a long awaited updat

Hello all! here is a long awaited update, with pictures and everything!

I have gotten more settled here in my town called N'kob. It's a small town off the beaten track that is known for it's kasbah's which are the moroccan equivalent of castles. there are 45 kasbah's in my town and i even live in one of them! tourism is the main income here, but to be honest there are not that many tourists. my host father said that tourists stopped coming around 2008 in full force. But if any of you are planning a trip to morocco i highly recommend N'kob, being off the beaten track it is way more friendly and authentic. I hate travelling as tourist places, because you only see what someone wants you to see of a country, never what people somewhere actually live. N'kob would give you the food most moroccans eat and in a setting many moroccan's live in. the thing i love most about N'kob is that most of the houses are made out of mud, so everything is this great earthy color. As you can see, my town is surrounded by mountains, and on the edge of town is a Palmerie where most of the people have gardens where they grow collard greens, alfafa and palm trees filled with dates. It's a good thing i've acquired a taste for dates here, because they are everywhere. The other day i stopped by a store and these woman just handed me a handful of dates. No one really sells them as far as I can tell, because everyone has their own. I'll have to see if my family can hook me up when i get to my own place. 

a lot of what peace corps tells you is about adapting and adjusting, and it's definitely an adjustment from 6 hours of language classes a day to the unstructured free for all that has become my life.  most days i wake up, have breakfast, go for a walk around town, try and talk to whoever i meet, maybe make a phone call to another peace corps volunteer, then i head home for lunch with the family. Then i often go to the womans center called the netti neswi and hang out with the women there in their sewing/craft room and either bead crochet or work on a cross stitch. the women there are very nice and are intrigued by the crafts i've brought with me (and i brought a lot). My town doesn't always have cheese, but there does seem to be a supply of beads and thread and string, and so i'm thinking I might try and teach the ladies how to do bead crochet bracelets, which would be cool. as they say in tashleheet (the local berber language ) ymik ymik- or little by little. Little by little I'm trying to get to know my town. Little by little I'm trying to understand what people say to me. Little by little I'm learning tashleheet. Little by little i am inshallah (god willing) going to be able to start some more english classes and do some none english classroom projects. 

I had my first english class on wednesday with the women at the netti neswi- and i think it went really well. we started with the alphabet and next week we are going to do numbers. I'm hoping in january i can start some more english classes with different demographics. 

the view from my roof looking out over town, you can see some more of the houses and the differences between concrete and earth. i like the earth houses better. 

you can see more of the mountains and the beginnings of the palmerie

 the view from my roof and part of my kasbah and the palmerie in the background. i love going up on the roof and looking at the mountains, talking on the phone, looking at clouds. a lot of my fellow pcv's are currently very cold. being in a desert region, the temperature has stayed at around 55-65 degrees so most days i'm comfortable in a light long john shirt and a flannel or sweater. at night it feels cold so i'm glad i brought more winter clothing with me, but for the most part it is really nice out. word on the street is that it gets unbearably hot in the summer though. which is another reason why earth is a more suitable building material then concrete. Earth houses are cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. many moroccan houses are colder inside then it ever is outside. the concrete takes the cold and holds it there. i'm hoping my apartment will be able to be an earth place, because i don't want to die when it's 115 degrees out. 

 these are the two kittens that live in my house. the one in the front i call hmqa or dirija for crazy and the one in the back i call vache or cow in french. my host family thinks it's totally bizarre the way i've befriended these cats. having them sit on my lap, petting them and letting them fall asleep ( i do have a favorite, vache is way more friendly and affectionate and there's a possibility i might try and take him with me when i move out. ) the concept of a pet here is totally foreign. there are dogs in my town, but they seem more to be a obligatory staple then anything else. it seems each dog has it's own stretch of butcher shops that it hangs out in front of to catch scraps or any food that is thrown out. most people seem to be afraid of dogs and offer them no respect or kindness. same goes with cats. there are tons of cats all over morocco, the problem seems to be pretty contained here in nkob because it seems most families have a cat that has a home inside the kasbah walls to serve the purpose of keeping away mice and bugs. they are a tool, not a friend. 

another thing that has been hard to communicate is the idea that i need to find an apartment. The other day we were talking about another volunteer with my family and they more or less said it was sad that she lived alone. Family is the core of most moroccan values and it is not uncommon for a woman to get married and stay in the house of her father or go to her husbands house. More or less, people do not live alone. I did a tour of 3 houses and i believe they would all constitute as family houses. no bachelor pads or small flats. I tried to describe to my family that in america living with your family past a certain age means you are not considered successful and in america we strive to have our own space, but the concept was lost. I will admit I am enjoying my time with a host family, but i am really excited about the idea of having my own apartment. The last times i had a kitchen was last year at nature's classroom (on the weekends and english muffins at night) and then in 2010 when i lived in seattle. it has been a long time since i've been able to cook for myself, and morocco has so many great ingredients that i am really excited to explore and try out in new dishes. Peace corps wants us to be moved into a new place by january first, and i'm hoping that can happen. I have my eye on 2 places, one is simple and earth and one is concrete. I'm partial towards the earth one, but we shall see, i'll let you know when i seal a deal. 

 the end of sunset. one thing i love here is the stars. the stars in N'kob are as good if not better then they were at nature's classroom and in the berkshires. N'kob isn't filled with street lights and the nearest big cities are over an hour and a half away so there is almost no light pollution to speak of. The past few days the moon has been so bright it casts shadows, and it isn't even full. I'm happy that most of the winter constellations I could see at home, i can see here, the seven sisters, orion, and there's planets that are crazy bright. The other night on the phone I saw 8 shooting stars in an hour. hopefully there will be a meteor shower while i'm here so i can lay outside and watch it. I'm also hoping to get some friends together when it's warmer out to do a campout on the mountains near a full moon. hike up for dusk, hang out during the full moon, hike down in the morning. im crossing my fingers. 

here's a view from a street i was walking on the other day. i love the windy roads, and earth houses contrasted against the blue sky. 

all in all things are great. keeping my chin up, riding the roller coaster that is the peace corps experience. I've been finding that day by day, and hour by hour makes everything work. I've dubbed it the great moroccan bi-polar express (gently stolen from the gandalf song) because one minute everything is great and perfect and you understand everyone and you are prepared and ready to go. then the next minute class is cancelled because you don't have a key to the door then the next you're being handed cookies by a group of friendly women. 

also, it seems the mail situation is totally working (HINT HINT) so if you want to send mail please do.