At long last...

Ok, so it's been far too long, but now that I have somthing close to a routine hopefully I can be more faithful to this thing. Right off the bat, I have a new mailing address. This one comes straight to my PO box, it doesn't have to go through PC Rabat. Here goes:

Aaron Grant
BP 175
Zagora, Zagora
Maroc
45900

So feel free to clog it with all kinds of letters :-) Another thanks goes out to my family, Amie, Mary Fernandes, and Dani for writing me snail mail, and to countless others who have written me electronically, especially biz, anne, chuck, joe, beth, miriam, frank, alva, kammi, rory, casey and sisters elizabeth and bernadette. I don't always have time in the hectic Cyber cafe's to write back, but I read and enjoy them always.

Training finished in a blur through may, we became official volunteers on the 22nd and were all shipped off to our respective sites the next day. Our group was exceptional in that every single one of us who entered the health sector training successfully swore-in as a Peace Corps volunteer. We were remarkably cohesive and within those three months we managed to establish a solid support network among ourselves, hopefully this is a resource we will be able to draw on throughout our time here.

My site is a small village in a desert gorge in southern morocco, set up on a hill at the end of a long winding road through a palmery. The principal issues here are water resources and management, both are vastly important to sustain the community. It will take a while and a lot more language ability to be able to effectively evaluate my area, but for now I spend a lot of time walking around the old fields, long since dried and fallow due to the lack of irrigation water, meeting farmers and others trying to understand their stories and practice my language. I go to the local health clinic three days a week and try my best to assist the nurse and meet more people. My host family has shown me remarkable hospitality, I truly couldn't ask for better.

While trying to avoid the sun (it can get to 115 degrees in the afternoons, and its not even summer yet) I sit with my family and drink tea, try and have basic conversations, and play games with the kids. I taught my host sisters tic-tac-toe, and now I have a whole notebook filled with countless games. I go into the city regularly to meet with my language tutor and check my mail, and always walk through the weekly "souk" or market. The souk is quite a phenomenon of moroccan culture. It is a huge expanse of tables, tents, carts, donkeys and cases, with innumerable vendors selling almost anything you could imagine. You can buy old shoes by the kilo, eggs by the crate, laundry soap by the bag, engine parts one by one, or live animals. Fruit, vegetables, nuts, spices, candy, biscuits, bread, olive or orange juice and butchered meat are ubiquitous, as are clothes, hats, tools, furniture, bicycles, books and bags. It's loud, lively and tumultuous but always stimulating. I walk around aimlessly for as long as I want and have yet to get bored. Aside from the hastle of having "bonjour monsieur" yelled at me from all sides (we can thank french tourists for that) it's the closest thing to ambiguity I can find locally.

That's all the news fit to print for now, but perhaps I'll go back and retroactively add some more details, there's only so much I can leave out! I again apologize for the neglect of my blog, and thank you for continuing to check it out. I'm deeply grateful for the thoughts and prayers from home, keep it up!

All the best,

Aaron