is one flor up, and I have access to the roof to dry my clothes and enjoy the sunshine and even make some solar experiments; The neighborhood is a block from the Cyber which is a normal daily stop for me and has the best pastry shop in the town.

And this is what we did from January to the end of March.

We ate a lot of very good food.

We learned directions in Deriga blindfolded in a field with sheep and one cow.

We met some wonderful young people at the Dar Chebab.

We celebrated my birthday by subtracting a year.

With Badr our LCF (Language and Culture Instructor)

With Emily Reagan, Alexander Levine-Epstein, and Hamsa

There are more pictures but my French PC isn't talking to me anymore.  I will try later.

As my fellow volunteer Elle Belle put it: "What a wonderful three months CBT has been. With plenty of ups and downs, this time has been challenging, encouraging, and rewarding. A big thank you to our LCFs! We have no idea how hard it must be to devote every waking moment to our happiness, education, and integration. We have never given of ourselves to others the way you have given of yourselves to us. Thank you for welcoming us into your country and into your hearts. With all sincerity we say, we wouldn't have made it without you. 

Shukran, barak llah fikum."

The four who kept me laughing all the way through the rain, the long language less

ons, the things we did at the Dar Chebab, until we made it to swearing in!!!

  Adelia Gray, Dominick Delegge, Alexander Levin-Epstein, Emily Reagan and our long suffering LCN Badr Allouche.

All of us and Senior PCVs with Ambassador Bush

The Girls in Blue

Newly sworn-in PCVs selfie featuring a photobomb by Ambassador Bush.

The amazing volunteers in my group, brilliant and beautiful!

What my first roommate said (because I gave her EmergenC packets has to say, take it cum grano salis.

With my inspiration!!! Alice was my first roommate in this crazy experience. She is warm, smart, amazingly interesting and super inviting. She is in her 80s which always brings me back to earth when I am feeling too old for this! Congrats for becoming the oldest volunteer in Peace Corps history today Alice!! It is never too late for a new adventure.

‪#‎peacecorpsmorocco‬ ‪#‎peacecorps‬ ‪#‎inspiration‬

How to do Pascha (Easter) in Morocco

Traveling to Pascha. No, there are no taxis to Rabat. Finally we agree on Sale and I climb in with 5 others and off we go for awhileuntil the driver points to a taxi traveling beside us and tells me they are going to Rabat, change and go to Bab Chellah and get the tram to Russia, not the country the tram stop, Petite Taxi to Holy Resurrection where the service begins hours from now. Decide to go to Carrefour for Pascha basket but can't get taxi. Policeman goes to get one for me. Get cheese, crackers, strawberries, peaches and a sturdy chocolate bar. Back to church which is open and I fix my basket in the patio. Three little girls belonging to Father Maxim keep me company and eat crackers. It is decided that I need an extra jacket so Father Maxim's wife brings me one, then they tell me I will be too tired waiting for the service to begin so I should go to Alexei's house to rest. He just returned from St Petersburg and a master conducting class there. He conducts the choir. His apartment is outstanding and the patio deck enormous with lots of plants. Now I will sleep.

Traveling to Pascha 2. Alexei and I went to church at 11. Almost everyone was dressed informally, as if we had put up a tent in the desert which we might need to dismantle. But no, the church, a beautiful white and blue building with a domed roof and tower looks permanent. No bells were rung as this is forbidden in Muslim countries but we processed around the church, hidden by a very high wall, singing "Your Resurrection oh Christ our Savior the angels in heaven sing, enable us on earth to worship You in purity of heart." (in Slavonic) the church was filled with flowers, zwin bzeff as we say, the singing was beautiful and as Father Maxim censed the sanctuary he would say Christ is Risen in English as he passed me. My friend Eugene was not there, his wife was having her baby and the baby was born before the end of the service. In the patio outside three tables together held all the dishes everyone brought to share, no baskets that I could see except mine and there was only the Russian table to join! I wished Inga could have beamed up at that moment!. So we ate wonderful food, including pork and bacon which Alexei had told me they get in Spain which is not that far - 150 km. I met a Peace Corps staff member, Dr. Victor Britkov, who told me the church had been built with a huge financial gift from Tolstoy's son Leo, who with other Russians in France, fled to Morocco after the Nazi invasion. We drank a toast to the new baby when Eugene arrived. He, Alexei and one other member of the parish are all in the Royal Moroccan Symphony, and it is a small parish. In spite of jet lag and conducting the long service Alexei drove me home and it's a 26 km journey, so quite a kind merciful gift under a beautiful night sky with a lemon slice moon, and I was able to rouse my host at 4:30 AM to open the door. Joy to all my friends. Christ is Risen!

Tuesday April 14

I am at a Hanut near the Dar Chebab where the kindly proprietor asked me to wait until someone who knew how to recharge my modem arrived. Which took awhile but finally did happen. So I asked him if he knew of a little apartment in the neighborhood and again he asked me to wait and disappeared. I wonder what will happen now.

What happened after the proprietor returned?


On his motorbike. I finally introduced myself and he did as well, Said, not young. He walked to a building and we met another man with a key. We walked up FOUR flights of unforgiving marble stairs to see two apartments which I will never live in - not bad but for that many stairs 1600 and 1700 dr are pricey. Plus we, that is, Said and me were so winded by the climb we couldn't speak. So I wandered Into a lumber hanut and the man there said come back at 4 so I did and he took me to a man who showed me a ground floor apartment with no cross ventilation or shower for 1200 dr . Then I went to a paint store, and the clerk hailed someone passing by who took me to a man sitting by a metal worker who told me to come back tomorrow afternoon.

As I said to one of my friends it has been a great way to get to know the community.

Wednesday April 15. 

And I did come back to the paint store whose proprietor called the owner.  We saw it together and they lowered the rent 100 dr and the apartment is great.;  It has a complete bathroom with a shower;  All the floors are marble, two bedrooms, salon, kitchen with a double sink. It is three floors up;,no one over my head and the roof has great views.

Plus I finally got the receipt for the Carte de Sejour so now I am legally  here!