One week from right now, we'll know our home for the next two years!

Transcending cultural barriers or something

Obviously, a lot of things about Morocco are different than America. Things ranging from the language(s) to the predominance of religion to the lack of bacon and cheese variety. However, we're slowly discovering that there a few things that are the same in both cultures. 

Cooking shows on TV. It's apparently just becoming a big deal here, but there are two cooking channels and we spend a lot of time watching them with our family. It's a nice fix when felling a teeny bit homesick, but also a really good way to learn vocab and potential new foods. 

Hospitality of grandmothers (and ladies of a certain age) and old dudes being awesome. Our host mom makes all of our food from scratch and makes sure we're fed before she even considers anything else in life. Same thing goes about proximity to our space heater (open flame) when we're in the house. And host dad is just an awesome dude. Our family has another house about 10k from here and they have bees there. Whenever he decides to go check on them, he just walks over. There's no real rhyme or reason when he goes- as far as we can tell, it's just "sometimes."

Card games. As our language is similar to that of a two year old, we can't really fill the silence between meals with anything of substance, so we needed a filler. Our family already had Uno, so that was enjoyable. We brought cards and have successfully showed them BS (politely called "liar" to stay culturally appropriate. گاداب) and Spoons. We also bought Moroccan playing cards and earned a game called 15 that's pretty fun. Also, the Moroccan playing cards are really pretty. 

On that note: anyone looking to prep a care package (or seven) for us, more decks of American playing cards or card games, like Phase 10 and Uno, would be greatly appreciated! 

Snowball fights (and snowmen and all snow related things). We had more snow this week, and it was a good chance to meet the kids in the neighborhood. While at the Dar Chebab, we had a snowball fight with a few kids, then a few more and a few more and a lot more. It was a lot of kids and a lot of cold in the snow, but now everyone knows we're here! It was a scene that could have taken place anywhere that kids live, and was pretty entertaining. We also kept trying to make snowmen and finally succeeded with our LCF. 

(Fun fact: she just saw Frozen a few days before and we sang almost the whole day.)

Okay there are a million differences between life here and life back in the States, but there are also a million similarities. Good people are good people anywhere, and they make the world a little better. 

Final site placement update: 12 days until we hear where we will live for the next two years!

American cooking f lmgrib. المغرب

Last night, we had the chance to make dinner for our host family. Both host-mom and Khadijah were feeling a little under the weather, so we jumped at the opportunity. Also, it's cold and windy and rainy and a little snowy here, so we figured it was the perfect night for some chowder! Without bacon. It was awesome. Plus, it was a good chance to go shopping and practice our language "skills."

We had potatoes, corn, onions, garlic, butter, salt, pepper, milk, cheese (Gouda), flour, and a little American love. Additionally, here's a picture of us with a giant ladle. 

The chowder turned out great and was super cheesy and salty, which are two flavor profiles that we haven't had the opportunity to enjoy for a month or so. According to our Language and Cultural Facilitator, it's unlike any Moroccan food and she hadn't tried anything like it before. Success! 

Doors in the neighborhood

One month

Hello from Meknes!

We have been in Meknes for the last two days for a regional Hub training with half of the new PCTs in Morocco. It's been an information filled couple of days - safety and security, lesson planning, reporting forms, and so on. And there's the added bonus of a nice hotel, hot water, indoor heating, and a chance to explore a slightly bigger city than our homestay. 

Meknes is a gorgeous city and we can't wait to come back when we have a few more days- but we did get to see a few things. 

Here's sunset on our first night from our hotel room. 

This is the biggest door in North Africa! Apparently, during the day, there are snake charmers outside for our viewing pleasure. The door is right across the street from the old medina which had a ton of restaurants and stores (which will be delightful in the day time, but we got there too late). We did get pulled into a great restaurant and had a pizza and a Big Mag (that's not a typo) to celebrate being in a city. 

We also found...

McDonald's! Fun fact: Moroccan McDonald's is expensive. But the kit-kat McFlurry was worth it. 

If you find yourself scoffing at our food choices, we are too. It felt strange considering ordering Moroccan food in Meknes because our host mom is the greatest cook ever and it would, obviously, never live up to our newly high standards. 

Today, February 14th is also our one month anniversary of getting to Morocco! (Also a happy birthday shout out to the great state of Oregon!)

Time is, once again, proving to be a crazy concept. We're slightly conversational (about very specific conversations) in Darija, we taught our first lesson at a Dar Chebab, have gone shopping at our weekly souq, and all sorts of other things. 

March 4th we find out where our home for the next two years will be, so we're all anxiously awaiting the next few weeks. 

Standing on the roof.

Around Hermomo

The view of the snowy mountains in the distance, host sister selfie (Khadijah), and the view from our roof!

Tiles and fabrics in our host-house.

February begins.

Here are a couple snowy updates from this week:

• Morocco is cold. Don't let that whole "Africa" or "desert" thing trick you.
• But the heaters here are magical. This is space heaters of course, as central heating and running hot water aren't a part of daily life. Open-flame and blankets are the obviously superior method of heating.
• Our food is still great, and according to Host-Mom, you have to eat more when it's cold or snowy, and she's generally right about everything
• Our spoken Darija has moved from "zero" to "shwiya" (a little, sort of)
• Our family bought 15 kilos of fresh, organic, delicious clementines this week. They supposedly get better during the summer, so we'll keep up a continuous quality control experiment.

Names.

We've heard a lot about people choosing (or being given) local names when they begin Peace Corps, and we have an update on the subject!

Obviously, the easiest option would be if your current name was already a name in the other country, but alas, Alexis doesn't really work many places other than Greece, and Toby/Tobias isn't exactly common. However! Toob is the Darija word for fabric, and by adding an "i" to the end, it become first person, singular, possessive. Thus, Toobi (in direct transcription) means "my fabric." Of course, we (and out language learning group and our host family) choose to find it the most entertaining when Alexis says this, and it's become a joke to use the name Toob dyal Alexis (fabric of Alexis) as a nickname for our gingery male friend. توبي 

Toobis is also the word used to describe a public transit bus. There will be an update later on which permanent name Toby chooses. 

Market Day

Before and After pictures of the Souq (weekly market) in our little mountain town. See if you can tell which is which.