Mint tea and cookies.

So I have been absolutely terrible at updating my blog this spring/early summer - but im determined to get back on track for the rest of my service (less than a year LEFT AHHHH!). So here is a timeline of all the things ive been up to that are blog worthy.

March/April – finished beekeeping trainings, received my grant, bought some serious bee supplies, got my cat HW (shes named after the little boy in ‘there will be blood’), met up with Shaffer in spain, and helped out with jo and yanyi’s craft fair in fes!

May/June – celebrated my official one year as a VOLUNTEER anniversary, went to my friend Ori’s site to help him with a three day health event and went over to the coast for a music festival

Spring

I’ve been waiting to update my blog in case things went horribly wrong with my project, but so far so good! So this is the timeline for how things went down: in February we did a general information session with another volunteer’s landlord who is a professional beekeeper. Since that went well and everyone was really enthusiastic we set up training sessions every Sunday in March with a local bee technician. The first session was inside with videos and bee biology basics, the next week the guys went out in suits and practiced on the president of the association’s personal bee boxes, then the week after they prepped the place in the mountain (basically created a little bit of a terrace) where the boxes would go (I felt bad I just took pictures while they did all this physical labor lol). Then came the part of my project where I freaked out – so in like October I planned to meet up with shaffer at the end of march (before I even knew I would have a project) and basically the timing worked out so that my grant money was going to come in while I was away – and my association thought I was like dipping out on them with the money to go to spain and they were pissed because we had to get the boxes before the price went up (bee boxes get more expensive as the spring gets closer to summer). The money ended up being deposited in my account the DAY before I left for spain – the problem here was that you have to move bee boxes at night when they are sleeping and all in the hive – also my association guys wanted to check out the bee boxes before committing to buying them. So I couldn’t stay for the actual money transaction which was going to be too late at night because we had to get back to fes so I could catch my flight in the morning - and then I signed my potential death sentence – I handed over 12,000 d’s in CASH to my association and LEFT it with them. I told them that if they spent it on anything else than bee boxes then I would have to back to America and I would go to jail lol BUT when I got back to morocco and they had purchased the boxes, had a receipt and even had 800 d’s left over and gave it back to me! I was like WHOA this is f ing legit and these guys are here to work and genuinely want to get things done! And once I was back we finished up buying the rest of the equipment and now theyre out there working with da beees! So everything is all good and im just finishing up the completion report for the grant. Woooo!

Also meeting up with Shaffer was sweeeeeet! The thing about peace corps is that your lows can be pretty low, but your highs are f ing AWESOME! Haha we ate so much pork and drank so much sangria…it was so much fun. Also I have some good stories pre shaffer’s arrival. So considering my day before I left I didn’t realize that my flight was into girona and not Barcelona lol so I ended up in this random town going the wrong direction on a train AWAY from barca and getting totally lost. Im so happy Shaffer wasn’t there because he would have KILLED me..but it was fun to see the spainish countryside haha also since I got to spain a night before Shaffer and stayed at a ‘party hostel’ in a 6 person room (although it was supposed to be 20 but a big spring break/study abroad group came in and they took it thank god). But this guy was wearing a maryland hockey shirt and we started talking – he was there for spring break and i told him I graduated in 2010 and that im in the peace corps now. And we talked about pc for a long time because he said that he is applying (but the catch is that he was in Barcelona for spring break). And after about 10 minutes I was like ‘okay im going to grab a beer, I can never drink’ and he was like ‘oh yeah- are you not 21 yet?’ and I just laughed and was like ‘uhh no I live in a muslim country, the one ive been sitting here talking to you about, remember?’ I might be in a 23 year olds body but I am 50 at heart now hahaa AND THEN I met this girl who is studying abroad in ROME for FOOD AND CULTURE. Im going to let you sit and absorb how awesome that is right?! OKAY so then she started bitching to me about how small her bed is, and how her roommate ate her peanut butter, how she is homesick (she got there in feb and probs headed home in may – shut up), how Italian guys are creepy, how tired she is of Italian food and just overall being ungrateful and annoying. But I was trying so hard not to one up her and be like LOOK BETCH, I HAVE IT SO MUCH WORSE THAN YOU STFU!!!!!!!!!!! But I sat and tried to smile and sympathize but im so scared im going to come back to America and be the annoying person who never lets anyone complain without making them feel like a butthole for bitching about dumb shit. But overall it was a hella funny night. at like 1 I was going to bed and everyone in the hostel was like just getting ready to go out. IM SO OLD.

Seeing Shaffer was a really cool. Its crazy because hes the first person (beside my parents…who are awesome) that ive seen since I left. It was cool to remember that my life was real back home and that its not just some weird story I read or a dream. We ate such good food and pork products and sangria and were good tourists when we set our minds to it. It was really relaxing and the exact opposite of everything I ever do in morocco (mainly in terms of eating good food and drinking good drinks).

Madrid y'all

Mexican food in Spain!

Sagrada Família

I also got my cat in March from another volunteer who was finished with her service. Shes great company and definitely gets people off my back about living by myself. Once I say I have a cat they laugh and forget to ask me the usual questions about being afraid and stuff. Shout out to Jo for babysitting her for me when I first got her and then ran away to spain lol I owe you one?

sleepy lady!

looking out the kitchen window

sleeping on her sheep skin rug lol

After spain came jo and yanyi’s craft fair. Their project made me realize how happy I am not to be an event planner, especially in a different language and culture. There were a lot of hang ups (like the Princess of Morocco’s tennis association overriding their reservation at a hotel a week before the craft fair) but it turned out great! Moroccan artists from all over the country were able to show off their products to a different audience and gain some business savvy knowledge. I also picked up some carpets (shout out mom, ali and ni!) and magic donkey boy (shout out gub!). my friend ali just got married (congrats girl!) and she was a fibers major in college and now works designing carpets – so it was cool to get her an authentic Moroccan carpet for her wedding present. The women who I bought the carpet from were really proud that their carpet wasn’t just going to America BUT it was also going for a WEDDING present lol

magic the donkey boy (the picture keeps uploading strangely)

Ali's carpet is the beige one in the middle from Beni Mellal (near Marrakech)

Ni's carpet from Ain Leuh (near Azrou)

All the artisans at the end!

Summer

On May 25, 2012 my staj celebrated our one year anniversary as official, sworn in volunteers. It hasn’t been an easy road since the environment program has been canceled, the ministry of water and forest has decided to stop working with volunteers and no one from our original programing staff still works at peace corps BUT were still here YAY! Our staj’s nickname is ‘the forgotten staj’ lol fitting.

Also I went out to my friend Ori’s site to help him out with a huge public health event he did in his village and two surrounding villages. My main task, along with two other volunteers, was to distract the children while their parents went to see doctors. It was an awesome set up and VERY organized. Ori went around before the event and surveyed what ailments people usually suffered from, arranged for a general doctor to come to the event, but also specialists for the most common complaints. Men and women were separated, and while they waited health sessions were done ranging from maternal health to the risks of smoking. In total about 1500 people were able to be seen by the doctors and given medicine, but also some health tips to take home with them for day to day. The most popular lesson was “what is more expensive: medicine or soap?” NICE WORK ORI!

hand washing/how to make bubbles with your hand lesson

waiting for ze doctors.

Atlas mountainssss/ a village near Ori's site

my dog friend!!!

A couple weekends ago I went to Essouaira for a Guana music festival. It was really nice to get to the beach and enjoy the nice weather. It correlated with a heat wave that swept over morocco so it was really nice to wear a hoodie when you knew it was like 44 C in other places lol there was awesome food and it was nice to hang out with people I haven’t seen for a long time.

essa is known for their carpet boots. I LOVE THEM.

Berberz

Also here are some random pictures/updates...

the president, vice president, yanyi, and i were all in a car on the way to my village when they suddenly stop the car - jump out - and grab something from the road annnnnnd it was a HEDGEHOG (its on the dashboard) lol they took it home for a pet so it could eat bugs and figs haha