I've Got Soul, But I'm Not a Soldier: Progress Report for the parentals

Although I'm sure I'll be winning a Pulitzer any day now for my accounts of a stinky, sub-par bus ride, most of you readers (read: my parents and/or extended family members) are probably looking for more of what I'm actually doing lately, a progress report if you will. (Man, I hated those things... every time they arrived I had to give an oh-shit off-the-cuff middle school speech of 'but that was before I turned in my report and got an A on that test, it'll be at least a B by the time the quarter ends!'' And it was... usually an A actually.)

And I give you, what my google calendar looks like:

The kid's club - a project I was working on with some of the local ex-pats - finished up last week and was a really successful pilot project that will hopefully continue during the next school year. Each week we held two three-hour sessions that consisted of two activities and one talk/lecture/discussion. The day would start with something like games, arts & crafts, or songs, we'd have a 20 minute talk on something like 'how to admit when you're wrong' or some other lesson/moral, and then finish with an activity on the environment, language (tash, tam, or english), or chess. We invited the sixth year students from each of the three primary schools in Sedona-miz and with each school on a four week rota, the project lasted a total of three months. It was a great way to meet a lot of the younger kids throughout town and brought me closer to some of the other development workers in town, friendships I am currently very thankful for.

English classes at the Dar Chebab are also slowly coming to an end. As I leave for IST (inter service training) in Rabat next week, today is actually my last class with the Baccalaureate students in preparation for the big exam in June. When I get back to site about half way through June, temperatures will be well into the 100s and people will be starting to vacate my village, making it relatively pointless to hold classes on a daily basis. I'll be continuing my adult classes, as they are super keen, but won't be resuming regular DC duties until September. And though part of me is sad to lose routine, the other half is screaming 'ALHAMDULILAH!' as I really am burnt out from the redundancy of the DC at the moment. A change of pace is welcome, and I'm looking forward to what the summer brings.

So what is going to be brought by this delightful season? Firstly, IST as I mentioned. A week long PC extravaganza in which we meet up with some NGOs, get some grant writing education, and most people will be meeting with their Mudirs in an organized group-like fashion. My site has had like a kajillion volunteers (five YD I believe... so in PC terms... a kajillion), so my Mudir pretty much knows what's up and was not exactly invited... one of 5 Mudirs not invited. He's a little butt hurt, but mashi mushkil. Anyway, IST is going to be awesome as it's the first time we'll be in a fabulous hotel with both with YD and SBD. Sweet deal. Actually, if you recall from an earlier post (yes, about 7 months ago), that gorgeous hotel we all stayed at after swearing in... the one where staff effed up and we had 8-9 people in a 1 bedroom room?? Mmm hmm, yeah we are back there, and insha'allah, we will actually have a bed, if at least a pillow, to ourselves. Not that I didn't enjoy spooning with half of my female stage on the floor... Love you girls.

I'll return from IST for about two weeks before heading off to Gnaoua, that epic music festival I had mentioned previously in Essaouira. SO STOKED. I'm taking a couple vacation days for it even. Yay for relaxing beach side and dancing my tuchas off for a weekend. Much needed. Especially as it will be roasting in my site by then, the salty off shore breeze will be more than welcome.

July will be mostly in site, doing a couple classes a week at DC and... balls if I know. This is my call to you people: find me a new hobby. Crocheting? Nah. Reading? Do that already. Sports? Not in 120 degree heat folks. Underwater basket weaving? If I can find a water source deep enough. I plan on attempting to paint more... and better (read: I suck), start running (read: jogging... it may be pronounced yogging... apparently you just run, for an extended period of time...) with my host sister at like 6am a) so it's not too freaking hot out yet and b) so the creepers in Sedona-miz don't stare. Also mid-month we'll be having a soccer team from America heading into site for a bit. We'll be setting up a day camp for the girls we did the kitty league with in which they rotate between booths, manned by both Moroccan and American players, focusing on various football skills and techniques. Should be awesome. I've also recently completed a grant application to pay for uniforms and equipment for next year's season, so let's hope that comes through as well!

August will be... dun dun dunnnnnnn... Ramadan. I'll be fasting folks, so prepare for a lot of bitchy rants on this here blog about how hungry I am. Or, well, I'll be fasting until I go to Portugal at the end of the month! Or at least that's the plan. A fellow PCV has family there who are ducking out back to America for a bit and have thus bestowed crashing rights to us during the super skhoon (hot) month of August. Lisbon is going to be AWESOME.

Also at some point late July/early August I'll be doing summer camp for a few weeks. We'll find out at IST when exactly our region's dates are, but should be wonderful. Back up in El Jadida, along the beach, and we get to bring three kids from our sites for free, so super happy about that :). Looking forward to it as I really loved Spring Camp and can only imagine this being even better as the Atlantic Ocean is involved.

That about sums up my to-do list this summer, along with cuddling with the kitten, hanging out with the sitemate as much as possible before he leaves (wahhhhh), and (oh yeah!) meeting up with the new region mate 30 min down the road from us in a beautiful site containing a lake (yippeeeee). Felicie is the new (read: only) environment volunteer in the region and (alhamdulilah) is seriously awesome. French born, Ohio raised, PC Benin, Miami, now here. Chick wrote a book too. She is definitely a more than welcome addition to the Marrakech region.

Ttttthat's all folks.