Life Update

A lot has happened since my last blog post.

Life is moving fast.

So as of today, December 9^th, 2016 I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Up to this point I have been considered a trainee. My CBT group and I completed a series of language and cultural courses along with other experiences to help prepare us to use the resources and programs that Peace Corps has available.

I think I’ve mentioned before but I’ll say it again I am not here to do programs for two years then leave. That’s not sustainable. I’m here to help my community run programs through counterparts that I find in the community. Hopefully that experience will empower them to continue on the work we did together. Some of the programs that Peace Corps has developed along with USAID are Healthy Lifestyle, Life Skills, and Employability. The organization has trainings and manuals available for volunteers and counterparts to attend. In our CBT site we used our teacher to help us facilitate a lesson about cooperation and set backs from the Life skills program and a lesson about looking ahead into the future from the Employability program. We are lucky because our teacher has worked with PC before so she was familiar with what her and our responsibilities would be in the lessons.

We were able to utilize the youth center to target youth from ages 12 to 16. At the end of the Employability program we created a time capsule of the children’s drawings about where they want to be when they are 30. The new volunteer in that site will be able to open it with the youth and create a teachable moment.

When we weren’t busy creating the lesson plans we were preparing for our LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) This is a type of test to make sure we are on the correct language level and that they feel safe releasing us into the wild. Almost all people pass it, and if they don’t they get some extra tutoring and all is well.

The last week in our CBT was very fun. It included a lot of together time. The five of us all lived in families where the women live nearby, their children are similar ages, and they participate in a cooperative with embroidery. They are something else. They loved us as fiercely as they loved their own children. Towards the end all the Moroccan Mamas understood we would be leaving soon so many lunches and cascrutes were organized to help us all visit together. It is unfortunate that as soon as our experienced started to “click” we were taken away. We have such an awesome place to return to, though. We know that should we want to visit we have 5 Moroccan mamas ready to house us, wrap our heads and feet with blankets, and tell us to eat more.

The goodbyes were sad but since a volunteer from our staj is going to that site we will still be connected!

This past week we spent in sessions in Meknes in a beautiful hotel. Last minute content sessions, pre-service training feedback surveys, and a few current-volunteer led sessions helped us wrap up what was 12 crazy weeks. On Saturday 106 of us leave to all corners of Morocco to help communities big and small to develop the youth of all ages in their communities. I am sad for this time to come to an end but I am also extremely excited to get started in my new community. I am also excited to hear about the stories my fellow PCVs can tell me about their places! I have met some really interesting people and made some rewarding friendships. I look forward keeping them going as a way of support for myself and for them.

So as for now, thanks for reading, and send me all the positive thoughts as I go into the unknown. I have many support systems should I need them, but for now it’s just me, Stephen and our 8 bags.