It Had To Be a BRAIN Day

I have been having a great week but I knew I had to be challenged soon, and it happened when I went to eat lunch at my host families; we had brain for lunch today. But, to be honest it is getting better, what is wrong with me.
Anyways, I am going to take this time to tell you about my life the past three weeks. Two weeks ago I called Sachel and I was crying and wanting to quit Peace Corps, but quitting is not an option. That night I took action and made myself a schedule of things I want to accomplish everyday, one of those things is writting a letter everyday, so please send me your addresses to my email account: emmy.josefson@gmail.com. Slowly but surely life has been getting better here. I have been hanging out with people in my community more and I am about to start my toothbrushing project on Monday.
For my toothbrushing project I am going to go to the primary school in my town and each week I will brush my teeth and play games with one class each week. At the end of the week the kids get to take their tooth brushes home, and hopefully they will convince their families to brush their teeth too.
This past week has been exceptionally good. I started the week with watching my friends run in the Marakesh Marathon. Then I went to Tarrodant to watch two voluteers shoot a video because I am hopefully going to start a video project in my site soon. I am waiting to get some fire wire cord thing then I will start filming health lessons with the girls in my site. Once the videos are done we will distribute them throughout my entire town and surrounding area.
Wednesday and Yesterday were busy, this is a new thing for me. It feels great and I am so proud of myself for making this work. I was running yesterday and as I was running I thought to myself how cool my life was, as I was watching a shepard herd his sheep. At the end of my run one of the girls in my site insisted on giving me a riding on her donkey, that would never happen in America. Exercise is a really weird thing to do here, I think she was confused why I was running in the first place.
I have started being good about my new years resolutions, which were to get healthy and strong. So I have been smoke free for two weeks and I started exercising regularly; I even started running. I was inspired after watching the marathon. Who knows maybe I will run a marathon while I am here, don't count on it though.
I love you all,
Emmy

I Am Back!

As I sit in the airport of Milan I am going to take some time to talk about my time in America. I just spent two weeks in Bemidji and had the best two weeks of my life. It all started with me getting stuck in Chicago for a couple of hours but after a ham and bacon sandwich I finally made it to Minneapolis. I got to spend a couple of days hanging out with my good friends in Mpls, and then I headed up to Bemidji. The first week I was home it was jam packed with seeing everyone from Grandma to old friends. Christmas was a great time with family and Grooving with the family in the basement of Paul’s house. Then it was time for Sachel and Kari’s wedding, which was a beautiful ceremony, Sachel made us all cry. I spent my last week in Bemidji catching up with friends and family and tried to relax a little. I had such a great time with everyone that I saw. There are so many people I didn’t see that were on my mind; there just was not enough time. Thank you to everyone who drove me to the airport and drove me around while I was home. It was really hard for me to get back on that plane and come back to Morocco but while I was home I discovered that I am doing what I am meant to do right now. Being in the Peace Corps is the hardest thing I have ever done and when I finish I will be very proud of myself.
Today I am in Milan waiting out an eight hour lay over but my great friend Nikki urged me to go out and see what this city has to offer. My heavy backpack in tow I saw an amazing Cathedral today and walked into a Prada store. The storeowners looked me up and down and decided I was a waste of time to wait on. I am guessing my Peace Corps attire tells all that I can’t afford a 600-dollar purse. I went to my first Catholic mass in a Cathedral and it was amazing. I have traveled all over the world and been to many Cathedrals but never sat through a mass, it was one of my goals and now I can check that off my list of things to do. I asked God to give me strength for my future seventeen months of service and I can already feel He is on my side.
I miss you all already and can’t wait to see you but for now I am going to save the world, one toothbrush at a time.
By the way I am back in Morocco!
I love you
Emmy