Cold but happy

Salam!
How are you? Good I hope. I hope this blog finds you in giddy holiday spirits! I tell you what, I will miss Christmas season sooo much but I certainly wont miss shopping or holiday traffic! Lol…silly Americans ;) jk. So everything is still going well and I am settling into volunteer life nicely. I have been in my site almost 2 weeks now and slowly but surely I feel a purpose coming on. ;) The cold has been a bit more bearable and I traveled to a close town this past weekend to see some volunteers and there the weather was awesome! I didn’t wear gloves for 3 days and I saw my feet for the 1st time in weeks lol.

Work has been a little slow because next week all the businesses and my 2 places of work will close for Leid Kabir which is a HUGE Moroccan holiday so there was no sense in starting anything until it passes. For now I just wander around town, meet people, make posters for my classroom and spend hours trying to type up flyers in Arabic script. Today was my first really boring day and now that its 10pm and I realize I am still doing my list of errands, it makes me rethink how boring it actually was. I think I am just use to American pace and things simply don’t work like that here. One of my frustrations is the role of women in public. For instance my town is semi-conservative so there are tons of sidewalk cafes but only men are allowed to frequent them. Sounds like a small thing but at times I just wander around town looking like the ‘lost American’ cause I am trying to meet people but women really just go to school, the nedi or home. I know it will be ok in the future but for now it would be nice to have somewhere to go to socialize (or to have a hot cup of coffee).

Once Leid Kabir passes my schedule will change drastically. I will most likely be teaching English twice a week and the nedi, Aerobics twice a week at the nedi, English 4 times a week at the Dar Taliba, and aerobics twice a week at the Dar Chebab. Later, once I have established myself and learned some more language I will try to start art, environment and sports clubs at the Dar Taliba. I am excited to start working but this free time has been great to start making my lesson plans and today I also found my Arabic tutor! Yay!

My town has been buzzing in preparation for the big holiday. I had a good laugh the other day when I was walking to work. There were people everywhere at the souk (outdoor market) and they were scrambling trying to auction off and buy sheep (every family slaughters a sheep for this holiday) and I swear to god it reminded me of a mall in America. It was Bouarfa’s version of Christmas shopping.

I am still really happy and really looking forward to beginning my hunt for my own house! By the end of January I will be moving out of my home stay family’s house. On December 11th we celebrated our 3rd month here…feels like I have been here much longer, daily I experience things that were not normal to me when I first got here and now I don’t even give them a second glance.

I have been receiving some really awesome mail from you guys thank you soooo much. Just as a reminder. My address is BP #158 Bouarfa Morocco 61200. To increase your chances of it getting here safely….write ‘Air Mail’ and ‘Teaching Materials’ on the envelope or box. It is my personal po box so now you can send packages of all sizes. Please don’t send anything of great value. Lastly people keep asking me what I want for Christmas. Postage is very expensive and I already won the lottery of life so I really don’t need anything. BUT lol…if you must send something I SWEAR this is what I want…don’t laugh. It’s the little things around here.

-Reduced fat Cheez its (my cravings for American food have become unreal)
-REESES PEANUT BUTTER CUPS
-M&M’s
-Baking Powder
-Magazines
-Books
-Fat markers
-Or just a friendly letter :)

That’s it! I am a low maintance girl…lol well that and it costs an arm and a leg to mail $2 worth of crackers to me.

I miss you all sooo much…I watched ‘My girl’ and cried for the 1st time since ive been here…I knew it was coming but one minute I was crying over Thomas J dying from bee stings and the next minute I had a full fledged ‘Im gonna miss Christmas’ meltdown. Hehehe atleast I can laugh at myself! While I will miss the holidays I know I am where I am supposed to be right now and I have a lifetime of American holidays ahead of me…enshallah. (Enshallah means god willing in Arabic)

I LOVE YOU! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
xoxo
Kris

Ps the pictures included are of my town, the main street I walk down everyday, the big mosque in town, a boy walking his goat, sheep crossing the street, my BEAUTIFUL sunset (hard to capture) and me with my two AMAZING site mates…hannah blonde on left and kirsten on my right. WE ROCK BOUARFA! :)