First Month at Site

First Month at Post

I can’t believe it’s been nearly a month since I arrived at site. I’ve been keeping busy with getting to know the village and surrounding towns, going on long runs, meeting with the women’s association and work partners, and doing my best to adjust to the growing heat of summer. During the last half of May, I had my first meeting with the president of the communal council of Lalla Takerkouste. Naima and I went to present a project proposal provided by CDRT regarding the solar powered fruit drier. We went on a Sunday, souk day, because that’s when many people come into town and request to meet with the president. The proposal was written in French, and was actually a brief first draft sent by Abdelkader, (CDRT Director) presenting the project and listing the roles and responsibilities of each party: the beneficiary association, the commune, and CDRT. The commune is supposed to provide a locale for the machine, CDRT provides the material to build the machine and training for using it, and the association does the work. We wanted to present the proposal to see what the commune had to say about their ability to participate in the project.

Most of the meeting was conducted in Arabic so it went right over my head. But they sprinkled in some French when addressing me. We had to explain to the commune my role here in the community and why I was working with Naima’s association specifically. The president also asked me what kind of financial assistance I was bringing to Naima and I had to clarify that I was a human resource assigned to work with all interested and willing members of the commune, yet my main project was to work with CDRT and Naima’s association. There’s some underlying political tension between her association, the Kaid (sort of like the mayor), and the communal council. From what I’ve gathered, the commune and Kaid have a reputation for seizing projects from associations in order to take their money. However, they aren’t quite sure what to make of me and this fruit drier idea. They barely scanned the proposal and went straight to the section describing the commune’s responsibilities in the project and said they needed us to present more technical information and a budget before they could sign any type of project agreement. This seemed fair enough, so I arranged to meet with Larbi and Abdelkader at CDRT to go over that.

It took another two weeks to finally meet with Abdelkader at the CDRT office in Marrakech, and we spent most of it going over what model of solar powered fruit drier would be best for the space Naima has set aside for the project. That I know of, there are two other fruit driers in the country set up for use at the rural association level, and this may be the third one. Therefore, it’s a new concept and they’re still working out the kinks on the best functioning machine. Abdelkader has a background in engineering, while the paperwork and political side of the project is more Larbi’s specialty. In the coming weeks, we will hopefully tackle the signing of an agreement so we can move forward. At any rate, I feel as though I’m getting a good start on work, because I am partnered with an extremely motivated women’s association and an NGO armed with highly educated, resourceful members.

Weekend in Essaouira

On May 28, I went to spend my first weekend away from site to celebrate my CBT friend Martin’s birthday in Essaouira. Sami, Dave, and Cara from CBT all came up from the Tiznit region in the south, as well as a few health volunteers around Essaouira. We rented a Riad in the medina and spent a lovely two days catching up on site stories and exploring the city. Essaouira is right on the ocean, between Agadir and Casablanca. It’s a small city yet very popular with tourists. All the buildings are painted white with vibrant blue doors and shutters. Everything seems to follow this color scheme. Even the taxis are blue and white. The medina is smaller and calmer than the clamor and whirlwind aura of Marrakech. There are endless kiosks and tourist craft boutiques, but the shopkeepers aren’t nearly as aggressive at trying to lure you into their store. Essaouira has a strong presence of culture and art as well, with many beautiful crafts and paintings adorning the cafes and riads (typical medina houses). The best part of Essa is the constant cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. It supposedly doesn't get nearly as hot here in summer as the interior regions. We walked along the city ramparts, watched the sunset over the Atlantic, and roamed past the rows of blue boats at the marina.

After hearing about the other volunteers’ sites, I affirmed that I have once again been really lucky with my Peace Corps assignment. The fact that I speak French and can easily communicate with my counterparts is a huge help in getting things done. Some of the others live in tiny douars (small villages) of 10 houses with no kiosk and no transportation in or out. They have to walk up to 2 hours to find a taxi or get to their souk town. I have a city bus that stops by my douar, several kiosks that sell fruits and vegetables every day, a weekly souk, and I’m only 40 minutes ride from Marrakech.

I returned from my weekend away feeling recharged and ready to face another month of host family homestay.

Larbi’s Birthday

June 3^rd was my host father’s birthday. He turned 57 and had previously informed me he’d never celebrated a birthday in his life. Meanwile, Malika doesn’t even have a birthday. Her identification card states she was born in 1961; no day or month. So on June 3^rd, I bought some birthday candles and decided to bake Larbi a cake. I showed Malika how to make banana bread and she had her son Mehdi record every ingredient and step in Arabic so she could replicate it later. In the evening, we had a little family birthday party in the guest salon. Malika and I wore traditional dresses, Larbi put on a nice shirt, they bought a bottle of soda, and we lit the candles. Larbi was very grateful and beamed from ear to ear after blowing out the candles. It made my day to see him smile. The banana bread was a hit. Hicham ate about half of it himself.

House Hunting

One of my key assignments during the first two months is to find a house to rent for the next two years. Peace Corps set a maximum monthly rent allotment of 500-600DH (roughly $65). Most volunteers in the Marrakech region have trouble finding housing at that price, because so many Europeans live here and hike up the rent. Many end up getting approval for a higher cost. My host family arduously wanted me to stay with them for two years, which is something I could do if I wanted. But, the prospect of living up on the roof with little privacy and control over my schedule for the next two years wasn’t my cup of tea. Plus, in the last two weeks, the weather has been getting excruciatingly hot and the non-insulated cement room I call my bedroom turns into an outright inferno. I’ve even resorted to sleeping on a rug outside, under the stars, which is actually quite pleasant.

At first, Naima and Malika told me there weren’t really any good houses to rent in the douar, and all the available apartments were on the other side of the river, in the Arab side of town. Rent there is expensive, and I would be victim to much more harassment. All the young men and drunks come by the busload from Marrakech every weekend, along with tourists to rent 4-wheelers and party on the lakeshores. The berber douar is calmer, safer, and separate from the weekend hustle and bustle. Anyway, once I convinced my host family that I couldn’t survive the heat up on the roof and I needed my own house, they were more than happy to help me find one. Malika was paramount in getting the word out and before I knew it, I was visiting a couple different houses a day. All of them are in varying degrees of completion or degradation, but most consist of 2-3 rooms, a kitchen, a latrine, and a central cement courtyard. I finally found one that I really like, however it’s not quite finished. It’s got a vast courtyard, 3 rooms, and a kitchen with a sink and cement countertop. There’s a big man-sized hole in the wall of the courtyard leading into another abandoned, unfinished house. Some of the windows and doors haven’t been installed yet, but my favorite part is that there’s roof access. Iron rods stick out from everywhere up there, but there’s a magnificent, panoramic view of the village and the mountains. With Malika and Larbi’s help, I negotiated the rent at 600DH and the landlord agreed to get everything finished and secured by July 1^st. Today, June 5^th, the Volunteer warden for the Marrakech region came to do a ‘house check’ and approved the house. So now I have to cross my fingers that the work gets done and I can sign the rental agreement in the next couple weeks! I am so excited to live on my own and get settled in a house!