We have successfully finished salaam one, our language class! On the last day of class, the king was in town, so we took a walk to see him. Heidi saw him waving, the rest of us just saw his car. One the way home we stopped by a clinic and saw the new baby girl of our one teachers and his wife. Some of us will continue with language studies but others are finished.
Yesterday we were given four more froshes for our apartment. We put two in the corner of our study/living room and it really makes the place comfortable and homier. We were joking about it being our home makeover.
This next week will be full of new things for most of us. Some new things include starting salaam two, teaching at the American school, tutoring, helping with health awareness, and taking a trip to an orphanage. Each of us will end up being involved in different areas, though many of the areas overlap.
We are thankful for:
-Cooking for ourselves is going very well
-We have many supportive and encouraging friends here
Things to remember:
-That we would take time in our days to just stop and be thankful
-That we would be effective in our relationships, what we say and what we do

--Jen for the team

It's just a feeling...

What does Morocco feel like?

It is my icy toes, trying desperately to pull heat from my muddy black shoes. The pitter patter of raindrops on my hair and face and hands as we wind through the crowded streets. And the sunshine that slides down over my skin and cloaks me in sweet, glittering warmth.

It is the itchiness of the worn blanket that has sheltered every member of my new family. It is the uneven and unyielding pillow that consistently wakes me to remind me that, in this country, softness is the exception rather than the rule. And the settling of heat that wraps around my body as I drift off to sleep.

It is the bumping, jostling, bouncing of the bus that tosses its passengers from side to side, and the crushing of toes from a neighbor’s unsteady foot. The bodies against bodies against bodies as my life overlaps with those of my fellow passengers. And the plastic bus seat that provides me with a haven of privacy as I sink below eye level of those standing around me.

It is the gentle touch of elderly hands that slip over mine as I yawn and settle further down into my blankets. The firm, genuine, enthusiastic embrace that takes me by the shoulders and pulls me closer, closer, closer. And the softness of cheek touching cheek in welcoming kisses.

We have an apartment!

A toilet, a shower, hot water, a washing machine, and windows. A month ago, I'm not sure I would have expected to be so incredibly grateful for things that we consider in the states to be bare necessities. But after four weeks with host families, the last two of which none of us had access to a shower except the hammam- or public bathhouse- we are very grateful for some familiar facilities and our own space. As of Monday, we have moved into our new apartment, about a week or two before we had expected to. The apartment opened up and we looked at it, loved it and, for various reasons, decided we were ready to have our own space. It has been great so far. I'm finally unpacked and am no longer living out of my suitcase (after a month of being away from home...) We're learning to do our own shopping and using the wonderful vocabulary and phrases we've learned in Arabic class.
Speaking of Arabic class, we have about a week or a week and a half left in Salaam 1 (the first level class). We have finally learned how to conjugate verbs, which would have been very helpful to have while we were in host families, but the teachers kept telling us, "No, you can wait. You don't need verbs yet." I'm not quite sure what they had in mind for us to use in place of verbs in a sentence; we have learned through various forms that verbs are very important, pretty much essential to the structure of a sentence! At this point, we are not yet sure where language study will go after we complete Salaam 1.
It's really good for us as a team to all be finally living in one place. It helps our communication about different things a lot! We are still working on finding volunteer opportunities and have meetings set up with some of our contact people to help us get started. We have formed a lot of good relationships, both with Moroccans and other expatriates here. One struggle with that may become trying to figure out which relationships to invest in more heavily, because as we were told by a fellow expat, Moroccans have high expectations for relationships.

Things to keep in mind for us:
-language learning- clarity of mind and brains like sponges is what we need right now!
-relationships with Moroccans
-team unity as we now live together, which will help communication, but will pose other challenges.
-wisdom and open doors for volunteering.

We're thankful for:
-our apartment!
-the unity we have experienced so far.
-the relationships we have established
-the opportunities we have had to learn more about our options for volunteer work.


Thanks for your thoughts,

Jamila for the team