The Girl From the Sbitar

June 10, 2008

So I went on my first vaccination drive today and it was... interesting.
There's an association in Tiznit that does vaccination drives in various towns in the province and today was my site's day.
The sbitars are far away and a lot of people don't have access for various reasons, so this association has a bus that they use as a mobile health center. They coordinate with people in outlying douars to let them know the dates of the drives. Usually they show up and there's a crowd all day long.
My counterpart told me to do a health lesson and I was not prepared at all!
I told him maybe next time. For now, a lot of what I do involves observation and learning about how things work in the sbitar and my town. So I watched a girl from the association give health lessons on topics that I'll cover later. She talked to the women about family planning all day , while the sbitar staff did examinations and the kids got vaccinations. It was a great chance to learn about conducting health lessons with the women here, and how to go about it. And I made some helpful contacts.
For now, I'm content to be observing most of the time. I go to the sbitar on vaccination days, when there are a lot of women bringing in their kids, to watch and learn. I explain to people what I do, and that my job for now is to learn Tash and learn about my site.

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The other day I was walking home from work and passed a group of girls who were on their way to school. I greeted them in Tashelheet and they returned my greeting. Then one of them said she'd seen me at the sbitar the other day.

I told her I work there and a little bit about what I do. I said that later I'll do health education and talk about health to kids and women. They seemed to think that was a good idea. I said that the next year I'd come to their school, perhaps, and teach. They really liked that idea!

We parted ways further down the path and it occurred to me that people were beginning to recognize me not just because I'm the foreign girl learning Tashelheet. I'm the girl who works at the sbitar.

The Women at the Well

June 10, 2008

Every time I go to town I try to walk past the well that our douar uses. Generally there are two or three donkeys and a handful of women drawing water to load on the animals and carry back home. As I pass, we greet one another and they invariably ask if I'd like to help draw water with them. They have seen me helping carrry water from another source before, and know I need to learn how to do such things. My host family has a cistern behind the house, so they don't use the well that often.

Usually when I pass the well, I'm on my way to the sbitar and don't stop to help; I just pause long enough to be polite and greet them.

I'm considering renting a house that doesn't have running water in it, and so may have to draw water for the next two years. The women warn me that this will be difficult. It sounds weird, but I really have to learn how to draw wellwater. There's a technique to it, and a sort of rhythm. Maybe next month it'll happen...

Life as a PCV

May 21, 2008



So as of this morning I'm officially a PCV! I'm so excited, but nervous to begin work at my site!


We had our swearing-in ceremony at the Berber Palace, the only 5-star hotel in Ouarzazate. Apparently it was built to cater to the movie people who frequent Oz, and it's filled with old movie set props.


Needless to say, we had a nice ceremony and a pool party followed. It was sort of bizarre to herald our new status as PCVs with poolside drinks at a posh hotel. And our host families from CBT were invited, and my host mom and sister where there. It was especially interesting to have people from CBT sites there, because they've seen us at some of our sickest and worst points in training. Then we were all cleaned and dressed up and having a reception at this hotel with them. I'll have to send pictures so you can see the juxtaposition for yourselves.



Anyway, we're all official now!











May 25, 2008



This is my first week at site, and there's not a whole lot to report yet. So far it's been a lot of resting after travelling to site, and hanging out with my host family. I'm trying to study every day, but have gotten hooked on al-Jazeera English. Sometimes I try to translate the news into Tashelheet, so I can multitask by "studying" while getting the news.


Also, the last season of 24 comes on Thursday nights subtitled in MS Arabic. I'm pretty happy with this, of course!


And no, I haven't gotten sick yet, so there's hope!

Every day I eat askif for breakfast, which is the Moroccan equivalent of cream of wheat. My host family in Ighrem didn't really eat this, and after months of hearing other Trainees talk about it, I feel like now I'm in the Askif Loop.

Also, my host mom makes really good amlou, which is like peanut butter with added oil. We dip bread in it at breakfast and during kaskru. Kaskru is a small meal eaten between lunch (around 1:00) and dinner (in my house eaten around 9:30). My host family says that when my family comes to visit next year, they will find all this food delicious and want to take it back to America. I have to agree!

May 29, 2008


Today I had my first Friday Couscous. In my region this is a fairly common thing to do. It basically involves a lot of women (there were about 20 this time) and a ton of couscous. Couscous is eaten in a lot of households on Fridays, but here it's made into a sort of party.


Today I learned how to eat couscous with my hands. Or rather, my hand, because of course in Morocco only the right hand is generally used in common dishes.


Eating couscous with your hand is a process best seen, not described. It involves mashing vegetables into the couscous so you can form a ball and eat it. At first, my hosts gave me a spoon. Then I decided to just go for it and learn how to eat properly, no matter how silly I felt learning with an audience. I was thinking worst case scenario would be I'd fail but maybe they'd appreciate the effort.

Apparently, it was funny when I said at first that it was difficult to do. I jokingly said, "But I'm American, and we don't eat like this!" Then I got the hang of it and it was kind of easy after that. I'm learning...

May 30, 2008


Today I taught myself to knit. I borrowed a how-to book from another PCV and learned this morning. I figured what's the point in knowing how to spin wool if you can't do anything with it? Next step: learn to shear a sheep ;)


My first knittng project is a red scarf, the purpose of which will be revealed at a later date. Ooh, isn't the suspense killing you?










June 2, 2008


I went to my sbitar today to help out with vaccinations. They're held once a week, and the sbitar is always packed on these days. My doctor and nurse are pretty cool. I speak Tash with the nurse and some English with the doctor.


I'm so excited to be really starting my job here!


Next week we have a vaccination drive in a neighboring douar. More on that later. For now, I'm observing what goes on in the sbitar and figuring out what sorts of projects I'll be working on for two years. I've got some ideas and my sbitar staff has been really helpful in telling me what sorts of issues we'll be tackling.


My sbitar is smallish, but it has a doctor, nurse and sage femme on staff. They all live in housing adjacent to the sbitar, which is common. I'll be going there a few times a week for the time being to see how things work there.

When your host mom hands you wool, make yarn...

April 14, 2008

Here was my plan for the last week in CBT: learn a ton of language and learn to knit during lunch breaks. But on the day we left for our sites, there was no time to go to the hanut and get yarn. Needless to say, half my plan for the week was ruined... until the most hilarious bit of divine providence happened.


This may not seem like something I would do, ever, but a few days ago I made yarn. Like from actual wool. That came from a sheep that I see every day. It was great!


One night I was sitting in my host family's living room doing some homework, and my host mom comes in with a box of wool and begins spinning it into yarn. I was totally transfixed with this process, of course, and after watching her for a good long while decided to ask if she would show me how to do it. She did, and I proceeded to make some of the most poorly wound sufa on the spindle.


This week we had placement interviews with our Program Assistant at our CBT sites. They pretty much know where our sites will be at this point, and we find out in about two weeks's time. Then we'll go on a site visit to see where we'll live for two years.


My head is swimming with verb tenses and vocabulary right now. We had a mock LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) today to see how our language acquisition is coming along. I think I did alright, and apparently my pronunciation is good. We find out in a couple days how we did.


At the end of training we have a real LPI, and we have to get a certain score to be considered ready for service.



On a side note, I'm working on a really nice face and forearm tan right now.

April 18, 2008

Hi all!
It's been awile since I've updated you all, but language training has been intense. This afternoon is no different, but I wanted to let you all know what's going to happen in the next few days...
Last night we had our site announcements and I found out where I'll be living for the next two years. Tomorrow and Sunday all the trainess will be traveling to our sites to meet our host families and see our future homes. I'll be in Tiznit Provionce, and will send you an address soon. Tiznit is pretty easy to find on a map, just look to the West of the Canary Islands, on the coast of Morocco.
There are, of course, a lot of challenges with my site. I'm excited to have the opportunity to meet them, because I have an amazing site! Here's why:
-I have electricity!
-I have running water!
-Tighmi has paved roads!
-I am really close in proximity to several of my new PC friends, and everyone in the region seems pretty great, too.
-Agadir and the Canary Islands are great vacation spots! Visit me and maybe you'll get to see them...
-I was taught Tashelhit by an LCF from this region, so there won't be any big surprises in the language (ie, mixing a lot of Moroccan Arabic in with the Berber).
I cannot even tell you what a relief it was to get such a great site. The upcoming site visit will tell me so much about the next two years. My host family sounds nice. They're small-- it's just Mom and Dad and a daughter. More on them later, because I'll be spending a lot of time with them this week!
I have so little time and a lot to tell you! Things are intense and I'm still really excited to be here!










April 25, 2008

And a nice anecdote from CBT. One of the last ones... : (

My little sister always does her homework next to me as I do mine so I can give her mini-lessons of English. She helps me with pronunciation, too. We do this most days without comment. Anyway, one day I'm learning the parts of body and we come across the word for eyebrows (timiwa in Tash). She asks me to do that thing I always do with my eyebrows and I'm confused because I don't know what she's talking about. Then she lifts one eybrow with her finger and tells me to do "that thing."
Apparently my host family has been observing all the weird facial expressions I make, because they know my ears move too.
I spent a little while explaining that I can't teach how to do any of those things, which disappointed my host siblings a bit. Then I decided to break out the really great stupid human trick. I don't even know what to call it in English, but it's the thing where I fold my tongue into three parts. This really amused them, and it was offical: Miriam was the pre-dinner show on Tuesday.
After these interesting little discoveries, my host sister gave me the best compliment I've ever gotten. She said, "Miriam, kmmi mezian bzzaf! Bzzaf bzzaf bzzaf bzzaf..." and trailed off to indicate the bzzaf was infinitive. This means, in context, "Miriam, you're really cool!" Since the really part (bzzaf) comes after cool (mezian), she kept saying "bzzaf" so I'd know how cool I am.
Needless to say, I never got this reaction after an English lesson. Only after the eyebrow/ear wiggling lesson. I'll take what I can get.

I'm going to miss my CBT site a lot! Everyone is so nice and the mountains are beautiful! My site has a lot of prickly pears, so it'll be an adjustment!

Field Trip

March 29, 2008



This week we had a PC realistic job preview. Pairs of PCTs were sent to current volunteer sites to shadow PCVs and get a feel for how the job looks day-to-day. We were on field trip from Wednesday to Saturday, and my site was in Errachidia Province, to the east of Ouarzazate. Wed and Sat were spent in transit (using transportation that varied from taxis to buses to transits-- more on these later), and the other days we tailed our PCV and explored the site. We also stayed with her to see how she lives. It was interesting because I went to a site where Tashelheet is not spoken, and people mainly use the other Berber dialect, Tamazight. As is often the case, I was confused a good deal of the time ;)



A lot of our focus as Health Educators will be on water sanitation and treatment. So our first day there, we were exploring the site a bit and climbed the town's water tower. Which sounds like fun, right? I thought so, until I was confronted with the means of achieving this ends: two rusty, antiquated ladders separated by a catwalk the allows access to the water in the top of the tower.



This adventure followed a conversation with my fellow PCT in which I nonchalantly asserted that I'm not really afraid of anything at all. I wasn't expecting ladders when I signed on for this Peace Corps thing, let me tell you. (In case you don't know, I'm really scared of ladders. Not heights, not climbing tall things in general, but ladders. Needless to say it took some intense motivation on my part to get up those ladders.)



Although not at first convinced of my fear, everyone saw the look of extreme discomfort on my face (even my giant sunglasses couldn't hide the wide-eyed fear ;) But... I did it! I made it to the top, and back down again without event. Pictures, as always, are forthcoming.











April 1, 2008



Language training has started up again after a week free of classes. Tash does not lend itself to such a hiatus. I need to study so much! But we're learning a lot and most of it seems to be falling into place, so that's a good sign.



Tonight I was on the roof of the hotel in Ouarzazate working out with a group of PCTs after class ended. We were doing lunges across the roof as the sun set over the Atlas, listening to some music as we exercised. Then the call the prayer started, and I was struck by the extraordinary circumstances of this workout. I mean, there we were doing something so seemingly ordinary. And then it hits me: I'm in Morocco. I'm in the freakin' Peace Corps. I have little moments like this all the time, it seems. Not that I can forget that I'm in Morocco, but after such a long process to actually get here (it really started what, six years ago?) I still can't believe I'm doing this.



It's a bit easier to believe when I'm in language class struggling to contain all the verbs and grammar. Not to mention pronunciation. If I could speak with a convincing accent, I'd be set!


So that's how things are going for now. We're back in class, and leave for CBT again this Saturday.


In the meantime we have workshops all week on topics relating to our future work: maternal and child health, SIDA (HIV/AIDS), and STIs, etc.


Then it's another week of homestay and language. And I'll try to stay healthy this time!

Ashkeed, Miriam!

March 17, 2008
St. Patrick's Day

Today was an interesting St. Patrick's Day! It was the first full day of CBT (community-based training), and it went really well. We're in small groups doing homestays at various sites for the next five days. We'll go back and forth between seminar and CBT sites for the next two months. There are four other PCTs (Peace Corps trainees) and one LCF in my group. We meet every day to do language and other types of training.

I spent the evening studying Tashelheet with my host family, who help me with pronunciation in exchange for transliterations of English words. With my little siblings, we count first in Tash, then in English. We act out verbs and there's a lot of giggling to replace the words we lack right now.

I looked through my language book and got excited about making flashcards for lots of new words. Basically, I'm happy to be back in school. And I've been given my old Arabic class name of Miriam once again.





March 20, 2008

Eid al-Mulud


One of the few Tash phrases I understand without translating in my head is "Come on!" On Eid al-Mulud (the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday was today), my host siblings were out of school, and I spent the day with the family. There was no "Tash school" (this is what they call what I do every day), and so I was at home as well.

As I followed my little sibs out to play ball: "Ashkeed, Miriam!"

As I followed them on a trek around the adwar (the Tash word for a village): "Ashkeed, Miriam!"

Of course, walking around the adwar is no easy task; we're in the High Atlas on the side of a gravelly mountain, and my two guides are small, adept climbers. Every once in a while, when the path was too narrow for my feet and I stopped to plan out my route, they'd turn around and give me another "Ashkeed, Miriam!"

Somehow, we all made it back to the house intact and in time for Tom & Jerry (gotta love that satellite TV ;)

"This is where it really begins..."

March 11, 2008

This was the greeting we received from one of the PC Morocco staff when we arrived in Ouarzazate after a 10-hr bus ride from Rabat that took us up and over the Atlas Mountains. I'm so excited to finally begin Pre-Service Training (PST)!
We started class with our LCFs (language and culture facilitators- the Moroccans PC hires to teach us). We have some form of class every day of the week from 8:30-6:00. But we get a long lunch (Moroccans siesta each day) and two mint tea and cookie breaks (and what Southerner can complain when there's sweet tea breaks?).
It's hard to imagine I've been gone just 10 days! We started in Rabat for a few days and visited the PC office there, and were given a very basic introduction to PC Morocco. Even at that point, what I'm doing hadn't exactly sunk in. I think now it has, though. Maybe it was waking up to the sound of the muezzin (the call to prayer plays over loudspeakers from every mosque) early in the morning. That, and the intense 8-hr language session our first day in Ouarzazate with breaks/assignments to go out and use our new vocabulary skills on the locals. It's getting intense, but I'm getting more and more excited to be starting!

After PST each of us in the Health Sector will begin work with our local sbitar. These are health clinics in rural Morocco. They range in size and scope of services offered. Some have a doctor and nurse on staff and others may even have sage femmes (traditioanl birth attendants). The conditions of the sbitars vary greatly from site to site. Generally, our counterparts will be the nurse at the sbitar. My counterpart is a HCN who will work alongside me and, potentially, help me out with questions and project plans.

March 13, 2008

Today we got our language assignments, and I was very excited to discover that I'll be learning Tashelheet for the next two months! It's one of the two Berber dialects spoken here. I plan on finding a tutor to help me learn Arabic once I'm at my site, but this assignment gives me a vague idea of where my site will be-- most likely in the south/east of the country somewhere. We all had started out learning Moroccan Arabic to get around, but now there are three languages that'll be taught.

On Sunday we go out to our first homestay families in small groups of 5-7 to stay for about a week. We go out to our CBT (community-based training) sites for a week at a time during PST and then come back to Ouarzazate for a few days to debrief.

My small group and LCF are great, so I can't help but get even more excited about training and working! My homestay family is large, with several kids, which I like a lot. More on them at a later date.

Right now we're getting ready to break out and do CBT. I'll continue to take notes each day and post like this when I get a chance.

Later guys!