Let's start with what I am doing here, since I didn't really explain it well to most, if any, of you.
I am volunteering for the next 27 (26 and a half but who's counting) months as a Youth Development Coordinator in Morocco. I have a training period during which time I am known as a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) and have no idea where my final site will be. During that time, they observe me, and try to decide what location/type of location would be a nice fit for me. Accordingly, I am hoping for some body of water, be it the ocean, the med, or a pool, that women are allowed to swim in every day. I WOULD LOVE TO GIVE SWIM LESSONS! It'd be incredible to do the thing I am most passionate about just in a different language for a group of people who would otherwise not really have access to it (super generally speaking: boys don't teach girls and moms have more important things to do than teach their girl children to swim…that's where I want to come in). Unfortunately though, many people ask for the coast, so there is a good possibility I will not end up anywhere near it.
Anyway back to what I am doing. I will be working at the dar ash-shabab in whichever place I end up or literally the youth center (but remember the title of youth here lasts until you are married so we get some people up until about their 40s). It will be my job to fill whatever void that center needs, like swimming lessons. Really, our general instruction is three-fold 1. Classes (English/Arabic etc) 2. Camps and 3. Clubs. We have a myriad of resources to go through to help us identify what is needed and make it happen. Some sites will have mostly 8yr olds and those sites will accordingly need activities about germs and pollution and games etc, where as some will have mostly 30 yr olds and those sites will need job placement and interview training. Hearing from past volunteers, the reason for the length of service is most likely because of how long it takes to get your bearings. One PCV explained that the first 6 months she worked to get tables, chairs, lightbulbs, and chalk boards for her dar because it was completely empty. Others, in major cities, have robust schedules and need us to act more as stop gaps on off-days or fill in positions that no one else has time for. I won't know what my situation will be like until I am in it.
Peace Corps is all about the acronyms. Right now I am in CBT, or Community Based Training. CBT is a three month period where we figure out how to do the jobs we signed up for by living in a populated city with a LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) or Moroccan who knows whats up. During this training we are to A. get a solid grip on the language B. live with a host family to help us get a solid grip on the culture and C. work at a dar ash-shabab. I am about a week and a half into CBT.
I am excited and hopeful to enact some real change but this first week has been draining because I feel useless. I feel like I am not progressing as quickly as I hoped I was going to in the language (we have 6 hours a day but our class is the most advanced and the levels are varied enough that it's gotta be taxing on the teacher…he is letting me lead presentations to keep me engaged which I am very appreciative of). We also haven't really done anything with the 'youth' yet. We have watched a couple of their incredible performances (notably, they are awesome dancers) but we haven't really contributed yet.
I will write more about this next time but probably the weirdest thing about this whole experience is how long it is but it just feels like CLS take 5. I am not really understanding yet the length of a two year commitment. That being said, I guess deep down I know it is different because I haven't taken a single photo yet, except some weird Photo Booth ones when my little host sister was sitting on my lap.
Who knows, more later! I miss you all immensely.
