Democratic Price

This is my favorite line that I hear when I go to Essaouira. Men will sit outside there shops or restaraunts ans try to get you to come inside using the slogan I will give you a democratic price, good democratic price. What does that mean that we will sit down at the table and then take a vote on what the price should be? The waiter will always lose unless you eat alone then you will tie and then what happens to the democratic price? As a political science major I love this because it makes absolutely no sense. Moroccan men also like to call me a chicken, it is one of there pick up lines but not quit sure what to think of someone saying hey chicken how are you doing. If anything it does always bring a smile to my face.

I have been battling sicknesses of all sorts this past week. On Saturday I was supposed to go to Essaouira for the night but couldnt make it because I was hanging out in the bit l ma - bathroom. My family was really nice to me though they made me food that was easy to digest, which I ate even though that is the last thing I felt like doing. I just wanted to be left alone but my family just didnt understand, for the most part they were understanding. Now today I feel like I am getting a cold. I know my Dad would tell me to buck up and deal with it and for the most part I am. I am just worried because my entire family has this cold that when they cough I am sure that they have the black plague. But if Airbourne is all it is cracked up to be it can ward off the plague, I dont know if they tested this drug for such illnesses.

On Friday I am going to a music Festival in Essaouira and it should be a really good time. My next blog will tell you all about it. I am really excited!!!

It is hot here. Everyone go out and enjoy the lakes for me. I miss them incredibly but I am here saving the world :]

Love you
Emmy

Livin

So I ate rabbit again last night, because I keep going to my friend Amys and her family only eats rabbit. It tastes so bad, exactly like burnt hair. I am working really hard on eating vegetables because I know that it is important atleast that is what everyone has been telling me my entire life. My goal is to eat a salad at the end of two years and maybe enjoy these salad things. I have decided I will never love goat brains or rabbit.

I went and looked at my new apartment and it is amazing. There is a western toilet, a shower, and the kitchen has a stove. These amenities may all seem like an expected for you but they are a luxury here in Morocco and all of my friends want to kill me. I have a really nice roof area too. I have decided that I am one of the most lucky peace corps volunteers in my group because I was given the best province by the beach and I will be living in style. I might even make it on Cribs Morocco. When my host dad showed me the place it kept telling him I am so happy and he responded with the phrase boom chicka wow wow. There is this comercial on NBC 2 which is an english movie channel and they say boom chicka wow wow and he has no idea what it means and I dont have the tashlheet to explain to him that it is a sexual slang, which is totally nerdy, nobody actually says that; it was funny.

So now that I have a light at the end of the tunnel knowing that I have a place to stay I am feeling a lot better about this peace corps thing. I taught my first english class at the neddy yesterday and it went really well. I felt like Laura Engles because I was teaching in a small room and everyone was packed into this room and all the girls were really excited about learning english. It was a successful lesson, which I was really nervous about.

Another interesting fact about my life that I have been meaning to discuss with you all is I have a problem with dead puppies in my village. Every week on my walk home a new puppy has taken the plunge to doggie heaven. A couple of them were killed by their mom I think and the others have been run over. Today I saw one of the puppies was walking around with a bloody stump for a leg, who knows how that happened.

Life is good here in Morocco, for the most part. This is the hardest adventure I have ever participated in and I know if I survive these next two years I will be a better person for it. bled Morocco is completely different from America.

I love you all and keep me in your prayers,
Emmy

Keepin on

I have noticed a drop in comments on my wall which means you are all getting as bored of me as I am. So I will try to spice things up a little and tell you about the culture here instead of my drab life.

Have you heard that Moroccans have found the cure to cancer in ants. If you eat ants and have cancer you it will go away. Also if you eat watermelon seeds and have a head ach you will be cured. Or if you rub olive oil on an aching back your achs and pains will deminish. All of these home remedies I have been told by Moroccans. It is worth a try. Mom you can start an ant colony over the summer and cure cancer!

There are many cultural differences here in Morocco to start with today on my way into Essaouira I road in a cab with sixteen other people and no we were in a car not a mini van. These cab rides are always interesting because four people will be sitting up front and one person will control the pedals; another controls the gears and the taxi driver has the steering wheel. I am surprisingly getting used to it and have come to expect having a limbs wrapped all around me when I enter these cabs. And Moroccans from the bled are not known for smelling like roses.

Yesterday I ate rabbit which tasted like burnt hair. It was horrible I am still shaking the taste from my memory.

Everyday is still a struggle and an accomplishment. For example I started yesterday totally bummed for no particular reason but I always battle the question of what have I gotten myself into. But then I taught my English class at the middle school to the teachers and had three successful conversations and ended the day on a great note. Today I am in Essaouira and enjoying every second. I will return to my house tonight and start the battle of survival again. I know I came here to become tougher and that is being done. I always forget that growing does not mean you can sit in your house and watch tv to get there. I guess you have to live life and struggle in order to grow. CSI Miami sitting on the couch just doesnt create that change I am looking for as much as I hate to admit that. I am in the process of becomming comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Homestay is going ok I have 49 more days to go and definitely counting every second. My host family is great but it is like living with any family without the love you receive from your real family. Oh yeah and a common language. But everyday gets better we are learning how to understand each other because I am sure that I am just as annoying and weird to them as they are to me.

I have been drinking my share of mint tea and at the end of everyday I have cakes of sugar hanging out on my teeth. If you think Moutain Dew contains a lot of sugar here it would be considered a diet beverage.

Keep on Keepin on
Lifes a garden
dig it

That is what I am doing keepin on, the best way I know how.

I love you all,
Emmy
Enjoy the Summer for me!

I am teaching three english classes a week, two at the neddy and

Manic Moments in Morocco

From day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute how I feel about my life is very different. I have only been living with my family for a week which amazes me I was positive it had been atleast four months but no it has only been seven days. I have been told that the first month is the hardest so here I go taking this month as scared as I have every been. I started this week, meaning seven days ago, I was maybe a little too confident that this experience would be really easy and fun; only to be slapped in the face by reality. My second day in site I called my dad at work crying my eyes out because I was so lonely and homesick and wondering what the hell have I gotten myself into. The next twenty four hours after that were a struggle; I was faced with my first goat head experiene to top it all off. I ate the smallest bite of brain which wasnt that bad but what got me was all the children in the family were devouring the scalp and eyes and jaw bones. I thanked God at this moment for my impaired peripherial vision because it was a nasty site to behold. Then my spirits rose again. Probably because I got to leave for Essaouira which is always so much fun. While I was in Essaouira I got to eat grill cheese, pizza, donuts, and drink diet coke; all while staring at the beach. I also talked to my parents that day and my brother and my grandma; needless to say Sunday was a great day. Now I am back at site and every moment is a rollercoaster but I know that I am going to be ok. My guitar is getting me through this host family experience. I might not be good at it but I need all the distractions I can get.

Yesterday I taught an English class to the teachers at the middle school which was interesting because I am not a teacher. I have friends who are and there is a reason you go to school for four years to teach because it is hard. I am teaching English with my sitemate Amy and she used to be a science teacher and she knows what she is doing and I just help her. We are hoping to start teaching another English class at the neddi; which is a place for girls to do crafts. I have also been going to the Sbitar (clinic). I am actually really lucky because I have things to do to occupy my time like going to the neddi; Sbitar; or argan cooperative (a place where they make argan oil). I had tutoring today and it was great because my tutor has money so we got to sit in comfortable couches and eat lots of good food; even if he isnt a good tutor atleast we get a break from our lives at site. Ahmed is a good tutor, I think, today was our first day.

The kids at my host family are sick and constantly have snot running down there faces; which can curb your appetite at the table. Andrew the volunteer I am replacing survived his homestay experience, with the same family, so I am sure I will; sometimes I question this.

I love you all and keep me in your prayers because this is not easy. I guess that is why I am here.

I love you
Emmy

The time has come....

Tomorrow I will swear in and become an official Peace Corps Volunteer. This is very exciting because now I get to finally do what I have come here to do, help people. Granted I wont be doing anything besides learning the language and my community for the first six months but someday I have hopes of doing something to change atleast one persons life. I have turned a new leaf and left my fear of going to my new site behind me. I forgot my mantra of taking one day at a time and that today prepares me for tomorrow. I need to stop looking at my service as two years as a whole. Dont get me wrong I am still scared but I will survive this.

I love you all and will keep you all informed, it is time for me to go and hang out with all of my new pals for one last night. I will be arriving in my site on the 21st if the workers strike doesnt shut down transportation, inshallah.

Love Emmy

Iwirig (I have returned in Tashleheet)

No Dad I did not get attacked by the Taliban but the power did go out yesterday in Ouarzazate and my blog went bye bye.

So here we go again: Last week I was in my language town; which must not be named because the US government does not allow me to mention my exact where abouts because terrorists are always looking for Americans, we as Americans are never safe :) This is a joke to me because when I was studying in Spain all of my professors told not to go to Morocco because it is soooo dangerous and now I am here. I never dont feel safe. Anyways last week draged it seemed like I was there for three months and it was only six days. I just didnt want to integrate into a community that I wouldnt be living in. If I am going to be living with a host family I want it to be with one that I am going to know for two years, not four weeks. My family also kept asking me about my new site and my new family which as you can imagine was kind of wierd. When I was there I was remembering my first day sitting in the living room with my family for the first time and I was scared shitless. At that moment I was wondering what in the hell have I got myself into I cant live here for two years. Now after four weeks I became comfortable in that room with my neighbors and family staring at me like I was from planet Zargon.

I went to a naming ceramony while I was There. The women are separated from the men. The men sing from the Koran to figure out what the new babies name should be. The women cook all of the food all day long but of course the men get to eat first. The next day the women dance, sing, and play the drums. Moroccoan women know how to shake their hips like Beyonce, they just have a lot more clothes on. I of course was forced to dance and was of course laughed at. I got sick from the cous cous but other than that I had a great time.

Finally the week came to an end and everyone besides me got extremely emotional. My host sister was crying for about twenty-four hours. When our taxi left our women friends were crying so hard it was like they were saying good-bye to their brothers who were going off to war. We are the only fun in these womens lives. Especially now because it is harvest and they are in the fields all day long in the hot hot hot sun harvesting wheat and barley. I am so grateful everyday that I was given a life of choice. These girls have no hope of living a life any different from what their mothers have done. And if you are a pretty girl in Morocco it is a curse because then you will get married at 18 and start bearing children nine months after your wedding day. Most marriages are arranged so the girl has no choice of who she marries and the man is usually atleast ten years older. My host mom in my new site is 22 and has three children already, she has basically been pregnant since the day she got married. I can maybe help her with some family planning lessons.

I am leaving for my site in four days and scared shitless, but we all are. All the current volunteers have told us the first month is the hardest because I will have little language and I will be living with a host family. But I didnt join the Peace Corps to sit in a conference room for two years so I am as ready as I can be to dive into this experience.

Sending you all love from the desert of Morocco,
Emmy

By the way I passed my language test if anyone was concerned, I was.

Bon Voyage Again...

I am leaving again tomorrow for CBT which is my first host families house where we have language. I am not excited about this because I want to stay with all of my friends and not be with a host family. I like my site host family so much better. But this is the last time. I will return next Monday.

My life here in Ouarzate consists of sitting in a conference room sweating my armpits off. I did have a day off yesterday which was amazing. I just hung out at the pool all day long. Life will not be like this for much longer. I swear in on May 19th which is the day I become an official volunteer and not a trainee anymore. Then life in Morocco really begins and I go to my site. I am terrified of this day but it is why I came here.

I love you all,
Emmy

Thank you for all the letters, they truely make my day.