Friday Funday

After a whirlwind week at the Medical Clinic, (which I will post about shortly, no doubt) I decided to dedicate this Friday to cleaning house and listening to some sweet tunes of my choosing. Ask any PCV and they'll attest to the amount of cell-phone amplified Moroccan music I was forced to listen to during a 50 hour work week at the Dar Chebab...

Anywho, I thought I'd share with you all my musical obsessions of late. So, stay tuned... HA.

First at bat - 'Stack Shot Billy' by The Black Keys

Okay, so, these dudes kind of rock my world. While I'm fully aware they've put out three (badass) albums since Rubber Factory back in 2004, there's something about the grittiness of this record I can't get over. I can literally feel when my insides sync in with the beat of this track in particular. I remember the first time I saw these guys, back in '03, when the opened for John Mayer... Yeah, you read that right. John... Mayer. I didn't get the connection either, but I totally came away from that concert blown away by the opening act and pretty much forgetting anything having to do with headliner. (Yes, I'm avoiding your questions on why I went to a Mayer concert in the first place... I was 16.) I know I'm not the first nor last to express their adoration of this duo - seeing as they won a freaking GRAMMY this year ya'll - but hotdamn, they move me.

'Goodbye England' - Laura Marling

I. Need. To. Be. Her. She is out of control talented. I've been obsessed with I Speak Because I Can for over almost a year now. It's one of those rare and complete story-telling albums. It's fantastic. The fact it came out of a girl who was, what, 19 at the time? Boggles my mind. She writes with such experience and grace, it's the complete package. For those of you who are into Joni Mitchell, Mumford & Sons, Noah and the Whale, etc, this is for you. I have such a girl-crush on her. Perfection.

Okay, and 'Rambling Man'. Just enjoy.

'Gasoline Alley' - Rod Stewart

I, along with every other woman in history, have had an old-man crush on Rod Stewart for sometime now. There is just something about his voice in combination with this short (and not normally) a capella diddy that pulls at a girl's heartstrings. My crush-age has recently been reignited due to the newest season of American Idol (yes I'm admitting this to the public). I'm sending some serious vibes to that Paul McDonald kid. You hear that, Paul? Mrhaba to Morocco anyyyyyytime.

'Maggie Mae' - Paul McDonald (Rod Stewart tune)

'Not Fade Away' - Jack White (Buddy Holly tune)

Apparently, our friend Jack made a surprise stop at SXSW the other day. I saw this clip and died a little inside. The first musical I ever saw was Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story at the Strand Theatre in London's West End back when I was 14. I loved him. I was obviously born some 50 years too late. However, having one of my favourite musicians of all time covering this classic made me happy. Gah, why I am I in Morocco and not touring around the US attending various music festivals again? The Coachella line up made me tear up, SXSW is making me anxious, Bonnaroo is just going to full on make me bawl.

Fasters of the world... Unite!

This morning I got out of bed this morning thinking... mmm roast chicken sounds divine for lunch today (my brain works like that, sadly). I hadn't had any poultry in site for about a month now. So, after some morning chai tea and strawberries for breakfast, I made my way into town in order to buy a chicken for the day's feasting.

As I was walking along the road, among several sbah-al-khairs (good mornings) from neighbourhood children, I reached my half-way point - the mosque at the end of my road. The Friday prayers had already begun - they last about three hours in my neck of the woods - and I happily enjoyed the melodic chanting as I continued my way down the road towards my chicken guy.

That is, until I stopped dead in my tracks and realized - Hey, dumbass, it's a Friday. During Lent. No chicken for you.

So, I rerouted my trajectory and made my way towards the fish guy instead. The half kilo of fish is now comfortably resting in my fridge for roasted consumption this afternoon.

Ironic that an Islamic prayer call can remind me of a Catholic fast, n'est-ce pas?

So, yeah, about that. We've been over the fact that I don't really subscribe to any particular religion, but I'm a respecter of all, yes? And any probing religious questions I receive here in site are usually answered with the crowd-pleasing line of, 'I know there's something out there, I just don't know if his name is Jesus, Allah, Buddha, etc...' Which, is more or less what I actually think.

Thus, I figure if I went to bat for Islam during Ramadan this past year, I should follow suit and play my cards right this Lent. Doesn't hurt to appease all possible deities, am I right? Plus, I grew up with Lent as a prominent fixture in my household. My Dad even respects the no-eating-meat-on-Fridays thing for the entirety of the year. Living at home at as a kid, I was all about the Fish Fridays, as this usually meant a family dinner at a nice beach-side seafood restaurant was involved. Well, that or the infrequent (and disappointing) Mickey D's fish sandwich... shudder.

Moral of the story is, in addition to the no-meat Fridays for the next 40-odd days, I'll also be putting a hold on all baked goods. This includes cookies, cakes, breads, the works. I figure, in addition to offering up a sacrifice to any of the aforementioned gods, it'll have me looking good for an Easter Sunday wedding in London next month. Win-win!

Quick Work Update

Today marks the first day in 18 months I actually called out of work due to sickness. (And by call I obviously mean awkwardly text my Mudir in Arabic with English characters and numbers.) In sum - I'm a baby. I rarely get sick, so when I do I totally succumb to my snotty nose and hacking cough. Which is way attractive, I'm aware. Also, I blame the entire thing upon fellow volunteer, Nina. The girl is usually quite lovely company, except it appears her phlegm seems to have gotten me sick in the first place. Though, I suppose,that's neither here, nor there. Since I'll be spending the next few hours cuddled up in bed with a cup of newly sent Chai Tea (thanks mom!) and my purring, portable heater, I figured I'd shoot you all an update from good old Sedona-miz.

Work here is pretty standard. English Classes have been reduced to Tuesday through Thursday from 4-8 in the Dar Chebab here in town. I used to work there everyday last year with multiple clubs and classes, but as I am now on my third Mudir, things are... ahem, different. Thus, myself and programming staff have decided that my commitment there is fulfilled with three days of solid teaching and I tend to look outside this particular location and find more successful and stimulating work elsewhere. Though, we still conduct the occasional themed day events and week-long projects on a regular basis. Examples of the former being a Road Safety Day, Theatre and Music Events, and a celebration of International Women's Day this past month. An example of the latter being a Free Health Clinic being set-up at the Dar Chebab that will run for five days starting this Sunday.

Dar Chebab

Youth in Dar Chebab during Theatre event

Road Safety Day

In addition to Dar Chebab commitments, I now go to a nearby village on Saturdays in order to work with my close friend & volunteer, Felicie, at her Women's Association. We work together tutoring girls in English for a few hours in the afternoon, and she also recently began tutoring young girls in French for the hour prior (which I'm also sneakily getting something out of...). Funnily enough, since her village doesn't have a high school, the girls we tutor travel daily to my town in order to finish their Baccalaureate education. So, technically, I'm still helping 'my community' by commuting to hers every Saturday. It's a particularly win-win situation as we get to spend our Saturday mornings hiking around the lake in her site, so it's a pleasant way to start the day and the weekend.

In the midst of a hike with the lake in the background

Felicie and Hadoc at the start of our lake-side jaunt.

In theory, I spend the next day, Sundays, with Sedona-miz's youth soccer league. However, the last couple of weeks have been an issue due to poor Moroccan bureaucracy. Essentially, we have been waiting on a piece of paper to be authorized in order to give us permission to use the school grounds for practice and tournaments without the school staff or director being present. This wasn't an issue last year, and wasn't an issue at the beginning of this season, but - as things go in Morocco - it became an issue when someone up the ranks was momentarily inconvenienced over a door-locking issue. Insha'allah, things will be remedied again by next Sunday and the season will continue according to plan.

Stretching before game time on primary school grounds

Practice and drills

Group of girls that participated in last year's 7 month season

In a few weeks time, all Youth Development volunteers here in Morocco will be conducting Spring Camps across the country. The Ministry of Youth and Sports are holding double the amount of camps this year than they did last year, to which your natural reaction should be something along the lines of: 'Wow! Looks like things are really progressing! They must be reaching so many more children!' Yeah, totally, right? Until you realize that they have doubled the amount of camps, but not the man-power. Since these camps are 'English-Immersion' style camps, they require a certain amount of volunteers to both conduct classes and coordinate the camps for the week in question. Only, the ratio went from around 1:10 last year to about 1:40 this year quicker than you can say 'Holy chaos, Batman!' There's no possible way these camps are going to run as efficiently as they may (or may not have) run last year. Also, the camp I signed-up to coordinate, may or may not be cancelled. Due to... drum roll please... Moroccan bureaucracy! And the truth of it is, I probably won't find out for certain until the week before the start date. Yay!

All in all, though, I'm content with the work I'm doing and with the momentum I have going. At this point in the game, with just about eight months left (holy crap!), the point isn't to be beginning new projects. It's a matter of successfully maintaining and completing those that you have already set up. This rings especially true within my particular sector, as the Youth Centre starts closing-up shop in June and won't re-open until late September, leaving me with... three to four more months of a solid, routine work schedule. My extra time is honestly being filled with GRE vocab-cards, re-working my CV, and contemplating job options for when I get back. 'Tis the season for beginning to think post-Peace Corps! Crazy.