We have been here a week and can count to 10000 and conjugate personal pronouns, tell time and many other things.  But yesterday, desperate for connection to the world, mostly family, Hassan, my host and I went to the next town Taoujtate in a petit taxi with 6 other men. It worked if you didn't breath or search for a safety belt. Hassan tried many hanuts and finally found a modem.  But neither Hassan or I had brought IDs, passport etc., which is needed for anything telephonic so he had to call a friend to come with ID to liberate the modem.  Back in the taxi again loaded to the gills and home.  I am connected.  That evening Souhaid decorated my hands with henna, pictures below, after Atila scrubbed me down in the turk.  After the henna was finished, Souhaid put cotton socks on my hands.

Sorry for the repetition, I don't knw how to remove photos yet.  I am wearing a head covering because my hair is wet, not a cultural act.

 Hassan and me

Souhaid with her needle

Akia, Hassan;s granddaughter

Last Monday, January 19, 2015 we were all on our way to Philadelphia for Peace Corps Staging before departing for Morocco.  We had a full afternoon of information and role playing to get us ready for the big adventure.  I had too many bags,  too heavy for me to get to my room.  Jack at Crowne Plaza West took care of them all, then and the next day.  I met my roommate, Brandy Blue from Atlanta, Georgia, who will be my roommate in Morocco at the Hotel Jasmine Club in Rabat.  We were given a one-time use credit card for $120 dollars to cover our travel from the airport and meals.  I had taken a taxi which was not cheap but very helpful, and was happy that was covered.  The next morning we were on our way to JFK airport in New York under the guidance of our leader Ayeesha from Tacoma, Washington.  Tacoma was well represented in general as I discovered when we arrived in Rabat.

Departure that Tuesday evening involved a very long line of Peace Corps Trainees dragging and rolling and backpacking their luggage. In the gate area a young mother and baby sat across from me, she looked sad and when I asked her where she was from – Nigeria.  But she would not return there, she went to Morocco with us. AirMaroc provided pillow, blanket and a hot fish dinner.  It felt like time travel back to a sweeter time to fly.

Our arrival in Casablanca the next morning revealed a balmy, blue sky with palm trees which gave me a completely false picture of my future residence after Pre Service Training. After navigating through customs we were greeted by our country director Ellen Paquette and Abdelghani Lamnaouar, Program Manager for Youth Development, who supervised our training in Rabat. They both made us feel very welcome. And then we loaded into buses which did not provide knee room so we sat sideways. But it was a short trip.

Above: What we do a lot of in the Peace Corps,hotel courtyard - a little surprising, the Atlantic ocean from the east side, the big data exchange of which I had the most movies, Hotel Yasmine Club, its cats.

And soon we and our luggage arrived at the Hotel Yasmine Club where the local Peace Corps staff took us under their more than adequate wings and helped us find our rooms.  My delusion about my next home was deepened by the resort atmosphere we found there.  First impression: many cats – cats by the walk, cats by the pool, cats by our rooms,. We then more or less nodded though our afternoon training, being jet lagged as well as short of sleep.  The restaurant revived us by serving a very good dinner. We spent the next three days covering medical issues, (I got my flu shot. I also go a cold and was seen by the Peace Corps doctor because it came with a fever) financial information including setting up a local bank account, getting our pictures taken, getting mobiles, preparation for training at our sites, cultural training, safety information, how to use the contents of our enormous medical kits and the illnesses they could address, and finally in gender divided groups the important information about how to use the “Turk” which was very helpful as I discovered later.

We got to know each other a little as we sat down to breakfasts which provided tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives along with the usual items.  We were happy to try the café au lait, carafes of hot milk and coffee were at the table and a waiter moved around with the mint tea which is always poured from a height of a foot and a half at least.  Our Friday dinner was couscous, standard all over Morocco, covered with chicken and vegetable tagine, harissa on the table.  We couldn't finish.  It all came to a close and we were divided into two groups, one to go to Azrou hub and the rest, including me, to Meknes.  My last morning I arrived early in the dining room and the elegant older maître d with who I exchanged greetings in French each day and who had escorted me home one evening, came to my table, kissed me on both cheeks and told me I was magnificent.  Which is still a source of cheer as I grapple not only with my ignorance of the language, but with the fact that  the small town where the five of us in our language group were assigned is very, very cold.  But we are not there yet.  We were loaded again into buses, with more than adequate knee room, but not as much luggage space as needed, so we piled it into empty seats and the stairwell in the middle of the bus. I sat with a very friendly older gentleman who had served in Vietnam and we shared stories of that epic area as we made our way to Meknes.  On arriving there, our small group of five followed Badr, our Language and Culture guru, with our luggage, in the rain, to hail the two petite

taxis needed to take us to the Grande Taxi to take us to our site..

      

We did it. All our luggage went to Badr’s house, and we made our way to the Dar Chebab to meet our families.  Mine live right next to Badr which is good indeed.  There we were greeted by the brave and hospitable Moroccans who were willing to take us on and deal with our total ignorance.  My family Hassan and Naima, are the most amazing people, kind, hospitable, caring, warm and there is a real sense of peace in their house, which is both vertical and horizontal.  Their daughters, Souhaid and Oumaima, are as well and Mehdi, who is adopted, gave me a painting tonight .  I had enough gifts for all, which included Atila their daughter-in-law who is expecting a baby in May, and her three year old Alia. We eat together on the couches, and in the evening there is always a bucket fire to warm our feet and hands with.  The food totally agrees with me.  The Volunteer who was their first PCV had sent s letter for me and when I called was very helpful.  She is quite attached to this family and I can understand why.  She will be here mid-February for training.  Language classes began this morning and it is a steep learning curve for me. This afternoon we toured the town, met the mayor whose office was bare and dreary, the chief of police who had a nicer office.  I managed to buy the socks and hat and plastic shoes needed for the Turk, as well as stamps, and toilet paper. We stopped at a café on the way home with the African Soccer on the TV.  I am slower in walking than the four: Adelia, Emily, Alexander and Dominick but that is no surprise. 

The pictures above:  all of us at the police station, vegetable and fruit on sale in our town., Sheep on the roadside. Bad'r's cats and our town.

I am sure there will be others.

And in Morocco: Ruth Przybeck and Ayoub Rachid, thank you for your great kindness and support.

The Most Evocative Image of 2014

Not like the reassuringly large swirling blue and green images of the planet from the moon. Everyone is in the picture...including the amazing, hospitable friends and family omitted from the previous post possibly due to age, defective memory, the distraction of packing, and the common cold.  So here goes, all you people up there in that picture.

Washington State:  Father John and Kathy Pierce, Father John Garvey, his daughter Maria, of Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church in Tacoma. Brian, Mark, Allan, Vera, Kaitlin, Matthew Overland, Eric, Erin, and Audrey Simonson, and Mary Giles. Upper left of white dot.

Oregon State: Father Steven and Mona Soot, their hospitable children, Deacon Ed Gallegher, all of St Anne's Orthodox Church in Corvallis. Mid left of white dot.

California State: Louisa Carter at whose Santa Rosa house , Peggy and John Ericson were at lunch with me, and drove me there and then to Mother Susanna of Our Lady of Khazan Skete where I spent the night. with the sisters.  Diana Dew from Berkeley trekked all the the way across the bay to visit. In Pasadena, Martyn Belmont, an ex but always sister-in-law. Lower left of white dot.

Alabama State: Father Elias of Holy Annunciation Church in Mobile, and all the folks who celebrated the feast of the Entry of the Theotokos in a very idiosyncratic church: Malbis Memorial Church, in Daphne, which has a very interesting history. But we were all happy to be at lunch together afterwards. Lower right of white dot.

Maryland State: cousin Susanna Buffum Goodwin, and her guardian squirrel Big Boy whose fur made him seem to wearing Jockey shorts.  I couldn't take him seriously. Wolf and Odette Lehmann want postcards from Morocco. All of Rockville.. Mid right of white dot.

Boston, the center of the universe and center of white dot. Tim Bell, who trained up from Connecticut in brutal weather (all we really have here in winter) Ilona O'Connor of Cambridge,and Simone Charpentier and Fernando Torres, Martin and Laura Torres of Jamaica Plain,  Father Robert and Susan Arida, Deacon Ted and Anastasia Feldman, Deacon Chris Westrate,  and Jason Pittman, (the generous donors of my water purification kit) Michael Clarke and Martin, Inga Leonova, Michael and Russell, and the whole parish of Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral. The Haley House Invincibles, housing the homeless for decades, gathering to send me off from the Cafe in Dudley.  Ellen Cole, a Brookliner, Lee and Yonatan, Mira and Uriah Cohen, Juliana Orr-Weaver, the Cambridge Crew.

Thank you all for a wonderful, wild, and ultimately peaceful stay in your beautiful city

2015 arrived and I am thankful for 2014, a year of travel, preparation and many many gifts from people along the way.  I am thankful for the trip to New Hampshire to visit my friend Heidi Watts, a friend I have known almost 60 years.  Through Heidi I met my first Peace Corps recruiter at a party in Vermont.  She told me there was no age limit in the Peace Corps. Everywhere else I applied for work had not been fruitful (they just weren't hiring 85 year olds in Boston!)  So I began the application process (the original long one)after meeting with Katrina Deutsch, the Boston Peace Corps recruiter, and many medical records later the Peace Corps nurse Karol, whose patience is amazing, cleared me for service.  Thank you, Karol!  And thank you, Katrina! The trip around the country to see my family before leaving was truly wonderful.  I was hosted and feasted by the following amazing people: in Washington David and Teri Griggs in Puyallup, Carolyn Simonson in Tacoma, Betty and Al Overland in Gig Harbor, nephew Nick Carter and  Felice Luftschein in Philomath, OR as well as their two boys Max and Henry who were later joined by my grandson Azrael Wilson who completed the Pacific Crest Trail, Maria Zaharof in San Anselmo, CA, son Peter, Victoria, Harry and Charlotte Wilson in Altadena, CA, friends Francie Levy and Vivian and Phil Deustch, son John, Liz, Hannah and Jacob Wilson in Mobile, beloved friend Martha Ann Overland, Nina and Aaron Sullivan in DC where I also met Steven Howard, Alexis and Toby Thom all headed for Morocco with me, Mackenzie Garfield in Brooklyn and Soho,  NY (my beautiful granddaughter) Rebecca, Branca, Simona and Arseny Matovic in Astoria, NY, Marwa El Shakri and Mark Mazower and their twins Selma and Jed, New York City.  It took three months.  Thank you all for your kindness and hospitality to me.

I returned to Roxbury, MA, to Grace Belmont and Galen Nelson, five great boys, Koyama, Yuta, Nathaniel, Theo and Cyrus and great grown lady Lynette. This is my default home setting and they have been great to me, And to my amazing granddaughter Sarah and her mother Jennifer Wilson, to my son Paul Wilson and ny grandson Daniel Wilson (the phenomenal manager of Insomnia Cookies in Harvard Square which delivers cookies milk and ice cream to Harvard students until 3 am.) To be home for all the feasts in my church Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral is a great blessing and I am thankful for the loving friendships there over the past 27 years.  If you check our website you can see who we are and what the feasts look like.

Upstairs on the 3rd floor my bags are more or less packed and I am more or less ready to go, excited, intimidated, happy and sad,  and above all grateful to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.