Hello everyone we have returned from our feild trip of staying with a real peace corps volunteer, I cant believe they really exist. I stayed with Fabiola a tough Mexican girl from LA. Fabi is located in the mountains, I cant tell you my exact location because the peace corps doesnt allow that kind of information onto our blogs because terrorists might come and attack us Americans if you want to know my exact location contact my parents. Anyways, the terrain was very difficult and in my Merrell G2000 I was still twisting my ankel while three year olds were passing me up in rubber sandals. The view was amazing with palm trees and in the distance the mountains still had snow on them.
I got to go to a Sbitar (hospital) where we observed Fabi doing health lessons to sick women waiting to see the nurse. This Sbitar was shocking to say the least but it is all they have and atleast it was something, mom you would have been horrified. We then proceeded to incinerate bio medical waste which was a less than sanitary breathing in all of those chemicals so if I have cancer in the future we wont wonder why; or aids for that matter. But dont worry about me :) My town is lucky to have an incinerator most tozns just throw needles in a whole behind the hospital and then the kids play cops and robbers using the syringes as pretend guns; no biggy. I definetely leaned about why Morocco needs health volunteers.
We also observed a toilet project that Fabi is working on she is trying to get 21 homes squaty potties for there houses and half of them currently have there two meter holes dug. That is a good stat for Moroccans; they are slow people, which is understandable it is hard to get anything done when you have to pray to Allah five times a day.
I am so pumped about my experiences to come. I am also scared but I am trying to live by the moto that today prepares me for tomorrow. Dont worry about me I am doing great and I love you all. Thanks to those who have been commenting. Nikki I am so excited that I got to be in Oregon with you and Al and Zach.
I love you all
Emmy
2 comments:
How is the language barrier going? Are you learning anything or do you just hide in the corner? Are there any people with jobs or money, What are the people like? Sounds like everything is going well and I am very Proud of you.
I just finished a book by Sarah Chayes, "The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After The Taiban". Sarah Chayes was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco sometime after 1984 when she graduated from Harvard, the same as St. Thomas, only in her case, without the debt, and 1993, when she began her master's degree at Harvard. She was a reporter for NPR in Afghanistan after 9/11(2001)
in Kandahar and later stayed to run a nonprofit which became her pulpit to try and influence the United States' foreign policy. She knew all the players in the reconstruction and, to make a long, and probably irrelevent in this venue,story short, she describes how the United States gets it wrong (again) and puts self-serving warlords back in charge after we chase out the Taliban. The relevent point I'm going to make is when she is talking about Akrem Khakrezwal, one of the few honorable men in Afghanistan, since assassinated by the Taliban, and his inability to get anybody to listen or help him straighten up this country, Ms. Chayes' closing lines are: "I think Akrem understood that it doesn't really matter if there is a chance you will succeed. You have to keep trying. That's what matters. You have to try. You have to give your all." So there you go, Emmy, that's my inspirational message for the day.
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