Last Minute Health Lessons

This morning Sarah-Kate and I dressed in our conservative best and headed over to the local health clinic to meet with the nurses. We had coordinated this meeting time yesterday with the local doctor, so we weren't coming in blindly.

A few months back, Sarah-Kate coordinated the teaching of these health lesssons by the nurses at the clinic for a tiny village she had helped to install running water in. The lessons were only supposed to be an hour long, covering topics like hand-washing, purifying water, breast-feeding and pre-natal care.

When we got to the clinic today, the nurse who was supposed to give the lessons bailed. She said that the timing was too late and she wanted to do it another day. Annoyed, Sarah-Kate and I headed back home, figuring we would try again tomorrow.

At 3:30pm, one of the men from the Commune (county-council) knocked on my door, ready to head to the village. After about 30 minutes of driving around, trying to get ahold of the doctor, Sarah-Kate and I decided to just teach the lessons ourselves. Mind you, I have never taught a health-lesson before but like most things in Morocco, I just went with it.

About 40 women came to our little lesson where we showed clips from a health video and attempted to understand what the women were saying. Most of the women were disappointed that the nurse didn't come, since she is the one with the medicine and technical knowledge but they seemed to enjoy hanging out with us. We drank some sodas (a big treat), ate cookies and chatted mostly, but I would say it was a success. The women were receptive and thankful.

This is just another example of how being a volunteer just means you learn to think on your feet. 95% of what I talk about, give lessons on or help out with I know nothing about. The reality is that having gone to school, I know how to research, ask questions and organize. These are the skills that are most valuable, well that and improvisation!

We should be having another lesson this Wednesday, InShalla, with one of the nurses. I am hoping it works out, just so the kind women of the village can ask their questions to someone who knows!

Life is good, really good.

I don't feel that I often get a chance to explain how good things are here, how really good. This blog can easily become a place for venting but I wanted to use this post to explain that for the first time in what feels like a long time, things are really good.

My new site is working out great, I have made two trips to Rabat in the past month (meaning delicious food and amazing company), I have a pending Rabat/ Fez trip in the next week, I have been getting to run every day, the weather is cooler and my applications are going well. Now with my new and improved internet connection I have the opportunity to Skype/ chat with my friends and family, keeping me more connected into their lives than ever.

I only have about 7 months left in Morocco, whew. Where did the time go?

For now, I am working on submitting law/ graduate school applications and getting started on two running water projects in two smaller villages just a few kilometers away. Yesterday we had a four hour meeting with the associations and the women of the respective villages and I am feeling good about getting started. These poor women haul water up this mountain every day, needless to say they are getting excited about the idea of having running water.

On the downside this is my second fall away from home, which I don't like. I miss college football games, the leaves changing color and the brisk fall wind. The leaves on my background are my way to live vicariously through my own blog. This year is also Mizzou's 100th anniversary Homecoming. I don't even know how to explain how sad I am that I am going to miss it.

My sister and best friend are booking their tickets to Morocco this weekend. We are going to do Morocco and then off to Rome for a few days. Rome will be my last big vacation before the end of my service and I couldn't be more excited!

That is all for my random updates, thanks for reading! Love you all.

We Will Never Forget

"It was a declaration of war by stateless actors bent on changing our way of life, who believed these horrible acts, these horrible acts of terror directed against innocents could buckle our knees, could bend our will, could begin to break us and break our resolve. But they did not know us. Instead, that same American instinct that send all of you into the breach between the fourth and fifth corridors galvanized a new generation of patriots, the 9/11 generation."
            - Vice President Joe Biden on September 11th, 2011.


I can't believe it's been ten years. 

Back to Work!

After the fun and games in Spain, it's time to get back to work. 

On the personal front, I am working on law school/ grad school applications and should hopefully be done with them pretty close to the middle of October. On a side note, I cannot imagine trying to apply from my old site, with no internet. The shear frequency of trips I would have had to take are hard to think about. Having internet is great. The applications are labor intensive but I am enjoying the structure and the thinking involved in completing them. It is just furthering my itch to get back to school.

On a more professional front, Sarah-Kate (my site mate) and I have been visiting sites, talking with community men (and women) and getting ready to start writing some grants for water access projects this fall. Sarah-Kate has already completed two running water projects in two small villages surrounding our town and now we are going to tag-team the next two, hopefully building a water tower and laying pipe so that the communities can have running water. There is also potential in a project for developing a septic system to help the community deal with waste water (right now they dump it into a dry creek bed). Sarah-Kate is hosting some health lessons with the women of the local clinic and I am hoping to get started on a women's empowerment workshop (similar to what I did in April) with some of the women in the cooperative here in town. There is certainly a lot of potential out there, a drastic change from my previous site. I will keep you posted as things progress.

Sarah-Kate and her team of local men working on building the water tower to provide running water to the small community.

Sarah-Kate talking with Lahcen and some other men of the small village to get started on another water access project this fall.

The men of the small village that are interested and willing to work to get running water access for their community.

We took a hike around some of the neighboring villages and I took this picture. It is pretty much exactly what southern Morocco is like, full of Argan trees, mosques and mountains.

Chicken Tacos, Cerveza Cerverzas and H&M. The Joys of Spain!

Spain, Spain. What a wonderful place. In an effort to escape the unbelievably hot August Moroccan sun and the stressors of Ramadan, Dave's parents graciously granted us use of their time share just 15 miles away from Marbella in the south of Spain.

We started out our trip flying from Marrakech to Madrid. Unfortunately the Moroccan authorities were not nearly as excited about my trip as I was and were giving me too much hassle at the airport. With about 30 seconds to spare I broke down crying, started yelling at the guy in English and he finally stamped my passport. I barely made the flight. The doors were closing and I had to yell down from the ground to prevent that from happening before I was on board.

We spend two nights in Madrid and took a day trip to Toledo. Toledo was a beautiful city and we had a blast just walking around and looking at the amazing architecture.

From Madrid we went to Cordoba and spent another two nights there.

Another bus ride from Cordoba, we ended up in Malaga to meet Socorra and Colin after their ferry ride from Morocco.

The last week we spent lounging by the pool, using the free WiFi, playing put-put, going to the grocery store and sitting at a Pirate Bar by the beach. It was the exact recipe for relaxation. Beer, food, sunshine, water.

Needless to say I came back to Morocco refreshed and rejuvenated. I feel ready to take on the last eight months and then start the next phase of my life, wherever that may be.

Here is a photographic journey through our trip:

The most delicious apple pie.

We did a lot of this, sitting around a patio drinking beer/ Sangria and playing cards.

 Mercado de San Miguel in downtown Madrid.

Felicie, Alex, Sami and I at the "Museum of Ham" in Madrid, where everything is a Euro.

A beautiful cathedral in Toledo.

Happiness, in the form of Sangria at Mercado de San Miguel.

Another beautiful church in Cordoba.

Playing a game of put-put at our resort outside Marbella.

This is mostly what we did, sit by the beach and drink San Miguels.

Viva Mijas! Mijas held a great concert we went to on the beach our last night in Spain.

Our ferry! There are numerous 18-wheelers and large trucks. Before the gate was even down the trucks were honking their horns just like in Morocco. I gave them the "really" hand gesture and the Moroccan men around us just burst out laughing.

Yes, the train in Morocco was blowing our mind (or wrinkling our brains). They refurbished some of the cars since the last time we took the train. Wow, they were so nice.