Wow what a wild week this has been. After spending 6 months in site all the volunteers gather for IST (In service training) It is a chance to refresh our ideas, exchange sucesses and learn about new policies etc. This training occured last week and Luck for us it was in one of Morocco's greatest beach towns, Agadir. The whole week was amazing and overwhelming so I will try my best to write about it without babbling.
Agadir is one of the furthest possible places from my site. It is about 19 hours each way on a bus. So I started my trip and then stopped a few times along the way. First in Errichidia where my boyfriend lives. Then the next day I met up with some other volunteers and headed to Ouarzazate which is famous for being the town where Gladiator was filmed. We stayed in a hotel that had a BATHTUB in our room....no you dont understand...there was a BATHTUB! I literally havent seen one in nearly 9 months and in the states I loved baths! I went crazy and claimed an hour in the bathroom that evening....in a word it was heaven. Another amazing site was an outdoor movie that they played in a courtyard by our hotel. It was in French (Morocco's second language) so I didnt understand but it was such a beautiful site cause there were all these Moroccan Families enjoying the nice weather and the free 'walk in' movie! As you can see pretty much anything excites me nowadays since not much goes on in my parts. :)
The next day we continued our never ending journey. We went to a BEAUTIFUL city named Taghazoute. It is the surf town of Morocco. I got to wear shorts in public! AHHH fabulous! Also the beach was STUNNING! We also stayed in a reallly nice apartment and it was just great! I have included a picture of a cafe Florida that they had across the street from my place...how appropriate. FINALLY the next morning we headed to Agadir for our training. We got to see all the volunteers we havent seen in 6 months and the whole week was spent comparing stories and catching up. I swam everyday and also feel asleep to ENGLISH television...holy moly what more could a girl ask for. I got to see my best friend and we had a blast rooming together all week. Did I mention this hotel also had a bath tub?! :) Our days were spent in really helpful sessions and then our nights consisted of walking on the boardwalk to eat cheeseburgers and icecream...some one pinch me! This town is a complete tourist town so for a week we lived it up! It was like a free pass to be myself, hang out with people I love and eat ice cream for dinner! That being said it was a bit overwhelming at times. I nearly had a panic attack in a grocery store. Its important to note that Morocco is far more developed than some other peace corps countries but my site certaintly doesnt have grocery stores...there were so many choices I ended up not really liking it cause it was simply too stressful. (God help me if I ever return to Walmart!) This town really helped me see the Tourist side of Morocco. I understand now why people come here for vacation but in some ways towns like Agadir misrepresent what my version of Morocco is like. Either way it was a great time and I was genuinely worried about having culture shock just from all the beauty I had seen there (not to mention the 4 star hotel Peace corps generously put us in.)
Not ready to leave my own personal heaven, I said goodbye to all my amazing fellow volunteers and headed back on my 19 hour bus ride. I stopped at friends site on the way but just to spend the night. Then I went to Floyds for a few days to ease my way back into reality. I had a really great day. There are two kinds of great days here. Sometimes Im on cloud nine cause my class understood a hard story in english or cause I went on a picnic with my girls but then there are happy personal days here too. In the states I rarely had time to slow down and do anything for myself...well let me tell you it is great! I slept in and then floyd and I ate breakfast and read the news online. I was in the mood to cook so I headed off to the Market on a beautiful day and bought some stuff. I made homeade BBQ Potatoe chips and they came out great! I will have to pass on the recipe. I also made fresh squeezed lemonade and Peanut butter and jelly sandwhices! Then I finished another great book (Im nearing 30) and then Floyds site has a nice hotel pool that we can use for a cheap price and its starting to really heat up so we spent a whole afternoon poolside which was great! When we returned it was just about to rain and the whole town had that great pre rain humidity smell! I went back to the market, made chicken quesidillas and then after we ate we watched great debaters (amazing movie) and then went to sleep. These are some of the days I will miss the most when I am done with Peace Corps.
The next day I left and headed back home. While it is no Agadir I sure did miss Bouarfa. I was scared that I would come back after a week in 'little america' and be totally overwhelmed. But much to my surprise it was a great day. I had class and I tried something new with my students...I wasnt sure if the text would be too hard but we read a story on Rain Forests and the effects of Global Warming and they understood it! I finally feel like my teaching is working and it was an amazing feeling...they are so talented. Then after class I ran to my friend Loubna's Aunts and uncles house. I just need to drop off a present from agadir for their adorable daughter Aya but ofcourse they invited me for tea and bread. I sat with them for a while and I realized if I take nothing else from this experience I will take a whole new meaning of the word family. While I was gone Loubna watched my cat and apparently my fridge broke. Loubna and her Aunt took EVERYTHING out of my fridge and brought it all the way to their house in an attempt to save food I probably should have thrown out 2 weeks ago. When I was apologizing for their troubles her uncle looked at me and said 'Dont apologize, thats what families are for and you are like our sister now.' I have never felt such an abundance of love from people who were strangers to me just months ago. I miss my family more than words can express but sometimes the pain subsides cause I have people like Loubnas family to take care of me. I only hope one day I can be that 2nd family to someone like these people have been for me.
Summer is approaching and I am really excited. In 2 weeks I am going to Spain! YAY! I am just going to spend a week and it will be the first real vacation Ive had in a while. Then when I get back I will have 2 slow work weeks in site, then my BEST FRIEND REENA is visiting from the states. And finally the day after she leaves I will spend a month in a beach town for Summer camp! I think it will be great and Im really excited. Time is flying by and this week at training I got tons of new ideas for next year! I am going to try to stop teaching so much english and focus on other things like AIDS awareness, womens health etc. The Peace Corps is deciding what volunteers roles will be in the World Food Crisis so there may even be new work with that. The world food crisis is prevelant even in Morocco, lately there has been tons of strikes in my town cause of the cost of flour. We are lucky for now though cause Volunteers in other countries in our Region are reporting that their community members have started giving up lunch because they simply cant afford it. Its a very interesting time to be abroad right now and I really hope I can help some how in this area.
Anyway sorry for talking your ears off....I hope you enjoy my stories and the pictures. The pictures include the beach, me teaching Moroccans how to 'Brush your shoulders off' and how to do the 'Grocery Cart', Cafe Florida, an I miss you shout out to all of you, and last but not least a quad cannon ball...we perfected our diving in the 3 pools our hotel had.
I miss you all like crazy and I hope all is well! Email me and let me know how life is treating you! I love you to the moon and back!
xoxo
kris
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