The "Real" Peace Corps Experience

The past two days have been what I would consider my first real “Peace Corps” experience. What I mean by this, is up until now, we have really been under the supervision and guidance of many host country nationals and PC staff who were guiding us in pretty much all aspects of life. Since we have sworn in a moved to our final posts, just about a week ago, we have been tackling head on all the “real world” problems that exist as a volunteer in Morocco. So far, I have had extremely smooth sailing. Sami, Dave and I rented ONE cab to take us from our training hub site, Ouarzazet, to our final sites, just south of Tiznit. It was about a 8-9 hour trip and was door to do service. Unlike other volunteers, I took all of my luggage with me in the cab and had all of it to look through the first night I was at post. This was a luxury most volunteers don’t experience.

My family is amazing, that has also made the transition much easier. There are three children, all between the ages of 17 and 22, so they are old enough to be independent and show me the “ropes” of the village. I have a host sister, Hadija, who is pretty much my guardian. She literally helps me do EVERYTHING.

Yesterday started this adventure. I needed to go to Lockess to meet with the Gendarmes to get my Carte De Sejour. Since I didn’t need a visa to come here, I basically need to get this card proving my identity in Morocco and so I don’t get deported. Getting this card is quite a process and I think I described in a previous post what my first trip was like, but to sum it up, its like visiting a very busy DMV where you don’t speak the same language. My second trip I was going at it alone, so that added an increased level of difficulty. I was really concerned about how I was going to get there, without just doing the easy thing and paying for a the whole cab so the guy would take me there. I decided it was time to try and conquer the bus. This bus is essentially a run down city type bus that runs from Tiznit to the outer dwwars (villages). Riding it is probably a fairly easy process, but I am easily intimidated by it and have been avoiding it at all costs for the entirety of my time here. My sister told me to stop be a wuss about it and just do it. She wrote out the instructions of what I needed to do in Arabic on a piece of paper, so worst case scenario, I could give it to a nice person and they would help me. This made me feel like a kindergarten kid who’s parents give the bus driver specific instructions of how to care for a child. Here was the rundown. I would catch the 10am bus number 21 from my site, to a place called Mird. It is really just a stop, a place with three buildings and a fork in the rode. Then I had to catch another bus, number 10, going in another direction, to Lockess. There were a couple of intimidating things, I didn’t know how much any of these buses cost, or who to pay for that matter. There isn’t like an official meter on the bus that you have to pay, or even pay the driver, its just a random guy you give your money to, and that is initmidating.

Here is what actually happened, Hadija and I ran up the mountain so I could catch the 10am bus, but it didn’t come. We then started scoping out the cab scene in the main part of town, (aka the souk). We basically found nothing. So Hadija did what we normally do, we just grabbed a seat. I never have any idea what we are waiting for, but I have gotten really good at just going with the flow. After about 10-15 minutes of , for God only knows what, the president of the cooperative, Msaidia, showed up in a car and told me to get in.

I want to describe this women for you, just because I feel like she is a character worth describing. Msaidia is nearly 6 feet tall and built very solid, with a very delicate and beautiful face. Sort of an imposing figure, I am constantly intimidated by her presence despite the fact that she is extremely kind and caring. She is a women who runs the show. Her presence demands attention and respect and even her children (she has 3) don’t mess around when she is there. I am not sure about her marital situation, I have never seen her husband, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have one. She is pretty much a Type A personality and I appreciate a strong women presence in my life.

Back to the story, Msaidia told me to get in the cab, so I did. The cab driver was nice, as usual. I have had nothing but extremely nice cab drivers the entire time I have been here, and I hope the pattern continues. Msaidia got out at Mird, the town I was supposed to catch the other bus at, but the cab driver drove me to Lockess, FOR FREE. This was the best part I guess. I did have about 20 minutes of somewhat awkward Tashl-eng-fren (a combo of Tashlheet, English and French) conversation but when we got there and I tried to pay, he said it was a favor to Msaidia. The cab driver took me directly to the door of the Gendarmes and even escorted me inside. When I got inside, all my “old friends” were there, aka the Gendarmes. They escorted me into the Chief’s office, ahead of the 40+ Moroccan men who had been waiting, for I'm sure an extended period of time. I am sure the men who have been waiting for hours did not appreciate a blonde American girl being escorted into the Chief’s office, with no waiting at all, but I guess that is one place where being different helps.

When I got to the office, all of the Gendarmes start cycling in and out of the office to “meet” me, which was pretty funny. They were asking lots of questions in broken English about my family, where I was living, what I was doing, whether or not I was married, and for that case, looking for a husband in Morocco, I could tell the Chief was feeling awkward, so he sent them away. I thought it was funny. I had spent many days preparing for this meeting, making photo copies, collecting papers, buying small photos of myself, ect, so I was really excited to get this process over with. To my surprise (NOT), haha they told me I had to go to the Police Station in Tiznit and meet with a guy at the police station to get the Carte. After some language confusion, a new Gendarme I had never met before came in, and he SPOKE ENGLISH. It was like a gift sent to me. He didn’t speak great English, but certainly enough for me to get my needs met and not have to fight the language barrier at the same time. He again reiterated that I had to go to Tiznit, because they didn’t do it at this Gendarmerie. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to get to Tiznit, especially since it was market day in Lockess so there were LOTS of Moroccan men who don’t mind awkwardly staring at the American walking around looking for a cab. I told the Gendarmes that since I had come all the way to them alone and they were sending me away again, they had to drive me. Of course, this didn’t work, but it was worth a shot. As compensation, the English speaking Gendarme walked me the market and put me in a cab, with explicit directions to the driver about where he needed to take me and how much it was going to cost. It was sort of cool to walk through the market with a Gendarme, it made me feel less awkward being surrounded by so many men.

The cab driver did as instructed, and dropped me off at the police station in downtown Tiznit. When I walked in the door, immediately a police officer helped me find the man I was looking for. When I got into this man’s office, he was yelling at someone on the phone in a not very pleasant tone of voice, and it was pretty much all down hill from there. The man at the police station told me that I had to do it in Lockess and that the Gendarmes were wrong. I then asked if anyone at the station spoke English and to my luck, no one did. I then called one of our trusty PC staff and they translated for me, indeed I did need to go back to the Gendarme station in Lockess all along.

In all reality, if this same scenario would have happened when I was in America, I would have been frustrated beyond belief and it would have definitely ruined my day. In morocco, that was not the case at all. I then had the day to enjoy Tiznit! Tiznit is a beautiful city with lots of things to do, places to shop and good places to eat. They even have an American style super market. Turns out that some of the Health volunteers were in town to meet up with Ministry of Health so I got to grab lunch with them, it was delicious. In another stroke of good luck, Sami and Dave were coming into town as well to spend the night. I didn’t really have any plans for the rest of the day, so I met up with a good friend of mine who’s a health volunteer and we drank coffee and hung out until Sami and Dave got into town. I finally headed back to my post about 7pm, since it doesn’t get dark until well after 9 now, I had a fun filled day of traveling and hanging out with my friends. All in all, it was a blessing in disguise and a good taste of some of the opportunities and challenges I will have to overcome in the next two years.

This was only day one of my lesson thought. For the past couple of days, the women’s cooperative has been talking about me coming with them to an event they are going to in Sidi Ifni. I initially said no, because we were supposed to have a meeting with the Department of Water and Forests in Tiznit, but then I realized this was not an opportunity I could pass up. It was really my first shot at learning about the cooperative and what they are all about. (In retrospect this was a great choice, since the meeting didn’t end up happening anyway.) So this morning I woke up extra early so I would have time to pack and clean up before I embarked on my three day all Tashlheet adventure with some of the women of the cooperative. I had been told many times to be at Maria’s (my friend and a lady in the cooperative) house at 11am sharp. We were going to grab lunch and then head out to Tiznit, to spend the night with some of her family members.

I called the Gendarmes and told them where I was going (they called 3 more times today just to check in, they really do care where I am going and what I am doing, which is nice and makes me feel safe) and then I was off to Maria’s house. When I got there, they were right in the middle of doing laundry and cooking, so I pitched in as best as I can. They have a washing machine of sorts, so it was cool to watch that in action as compared to the ones in the States that I am used to. We then just sat down and started watching TV. We at lunch about 3pm, which was a little later than I thought we would but about the time we normally eat every day. After that, I was starting to wonder about when we were leaving, but its much easier to just not ask questions and go with the flow. After lunch they told me it was nap time, a luxury not often taken advantage of in the states, even a little taboo in some cases, but something Moroccans consider completely acceptable and even encourage. I took a 2.5 hour nap, which was nice but really not needed, after all I had spent most of the day just sitting in front of the TV or playing with the girls, but oh well. At about 6pm we headed to the cooperative and packed up the stuff into boxes. At this point I was like, surely we are going now, but nope, we didn’t. Finally I asked Maria when we were leaving and very casually, she was like “tomorrow morning”. At this point I wasn’t even surprised and I had been suspecting this answer for quite some time. At around 8:30pm I headed back to my house and surprised my family with the fact that I hadn’t left (my sister Hadija was especially excited since this morning she said she would be really bored for 3 days without me ☺ ).

So the plan is that I am leaving tomorrow morning at 6am, but in reality its going to be more like 8am, but mashe mushkil (not a problem) because that is just how life is now. My new reality is that days exist around conversations and meals, instead of productivity and things to check off your To Do list. It’s a nice change of pace and certainly makes life quite enjoyable once you learn to just go with the flow.

All in all, events that could have been stressful and ruined my day, did not do that at all. They actually turned out quite nice, since I got to see some friends, eat some delicious American type food and watch the movie “A Knight’s Tale” all the way thought for the first time in years.

I will keep you posted on how my trip to Sidi Ifni goes. Miss you all and love you more.