After days of doubting and pondering how to proceed with the next 11 months of my service in Morocco, yesterday everything seemed to just come together. Following the Spring Festival at the Barrage in April, work at the Women’s Association began to wane and I was worried the bakery project was losing fuel. I had turned in my project completion report to Peace Corps and handed over the Association treasury to 
Batoul. I wanted to see if the members would continue to propel themselves forward with the bakery. A few of the women stopped coming to work, therefore discouraging other members to work as well. The reasons I was given for their reluctance to show up were varied and hazy. Some weren’t getting enough monetary compensation, others didn’t get along with certain members, some had family matters to attend to. I had also stopped going every day partly because I needed a mental break and in part because I felt the members should upkeep their product demands in the community on their own, without me around to handle deliveries and money exchanges.
By mid May, 4 women bobbed back up to the surface and returned to work diligently. We decided to move out of the leased locale because rent was robbing them of the majority of their profits. They moved back to the tiny loft donated by Naima’s father, while I sent a grant proposal to the Canadian Embassy in Rabat for the construction of a new venue. The Commune had recently signed over a piece of land for the Association, and they’ve been dreaming of having a proper building to work out of for years. I was prompted to apply with the Canadian Embassy by a Moroccan Peace Corps staff member but honestly didn’t hold very high hopes for it. However, two weeks ago, the Embassy called to say they were interested in our project. We scrambled to send them a few more requested documents and then sat down to wait.
As June arrived, bringing with it the first tastes of summer weather, I began fretting about the prospect of sitting through the next 3 months of hellish heat, with Ramadan looming 8 weeks away and not many activities in store. I holed myself up with books and television shows for a few days, beginning to wallow in my uncertainties.
Yesterday I opted for a change of pace and called up my new friend Delphine, a French woman who lives in my site with her Moroccan husband and their beautiful baby boy, Ismail. I suggested we go for a hike along the lake and maybe venture for a swim. The two of us spent an absolutely beautiful day touring the villages and orchards, visiting a few of the other Europeans living in the area. We finished at Brigitte’s, a German leather artist who’s lived at the Barrage for the past 12 years with her 4 children. They have an ultimate utopist hippies’ lair on the water, 7 km outside of town, with a quiet grassy beach that Delphine and I took full advantage of. I’ve been here for 13 months and this was my first swim in the lake! I can’t believe I’ve waited this long. I even coaxed (dragged) Haddock to come in for a swim, though he wasn’t as big a fan. He much preferred wreaking havoc with the neighborhood guard dogs.
On our hike back to the village, I received a call from the Canadian Embassy, informing me they’d selected our project for funding! I hurried home to spread the good news to the Association members and found them in the midst of creating new delicacies. They were trying out new Algerian recipes they’d found online, courtesy of the laptop my dad donated to them in February. On top of a new wholesaler client they’d found in Marrakech who ordered 50kg of cookies, they were making another order for some women at the governor’s office. They seemed proud and motivated, which made me so happy. I ate a celebratory dinner at Delphine’s house, with good laughs, good drinks, good stories. Some days can be pretty lonely and rough, but it’s days like these that make it all worthwhile.
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