Day 1

Salaam! Well, if you hadn’t gathered as much from my previous post, I made it!!!! After 25 long hours of journeying, I made it to my new home in Rabat, Morocco. It was exhausting but other than that really smooth and uneventful. The food on the Royal Air Maroc flight from JFK to Casa was even the best airplane food I’ve ever had! We’re talking blackened salmon, yummy rice, fresh grilled veggies, salad, bread, cheese, potato salad, cheesecake, and tea. And that was just dinner! I got a few hours of sleep but kept waking up to more food being offered. Who can refuse a good meal?!

I landed in Casablanca at 8:20 local time (there is an 8 hour time difference from Seattle). After waiting almost an hour for my bags, Abdou and Mohamed picked me up outside the airport amidst a sea of people. We jumped on the (slow) highway and drove two hours to Rabat. Passing I got to see a bit of the countryside, random shantytowns, and elite resorts. It’s crazy how different it is from the states! Some of these shantytowns for example are clusters of lean-tos with tires on the top of the fiberglass they’ve turned into a roof. However, you look closer and see that there’s a mass of satellites on top of these buildings that would be considering inhabitable at all costs in the states (one such photo below is of one of the nicer houses I went by)! On the side of the highway there is trash as high as knee deep in many areas and you see entire families and policemen hitchhiking from here to there. Craziness. I’m still in shock that I’m actually here. Driving on the highway in the big white van I felt like I was watching an HD movie at the IMAX, and that it was happening all around me. But I’m here!

I was the first volunteer to arrive and had the house all to myself. The maid’s name is Leila, and when I told Mohamed he thought that was hilarious but told me not to tell her that. Apparently dog’s saliva is considered unclean and so many Muslims are wary of being around dogs in fear that if the saliva touches them they may not be able to pray (I think I got that correct, but I could be slightly mistaken!). So, many Muslims refuse to be around dogs and don't have them as pets except if they are for house protection.

The in-country staff is all very nice. Mohamed is the only one that speaks English right now; I guess the house manager is off on holiday but she also speaks English and will be back soon. It’ll be a good challenge for me to learn more Arabic and French! Apparently we’re in more of the wealthier part of town where there are many dignitaries, etc. Rabat is the only Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS) placement that has staff at the house at all hours of the day, and I feel very safe and secure.

After a wonderful lunch of lentil soup, bread, salad, and veggies, I decided to close my eyes just for a couple of seconds. I woke up 2 ½ hours later passed out in the same position I fell asleep in, with marks all over my face. I sure needed that! Shortly after the other volunteers showed up, and we had tea time and just finished up with dinner. It’s been neat learning more about the other volunteers and what they do outside of this and why they’re here. I’m in a great room with about 7-8 awesome girls that has a wonderful patio that overlooks the garden. Pictures below, of course (Mom, I thought you'd want a "foot in Morocco" pic)!

Tomorrow is orientation where we’ll do some sort of ice-breaker scavenger hunt and learn more about our placements, expectations, safety precautions, etc. I have a whole booklet I need to read by tomorrow so I should probably get on that.

Thanks again for stopping by, and for your prayers and support!

PS- still trying to figure out how to layout the photos, have them in order, be able to caption them, etc. If anyone knows, please let me know! My OCD is having a hay-day with the below layout.....