Quite a Week

This was quite a week. We left for Azrou a week ago but it seems like ages. In Azrou we learned where we will be living for the next two years, then departed the next day, on our own, to our new site and another host family. We managed to negotiate a series of three taxis in the pouring rain to get us there. Our new site is in a town of about 10,000 and is an hour from Fez. The town isn’t much—lots of cement block buildings with flat roofs or unfinished top stories and vacant lots filled with trash and/or rubble, but the setting is beautiful with a snow capped mountain range and a deep valley at the bottom of the high plateau. We are very fortunate to be replacing a super-star PCV who left us with all kinds of information and possibilities. We will be busy. Our new host family is gracious and welcoming, and the mom is a fabulous cook.

Four of us went to Sefrou to see our delegate and see a little of the city. We road in a nuql, which is a van carrying several more than its capacity. When the van pulled into the parking lot, the crowd rushed forward and pushed their way onto the van while the passengers were trying to get off. Since there were four of us and we all had to get on, we joined the pushing crowd and managed to get in through the rear doors and snagged a seat. A little way out of town, the driver stopped by an auto shop for a new battery. We then took off again and went only about 10 yards when we heard the thumpity thump of a flat tire. We backed up to the shop, the tire guys came out and, like a pit crew, had the tire changed with all of us still in the van and the motor running.

In Sefrou at a café, we saw a young Moroccan man come in wearing a Yellowstone Park sweatshirt. He spoke excellent English and we discovered that he had spent six weeks in the US in a leadership program. Two of those weeks were spent at Montana State University in Bozeman, and he seemed excited to meet someone who had lived there and graduated from MSU--another small world story.

The week in our new site was full of meeting people, checking in with the gendarmes, exploring the community, and spending some quality time sitting in the sun at a corner coffee shop that is welcoming to women. We managed to meet several of the people we needed to meet as they walked by and stopped to talk to Lynn, the PCV whom we are replacing. We visited the weaving co-op where I will probably be spending most of my time, and also met with some other associations which are interested in marketing help. Doug was especially interested in the olive oil pressing and hiking tourism opportunities. There will be plenty for both of us to do. We are ready for the training part to be over and the real work to begin.