Ramadan 2015 - 10 days in

So Ramadan is still here. We're exactly one third of the way through, and it's still really hard and pretty easy at the same time. By and large, our bodies have adapted to the schedule. When we wake up (around 3 pm) we don't immediately reach for water or consider brushing our teeth. It's also now a lot easier to stay up until almost daylight, and be continually drinking water. 

What's the rest of Taounate like, you might wonder?

It's closed. During the day time, our usually bustling streets and the marché are empty. We once ventured out to check our mail (the post office is only open from 9-3) and it was an odd experience. 

This area is generally pretty full, but maybe that's not convincing enough. 

Here's a cafe at 2:30, which is normally the post-lunch rush and it can be hard to find a table. 

Needless to say, we avoid going out until after the sun's down. 

At night, however, it's a different story. This is the same area (from the other side) at around midnight. 

On top of the lack of people out and about, this is also our current weather situation:

While things are going really well over here, we both wish that we could have been back in DC for all the events that have happened this week. 

The first Peace Corps goal is to share transferable work skills to members of our community, which we work on daily at the Dar Chebab, and can be pretty easy to track. 

The next two goals are significantly less tangible. Goal 2 is to share American culture with the members of our community. This has been a lot of fun and, honestly, really entertaining. Alexis has had an American Culture class to do a little work, but we also just spend hours a week answering questions about life in America. It's awesome to feel mildly like experts about something we never studied. 

Goal 3 is the reverse. We're trying to share things about Moroccan culture with Americans. Obviously, this blog is our main method of doing that, but we've been trying to do more. Through various Skype and FaceTime sessions, we've been able to do a little work, and I think our active postcard sending has done some good. 

However! We need your help. What else do you want to know? What else do you want pictures of? You can leave us comments (I believe you must be signed in to a google account to do so) or you can reach out to us in any other way you can think of. Don't know us personally? Send us a letter!

Keep cool, everyone!