Cha cha cha Changes and Rebooting the matrix

Well it's has been a long time since I wrote a blog entry, In fact, my last posting was on my birthday (August 21). Ouch! Of course a lot has happened since then with most of the cool stuff being shared on Facebook already. The pictures from my travels and around town occurrences has been shared for the masses online and I think that's been making me lazy about keeping up with this blog, so in the spirit of honesty I will not lie and say things will change and I will start posting more frequently because I know that is BS. What I will say is that I will try to be more introspective about my service moving forward and share more of my observations and the people, customs, and places that I engage with here. How's that sound? 

This message was to merely reflect the changing flow of my posting moving forward. Be on the lookout for new updates and posting in the near future. And of course be sure to check out my facebook page and twitter (@djbool) as my acocunts are linked things are shown on both sites. 

Thanks for following my journey for over the last year and the next 15+ months to come

:)

D

New Challenges; New Adventure

I really have to get better about these blogs updates. I can’t even BS and say it’s because I’m too busy so I just say….LOOK OVER THERE-------------- > What’s this? A new blog being typed.

So I have been in my final site in Morocco for over a month now and I have to be honest and say this transition has been harder than I thought. I always believed that my outgoing personality was one of my strongest traits, but here in Morocco, that doesn’t come out often. It took me a long time to realize why that was and then *BAM* it hit me. Language. I am able to be boisterous and energizing because my target audience understood what I was saying, slang and all. Here in Morocco I am an outsider and one who is still attempting to learn the language needed to be successful here. It’s not that the people around me are doing things to see me fail, but rather my own anxieties regarding my language skills doing so. I am glad to be aware of this issue early in my service and I am taking steps (baby steps truly) to counter this. As of two weeks ago, I know teach an English language class three days a week and that not only aids my students in learning English, but also boost my practice and comprehension of Darija (Moroccan Arabic). Fingers-crossed; by the next blog posting my concerns with my language learning will dissipate significantly, as I hope to have a tutor soon as well.

Now back to my site and service in a less complaining manner, I like my town a lot. It’s quiet, beautiful with a nice view of the mountains in the distance, and full of youthful energy. Every day that I walk around town there is the laughter of children having fun with friends and family.  Yes, my town is small and there are not a lot of options in terms of entertainment and leisure activities besides cafes and a few internet cyber cafes, but that doesn’t keep people from enjoying themselves here. My hope is that I get to know the town and it’s inhabitants more that I will be able to bring them in to the Dar Chabab (Youth Center) for all the wonderful things we currently and potentially will offer. Billiards, Table Tennis, Music Equipment, and Books galore are just few things we have now and of course the awesomeness that is my English class. I currently have 4-7 students coming daily with the hope to expand after the summer (Summer is Morocco is similar to the US in that families tend to travel, kids don’t have school, and it’s hot as hell; This also means the Dar Chabab drops in attendance and typically closes as least 1 month in the summer months of June, July, and August).

In other news, I am still in the process of finding permanent housing here in town and it’s much harder than searching in the states. Haha. For one thing, there are no red and white signs advertising ‘For Rent’ across town. Here it’s all about getting out and talking to people in towns. At cafes, banks, stores, etc… Without those 1-1 interactions, it’s near impossible to find a suitable home. Fortunately, my host family has been gracious enough to allow me to stay with them for another month through May so that helps, but I am definitely ready to get back to autonomy of living alone. I miss sleeping in nothing if I choose, having cereal for breakfast, not eating dinner at midnight (That happens here more than you might think), among other things. However, on the flipside I will miss prepared, balanced meals, mom washing and folding my laundry, underwear included, and the company of good people around all the time. It’s a complicated position to say the least : )

I guess in closing I will say that my service thus far has been full of fun and failure just the same. I know that I will face many more challenges over the next two years and I remain ever positive and hopeful for the best in my service. I do believe that I can work with my community to make meaningful change in the place we all call home now. Be sure to keep up with my Facebook post, pics, and of course this blog for the latest and continue following my adventure.

P.S. Below you will find my address here in Morocco if you would like to send a care package or just words of encouragement. 

Daviyion Johnson

BP 73

Rue Abdelaziz Ben Driss Msila

Bhalil, Morocco 31102

Here are a few recommended guidelines:

1. Please send through the US Postal Service, not through FedEx or UPS
2. Don’t send anything valuable, in case the package gets lost or stolen or whatever
3. Take items out of their packaging, when possible, so that things don’t look too new or nice – to prevent theft
4. If you have to declare the value of the contents of the package on a custom form, don’t put a high amount! I’ll have to pay lots of fees to get my package if you do! Again, if you’re not sending valuables, this shouldn’t be an issue. Mark it as a gift on the customs form, too
5. If you don’t need to send something in a box, send it in a padded envelope! It’s apparently less likely to be opened and taxed. Otherwise, use the USPS Flat Rate boxes to keep costs down

My Crazy Moroccan life (sorry for the long wait)

Well well it's been awhile old friends and I'm sorry to all my friends and family for the delay in writing a new post. I haven't been motivated lately to write blogs, but hopefully most folks have been seeing my pictures and statuses on Facebook. I know I mentioned last time that I would start an audio component to my blog, but since I'm typing this on my phone that will happen next time. 

Okay. Here we go. I had an amazing time leaving with my host family in Agourai over the past few months. The love, support, food, and laughs were the best and I really will miss them now that I have left. My fellow volunteers and I threw an awesome going away party for all our host families and it was a blasty-blast. 

Shortly after leaving our beautiful town, we headed back to Rabat, which is the capital of Morocco for some much-needed R&R, but not before taking language proficiency, (I did surprising better than expected) and then we learned about our site assignments. Did I mention this whole process took place over two of the most intense days I've experience in a while? Finding out where you are living for the next two years coupled with wanting to do well on a test was beyond stressful. Whew! 

Now back to my site assignment. I ended up in a small town near Fes, which is cool but as was the case with many of my fellow PCTs (still trainees because we didn't swear in officially till week's end) it wasn't exactly what I wanted but I tried to believe it's the place I'm meant to be. 

In addition, to skip over all the boring parts I will just say that being sworn in by the Secretary of State was pretty cool and taking the same oath as the President of The United States was awesome! I doubt that will be the last one I ever take, inshallah (god willing). 

The next morning after a fun night of partying with my now fellow PCV (volunteers), we all said our goodbyes with many hugs and tears exchanged and began the short or very long treks to our new communities. (Mines was only 3.5 hours away; others had to go 14+ hours, youch!)

Now I'm in site with a wonderful new host family for a few more weeks and then I have to (in no particular order): did a place to live, get a tutor, find a community counterpart, make a difference in my Dar Chabab and community, and change the world. Haha. It's been a stressful and trying several days, but no one ever said it would be easy trying to integrate with a community, especially when your language skills are there still, but they will. 

Right now I'm focusing on bonding with my host fam and building a relationship with my Mudir (director of youth center). He seems to be a good person who will take an active role in bringing life to the Dar Chabab (youth center). We have pool, table tennis, and a sweet sports complex attached to my center so I'm hoping these will be big draws for young people and eventually the community to come and engage with me. If for no other reason but to see a live action American doing American stuff, whatever that may be :)

Until next time

Anas wlla (or) Daviyion 

As always here is a boatload of pics for your viewing pleasure. 

My CBT mates and two current volunteers that helped us

My old host family in Agourai (Most of them)

From my first class taught to Moroccans

My place of work for the next two years

Me new host family (Most of them)

Almost a month in Morocco and it's awesome!!

Greetings from Morocco! I am Anas. Haha. That is my Moroccan name given to me by my host family actually.

I realized I haven't added a new post in quite sometime and I figured I'd take advantage of WiFi for a posting. Well goodness where do I start? I just I'll start with food. Man it's so much food here and I don't know how well Operation Weight Loss is going thus far, but it's okay. I walk around so much and so far that I am probably doing better than I think. I have started using a smaller belt loop and that's great! But back to the food....its amazing!!!  I have had goat, beef, sheep, and chicken in the two plus weeks I've been here. I have tons of potatoes, carrots, and peppers. All veggies I'm cool with. There have been tasty desserts, amazing Moroccan pizza (Can't wait to make that in the states!), and stacks on stacks of xubz (bread).

In regards to everything else, it's been good to okay. The host family I'm with is pretty cool. I have three sisters and one brother and I brought a gift for the children and they love it! Who knew Moroccans loved puzzles so much. My sisters love it and out it together like 20 times since I gave not to them. There have even been some speed competitions between family members, myself included. Here at home it's great. My family essential lives in a mansion, by Moroccan standards, which is awesome. We have a nice place and I have my own room downstairs. Can't complain. The language and cultures classes are good and I'm taking in lots of information. Now I just need to translate all this information into actually knowledge retention so I can speak with my family and the youth at the Dar Chabab (Youth Center). Its tough being somewhere and somewhat feeling like a baby. A baby in the sense that I don't know the language and have to rely on others to communicate for me and I have to use gestures sometimes to convey my thoughts and desires. That's rough. I am currently trying some new strategies for memory retention so for those of you that have had to learn a new language please share your strategies with me.

What else? Hmmm..... Oh yeah today I went to my first souk, which is basically a big outdoor flea market full of food, gear, and randomness. There was a man selling doors next to a man selling chickens next to a man selling cellphones and of course a person selling popcorn and sardines. Yeah that's souk to give you an idea. It was great though and I bought some chocolate and we had beef! And made made hamburgers with it of course. That's Americans for ya.

Jumping back to the language classes briefly, my group of fellow trainees are awesome. They are five other cool cats that I get to spend nearly all day with. Our teacher, Ayoub is awesome as well and we truly are lucky because he actually went to school for linguistics and got his Bachelors and Masters in the subject as well. How cool is that?!

Well that's all for now world, but here are more pictures for your viewing pleasure. Some of my family ; some of my surroundings. Be sure to post comments and ask questions and I'll do my best to respond back.

bslama (goodbye) for now

Sheep Head ( I am going to eat some of that!)

Closeup of Dolly

Dolly no more

The Souk (Outdoor Market). Comes on Thursdays in my town

Family time. my youngest sisters working on a puzzle I brought

Success!

My language teacher (Ayoub) and my host brother trying to beat the girl's time

Somewhere over....you get the idea