The Crooked Road Home

Here is a slight update of our site.

Language has had it's good days and really bad days. I have found if I am tired that day I cannot speak hardly any Darija (Arabic). My mind just shuts down even if I know the words that are being spoken. Some days I feel like I am doing great and I am going to learn the language quickly. I am starting to finally string a few sentences together so that is encouraging. I have a host sister who is 9 years old and she has been a big help. She is my "usteda' or teacher and is teaching me a lot of stuff and challenging me with my language. She really enjoys it and really likes me too.

When it comes to my tutor, I found one but I do not think it is going to work out. He wants me to learn "fossa" or classical Arabic because the past volunteer wanted to learn that. I am not as advanced has he was starting out and he seems to be frustrated by that. He huffs if I do not say the word exactly right. I just want to communicate with the people and be understood. I will worry about perfection later. I told him all of this but he does not seem to care much. I am not worried about this because I have many contacts for tutors.

Our site is very big. Beggars really hit us hard every time we go out and it can sometimes be abrasive. I few times now beggars have grabbed me and asked for money and just stood in my face with their hand out. Sometimes stuff like that is hard to handle but it is get getting better daily. We now know most of the trouble spots in town and when we go out we try to avoid them. So it is all together not that bad just we are getting used to everything.

Our counterparts here in country are helpful. I honestly have not had much time to do my job yet because we have been running around doing things like Carte de Jour and finding a place to live. On the plus side of this it seems that we have maybe found a place to live. It looks nice and is much bigger than our apartment back in the states. It is in a safe area and we have great connections with a mechanics shop down the road. They all said they would look after us. The place even has a western style toilet. No squatting for us. This is about all I have time for now so I will update more when I have the chance.

Happy Eid Kaber
Matthew