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,