March, April, May, June... oh wait, its July!? Ooops!

Ok. I admit it.  I have a problem.  I am the worlds worst blogger.  But here I am, however many months later… admitting my problem and working to fix it. 

Now the hard part.  Where do I even begin?  So much has happened.  I guess I should start with life in general?  I’ve now been in Morocco for about 16 months- and like I’ve said before… it’s been the longest and shortest 16 months of my life.  I’ve grown, cried, wanted to go home, loved my life and every feeling or emotion in-between.  The only way I can think of retelling my adventures is month by month.  So here ya go!  By the way, I just looked BACK at my last post and wow- I really do suck!  Heres a short summary of the last 6 months!

March 

I finally got the SPA funding for my desks project and this was the month I spent talking to my carpenter to get the project started.  The project consisted of 45 new desks, 2 blackboards and a bookshelf for two preschools which also double as women’s literacy centers in villages nearby.  This project is ALMOST completed as of July!!  This month we also received the newest staj of health and environment volunteers into the country.  This will be the LAST group of health and environment volunteers since now all PCVs in Morocco will be youth development.  This also means this is the last group to be learning any berber dialects (like Tashlheet, which I speak) since all incomers will now only be learning Moroccan Arabic (Darija). 

April  

This month I made my first trip up north and spent a few days in Fez!  I was there to visit friends but also because Small Business Development Volunteers were holding a craft fair (Marche Maroc) and I wanted to get gifts for my soon-to be trip home.   I loved the city, got to visit the tanneries, ate lots of McDonalds and did a lot of walking around the medina area.  I hope to make another trip up north again soon!  April also held Spring Camp!!!  This is a week long English camp that PCVs help coordinate and run.  A friend of mine was organizing the camp and since I’d already be waaaaay up north I figured why not.  I did camp with 5 other voltuneers.  We all taught English 3 hours in the morning and then had clubs/activities with the kids in the afternoon.  When I say afternoon I mean UNTIL ABOUT MIDNIGHT EVERYNIGHT!  I have no idea how these kids had so much energy but they did-  7-midnight for a week.  It was a very long week… my class made me cry (by talking crap about me, in front of me, in a language I don’t know) but I also met some amazing kids.  Some of the highlights include: 3 other PCV girls and I did a dance performance of Waka Waka by Shakira which had an encore performance featuring girls from our camp, the kids all crying and wanting signatures the last night (I guess they REALLY liked camp) and being called ‘miskeena=sad/pathetic/poor’ by one of my campers after seeing pictures of my home.  Overall, long but fun week!  After camp I also visited a good friends site nearby.  Finally (whoa—this month was busy!)  I met my new site mate, Alex this month.  Oh yeah. And Lily got hit by a car.  But don’t worry, she’s fine now.  Tough little pup!

May 

Aghhhh!  What a wonderful, fabulous, amazing month!  This month my beautiful, amazing younger sister Gabbi graduated from CSU in May and my fabulous father purchased my ticket so I could be home in Colorado for the event.  It was amazing.  I got to see all my fabulous friends, family, old co-workers and enjoy all the fabulous-ness that is amazing for a beautiful 2 ½ weeks.  I wont bore you with the stories of America since chances are you LIVE there… but let me tell you… I miss that country!  Hot water, amazing restaurants with fabulous service, air conditioning, no restrictions on clothes/makeup/hair, English all the time and all the people I love the most.  It was a GREAT trip home and I really can’t imagine it being ANY better than it was!

June 

Another busy month!  (I have a feeling the next 10 will be this way!  Well- minus August, which is Ramadan!)  Lindas home!! A dear friend of mine, Linda, that lives about 30 K away returned home after some medical stuff in South Africa so I went to visit her with my two newbies, Alex (sitemate) and Louis (Steves replacement- he lives about 20K further into the mountain).  I also hosted a BBQ at my site this month, which was my first gathering of more than 2 voltuneers.  The point of this bbq was to say our farewells to Andy.  Yes, Andy has left.  Sad news, I know.  He has such a great source of knowledge to have around and I have been honored and privileged to have been able to get to know him over the last year!  The BBQ was fun, we ate lots of American foods (thanks to everyone who’s sent boxes for all the care package goodies!), grilled and played beer pong!!  June was also Gnaua, a music festival that happens every year in Essaouria.  LOTS of volunteers go so it’s a great chance for us to all hang out, listen to good music (if we go to the concerts), wear dresses/makeup and have a mini vacation in country! 

July 

This month!!!  Finally, I never thought I’d get there!  Most of the volunteers in the Ouarzazate and surrounding area celebrated the 4^th of July in Ouarzazate at a hotel pool in the city!  We even made brownies and homemade ice cream to celebrate the holiday.  I also had a meeting with the men who I will be working on for my upcoming Sanitation System grant (THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU DONATED!!!) recently and we’re all really excited to get this show on the road.  We’re going to be buying supplies for the project this month (inchallah) and start digging right after Ramadan.

Whelp… I think that’s about it.  I promise I’ll get better at this, I only have 10 months to get my butt in gear but I’ll try... Really hard... I will!!  As always, any and all responses are appreciated… hey, think of it this way… Your responses will make me happy and when I’m happy I write more blog posts.  Its science!  So do it!  Hit the response button!  NOW!