Im in Ourzazate, our “hub” site and we only get a small amount of time to use the spotty internet at the hotel. I don’t have much time to write right now, so I apologize in advance if this email is littered with mistakes. I will hopefully be able to put more into them in the future.
April 1st. One month since leaving my waving parents in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport. On most days since then it seems like time has gone slow-mo. Maybe its because we have been going non-stop or maybe its because there is no solid routine. I would imagine it is both, but this last month has been a long one. That’s not to say that it hasn’t been good though.
I live in a village with 5 other volunteers, a trainer, and hundreds of Moroccans, and I’m happy to already call a lot of them my friends. It is definetly hard being around the same people all the time, but it does force me to build relationships that might not have otherwise happened. The five of us do most things together, even when we are not in school. This weekend our mission is to procure some tire tubes so we can go floating down the river near Idlesen.
I also feel like in the last month I have gained pretty tremendous ground on Darija. Already I feel more confindent in it than I ever did in any of the other languages I’ve studied. There really isn’t anything better for learning a language than being emmersed in it to the point where you are forced to use it for daily needs and wants. Im already able to have simple conversations with my teacher and even once in a while with my host family. Context definetly works to my advantage in most of these conversations.
Additionally, my perspective is constantly in a state of alteration. I learn new things everyday about Moraccans, the culture, and my village of Idelsen. All my preconceived ideas are being flipped around. There is no way, as I see it right now, that I wont come away fromt his experience not having learned more than I can teach. This last week we have been planning for an Earth Day Celebration for our village. In accessing what Idelsen needs and wants, we have discovered that they would be a model for any US town. Its easy to be distracted by the trash and plastic bags strewn around (and that is a real issue for them which they are aware of), but they don’t create a lot of trash, they use most of their water very wisely, they reuse, they compost. This is more than likely an issue of saving money, but since when in the US have we not been concerned with saving money. Im really excited about what the people here already do, and look forward to conspiring with them on ways that they can improve.
