One Month In

The first thing about the Cyber Cafe...the keyboard is in French. After figuring out how to change the keyboard to an American keyboard life has been so much better. A boy in my group left after the first and now we are down to four PCT (Peace Corps Trainees) in my CBT group.

Lots of things are happening here. I can now speak entire sentances in Arabic, I can successfully buy things from the stores, I mae bread from scratch, I learned how to peel potatos with a knife (which is a skill). All the small things I do feel like huge accomplishments. Just being able to wash my clothes is a big deal. I have been washing my own clothes since I was 13 but here washing your clothes is a skill. The women here have this awesome ablility to hand wash clothes and get them cleaner than my washing machine at home ever did.

They don't form lines at hanuts (stores) here. The hanut owner waits on you based on how well you are friends with him. I go to the same hanut every morning for bread for our lunch and breaks and now I am one of the ones who gets waited on first even if there were other people there first. :) We have a converstation every morning in darija(moroccan arabic) and he gives me the price VERY slowly in rubals which I then have to convert to durhams in my head. I am getting pretty good at it. But he is very patient and is helping me learn.

I love my host family. Last Sunday they told me that when I first came here all I could say was "hello, how are you, I'm fine, my name is Rachael" and now I can understand them when they talk to me and I can speak in full sentances (granted I only know the past tense but it's a start).

The food here is amazing! So much fresh fruit..a little too much bread. My host family has a garden with peppers, tomatoes, mint and sheba (for tea), olives (I didn't like olives in the states but here I love the plain green olives), and cucumbers.