It's official..I'm a Peace Corps volunteer!

            At last, training is over and I am an official Peace Corps volunteer! We all swore in on May 25 and after a rockin’ night in the city of Ouarzazate, we all went our separate ways to our final sites. Alex (the other volunteer in my staj in the Ouarzazate province) and I had an appointment with the Ministry of Health to obtain some papers so that we could legally work in Morocco. I spent the night with Alexa (another health volunteer who lives close to me and has been here for a year) on Thursday, and we headed back the next day to the city for our meeting at 10:00. Alex was running late due to transportation issues, and as he was calling me at 11:30 telling me he was finally in the city, we were getting told that we had to come back on Monday. When Alexa asked them why we couldn’t do it then and that Alex was on his way, they answered: Just because. Ahhh such is life in Morocco.

On Friday I arrived to my final site, Tamlakout. Apparently, Tamlakout is a big tourist destination due to its incredible hiking opportunities. There are 4 hotels in my site and I am living in one of them. Some of the other volunteers wanted to have me scalped when I told them I had a western toilet and hot showers. However, I do not have a bed, (I know, what’s the point of a hotel if there aren’t any beds?) so it evens out. The first 3-6 months of my service will mainly be me hanging out and integrating with my community. Since there are only 400 people in my village, getting everybody to know who I am won’t be an issue. On my first day I took a walk and it didn’t take me longer than 3 minutes for a large group of women to stop me while they were baking bread and welcome me to their village. EVERYBODY knows my name and tell me that I am welcome to be there. After getting told by 10 women that I should get married, I left, and the next thing I knew I was sitting at somebody’s house and drinking tea. From what I’ve been told, the people in the Ouarzazate region of some of the kindest, so I feel lucky to be here.

Since I am the first volunteer in Tamlakout, I am faced with many challenges. People have no idea what the Peace Corps is and look at me like I’m crazy when I say I will be there for 2 years. While there are volunteers who are replacing each other and are getting projects handed to them, I have to start from scratch. I have no idea what my community needs and with my VERY limited Tashlheet, figuring this out will take me months. While it is daunting having all this free time after 2 months of a rigorous training schedule, I have to admit that I like that my days are all mine. Next week I am going with a large group of volunteers on a backpacking trip in the mountains to talk to nomads about health issues. I’m still not sure of the details of what we are doing, but not only will it be fascinating, it will get me away from my home stay (which will end on July 1^st when I move in to my house!). Needless to say, it should make an interesting blog post.

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for my address and things that I need. I forgot my wish list at home (so I’ll post that list on Sunday when I get internet again) and while I feel a tad guilty posting up things I want, I think I’ll get over it once I’m eating a delicious box of Kraft mac and cheese. I know that sending stuff to Morocco is expensive so even if you want to send a card or letter, I would love it. My address is:

My address is:

BP9 Inghrom N Oudal 45253

Ouarzazate, Morocco

Hope everyone is doing well back home. I love and miss you all.