summer is upon us. for reals.

Summer is once again upon is and I find myself planted in front of my fan wearing as little clothing as possible, turning my computer off midday to keep it from overheating and I take long naps with a wet sheet covering me. It is notably hotter this summer then it was last summer, the hottest it ever got in my house last year was 97 degrees, and yesterday we banked in at 99- when it gets that hot, really all I have the energy to do is sleep. While I never took naps in college, or partook of the midday siesta’s at camp they have become wildly important  to my summer schedule here in morocco. Naps always made me feel lazy and like I’d wasted a huge part of my day, but culturally I’m in good company- most everyone else in my town sleeps through the hottest times of the day as well. If you want bread or milk at 2:30 pm you are shit out of luck my friend- everything is closed and most people are taking their typical afternoon snooze. The nice thing about taking a nap (for most of the) midday means that you can stay awake comfortably when the sun goes down, the breeze picks up and it becomes way more comfortable to be alive.

Nothing much new has happened here, classes are officially over at my youth center, we held a little “party” with the last 2 students standing on Friday which mostly involved us doing the coke or pepsi taste test, playing guitar eating cookies and then them showing off their kung fu and “parkour” skills.

I’ve decided that this will be my summer of betterment- which means I am actively (and happily) working out every day- I’ve been rotating between some biggest loser dvds  I bought before I left and some yoga videos. I love being back to a point where I crave my exercise and feel like my day is empty without it. I love building onto my yoga practice and it feels nice to feel strong in my body again. Morocco can be very lazy. While I do walk everywhere, it’s a lot of walking then sitting. Sitting then more sitting then some more walking. I’m pretty sure most of my muscles have atrophied past the point of health so its time to kick my own ass back into shape, and yoga is such a great way to do it. It is a little on the hot side, but I figure I paid 30 bucks to do bikram in America, and the temperature at my house is almost that hot, so might as well do some hot yoga for free!

I am currently in zagora to work a camp, that was very moroccoed in its architecture and setup. It was a surprise camp, no one knew it was happening until yesterday afternoon when me and another volunteer were frantically drafted to help. We showed up in zagora this morning, and made our way to the house of the volunteer where we are staying. Because she is traveling she left her key with her local store/hanut guy. When we showed up, he wasn’t there. So in a very Moroccan fashion we knocked on his door and confused his poor daughter into letting us keep our bags in their living room while we went to souk/the weekly market to pick up some food for the week. Mashi mushkil (no problem) the guy was back upon our return and apologized profusely, but really it was no big deal. (I realize how wonderful morocco is that it was no big deal that I just left my belongings in a strangers house then walked away for an hour or so to go buy veggies). Now we are settled in with the internet, waiting until it cools down so we can meet with our manager/boss guy. So, very un-American of me to be as calm as I am when less then 24 hours before this camp is meant to start I still have no idea when it is, where it is, what I’m doing, how many kids there will be, lets be honest I LITERALLY have next to no information. I think morocco is having a good influence on me.

As I was sitting waiting for the taxi today I have learned that while I still can be highly anxious and easily frustrated by many things I have gained so much patience. Before morocco I don’t know how relaxed or laid back I would have been about sitting on the curb just chilling with nothing to do until 6 more people decided to go the same direction as me. I definitely would not have been ok with my bag being in a stranger’s house and walking away from it and I would absolutely unequivocally not be ok with this work situation. I’m really thankful for the things morocco has given to me and I’m hoping that I will be able to carry some of it back to the states with me.

So that’s it for now I think, here’s some random pictures from the last few months.

on of my ladies threading beads for her bead crochet. 

me and my lovely site mate tiffany in traditional n'kob garg

one of my favorite things about bigger cities is that you can buy pre-cooked chick peas and fava beans. yum! 

souk 

apricots and plums!

a pretty door in my friends site

 you can kind of see under the right wing that there is a baby bat under there! they had gotten trapped in my big room one night and while they took me by surprise  i know they made their way back to their home in the rafters above my stairs. i also have baby birds living on my stairs- literally i have no idea where their nest is meant to be, and they are literally just cozied up into the corners of my stairs at night.  they're so young i can get right up to them and look at them from less then a foot away and they just stare back. 

reflections in the palmerie

carbohydrate fiesta! we had our closing day party at our women's center and everyone brought their own type of bread, personally i made banana bread with chocolate. 

i washed my bracelets in bleach, they needed it. 

danger guys and girls, we now have a full time donut guy in town. while they aren't the best donuts i've had in morocco they are now available to me all the time. luckily during the summer, i don't often walk down that way.

long time no write

In my head this blog post is going to be witty and on point and interesting for everyone to read. In reality this will probably just be another rambly account of my pretty boring life.

Something I will talk about briefly is nesting- or at least my experience of it.

While meeting the group of new volunteers I have a tendency to say that " I like living in morocco, because I've never lived anywhere before" someone was confused and asked me what that meant- and what that means that as a touring or seasonal worker I, more often then not am living with the people I work with- sure Saint Mike's Playhouse is in Winooski, but with only a few days or afternoons off here and there I never really got to see Burlington or Winooski. At camp, I would never ever trade the idyllic little place I call home for 3 months each summer, but I am not living in Raymond or Portland, I am living at camp, a temporary community we create for ourselves. Even in college, we were a temporary and time-framed community of people, being a residential campus I never really left, and when I did, it was for my seasonal summer work or family vacations. On the other end of this crazy time framed lifestyle I did live and grow up in the same place, I still run into classmates in teachers whenever I go home, but it's not the same.

Morocco is the first time I have had my own house, my own kitchen, my own wardrobe (and not just a suitcase). I have my regular grocery store, and the regular place I buy my bread, I walk by places and I know their names, and they know mine. I feel like I'm part of the community, I go home at the end of a day, or trip to the store and get to sleep in my bed, I get to cook food in my kitchen. As much as I love travelling and moving around and my seasonal life style I have fallen in love with my nesting love affair with being somewhere. As a result of this I have not done a lot of travelling while I've been in morocco. first off it's a pain in the butt to get out of town and then an even bigger pain in the butt to get over the mountains, imagine every time you wanted to go on vacation you needed to spend 6 hours in a bus going over round up and down a bajillion mountains. So there's that. I've already told people that I know I'm going to regret no travelling more in my time here, because tickets to get back are expensive, but I guess as long as I already know that's how I'm going to feel, then it's ok. Also I'm totally dependent on my current dirham (not dollar) income, so no international trips for me, at least not until I leave.

Dont worry all of you out there who have this image of me just sitting in my house crocheting and going for walks around town for the next 6 months. I do have plans to travel, just nothing to crazy and nothing too far. My goal this summer (which might be a crazy however well intended one) is to try and visit people in my region- I say this is crazy because it's wicked hot here in the summer and travelling isn't fun and it's illogical to go even further south as the temperatures rise.  I'm hoping to hike mount toubkal (the tallest mountain in north africa) this month, as well as visit a friend, and then I have plans for the end of august, and then our close of service conference in september. I just need to figure out july, maybe I'll get myself to a beach, or create a beach in my courtyard. We shall see.

In other news a few weeks ago we had our regional meeting where I finally got to meet the other new volunteers in my region- the new culture/environment the new volunteers have created is much more positive and energetic then the one I came in on I think, so that's fun. We had a nice day in a pretty hotel doing model UN and talking about local activities and projects and then went to one of the movie studios, touting such films as Asterix and Obelix Anthony and Cleopatre (my favorite french comedy), jewel of the nile and some others- other things filmed in morocco were game of thrones (check out episode 7 or 8- that's my region and contains lots of berber symbols!) salmon fishing in the yemen, the then commandments, the mummy and tons more. It was cool to see the studio, though it was kind of falling apart.

The only other thing occupying my time has been crochet. My goal this summer is to make a blanket, and I'm a little bit around 1/3rd of the way there. It's been fun, and I love having a big project/goal.

so that's it for now- maybe I'll actually try and update more regularly. we shall see, so many empty promises.

game of thrones, possibly quarth?

just getting to know a statue

me in asterix and obelix! egypt or something

me and a bag that i made when i decided i didn't want to use it for my blanket

me and my yarn

the beginnings of my blanket

all of my squares are finished!!!! 

the circles and flowers

raised flowers

granny squares

flowers!!!! so cute.