1st Blog Post from Morocco

I have been in Morocco for about a week now and thought it to be about time I write my first in country blog post. We stayed in a hotel in Rabat for the first few days that was extremely beautiful and quite spiffy. The first thing I saw when entering the hotel were several quasi-nude replica statues of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses, which I never really expected to find here for multiple reasons. The hotel had two restaurants and one of them was sort of Southwestern/Native American themed and had pictures of a Native American chief and two of Che Guvara, respectfully (Che is also graffitied in my hometown so he is apparently thought of highly by many people here).  The lobby would often show American movies and I remember seeing Terminator and I-Robot with Arabic subtitles . The hotel, in summary, made Morocco feel very similar to the U.S.  

I am in the greater Meknes region and so the real cultural immersion came when we were sent to our towns with our host families. Initially it was a very strange experience and I noticed that the unfamiliar surroundings hit me stronger than I thought they would. I started to feel a bit inadequate and ill-equipped for this job. In the beginning it was all very overwhelming because this is an aggressively hospitable culture. The first day I accidentally found myself pulled into my neighbor and fellow PC trainee Kelsey’s house late in the evening. Her family was incredibly kind, but I desperately needed to use the bathroom and knew it is impolite to do so at a neighbor’s house. I explained to my American friend in English what was going on and made an excuse to her family that I was sick so as to not be rude. What happened as I left was that their entire family followed me into my host family’s house and they all sat and chatted while I did the business. Just as I entered the family room feeling fit and healthy, I realized that our neighbors had left. Although this makes my experience seem difficult, I would say it is the only real awkward experience I have found myself in during this transition and that host family/hood life is going great.


As I am writing this I have just returned from a training session at our hub in Meknes. We stayed overnight in a hotel that was incredibly nice once more and held several sessions over there. They let us out last night and so I went out to dinner with Giancarlo, Kelsey, Matt and Rachel who are a really great bunch. They are great company so I hope that we can eat together again (insh’allah).

The language and culture training could be described as “intense” and we are indeed busy all day with limited free-time. However, I would say that language training is the most fun part of the experience thus far. I am in a group with LCF Kemal and fellow trainees Brandy, Kelsey, Norma and Paul and we all probably have set the record for the funniest sessions of productive learning known to the program.

I am not allowed to disclose the name of my town by name, but I can describe it for all of you at home. We are essentially situated in the “hood” and part of a pretty descent sized city. Our neighborhood is on the outskirts of the city. It is difficult to describe it as urban or rural because it has characteristics of both in the United States. In particular, it is densely populated with high rise buildings and no front or back yards. However, the streets are filled with farm animals such as horses and donkeys to accompany the scooters and cars that come buzzing through.

Family life is really great here. I have a Babba Mamma, juj xut and Juj xwatat They are all incredibly kind to me and I feel very comfortable in my home. Today I just met an additional sister with a baby who is married and out of the home. All of my siblings are actually older than me. The most surprising portion of family life is television consumption. When we volunteers got together for hub, we all were shocked at how much television is consumed every day. Sometimes it is quite pleasant and something I enjoy such as the news or soccer (kora) and other times (most of the time) it is soap operas from Turkey (in which case I study in the living room while everyone else is watching televison).

So far the most surprising thing about this experience is how awesome our LCF’s are. LCF’s are Moroccan young adults who are fluent in English that serve as cultural facilitators and language instructors for us volunteers. They are exceptionally brilliant and have great senses of humor. I have really enjoyed having Kemal as a teacher and also love talking with the other ones when I see them. I’ve gotten to have some really meaningful conversations with these individuals and that has really meant a great deal thus far in the experience.