Salamu Alaykum
Hello! So it’s been a true whirlwind since I’ve landed. I do apologize for having written so little upon my arrival, but it was not until yesterday that I figured out how to switch the French keyboard to an English keyboard. I am still in Rabat, going through eight hours of training, six days a week. For the first few days, we stayed in a hotel at the training site, which is right across the street from the parliament building. Yesterday we went to the first of our three homestays. I will be with this family until next Saturday, September 27th, when I will be doing my community-based training for about nine weeks in Fez and Meknes.
We’ve begun learning Darija, Moroccan Arabic. It’s a little bit difficult due to the fact that it is merely a spoken dialect, and there are no official rules how to write it. With time, however, I’ll be just fine. I’ve already learned how to respond to people who greet me in French in Arabic. That’s turned a few heads. Also, my favorite phrase of today is ana Hamak shweera: I’m a little crazy.
In my host family, we do not have a Turkish toilet, which most of the volunteer have had to begin mastering. I’m not worried, I’ll have my turn. Also, bathing is a little interesting.
I feel very very safe here and love watching the families walk the promenade at dusk, after the sun has cooled.
Well, this is it for my first real enstallment, take care and bismalah