Kemis Sidi Yahya
September 22, 2024
One week in a foreign country and I feel like I’m at home. I can only say greetings in Darija, the heat has been getting to all of us, and handwashing laundry is the new bane of my existence, but, I have never felt this welcomed or experienced this much hospitality in my life. It’s unbelievable how fast you can fall in love with a foreign country and become best friends with 56 strangers, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Just over a week ago I took a direct flight from Columbus, Ohio, the place I was born and raised, to Washington, D.C. for staging, a two-day orientation on the basics of the peace corps for my Staj that was set to depart to Morocco on September 14th. After lugging to the hotel my two suitcases (that I managed to keep under 50lbs each) and two backpacks full of belongings that would be coming with me on my two-year adventure, I finally started to meet people, get signed in, fill out paperwork, and let the nerves kick in. The two days were full of getting to know people, understanding what it meant to be a peace corps volunteer, and panicking about the fact that I don’t know a single word in Darija. There was also however an occasional meal with my fellow trainees, a card game here and there, and walks around D.C. because some of us (me) hadn’t been there since they were 10 years old. Fast friends is an interesting concept, and I don’t think there’s a faster way you can become friends with a group of people than this.
After our two-day bootcamp in D.C. we made it onto our busses and headed to Dulles International Airport for a redeye to Casablanca. And in true American spirit some trainees and I shared a beer before the flight as a heartfelt goodbye to America and boarded the plane. Then after a seven-hour flight without a wink of sleep we collected out luggage, tagged the bag we won’t get to see for three months, and got on more busses for a two-and-a-half-hour trek. It was a long day of traveling. But alas, when we arrived at the hotel for our 10-day orientation before community based training, seeing the lunch buffet and three separate pools made it all worth it.
There were various introductions, meetings, meals, and words exchanged, but I honestly don’t remember much of what happened on that first day. And I don’t think anyone else does either because of the jet lag. Since then, it has been a mix of meetings, football(soccer) games, language classes, meals, swims, etc. We’ve been making our way through the first ten days like champs with naps at lunch to help combat the tiredness that comes with waking up at 6:30am. I personally haven’t been going to bed nearly as early as I should be, but since we only have 10 days with our whole group of 57, it’s worth it to stay up a bit later chatting and cherishing the time with them, for example watching people belt their hearts out to tasteful karaoke or writing the most insane rap by the poolside until 11pm. Our days are usually pretty long with sessions from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, but we do get our fair share of breaks. Lunch is always delicious and usually about an hour and a half, giving plenty of time for the naps mentioned previously, but the best part about the mid-session breaks is they bring in some snackies and the mint tea. Oh, my lord. The mint tea is so good, I have been slurping it down by the gallon and no one can stop me. If you haven’t heard about the famous Moroccan mint tea, you’re truly missing out, it’s a wonderful pick me up during a long day and the thing I have been looking forward to most since receiving my invitation to serve.
While on the topic of food, we got to experience our first couscous Friday which was such a treat. Traditionally, in Morocco, couscous is prepared and eaten on Fridays every week as a staple meal, and as the national food of Morocco, I was dying to try it.
Another fun sidenote, there are a plethora of cute (but feral) cats staying at our hotel with us. They beg for food and give us plenty of company while we eat. Seeing them always makes me miss my kitties back home.
Of course, we’re also in Darija classes. We have spent two full days learning and trying to grow our language skills as we prepare for CBT, but it is still quite nerve wracking knowing that I will be diving headfirst into my community, trying my best with only the skills to say hello and introduce myself. I’m not sure how it’s going to go since I won’t be able to hold a lick of a conversation, but that’s what it’s all about I guess, learning and growing. After talking to a couple of current PCVs about how their language skills are and how long it took them to become confident speakers, it has made me feel better, but overall, not being able to be a strong communicator will probably be my biggest struggle over the next couple of months.
Here's a list of the words and phrases I’ve been using the most thus far:
Mzyan, meaning “good”
Atay bskkar, meaning “tea with sugar”
Mafhemtsh, meaning “I don’t understand”
Tsbh 3la khir, meaning “goodnight”
One interesting part about the area we’re in right now is that we’re just outside of the city, so we’re don’t have access to any large shops or stores. Sunday is sou9 day here so we’ll be going into Khemisset to acquire metal buckets, but for small things like snacks, drinks, and toothpaste for those in my Staj that forgot it, we have to go to the 7anut. The 7anut is a small convenience store that has a very minimal range of items, it’s like a CVS but Imagine an 8x8ft room with a counter where you go up and ask for specific items. The 7anut has been the first test of language for many of us, it’s intimidating because not many people really know what they’re doing, but the employee at the 7anut has been very kind and accommodating with trying to understand exactly what we’re getting at, so it’s been working out alright.
One of the PCTs managed to balance a bottle of water on her head for (alomst) the whole walk back from the 7anut.
Getting things like sparkling water at the 7anut has been vital because it’s a little taste of home while we’re in Morocco. One of the things I miss most about home right about now is my washing machine. Yesterday I did my first load of laundry by hand, and it took about an hour to do only half of the laundry I’ve accumulated in a week. It’s a long process of scrubbing clothes to get all the dirt out, rinsing them, hanging them to dry, and repeating with more. I would give anything to have a washing machine right about now because I’m thoroughly dreading doing my next load of laundry today.
The amount of soccer that we’ve been playing is greatly contributing to my pile of dirty laundry, to the point where I am rewearing my dirty soccer clothes every time we play because I can’t stand to add more to the pile (and I also don’t have more clothes to wear). Every day at 6pm we go out to play soccer for about an hour to an hour and a half. One of the nice things about Moroccan culture is they also love soccer, but they’re all so much better at it than any of us Americans. We’ve been mixing our teams up because the first day when we did USA vs Maroc, USA got absolutely demolished. We’ve got some stars on the American side though, which has been helping us out, and has also led to a plethora of nicknames. As I have been holding my own on defense and some of my fellow trainees have dubbed me the “Iron Curtain” which I’m not quite sure how to feel about. The routine of having something fun and physical to look forward to at the end of the day has been really nice. And it’s not just soccer, there are many people that are going for walks on the four-mile loop around the lake, there’s a run club that people have been enjoying, and some people are even starting the day with yoga. Overall, the physical activity has been wonderful and keeping us sane in these crazy conditions.
One of my favorite nights here so far was Friday night when after dinner it started storming super heavily and led to some rain dancing. One of the current PCVs was saying that he hadn’t seen rain like that in almost a year and a half, so we took full advantage and danced, sung songs, and frolicked in the rain. It was the first night where I looked around and felt like I was at home, and it’s one of those memories that’s going to stick with me forever.
I think for many of us we were expecting to feel homesick, but it’s only been good. The majority of us are finding solace in our American peers and excitement in our Moroccan ones. There’s so much to learn and so much time left to do so that people are really starting to get excited and rather than letting the nerves eat at us all at once, we’re hopeful, and we’re itching to be put into our communities to continue facing the challenges that come with being in this incredible country.
