First Week at Post

After a few more days of administrative sessions and lots of socializing in between in Ouarzazate, the Health and Environment sector trainees wrapped up Pre-Service Training with a swearing-in ceremony on May 5^th. The ceremony took place at the Ouarzazate Palais de Congres, a lavish building with plush auditorium chairs and the ever-present photograph of the King. The Ouarzazate governor, the Director of Peace Corps Morocco, the US Ambassador, and three trainees gave speeches before we took the oath. It felt strange taking that oath again. It brought me back to the Benin swearing in ceremony in the field outside Lokossa, 5 years ago. All the new Volunteers there had sported matching fabric outfits for each sector. We’d sat through the ceremony in plastic chairs under makeshift open tents, with traditional musicians performing a dance and drum routine. Afterwards, we’d joined the mad dash to the snack and soda pavilions only to get out-run by the all the Beninese host families and find only crumbs leftover. In Morocco, we all pretty much wore Western business casual attire. Two people out of 69 trainees wore traditional outfits. Afterwards, we were ushered to the cocktail hall for Moroccan sweets, smoothies, and tea while we took group photos and chatted with the governor.

On Thursday, May 6^th, I took the bus to Marrakech with all my belongings. The winding roads across the Atlas Mountains proved challenging once again, as I fought off nausea and exhaustion from the previous night’s celebrations. To avoid dragging my obscenely heavy suitcase, backpack, and handbag across town, I opted for the more expensive route and bought out an entire bush taxi to take me to Malika and Larbi’s door in Amzour. Malika was waiting with open arms. I felt like I was home.

I’ve been keeping pretty busy since I’ve arrived. On Friday I went to see the Gendarmes in Amzmiz, 25 km south of Amzour. I presented myself and began the process to acquire a carte de sejour. Morocco does not require a Visa, but after three months, we must get one of these cards as proof of residence and to be able to go in and out of the country. That’s what I understand from it anyway. It’s a painstakingly long process involving loads of paperwork, passport photos, a 100DH fiscal stamp, the presence of a host family member with all their identification papers, and lots of waiting. Luckily for me, there are two Volunteers in Amzmiz, and the Gendarmes here are friendly, efficient, and accustomed to the process. I returned on Tuesday with more documents and spent about 4 hours with the commandant but managed to leave with a receipt document that will be my carte de sejour until the actual card comes in, inch’allah.

On Saturday, I spent an afternoon in Marrakech with Malika and Hicham. We took the bus in and visited Jema’l’Fna and the medina for a few hours. Malika went to all her customary wholesaler stores to buy gowns, sandals, and undergarments to resell at a tailor shop in Amzour. The vendors seem to know her well. She’s quite the businesswoman. The covered souk is full of textiles, crafts, spices, and so many people. I was burning up and dizzy from all the movement, yet I was happy to visit the city with a local. We walked around the square, munched on roasted peanuts, bought Hicham an ice cream cone, and then took the crowded bus back to the Barrage at 6:30. We all went to bed early that night.

On Sunday, an Italian tradesman who works with Naima’s association brought another order of baskets for the women to weave. His name is Nicola and he works with various associations in Morocco and India to fabricate textiles and re-sell them from Italy. He brings the raw material, shows the women how to make the product, then comes back to buy their work. This time, he brought 15 straw baskets and bags of turquoise sequins to be woven all around the outside of the baskets. One of the women, Aicha, already knows how to do the work, so she showed the others, including myself. I spent several hours weaving, which they greatly appreciated. It’s arduous and tough on the fingers. Nicola wants to pick up the baskets on Thursday already. Aicha gave me a basket to work on at home. I’ve been doing a little each day but I’m not even halfway done yet. Even if 15 women each took a basket home to work on, I don’t see how they could get it done in 4 days, with all the other household chores they accomplish each day.

I returned to Marrakech on Monday to meet two current Volunteers in the region for a day of shopping. Donielle is posted in Amzmiz, so I met her on the bus to the city, where we met Sara from Tahanaout. We went to the outskirts of the city to a brand new shopping mall and Carrefour supermarket. It reminded me of the Midtown mall in Miami. We definitely didn’t feel like we were in Africa. The shopping center opened in April so some stores aren’t open yet, but there’s a United Colors of Benetton, an imitation of Starbucks, a food court, a TGI Friday’s, swank restrooms, and a movie theater. The Carrefour has all the French brand names of groceries, great produce, a liquor store called La Cave, and an extensive electronics and household items section. I bought cheese to make quiche for my host family.

In the afternoon, Sara and Donielle headed home and I managed to set up a meeting with CDRT through my program manager, Mohssine. I met with my counterpart, Larbi Didoukane, at a café by the Science University on the northeast side of town. He took me to the CDRT office nearby, located in a quiet residential neighborhood of villas and bougainvilleas. The office is large and well-equipped, with several secretaries and interns busy at their computers. We had a meeting with the Director and the President and discussed my role in their capacity building project with partnered associations in the region. CDRT works with 100 associations in a vast area around Marrakech, reaching as far west as Essaouira. Because I am based in Lalla Takerkouste, they’d like me to first work with the women’s association there on the fruit drying machine project. Then, they’d like me to meet with all the partnered associations in the commune and identify the ones capable of carrying out a project, then help them realize it. We discussed the philosophy behind their work and this capacity building project in particular. Overall, it was a good meeting and I’m excited to see where it goes. They have some paperwork to do regarding the fruit drying machines, and then Abdelkader, the Director, would like me to go visit the manufacturer once they’ve identified who can build the machine. In the meantime, I have to explain to Naima that the machines won’t be ready by apricot season this year, which is in less than two weeks.

I think I’ll be moving about a lot with the position, namely to Marrakech. It’s a lot of transportation costs, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I headed back to Amzour and chatted with Naima at the pharmacy before heading home at 8pm, thoroughly exhausted and famished. Malika had squash duwaz and coffee waiting for me. Duwaz is a common, simple and tasty dish here. It’s basically a mixture of vegetables and sometimes meat pressure cooked for a long time and served with bread.

On Tuesday, after visiting the gendarmes in Amzmiz, I went to the town’s weekly souk, which is absolutely enormous. I met with Donielle for a lunch of tajine at her house. She’s pretty much my post mate and I get along real well with her, l’Hamdulah. There’s another Volunteer there, who’s currently vacationing in the states. I’ll meet him in a few weeks.

Today, Wednesday, I finally baked a quiche for Malika and the family. She’d been eagerly anticipating that since I mentioned it during site visit. It definitely went better than the rice mush dinner in Asfalou. It was quite delicious even. Mehdi really like it and already requested that I make more. Maybe next time I’ll make tarte a la moutarde…