I love my job!

Today started off great, with a site visit from my Peace Corps program manager. Once a year, a volunteer's program manager comes to visit them at their site: talk to them about their work, meet their counterpart (in my case, my moudir), and see their house. Once a year, which equals only two times during one's service.

There are two program managers for the Youth Development sector and Abdelghani came this year. First of all, he got lost on his way to my town and called me on his cell phone from the jail nearby. That was pretty funny. When he finally arrived, we spent two hours talking about my work. He had all really positive and nice things to say - a real confidence boost. Then, he slipped on my child-size spiderman house sandals and because they were so small, he had to tiptoe to the bathroom. It didn't bother me at all (somebody besides me wearing my shoes to go to the turkish toilet would have bothered me a year ago) but I laughed out loud.

Most importantly, Abdelghani saved the day! He talked to all the important people and assured me that the Dar Chebab will never close. Because there is a new president in my town, the local mayor's office has been restructuring everything (the last guy was pretty corrupt) and that effects the Dar Chebab, but not me or my job. Good news! And, to top it all off, we might be delegated a new moudir. That could be either awesome or a disaster, depending on the new guy's competence and motivation.

So, after my awesome visit with Abdelghani, I carried on with my usual daily activities. Went shopping, cooked lunch, took a nap, and prepared my English lesson for the afternoon. When I got to the Neddi Niswi (women's center) I found out one of the girl (we say "girl" to any unmarried woman, even if she is 40 years old, like this "girl") was absent because her father had died. So, we cancelled English class and walked out of town to a nearby douar (village) to pay our respects. It was my first Moroccan funeral.

The family of the deceased sat on the floor by the door. I made sure I had the right God phrase in mind before greeting the family. (In this case, "baraka frask" was used, meaning "may god grant you grace") The house was full of Moroccan women. There was one woman wearing all white, who was the widow of the man who died. I didn't know who to say the god phrase to after a while. And I have no idea where all the men were sitting. That's not unusual though. We were seated in a room where we were served mint tea and cookies. Then, a woman lead us in prayer. When the prayer ended, we got up and left. On my way out a weird thing (but actually quite normal in my life here) happened. The widow grabbed my arm and begged me to stay longer with her. I had never met her before and was touched but also freaked out by all the people, so I politely told her I had to get to work.

At the Dar Chebab, we had our first successful Music Club. It was determined that the keyboard had a broken plug. But, we were allowed to use the guitar and drum and I brought in my harmonica. We had a fun jam session and it reminded me of how much I love music. I miss playing music and singing. I decided I am going to teach the kids how to read and write music. They want to learn and it is actually something I know quite a bit about, so it should be both fun and educational. It was pretty fun, except that the most obnoxious kid ever came. He knew a little bit more English than the other kids who are much younger than him and any chance he had to show-off his English, he would do it. Or he would lecture me about American English, as if he were the expert. We played a game about American geography and I had to ask him not to play the game because he was ruining it for the whole group.

After dominating the entire group in Connect Four, I called it a night and the kids walked me home. Salah, one of my favorite students, said his mom had a present for me and returned to my door half an hour later with a huge sack full of navel oranges.

How could I not love this job? Every day is unique and different, but all the while, reassuring in its likeness.

PS My camera is broken and that is why there haven't been any new pictures in a while. I am trying to get it fixed, so hopefully you'll have some new photos soon!