Hello readers,
Happy holidays! I am sorry for the long delay. Now I see why many PC blogs take awhile to get regularly updated. I think it is apathy or maybe just laziness, although many PCVs don't have regular access to the internet.
Anyway, I am just now completing my first month at my final site, which, by the way, is not Guercif. I now live in a city named Khemisset. This city is much larger than Guercif and a bit more developed. Also, Khemisset is only an hour away from Rabat. At first, adjusting to the city took some time, since I did not get a chance to visit while the previous volunteer was available. However, aside from sheer size, Khemisset was pretty easy to acclimate to. I now know my way around and have developed some relationships with the residence in Khemisset. I already have a tutor and I will be moving into my own home shortly. My host-family in Khemisset is very nice. Although it is hard for me to practice my Darija, because my host-father speaks English. Best of all, Khemisset has a fairly large gated park for running and exercising. The park even has a quarter-mile track, although the perimeter around the park almost equals a mile. I just run around like a hamster in a wheel for a couple of hours free of dogs!
I have met with a cooperative that I will be working with during my stay in Khemisset. The cooperative is named Najah and they specialize in wood carving. Their products are really nice. The previous volunteers assisted the cooperative well during their volunteer stint, so I hope to do the same.
Prior to moving to my final site, I attended the official PC volunteer ceremony in Rabat. I am now an official PCV. It was an interesting experience, leaving the training environment, and immediately departing to a new location alone; such mystery, such intrigue. Now, it's no sweat, although I still speak like a bumbling idiot.
Happy holidays!
Thanks,
The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Post Final Site Visit
Hello readers,
I had a great time visiting my final site, although there were some logistical problems. Basically, I ended up staying in a hotel for most of the visit. My final site is in the city of Guercif. The city is pretty large compared to my current training site. My impression of Guercif was that it was well developed. Compared to my training site, Guercif's roads are fully paved, there are large buildings, and the people seem to be much more exposed to foreigners, although I don't think many Americans visit Guercif that often. Plus, it was really hard for me to find someone who spoke English.
The great thing about Guercif is that there were no wild dogs. Its funny, but after I returned from Guercif last Sunday, I was chased by two dogs while I was jogging. I realized that the dogs here are not wild, but rather dogs owned by people who live outside of the city. Luckily, I shouldn't have this problem in Guercif.
The cooperative where I will be conducting business development appeared well organized. It was real interesting to observe their daily operations and see their products. Also, the members of the co'op were incredibly nice and very patient with my lack of Moroccan Arabic (Darija).
As I mentioned in my last blog post, Guercif is a new city for the Peace Corps, so I am really excited about building strong and lasting relationships, especially for future volunteers. Here are some pictures of Guercif and of a near by reservoir.
Thanks,
I had a great time visiting my final site, although there were some logistical problems. Basically, I ended up staying in a hotel for most of the visit. My final site is in the city of Guercif. The city is pretty large compared to my current training site. My impression of Guercif was that it was well developed. Compared to my training site, Guercif's roads are fully paved, there are large buildings, and the people seem to be much more exposed to foreigners, although I don't think many Americans visit Guercif that often. Plus, it was really hard for me to find someone who spoke English.
The great thing about Guercif is that there were no wild dogs. Its funny, but after I returned from Guercif last Sunday, I was chased by two dogs while I was jogging. I realized that the dogs here are not wild, but rather dogs owned by people who live outside of the city. Luckily, I shouldn't have this problem in Guercif.
The cooperative where I will be conducting business development appeared well organized. It was real interesting to observe their daily operations and see their products. Also, the members of the co'op were incredibly nice and very patient with my lack of Moroccan Arabic (Darija).
As I mentioned in my last blog post, Guercif is a new city for the Peace Corps, so I am really excited about building strong and lasting relationships, especially for future volunteers. Here are some pictures of Guercif and of a near by reservoir.
Thanks,
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Final Site Visit
Hello readers,
It has now been well over a month and training seems to be going well. The dogs are still annoying as ever, but that should soon change. On Friday, I was given the location of my final site, and I am pretty excited. For security reasons I will not include the name of the city, however I was told that this city was new to the Peace Corps. Next week, I will be spending a week at my final site with another host-family. I have to take a train to the site, which should be fun. Also, I heard that the city is fairly large.
In all, I will be able to check out the city, meet the Artisana association that I will be working with, and get acquainted with my surroundings. I will make sure to take many pictures and post them at the end of next week. In the meantime, here are more pictures of my training site and Azrou.
Thanks,
It has now been well over a month and training seems to be going well. The dogs are still annoying as ever, but that should soon change. On Friday, I was given the location of my final site, and I am pretty excited. For security reasons I will not include the name of the city, however I was told that this city was new to the Peace Corps. Next week, I will be spending a week at my final site with another host-family. I have to take a train to the site, which should be fun. Also, I heard that the city is fairly large.
In all, I will be able to check out the city, meet the Artisana association that I will be working with, and get acquainted with my surroundings. I will make sure to take many pictures and post them at the end of next week. In the meantime, here are more pictures of my training site and Azrou.
Thanks,
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Week Four
Hello readers,
Well, I am now completing my fourth week in Morocco, and things are going pretty well. My Darija is getting much better, and I am making more conversations with the locals. Last Sunday, I jogged out of my town for about seven miles, and enjoyed every minute of it. The road that I was jogging on was no wider than the Burk Gillman trail in Washington, so it felt like I was running on a regular trail. The scenery was amazing. Unfortunately, I had to turn around due to a bunch of dogs. Luckily the dogs were afraid of fake rocks, or at least some of them were.
My group and I began performing some business and operations analyses on a local association in our town, to prepare for future business analysis procedures at our final sites. The Artisans here are very talented. The association even taught a little bit of web technologies.
Once I get to my final site, I will be meeting with a local Artisan association to determine their organizational needs, and institute a project or projects to meet their needs, and hopefully transform the project into a sustainable program. This is no small feet given the language and cultural barriers. To imagine, in the states, even in an organization where everyone speaks the same language, projects seem to never come to fruition. If I can execute a worthwhile program here in Morocco, I guess this will be a great accomplishment. I have to applaud the current and past PCV's who have successfully implemented worthwhile projects and programs for the Artisan's here in Morocco.
Anyway, as time goes by I will continue to comment on my business development activities. I am here for two years so time is really just a frame of mind. That is about it for new news, just lots of training and cultural immersion with a few crazy dogs on the side - ha ha.
Thanks,
Well, I am now completing my fourth week in Morocco, and things are going pretty well. My Darija is getting much better, and I am making more conversations with the locals. Last Sunday, I jogged out of my town for about seven miles, and enjoyed every minute of it. The road that I was jogging on was no wider than the Burk Gillman trail in Washington, so it felt like I was running on a regular trail. The scenery was amazing. Unfortunately, I had to turn around due to a bunch of dogs. Luckily the dogs were afraid of fake rocks, or at least some of them were.
My group and I began performing some business and operations analyses on a local association in our town, to prepare for future business analysis procedures at our final sites. The Artisans here are very talented. The association even taught a little bit of web technologies.
Once I get to my final site, I will be meeting with a local Artisan association to determine their organizational needs, and institute a project or projects to meet their needs, and hopefully transform the project into a sustainable program. This is no small feet given the language and cultural barriers. To imagine, in the states, even in an organization where everyone speaks the same language, projects seem to never come to fruition. If I can execute a worthwhile program here in Morocco, I guess this will be a great accomplishment. I have to applaud the current and past PCV's who have successfully implemented worthwhile projects and programs for the Artisan's here in Morocco.
Anyway, as time goes by I will continue to comment on my business development activities. I am here for two years so time is really just a frame of mind. That is about it for new news, just lots of training and cultural immersion with a few crazy dogs on the side - ha ha.
Thanks,
Friday, October 1, 2010
First Week
Hello readers,
I think I am finally finding my voice for blog posts. I usually do not write journals, so my posts may appear a little dry. Hopefully this will change as I progress through the months.
Anyway, my group and I have successfully completed a full week of training, and are steadily completing our second week. Training is going very well. We are learning Darija at a very fast pace. Some days, we will go out to the market and try out our Darija, however our accents really inhibit our capacity to bargain. Also, we spend time speaking with random strangers, in order to hone our language skills. I think what really helps us learn Darija is our daily interactions with our host families. Everyday, I am able to have much more in-depth conversations with my host family, although I revert to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) often. It is amazing to me how common it is for Moroccan families to speak and read Darija, MSA, and French all within the same households.
I am finally getting acclimated to my new home. During a typical day, I will wake up at 6:00 AM and run for an hour. I then take a bucket-shower, eat breakfast, and go to training by 8:00 AM. Training gruelingly goes until 6:00 PM. After training, I head back to my host family's house and practice my Darija. During Sundays, my group and I get free time to do other things. The city is surrounded by miles and miles of foot hills and magnificent ridges. This Sunday, a few of my group members and I are going to do some serious hiking.
I haven't experienced anything too negative except for kids throwing rocks at me and another group member. The kids were around 6 or 8 years old. I almost turned around to chase the kids, but decided to just grin and bare it. The Peace Corps briefed us on situations like this. Another interesting encounter or situation that had occurred more than once was the locals not believing that I am from the US. They assume that I am from Africa. In my opinion, I think US media is basically transmitting crap to other countries. I've seen the commercials played here in Morocco, and they are just grossly ridiculous (i.e. they do not portray an accurate representation of the US). Oh well, I suppose this is an issue within the US, as well. Other than that, things are going steadily, albeit incredibly slow.
Thanks,
I think I am finally finding my voice for blog posts. I usually do not write journals, so my posts may appear a little dry. Hopefully this will change as I progress through the months.
Anyway, my group and I have successfully completed a full week of training, and are steadily completing our second week. Training is going very well. We are learning Darija at a very fast pace. Some days, we will go out to the market and try out our Darija, however our accents really inhibit our capacity to bargain. Also, we spend time speaking with random strangers, in order to hone our language skills. I think what really helps us learn Darija is our daily interactions with our host families. Everyday, I am able to have much more in-depth conversations with my host family, although I revert to Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) often. It is amazing to me how common it is for Moroccan families to speak and read Darija, MSA, and French all within the same households.
I am finally getting acclimated to my new home. During a typical day, I will wake up at 6:00 AM and run for an hour. I then take a bucket-shower, eat breakfast, and go to training by 8:00 AM. Training gruelingly goes until 6:00 PM. After training, I head back to my host family's house and practice my Darija. During Sundays, my group and I get free time to do other things. The city is surrounded by miles and miles of foot hills and magnificent ridges. This Sunday, a few of my group members and I are going to do some serious hiking.
I haven't experienced anything too negative except for kids throwing rocks at me and another group member. The kids were around 6 or 8 years old. I almost turned around to chase the kids, but decided to just grin and bare it. The Peace Corps briefed us on situations like this. Another interesting encounter or situation that had occurred more than once was the locals not believing that I am from the US. They assume that I am from Africa. In my opinion, I think US media is basically transmitting crap to other countries. I've seen the commercials played here in Morocco, and they are just grossly ridiculous (i.e. they do not portray an accurate representation of the US). Oh well, I suppose this is an issue within the US, as well. Other than that, things are going steadily, albeit incredibly slow.
Thanks,
Friday, September 24, 2010
Training Site
Hello readers,
I finally made it to my training site, which is a medium sized city in Morocco, near Azrou. The city is nice, but much different from the cities in the United States. The people are also nice and tolerate foreigners well. The weather here is warm and dry, although it rains sometimes, and the climate is arid. The geography is comparable to Eastern Washington.
My host family is incredibly nice. The family consists of a married couple with an 11 year old boy, a 17 year old boy, and a 5 year old girl. The mother and 17 year old boy speak Modern Standard Arabic, so I am able to stumble my way through conversations. However, the 5 year old girl continually speaks to me in French. I just nod my head and smile continuously. The children enjoy playing my guitar, which makes it difficult for me to practice. In all, the family is great and very hospitable.
I am adjusting well to daily life here in Morocco. I jog with my host family's 17 year old son in the mornings. We have to carry rocks when we jog because there are wild dogs or coyote outside of the town limits. I took a Tea Kwon Dow class with the 17 year old son, which was pretty intensive. The Tea kwon Dow school is going to give my group and I classes three days a week during our 10 week training. Also, the Dojo has showers, which was nice, since my host-family heats up water for me to take bucket showers in the morning. Lastly, the Turkish toilets are pretty interesting. I won't go into any details, but they are pretty intimidating.
The food is great in Morocco. There are about 5 meals a day with lots of mint tea and coffee. Being a lefty has been an uphill battle for me, since it is culturally unacceptable to use your left hand to eat. However, I am getting the hang of it and my host-family is very supportive or very humorously intrigued. Also, my host-family expects me to eat lots of food, so I am constantly having to say I am full during meals. Luckily, the food is not processed and unhealthy.
Training is pretty intense. The first half of the day consists of language training. I am now getting the hang of Moroccan Arabic, but it is still very different from Modern Standard Arabic. The second half of the day consists of cross cultural studies, although this will change to small business development technical training later on. Some days we go out to the streets and practice our Arabic lessons during the first half of the day. Training begins at 8 AM and ends at 6 PM, Monday through Saturday. On Sundays, we get a full day to spend with our host family and group members. My group consists of 7 people, including the trainer and myself. The days seem to go incredibly slow; but, like basic training, I am sure things will pick up.
In summary, I am having a great time. I have not gotten sick yet (inshallah). I am adjusting well to the cultural differences and the absence of western amenities. Lastly, the following are some answers to questions that you might have:
1. Is toilet paper used? No, the left hand is commonly used, but I use toilet paper.
2. Are food dishes and cups communal? Yes, although my host-family provides a spoon for me.
3. The primary form of transportation is by foot.
4. Living conditions are very modest compared to most parts of Seattle and the United States.
5. The locals in my city speak mostly French, Moroccan Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic.
Thank you,
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Orientation
Hello readers,
I am now located in a small beach-side town north of Rabat. My group and I will be receiving orientation briefings, and meeting PC staff and officials for the next couple of days. The town is small and quaint, and has a nice draw or awe to it. After daily briefings, we are able to venture out to the beaches and enjoy the scenery. Moreover, in the mornings, groups of us are able to jog and enjoy cooler weather. Currently, the weather during the day is humid, although not extremely hot, just messy.
We are just a few days away from moving in with our host-families, so this can be considered a sort of "silence before the storm" period. The room and board is pretty nice. It is not as convenient as what you have in the states, but we are able to manage pretty well. I also want to add that The food and mint tea has been excellent.
We had just started learning some Moroccan Arabic terms; and, unfortunately, Moroccan Arabic or Darija has many nuances compared to Modern Standard Arabic of which I have studied. I do not think I will have any problems transitioning between the two, however I will have a small learning curve, albeit not as large as my counterparts.
In all, things are going well and I have not run into any shell-shockers yet, although I have only been in country for two days. The volunteers are a great group of people and everyone, from the locals to the staff, have been real nice.
Thank you,
I am now located in a small beach-side town north of Rabat. My group and I will be receiving orientation briefings, and meeting PC staff and officials for the next couple of days. The town is small and quaint, and has a nice draw or awe to it. After daily briefings, we are able to venture out to the beaches and enjoy the scenery. Moreover, in the mornings, groups of us are able to jog and enjoy cooler weather. Currently, the weather during the day is humid, although not extremely hot, just messy.
We are just a few days away from moving in with our host-families, so this can be considered a sort of "silence before the storm" period. The room and board is pretty nice. It is not as convenient as what you have in the states, but we are able to manage pretty well. I also want to add that The food and mint tea has been excellent.
We had just started learning some Moroccan Arabic terms; and, unfortunately, Moroccan Arabic or Darija has many nuances compared to Modern Standard Arabic of which I have studied. I do not think I will have any problems transitioning between the two, however I will have a small learning curve, albeit not as large as my counterparts.
In all, things are going well and I have not run into any shell-shockers yet, although I have only been in country for two days. The volunteers are a great group of people and everyone, from the locals to the staff, have been real nice.
Thank you,
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Getting Closer
Hello readers,
I finally left for Morocco, and today I am in Philadelphia where I will begin the staging process. From Philadelphia, I travel to Casablanca and spend a few days in a beach side town near Rabat. My three month training, however, will be near the Atlas mountains. After that, in November, I will be sent to a region of Morocco where I will spend two years performing my services.
I haven't yet met any other Peace Corps volunteers, but I heard there were a lot of arrivals at my hotel, although I am a day early. I did meet a well versed and avid traveller from Israel during my plane flight to Philadelphia who really inspired me to enjoy my surroundings. If you are reading this blog, I wanted to say thank you and keep in touch.
Other than that, I am still just preparing I guess. I will have pictures and possibly videos very soon, so stay tuned.
Thank you,
I finally left for Morocco, and today I am in Philadelphia where I will begin the staging process. From Philadelphia, I travel to Casablanca and spend a few days in a beach side town near Rabat. My three month training, however, will be near the Atlas mountains. After that, in November, I will be sent to a region of Morocco where I will spend two years performing my services.
I haven't yet met any other Peace Corps volunteers, but I heard there were a lot of arrivals at my hotel, although I am a day early. I did meet a well versed and avid traveller from Israel during my plane flight to Philadelphia who really inspired me to enjoy my surroundings. If you are reading this blog, I wanted to say thank you and keep in touch.
Other than that, I am still just preparing I guess. I will have pictures and possibly videos very soon, so stay tuned.
Thank you,
Monday, August 23, 2010
Preparation
Hello readers,
After a year of waiting, I finally received an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps as a small business developer. My place of duty will be Morocco starting in September of 2010 to November of 2012. I am very excited and anxious to begin my Peace Corps service. This blog will act as a chronicle of my experience and work during my service in Morocco, including pictures and recounts of my daily activities. I hope to be thorough and informative.
Enjoy,
Damion
After a year of waiting, I finally received an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps as a small business developer. My place of duty will be Morocco starting in September of 2010 to November of 2012. I am very excited and anxious to begin my Peace Corps service. This blog will act as a chronicle of my experience and work during my service in Morocco, including pictures and recounts of my daily activities. I hope to be thorough and informative.
Enjoy,
Damion
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