This needs a lot of work and I will get to it someday.
It is a summary of my experiences while living in Morocco from September, 2019 - March 2020 as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
I spent 6 and half months in Morocco ended quite traumatically due to safety issues in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, my time there was equal parts one of my best and most difficult experiences.
First off, I absolutely loved my first host family. I lived with them for 3 months in 2019 while I was in training. We grew so close that I now consider them family and they consider me the same. I have been back to visit them multiple times over the years and I love them dearly. My second host family on the other hand? Things got so wild that when Peace Corps started making plans to return to Morocco in 2022, I wrote sent an email asking that they never be allowed to host again by detailing how she treated my site mate and I.
To make this post more digestible, I'll summarize my experiences by months.
September
We landed in Casablanca in the second week of September and headed to Bouznika, where we spent 10 days in orientation. Our hotel was close to the beach so most of us went there in the morning to exercise or in the evening to watch the sunset. Training felt overwhelming but it was nice to be surrounded by over 100 other volunteers who could relate to being in a new country and suffering from information overload.
*photos
On the 11th day, we were sent off in groups of 4-6, with Language and Culture Facilitators (LCFs) to live with individual host families and train together. My group went to El-Hajeb, close to the Atlas mountains and very cold. For 8hrs, 6 days a week, 5 trainees and I would go to our LCF's house to learn Moroccan Arabic (Darija), the nuances of Moroccan culture and how to facilitate Youth Development programs.
*photo
My host family only had a squatter potty so it was quite the humbling experience. I had a host brother in his early teens, an 11 year old host brother and a 9 year old host sister so the restroom was hardly ever anywhere I wanted to be. However, my host mother cleaned and bleached it every night after everyone had gone to bed so I timed my #2s to 5-6am everyday for my sanity. Our LCF had a western so for 6 days a week, I used her restroom during the day and on Sundays, I worked my knees and my lungs. Squatter potties are not terrible, sharing them with children is what makes them something you only want to use during emergencies.
*photo
October
First Souk Day
Out of site to Moulay Idriss/Volubilis
Clusters and Hubs in Meknes
November
2nd out of site to hike in Azrou
Swearing-in Ceremony in Meknes
The third opportunity to go touring out of site would have been to go to Fes but Karen, Humza and I chose to spend the day with our host families because our time with them was coming to an end. I have since been to Fes multiple times.
December
Move to Goulmima
Working with Max (sitemate)
Host family drama
Christmas in the desert... Merzouga, Sahara Desert
January
My apartment
Work
My birthday: 1 day with American friends, 2nd day with Moroccan friends
"33, the year of gratitude! For my birthday this year, I got to watch the sunrise with a friend in the dessert, watch the sunset with friends on my favorite mountain at site, host my American friends to dinner and 2 days of shenanigans and then host my Moroccan friends to another Thank you/Birthday dinner party for making the last 2 months of my life way more incredible than I could have ever dreamt of. These aren’t just my counterparts, site mate or region/staj peers, they are the people that do life with me, care for me and put some extra pep in my step so I unapologetically call them my Friends! Cheers to gratitude, a lifetime of daring adventures, radical silliness, sitting crooked, talking straight, loving big and doing the fucking most with the absolute least. 33... hello, you!"
February
Dar Chebab programs
Hosted my first regional get together
Girl's night in Tinjedad, souk the next day... best in the region for thrifting
*at some point, I spent a night in Midelt and another in Zagora. I'll provide details when my memory stops acting up
March
Fezna
Back to see the family in El-Hajeb on the way to Rabat
Amellagou
Kylie's birthday in Bin El-Ouidane
Essaouira with Yeshe
Marrakech for IST
Evacuation (Mamash's fight with Max and I)
Rabat,
This and that.
*I wrote a piece for Peace Works. It's not my best work by any means but I was glad to be featured. You will also find a lot of my photos in that edition Peace Works Spring 2020
**Gender and Diversity Coloring Book and Pages: Parents and anyone who enjoys coloring books, here’s a free gender focused one created by the Gender And Development committee of PC Morocco. It was created to be used with our Moroccan students but it’s still relatable internationally and can be a tool for discussing gender and cultural diversity.
Chapter 1, Moroccan Women, is meant to empower communities by seeing relatable images portrayed and utilized within the classroom. The goal of Chapter 2 (Men as Partners) is to normalize the idea of men and women working together, both in the workplace and the household. We also hope to break gender role stereotypes by portraying men completing household tasks. Chapter 3 (Notable Moroccan Women) was intended to remind our students of the powerful women who come from familiar starting points
***I shared this on March 21, 2020. A day after we found out our evacuation was no longer temporary. Peace Corps Headquarters had decided to evacuate all volunteers around the world and shut the program down:
I was in Morocco for 6 months. The journey was wild, fun, exhausting, sometimes depressing, sometimes aggravating but mostly enlightening. For unintentional pleasure, I learnt to ride a bicycle (I HATE bicycles), learnt how make Moroccan Hot Sauce, 7ar (I HATE unnecessarily spicy food), strawberry jam (I don’t even like strawberries or sugar-based foods), granola (I have no self-control and always eat it all at once), I became a pro at small talk (I don’t have the language for much else in Arabic), I didn’t always take 2 steps back when next to a close-talker (
), and I learnt to say “I am an American” with such a glare that I stopped getting follow-up questions about where my parents, parents are from (until I deemed my worth, work and personal safety not at risk, I didn’t speak about any of my diversities). I even applied and got my hesitant ass on the Diversity Committee. Needless to say, I was sometimes killing it and sometimes not. As much as I had a few issues with Peace Corps, I loved working in Youth Development and my community in Goulmima and Hajeb were my family. I went to Morocco with a desire to serve and to learn. Some of these hopes and desires left with me unfulfilled. This week, unplanned and unrequested, Peace Corps closed my service and that of over 7,000 volunteers worldwide due to safety issues associated with COVID-19. I grieve the loss of time with my community. I grieve the plans not completed. I grieve the sudden goodbye. I celebrate the work I did and tried to do. I celebrate lessons learned. I am grateful for the help given to me. I am grateful for friendships. I celebrate challenges I overcame, yesterday not the least of them. I honor my commitment to serve. I open myself to sharing the beauty and the pain of this experience. I thank my fellow PCVs, staff and community for their love and support. Today, I grieve deeply and celebrate gratefully.
), and I learnt to say “I am an American” with such a glare that I stopped getting follow-up questions about where my parents, parents are from (until I deemed my worth, work and personal safety not at risk, I didn’t speak about any of my diversities). I even applied and got my hesitant ass on the Diversity Committee. Needless to say, I was sometimes killing it and sometimes not. As much as I had a few issues with Peace Corps, I loved working in Youth Development and my community in Goulmima and Hajeb were my family. I went to Morocco with a desire to serve and to learn. Some of these hopes and desires left with me unfulfilled. This week, unplanned and unrequested, Peace Corps closed my service and that of over 7,000 volunteers worldwide due to safety issues associated with COVID-19. I grieve the loss of time with my community. I grieve the plans not completed. I grieve the sudden goodbye. I celebrate the work I did and tried to do. I celebrate lessons learned. I am grateful for the help given to me. I am grateful for friendships. I celebrate challenges I overcame, yesterday not the least of them. I honor my commitment to serve. I open myself to sharing the beauty and the pain of this experience. I thank my fellow PCVs, staff and community for their love and support. Today, I grieve deeply and celebrate gratefully.