Bread! (Shout out to Chelsea)

Bread. Xubz. (Hubz, but with a throaty H). خبز 

With every meal here in Morocco, there is bread. All sorts of magical bread glory. The following is an attempt to describe all of the bready goodness we've had here. (Side note: we're a little spoiled because our host mom makes all of ours fresh, but I think you can buy all of it at the store or bakery, too)

Milwi-

Alexis' favorite. It's flaky and layered and buttery and soft and best served warm. More than a foot in diameter, very thin, and amazing with cheese and fried egg. 

MaHamr-

Thick, squishy, doughy, yumyums. It's buttery and pancakey, but a lot thicker than then bagrire (below). The dough is a lot like flatbread dough, and just cooked slightly differently (in a cast iron skillet, and thus it won over Alexis' soul). 

Harsha- 

This one is a little more dense and like cornbread. It's grainy and thick and holds heat really well. This one is huge, so here's an approximate serving size with some Laughing Cow for scale. 

This one is generally best with butter and/or jelly. Or everything. 

Bagrire- 

Toby's favorite. It's sort of like crepes or thin, spongey pancakes. And they're a little salty, so they're really good with cheese and egg (again. Surprise!) Host-mom makes it by the dozens, and they're really quickly cooked. 

Raif (or something)-

Fry bread. Yeah. Not sweet, which was surprising, but the texture is similar to a doughnut with a crispy exterior. 

Baguette-

We aren't taking a picture of this one. You know what baguette is. It's very nice and fresh and crusty. 

Main xubz-

It isn't clear in the picture, but this guy is about a foot in diameter. This one is at every meal, and we go through a lot of it. It's just normal bread- not yeasty, but still fluffy. When eating out of a communal dish with your hand, it's your only utensil. 

Daily life.

Things are really starting to work into a little bit of a pattern in our small, Moroccan village (it does feel strange to call it a village when we watch sattelite TV every night and are generally living really cozy lives, but I digress). We have language classes every morning (except Sundays) with our Language and Culture Facilitator, who puts up with every question we come up with. Then we spend the afternoon learning pieces of the culture that are harder to just pick up (like nonverbal clues, etc). 

This week has been full of big events, and a few big revelations. First and foremost is how much we've learned about Moroccan hospitality. Across a decent sized region of the country, families have opened their doors and let Peace Corps Trainees (we aren't yet official Volunteers!) into their homes. They feed us, answer tons of questions, tell us how to say things in Darija, and make us feel like we've been in their families for years. Our host mother wakes up every day before we go to class to make sure there's a full breakfast, complete with tea, before we have class. Then, we pop back around 12:30 for lunch, which she has expertly prepared, and dash back to class around 2. Once we finish class around 5:30, we come back for a full tea spread. Tea time is no joke around here. 

Then, after a little more time, she brings out our dinner, which has been a lot of traditional Moroccan food and is more delicious than any Moroccan restaurant stateside. We've had tagines and couscous, but also a bunch of fresh salads and more fresh clementines than one could count. Along the way, if she learns there's a good we particularly like or haven't tried, she goes out of her way to get it. Example 1: avocado juice. It's kind of like eggnog, but a little better.  

It's hard to explain, but they've already made us feel like we're at home, and we were excited to come back "home" after being at a hotel with western toilets and heated water. Here's the lovely critter that welcomes us home:

ALSO! On a completely different note, I (Alexis) got to go to the Hammam today! It's the Moroccan bathhouse situation, and it was fantastic. It's open most of the week and, in theory, I might go other days, but Sunday is the main day for Moroccans to go. Start the week off clean and all that jazz. It's was three  sauna-like rooms of varying hotness, and there's a whole regimen for how to scrub yourself down. It's delightful. I'll skip over the finer details, but I've never scrubbed that much dead skin away and I feel like a whole new person. Needless to say, I'll be returning next Sunday (or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Well... You get the point). 

Posts to come include: the awesomeness of tea, the different kinds of awesome bread, and the struggles of eating couscous and everything else with one hand.

Additionally, here are our names in script:

(Toby then Alexis)

Bonus picture: uno night! And proof of our awesome host-dad, Ali.

What's the best thing we brought that has saved our lives?

SmartWool socks. 

(And a lot of other things, but this seems to be the consensus among the whole group of volunteers)

Week one: check

We have officially been in Morocco for over a week! Much to no ones surprise, it's been a lot of fun, challenging at times (special shout out to language and Turkish toilets), the food is great, and we have a great couple of years ahead of us. 

Right now, we're at our first HUB training weekend in Azrou, which is covered in a few inches of snow and a bigger town than our little village. For these HUBs (there will be a few), we have about 50 volunteers all together again. This time, there have been some trainings on reporting a few other key pieces of service and evaluation, and the second installment of our Rabies vaccines. 

Back at our homestay, we have an amazing family to live with. Our host mother, Latifa, is a superb cook and likes to feed us whenever possible and as much as possible (you would be surprised how much sugar one can eat in a day). Our host dad, Ali, is retired and is the quintessential old dude who rocks at Uno with some language learners and is complete with mustache! We have two sisters, but we'll save that for another post. 

And as a final thought, our early morning grand taxi ride yesterday was summed up with this: stuck between a donkey and a hard place. 

Fun fact: this is just a derivative of Laughing Cow here and is eaten... all of the time. 

A few pictures. Descriptions and pictures coming later!

PST

Here are the promised pictures. We haven't taken too many in an effort to not just be those Americans, who are constantly attached to their iPhones, so you'll jut have to imagine some parts.

Money: It's Dirhams, dhs, or MAD. Approx 9.1 MAD = 1 USD

Language: We've now had two Darija (Moroccan Arabic) lessons and are essentially fluent. Okay, not at all. But we're getting it and it's a lot of fun. 

Food: Our hotel has been spoiling us with three wonderful meals and two tea times every day. We know that we promised couscous, and today was our first Friday here, so we had our first real couscous. Voila.

Yeah, it was as amazing as it looks (portion for 5+ people).

The other humans in our group are delightful. We all come from different levels of Arabic and working with youth and even just stages in life, in general.

Coffee: Glorious. I don't need to say much else.

Today, we got to see the Ambassador speak, and it was encouraging to hear how supportive he was of Peace Corps. He'll be the one swearing us in when we transition from PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) to PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers).

We've been in various trainings since arriving at the hotel, so a lot of it has gone by in a bit of a whirlwind, but it's been informative. Today was a bit of a downer, as we started with vaccinations, diarrhea, and transit safety. (Both Toby and Alexis are members of the 5 vaccine club!) (No high-fives right now due to some sore shoulders).

On Sunday we pack up and head to our CBT (Community Based Training) sites, which is where we'll be for the next 11 weeks or so. It'll be language (and culture) classes six days a week, for about 6 hours a day. But we get Sundays off!

Not sure when we'll have a chance to post again, but hopefully soon. 

We miss you all! (Unless we don't know you - in which case, hi!) 

First posting from Morocco!

Spoiler: pictures to come tomorrow when we have more of them and sufficient sleep. 

Salamu alaykum. Smiti Alexis. Shakrun. 

(Hello. My name is Alexis. Thank you.) That's the extent of my Darija thus far. But everything kicks into gear tomorrow, and I feel like we'll learn a few more things. 

Everything has been beautiful. We got into Casablanca airport around 6 am and got a brief look at a foggy airport with palm and citrus trees, which were pleasant to look at going on zero hours of sleep. Then we made the trek to Club Hotel Yasmine just outside of Rabat, where we will now be until Sunday. 

We had a quick chance to meet all of the staff here and get a loose outline of what the next 11 weeks have in store. 

The next few hours were a blur of stray cats, medical overview, security overview, coffee/tea/amazing juice, vaccines, and more coffee at a local cafe. The food has been all great and perfect, and all 100 of the other volunteers are just as excited/tired/all emotions as we are. 

More tomorrow, and now we sleep. 

Packed!

Two big suitcases, one backpack, one duffle, a carry-on sized rolling bag, and two Timbuk2 bags. What else could you possibly need in the world?