The first week
It’s almost been a week and things are good. The main task of this week has been trying to get my residence card. And boy what a fun task it has been!! So on Monday, I walked about two miles to the Gendarme Office (something like the royal police), where I was told to apply for this residence card. I got there and a very brute man unhappily told me to go to the police station. I thought this a little odd because all of the other volunteers were going to the Gendarm’s. Maybe it was because I lived in a larger city. So I asked some friends and they told me to wait until the next day and they would take me. No worries. So Tuesday arrives and one friend, Ismael, knows somebody who works at some ministry office. We walk across town and he’s not there, so we instead go to the office of the local district municipality, where I live. We find the district mayor outside chatting and smoking with his buddy. He tells me that before I do anything, I have to first bring him a copy of my passport and passport photo. This, of course, confuses me because I don’t understand why he wants these items and why I can’t just go to the police station. So then Ismael takes me to the municipality office of the first district, just in case. Nope, go to the police. When I go home for lunch, I find out that two police officers had already been at my house expecting me, waiting for me to go to the police station. I’m trying, I’m trying and I begin to think this is a labrynthed maze with no end in site. So after lunch, my host brother, Hicham, goes with me to the police station. But alas, it’s the wrong police station, it’s the police station for the justice courts (or something like that). Finally, we get to the correct place and I figure out that I need to go all these other places to get the necessary forms and photos, etc. [I’ll spare you the sagas of getting all of these necessary forms] So finally, after picking up my passport fotos this afternoon, I go to turn in all of my paperwork. The nice man, Hassan, takes it and tells me to come back on Monday to get the receipt. Luckily I’m living legally in Morocco until next Friday, cause it’ll probably take until then to finally get the receipt.