Monday, November 8, 2010

Ruth and the Muskina Mutataweia

Well today I'm feeling sufficiently recovered from the past week - I slept for a solid 10 hours last night - so amazing. Even though I'm now back to freezing my behind off - in my room it's been around 9 degrees all day - about 50 degrees fahrenheit, also known as really cold for inside the house. While I was gone my family acquired the biggest furno I've ever seen, which is amazing. Very helpful for defrosting my hands when I'm trying to make flashcards to study with. And there's a lot of those going on at the moment. It would appear that our language proficiency tests are next week already. Not sure when that happened, but from now until next Tuesday or Wednesday (we don't know which day it'll be on) will be henceforth known as study week.


When I arrived back in my CBT town, my family was excited to see me back which was nice - even though most of the comments directed to me for the evening were along the lines of 'Muskina! Baeida!' which means 'Poor thing! Far!' referring to the fact that I'm a good 12/13 hours travel from here. It was nice to feel like my language improved a little while I was gone, so I could almost have conversations about my new town (conversations that include sentences without verbs, or incorrectly conjugated verbs, that is, but I'm going to call them conversation, okay?). Sorry family, but weekend visits are now a little harder for me. But this week we are having a family gathering on Wednesday afternoon, with all of our families - some tea and biscuits and a general chat about cross cultural bits and pieces. We will then also have a party next Friday, 2 days before we leave for good, which will be everyone - our families plus people in the community that we've made friends with. We'll then have a day to pack and then Sunday we wave goodbye. While in hub this weekend, the general consensus was that everyone is pretty excited about their new towns though, which is good news. Most of us are also planning to go to the craft fair in Marrakech in early December also, so that's exciting.


Some of us went for a good hike this morning, up one of the mountains behind the town, and got some amazing view of the town, and we all discussed how it's actually much, much warmer outside than in our houses. We've all had plenty of stories to trade about our new locations, and we're all still working out how far we are from each other and the such. I think we're also running a bathroom competition - so far we have an outhouse, turk in a pre-school and cockroaches crawling out of the turk (while in use) all as contenders. (Mine was the last one, btw. Yeah. Flushed that bastard, stat.) (Sorry for swearing Mum, but really - it was huge, and crawling out of the toilet at me. Pretty sure it had fangs.) Down South has some big insects, just to make that clear. My current family did assure me that Agadir is a beautiful city; they have family there, so I believe they visit from time to time. I've been doing some reading on Agadir, and the coastal area, which I'm very excited to explore. I'm eager to get back in a couple of weeks and attempt to sort out my housing situation so that I can start to get settled somewhere. Something to note about my new town - there are no addresses for the houses!


Also, just FYI, a few things I've learned about myself since I've been here.

1. I get carsick. Fact. Especially when in a coach on the road between Azrou and Kenitra. People here know what I'm talking about. Heinous.

2. I don't require as much alone time as I originally thought - not to say I don't like it, but it is possible for me to survive without it. As long as I get a couple of hours to organize my brains once a week or so.

3. I have no problem wearing a hat to bed.

4. I have no problem not showering for longer than maybe hygienic periods. Again, not that I like to do this, but I can survive if I need to. However, I do refuse to go without my favorite shampoo and conditioner - available in Morocco, thank goodness.

5. I really, really don't like olives, and really, really never will. Or hard-boiled eggs (of which I've had to eat two this week). But I'm actually okay with mint tea.


I'm sure there will be more to add to that list, but that's all for now.

Anyway, off to bed in my ice box.


xoxo.

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