Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Day in the Life

A lot of people have been shooting me emails recently asking me what a day in my life is like. I hope this will clear it up, for all those interested.

As an FYI, my schedule changes daily and will drastically change in the beginning of May when I have finished my training and (InShallah) get sworn in as a volunteer.

Here is a general idea:

7:30am: Wake up/ Brush my teeth

7:40am: Eat breakfast (usually consists of bread and jam and ALWAYS tea).

7:55am: Leave to walk to school

8:00am- 10:00am: Tashlheet language training

10:00am- 10:15am: Tea/ Snack Break

10:15am- 12:15pm: Tashlheet language training

12:15pm- 2:00pm: Lunch break/ Study Time/ Go for a walk

2:00pm- 4:00pm: Cross Cultural Lesson

4:00pm- 4:15pm: Tea/ Snack break

4:15pm- 5:15pm: Cross Cultural Lessons/ Language Review

5:15pm- 6:00pm: Independent language study time/ tutoring

6:00pm: Back to my host family

6:05pm- 8:45pm: study, shower (when possible), wash clothes, cook dinner, meet family/ neighbors, watch TV with the family,
do homework

8:45- 9:15pm: Dinner

9:15pm- 9:30pm: Dishes and clean-up

9:30pm: Back to my room for some journaling/ brushing my teeth/ watching an episode of a favorite TV show/ more studying and finally off to bed.

As you can see, our days are quite full, lots of language and lots of culture. While I get a decent number of hours of sleep a night, I am physically exhausted most of the time. I like getting to practice my language in a home setting where they know I am learning and work hard to make sure I understand what they say.

We also have “hub” days where all of the Environment trainees head back to our hub site for a day or two of general knowledge type stuff including food safety, security, traveling, shots and technical environmental information.

My days are full of language and I do enjoy the opportunity to spend some time with the other five trainees in my village, it makes the culture and language shock process a little easier.

I hope this helps you understand a little better what my days are like here in Morocco.

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