Well, I’ve upheld the common society
failure to not follow through with my New Year’s resolution. I have no excuse
other than to declare that I don’t have one. So…here’s a long overdue update…
The weather finally started to improve—so
much to the point that I am continuously finding myself in an on/off sweat
cycle throughout the day. Looking back on this past winter, I always thought I
loved the cold…until I lived through that season here in Morocco. This country
varies a lot in terms of temperature, so I am only speaking from my own
personal experience, but the cold was bone-chilling in my site. Because I live
up in the mountains I am in one of the colder sites, not the coldest by any
means, but the winter was not fun. It doesn’t get as cold here temperature wise
as it does in PA, but when it’s 30F in your bedroom, it’s not exciting to see your breath under the covers.
The
biggest problem was that there was no escaping the weather (and now it's the same concept only with heat), even having piles
of blankets over me, my face still felt like it was going to fall off at night.
Doing dishes and laundry was miserable and taking a bucket bath was even worse. I could heat up water on the stove, but even changing my clothes was
dreadful, so completely undressing to wash with a bucket was terrifying. I
can’t even tell you the embarrassing amount of times I opted to remain smelly
as opposed to bathing.
...I hoped that reminiscing about the
freezing weather mere months ago would relieve some of this heat….still waiting
for it to kick in…
...nothing….
Okay, enough complaining. I figured that within a couple months of the
cold ending I would find myself in a catch 22 of wanting winter again because
I’m now sweating my butt off. And I’m
not quite so thrilled to tell you all that the bugs have arrived! The second it
started to warm up the monstrous ants and spiders began invading my house. I even found myself wearing a pair of pants for about 20 minutes before realizing a 1.5 inch beetle was residing in them. However,
as long as there are no bed bugs involved, I’m good. And I own a wonderful bug
catcher, who not only eats them, but provides hours of entertainment, aka: my
cat.
In other news, it was great to
celebrate the “one year mark.” There’s an extreme high of “yay! I’ve been here
a year!” to an extreme low of, “omg…I have a whole additional year of this.” The positive definitely outweighs
the negative however, so I’m happy. I really believe that this second year will
fly by much faster than the first. (It already is.) I am settled in my niche,
I’ve got a good work flow going, and I’ve made some amazing friends here—both
Peace Corps-wise as well as Moroccan. Recently, the staj of volunteers that
arrived a year before I did just ended their service. This really made me
realize that I am going to miss so many people once this time is over.
This whole experience will always be a
rollercoaster as I've mentioned time and again. There are times of highs and lows that sometimes seem
more extreme than normal because of the unusual situations we’re placed in as
PCVs. I don’t think I’ve ever truly
grasped the concept that “attitude is everything” until I started this whole mind-warp.
Also, I wanted to remind people of the
“letter gift” I received from a bunch of family and friends before I left,
where they all pre-wrote me letters to be read throughout my service and were
dated accordingly for the next years so I was able to ready about 2 a month. I
just want everyone involved to know how appreciative I am for those gifts. I
can’t tell you how happy I am when I open an anonymous envelope to find that an
old friend or family member wrote me an inspiring, funny, nostalgic or
appreciative letter. So—thank you.
On that same note, I just finished visiting with some
family from my Dad’s side! It was great spending the quality time together—touring,
eating, swimming, more eating and drinking, talking, and eating and drinking…and more talking and eating…
And they “willingly” endured some very
graphic and parasitic stories I shared with them. Being real though, I had an
amazing time, we did so many different things and made some great memories. And
one in particular that has provided me with some worldly advice that I would
like to share—If you go to Gibraltar, make sure you prepare yourself to be
attacked, and see others be attacked, by monkeys…with no staff to help you,
because you are in the middle of the forest, on the top of an enormous rock, alone.
And some additional advice: Definitely
go do it.
We spent some time together in Spain and they also made it down to Morocco. They definitely were forced to experience a taste of the wonderful heat wave currently sucking the life
out of everyone.
I’d say I feel bad for them, but I don’t. :)
Ramadan is coming. To fast or not to
fast? That is the question.
Well, maybe the real question is…which
TV show with the most seasons should I start watching? Which book series should
I start reading? Or which movie trilogies should I download? (Aka: Ramadan
101-How to keep yourself occupied during extreme lengths of heat and boredom)
Things I’ve learned:
11) Teaching my family how to dance like
traditional Moroccan Berbers is super entertaining, and I think my village
would agree if they had the chance to see it.
22) Don’t leave your carte de sejour receipt at a
hotel in Spain when you’re waiting for your new one to arrive at the Gendarmes
and this is your only Moroccan residential proof.
33) I miss air-conditioning.
44) My sweat production is always 99.9% greater
than the average Moroccan, even when I am only wearing one layer of clothes and
they have on four.
55) Cheesecake and pork products are delicious and
I can’t wait to eat more when the time presents itself.
