Library news!

Massaoud and I participated in a Peace Corps Library workshop in July after which we received three cartons of books n Arabic which the students are checkuing out.  We expect another three cartons this month.  Our classroom now has a library, computers and a ping pong table, equipment for which was donated by Charlotte Wilson.  We call this classroom The Learning Center.

2016

We now have 5 computers in our classroom as well as a projector, sound equipment and printer thanks to a Peace Corps grant.

.Sirat Bashir, a Peace Corps volunteer has joined our team (Massaoud Saleh and me)  Sirat has brilliant ideas just as I have run out of them: she showed Hotel Rwanda to our students in the context of our unit on the source of violence and conflict resolution as explicated by Rene Girard. We discussed scapegoating and mimesis.  Then we divided the class into Tutsi and Hutu groups; By the end of class last night everyone was Rwandan.  I told them what the king of Morocco had done when the German invaded in World Waer 2.  When the Germans demanded that he turn the Jews over to them, the king said  "We have no Jews,we are all Moroccans"

We have a community based association leading the CLIMB program now with 60 students signed up for weekly hikes, montthly climbs and the ascent of Mt. Toubcal in July, In shallah.


Five girls will be ging to GLOW camp in January-February.Inshallah.

We will participate in Write On's international contest.

Sirat and I are planning our roof gardens with the help of our friend Rachida.

2016  looks busy!

Today is the anniversary of our arrival in Morocco.   A year has not given me fluency in Arabic but I am really good at mime by now. The new year was celebrated in Meknes with my daughter Jennifer and granddaughter Sarah;  After the camel ride in Marrakech!  And after we visited Jardin Majorelle





This is one of the most beautiful places in Marrakech.  The camel ride of one hour in a palm tree oasis was peaceful,, we were led by a Berber camel driver/  .

Summer Vacation

My summer vacation in Coupiac France with the Cluzel  famiily: Juliette, Lou, their parents and grandparents.

Juliette au table

 Lou danse dans la centre de la ville pendant le féte du Lundi


Everyone comes for the delicious food;

At the top of the little mountain at Ambialet.  A bit of a climb!  Tamara and I hiked with girls and we all spent a great day picknicking at Comblet.where later their excellent restaurant provided us with a great dinner.  We swam, read stories, played Uno and had many a fine wine and much good cheese, which we don't have in my site in Morocco.


I had not seen this family for a year and it was  wonderful to see them all.

Then back home in Morocco I found the Dar Chebab in the process of renovating the classroom to prrepare it for the computers we hope to buy.

This is Rachida, the dynamic woman who got the painters together to show how to use the organic paint. The painters are watching!

Then Massaoud Saleh, my counterpart and I went to Rabat for the Library workshop presented by the Peace Corps.  We hear the books are coming:

Fatiha and Aicha teach me how to make briouats

Summer

Summer began in July with a wonderful Peace Corps Training at our first hotel: Club Yasmina on the Atlantic Ocean; We had  the opportunity to see and hear about the many projects the 2nd year volunteers have done: CLIMB, GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Camp, Write On, and many others.

Then I flew to Toulouse to be with my family in France for two weeks.  Two granddaughters kept me reading, playing UNO, swimming and there were many good dinners and much good wine and cheese.

My daughter took me on some good hikes and one climb in Ambialet.  It was fantastic to be with them and the French family my daughter married into.

Returning to Morocco, I visited my host family and shared in a family wedding which was more than one day, almost three.  It was so good to see them and the new baby Rania.

Peace Corps held a Library Training Workshop at the end of July to which both I and my counterpart Massaoud Saleh attended.  We now have three cartons of books in Arabic for the Dar Chebab  and more will arrive in December.  We also hope to have computers fir the young members soon.

August brought my family from California and we had a good tour of Morocco: first stop to see Kika and Cameron and their kittens, Rabat, Meknes, Volubilis, a couscous Friday dinner with host family Hassan and Naima, Fez briefly, Azrou, Marrakech and Casablanca.  The two grandcuildren loved the snake charmers, chicken tagine, and especially the Roman ruins at Volubilis where they could run wild.

If I can figure out how to get their pictures up I will do so but I have had lots of problems uploading photos.

Now Massaoud and I are busy with classes and I will say more about that later;

Long neglected, abandoned blog, so out of date I hardly know what to say. However, the last post ended on an enthusiastic note which turned out later to be unwarrented.  The said apartment was made unavailable due to its present tenant deciding to stay.  The good news is that my very kind host family were in the process of building a new home. They offered to rent their apartment, spacious, nicely arranged, huge kitchen by Moroccan standards, European bathroom at a reasonable sum.  So now I am at home where I was all along.  My hosts' cousin Fatiha did not move with them to the new place. She has a tiny apartment on the roof, but had always been busy here cleaning and cooking for the family, and she is still doing this even though they are gone..

Family stateside worried about exploitation so I asked Badr, my tutor to explore the issue with her. She likes doing this and feels that an older person should be helped and not left alone.  Outside sources confirm this to be a Moroccan cultural bias. So I am probably the only volunteer with a helper who cooks, shops and cleans as well as instructing me in Deriga which is her only language.
Others in the Corps rejoiced at finally getting their own place with the freedom to be naked, cook American, enjoy privacy and its delights.  I think about my aunt Gert who lived alone at my age and who decided to take a nice hot bath one evening and then discovered she could no longer haul herself out of the tub. She spent a long, cold, uncomfortable night in the bathtub before she was rescued. It gives one pause as they say.

Here in my sweet site I have had very unexpected experiences, mostly delightful and I'm not going to talk about the one which wasn't.  Monday this week I met a teacher through my former Bac student Abdali, who said he would like my help in teaching English to his students.  He, Achmed, offered to show me his classroom which turned out to be a large, beautiful room, decorated with nice art done by the students, pastel tables and chairs and on the wall a large interactive computer panel, overhead projector sourced, with so many good sites for music for the students and much else. I had not expected anything like this being accustomed to my dilapidated classroom at the Dar which has a huge hole in the ceiling and stained walls, dirty floors.  I was amazed, envious, delighted all at the same time.  Of course I want to get all this for my students.  Achmed said he could help me get these things at a good price.  Grant writing looms ahead.

The same day I met Jouad when I was buying somethings for the apartment. He asked me in English if I was the owner of the store!  We started a conversation in English which is the first time I have used the language on the street, so to speak.  It turns out he lived in Los Angeles for a few years. He is now a chicken farmer, as well as having a large olive grove.  He really wants to keep his English up and was delighted to hear that I had classes at the Dar (sorry for dissing you, Dar) He showed up Thursday for conversation and that was terrific.  He asked me how I felt about old people not living with their families in the US, so we had a long conversation about the cultural differences in caring for the old;  While he was there suddenly four women teachers arrived who teach at the Ecole near the Dar. They spoke English as well, welcomed me, kissed me on bth cheeks, invited me to visit the school and of course we all went outside for photo ops.  This gave Jouad an opportunity to comment on how welcoming Moroccans are.  I suddenly felt as if I were in a giant church called Morocco.

Then Hadija from the Net Neswi came in to invite me to a féte the next day which was to run from 3 to 6, completely fictitious numbers of course, as the féte began at 4 or so, and lasted until 7 plus.  It was the pep rally for women to prepare for Ramadan complete with songs, druming, sermons and delicious gateaux and drinks.  This is the tradition in our town, I was told, so I don't know if this happens all over Morocco.  I will post pictures later.

Now the ultimate in miscommunication and just plain dumb.  Last week Anas who is the youngest in the class brought a plast ic bag and when I inquired told me it was for me.  I thanked him and put it on my desk; took it home after class and discovered a bottle of Pom and two boxes of homemade cookies. The note said, "Happy birthday Anas;"  Duh.  It was obviously meant for us to celebrate Anas' birthday.  I immediately got out all the records and noted down everyone's birthday.  Then the next class I told Anas we would celebrate his birthday on Thursday this week and I apologized for not understanding.  (Fatiha and I demolished the cookies over the weekend but I had no trouble replacing them at the Patisserie whose glass cabinets were full of cookies as well as gazillions of honey bees dragging their feet through the frosting about which the owner did not comment )  So, Thursday I had all the students learning the months of the year and posting on the board their own birthdays; They made beautiful cards for Anas, a streamer which said Happy Birthday.  Anas never showed up until after the class was over, and the cards and cookies on their way to his house.  His mother came with him and again I apologized for the whole sad affair, with Jouad's help. She was laughing and said it was fine, not to worry. I told her what a good student Anas is, and how much I liked the hat he wore that day.  Big mistake, she insisted on giving it to me; See below. Jouad again could comment on the Moroccan tradition of giving what you admire to you. Lessons learned

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