The Crooked Road Home

I have not updated on this blog in a while. Matt has his own blog he has been doing for a while now. I just wanted to let you know about his blog. Thanks! Check it out! Matt in Morocco

Tuesday was a great day! I had my Beginner’s English class at the Women’s Center and I’m at about 12-15 women and girls each day. We went over the months and words like ‘month’, ‘day’, ‘year’ and then I gave them some ways to use these words in a sentence.

After I finished class I met up with the Small Business Volunteer from the nearest town, Joy, and we worked on learning how to use a foot powered sewing machine. I think we got the hang of it by the end. I sewed up one side of a purse that I am working on.


Hopefully the end result will be good. Joy and I got the fabric at a ‘Ponj’ shop, which is like a couch shop. So it is pretty thick material. We are hoping to come up with a good pattern that the women at our Women’s Centers will be able to create and sell on their own. All of the female volunteers in my area are getting together at my house to do some planning for a Women’s Wellness Workshop to train a few women from each center to teach Aerobics and health related issues. I don’t yet have an aerobics class but I am hoping that the director of my center will know a couple of women that would be interested to do a class with me. I’m really looking forward to this meeting and hope it goes well.
After leaving the Women’s Center I went home and made lunch (always a long ordeal). Then Matt and I went to the Dar Chebab (Youth Center). We had a Beginner’s class of 14 today. I’m really excited because when we first started we were just getting like 1 or 2 kids showing up. It’s hard to teach a class with 2 kids in it.
I think that my language is really picking up I feel much more confident speaking Darija and have more fluency. It’s exciting to have a conversation in another language. After 4 months in Morocco I already speak way better than my Spanish after 4 years in high school. Though sometimes people do try to speak to me in Spanish. (Morocco is very close to Spain.)
Well now I need to do some shopping. I’m our of peppers.

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

Hey! We are in Morocco! We got here three weeks ago and are doing language training with a group of four other people in a small town. We are living with a Moroccan family too! We have like a month and a half of training left and then we are sent to our final place, but we don't know where that is yet. We will most likely end up working in youth centers in a bigger city. So we will basically teach english and create activities and clubs for local youth, and do camps. I'm actually at a cyber cafe right now typing on a french keyboard. fun stuff!

We are living with an awesome Moroccan family (mom, dad, a brother and two sisters). It's really starting to feel more like a home now that we have been here for more than a week. I get to help cook the meals and clean around the house Moroccan style! I've even gotten to hand wash my clothes :-) I have been a little sick though, but it's mostly just that they eat so much really tasty food all the time. we have like at least five meals a day, but I've learned to only eat so much at each meal. The beds are really different here, they double as couches during the day. they are called 'ponges'. It's been really awesome learning the language and the culture we have classes every day for about 8 hours with meal breaks of course :-) We are learning a lot!

Hello Friends and Family,

Just wanted everyone know that we made it to Morocco! Tanie and I are still really sore and jet lagged from the flight and travel. It has been good so far. We are right next to the ocean and it is very nice outside. We have been getting to know our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and most of them are great!

Over the next few days we have a pretty tight shift and we have lots of training to do. Right now I am sitting in the lobby and I hear a boy speaking arabic and having a great time. I hear the ocean crashing against the shore. I like this feeling of really not knowing what could come next.

I hope to post a few videos soon. So I hope to keep you updated whenever I can.

Matt

Hello Internet,

It is becoming closer and closer to September. This is really a scary thought but also very exciting. On Tuesday of this week we reserved a moving truck this was the first time that it really hit me hard that we were leaving the states. I had a strange reaction of nostalgia, greed or something else. I like the states most of the time. We have everything we need and want and for that we are blessed. The truth is I am going to miss Fort Wayne. I am ready for a change but to leave our first apartment and hometown it will be hard to leave. There are so many great people we will leave behind. We are also excited to make new ones too.

I have complied a list of just about everything we will be taking to Morocco. This list is only for me (Matt). We can bring up to 80 pounds because of airline restrictions. All of my stuff comes out to be about 60 pounds so I can bring a little more luxury items. That makes it nice :)
Matt


Matt’s Complete Packing List

Luggage
Backpacking Pack (Check)
Duffle bag (Carry on)
Backpack (Carry on)

Clothing
T-shirts (5x)
Polo (1x)
Dress Shirt (1x)
Dress Pants (1x)
Underwear (8x)
Socks (8x)
Dress Socks (1x)
Thick Socks (1x)
White T-shirts (4x)
Jeans (2x)
Shorts
Shoes (Chuck Taylors)
Sandals (Chaco’s)
Dress Shoes
Sweater
Long Sleeved Shirt (1x)
Zip Hoody (1x)
Hiking Pants (1x)
Swimsuit (1x)
Belts (2x)
Rain Jacket
Thermal Shirt
Under armor

Electronics
Laptop (Netbook)
Laptop Charger
Laptop Case
PSP System
PSP Charger
PSP Games
Portable Hard Drive (500 GB)
Hard Drive Case
IPod Classic (120 GB)
IPod Charger
USB Stick (8 GB)
Flip Camera (120 Mins)
Tripod
Digital Camera
Camera Case
Camera Memory Stick (512MB)
USB Cable
Battery Charger
Voltage Converter
Rechargeable Batteries
8x AA
4x AAA
Headphones (2x)
Power Adaptor Plugs (3x)
Headlamp
Maglite
Travel Speakers

Personal Care
Deodorant (3x)
Razors
Face Wash
Toothbrushes (3x)
Toothpaste
Floss (3x)
Camp Towels
Allergy Meds
Motion Sickness Meds (2x)
Glasses (2x)
Contacts (6 boxes)
Contact Solution
Contacts Case
Hair Stuff
Shampoo
Body Wash
Loofa
Razors Mach 3 (x3)
Electric Shaver

Utility
Gerber Multi-tool
Knife Sharpener
Duct Tape
Sunglasses
Headlamp
Box of Pens
Cards
Zip Lock Bags (Gallon)
Tupperware (2x)
Money Belt
Wallet
Sleeping Bag
Travel Pillow
Index Cards
Carabiners (2x)
Travel Locks (2x)
Wallet

Books
NIV Slimline Bible
Moleskin Notebook
Lonely Planet Morocco Guide
Photo Album
Pocket Dictionary
Pocket Thesaurus
Five Star 2 Subject Notebook
Small 2 Year Planner

Hey everyone! Now that we are down to two weeks left in our apartment we have been packing like crazy! We have boxes spread out all over the place and piles of stuff. It's nice to be getting rid of a lot of stuff that we don't really need. We like to simplify our lives. It's amazing how much junk we have accumulated in our 1.5 years of marriage. It looks like we will be able to sell Matt's car soon too so that is exciting! Check out our youtube account we put up a video about packing awhile ago. :-) Oh and I'm not sure if we mentioned it but Matt cut his hair off!

Hey everyone!
Matt and I have begun to learn Moroccan Arabic from some language tools that the Peace Corps gave us. I made a little video that shows what I have learned so far.

Hello people. It has been a while since either of us have updated. So we though we should bring you up to date!

As of late we have started to think about our last days here in the states. We have taken a few boxes down to my hometown. Mostly just books that we don't plan to read any time soon. We also plan to put my car up for sale really soon. We have also been selling random little things around the apartment that we probably wouldn't use in two years time. We also finished up all of the paperwork that came in our invitation packet. We finished it quite awhile ago actually. So we are excited about getting government passports and are now waiting for our staging materials to arrive in about one month. Tomorrow is exactly 2 months until our projected departure date!

We are very excited to be able to start our lives over again and sort of improve upon ourselves. I believe the Peace Corps will help us with understanding ourselves and also the continual process of changing. I know with the way I am that if you look at pictures it seems like I change the way I look about every 6 months or so. Well my looks will soon be changing again. I am going to cut my hair off. I corresponded with a peace corps official in Morocco and he informed me that my long hair would most likely cause a silently negative reaction, so off it goes. I want to live my life in a way that helps me to truly understand the world that we live in rather than living in the same place, doing the sames things for my whole life.

Matt

Come to find out that teaching basic English is a part of the youth development program but it is not everything that we do. I am not really sure with the in's and out's of it all but I know we will be working in youth centers. We work in organized activities likes sports, arts, gender development, cultural exchange, and camps etc. All that is really vague to say when we get there we will find out when we get there. They have to assess our progress of everything really see how we are catching on to the culture and language to see where we will finally end up in country. After we find out our location then we have to assess the community and see in what ways we can help. Some things, like teaching English, are set in stone already but the other projects we have to start and develop maybe from scratch.

We have no clue in country where we will be but it seems it will probably be is a large town like Casablanca or Rabat. But who knows we could end up with the Berber people who are the farmer, lower classed types in Morocco. Either way we do not really care. We are just looking for a great experience.

It has been like a breath of fresh air since we got our invitation. I have not even updated our blog since because I have just been tired and trying to figure out what we do now. We have so much stuff to do and still have work responsibilities here to worry about. We would really like to have a going away party sometime in August. So we can explain to people what we are doing. We will see though.

We are hoping to do a video blog of sorts. We are going to buy a small portable camera called a Flip. It is very small and you can use it for up to 2 hours of recording at a time. Then you can put it on our computer.

I will write more soon. I have a ton to catch up on.

Matt

SO we got our invitation in the mail today and we have also begun our video blogging for our Peace Corps service, since it's official now.

Hello World,

I just wanted to update you a little. Have not received our invitation packet yet. It has only been two days now but I was under the impression that they overnight it, I guess not. I suspect that we will get it within this week. FedEx is the company that they are shipping through. I have always had bad luck with them. The last thing I got online it took a couple of weeks to get. I hope it does not take that long.

Waiting, the story of my life. Will update my you guys as soon as I hear something.

Matt

It is official we are now invites to be Peace Corps volunteers woke up with this message saying that we have been invited. We should still be going to Morocco but who knows. We should get the paperwork sometime in the next couple of days yo find out for sure. I suspect that they should call us today for further correspondence. This is very exciting and I cannot believe that we are finally invited! It has been a long road but one that I think should pay off. Now more waiting till Sept: Departure!

I will blog more when I have more information.

Matt

This is the current email that I have received from my placement officer. This only means more waiting! It has been a week so I suspect it to be another 3 weeks till we hear anything else about placement. This has been a long and frustrating process. It would be nice to have a final word soon. Oh well. Here is the email:

Dear Matt,

Thanks for checking in. As we discussed last week, before inviting any married couple to any program world-wide, we must email the Country Director and Programming Officer in country “X” and provide them with a summary of your respective experiences and background. They’ll review that information, confirm whether they have a community that has requested your skills, and offer the necessary pre-approval to invite you or deny the request for some practical reason.

We sent that request last Friday and just haven’t received a response yet. As soon as I receive a response from them, I’ll let you know. We generally tell applicants that it can take 2-4 weeks to get a response and this particular Post tends to fall in that timeframe.

With Thanks,
________

Ready for the latest. It is not definite but we should know by next week when we get an official invite to this country. I know the country though...are you ready...It looks like we are going to Morocco!! That is in North Africa! Africa!! They said that our departure date is September 7th. Oh my goodness... This is exciting yet scary at the same time. Now we are just waiting on the country to see if they want us for sure but they said that it rarely happens that they would not.

Normally people have no clue where they are going but I have figured it out for sure. Our Placement officer said that it would be North Africa. There is only one country that the Peace Corps serves and that is Morocco. And just to make sure I wanted to match up the departure date he told me with the one on the PeaceCorpswiki.org website and it matched up perfect! September 7th! Now we have to wait a little more but it is almost absolute now. It looks like we are going to be Peace Corps Volunteers!

Matt

This is super exciting! Just got an update from our Peace Corps Status saying that placement has cleared us officially. There is nothing else to do but just sit back and wait for the phone call tomorrow. I think we have about a 75% chance of getting placed but we will see. Yikes! This is scary! It all comes down to this.

Matt

I talked to the Peace Corps today and he sounded very positive about finding us a place to serve. He is going to get back to us on Friday!!! We just cleared up a couple of questions that they had about our application. Things like what do our parents think and did we know that if we got pregnant that we would have to end our service. Our Placement Officer said we have been cleared with Placement we now it is the next step: Placement!!! We should know where we go, when we go, or if we go on Friday! We will keep everyone informed of the situation if we are to learn anything more.

Matt

Just got some news from the Peace Corps Placement Office. I found out that we will not be leaving in July...The place that they were looking at placing us (my guess Cambodia) does not allow the restrictions that both of us have. I am a little down but he said that there might still be something on the table but it wouldn't be till August through October. He said that he would call me before Friday and talk to me about more information! At least I have some news that I can report instead of saying I don't know what's going on. Hopefully I can report a little more on Friday or Saturday. All I can think through this whole process is that if we are not invited, then what?

Nothing! That’s what I have got. No news! I understand that these people are busy but I find it very rude when they say they will get back to you next week and never email you back. This like I said, really in my last post, this is to be expected from a government agency. This isn’t little news either. This next piece of information really could change the outcome of the next several years of our lives. Yes or no either way things need to change but everything is pending on this decision. I think we are both ready for a change. I am just hoping that this wait isn’t because of a medical restriction either of has or they are having a hard time placing us. At this point the Peace Corps being busy or lazy might be the best thing!

Tanie will be walking in her graduation on the 9th of May. This also means that my parents are coming up along with my sister and my brother-in-law! This will be really nice refresher that I will be thinking about this all weekend while I am working the graveyard shift. Also my birthday is on the 8th. All I want is… news from the Peace Corps. Maybe they are holding off on the news to surprise me! Yeah right…. Man I am just crawling with pessimism.

Happy May! The best month of the year!

Matthew