My LIFE

This past week was a great one because...I started my toothbrushing project. I taught fifteen kids for three days in a row the importance of brushing our teeth. This week I will have two more groups of kids and by the end of the school year hopefully all the kids in my madrasa will have toothbrushes; and use them.

I also found my cats they were hidden in my guitar case! I really didnt like the idea of having a cat that would eat her young.

I love you all but gotta go
Emmy
Life is good! I will be coming home soon and I am super excited. There is a Twins game one of the nights I am home and I am going to eat twelve Dome Dogs.

Panicked

This is one of the most interesting things that has happened to me in Peace Corps, or for my entire life for that matter. So a week ago I came home from bringing my friend Nicolet to the airport and come to find out my cat Georgie had given birth to three kittens. I discovered this while I was talking to my friend Moira on the phone. I just got done commenting on how much skinnier Georgie was looking, trying to convince myself that she must have had gas all along. But, no I was on my bed with my hand under the covers trying to get Georgie to come to me, as I felt a little string like thing under my hand. Moira convinced me I had to look under the sheets and when I did I started yelling “Babies! Babies! Babies in my BED!” Once I calmed down I had to move the kittens from my bed to a new home because I was not going to tolerate sleeping on the floor for weeks.
The past week I have been getting used to the idea of these kittens in my life. As some of you know I am afraid of animals so it takes me a long time to warm up to new creatures in my house. I was doing well convincing myself that this was easy and not that big of a deal. Then Georgie got the great idea that she would start carrying the kittens into my bed while I was sleeping. This did not make me happy. I would wake up in the night and freak out having a mild anxiety attack because this little KITTEN was roaming around under my sheets. I decided to give Georgie three strikes, because that is the golden rule. In one night Georgie got two strikes, it took everything inside of me to not kick her out then. But, I stayed strong to the rule and went to bed the next night with high hopes; she failed and got her third strike. I then proceeded to putting the kitty bed in my salon that I never go in. I also tied my door shut so Georgie couldn’t sneak in.
The next day I left for Essa, before leaving I checked on Georgie and the kittens and all seemed well. Upon my return the kittens were gone. Mind you these creatures have only been living for a week now. Their eyes aren’t even open, they have no way of climbing over the bed I have created for them, and they spend most of their day suckling. BUT! The kittens are gone! I have looked everywhere in my house. Yes I looked in my bed three times, yes I looked in all of the cupboards, and yes I circled my house multiple times. No kittens.
I told some of the people in my village and they all believe that Georgie has eaten three kittens. After discussing this with some knowledgeable cat people we believe Georgie has not in fact eaten the kittens, there just isn’t any evidence of this happening. Does this mean that she carried three kittens individually up my orange tree and put them somewhere else? I cannot find these kittens anywhere?!?! In conclusion I must say this, why am I scared of animals; because you can’t ask them questions.

Nicolet Visits!!!

Last Thursday my friend Nicolet came to visit and it was such a blast. We bargained in Marakesh for belts and purses and bags. I was so fun to use my language to bargain for her. Then we headed to Essaouira where we chilled. It was a much needed chill session after a big night on the town in Marakesh the night before. Nicolet got sick on the bus but she recovered and the rest of our trip was great. I was so happy to have someone I love from my past life to see my current life. One day I brought her to my site for a couple of hours and everyone was so excited to see her and she was super overwhelmed and couldnt believe that I live like I do. We had such a great time together and got to sit and talk for hours and hours. I miss her already.

After I dropped her off at the airport I proceeded to travel to Rabat and then Azilal, where I talked to all the new volunteers about stress management. The new volunteers had so many questions, it was fun to be the expert. I also got to witness my growth that I have made in the last year. I talked to the new volunteers without being nervous and I just got to be me. A year ago this would not have been possible. I also got to look back and see that I am no longer in the dark about this experience. I know what Peace Corps is all about now and I feel comfortable about my service here. I have never been this happy and this stable before in my life. I have always had a great life but now I am happy and I am working for change. I love my life.

I will be in Azilal for a couple more days visiting my friend Audrey and then I am finally headed home on Monday to stay in my site for a long time because I have been so busy this past month. I cant wait and I miss my home. Plus my cat, Georgie, is pregnant so I need to go home and take care of that situation. Huh, I wish I would have trusted my instincts and got her fixed but now I have another adventure on my hands with some kittens on the way. Lesson learned I should have listened to Bob Hope when he says Dont forget to have your pets spayed and neutered.
Oh well....

I love you all
Emmy

Camping

I just went on the most amazing camping trip, me and four other Peace Corps volunteers hiked from my house to the beach.  We left around two on Sunday and hiked the entire day until sunset.  It was so beautiful because all of the mountains are now covered in wheat fields, red poppies, and argon trees.  At some points we were even hiking in sand even though we were miles away from the beach and up in the mountains.  Once we were at camp we made macaroni and cheese from scratch over a campfire; it has been over a year since I have sat next to a fire.  After dinner we laid out our sleeping bags and stared at the stars for hours.                               The next day we hiked all day long and it was hot but nice. Two of the people that went with me camping are environment volunteers, Amy and Ben, and they both know a lot about nature.  Like Ben for example would stop to take pictures of every plant or dung beetle he saw.  I guess dung beetles get their name because they climb into cow pies and roll balls out of the poop and then lay their larvae in the dung.  We observed a lot of dung beetle rolling action.  I also learned a lot about animal tracks from my friend Amy.                                                             We ended up taking a taxi to the beach because it was just too far to hike to, so once we got to the road we went to town and had a Coke break and hauled ourselves a cab to a small town called Tadfna, which is a small beach town not found in guide books.  It is one of the most remote beautiful beaches that I have ever been to, and we camped there that night.  In Tadfna we met this Australian couple that was living out of a VW van and has traveled all over the world.  I was so excited because I’ve never met anyone who really lived in a VW van; I have only heard stories of these kinds of people.  I was so inspired by them because they were following their dreams.  We even got to ride in the VW van back to Smimou, so for fifteen minutes I got to live out one of my dreams too.                                                                                                          The camping trip was so much fun because all of the people I went with were laid back and we could take breaks whenever we wanted to. The sun became our clock and we woke up when we felt like it and stopped when the sun was about to set.  For three days we totally lost track of time.                                                                                                                                                             I have been home for a day and tomorrow morning I am going to go and stay at my friend Ben and Carrie’s house, which are also Peace Corps volunteers.  There is a festival going on in their site this week and we are going to do HIV/Aids education.  I am super excited because I will be working! And at this festival Moroccans ride around on horses and shoot guns in the air.  I have never been to a Moussem before so I don’t have the details yet but horses and guns are both a rarity in Morocco, so it should be interesting.                                                                   My friend Nicolet is coming to visit me next week, my first visitor!  I am super excited for someone to see my life.  I hope that Nicolet has a good time and isn’t too shocked by my life.  I love it here so I am sure she will too.                                                                                                    Life is GREAT!!!

Love

Emmy

            

Sick Chicken

Last week I was sick on the toilet and it was horrible.  When you are sick away from your mom it reminds you how much you love and appreciate her.  I am getting better though and I think the antibiotics killed the bugs crawling around in my stomach.  

Life is still great though and I am trying to get back on the horse because before I got sick I had a good schedule for myself but now everything has been thrown out of wack.  I am now on a wild goose chase trying to get permission to teach in the schools and it is proving to be a daunting task.  I came into Essa on Thursday and now I am back today and have to come back again on Thursday.  I might kill someone by the end of this journey, AHHHH!  But I guess it is all apart of being in the peace corps.  

I am feeling good about my service and excited that I am in the Peace Corps.  I miss you all terribly but I know I am where I am meant to be.

I love you

Emmy

You are in my thoughts and keep me in yours.

Just another magic Thursday

Today is a day that I don’t want to forget so I am going to tell you about it.  I woke up this morning and went to my neddy because I was told that we were having a big meeting today, on what I was not told.  I waited outside with the girls from my neddy for about two hours while we waited for all the big shots of my town to show up.  Once all the men came they had tea and chatted while the women, including myself, watched.  I was so hungry and all the snacks looked so good.  I got to experience what it is like to be a women in a developing country, did you know that 2/3 of the worlds impoverished are women.  Most women in developing countries eat after the men and are given their leftovers.  Today we weren’t even given the leftovers but as my friend Moira reminded me, that it is normal and I should have expected that.  But, I was so hungry.

            Anyways, enough about my hunger and onto the important part, the meeting was to get funding from the government for the neddy (young women’s cooperative).  It was interesting to observe a formal meeting Moroccan style.  In order for women to be given some kind of respect from men here they have to be obnoxiously aggressive and controlling.  Hafida, the lady who runs the neddy always gets on my nerves because she is so demanding but I refuse to let her boss me around like she does to all the girls.  Today I understood why she acts this way it is because this is how she is forced to act in order to get men’s attention and gain some sort of respect. After I realized this about Hafida I thought about all of the powerful women in my community and they all share this quality of control and power to an excessive level.  All three of these women I don’t particularly like.  The point here is not that powerful Moroccan women are annoying the point is that in order to be respected by men in Morocco you have to over assert yourself to be heard.  Today I turned over a new leaf and decided that I now have respect for these three women because they are the ones that are going to create freedoms for normal Moroccan women who are scared or unwilling to go the extra step to have their voices heard.  I am also proud to be an American woman where I am viewed to be as valuable as a man.

            I haven’t had a moment to myself today, after the five hour meeting of watching men eat, three Frenchies came over to interview me.  They happened to be in town today and they are journalism students in France taking a course on development and journalism.  They are doing a project on Moroccan culture and they wanted to get my opinions.  It was fun to pretend like I was an expert and an academic.   It was really cool to because they seemed to be really impressed by what I had to say and what I am doing here.  I needed a day like today to realize why I am in Morocco.  Two of the Frenchies were Moroccan but grew up in France and their Moroccan families are from cities.  I got to educate them on countryside Moroccans and how they are so different from each other and know so little about each other they might as well be from different counties.  It is interesting that today I taught a Moroccan about Morocco.  I also realized that one of my big jobs here is to just be here and be a strong women so the girls at my neddy can learn from me to stand up for themselves and be more independent. Maybe my influence will make it so one of my neddy girls sends her daughter to high school or university!

            This week has had its ups and downs all of the projects that I am trying to work on have started giving me problems.  For example, I am all ready to start teaching my tooth brushing lessons but I talked to the principle and he informed me that I need to get permission from the ministry of education before I can teach.  I knew this already but asked the principle earlier in the year if I needed it and he said don’t worry about it.  It is up to the principle if he wants to require me to have this permission or not, and my principle has unexpectedly changed his mind, huh.  So tomorrow I am going to go and try for the third time to get this piece of permission.  I just want to teach God damn it!  Then I am also trying to do this video project and I am waiting on a cord that my brother Sachel sent to me four weeks ago, I am trying to stay positive that it will come but to be honest I am starting to worry; it will come.  I just want to start doing projects God damn it!  But the week ended with me learning some lessons and I know my projects will start soon enough.  I also need to remember that my biggest project started the day I arrived in Morocco and that is just me being me.

            This weekend I am going to a meeting near Marrakesh and I am super excited because I am going to get some ideas for my video project.  I have also been in my site for three weeks straight and I need a break.  People have been knocking on my door none stop today but all in all I love it here.  As I am about to enter into my second year here in Morocco I am super excited because life here is finally starting to make sense.

Love you all,

Emmy

Come visit me!!!!!

Life in Morocco